Romano: At this point, any pier in St. Petersburg will look good

So I have taken the digital tour of the eight contenders for St. Petersburg's new pier.

I read all of the proposals and pretended to understand all of the blueprints. I solicited opinions from those around me and recorded all of their considerations.

And now, with complete confidence, I can say to the six members of the pier selection committee:

Suckers!

You people cannot win. No way, no how. A design by Michelangelo, with input from Frank Lloyd Wright, would get trashed by folks on one side of town or the other.

We are 10 years into this discussion and still haven't bought a screwdriver.

We cannot agree on whether we care more about preserving the past or forging a new direction. Whether beauty is more important than function. Whether we build farther out, or closer to the shoreline.

Theoretically, Monday's unveiling of the latest proposals gets us one step closer to completion. We'll have committee meetings in January, a public survey in February, the selection of a winner in March and, finally, City Council approval on April 2.

Personally, I think that timetable is ambitious. I'm predicting rancor in January, accusations in February, chaos in March and nothing but pelican poop by April.

It's not that the proposals on Monday were lacking. In fact, most had at least one interesting design element or feature, and I thought two were quite fetching.

See the rest here:
Romano: At this point, any pier in St. Petersburg will look good