Guest Commentary: Panel needs to take a deep breath

I hope that we as a community and our Community Panel will step back, take a deep breath, and be very careful before pursuing regulations or ordinances for a problem that does not yet exist.

If the threat of a wild band of raping, pillaging, plundering pirates sailing our way from Sarasota Bay guides our actions, we will surely over react and thereby over regulate. We may alienate or even drive away viable and contributing members of our community.

While there may be a small problem with some derelict and abandoned vessels near the Pink Elephant, “live-aboards” have not ever been a problem in Boca Grande and I dare say they are a part of our island culture.

I want to share with you a few small facts I have observed over the years. I have omitted all names and chronological details but I feel it’s important to share some insight into this very unique and special part of the Boca Grande story.

These are some of the occupations, habits and characteristics of people who have lived on sailboats, shrimpers, house boats, barges, and even small fishing vessels. Some of them I knew as a child. I had playmates that were being raised on boats and lived happy, full and exciting lives.

A few times they found dockage at my grandfather’s house on Damficare Street. Other times they moored in the canal or docked at one of the several marinas in Boca Grande. Almost every “live-aboard” I’ve known of was, or is, a very hard working individual. These are some of the occupations they hold: carpenter, handyman, painter, housekeeper, electrical engineer, marine electrician, sailmaker, governess, tutor, shopkeeper, writer, photographer, and hairdresser.

Many have degrees and are highly educated individuals. Most possess a plethora of knowledge about the water, yachting, fishing, navigation, etc. and always have survivor skills so highly developed that Robinson Crusoe would be ashamed.

People who are talented and committed enough to be able to move their vessel with the change of season and find work are an asset to any community. Anyone who sails knows that keeping up a boat, any boat, and then living on it, is not for the under achiever!

I seriously doubt all of these people living around Sarasota are freeloaders. A few of them may head to Boca Grande with the intent to commit a crime or take advantage of our trusting community (are we still?). You need not worry about regulating them for a strong line of defense is already in place. Whether you know it or not, there is a whole consortium of locals in Boca Grande who keep a watchful and protective eye on us all.

One summer, a stranger showed up on a flats boat in the mangroves of a local marina. The word on the street was that no one trusted this guy.

He said he came from another nearby barrier island but his story didn’t jibe.

He seemed to be peddling stolen goods and no one felt good about him being around.

Long story short, he was told to leave and he complied.

This same front-line defense of local citizenry is at work all the time and has been associated with such noble acts as saving a drowning man from Charlotte Harbor, pulling up countless sunken boats, towing vessels in distress, keeping an eye on moored vessels (without being hired to do so), and emergency responses to the boat repair needs of seasonal and year-round residents.

Just before Hurricane Charley, I personally witnessed some “pirate-like ne’er do wells” tying and securing the vessels of those gone for the summer in an attempt to save them from the catastrophe at hand.

Seems to me any good island should have a community of people living on boats. The self-reliant, handy and intelligent types usually attracted to living on boats would be an asset to any community.

If we act to prevent problems that we predict will come from the fleet headed our way, let’s take care not to eliminate some of our own community members in the process.

Please don’t take away another chance for Boca Grande to have some variety in its population.

Some of us actually feel it makes life fuller and richer to know and care about a mix of people in a community. If you’re not one to get a warm feeling over that idea, then look at it from a more practical point of view …

Life for most of us in Boca Grande is pretty good. We have the availability of many services. Most of us need our yard tended to, our windows washed, our appliances serviced, our furniture moved, our boats towed, our fish caught, our mangoes picked, our golf carts serviced, our bike tires filled, our meat sliced, our meals prepared, our house cleaned … you get the point.

Most individuals who perform these services can only afford to live in Boca Grande by living on a boat or by renting one of the few apartments available on the island.

The rest are committed enough to cross the bridge two times a day. Isn’t it better and safer that the people working on the island be considered viable members of our community?

I recently received an invitation to an event in March hosted by the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.

The well known author, Carl Hiassen, will speak and the name of the program is “Better Together: Civility, Life and Politics in Florida.”

I can only guess what Mr. Hiassen will have to say but based on the style of his writing and the content of his novels, I’m guessing he has an affection for the same Florida that I do.

I’m hoping he’ll have some ideas on how we can all live here together, meshing our perceptions of what should be so that we don’t destroy the original essence of this wonderful place.

Curvy, imperfect coconut palms … people living on boats … that’s Florida … that’s Boca Grande.

Montell Marra is a Boca Grande resident.