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Negative criticism deemed unproductive
Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008 |
Re: Indian Rocks Beach Planning Study
Editor:
Back in early May, the University of South Florida Center for Urban Design conducted a public forum with the citizens of Indian Rocks Beach to listen and learn about their ideas and concerns about the future growth and development of their community.
What the designers heard was the strong desire from the people of Indian Rocks Beach for their community to continue to retain its “small town” character and not fall victim to uncontrolled growth and development and to eventually become yet another section of the Great Wall of Florida, as has been the case in so many of our neighboring beachfront communities.
Positive criticism is absolutely essential to the success of a design process, and it was the intent of the USF planners to solicit just such criticism in their recent presentation of their preliminary ideas to the city. The very fact that expressions of concern were voiced by members of the Commission and by a number of citizens from the community was exactly what the design team was looking for, and they got it. Otherwise, they might have continued their work essentially in a vacuum and the project might have taken a direction that would have been entirely contrary to the wishes and desires of the people of Indian Rocks Beach.
Unfortunately, there is another type of criticism that is all too often heard which is totally counterproductive to any constructive dialogue. Negative criticism does little or nothing to provide positive encouragement and improvement to the work at hand. Anyone can simply throw stones at an idea they don’t like, without offering any positive suggestions that might be of benefit; and that’s exactly what I observed in the Aug. 14 letter from Don House. His comments only served to express his negative personal attitude about the study and those persons involved in it.
May I suggest that Mr. House, and others who might see objectionable ideas evolving from the USF study, direct those objections specifically to the attention of the design team and refrain from a letter writing campaign of negative criticism which is fraught with inaccuracies and unfounded misconceptions. In so doing, we can all rest assured that the end result of this study will be beneficial in accomplishing our mutual goals for preservation of the “old-fashioned” character of our wonderful beach community.
Dwight E. Holmes
Indian Rocks Beach
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Article published on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008
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