Many people believe that a pier can shrink the physical size of the beach. At one time, I believed it myself. One day I walked beside the pier instead of on top of it. When I looked under the pier, much to my amazement, I saw a ...........beach.
Wonders never cease.

The article failed to include the rest of Commissioner Halas' comment about the beach. He said if you want to sit on the beach, all you have to do is walk another quarter mile from the pier, then set up your chair. Maybe you're not the visionary you wish to be, Commissioner.

Another "point of view" news story. NIMBY means you want something done, just not in your back yard. I suspect that few if any of those 300 people care if a pier is built anywhere. Didn't these reporters learn how to write stories without their biases being so obvious.

Who needs a pier?

If you're capable of walking two miles, do as I do. Walk down to Pelican Bay's private stretch of beach and enter their boardwalk and restaurant area. There's no security on the beach-side entrance. Only miles of private boardwalk over passing the actual Pelican Bay. Fish until your heart's content.

To blend in, it does help to dress and look upper class. Windblown, uncombed hair and a healthy tan to start. Never a ball cap unless its color is khaki. Slightly wrinkled tennis attire works great. Don't be too neat. It's a sign of trying too hard.

Be careful with golf clothes. All uppers know the golf look has been successfully hijacked by the the mainstream masses over the last decade or so. Another reason to hate Tiger Woods. If tennis is not your style, a skimpy Speedo will do the trick, but only if you're skinny. These people, despite their constant leisure, are seldom very fat.

If anyone strikes a conversation with you, work the following terms into your reply and you'll fit right in: House guest, summering, bridge, you look fabulous.

Here:

"Ah, yes, I'm a house guest of the Lowells. We summer together in Aspen. See you at bridge next week. Oh, you're looking fabulous, by the way."

A fishing pier at one of the most popular beaches in the world does not make sense. Every one with an ounce of sense knows that fishing and swimming don't mix. Loosing 322 feet of swimming beach right at the access point of Vanderbilt Beach would take away beach and water access. To a young family with children this means mom and/or dad will have to walk north or south 161 feet [half the length of a football field] dragging beach chairs, the children, towels, sand toys, lunch and drinks. They will have to do this in order to keep her children safe from fish hooks, predator fish drawn to the pier by fish blood and bait in the water, bird excrement, etc. Or the elderly person who can be dropped off at the Vanderbilt Beach Park and is just able enough to make it to the waters edge, would now have to struggle through the sand 161 feet north or south from the pier in order to soak in the surf.
In order to protect the citizens the county has an ordinance which prohibits swimming within 150 feet of a pier. With the thousands of people at Vanderbilt Beach each week, a park ranger would have to be on duty there at all times to enforce this ordinance. The county on its web site has a very nice web page about Vanderbilt Beach, but needs to add the words, "Come to Vanderbilt Beach Park, one of the best beaches in the world, but your not allowed to swim there any more".

I heard rumblings last night --that members of the district that Commissioner Halas represents are very upset that he isn't listening to them. Apparently, a lot of people couldn't make the meeting/and supported him when he ran for office--but feel he has ignored them on this important issue. And, if he votes for the Pier anyway against his districts wishes--it is my understanding that there is a strong movement for a re-call petition. I had to laugh....I guess that will be his legacy--he so dearly wants.

The people have spoken out against wasting tax dollars on one more boondoggle. Obviously the Commission will have to approve it.

Can we add a water slide at the end? How about a trolly service to the peir leaving from the Philharmonic parking lot?

who says no to a pier? Especially the kind they are planning here?? Use those 300 or so sticks in the mud to hold that pier up. Do you think olde Naples can support pier traffic in season? Of course not, but that's hardly a reason to not build one. And there's a parking garage there, too! Remember, the pier is ours, all year-round. Its ok to have a pier or two.

Can we have an Astroturf walkway leading up to it too?

And some nice bricks around the base with landscaped berms to hide those nasty poles.

I think we should hire a consulting firm to address these issues.

In a time of reduced revenues, I don't think their best argument is that it will attract too many people.
That's exactly why it should be built.

Lets continue our growth as planned.. a pier
will not hurt our area... the impact could come
from the numerous high rise condo's being built
within a half mile of the beach and park..

I am not a PB resident. I am working class living in Naples Park and Vanderbilt Beach is in MY neighborhood too. I've been to the pier twice in the last month and realized it is NOT what we or anyone else needs. Our beach is a nice thing. Why ruin it???

I really enjoy the naples pier but why spend $8,000,000.00 when you don't need to? If the local economy was in better shape..then why not but now is not the time.

I was born and raised in Naples and I have seen the awful destruction of our beaches from the high rise condos and Pelican Bay. It's about time we take back some of OUR beaches and beauty from the snotty native wannabes who offer nothing to this community!

Build it and they will come! A PB residents worst nitemare. No pier, they should use opening up their beaches as a trade off.

