Re: ocean jewel
There is a column in the St Petersburg Times today (July 26) about the OJ
Here is a portion that pretty much sums up both the incompetence of our city council and the OJ owners.
Where's the boat?
The Ocean Jewel , that 450-foot, purple floating casino monstrosity in St. Petersburg, appears to have skipped town, not even a year after it finally showed up.
Do not forget how we got here:
(1) Mayor Rick Baker says in late 2002, "Let's turn over the port of St. Petersburg to obvious clowns from New Jersey and elsewhere whom any idiot could see possess all the credibility of Mr. Haney from Green Acres ."
(2) The City Council says at once, "Hey, that sounds keen! In fact, we won't even need to approve the contract. You handle everything."
(3) The company, Titan Cruise Lines, goes through ridiculous ownership and personnel contortions before finally producing a boat and starting its gambling cruises, one year and eight months after the original schedule.
(4) The vessel, originally to be called the Spirit of St. Petersburg , turns out not to be a glamorous Love Boat after all. St. Pete has leased itself out as the parking lot and toilet for offshore gambling.
(5) Oh, yeah, and then the boat soon stops, you know, actually sailing in and out of St. Petersburg. Titan uses shuttles to run gamblers offshore.
(6) Oh, yeah, and the shuttles keep catching on fire and banging into public bridges and stuff.
(7) Under the city's brilliantly drawn, watertight contract, Titan Cruise Lines simply opens up a second operation up the Pinellas County coast, taking passenger revenues away from St. Petersburg.
(8) Now, they have shut down and appear to be on the verge of pulling out. Of course, the city has the threat of a big payback - the $108,000 deposit that Titan had to leave behind. Ooooh, that'll show 'em!
I cannot wait for the mayor and council to explain that everything is just fine, because the city didn't really lose anything. (Other than, you know, degrading the city's character, getting in bed with hucksters and being used as a patsy.) Then everybody will pretend they never did this.
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