Letter: Shaver for mayor: An outsider’s opinion

Dan and Helene Sullivan
St. Augustine

Letter: Shaver for mayor: An outsider’s opinion

Dear Editor:

Arriving in St. Augustine as part-timers in 1990, (is that long enough to be acceptable?), we fell in love with the historic town; a typical story. The neighborhoods were definitely not chic, but possessed great charm and enormous potential. We dreamed of becoming permanent residents.

In October, 2000, we arrived in our downtown neighborhood, welcomed local children for Halloween and began a love affair with our historic cottage. Things were happening and we got involved. Residents versus tourists? Free on-street parking versus garages? Downtown? Uptown? Old-timers versus short-timers?

In 2002, local activism produced a new city commission, new parking & traffic committee and a beautiful central parking garage (to no particular business’s advantage). It also produced newly-created neighborhood associations, allowing access to concerned citizens (regardless of their tenure), great civic participation and open government. When did it change?

Fast forward: Joe Boles, mayor since 2006, has pursued “the visitor experience” a la Williamsburg, which is a massive living museum. His agenda has focused on being the ringmaster of a 450th city birthday spectacle, coming up short by most accounts, while ignoring the mundane but critical demands of ordinary governance.

If this were an election for city greeter, Joe would definitely deserve our vote. But constructive leadership has been absent for too long. An amazing opportunity now presents itself in Nancy Shaver, another outsider with the right vision, an awesome resume and management experience to support it.