Rep. Brian Mast trashed Fort Pierce and its mayor, Linda Hudson. The question is: Why now?

The older I get, the more cyncical I become about political coincidences.

So when I saw a news report this week about U.S. Rep. Brian Mast trashing Fort Pierce as dilapidated and calling on its mayor to resign, my radar went up. Way up.

As longtime residents of the Treasure Coast know, Fort Pierce-bashing is nothing new. When people elsewhere in the region want to feel better about themselves, they sometimes resort to describing the Sunrise City as impoverished, crime-ridden, blighted, whatever adjective you care to use.

I think a lot of those comments are outdated and misguided. While Fort Pierce, like any city, has room for improvement, it's intellectually lazy to ignore the strides that have been made to improve the community in recent years.

When a New York Times article earlier this year described Fort Pierce as a "scruffy outpost," I rushed to the city's defense. Now we have the congressman who represents and lives in Fort Pierce saying pretty much the same thing. And worse.

Timing is everything in politics ... and it's not usually accidental

In a post on the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Mast referenced an incident in which the tires and rims were stolen from his wife's minivan. Then he added, that incident notwithstanding, Fort Pierce has fallen into a state of disrepair and Mayor Linda Hudson should resign.

Like I said, the timing is interesting. Ever since St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara abruptly resigned at the beginning of the month and Keith Pearson was just as abruptly appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace him, there have been a lot of rumors swirling about how all this fits into a large political conspiracy.

I'll save the details of that conspiracy for a future column, but one of the rumored facilitators of that deal is a Fort Pierce business owner who is said to have an interest in running for Hudson's job.

If he suddenly offers himself up as a mayoral candidate "for the good of his troubled city," it's going to look like there was a lot more to this than some off-the-cuff venting by one of our congressional leaders. It's going to look like this was all part of a premeditated effort to weaken Hudson politically to grease the wheels for the city's would-be savior.

How might this affect Brightline's decision making?

The timing is interesting for another reason. Mast's social media outburst came the same week as Brightline's deadline for accepting proposals for a Treasure Coast passenger train station. Fort Pierce is considered to be one of the two main contenders for the station, along with Stuart.

Since Mast's district includes both communities, there's no obvious reason why he would prefer to tilt Brightline's decision one way or another. Then again, the motivations of politicians aren't always obvious.

For his part, Mast said there was no hidden agenda behind his comments. As a local resident, he said he's been communicating regularly with Hudson and City Manager Nick Mims about problems he sees when he's home from his duties in Washington, D.C.

These include broken streetlights, downed trees, damaged roads, unmowed rights-of-way and lots of litter in various neighborhoods throughout the city.

Mast accused the city of taking a reactive rather than proactive approach to addressing such issues, waiting until complaints are lodged rather than just fixing problems when they are first spotted.

"It shouldn't take the congressman emailing them to get this cleaned up," Mast said. "I've really tried my best to work with them behind the scenes."

If blight is the real issue, let's address it

For the record, Mast said he isn't backing anyone rumored to have designs on the mayor's seat and he's not interested in playing kingmaker in Brightline's selection process. To that, I can only say: We'll see.

For her part, Hudson said she has been, and still is, willing to work with Mast to address whatever concerns he has. In the case of reported code violations, Hudson said city officials have to give property owners due process before sanctioning them.

The city's primary goal with code enforcement, she said, is to bring violators into compliance, rather than punishing them.

The city has set up an app where residents can report problems online.

Staffing limitations require the city to "primarily" respond to reported code problems, rather than having a larger number of inspectors actively patrolling neighborhoods.

Hudson said Mast's remarks, and the manner in which he chose to make them, caught her by surprise.

"I thought we had a good working relationship," Hudson said. "Attacking me personally is one thing. He's attacking the city of Fort Pierce."

Those who know better should do better

That's why I found Mast's remarks so puzzling. He's not some loudmouth sitting in the neighborhood bar who has no other forum for venting his frustrations. He's a fourth-term Republican congressman who knows, or should know, that trashing a community with a fragile reputation could have long-term damaging consequences.

Whether he sees it as his responsibility or not, there's a lot he could be doing to help Hudson, Mims and others in city government do their jobs better.

While downtown and the beachside areas are awesome, I'd be the first to acknowledge there are other parts of town that could use a little TLC. And, as I noted in a column about the city's ugly concrete silos a few months ago, taking care of small details goes a long way toward determining how residents and nonresidents perceive Fort Pierce's image.

Mast and Hudson can, and should, be partners in making needed improvements. Unless this was really about something else entirely, which we may find out soon enough.

PSL mangrove cutting case:Sandpiper Resort owners respond to DEP punishment

19th Judicial Circuit remains:Florida Supreme Court says there is no need to consolidate judicial circuits

This column reflects the opinion of Blake Fontenay. Contact him via email at blake.fontenay@tcpalm.com or at 772-232-5424.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: What motivated U.S. Rep. Brian Mast to call Fort Pierce blighted now?