Key Opinion

Page Longboat Key News
Friday, February 20, 2009
KeyOpinion
Longboat Key News encourages Letters to the Editor.
Please mail to 5370 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Ste. 210,
Longboat Key, FL 34228; e-mail: sreid@lbknews.com; fax:
941-388-7841. We also print letters sent to Town Hall
that address Key issues. We reserve the right to edit.
Key Club clarification
Dear Editor:
I am writing about my concerns about some factual
inaccuracies and misrepresentations in the “Clair, Jaleski
split on Key issues” article in last week’s paper.
It is my opponent who has prejudged the Key Club
proposal, not me. I have followed the town attorney’s
direction in his Dec 2, 2008 letter and refrained from
forming an opinion on a quasi-judicial matter until I have
heard all the evidence presented by the respective parties in a properly noticed public hearing.
In addition to ignoring this procedure and risking that
his vote be wasted by a request from the Key Club’s
counsel that he be recused, he has falsely accused me of
prejudging that the application is in order as it stands.
I have made no such determination or statement. He
also reveals his complete lack of understanding of these
proceedings by implying that the commission must
determine if the Key Club proposal is entitled to any
variances. The commission does not have jurisdiction
in granting or denying variances. That is the province of
the Zoning Board of Adjustments.
It has also been implied that my compliance with the
law in this quasi-judicial matter indicates that I am actually in favor of the Key Club proposal as it stands. This is
just not true. I am really undecided.Through the process
of dealing with the application, modifications will be
asked for and made. That’s why I believe it’s important
to reserve judgment until all the facts are in.
And, in case anyone still thinks I am just dodging the
issue, consider where my wife and I live. We live very
near the site in question. Do you really think I would
support a plan that reduced open space and generated
unnecessary extra traffic or building density?
Randy Clair
Longboat Key Town Commission
What he fails to realize
Dear Editor:
This is in response to the two letters, which appeared
in your publication this past week. The first letter
extolled the virtues of Commissioner Randy Clair. The
writer is apparently unaware of what Commissioner
Clair’s fellow commissioners think of him. Three commissioners I have spoken to consider Clair an obstructionist and micromanager. He fails to see the important
factors that contribute to the wellbeing and progress of
Longboat Key. It is obvious that he is anxiously awaiting
the Longboat Key Club’s project to come to fruition. He
fails to realize that 800 more automobiles on Longboat
will seriously affect traffic. He fails to realize that the
Islandside golf course will be without a driving range.
He fails to understand that during the “busy” season,
Longboat will be so busy that life will be totally unpleasant.
As for the letter relative to the town tennis expansion,
doesn’t the writer realize that the money spent to build
it is strictly for the comfort of the tennis membership,
2 percent of the population? Doesn’t the writer realize
that the money could benefit the entire population by
using the same funds for another ambulance, supplying new police cars, repairing drainage problems, help
beach renourishment and many other infrastructure
necessities?
Mary and Frank Dennis
Longboat Key
Unbalanced comments about Clair
Dear Editor:
Your disappointedly unbalanced comments regarding
Commissioner Randy Clair’s position on the Key Club
issue do you and your readers a disservice.
A candidate’s position on an issue can only be credible
after the proposal has been submitted to the commissioners, then discussed and voted on. Until that occurs,
any and all comments are reckless, including those of
Commissioner Clair’s opponent. No matter how you feel
about the Key Club’s proposed expansion, a candidate
worthy of our votes should not prejudge an issue. Voting
for Mr. Jaleski would appear to reward irresponsibility.
Clair is following the advice from the town attorney,
awaiting the proposal and then deciding; something his
opponent has not done. Scare tactics generate fear and
apprehension. We don’t need that on Longboat Key.
Angelo R. Furgiuele
Longboat Key
Lenobel lines up Tennis Center
Dear Editor:
I was pleased to see the Town Commission’s second
thoughts on funding the Tennis Center reported on the
front page. I think that Mayor Lenobel has the situation
lined up as perfectly as he would another hole in one.
