It was only two weeks ago that the St. Petersburg City Council stunned many in St. Pete by refusing to grant permission to the owners of the BayWalk shopping center complex to vacate the public sidewalk in front of the complex.
Those owners had insisted that they could bring back retailers to the compex if they could be insured that there would be no protests on the sidewalk.
Critics called it blatantly anti free speech, and 4 Council members agreed.
The establishment in St. Pete, embodied by the editorial page of the St. Petersburg Times, disagreed, blasting the Gang of Four in an over the top editorial penned by the Editor of Editorials, Tim Nickens.
But last week Herb Polson reintroduced the measure, and today, sans public comment, the Council will do it all over again – that is, debate the pros and cons.
Why they are is not exactly certain. So the only question is: Will at least one Councilmember flip flop?
The Times reports today that Mayor Baker and his staff has vowed to speak with the protestors and other members of the community before today's re-vote.
The party starts again at 10 a.m. with a workshop on the issue, followed by the vote at 3 p.m.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2009.