Despite recognition in the OPEN Government Act and rulings by the FEC that “under US law blogs are formally recognized as media organizations“, Paul Golden rejected us as “media” and evicted us from his “Press Conference and Property Tour” this morning.

Yesterday, Golden sent out a “Media Alert” inviting select individuals and “all press” to meet at Ginnie’s store this morning at 10:00 am and ask “any and all questions that you might have”. The last line of the “alert” reads “This tour is for all media representatives and invited persons only.” But apparently its actually like one of those Bush PCs where he’ll answer all questions from a hand-picked audience.

We showed up and circulated a list of important questions that Golden has managed to avoid answering publicly thus far. The list included supporting documentation demonstrating the “factual” responses. But when we tried to hop on the safari bus for the tour, Paul Golden and his henchman, Roy Rogers, refused to let us join. They claimed it was for invited guests and media only. We responded that we write a blog and our readers have unanswered questions about this project. But they refused to let us go unless we were with the Avis, Daily News, or TV 2. Those media outlets did have representatives, and Roger Morgan was invited and included. Here’s to hoping someone asks some of those important questions.

Uh oh, things are not looking up for Paul Golden. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his bid to stop CZM from reviewing his permit. Roger Morgan got the scoop Wednesday afternoon and Andy Simpson confirmed it on Free Speech Thursday morning. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s an excerpt:

You can get the full program here. The discussion about Golden starts around one hour ten minutes into it. Andy comes on at about 13 minutes after the hour.

Just a few weeks ago Paul Golden held a press conference announcing Wyndham Resorts as his “brand” partner for the proposed resort on St. Croix’s south shore, in the environmentally sensitive Great Pond wetlands. He spoke as if the project was a done deal - $150 million in equity - CZM permit fully in compliance - $32.5 million of the publics money back in his hands for the convention center - breaking ground next month - Blah Blah Blah. Reporters asked about the pending lawsuits and he shushed it away, “I’m not going to talk about those”. Like they were trifling inconveniences. How about the “default” CZM permit? “No, its not default. We have the permit and we’re fully in compliance.”

Except, he didn’t mention one of the pending legal issues was his own appeal of the Third Circuit Court’s order to send his permit back to CZM for “finding of fact”, to determine if it is actually “compliant”. If he’s so sure its compliant, why would he worry about CZM reviewing it?

Well it doesn’t matter now. He’s lost this battle and is back to square one. You can read more about it in the Daily News article 3rd Circuit denies Golden Resorts appeal; permit must go back to CZM for review.

Llewellyn signals the start of our wedding

The following is a Guest Opinion, from the Virgin Island Daily News, Thursday, March 13. Written by Todd H. Newman, an attorney who lives on St. Croix. Reprinted by request of Raki (Raquel Santiago-Silver).

On Monday, March 3, St. Croix icon Llewellyn Westerman went home. Every community has one or two persons who are so well known, and so beloved, that they are just referred to by one name. Llewellyn is just such a person.

A famous musician, recording artist and performer - having been crowned the Calypso King of St. Croix - expert chef, man of letters, and one of the best sailors in the Caribbean, Llewellyn can now also be known as Lazarus.

On Friday in the afternoon Llewellyn was doing what he loves best: sailing. As he brought his vessel Charis up to the mooring at the St. Croix Yacht (Club), a squall came up. He and his brother Inglore struggled to anchor the boat and lower the sails. Suddenly, Llewellyn collapsed. The first of many miracles on that Friday was that when he collapsed, Llewellyn became tangled in the sails and fortunately did not fall overboard. He was not breathing and there was no heartbeat.

Mike Webber - originally from the states but who has lived on St. Croix for many years - was on the dock at the Yacht Club and saw that something was wrong. He raced down the dock, got into the Yacht Club whaler, motored up to Charis and somehow was able to lift the lifeless Llewellyn into the boat. He ran the whaler straight on to the beach and immediately began mouth to mouth resuscitation and CPR. St. Croix native Stephanie Malanga came running over to help, as did Lisa Price, who has split her time between St. Croix and Jackson, Wyoming for many years.

The three of them, a white male from the states, a white Virgin Islander, and a woman who has loved St. Croix all her life, worked furiously breathing air into Llewellyn and pounding on his chest. While they were doing everything they could to keep blood flowing through the body whose heart had stopped, someone from the Yacht Club remembered that William Will, who lives in Cotton Valley, had recently purchased a defibrillator. A call was made and miraculously Will was home and raced to the Yacht Club with the defibrillator.

The exhausted lifesavers followed the instructions and placed the defibrillator on Llewellyn. No heartbeat registered. The defibrillator then did its job and Llewellyn’s heart began beating.

Ambulances arrived and the comatose Llewellyn was rushed to the hospital. There, Emergency Room doctors and nurses fought to stabilize their patient. A CAT scan was performed to see how badly Llewellyn had injured his head when he collapsed. At that time, a young Virgin Islands native, Dr. Keldall Griffith - who had graduated from Central High, gone on to the states for his medical training and returned to St. Croix several years ago as a cardiologist - was testifying in Frederiksted in front of the Legislature. Contact was made with Dr. Griffith, and he came to the hospital.

