Readers sound off about Daytona Beach's reputation for 'raunchy activities'
Editor's note: Last month, The Daytona Beach News-Journal published ‘We’ve gone to the bottom’: Does Daytona’s party-central image scare off investors? The package of stories asked whether the area's party-hearty reputation drives away tourism and development. Some readers seem to think so.
'A lot to overcome'
Editor:
Daytona has established itself as a special events destination but few of the major annual special events are family-oriented, especially for families with small children. And beach driving is driving families away in droves. Spring break has been replaced by more frequent loud, raucous, alcohol-soaked, raunchy activities. (There is) a lot to overcome in terms of image.
Thom Connors
New Smyrna Beach
Change in culture needed
Editor:
Thanks for the opportunity to share some thoughts about Daytona Beach and its core beachside area.
I have visited and stayed in a very high percentage of Florida Atlantic and Gulf Coast communities as well as several along the Alabama shore. I can say without any reservation that Daytona Beach is by far the worst. It's not even close. Just in our own local area, compare Daytona Beach to New Smyrna Beach or Flagler Beach. Spend an afternoon and early evening in both of those places and then compare them to Daytona. I live in Palm Coast now and I would never make a special trip to go to Daytona, but I do go to New Smyrna and Flagler quite a bit. And it's the same as you go up or down the Atlantic Coast from here or the Gulf Coast. One nice, charming fun, beachside community after another until you hit Daytona.
So what do we do to make it better? The first step is to upgrade and clean up the housing stock all along the beachside in Daytona. It's a disaster. In most places, the beachside is the most desirable, highest-priced property. In Daytona they are decrepit. There needs to be a massive effort to buy up these properties and to renovate them or tear them down and replace them with modern, up-to-date, desirable housing. Until you have a stable, more upscale beachside community you will not get the kinds of shops and restaurants that attract tourists and capture their imagination.
But to make this really work, Daytona needs to change its culture. It has to get rid of the Bike Weeks and Jeep Weeks and other nonsense. Who wants to live in a community that is overtaken by bikers and jeeps multiple weeks every year? Nobody. That's one of the reasons the beachside is so decrepit. Daytona is like an addict with these events. You get a short-term high, but the aftermath is a disaster. They have to be gradually scaled back and then eventually curtailed.
And the same with the beach driving obsession. Who wants to be on a beach with cars? Sure there are those that love it, but it destroys the atmosphere of a beautiful beach. Did you ever wonder why condos and houses on non-driving parts of the beach command higher prices and tout this as a benefit? I know there are a lot of fanatics on this issue, but what needs to be done is to gradually reduce these areas, preserving a short stretch of beach for driving for historical purposes.
Daytona does not have to be hopeless, but it needs major changes and they won't be easy because there will be resistance. But the beachside area can be saved and restored into something desirable for those who live here and importantly for tourists who like to spend a week at the beach. Please keep pushing and working on this issue. Change can happen if the right people get behind it.
Terry Overbey
Palm Coast
Beach needs a 'local champion'
Editor:
My thought on the prospects of the beachside is as follows: it will need a local champion(s) who is (are) willing to help fund and sustain the operations of a restored "Boardwalk" center of high-quality family-friendly attractions, ala Myrtle Beach etc. Take for example the model so generously offered by Hyatt Brown in the renaissance on Beach Street and the Park, via a non-profit foundation in partnership with the city, and apply it to the Boardwalk. Easier said than done, I know, but the city manager and mayor could take the leadership in exploring the possibilities and how to develop such a following.
William Ward
Port Orange
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Readers sound off about Daytona Beach's dilapidated condition
