Michael Berman
President
CW Capital Inc.
11200 Rockville Pike
Rockville, MD  20852-3154

Thomas McGeachy
Ciminelli Real Estate Services
c/o Baywalk
199 1st Ave North
St Petersburg, FL  33701

Dear Mr. Berman and Mr. McGeachy:

St. Pete for Peace would like to address your ownership of the Baywalk shopping mall in downtown St. Petersburg, FL.  We welcome your potential infusion of $6 million into Baywalk as it is an important part of our community.  We hope it stays open and thrives in the coming years.  Baywalk provides an excellent public forum for the exchange of ideas and is an ideal place for the youth of our city to socialize and network with their peers.  With that said, we encourage you to keep the public sidewalk in front of Baywalk public. 

Contrary to what you may be hearing from the city, and specifically Mayor Rick Baker, we feel that this diversity and vibrancy of youth of color and grass roots activism increases the appeal of the shopping mall.  We believe that by privatizing the sidewalk in front of Baywalk, protestors and a wide range of youth would be discouraged from the many social activities that Baywalk provides.  Moving demonstrators and kids across the street would only serve to sterilize Baywalk instead of encouraging the diversity that makes up our wonderful city. Welcoming people from all walks of life will only increase the revenue potential at Baywalk.

We hope that you will not push forward with the privatization of the sidewalk and instead, take the side of the US Constitution and allow for the continuation of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech on the public sidewalk fronting Baywalk. 


Sincerely,


St Pete for Peace

cc:    Mayor Rick Baker, City of St Petersburg
        St Petersburg City Council
        St Petersburg Times