Despite it being Friday evening, he quickly assembled his expert team of specialists and by 7 p.m. he was operating on Llewellyn. By 10:30 that evening - to the grateful applause and tears that greeted him from those of the many Llewellyn well-wishers who had snuck their way into the hospital - he announced that he had repaired the blockages in Llewellyn’s heart.

Our amazement and joy at the fantastic set of circumstances that had resulted in Llewellyn still being alive were tempered by our fears as to what brain damage may have been done due to the long time that Llewellyn was without a heartbeat. The miracle became complete Saturday morning as Llewellyn was weaned off of the narcotics, and we instantly knew from the sound of his voice and the quick humor that indeed Llewellyn was back!

As Virgin lslanders we are many times too consumed with concerns of race and petty politics.

The events last weekend remind us of what a special place we live in, where a community of people worked together to breath life into one of our beloved residents, keeping him alive long enough for a son of our soil to perform his wondrous healing.

I am so happy to be a Virgin Islander and so proud of all who were involved in bringing Llewellyn back - we should all be proud. Every once in a while in the Virgin Islands it all works out.

Todd H. Newman

We’re playing with a new image gallery plug-in. If all goes well, you should see a slideshow of images from great pond:

Terry told me before that my posts were too political, so I’ve cut back, but I had to share this.

I just had an enlightening conversation with former senator David Jones. We were at the press conference where Paul Golden finally announced his partnership with Wyndham Worldwide to manage and operate the Wyndham St. Croix Golf Resort and Casino (formerly called Golden Gaming/Golden Resorts, LLC). Oddly, no one from Wyndham bothered to show up, or they kept quiet, they certainly weren’t introduced. How’s that for a resounding endorsement?

Anyway, I was discussing with Mr. Jones the fact that Mr. Golden’s checkered past includes episodes that would prevent him from employment in a casino, let alone running one, according to the Virgin Islands Casino Control Act. “We’re not here to judge anyone”, Mr. Jones said. He went on to say Paul Golden hasn’t murdered or raped anyone, as far as we know, so we should move forward. Right in our community, he told me, we have people who have raped and murdered and they’re flourishing, so why shouldn’t Mr. Golden. He seemed to be saying that, since we haven’t been able to enforce all our laws against more heinous crimes, we shouldn’t bother to enforce lowly laws like the Casino Control Act. It struck me as particularly odd, since our police commissioner was on a radio talk show this morning saying he and the force are committed to enforcing all the laws, from seat belt requirements, window tinting, cell phone use, noise ordinances and traffic rules on up. Yet here was a former senator, who used to be charged with making the laws, saying we should just ignore some of them, since we can’t enforce all of them.

I really wish someone from Wyndham had shown up at the press conference. I’ve heard all of Paul’s answers before, but I had a question for them. I’m wondering, given Mr. Golden’s history, in previous ventures, of ignoring municipal rules and regulations that he’s been unable to have changed to suit his purpose, how much consideration Wyndham has given to their liability should this practice continue on this resort project? I’d also like to know why they jumped the gun on his announcement by a few hours, sending a press release out to Marketwire, but failed to note it on their own Wyndham Worldwide website? (as of 4:00 pm AST 2/27/08)

Note: This editorial comment was also submitted to the St. Croix Source, The St. Croix Avis, and the VI Daily News

Looks like the DNS servers are mostly pointing to our new hosting service for Ambrosia Body Care and Livin’ on St. Croix. If you’re seeing this post, leave us a comment so we know you’re getting to the right place.

Well, we’ve finally had enough of our hosting service, so we’re making a change. Our domain will be transfered to the new host over the next few days. It can take a little while for the change to filter down to all the DNS servers. Please bear with us. We apologize in advance for any disruption here. But we’re looking forward to more reliable service from our new host. Yeah

almost. Whew! It was a close one.

On Christmas Second Day (Boxing Day, for you Brits, Canucks, Kiwis and Aussies), Terry and I went out to the movies for the first time since the latest Harry Potter release. We saw “Alvin the and Chipmunks” (sic)(that’s the way it was posted on our local cinema marquee). It was a cute, sometimes funny, family values movie - and Terry loves the chipmunks. Chipmunks Christmas is our most-played holiday album.

We left Goliath in the car, because he doesn’t like to be left home, but he doesn’t really need to go to the movies. Besides, he’s afraid of loud noises, and the movies are usually loud, not to mention freezing. It was night-time, so he wouldn’t cook, and we left the windows down a tad, so he’d have fresh air. When we came out of the movie at about 9 pm, he was gone. Car was still locked, but no Biggie!!! Holy Shit! We lost Biggie in Sunny Isle parking lot at night. We were distraught, to say the least. Michael Armendariz was conversing with a friend at the car parked next to us. We told him, and he was distraught! We went back toward the theater to check with a security guard we’d seen. Michael wandered around the parking lot looking and calling, despite having lost his voice (apparently things get lost in threes - Michael’s friend had lost his wallet, Michael lost his voice, we lost our dog).

The security guard had not seen or heard of anyone else reporting a little dog running around. She must have thought we were nuts, we could barely string together a few coherent words - “we lost our dog”, “he’s, uh, small (hand gestures here) … and cute”, “he has a collar with his name and number”, “nobodies seen him?”, “Is there, like, a central security office here? Maybe they’ve seen him?”

