APRIL FOOLS: Shh! tells Shout to Stop!

Anyone familiar with downtown politics is also familiar with its grassroots organizations — and their acronyms. There’s Stop, which is arguing for more public input on development projects; Shout, which advocates for space between buildings; and then there’s the new kid: Shh!

The new group is composed mostly of residents who have moved downtown only to discover it’s noisier than they thought.

“Frankly, I’m shocked,” said Shh! member Keepda Pease. “I moved downtown for some peace and quiet, but there’s people and traffic and noise — some of it past 8 o’clock!”

Shh! will join the other two groups in a meeting the City Commission called to discuss downtown issues on April 1.

The meeting follows a recent commission discussion at which the three groups attempted to explain their positions.

The groups share many common goals. In particular, Shout sides with Stop in its desire to block the Avenue, a new condominium proposed at the avenues of Palm and Pineapple. But when Shout urged Stop to organize a gathering to share their message with a protest at the Avenue, Shh! threatened
to pull its support for the two organizations if they didn’t do so in a quiet manner.

“This is a message that needs to be shouted,” said Shout member Ally Ways. “It can’t be shushed.” Ways called for supporters to block the middle of Palm and Pineapple avenues, in front of the Avenue.

Members of Shout said it wasn’t their idea to block the avenues —Stop that came up with the idea. Members of Stop called that a misrepresentation.

“We want to stop the Avenue, but we never said we wanted to block the avenues to shout that the Avenue should be stopped,” Stop member Wyde Sidwalk told Shout. “Blocking avenues is against everything we believe in!”

“Shh! Everyone stop shouting!” a commissioner said.

“Let me see if I get this straight,” the commissioner continued. “Shh! wants Shout to stop shouting about Stop helping to block the avenues, but Shout wants Shh! to stop telling Stop not to participate in blocking the Avenue? Meanwhile, Stop doesn’t advocate for blocking the avenues as a means to stop the Avenue?”

Sidwalk stepped forward to provide clarification. “Stop is all for telling Shout to shhh! at the Avenue protest, so we can get out our message to block the Avenue, without of course, blocking the avenues while delivering that message. We all agree the Avenue needs to be blocked.”

With splitting headaches, the commissioners tabled the discussion until the April 1 meeting.