Clearwater needs to commit to defined downtown center

Re: Slow down, take the time to rethink library project, Aug. 14 column.

For better or worse, Clearwater has become a commuter community with no true center. In many respects it is now a place you pass through on your way to somewhere else. Path-of-least-resistance politics and cheap land have led to this malaise.

This visionless governance ripped the heart out of downtown. In stepped the Church of Scientology. Their religion, motives and methods maybe suspect, but they have exhibited some qualities that should leave many of us feeling embarrassed. They plan for the long term, construct and remodel buildings of permanence, and they have fortitude.

Conversely, Clearwater's three-year vision cycle is maddening and accomplishes little.

Now the Times is suggesting that the main library might be more appropriately located in a central part of town. Where is that?

Historically, Clearwater has built many public structures which are so tasteless they can make one nauseous. To build another ugly white box on the waterfront seems to be contradictory to saving the bayfront, and just moving the library to a more convenient location in town continues to exhibit no vision.

If governing by poll is the only choice, then we should start with a question like: Should Clearwater have a defined city center that its residents can be proud of? If yes, then where?

Then the community must commit to reassembling the pieces to the puzzle in one cohesive area. It may take 50 years or more to do it, but I am certain that the whole will be much greater than the sum of the parts.

-- Roger Woodruff, Clearwater

http://www.sptimes.com/News/082100/NorthPinellas/Officials_need_big_pi.shtml