Our view

The standoff in Nevada this past weekend between the Cliven Bundy ranch family, its supporters and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management serves as a vivid warning: When government threatens with force a family’s property and its peaceful existence, citizen fury will rise.

Few things rile citizens more.

We see that here, although so far not near to the extent of residents showing up with their AR-15s. On Siesta Key, forces are fortifying to fight the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ attempts to dredge Big Pass. On St. Armands Key, residents and St. Armands Circle business owners are becoming increasingly agitated over their treatment by Sarasota City Hall.

The present fight is this: whether the city should grant a permit to Paragon Fine Arts Festivals in April — a month that has been blacked out for special events for at least 16 years.

It’s a powder keg of emotions, money, competition, rivalries, public safety and neighbors’ peace and tranquility.

Paragon’s owner wants access to St. Armands Circle. He bristles that the 26-year relationship between Howard Alan Events and the St. Armands Circle Association seems to preclude his firm from being able to bid for time slots on the Circle.

Unable to make win over the St. Armands Circle Association, the St. Armands Residents Association and the St. Armands Landowners Association — the “LMR” — for a show time in April, Paragon took its case to City Hall and submitted an application for an art festival this coming April 26 and 27.

To the shock of the three St. Armands associations, the city administration approved Paragon’s permit.

Call out the militia. Sarasota City Hall has done it again: made matters worse. Here is how:
Going back to 1998, the city’s adopted policy toward special events in St. Armands Circle and Ken Thompson Park has been an event blackout at both locations from “January, February, March or April” because of seasonal traffic.

Four years later, in 2002, the city toughened the criteria. Not only did it say no events can be held at the park from Jan. 1 through Easter or April 15, whichever is later, the city also said all events must obtain the prior “acquiescence” of the three St. Armands associations. The city and three St. Armands groups all approved.

And this is how the city and St. Armands groups have operated — until last fall.

They abided by the acquiescence criteria even after former City Manager Robert Bartolotta shepherded a change to special-events criteria in 2009.

In the Bartolotta version, there was no mention of “acquiescence.” The blackout months of high season were also eliminated. And the criteria were watered down to this: “When a special event application is filed with the city, city staff will notify” the three St. Armands groups and will consider any objections to the event as long as they are submitted in writing within 15 days of notification. The city, the document says, retains the right to approve or deny.

Last fall, the 2009 change was stunning news to the three St. Armands associations.

In an Oct. 9, 2013, memo to City Attorney Robert Fournier, Edward Rosenblum, a St. Armands resident and retired attorney representing the residents, says the LMR “has never seen” the 2009 policy, “let alone approved it.”

LMR officers steadfastly believe the 2002 special-events criteria — requiring acquiescence and their approval — has remained the working policy.

But then came another surprise. According to Rosenblum, a city staff member in charge of events told the LMR the old 2002 criteria were not valid because there are no signed documents attesting to the acquiescence clause. Therefore, the city is not bound by the 2002 criteria.

What’s more, the city says, it cannot discriminate and is therefore required to approve a permit if the park use is legal, the applicant qualified and the event falls outside of the blackout period — all the criteria Paragon’s event meets.

So all of that arrives at the source of the three St. Armands associations’ frustration and fury: For the past 12 years, the city and St. Armands associations have worked cooperatively with regard to special events.

The city has “acquiesced” to the St. Armands residents’ concerns about special events at the height of season: traffic that could inhibit public safety; disruption in the surrounding neighbors’ streets; and the fact art festivals in fact compete with St. Armands retailers at their most crucial money-making time. In other words, the city heretofore has represented the wishes of “the people.”

But now the city administration has flipped. Is it fear of a lawsuit? City Attorney Fournier raised that possibility, suggesting the city could be sued for discrimination if it denied Paragon. Rosenblum countered: If Paragon is allowed an April show, Howard Alan likewise could counter that it has been discriminated against by virtue of giving Paragon a show during a time that has been blacked out — for more than three decades.

There was and is a better way to handle this neighborhood dispute. The city administration could have mediated a resolution among all of the parties, keeping intact the “acquiescence” clause and, more important, the trust that existed between the city and St. Armands associations. The city, we’re told, made no attempts to bring everyone together.

So it looks like Paragon’s show will go on.

But the conflict will not go away.

There is a way to resolve this for good: The city should sell or lease the park to the LMR. Power belongs to the people.

+ Greatest holy days of all
While most Americans pay far more attention to the religious holy days of Christmas and Hanukkah, Christian and Jewish religious leaders often say Easter and Passover weeks — both occurring this week — are the holiest and greatest of their faith’s holy days. Each commemorates redemption, deliverance, liberation, salvation and rebirth. And nowhere is this better expressed than in the Holy Book — with the Israelites’ escape from Egypt and Jesus’ resurrection from his tomb (see below).
Happy Passover. And Happy Easter.

DROP OFF YOUR FOOD
Don’t forget the Campaign Against Summer Hunger. Take your non-perishable leftovers and food and cash donations for All Faiths Food Bank to the Longboat Key and St. Armands Key fire stations.

LIBERATION, REDEMPTION & SALVATION FOR ALL
Exodus, Chapter 14, 10-16
Now Pharaoh was near when the Israelites looked up and saw that the Egyptians had set out after them. Greatly frightened, the Israelites cried out to the LORD.

To Moses they said, “Were there no burial places in Egypt that you brought us to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?

“Did we not tell you this in Egypt, when we said, ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? Far better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

But Moses answered the people, “Do not fear! Stand your ground and see the victory the LORD will win for you today. For these Egyptians whom you see today you will never see again.

“The LORD will fight for you; you have only to keep still.”

Then the LORD said to Moses: Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to set out.

And you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea, and split it in two, that the Israelites may pass through the sea on dry land.

Matthew, Chapter 28, 1-20
After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.

And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.

His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow.

The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men.

Then the angel said to the women in reply, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified.

“He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.

“Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ Behold, I have told you.”

Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples.

And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.

Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

The 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.

When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.

Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”