Start your bellyachin'!

When I was a kid I was pretty good at finding things to whine about -- still am, I guess. My mom used to cheerfully intone, “Oh quit your bellyachin’!” But of course I couldn’t help but notice that if you didn’t partake of a little bellyachin’ every now and then, things that made you unhappy hardly ever got changed.

For the umpteenth morning in a row I have watched the big machines head out to a beach that is virtually seaweed and shell-free. I find this inexplicable and more than a little irritating. So today I flagged down the public works truck and asked why -- could they not see that there is in fact NOTHING TO RAKE?

Unsurprisingly enough, the operators have indeed noticed that. They are apparently under direct orders from the town staff to rake no matter what the condition of the beach. I was told that somebody complains if the rakes don’t go out. One can’t help but wonder who is this mysterious complainer that his/her desire for a zen-garden beach carries more weight than all the arguments against raking a clean beach?*

I suggest that it is time for us to complain about unnecessary raking. Loudly and repeatedly. Let’s see if a whole bunch of bellyachin’ will get their attention. I think we should start with Public Works Director Raul Morales (rmorales@townspi.com) -- a nice man who nods and smiles whenever members of the Beach & Dune Task Force talk to him about this -- and then cheerfully ignores our pointed requests.


*Do I need to list them again? Okay, here they are, in no particular order:
1. Waste of fuel
2. Needless release of exhaust fumes
3. Disruption of the peaceful, sunrise-over-the-gulf experience
4. Disturbance of habitat for the creatures who live along the shore
5. Disruption of morning beach activities of guests and residents trying to stay out of the way of the monster machines
6. Inadvertant collection of litter pushed into the dune toes where they will cause problems for nesting sea turtles
7. Disruption of natural dune-forming processes
8. Relocation of shells to places where kids building sandcastles will never ever find them

Update: I just added one of Nancy's photos that clearly shows how ineffective raking is as a means for filling in holes.

Bird Center Disinformation Campaign

There has been a flurry of email flying around the island about a supposed attempt by three aldermen to “kill” the new Birding Center. I was aware that there was some consternation expressed - and not just among alderpeople - regarding the 6.5 million dollar price tag to build what some might consider to be an overly-grandiose structure -- but I had not heard of anyone wanting to kill the project altogether. So I went directly to one of the alleged birdhouse murderers - alderman Kirk Mills - and asked him pointblank if he intended to throttle the birding center and why would he want to do such a thing...

This was his response:

Everyone wants a birding center including me - I maybe more than most as I have a bird book and mark it regularly with sightings of birds. I am interested in seeing something along the lines of the Port Aransas project - ie. not an enormous building and parking lot but rather a modest building with lots of habitat mixed with boardwalks and bird blinds. Something that would promote wildlife, visitors, and not cost in excess of 6.5 million dollars. Why do I object to the 6.5 plus million dollars? Because - the EDC was set up as an agency to promote toruism including to protect our number one attraction/asset: the beach. The current scheme would obligate the income from the edc sales tax through the year 2031 - allocating about $500,000 plus to the bird house and approximately $100,000 per year to the beach. This doesn't make sense to me. It should be the other way around - concentrate on the beach and then the bird center. Additionally I have concerns at the amount of money the EDC spends on it's 50% share of the lobbiest costs (approximately $100,000) and who might be benefitting from it....

It seems to me that these are fair questions for our city officials to be asking and they do not sound like the words of someone who is bound and determined to throw the baby out with the bath-water. Rather, this appears to be an honest attempt to define the priorities of this town and open up discussion as to how to best use our limited resources -- and I think it extremely disingenuous of certain parties to claim the three alderpersons want to kill the project completely.

Engraved Invitation to Destruction '07

It’s that time of year again when city officials flood the news media with hurricane preparedness features. I’m not going to bother going into the whole tired, fear-mongering “if you are planning on staying on the Island during a storm ... you might as well buy yourself a toe tag so we can identify your crab-eaten body when it washes up on the shore,” crap that they trot out every year, because Sam Wells has already done a brilliant job of skewering that thang to the wall in his blog.

