Judy Robertson Appeals to Mayor and Commission -- Flamingo Park Neighborhood Association Says 17 is Enough! -- HPB Agrees and Calls for Holding the Line at the Present Footprint

Dear Mayor and Commissioners:

Surely you are suffering the same fatigue from this issue that we in the Flamingo Park Neighborhood are suffering, albeit absent the outrage.

It pains us to see our elected leaders so blind to the unfairness of this drawn-out process to the residents of this neighborhood (let us be clear about the hardship on Flamingo Park residents to take time during business hours to keep participating in these repeated discussions, while tennis players, the majority of whom reside outside the Neighborhood and are not, as a group, representative of the working class in our City, are much more able to voice their position during mid-day hearings).

It angers this voter to witness an old Commission taking an approval action on one day, and then a newly-elected Commission succumbing to special interest pressure and granting a "do-over" to some late-comer on another day. (who the heck is David Berger, what are his credentials, and what gives him any say in this matter???...)

It infuriates us to discover that City Staff is entertaining outside, unnoticed, discussions like the one transcribed below, a clear miscarriage of the process conducted over A PERIOD OF YEARS that led to last September's approval of the Master Plan Option L, and was upheld by the Historic Preservation Board's approval March 9 of this year.

It is outrageous that the City is asking our Neighborhood to defend, over and over and over again, a position that it supported and adopted last year.

What is most saddening is our perception that City Hall has opted out of its longstanding partnership with this Neighborhood. Years of reasoned and thoughtful dialogue have gone into this relationship, and many wonderful improvements have been accomplished as a result of our combined efforts. Is the Commission willing to put that enduring relationship in jeopardy and risk the resentment of the largest voting block in the City over this issue?

Judy Robertson for the
Flamingo Park Neighborhood Association