I would suggest that there's a more urgent need for shelters from the sun than a pier. My wife loves the beach and I've had skin cancer. I'd like to be able to go to the beach with her and relax under shade while she walks the beach. That's currently impossible.

Take the money and get with the state park and build a riprap jetty on the south side of Wiggins Pass. You can then build a walkway all the way to the end for your fishing pier, and it will help keep Wiggins Pass open, and reduce the number of times it has to be dredged (every 3-4 years)

Besides I would rather look at a pier than the high rises in Pelican Bay, snobby illegitimates anyway. Look back at almost any book about Naples and there will be a section on the Naples Pier. Seems like a no brainer to me, it'll give me something to fish around while I wade in the water smoking my cigar.

I would rather look at a pristine, unspoiled beach that requires no maintenance. We don't need no stinkin' Pier!

And no, I don't live anywhere near the beach.

You want to spend $8.6 million? Try putting in a few free parking areas for normal people that just want to go to the beach.

something tells me that $8.6M provides for a few jobs here...

The Pier provides for a gathering place for everyone. You want a secluded private beach, move!

Build the pier...Yeah..urine all of those people who don't want it. They stole access to most of the beaches with there high priced neighborhoods and they think they run Naples. Build the dang thing.

Trehuger,
Provides jobs? Who pays for those jobs? Do you realize it's our money already? I should give it up(along with a big administration fee) so people that don't pay local taxes will have somewhere to hang out?
When I came here there was no Pelican Bay and Clam pass was a place you could camp at. The Naples Pier was a place where kids had keg parties off tailgates of trucks under the Austrailian Pines right next to the pier and then slept in their sleeping bags on the pier for the night. Duke made sure you acted right!
I don't begrudge private landowners for building on their own land but the County leaders were very shortsighted when the allowed building west of Gulf Shore Blvd. (which by the way used to be the second block in)
The County leaders should have, and should continue to protect the little remaining public lands that make this a desirable place to live and visit.

Piers used to have a function, now they are just places for people too lazy to put forth an effort to enjoy natures bounty.

CaptScotty,
There are thousands of places for your fat arse to wade around with your pole in your hand and another one in your mouth, or do you just need a pier so someone can stand around watching you?

This town is full of idiots! $8.6 million for a pier, can we call it the Commissoner Halass Pier and wading pond?

For $8.6 million we could build little boat docks all up and down the beach for the locals to moor their boats since there's hardly anywhere you can put one in the water anymore. Then CaptScotty could stand in front of a different one every day!

We could paint them all diffent colors like South Beach and sell T-Shirts with pictures of them down on 5th Av. S.

I really think you all are missing the point. All I ever read on these blogs is people crying about cutting taxes in this county and how the county government is bloated with ammenities we don't need. Now you want to spend TDC money on an 8 million dollar project that we'll have to maintain and hire folks to operate, probably at a loss, like our fantastic water park on Livingston Road. Stop fretting about the folks in Pelican Bay and take a long hard serious look at the real issues here. There are a lot of hard working middle class families and retirees living in Naples Park that enjoy the present ammenities of Vanderbilt Beach and want to continue to swim there, as well as meet there to play bocci ball or just sit, talk and enjoy the view. It is obvious Commissioner Halas is not listening to them or any of his constituents. It is time to cut projects like this from our plans and spend some of this tax money on projects we desperately need, like perhaps just refurbishing the bathrooms at Vanderbilt Beach. We really need to stop competing with the City of Naples, for whom we already spent an extra million dollars on an overpass.

This sounds more like a 'social uprising' against the perceived privacy of PB more than it does a rational discussion for or against a pier.

Vanderbilt Beach is beautiful - just as is. Why ruin it by building a pier. Want another Atlantic City?.

Little Naples already has a great, historically relevent, and well-placed pier.

Enough of this pier-envy!

Any one notice that only the only the opponents were rude enough to shout down anyone supporting the pier. Two or three people shouting does not represent the will of the people. I suspect most of them were from Pelican Bay where the public has no access to @ 3iles of beach.

mikeinnaples,
I was here long before 30 years ago and was saying the same thing then.

I used to hunt Quail where Pelican Bay sits now. In fact hunting and fishing is what made Naples popular to the wealthy elite to begin with, not shopping and dining. Although you could say shopping and dining is what has replaced hunting and fishing in this age where men keep their Johnson's in their wife's purse.

Prove_it, Have you never been to the Naples pier? If you haven't please go there and look and see where people are fishing, picnicking, SWIMMING enjoying themselves. The only thing bad about a pier at Vanderbilt would be parking. You can't get anywhere near there if you don't walk there after 8 am in the morning. It's been that way a long time. There are no beach accesses anymore like there used to be; Pelican bay and all the condoes have taken over our beaches. And also if you go to a sunset at the pier alot of those sunset gazers go watch the sunset and then leave after. I still vote for a pier.