Why I blog about Amendment 4 and St. Pete Beach

Hometown Democracy supporters desperately want Floridians to believe that the only people opposing Amendment 4 are developers, politicians and chambers of commerce, and that Amendment 4 supporters are environmentally-conscious "good guys".

For some reason it is inconceivable to die-hard Hometown Democracy supporters that someone like me, who is not a developer or a politician, and someone who is well-informed about the facts, would be opposed to Amendment 4, let alone spend the time and energy to blog and speak about it.     I've been accused of being a liar, a "developer plant", and even that I'm not a resident of St. Pete Beach (now that is inconceivable!).  One commenter even joked about me being hit by a train (Splat!). 

I've explained time and again that my experience as a resident of St. Pete Beach is experience, qualification and motive enough to speak about the flaws in Amendment, but it still doesn't register.  So, to make it easier for both friend and foe, I thought I'd start talking about some of the many reasons why I'm doing this blog. 

Since there are so many reasons why I blog about Amendment 4, and since it will take a while to work through them all, I'll start listing them here with hyperlinks to separate blog posts for each reason.  So here goes:


Reason #1:  I am a beach preservation activist, and Amendment 4 threatens to undermine the many hundreds of hours of effort I spend each year fighting to preserve and protect the beaches of St. Pete Beach, which are among Florida's most critically eroded beaches.  


Reason #2:  Contrary to Hometown Democracy's numerous and toxic accusations, the overwhelming majority of the commissioners/councilpersons/officials who run the cities and municipalities of Florida are not crooks.  They are heroes!  They are regular people like you and me who are volunteering their time in mostly (if not entirely) unpaid positions.


Reason #3:  Amendment 4 campaign operatives dispute that St. Pete Beach's experiment with Amendment 4-style land use rules by claiming that St. Pete Beach bypassed Florida's growth management laws.  That claim is simply not true, and Floridians should not be deceived into thinking that St. Pete Beach did anything wrong when it tried to implement its Hometown Democracy-style regulations.