Downtown garage providing free parking for residents during floods

Historic City News subscribers who park downtown can reach high ground and park for free at the Historic Downtown Parking Facility, now through Tuesday, September 22nd.

The City of St. Augustine Police, Public Works, Utility Operations, and Fire Department are working with City residents in local neighborhoods and workers in affected areas monitoring the tides and city streets around the clock.

“These high tides and localized flooding are above and beyond what we’ve seen in decades,” according to John Regan, the city manager who has lost favor and the confidence of a growing number of St Augustine residents.

• The City will continue to close roads in flood-prone areas. 
• Drivers are urged not to drive through standing water unless necessary. 
• If such conditions are unavoidable, proceed slowly and with caution to avoid creating a wave that could inadvertently push water into other homes and property.

Regan said in a press release Monday, “We want to help our residents and workers who have to park on the streets throughout the city and give them a place to safely park their cars to avoid damage to their personal property.”

Bungled false starts have become par for the Regan initiatives that have repeatedly proven ineffective when it comes to solving the city’s increasing risk from sea level rise.  From the puffed-up qualifications of now resigned “Chief Resiliency Officer” Michael Cullum, to the Rube Goldberg-esque pseudo-science, where water no longer seeks its own level and doesn’t simply go around artificial berms thrown in its path, people are beginning to expect some sort of accountability from City Hall.

Cullum who only stayed on the job for two years was paid $112,250 annually plus benefits at Regan’s behest for access to his fountain of knowledge.  He didn’t get out the door before holding water, so to speak, for Regan’s half-million-dollar Coquina Avenue Landgrab; a cruel fraud perpetrated on the City by insiders who wanted the property for a “pocket park”, except that it has no place to park and is still as mushy as it was last year before one-way drains were installed.

Former three-term elected Mayor Nancy Shaver warned Regan of the looming catastrophe as nature continued its watery assault on the low-lying infrastructure of our town.  Three devastating hurricanes in two years, and we are no better off than we were four years ago.  Shaver told Historic City News at the time that “when the toilets no longer flush, septic contaminated runoff backs up into the streets, and effluent contamination threatens our health, it will be too late to go back and protect ourselves”.