No, she was standing in front of the only security “kiosk” at Sunny Isle, if anyone reported him, she would have heard it. We started to wander off toward the theatre box office, maybe someone there had seen him, when the security lady said “Is that him?” And there was Biggie running toward us from the direction of K-Mart! I guess he needed to do a little after-christmas shopping. So all ended well.

When we got home, we immediately went on line to track down a replacement hard top for the Tracker. Apparently Goliath climbs up on the massage tables and squeezes out a tear in the seams by the zipper of the rear window in the soft top. This wasn’t the first time he’s done it, just the most nerve-racking. The first time, he came looking for us at Salud Bistro while we were celebrating Nikki’s B-day. He’d gotten out, followed our trail to the door and waited for someone to open it and let him in. Our waitress asked us if we’d brought our little dog. “No” we said, “he’s in the car”. She responded, “No, he’s in the bar!”

After weeks of engine swapping, tweaking, scrambling for parts, plugging leaks, and general trouble shooting, the Orange Rover, AKA The Great Pumpkin, is finally on the road again. Terry and I went for a little spin around the neighborhood, then I headed over the hill to the hardware store. Yeah

The Great Pumpkin Rides Again!
Tip: Click play, then pause for a sec to let it buffer a little, then play again. Otherwise it’ll play a little choppy the first time.

Thanks to Dave and Michelle for all their help getting this thing going!

We’re back from our vacation, but the good folks working hard to get The Pickled Greek up and going are exhausted, so the not-quite-yet-open Greek is now closed for vacation.

They did get the outside looking nice though. The shutters are done, the building is painted, an alarm has been installed, generator and AC should be coming soon.

Tomorrow we’re planning to swap a working engine into our 1962 Land Rover. Its been sitting in the driveway since February, when we discovered the engine was shot. We’ve had a blue junker, with a good engine, in the driveway for almost that long planning to make this swap.

In the meantime, some rats have set up shop in the Orange Land Rover. We discovered this some time ago and I set some traps and caught two big rats. One in the Landy and one in the carport.

Our friend and Land Rover Guru, Dave Walworth, suggested I remove the front floor boards from the Orange Rover so we can get at the bolts that hold the transmission to the engine we want to remove tomorrow. I’ve already done a few preparatory things like swap the oil pans and loosen the bolts on the front panel that holds the radiator so we can remove it to make the engine more accessible.

This afternoon I took a look at the floor board situation and realized I needed to clean up some of the evidence of rat habitation first. Behind the front seats I found all sorts of debris the rats had hauled in - plastic bags, a strip of rag, bunch of mango seeds, shredded paper bag, an outboard engine fuel hose clip (still in package!), a disemboweled toad and something that looked like a rat tail… eeeewww. Turns out there were two tails of rat, one foot, and three disembodied rat faces! These rodents were practicing some kind of Satanic Rat Rituals in my Land Rover!

So I’m short of a few Land Rover parts (see Reggie’s Blog for details), but have some spare rat parts if anyone has a need…

Yesterday Peter asked what our plans were for the evening, “You’re driving me up to the rainforest, right?”. Kurt Schindler was playing his regular Last Sunday of the Month gig at the Montpellier Domino Club, or “The Pig Drinking Jungle Bar”, as he lists it on his site. Terry’s a little burned out on Kurt and I had stuff I had to get done.

So today Peter calls to tell me a little story that “Reggie has to put on his blog”, but its too good, so I’m keeping it for myself. Reggie will have to track-back to it.

On his way out west with a full car, Peter stops to pick up some visitors, staying at Chenay Bay Beach Resort, who are also heading to the show. When he gets to Bassin Triangle Kurt’s song “Banna” starts playing on the CD. So Peter immediately pulls over into the parking lot of a deserted gas station, across the street from the police station, and all seven of them pile out of his Cherokee and start dancin’ in the parking lot. There’s a police car parked in the lot, but Peter thought no one was in it.

When the song ends, they all climb back into the jeep to go on their merry way. Immediately Peter hears a “Whuuoop whuuoop” from the cop car. The policeman gets out, walks over to him and says, “Sir… you left your drinks on top of the car”. Peter turns back to the others and says, “Kids, you forgot your beers!” They all pile out again, retrieve their beverages, climb back in, and drive away.

Only on St. Croix. That’s why we call it Paradise!

Terry writing from Michael’s computer again…..

He has this weird, hi-tech mouse that is impossible to use. Besides that, there’s something about his keyboard that makes my typing even worse than when I’m using my own comfy computer…..AAAAAGGGHHHHHH!!!

If there truly is a God, I need HELP!!!

I’ve been a good little blogger. Trying to get something interesting posted every day. I’m strting to lose ot……AAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!

This is actually Terry’s post, but I had to use Michael’s computer and I’m not about to ask him to help me with something else right now ;).

About 4 years ago, I was still working extra jobs when my massage business was slow. One of them was delivering St. Croix This Week magazines. I would drive my beloved 1987 Ford Bronco II to the container port, get my paperwork stamped from customs and head to the warehouse to pick up a hundred or so heavy boxes of magazines which I would then carry around the island delivering to scores of restaurants, hotels and inns, rental car agencies, the airport, etc. One of my stops was the Cruzan Rum factory. I was always in a hurry to get to my next stop, so never stayed to sample the wares. Anyway, this one time in late July, I saw a puppy walking away from the driveway. I asked the lady in the guard gate booth if he belonged to anyone (dumb question - he was in pathetic condition - no fur from mange, distended belly from worms, etc.) and she said he didn’t. I asked if I could take him and she said, yes, but he needed medical attention. I said I could tell and would take him to where he would be cared for right away.