No, I’ll content myself with harping on the “How the hell does the city have the nerve to lecture me about hurricane preparedness when they persist in scraping a canal at the end of my street to ensure that even a mild storm surge will have no problem finding its way to my front door” crap.

Yeah, I’m tired of it too but I am even more tired of the officials’ empty promises that something is going to be done about it. Yet another year has come and gone since I last complained about this and the city is still blithely knocking down the best protection my neighbors and I might have from the upcoming storm season. I guess they are too busy trying to scare the hell out of us to actually take steps to protect us from the bad situation their folly has created.

To quote my May 29, 2006 blog entry:

This is not just my problem. The town is endangering the property of everyone who lives (close to Saturn or Venus) and I am surprised - after witnessing how the town handled the storm surges from Rita (in 2005) - that more people are not up in arms about this. Just to refresh your memory, city workers pushed up a loose sand berm at access #16 at least three different times during this surge, which had the unintended consequence of dispersing huge amounts of sand onto Gulf Blvd. and fouling up the sewer system in the process -- but did not seem to slow the surge down any; surf trash was deposited halfway up East Saturn.

Access #16 is not the only weak spot in the chain, but it is the one that I care most deeply about for admittedly selfish reasons. And I think the BOA needs to give serious thought to the possibility that the town could in fact be held liable for damages to private property if they are found to be a result of the town’s negligence in this matter.

Feel free to wrap your newly-purchased toe tag around that bit of fear-mongering.

Why I distrust developers

The vegetated dune that used to reside here is now just a big pile of loose sand that is dispersing itself around the neighborhood thanks to all the wind we have been having. I could understand if someone actually intended to build something here, but apparently the plan was to bulldoze first, plan later and to hell with the native flora and fauna that used to call this dune home.

Maybe all the "for sale" signs on my street have something to do with it. No fewer than five four-plexes have been built on East Saturn in the past year, with what appears to be yet another well underway. And all of them have "for sale" signs in front of them, -- some more than one.

I guess it's hard to flip when no one is buying.

Wear YourTux

The regularly-scheduled Beach & Dune meeting - which would have been called today at 3 PM at the Public Works building, had it been "formal" -- didn't happen. Apparently. Nobody called and there was no agenda posted.

However. I heard from a trusted source that an "informal" beach & dune taskforce meeting to discuss dune building (which as you probably already know is a subject I hold near and dear to my heart) was indeed being held at 3 PM at Public Works. So I called PW and asked point blank if there was a meeting -- formal, informal or otherwise. I was told very specifically that there was not by the lady (I think she said her name was Mary) who answered the phone.

I hope she is right and that my trusted source is wrong. Because it really doesn't look good if committees are having "informal" meetings to which only select members are invited.

And speaking of meetings - can anyone tell me if CPAC is meeting Thursday night? I hear no, then I hear yes and I have received no official notice one way or the other. I suggest to any members who might be reading these words that perhaps we should meet - informally of course - here at my house to discuss the land usage chapter.

You can leave your tux in the closet.

planting trees

... of the Christmas variety.

Several of us have questioned and are being questioned on the topic of recycling Christmas trees into dune starters. Last year the city was most accommodating - picking up and stashing trees until the appointed dune building day. This year? Not so much.

Well, my Frasier Fir - shipped all the way from NC and still not dropping needles - did not give its life to end up in some landfill. I am saving my tree and someday soon I will build my own little dune somewhere where it is needed and wanted. Maybe I will name this little dune after my ex and walk my dog to it every day.

If you have a live tree, maybe you would like to do the same and then you can join me on dune creation day. We can bring snacks and bevies and have fun on the beach while we are at it. (If you don't have room to stash a tree, you can drop it off at 117 e. saturn and I will stash it for you. Because the more trees we have, the bigger our our little dune can be.)

-sf