The Emerald City

The Emerald City

We certainly are not in Anna Maria anymore. On the same day BP claimed it cares about the “the small” people, and as oil continues to gush into the gulf, we hold our breath that the tide may turn against us in our sleepy undeveloped town. We are the locals of the City of Anna Maria who are not only in fear for the shoreline that has brought the nightmare of an unprecedented environmental holocaust created by BP, but are cast in a home town production of the Wizard Oz. As “small people” we are merely film extras in a nightmarish vision carried out by others whose actions indicate they find us insignificant, but in the end, are the very fiber that defines the culture of Anna Maria.

The meeting last Thursday night at City Hall was already underway when I stepped in, but what was shocking was the magnitude of progress some of the City planners appeared to have made on the issue of public parking. How parking will be managed by and for many communities is a volatile subject, but here it has hit a particularly high note, like one of extreme agony, by some of its residents. The plan dumps 262 parking spots onto the formerly empty streets of Anna Maria and has the earmarks of massive commercial development.

The Pine Avenue Parking Plan, drawn up by an established architect in town, draws a pretty picture of tree-lined streets and 262 parking spaces that ostensibly support businesses that do not yet exist. Is it my imagination or does it appear that at the end of the yellow brick road some people hope to find the promise of restaurants, bars, galleries, retail shops, and any conceivable luxury bestowed on naïve Dorothy. At first site, the familiarity of which the concepts are spoken implies such a script exists.

Even if we accept that the parking plan foisted upon us is conceptual and pretend to ignore the commercial utopia that seems to be in the works right under our noses, the plan still defies basic common sense. In previous meetings regarding how the plan would work it seems that side streets are offered up to accommodate the overflow of traffic. “Well you have all these side streets!” said the parking expert that pushes a parking utopia that would exist in a bourgeois utopia, if he ever created one himself. Another statement expressed the sentiment “Who cares if you have an 18 wheeler double parked on your main street!” The flow of traffic halted by the lack of loading zones is ignored. The inevitable and obvious overflow onto our side streets is ignored. People walking their dogs are ignored. Kids on Bikes and Skateboards are ignored. The people that define this City, the residents, the small people, the very ones whose authenticity will be repackaged and sold back to tourists if you allow public parking, are ignored.

Beachgoers, on the other hand, will be thrilled with the parking plan that has no way of distinguishing those who are headed to the surf versus those that are headed for the shops, but I question the public’s excitement over the inconceivable option of placing 262 cars on Pine Avenue and other side streets, as it brings the “oil slick” closer to our shores.

Certainly it is anyone’s right who could afford to do so to parcel together plats of land to create whatever they want within the bounds of the law. The regulations in place today require all parking for new development to be on-site.

Some seemingly conscientious developers have projects that contain historic gems slated for restoration nestled within plans of four commercial buildings. The project contends to offer parking on its own lots and appears to be in compliance with our current regulations except for the fact that none of the five commercial venues have been defined. I believe it to be true that if any one of the buildings becomes a restaurant or café, the developer’s compliance will be null and void according to the current parking plan and the developer would more than likely be dependent of public parking to meet the needs of their private business investments. Perhaps with public parking developers will better serve residential properties more appropriately if the impervious surfaces designated for on-site parking are replaced with swimming pools? Just a helpful thought since the company kept at City Hall that evening probably would have preferred it if I could get my head around their commercial success versus the preservation of the culture of the City of Anna Maria that may go belly up in unison with the Gulf and Bay.

Meanwhile other developers have already built buildings that contain retail shops that seem continually empty and have barely captured consumers’ attention. The attentiveness given to the subject of public parking makes one believe that if public parking were offered, we would undoubtedly see cafes, bars, and restaurants on every block and that a plan exists to fill each spot. Consequently, the demand for public parking is confusing to me considering the lack of commercial activity. Who is it for? What am I missing?

The questions I feel compelled to pose to our commissioners are, “What happens when regulations change and developers no longer feel compelled to offer parking on their own property?”