He yelped when I tried to pick him up, but one of the guys he was used to helped me get him into my truck. I put him in an empty magazine box and he looked up at me with those eyes that make me melt. In tears, I told him, “It’s okay, Bubba, I’m taking you to where people will love you and take care of you.” And drove him to the shelter because I had just found Goliath the day before and we had 8 dogs. (Yes, you’ll have to wait longer for the Goliath story). When I got to the shelter, I asked Kris if they could just take care of him until I got my act together at home (hoping that someone might adopt him in the meantime). She told me that that was impossible and if I left him there he’d only have 20 minutes or so to live. In tears again, I called my vet. She had just neutered Goliath that morning and wondered if something bad had happened. I said, no, it was that I had found another one. With a sigh, she said, “okay, bring him in”. So I did. We got meds and special shampoos and I took Bubba home to meet the others.

None of the other dogs was a puppy anymore and no one wanted anything to do with Bubba. So he was “my puppy”. I’d bathe him every day and sing to him. He slept in the house with pillows and blankies like Yoda had years before so his skin wouldn’t get more irritated. And he grew. He kept growing. He grew some more. He also grew annoying. One night, after I got this house in the divorce settlement, Michael was staying over and he left his expensive leather shoes on the floor. Bubba became instrumental in helping Michael begin to purge his excessive shoe collection. (Thanks, Bubba!), but Bubba was a big dog now and needed to live outside with the other big dogs. So we moved him out. He cried, he whined. It was like moving a child to a bed from his crib. But he needed to be weaned from his dependence on me, so we lost sleep at night while he whined and cried. Eventually he stopped. He now sleeps in the old truck in the back yard at night and harrasses the crap out of all the other dogs.

Bubba has been the instigator in many fights that have resulted in large vet bills for Bebe. Bebe and Ruby have been vying for the slot as Alpha female for years, so they must be separated at all times. Once, when Bubba saw Bebe in the back yard, he started at her and others joined in until there were at least three of them biting at her ears and legs and whatever else they could latch on to. It is so scary when that happens. They all get covered with blood and you can’t really tell who’s hurt worse. Somehow, we have thus far been able to get them apart when they fight and no one has died as a result of a fight since Tillie in 2001 when Bebe attacked her and won the Alpha female position.

Bubba (and I still sing to him every day), is the worst dog I have ever known. He barks incessantly when anyone comes around and causes more trouble with the others than anything. He has attacked Yoda on occasion as well. Bubba is the reason I will not adopt any more dogs. It’s someone else’s turn now. I’m cured! I’m free!!!

Still to come - Wiley, Percy, and……Goliath! (and pictures of Bubba). I’m extra bad at this today since I’m using Michael’s Mac.

We try to eat organically grown food if it is available. There’s the Southgate Farmstand just around the corner by Cheeseburgers that we shop at when we’re looking for good veggies and fruits during the seasons they’re growing. Our local big grocery store, Plaza Extra has been carrying organic eggs and grains and produce as well, so things are looking more environmentally friendly and healthy on St. Croix than they have since I moved here 13 years ago.

We can also get organic coffee at Plaza on occasion. But before they started carrying it, we looked on-line for a supplier and easily found Dean. Dean’s last name escapes me right now, but it’s probably on his website somewhere. Dean roasts the free trade coffee beans (that he buys directly from third world coffee farmers) in Orange, MA, then ships the custom orders all over.

We usually buy ten pounds at a time and store it in the fridge. For a while, we were getting 5 lb. of Decaf Hazelnut and 5 lb. of Decaf French Vanilla (he even uses organic flavorings in his coffees and the natural water decaffeination process), but I got tired of Hazelnut, so we are getting a Decaf Mexican medium roast along with vanilla. Occasionally, we will buy a pound of regular for those times when we need a good jolt (caffeine makes me jittery most of the time, but we would drink it last year on the all-night turtle watches).

Dean, the “Puking Pirate of Tortuga”
surrounded by “Floozies”

We love Dean and what he does. He’s always traveling to meet farmers and helps them and their families in addition to helping their villages with what they need. Recently Dean became a movie star. He was in the last scene of the latest “Pirates of the Caribbean” flick. We made sure we looked for him when we went to the theater and sure enough, right behind Johnny Depp and his two floozies, there was Dean the pirate. Puking over the side of the dock. What an amazing debut!

Reggie, using high-tech paparazzi tools, captures the subjects limin’ at The Friday the 13th Alexander Hamilton Jump-Up.

[tags]jump-up,web-cam[/tags]

“Soon Come” is one of those versatile Cruzan phrases that can mean anything from “I’ll be there in a minute” to “your entree is on its way” to “It’s almost Christmastime”. Its one of Peter’s favorite Cruzanisms. You can’t hardly have a conversation with Peter without hearing “soon come” at least once.

Its Official. The Pickled Greek soon come to St. Croix!

