'A matter of feeling safe': Seabreeze neighborhood residents react to weekend shooting

DAYTONA BEACH  —  When news broke Monday that Daytona Beach police were investigating a quadruple shooting this past weekend outside a club on Seabreeze Boulevard, Weegie Kuendig, a resident of the neighborhood for more than 20 years, pronounced it “pure dumb luck” that no one was killed.

For neighborhood residents and owners of businesses along Seabreeze from Atlantic Avenue to the bridge over the Halifax River, such incidents of late-night crime and violence remain an unwelcome part of the weekend routine.

The shooting occurred just before midnight on Saturday near Razzles nightclub at 611 Seabreeze Blvd., on the street’s eastern end near Atlantic Avenue. Daytona Beach police arrested 29-year-old Karla Bermudez and charged her with attempted murder. All four victims are expected to recover.

'A matter of feeling safe'

Two years after tourism leaders, elected officials, city and county government staff members, merchants, residents and others gathered for a well-attended brainstorming session to improve Seabreeze at the Plaza Resort & Spa, nothing much has changed, according to many participants.

Nor has the landmark thoroughfare’s longtime reputation as a source of noise, late-night crime and rowdiness. The shooting this past weekend has renewed residents’ frustration.

More: Police arrest woman and charge her with attempted murder in Daytona Beach shooting

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“It's a matter of feeling safe in your neighborhood," said Kuendig, who also serves as chair of the City of Daytona Beach’s code enforcement board. “What has been done to change things? It has been at least 10 years that my neighborhood has been begging the city to do something about Seabreeze.

“To me, that means it’s not a priority. If it were a priority, it would be done. Ten years is a long time.”

One thing that has changed is the closing time for bars in Daytona Beach, which is now an hour earlier  —  at 2 a.m.  —  after the previous 3 a.m. closing time was changed by a measure approved by the Daytona Beach City Commission that went into effect on June 1, 2022.

Late-night noise, fights, trash, and mayhem on Seabreeze were the main factors behind the push for the earlier bar hours. A little over a year later, long-suffering residents applaud that change, but add that more needs to be done.

Some are calling for the installation of metal detectors at entrances to the street that is flooded with pedestrians and vehicles on weekend nights. Others recommend pulling late-night operating permits for establishments that can’t control patrons inside as well as in parking lots and other outside areas.

“There needs to be security inside and outside the facilities, including the parking lots,” said Anita Gallentine, a neighborhood resident for 29 years who lives two blocks away from Seabreeze on Grandview Avenue.

“Until you hit the business owners in the pocketbooks, it going to continue to happen,” she said. “People will continue to be stabbed and shot and beat up like it happens every weekend.”

New Seabreeze police substation to open by September

Gallentine also is among those encouraged by the ongoing construction of a new Seabreeze neighborhood police substation at 654 N. Grandview Avenue. The substation is expected to be operational no later than Sept. 1, said Daytona Beach police Capt. Jeremy Nikolow, who works in the department’s beachside patrol district.

According to crime map statistics compiled by the Daytona Beach Police Department, there have been 108 reports of crime incidents in the past six months within a half mile of the intersection of Seabreeze and Grandview Avenue. That compares with 228 reports for a similar six-month period in 2021, when discussions about improving Seabreeze were unfolding.

The list of incidents includes vandalism, narcotics, larceny, armed robbery and drunk drivers.

“Crime has gone down in that area over the past couple of years,” said Nikolow, who credits the earlier bar closing hours as well as additional police patrols, code compliance checks for businesses, and a measure approved by the City Commission that now requires hookah bars to close at 2 a.m., two hours earlier than previously allowed.

Rick Kitt, owner of a row of businesses on the boulevard’s west end that include Daytona Tap Room, the Axe & Grog Pub, and Evolved Vegan Kitchen, said that he has noticed an increased police presence.

Aside from the earlier bar closing time, which he thinks has little impact on noise and crime issues, Kitt hasn’t seen any other results of the push two years ago to improve Seabreeze. At that time, he had proposed creating a mural project to decorate buildings on the street and attract potential visitors.

“They never approached me again about it,” Kitt said. “It’s just talk. I just think they forgot all about it.”

Daytona Beach Commissioner Ken Strickland, whose zone includes the north side of Seabreeze Boulevard, said that the neighborhood would be part of the focus of a plan to spend more than $3.5 million over the next few years to buy and install cameras and lighting to improve public safety.

“We’ve got to continue to try to improve that situation,” Strickland said of Seabreeze crime issues. “I’m committed as commissioner to doing whatever I can, and I think the other commissioners are, too. We showed that by lowering the closing time of the bars. Residents need to feel safe in that area and tourists that come to that area need to feel safe.”

There was no response on Monday to multiple phone and text messages to Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry. Likewise, Jonathan Abraham Eid, CEO of Vienna Capital, the Los Angeles-based owner of the Plaza Resort & Spa, couldn’t be reached.

A forum for ideas: Improvement ideas run fast, furious at Daytona Seabreeze Blvd. meeting

Eid had spearheaded the push two years ago to revitalize Seabreeze Boulevard, but this year has been dealing with major repairs of damage from tropical storms Ian and Nicole that have forced the Plaza Resort to close at least through the end of this year.

Bob Davis, president and CEO of the Lodging & Hospitality Association of Volusia County, also was involved in bringing together community business leaders to focus on Seabreeze two years ago.

This week, he downplayed the impact of Saturday’s shooting on tourism.

“This is very mild compared with what’s happening all over,” Davis said. “We’re experiencing what the nation is experiencing. It’s not driving anybody away.”

Seabreeze crime 'splashes mud on all of us'

At the same time, attorney Paul Rice, of the Rice Law Firm in Daytona Beach, said that he hears often from prospective clients, especially older residents, that are nervous about traveling to the office that the firm has owned for 23 years at 222 Seabreeze Blvd.

Rice sent an email expressing his concern to city officials, imploring that “enough is enough” when it comes to violence on Seabreeze.

“I’m disappointed that this criminal activity continues to occur,” Rice said in a phone interview. “It splashes mud on all of us. We have older people, clients of ours, who don’t want to cross the bridge to do their estate planning and wills because they think it’s dangerous.”

Negative publicity from the late-night club scene hurts property values for business owners, drives away customers and inaccurately reflects the daytime reality of a street that is safe and active, he said.

“We are fed up with the nightclub scene and the crime it engenders,” Rice said. “Seabreeze is perfectly safe seven days a week from sun-up to sundown. We need the city to take some action about what happens after sundown.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: After shooting, Seabreeze residents want action on late-night crime