If by voting yes to public parking, are you not paving the yellow brick road for these developers? What do the developers have planned for us that would fill their empty stores with 262 more people?

My fear is that public parking becomes a cog in a machine for a brand of tourism Anna Maria seems to defy. I have never been on vacation in the City of Anna Maria. My husband and I came to visit a friend in Holmes Beach and only a few months later purchased our home. We chose The City of Anna Maria over Holmes Beach because it possesses an elegant brand of backwardness due to its lack of commercialism, or so we thought.

The Small People, as so clumsily labeled by BP, are in my mind "true locals" whose quality of life is answered by the sun, salt, surf, sand, and the "soulitude" of Anna Maria. I spelled that "Soul"- itude, because we possess souls that are unusually defined neither by what we can buy or what brand of car we drive, nor by how much money we may or may not have, but by our culture or how we live. And generally our goal is to live quietly.

We came here to accept Anna Maria's gracious offer to free ourselves from the trappings of capitalistic lifestyles, despite our current or past participation. This relief comes in the form of the visual white space in a city that historically does not have or need, as of yet, parallel parking. Ultimately, we resist gratuitous commercial endeavors that would detract from our desire to live uncomplicated lives. We did not come here to shop nor would we put our friends up at a hotel. They would stay with us! If necessity demanded an option outside our home, we may rent a small house, perhaps, one owned by someone whose dream it might be to come back to their home that they have managed to hold on to after 30 years and return to an Anna Maria that is unblemished by the bile of greed that makes Oz’s Emerald City green in the first place.

This thought brings more questions to mind for our commissioners?

With the cache of public parking can developers request for variances to build bigger buildings?

Can they manage to fiddle with your comprehensive plan and squeeze a hotel, motel, or any other venture that may actually need 262 parking spots on their more enormous, empty, or parceled lots?

Perhaps my fears are unwarranted, but when I spoke to three of my neighbors about the issue this weekend, their unanimous sentiment was that “they are ruining Pine Avenue”. I am not sure whom they meant by “they”, but it seems some of the decisions made on their behalf have failed our longtime residents. One of these residents who has lived here since 1942 described Pine Avenue in such a dreamy way that I felt I was floating. She told me Pine Avenue used to be lined with Palm trees and spoke of the marina she used to walk to and how in her mind Pine Avenue looks like a hodge-podge compared to her eloquent recollection. The look of sadness on her face when I mentioned that they may put 262 cars on Pine Avenue made me feel shame and I wished I could have taken back the entire conversation and erase from her mind the image of Pine Avenue armored from head to toe in automobiles. She added to her statement and said “Anna Maria used to be tough on zoning, they would have never allowed what is happening now."

It is par for the course that we can not legislate greed or taste, but certainly as a community we hope to demand that developers limit their parking to their own lots. If parking regulations do not exist for developers, we cannot guarantee what will become of the future offspring conceived by the incubation of these commercial properties. I fear that any compromise on the public offering of parallel or angled parking will not satiate developers until a fully commercialized Pine Avenue or Bay front is conceived, but perhaps this is already the plan I might have come to be a part of if I only had a brain. I remind myself to be very careful or I might get picked apart by crows or set afire for my opinion which contradicts the apparent lack of interest by the local newspapers that do not seem to find the concerns of those who oppose public parking newsworthy.

Pine Avenue was designed to have a residential look and feel despite the zoning parameters of Residential/Office/and Retail. If the white space that brings us so much relief is anted up and auctioned off car by car in exchange for what one hopes are a few nice stores or restaurants, I deplore you that our culture should not be wagered in such a gamble and will result in the eventual erosion of our culture. We have yet to witness the effects the BP disaster will have on Anna Maria, and we already know the clean-up may go on for decades, but the losses we fear most can not be valued in dollars.

Once built, will we still be able to say, “There’s no place like The City of Anna Maria?”