By Jay Kerner

Like most people, I suppose, my morals fluctuate with my self interest. I hate being told what to do, but clearly everyone else could use some guidance.

St. Joe is going through some growing pains. We may not be getting any bigger necessarily, but growth, progress, whatever you want to call it, is happening all the same.

The

If they found a more suitable tract because of the public uproar, that’s great. But maybe a different approach initially would have saved a lot of time and trouble. Instead of  negotiating and making deals behind closed doors then releasing the information as a concise plan awaiting final approval; imagine if instead, they got the public involved from the get go. “What do you think?” sells so much better than “Trust us; we know what’s best for you.”

A newly proposed apartment complex on the south east corner of town has residents of the

Retail developers and residential re-habbers have taken advantage of TIF programs to alter the shopping and housing options locally. Established businesses feel like the new-comers are getting an unfair advantage.

Whether it’s new schools, new apartments, or new retail developments, it’s bound to ruffle some feathers. Change is always hard, no matter the label you put on it. Something new quite often means saying goodbye to something old. At the very least it alters the landscape.

I like to think of myself as Pro-St. Joe. I support progress, as long as it’s well thought out progress. If this latest plan from the

Investors have studied the market and believe an apartment complex of that size, makes sense in that location. As long as they meet local guidelines, I guess they should have the right to build it. My question is, “Where will the residents come from?” Do they anticipate an influx of new citizens? Probably not. These units will mostly house people relocating from somewhere else in town. Will that increase vacancies or drive down rental rates for units farther west? What about the Paper Lofts in the old Mead building? What about the San Regis we invested so much in? Who is going to live in all these units, and what will happen to the units they move out of?

At the same I completely understand how area residents feel, who fear how new rental units will impact their schools. The city council as well as planning and zoning are obligated to listen to concerns from the public when ruling on new development. The close vote on this one shows there were good arguments to be made on both sides.

The reality is that new buildings and adjusted school boundaries should be able to deal with these issues. It will change things for some families, no doubt about it, but our city is morphing right before our eyes, whether we like it or not.

For us at The Regular Joe, new offerings in the free distribution paper business makes for a more crowded marketplace. There wasn’t much out there when we conceived The Joe last summer. In fact we filled the vacuum left when a previous effort bit the dust. Now there are new start-ups all over. Maybe we made it look too easy.

Modern publishing software lets anyone with passion and moderate computer skills put something out there. Some are small niche publications created on local kitchen tables. Others are a broader base. While all of this stuff gives you more choices, we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing. We figure you’ll check what’s out there and choose your favorites. The market will sort of settle where it will.

We know how hard it is to establish a new paper. The first trick is to get people to pick it up the first time. Then you have to get them to pick up the next one. After that you have to learn how to keep doing it issue after issue. The reality is that not all of these new papers will make it.

They say competition makes everybody better. As for us, we’ve got a tenuous hold on our place in the community. With moderate resources and a skeleton staff we’ve put out a paper every other Thursday for 9 months now. And people are picking it up in higher numbers every issue. We’ll be looking to up our copies printed before long to meet the demand.

I want to take this opportunity to thank our readers and loyal advertisers for getting us to this point. As always we need more readers and more advertisers. If you read The Joe, how about passing your copy to a friend when you’re done? If your business could use some publicity, advertising here could be a cost effective way to do it. Our contact info is on the cover. As always, thanks for reading. (And to those just looking at the pictures).