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Busy tourism season shows why city needs to manage industry
You can almost
feel the gathering frustration over the side effects of the robust
tourist season we're experiencing, especially the traffic jams, noise
and revelry continuing into the wee hours.
Admittedly,
the unusually cold winter in the northern United States together with
the spring breakers is generating a tourist influx that may be larger
than years past. But each year it always seems busier, louder, more
inconvenient than last year.
Nevertheless,
word on the street is that residential neighborhoods are nearing a
boiling point.
Just a week
ago, Residents For a Livable Old Town coordinated a brief and fairly
polite demonstration to protest the arrival of five cruise ships on the
same day. Participants rode their cars and bikes up and down Lower Duval
Street from 11 a.m. to noon last Thursday.
The fact that
Old Town residents mounted a protest is further evidence of latent
potential for escalating tensions.
We continue to
believe that a pathway to reasonable and practical accommodation between
quality of life issues and the realities of a tourist-based economy are
to be found in the "road map" created and made public this past January
by the Ad-Hoc Planning Task Force appointed by Mayor Jimmy Weekley. All
the relevant issues are clearly identified in the report of the task
force.
On Wednesday,
the city commission is sitting down at Old City Hall to consider some
first steps to respond to the road map. They will decide then if they
want to appoint another committee — this time by the whole commission
—to talk about tourism management or take some other path. We hope that
they do not drop the idea.
We are pleased
that the city commission has pledged to explore these issues and
recommendations. Given the discontent now being voiced, it is decidedly
timely.
We hope the
commissioners will push forward with creative ideas and plans. A display
of serious intent to look squarely at the issues will be helpful in
lowering the temperature of the street talk. |