Peter is everybody’s favorite waiter/bartender on island. He’s got three degrees, but has spent most of his career waiting, bartending and managing restaurants. When he came down to St. Croix, one of the things he left behind was the responsibilities of running restaurants. But he’s about to get back into it. Peter bought a restaurant, signed a lease, and is now the proud owner of The Pickled Greek. He’s just gotten started cleaning the place up and giving it a new look - the vinyl floor has been ripped up and the lowered acoustic ceiling pulled out. He not even open for business, but he’s already had more people stop in than the previous place had in the last year.

Look for The Pickled Greek just east of Christiansted, across from Pearl B. Larsen Elementary. Peter will be serving Greek and Cruzan dishes (he’s bringing back Mr. Nolan for authentic caribbean cuisine) and take-away dinners.

Another Cruzanism you’ll hear passing Peter’s lips is “I go to come back”, meaning “I’ll be right back”. At last nights Mango Tango Party, Carston suggested Peter put it over the door, in place of an Exit sign. We all liked it. Once you stop by The Pickled Greek, you can never leave, but you can “Go to come back”.

In preparation for tomorrow’s Mango Tango party, Terry wanted to practice making a mango cake to see how it turned out, and we needed to try out some mango margarita and daiquiri recipes to choose our favorite.

The Mango Masterpeice

Toasting (and tasting) Success

We’ve been away for a while on vacation. I’d hoped to return and blog about what a great time we had on Tortola and Anegada, but instead I feel the need to address the ludicrous decision made by the Coastal Zone Mismanagement Committee last week.

CZM denied a permit application to develop the Southgate Coastal Reserve submitted by the St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA). The CZM Committee voted to accept the CZM staff recommendation to deny the permit because it was “not consistent” with CZM regulations and policy. One has to wonder what is consistent with CZM’s regulations and policies. A study of previously approved permits would indicate that a complete lack of consideration for the environment and traditional uses of beachfront land is what CZM favors. SEA’s carefully considered plan to protect the rare wetland environment while allowing traditional family camping and other day uses of the property is clearly inconsistent with the CZM’s record.

Below is a copy of a letter I sent to CZM Commissioners after the public meeting in April, but prior to last weeks decision. Clearly, they couldn’t grasp the concepts, hopefully the general public will fair better.

Dear CZM Commissioners,

I attended the public meeting on Wednesday evening, May 2, regarding the development of Southgate Coastal Reserve proposed by the St. Croix Environmental Association (SEA). I was surprised by some of the testimony and questions. The objections to the proposed plan centered around three issues: not accommodating campers to their (the campers) satisfaction, controlling vehicle access, and the distance from the proposed parking lot to the beach.

SEA has spent the last six years studying the land donated to them in 2000 and 2001 and consulting, not only with experts, but with the public and recreational users of the land. They have not been working to circumvent, or change, Virgin Islands law to suit their needs and maximize profits for off-island investors, as have some would-be developers. Instead, they have been carefully crafting a plan to protect the natural environment and endangered wildlife on the property, as mandated by the Conservation Easement attached to the deeds of the land, while accommodating the widest possible use of the land for the enjoyment of all recreational users.

To my knowledge, the plan proposed by SEA is the first development of a major beach-front property in the history of the Virgin Islands to expressly accommodate, even encourage, the continuation of traditional public beach-side camping on the private property of the developing entity. There are only two projects that come close to the allowances SEA is proposing: The National Park campground at Cinnamon Bay and Maho Bay Camps on St. John. However, these campgrounds do not allow traditional camping “on the beach”, you must rent a tent site, tent, or cabin up the hillside from the beach. And guess what? You can’t drive up to your tent or park there. You have to park in a lot, often more than 600 feet from your cabin or tent, and haul your gear in.

On St. Croix there is no history of accommodating campers in development plans- not a single resort, hotel, condo or residential development has allowed camping on their property - nor have any current projects on the horizon have plans to accommodate campers, as far as I am aware. Had the condo development, planned for the Southgate property in the past, been built to completion, there is no doubt that camping would have been prohibited. But at the meeting Wednesday, some individuals would have had you believe that beach-side camping is now the sacred cow, and absolutely no restrictions should be placed on “traditional”camping.

The Environmental Assessment Report prepared by SEA, section 7.07 Recreational Use, states clearly, “At Southgate Coastal Reserve, SEA will endeavor to balance protection of wildlife, for whom this reserve was designated, with the need for natural recreation areas for the people of St. Croix. Camping will be accommodated to the extent that it is compatible with critical wildlife activity…SEA will provide fire rings, sanitary facilities and receptacles for trash disposal for those who wish to enjoy primitive camping.” Again, in accordance with its mandate to protect the wetlands area and wildlife of Southgate Coastal Reserve and to accommodate recreational use for all the people of St. Croix, SEA proposes to restrict some of the more recent, less “traditional” trends in beach-side camping that have a negative impact on the wetlands environment and the enjoyment of other recreational users.

To mandate that one group of users, campers, not be inconvenienced in ANY way, to the detriment of the wetlands, wildlife, and other users’ experience, is not only unfair and counter to the Conservation Easement of the deeds, but a violation of SEA’s rights as a property owner. The CZM committee made it clear that the decision of reasonable access is up to their sole discretion, but one would hope that discretion will be guided by the rule of law, precedence, and reason, not whim.

