Parking and community spirit

When you have good neighbors, it’s pretty easy to let them know they are appreciated. It’s a little harder to properly appreciate a few hundred people from all over Fernandina Beach.

But that’s what I was doing walking home from the Tuesday town hall.

I was thinking what a cheerful group they were to be addressing a couple of important issues.

I was thinking what practical people they are. Yes, spend our money to take down Brett's and the rotten structure under it. But forget that photo you put up of a very fancy restaurant that didn’t look anything like the rest of Centre Street. Instead cover the space with a nice deck where people can gather for a celebration or just to have a good view of the sunset.

It didn’t take a show of hands to make it clear what most folks think should happen after the Brett's demolition. Something the city can afford and most folks can use.  

Then the town hall got into the big issue: paid parking downtown. There was nothing controversial about it. From the day the idea was floated, it was dead in the water. Anybody who knew anything about Fernandina Beach knew that.

But people who are responsible for balancing the city budget saw a solution and hung onto the idea. They are still hanging on as I write. They had invited two parking companies to submit bids, and just before the town hall invited another one. They should be listening to the people who were inside the room reading sober remarks against paid parking and the equal number of cheerful people on the sidewalk holding up hand-made signs opposing paid parking.

Plenty of practical arguments against paid parking were offered. But as that was going on, I started picking up something far less practical but far more important. It springs from the deep love that residents have for this place. It’s small-town love. Love of our history. Love of the way we all wave at intersections, stop on sidewalks to say hi while the tourists hustle past.  

I get that love from people I’m sure I’ve never met. But oh yes, they came through my house with 1350 other people on a fund-raising tour. That counts in this town as having met.

And what would a bunch of parking meters do to the feel of a town like that?

I can’t prove it, draw a picture of it, make a chart about it.

But I could feel it walking home. People who live here have many a practical argument against paid parking. But they also have a feeling about it. They think it offends the very nature of their town.