In this time of unprecedented financial stress, there is
a long list of better uses for the money even if the bed
tax payment does come to the town from the county as
planned.
I sincerely hope that Lenobel’s views carry the day on
this issue.
V. M. DeLisi
Longboat Key
Letters, page How to succeed in business
AL GREEN
Contributing Columnist
green@lbknews.com
When I was working, I had many occasions to speak
to groups or individual retailers on how to do a better
job. When I would speak to those who had well-located
updated facilities, good merchandise selection and motivated salespeople, my talks always seemed to have good
results; when these things were absent, my advice was
5370 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Suite 210
Longboat Key, FL 34228
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www.lbknews.com
suddenly not very good. In short, no matter what some
of the local merchants and Realtors say, I cannot either
make or break anyone’s business.
Years back when you went to
Shenkels for lunch or dinner, you
were given a playing card and
a seat in the waiting area. You
could count on at least a half an
hour before your card was called.
Shenkels was sold—I guess the
new owner thought that meat
loaf and chicken pot pie was just
not chic enough for Longboat Key—so today there is
an empty lot, and everyone is blaming everyone else
because the diners have gone missing.
In the Avenue of the Flowers, if you went to the
Chinese restaurant, you would wait your turn, and in a
little while you would be having an egg roll.Then a new
owner came in, decided he didn’t need any Chinese to
run a Chinese restaurant and since that time, there have
Steve Reid, Editor and Publisher
sreid@lbknews.com
Associate Publisher
Melissa Reid
Managing Editor
Caron Cooper
Staff Writers
Melissa Reid • Joseph K. Cooper
Contributing Writers
Dick Hershatter • Tom Burgum
Al Green • Hal Lenobel
Karen O’Dowd • Susan Goldfarb
Glenn & Carole Swope
Lisa Hlywa
Advertising Department
ads@lbknews.com • 941-387-2200
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been at least three, maybe four, who have tried. But no
one has ever figured out that a good Chinese restaurant
might be a good business plan.
In my travels around the country, the one place I
always expected to hear good news about business
was Kansas City, Mo., and the home of the single best
retail environment at least in my time was Country Club
Plaza.
Country Club Plaza was built around 1925 by a
developer who was far ahead of his time. He created a
homogenous ambience in the southwestern motif, but
his major impact was on the restrictions he placed on
his tenants. He did not permit any sale or clearance banners in the windows, no signs other than the approved
sign that was in keeping with all the other signs. He
told you when to put up your Christmas lights, he told
you what color (white) and he told you the minute the
lights were to be turned on and when they were to be
turned off. As a matter of fact, people would come from
miles around just to be there when the lights went on.
With all these restrictions, I always did more business in
the Plaza than I did in the rest of Missouri and Kansas.
I am sure the lesson I drew from that experience has
influenced my positions during those years I was active
in local affairs.
It is easy to curse the darkness, but it is usually a cop
out. One of my subscribers indicated to me that the fact
that Phillips Men’s Shop was closing was partially on
my head. I have no idea what motivated their closing,
maybe a rent rise, maybe just a preparation for a Publix
expansion or just lousy business. I just know that I am
the shopper of the world, and I never spent a nickel in
Phillips. From their window display, I always thought
their merchandise looked like the stuff my parent’s generation wore when they ‘walked the boards’ in Atlantic
City. Maybe if their selection was more like you would
see in a J.Crew, J.Press, Dick Carrolls or even Joseph
Banks, they might still be there. I just don’t think that
you can blame it on the Holiday Inn closing.
The long and the short of it, despite what some potential advertisers are saying to Steve Reid, publisher of the
Longboat Key News, my column is not destroying commercial activity. If that were even remotely a possibility,
than my business advice to them is to advertise in the
Longboat Key News—it has so many readers and is so
carefully read, you would be crazy to not want to reach
these potential customers. There, you got my advice and
you didn’t have to buy anything.