SEA has at no time to this date blocked access to the beach at Southgate (such as the VI Government did at Lindquist Beach on St. Thomas for more than a year) to either day users or campers and has no plans to do so. It has proposed to control vehicle access to the beach through its property. There will be a road available for emergency vehicles, handicap access, loading and unloading of equipment for special events, and maintenance. For the general public, there will be a parking lot and open unrestricted access to foot traffic 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The Open Shorelines Act, Title 12, Section 402, declares the public, individually and collectively, has the right to use and enjoy the shorelines of the Virgin Islands. Nowhere does it guarantee the right of the public to “drive up to” and “park on” the shoreline, and the history of permitting by CZM bears this out. Where established access routes preceded development, developers of shoreline areas have been required to allow “dedicated access” and “reasonable parking”.

Let’s take a look at some of those developments. At Turner Hole in Grapetree Bay the Divi Carina Bay Resort provides a parking lot a couple hundred feet from the beach, across a street that vehicles have been known to use at excessive speeds. You can not drive down to the beach, park there, nor pitch a tent to camp on their property. At Davis Bay, the Carambola Beach Resort built a public parking area, the initial entrance to which is now closed due to driveway deterioration and petty crime in the lot, several hundred feet, up multiple stairways, from the beach. The lot now allocated to the public is over 1000 feet from the beach, all uphill, the last couple hundred feet of which are at a steep grade exceeding 10%. This is to the nearest point of the beach, to reach a place to safely enter the water is approximately 700 feet further. You can not drive up to, park on, or camp on the beach. The Buccaneer Resort controls all access to the beaches on their property, public access to the beach may be rented for $6 per day per person. No camping is allowed on the beaches. The beach at Tamarind Reef may be reached from a parking lot a couple hundred feet away, there is no camping allowed. I could go on, but these examples should suffice, to my knowledge, no shoreline development has ever been required to provide public parking directly on the beach.

And the developments on the horizon? Seasonal camping takes place at both Robin Bay and the beach running south of Sprat Hole on the West End. Have the developers of the Robin Bay or William and Punch projects allowed for the continuation of traditional (or modern) beach-side camping at those locations? Does the CZM intend to mandate unrestricted vehicle access, beach-side parking, and camping on those properties?

Finally, I’d like to put the issue of distance to “reasonable parking” in perspective.
Six hundred feet…….. SIX…..…HUNDRED…….FEET… Whew! Sounds like a lot. For comparison, the public meeting Wednesday, May 2, took place in the conference room, upstairs, at the Henry E. Rohlsen International Airport. Anyone who has been to the airport lately knows that all the closest spaces in the parking lot are reserved for TSA, other airport offices, and rental car agencies. The public must park in the furthest spaces. Therefore, nearly every one of the dozens of people at that meeting had to walk more than 600 feet, and up a flight of stairs, from their parked car to the conference room. I didn’t hear a single complaint from those in attendance regarding their walk to the meeting.

The Government parking lot in Christiansted is, to my knowledge, further than 600 feet from all VI Government offices located in Christiansted. So, if you work for a government office, or have business to attend to at a VI Government office in Christiansted and park in the government lot, you have to walk more than 600 feet to conduct said business.

SEA’s proposal of a parking lot 600 feet from the beach with dedicated unrestricted wheel-chair friendly level access falls somewhere in the middle, distance-wise, and on the easy end of the difficulty scale, of what has been considered “reasonable access” at all other beach-front developments in the Virgin Islands. It meets the requirements of the Conservation Easement on the deeds, helps to preserve and protect the wetlands and wildlife of the Southgate Coastal Reserve, and does not impose an undue hardship on any recreational users, nor interfere with “traditional” beach-side camping. If anything, it enhances the “traditional” aspects of camping by restricting the modern non-traditional trends. If beach-side camping is at risk in the Virgin Islands, the camping crusaders would be wise to focus on developments planned for Robin Bay and Sprat Hole Beach. With the persistent pro-development climate, Southgate beach may well become the last place to experience traditional family beach-side camping on St. Croix, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, the stewardship of the St. Croix Environmental Association, and the consideration and forethought of the St. Croix CZM committee in allowing SEA to manage the property in a way that will benefit ALL the people of St. Croix for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Michael Dance
Sally’s Fancy, St. Croix

As far as I know St. Croix has not had a “Brand Name” hotel or resort since RockResorts was sold off in 1986. It appears thats about to change. Last year we reported the possibility that Marriot Corporation might be flagging the Carambola Beach Resort. It turns out Carambola will be managed under Marriots Renaissance flag - remember you heard it here first

Now the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which operates Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut, has a majority interest in the William and Punch resort project north of Frederiksted. The Foxwood name will go a long way in pushing the project forward as well as bringing tourists to the Big Islands if/when the resort opens.

Despite rejection of his provisional casino license extension, Curtis Robinson is determined to build his Seven Hills Resort at Robin Bay. Purchase of the property on St. Croix’s south shore was allegedly finalized a few months ago and rumor is Sheraton may be flagging the future resort.

Then there is Golden. It was 29 days ago we last heard from Paul Golden, when he promised we’d know in 30 days which major chain would manage his planned resort. But don’t hold your breathe, its been over 1460 days since we were first told by the Golden crowd that the news would come within 30 days. And its been nearly six years they’ve been “putting the final touches” on the $125 million financing. Keep dreaming Paul!

