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.