Does anyone believe the city will build a boat launch? It took them 10 years to do nothing with the Pulling property. Barnett and his city have shown clearly their distain for boaters. This is just a ruse.

There is no reason to build a new city hall. The current one was only built in 1979 and is still in very good shape.

The only problem with it was that it was built too small. Many of the city departments have relocated to Riverside Dr the past few years. But that does not mean a whole new city hall is needed.

I agree I have no reason to believe that the city ever has any intention of ever building boat docks at this location. They already had their chance and blew it.

I would much rather see this built than the new parking garage along the 5th avenue area. Although, there is nothing with the city hall that they have now, other than being too small as state earlier. Why don't they just save their money and spend it on something more useful in the future where it is needed most? I guess when it's not your money, you feel as if you can spend it without a care in the world.

Build it. Then we can watch as the City of Naples flushes the waste water and pollutes Naples Bay.

"The city's natural resources specialist say the bay is littered with high levels of bacteria, heavy metals, and nutrients flowing out of reservoir canals. Fecal coliform was also found."

Yummy...!

Let's build up the river now - there isn't enough concrete ugliness blocking the view of the waterfronts that we already have! You can still see some of the bay - better watch out!

Well if this plan comes together i will keep my distance from the city until this is built I can see the future and it stinks. When the city of Naples needs money the amount of traffic violations increase and that means the public gets screwed. All they need to do is make one sweep through Port Royal and they should be able to raise plenty of money for the project that will not benefit the people. Just raise the taxes in the city there is plenty of money there. A boat ramp and docks LOL

mattmaki-what on Gods green Earth are you talking about. All that crap in Naples Bay comes from the miles and miles of canals through Golden Gate Estate and Golden Gate City

A boardwalk along the water is one of the things that actually is needed by this city. I'll be surprised if it doesn't turn into condos instead.

Trehuger, you have no idea what you are talking about. Go to the DEP website and look at the TMDLs in Naples Bay and the GG main canal. All that crap is brewed in the city, not Golden Gate.

Can we turn the old City Hall into a parking Garage?

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Working for the DEP and SFWMD qualifies you for....nothing. I wouldn't advertise that if I were you.

trehuger...What I'm talking about is a direct quote from the city of Naples natural resources specialist, hence the quotation marks.

Do a google search, or better yet, do a search of the Naples Daily News.

City Hall too small? No way, we just have too many workers getting paid too many dollars and who think up ideas like this. Downsize, maybe things will get done rather than everything studied, revisited, studied again. Even this idea could hire a few people to think it through.

Am I the only one who realizes we are on the Gulf of Mexico and not an ocean?? Just curious...

;-)

Teasin'

We should all be in awe of trehugger and his former employment with those 2 agencies. Forget reading the data folks, it is just a waste of time. Let's take the word of an ex-employee as science.

trehugger's right. The most damaging form of pollution in Naples Bay is fresh water. It might not sound as scary as all the other stuff -- heavy metal, fecal coliform, and pesticide runoff -- but over time it has done more than any of them to alter the bay's natural state and destroy the seagrass and oyster bed habitat that marked what little of it was "natural" following the dredge-and-fill operations that created Royal Harbor and Port Royal and Aqualane Shores.

The agencies keep the data they want to keep. When the data is embarassing or politically inconvenient or likely to raise the ire of developers, then the data stops being important and the priority for its collection and retrieval is lowered. That's a fact of resource management known to anyone exposed to the field.

Want more evidence? Look at Charles Duray's attack on Jim Beever for assembling a report that detailed net loss of wetlands in the Estero Bay watershed.

The Conservancy identified the Golden Gate Canal as the main source of pollution back when Bernie Yokel was still running it. Being the boss back then didn't require sucking up to the builders.

The problem is that there's no way to stop all that former swamp from draining into the bay without letting it flood again, at least during the west season. There's too much real estate at stake, and the most natural solution to restoring Naples Bay is as unlikely to be adopted as the natural solution to Naples' eroding beaches -- moving everything a mile back and letting the beach's ebb and flow restore the natural width and character over time.

And speaking of beaches, I don't know anyone who hears "waterfront development" and thinks of the beach in Naples, as the lede to this story suggests.

The beach has been fronted by First Street for decades, and the only development along its length is the Beach Club. That has never been an issue, and only another import with no local knowledge would ever write such a thing.

Her editors obviously haven't been here much longer.

Finally, someone with a vision for utilizing our geographical treasures for the people. If only Mr. Hunt were here before they built a waterfront airport, a waterfront ghetto, and a waterfront industrial storage area / water treatment facility. What was the city of naples thinking back then? Let's make it happen!

why not build a new Chicago-development does you know require an edafice complex