TOP OF THE WEEK:

In a bit of a departure this week, about half of our weekly blog will deal with a single subject – a new city hall for Clearwater that will be needed if the Clearwater Marine Aquarium is successful in their very ambitious plan to move the aquarium downtown. This is one item the city needs to get right and past history indicates that isn’t a slam dunk. Back in the middle nineties, a sitting council made a wise decision to buy the glass tower at the corner of Garden and Cleveland and gradually move all city hall functions there while having a revenue stream from existing tenants. It made so much sense that a new incoming majority voted to sell the thing – at a loss while incurring a damage suit from surrounding businesses – a stroke of genius that ended up costing taxpayers well over a million dollars. A few suggestions on how to avoid similar and other follies below:

THIS WEEK’S TEN:                         

Around the Bay –

1. Don’t cheap out. About the time of the Garden Avenue fiasco, it became apparent that the city desperately needed a place to house its police department and, separately, its key departments. They tried to do it on the cheap (see million dollar loss above) and the result were two very non-descript buildings loaded with problems that took even more money to fix. It needs to be a signature building – something we can be proud of. This isn’t a garbage truck we’re buying; it’s a building that will outlast a lot of Clearwater’s citizens.

2. Location, location, location. Subtitle: avoid the library debacle. Don’t put the new City Hall on the most valuable piece of land the city owns or can buy like we did with the downtown library. Rather put it on a tract of land where you want to drive traffic. But do keep it downtown – Countryside might offer some attractive sites, but there is too much linkage between city and county government and much of county government is downtown.

3. Make it traditional rather than glitzy. No doubt the current city hall was very avant garde when it was built in the 1960s. But now it looks odd much like our downtown library. The cantilever design of the current city hall works so well that you can place a marble in the center of a room and watch it roll to the corner due to gradual sagging of the cantilever design over the years.

4. Hire a local architect to design it – someone who has a feel for significant local buildings not some currently chic guy or gal from New York City – another mistake with the downtown library.

5. Lastly, get citizen input as to design, location and size (perhaps it’s time to consolidate more city services into one building as would have been the case with the Garden Avenue purchase). But for better or worse in the end, there are five people who need to say “this is our choice.”

The Diamond, the Media and Other Stuff –

6. Our fearless sports prognosticator Achmed Walled (pronounced wall-ED) reminds folks that he was right in predicting that California Chrome would not win the Triple Crown. Big whoop, you could have predicted that for the past 36 years and been right every time – kind of like predicting the Cubs won’t win the World Series.

7. In a related note, California Chrome’s owner Steve Coburn couldn’t be more off base with his assertion that horses should have to run all three legs of the Triple Crown. These aren’t stock car races we’re talking about but a contest between living beings that are subject to injury and fatigue. More than once a Kentucky Derby winning owner has pulled their horse from further competition due to health concerns.

8. You’ve really lived in Clearwater a long time if you remember the Drew Street Canal.

9. Factoid: Tony LaRussa’s induction into the Hall of Fame next month will make it five for five among major league managers who held a law degree – all five in the Hall.

10. Our Raves and Rants focus group (which consists of three old, cranky people) was split three ways on the question of who would win the World Cup. Their answers: Brazil, Iceland and “what’s the World Cup”?

IN CLOSING:

A blog commenter from last week points out that the most recognizable restaurant name on Clearwater Beach was literally caught with its hand in the cookie jar regarding how it compensates or under-compensates its wait staff. There are few harder working members of our labor force than waiters and servers. To take money out of their pockets is inexcusable – just as inexcusable is cheaping out on the tip when you dine out. If you can’t afford to leave your server a fair tip, perhaps you should stay home. And if restaurateurs feel they cannot afford to fairly compensate their employees, maybe they should look closely at their business values.

A post script to this week’s “In Closing”: We erred several weeks ago in saying that the current minimum wage for servers is $2.13. That was based on some old data. It’s now slightly double that but still unconscionable.