In the matter of Main Street Landing, the combination eyesore/one-time symbol of hope in New Port Richey's downtown redevelopment district, it may be too early to report with clarity that the city has reaffirmed its reputation for never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

But activities indicate it is only barely too early. Give it a couple of months and we'll see.

Pasco County's biggest little city is, understandably, in a foul stir about the concrete block cubicles, resembling pillboxes, hard by (appropriately) the Main Street bridge and sunk into the bluff overlooking the Pithlachascotee River. This often is the way with soured dreams, like spurned spouses who carve the faces of their exes from family photos.

A similar sentiment appears to be running through the town's citizenry, many of whom have broken out their rhetorical scissors. Rather than accept that with groundbreaking still clearly in the rearview mirror, conditions shifted, radically and without warning, to unravel the original plan of construction; rather than attempt to imagine a future in which some downscaled version of the project roots and grows, residents have other ideas.

Bulldoze it, say these amplified geniuses. Remove every suggestion, scrape off every memory, of what once promised to proclaim New Port Richey's gleaming vision of urban nirvana.

Those endorsing the Caterpillar remedy fail to mention how city hall might legally acquire the site and the buildings, skipping the tough part - condemnation would trigger an expensive legal battle; purchase would set city taxpayers back $8 million, minimum - in favor of visions of big-machines Armageddon.

Flies & Honey, Honey & Flies

Luckily, New Port Richey's citizen hotheads have elected leaders to do their official thinking for them - even if published reports suggest "thinking" on that dais is a term meriting quotation marks.

Remember, this is the town whose mayor not long ago jumped in the faces of Pasco's state legislative delegation at a public forum, scolding the lot of them with facts not in evidence before laying out a plan in which those he'd just attempted to bully were supposed to write him a check for a cool million bucks.

Apparently, where the Honorable Scott McPherson attended law school, there was no course explaining the relationship linking flies, honey and vinegar, because similar unhelpful bluster has characterized New Port Richey's formal interactions with Main Street Landing developer Ken McGurn - who, up until Tuesday night, was under threat of a wrongheaded lawsuit.

Well, after all, a cattle prod is so vulgar, so Dade City.

A Spirit Of Compromise?

Tuesday, convening as directors of the Community Redevelopment Agency, city council members attempted to put the nastiness of recent months behind them, even belaying the order on going to court. Still, their responses to McGurn's proposals - buy me out; share the costs of boarding up and beautifying until times are better; issue a short-term loan on favorable terms for $1.45 million - were pretty much: hate it, really hate it and you're-out-of-your-mind.

Council member Judy deBella Thomas, who also heads Greater New Port Richey Main Street, helpfully suggested that McGurn sell to another developer. Where this group was lining up to make offers was a detail the councilwoman failed to mention. Or perhaps, deBella Thomas further suggested, McGurn could score some Troubled Assets Relief Program money, but that wouldn't work because McGurn has paid all his bills. (He has the canceled checks to prove it.)

Oh, the pitfalls of personal responsibility.

Happily, what emerged Tuesday night is a sense, however tentative, that Main Street Landing may yet move forward, may yet be welcome at New Port Richey family gatherings. High-level discussions will recommence.

But at some point - perhaps as soon as next month's municipal elections - rational brains almost certainly will conclude that some form of public-private arrangement will be necessary, not to mention prudent and even wise.

To retreat will be to miss a generational opportunity - and to reaffirm a metastasizing opinion that New Port Richey is where marvelous ideas go to die.