If there’s one thing that irritates me (OK, there are a few things that irk me, but this is near the top of the list), its when I hear “There’s nothing to do on St. Croix”. Whether its Cruise Industry excuses, St. Thomians dissin’ the Big Island, or travel writing whiners repeating schlock without ever having visited, it drives me nuts.

For the naysayers, here’s our social report for the last two weeks. In my renewed blogging zeal I’ve already posted about a few of these tings and intended to write up all of them (and still might), but I just keep getting farther behind - too busy doing to write! So here’s the abridged version:

Monday, April 30 Dinner at [tag]Tuttu Bene[/tag] with Peter and Heike before Heike left for Germany visit.

Wednesday, May 2 Coastal Zone Management public meeting regarding [tag]St. Croix Environmental Association[/tag]’s proposed development of the [tag]Southgate Coastal Reserve[/tag] at Southgate beach and wetland area. Check back here for my letter to CZM regarding questions raised at this meeting.

Thursday, May 3 Sushi at the [tag]Deck Bar[/tag] - outdoors, overlooking [tag]Christiansted[/tag] harbor, Maggie serves up great sashimi and rolls. You can’t find fresher fish anywhere, the boats are docked right in front of you. Art Thursday - Christiansted Gallery Walk.

A Mocko Jumbie greets
revelers at Christiansted Jump Up.
Mocko Jumbie dem are
“false spirits”, people dressed up
as gods or spirits that “bless” events
by scaring away evil spirits.

Friday, May 4 Triathlon [tag]Jump-Up[/tag], Christiansted. A downtown block party covering about six square blocks (nearly all of C’sted). Music, dancing, [tag]Mocko Jumbies[/tag], steel pan, lobster kabobs, and limin’ in the streets. Meet new friends or catch up with ones you haven’t seen in months - young, old, residents, visitors - everybody is out at Jump Up. Served four times a year: February Valentines (or Terry’s Birthday, May Triathlon, July 4th, and December (sometimes late November) Pre-Christmas.

Lately, island favorite [tag]Kurt Schindler[/tag] has been performing his music magic in the Caravelle Arcade courtyard outside Caravelle Cafe (formerly Cafe Society, formerly de Bean Mon). He was there rockin’ away to a large and appreciative crowd Friday night.

Cinco de Mayo, Saturday, May 5 Finfolk [tag]Ocean Swim[/tag]. I think the scheduled swim was from one west end beach to another, but a small group of renegade non-triathlon participants met for a Cane Bay to Carambola beach route. The conditions were too perfect, so we opted to swim west from Carambola to [tag]Annaly Bay[/tag] and back. Visibility was great, I’ve never seen such calm waters at the western Davis Bay entry. Not too many spectacularly exotic species this trip, but we did see one small hawksbill turtle and a huge school of good sized bait fish of some type and the coral is this area is some of the healthiest around the island.

Dinner at [tag]Cafe Kaleidoscope[/tag] (at the former Southshore cafe location) before cross-island trek to see [tag]From Page to Stage[/tag] production of Hate Mail at the Good Hope School’s Savage Theater.

There were various Cinco de Mayo events around the island, but we didn’t get to any, just too much to do!

Sunday, May 6 [tag]St. Croix Ironman 70.3[/tag] (formerly St. Croix Half Ironman formerly St. Croix International Triathlon). Beginning in 1988 as an alternative off-season tourist attraction, the “little triathlon that could” has grown into a major international sporting event. Pros and challengers come from all over the world in an attempt to conquer “[tag]Beauty and the Beast[/tag]“. The triathlon is now a qualifying event for the Ironman World Championship (Kona, Hawaii), the Ironman USA (Lake Placid, NY) and Ironman Canada. We didn’t go this year, it came to us! Nearly every year, for the past six or more, Terry, myself, or both of us, have volunteered our massage skills to suffering triathletes down in the massage tent in the transition area. This year we took a break, took our dogs for walks and watched the competitors bike past once… twice… three times - the 56 mile bike loop(s) covers nearly the entire island and passes our little road 3 times, twice one way, once the other.

Monday and Tuesday, May 7-8 We caught our breathe and caught up on domestic things (riiiiiggggghhhht… well we tried, a little)

Wednesday, May 9 Dinner at the Deep End - Farewell to Peter, he’s headed for Germany and Paris vacation early next morning.

Thursday, May 10 Up at the crack of dawn, or a little before, to get Peter out to the airport for a 6:45 am flight - Incredibly, there are actually American Eagle employees behind the counter and a long line of travelers already checking in at 5:30 am, I didn’t figure they’d even open the airport before 6:00! I mean, nobody comes here right?

Thursday [tag]Luncheria[/tag] Night! We’ve become Thursday night regulars meeting our Land Rover Guru, Dave, his wife Michele, and their assorted (or is that sordid) friends.

Friday, May 11 After giving a couples massage on the beach in front of Sand Castle on the Beach in Frederiksted, we’ve got a few hours before next appointment. We enjoyed a snorkel/swim from Sand Castle south past Cottages by the Sea and the condo complex toward the public pool. A big barracuda passed us at a good clip, which can be a little worrisome. Usually they drift lazily along near schools of lunch. What was he after, or what was behind him?? Nothing scary turned up. Terry saw a small sea snake or eel, but I missed it.

