Blustery, yes, but right

Longboat Mayor George Spoll offended Bradenton Beach’s mayor when Spoll spoke a truth about the Bradenton Beach roundabout. Spoll has the right idea: Persuade FDOT to act.

By Matt Walsh
| 12:00 p.m. June 6, 2018

Longboat Key
Opinion

Anyone who knows and has paid attention to Longboat Key town commissioners knows Mayor George Spoll can be, how shall we say diplomatically, blustery.

Or, maybe it’s more like blisteringly honest. He could never make it in the mealy-mouth world of international diplomacy.

Case in point: A month ago at the Barrier Islands Elected Officials meeting, Mayor Spoll let them have it when they took on the subject of traffic congestion. Speaking about the Bradenton Beach roundabout, Spoll, in his inimically cannonball way, said:

“That roundabout is an abomination in the eyes of the town of Longboat Key and cannot be allowed to exist. There has to be a solution, and we are looking for a cooperative attitude on the part of our neighbor because it is intolerable.”

PERSISTENCE BRINGS SHINE TO A JEWEL

When Marty Rappaport, a new landlord on St. Armands Circle, attended his first merchants association meeting 30 years ago, he heard the merchants complain about a problem that had nagged the Circle even then for decades: Not enough parking and no public restrooms.

One of the long time business owners said at that meeting Rappaport should forget about the city helping; it would never happen.

After that meeting, Rappaport spoke with two other St. Armands Circle property owners, the late Gil Waters and Lou Mettler, former owner of what is now The Met. He told them St. Armands Circle was “a diamond in the rough.” That meeting began three decades of Rappaport’s dream and efforts to see the construction of a parking garage and public restrooms.

Last week, that dream came to fruition at the groundbreaking of the $22 million parking garage for St. Armands Circle.

Dozens of city commissioners have come and gone. And dozens of St. Armands Circle merchants and property owners, through the St. Armands Circle Association and Business Improvement District, have participated with time and millions of dollars of their own money over these 30 years to continue improving St. Armands Circle.

But two people, above all others — Rappaport especially and St. Armands Circle Association Executive Director Diana Corrigan — have made lasting, legacy contributions to the betterment of the Circle.

Rappaport alone has proven the value of indefatigable persistence and integrity. Said Andrew Vac, longtime St. Armands Circle Association board member: “None of this would have happened without Marty.” It’s not a diamond in the rough; it’s one of the jewels of the city.

You go, guy.

We have to think every Longboater is saying he’s totally right. At least about the “abomination,” “intolerable” and “shouldn’t be allowed to exist.”

Probably, not many would have been so brutally blunt. Not surprisingly, Spoll made Bradenton Beach Mayor John Chappie, a good guy and longtime friend of Longboat Key, recoil: “We’re here to help and work together, but if you want to start out the conversation by just throwing down the gauntlet then so be it. It’s not going to get you very far, I can tell you that.” He also said: “We’re not going to be pushed around.”

Chappie said the Bradenton Beach roundabout has accomplished what it was intended to do — make crossing Gulf Drive safer. Before the roundabout, that short stretch through tourist-heavy Bradenton Beach was the scene of several pedestrian fatalities. The roundabout has prevented additional deaths.

But as with every choice, there are tradeoffs. The roundabout has created extraordinary traffic backups, which typically snake all the way south over the Longboat Pass Bridge and into Longboat Key, especially at the end of the work day in the height of the season. People who work on Longboat and live in Manatee County know to add 30 minutes to an hour to their commute home. And many Longboat Key residents on the north end of the island worry about that day they will need to be rushed to a hospital and not be able to make it because of the traffic backups.

Spoll doesn’t apologize. His comments were from the perspective of a larger point he hopes the Longboat Key Town Commission will make as succinctly as he put it to the island mayors. He’s not blaming the town of Bradenton Beach entirely for the Gulf Drive traffic congestion. He says the Florida Department of Transportation “is complicit.”

“My point in bringing it to the attention of the island mayors is to file a formal protest” with FDOT, Spoll said. At the least, FDOT, which owns the road, should have traffic officers managing pedestrians at rush hour. Pedestrians should cross in groups, not one or two at a time at will. Likewise on St. Armands Circle, Spoll says.

Spoll said the commission has agreed to send a formal protest to FDOT. “I understand there’s always going to be a problem, but there has to be some way to make it work equitably,” he said. “We’re the ones being held hostage.”

Spoll is right — on all counts. But if there is hope for any progress, it would be better to have Mayor Chappie and Bradenton Beach with us than against us. That can be done. As an aside, Spoll said he is not going to attend future Barrier Island meetings; he is asking Commissioner Jack Daley to represent Longboat Key.

The bigger challenge is persuading FDOT to act.

Let’s be pragmatic: There will never be bridges built directly to Longboat Key — not in our lifetimes. Likewise, this must be an accepted fact of life if you choose to live or own property on Longboat Key: There are only three practical routes to get here — and two of them require you to drive through other cities and on a state road over which Longboat has no control.

It seems the only hopes are the power of persuasion and compromise — relentless, but diplomatic pressure on FDOT at least to make a full-fledged effort to station competent traffic officers at peak times; and perhaps some monetary compromise. If Longboaters want better traffic management, a tradeoff might include bearing a portion of the cost.

What’s the saying? Everything comes at a price.