Having worked up an appetite, we lunched at the [tag]Beachside Cafe[/tag] at Sand Castle. Terry started with french onion soup and followed up with a hummus platter. I had a cuban sandwich. The soup broth was thicker than usual and a little sweet. The hummus was “boring”, according to Terry. The cuban was alright, but pickle was on the side, not in it (carmelized onions in it instead) and though warm, it wasn’t press grilled the way I’m used to. I popped the pickle inside, and it was pretty good. All in all, not much to “blog about”. However, service was decent and the view is to die for.

Finished the day at [tag]Caribbean Community Theater[/tag]’s opening night performance of Niel Simon’s The Odd Couple. This is the final show of the regular season. All the cast were great, but Michael Armendariz and Lionel Downer were terrific as Felix and Oscar. And we enjoyed opening night champagne and cake with the cast after the show.

Photo © Dive Experience

Saturday, May 12 Now that the waters have warmed up and our season is slowing down we were able to join the finfolk for a second week in a row. The scheduled swim, from Robin Bay (Lobsta’ Shack) beach across Great Pond Bay to Howard Wall Boyscout Camp, was aborted again, this time due to Portuguese Man-o-War jellyfish sightings on the south shore during the previous week. Getting stung by jellyfish half-way through a 2 mile swim - Not Fun. We relocated to [tag]Tamarind Reef Beach[/tag] for a ’round Green Cay swim on the north east shore instead. Like last weeks swim at Davis Bay, this was the calmest water most of these veteran swimmers had seen for this swim. Ray Lutz spotted a couple [tag]Spotted Eagle Ray[/tag]s on the way over and again on the way back - it was a see Ray see sea rays kinda swim. No turtles this time.

Since we were right there, we stayed for breakfast at the [tag]Deep End Bar and Grille[/tag]. Its hard to screw up simple breakfasts, but special orders can be a different thing. Our dining companion eschews all foods yellow (or at least yellow dairy items) and ordered an egg-white only veggie omelette with white cheese. The Deep End kitchen came through with flying colors (or would that be flying colorless) and served up the omlette as ordered. We were also able to pick up a cube (4-5 gallons) of used veggie fryer oil for our Veggie Rover Biofuel Project. For the record, we’ve collected Waste Vegetable Oil from several area restaurants and the oil from The Deep End is consistently the cleanest oil we’ve collected. That can really tell you something about how a place keeps its kitchen.

We’re making a good attempt to get back on our massage-a-week (or every other week) program. I got a massage from Terry last week, so she got one today.

Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 13 We had a lazy morning, then joined Terry’s daughter, Nicole, her boyfriend, Ian, and our friend Meredith for Brunch at [tag]Duggan’s Reef[/tag] out at Teague Bay. Our server started off a little scattered and nervous, but made a strong finish offering Meredith extra chocolate muffins to go. BTW, Meredith treated us all to brunch, so she deserved them. Thanks Meredith!

I got another massage from Terry - only a week apart, we’re on a roll. Though she readily admits it was only to speed up the queue to her next massage
Finished up Mother’s Day at [tag]The Terrace Restaurant[/tag] at The Buccaneer. I haven’t dined here since I used to manage their spa and was hosting a spa journalist. The view from the Terrace toward Christiansted and the harbor is unbelievable, hands down the best evening dining panorama on island. The sunset tonight wasn’t impressive, but the view still rocked. The food was fantastic, the service less consistent.

So there’s our two week round up. Keep in mind, this is after Easter, almost half-way through May, season is well into the downhill slide, but there is still too much to do. When season is in full swing every week-end (Wednesday through Sunday) is so chock full of events you have to really pick your favorites and abandon 2 or 3 per night. There’s no way to keep up with everything that’s going on.

Photo ©
Anchor Dive Center
Courtesy of
GotoStCroix.com

I’ve been in the islands for eight years, five on St. Croix. With all there is to do here, there’s still a list of things I haven’t gotten to. I haven’t dived “The Wall” off the north shore (I’ve snorkeled over it, but not dived. Come to think of it, I haven’t scuba dived yet - neither wall nor wreck, nothing. I haven’t learned to wind-surf ( I did take a lesson one day when camping at Maho Bay in St. John before moving here). I haven’t learned to kite surf ( again, took one lesson on St. Thomas one day, but there are folks here that can teach you to do it right from the beach, rather than take you out to the middle of a bay in a dinghy and try to drown you for an hour). I haven’t hiked even a fraction of the ruins on island with the St. Croix Landmarks Society Ruins Rambles. I haven’t gone horseback riding.

Photo © St. Croix
Landmarks Society

I haven’t been to the Lawaetz Family Museum at Little La Grange. I haven’t toured Fort Christiansvaern in the [tag]Christiansted National Historic Site[/tag], (I’ve been in Fort Frederik, in Frederiksted, volunteering for an art charity function, and had a chance to look around). I hadn’t even heard of the Estate Mt. Washington self-guided tour until just now (I chanced upon the listing in St. Croix This Week while looking up how to spell Lawaetz), so I’m sure there is plenty more to do that I’m not even aware of.

I invite those who claim there is nothing to do on St. Croix to come see for themselves and tell me that again… just as soon as they’ve finished doing all there is to do. See you next century!

St. Croix -

Naysayers -