Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the news and newsmakers of the day who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life or detracted from it in some significant way:

First Step Shelter Finally Gets the Scrutiny We Deserve

Last month, the Daytona Beach City Commission and Volusia County Council authorized an agreement with First Step Shelter which calls for taxpayers to continue underwriting the enigmatic program to the tune of $2.6 million over the next five years.

The good news? 

This time there are solid strings attached.  

For the first time in First Step’s existence, We, The Little People who pay for it will have some assurance that what we are told by the less-than-transparent board of directors is honest, accurate, and verifiable.  

According to a report by Eileen Zaffiro-Kean and Sheldon Gardner writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “The new agreement also includes specific language addressing County Council members’ concerns about government dollars being used for administrative overhead and not direct service provision. It explicitly prohibits the use of county funds for executive salaries, bonuses, administrative overhead costs unrelated to program operations, unauthorized capital expenditures, and indirect costs not directly tied to shelter operations.”

Good.  In my view, those municipalities currently spending the bulk of their social services budget on First Step while our regional homeless population surges should demand the same.

In addition, Volusia County has specified which operating expenses will be covered and requires that shelter officials submit monthly requests for reimbursement with the stipulation “…no money will be released until those amounts are approved.”

Other requirements include monthly, quarterly, and annual reviews to ensure conditions set forth in the agreement are being met, to include an annual audit of the shelter’s “files” and a site visit by county staff.

“The county also has the right to terminate its role in the agreement with 60 days written notice if First Step officials fail to meet at least 50% of the annual performance metrics in the agreement, they fail to submit any required report or they misuse funds.”

Perhaps now Volusia County taxpayers can learn exactly where First Step alumni are being housed (something the program recently touted at 1,000 people) and who is paying for it long-term? 

A cursory check of several Volusia County housing authorities found very few (if any) opportunities for low-income housing.  For instance, according to a stern notice on the Housing Daytona Beach website, “Interested persons can ONLY apply for housing when a notice appears to the public to do so. At this time, ALL WAITING LIST ARE CLOSED.”

On the Volusia County’s Community Assistance site, those seeking housing vouchers (Section 8) are told, “Volusia County’s Housing Choice Voucher Program is not accepting applications at this time.”

In West Volusia, a notice on the DeLand Housing Authority’s website grimly explained, “The DeLand Housing Authority (DHA) last accepted Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher waiting list applications from June 11, 2024, until 1,000 applications have been received. This is the first time the waiting list has been open since it closed in January, 2022.”

Clearly the need for subsidized housing is far outpacing supply here on the “Fun Coast.”  

With low-income Volusia County families currently languishing on waiting lists, where did First Step house 1,000 people over the past five years? 

Perhaps now Volusia County taxpayers will receive the answers – and basic accountability – we deserve.  

So long, Fresh Market – Hope it wasn’t something I said?

“Turns out The Fresh Market isn’t coming here after all.

The Greensboro, North Carolina-based chain scrapped its plans to expand to the World’s Most Famous Beach after determining that Daytona Beach lacks the demographics to support upscale grocery stores.

Meanwhile, construction is well underway for two of its biggest competitors across the street from where it would have gone: Trader Joe’s and Sprouts Farmers Markets.

“Fresh Market declined the site. I was shocked by the reasoning,” said Jason Kaiser, leasing agent for the planned shopping center called The Cays where the grocery chain had signed a letter-of-intent earlier this year to become a tenant.”

–Business Editor Clayton Park, writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Fresh Market not expanding to Daytona Beach. Here’s the surprising reason why,” Thursday, July 3, 2025

Welp.  Darn the luck…

Just when everyone who is anyone here on the “Fun Coast” was touting the arrival of three specialty grocery chains and a Tesla dealership as a preternatural prodigium that we are on the cusp of a regional economic renaissance, it appears Fresh Market took a powder…

For years, Trader Joe’s added to our civic identity crisis when they told us the Halifax area may have the “demographics” to schlep boxes around a Trader Joe’s warehouse, but we simply didn’t have the social credit rating required for one of their tony grocery stores. 

Apparently, Daytona Beach just didn’t meet the mark on whatever sophistication scale Trader Joe’s uses to determine who it will grace, and who it won’t…

That all changed after some crack investigative work by the News-Journal’s Clayton Park and Hometown News sleuth Charles Guarria determined that an honest-to-goodness Trader Joe’s would one day grace the Tomoka Town Center off Boomtown Boulevard.     

We also learned that both Fresh Market and Sprouts Famers Market planned to open outlets across the street (?) near a new Tesla electric-car dealership – a sure sign that our chaunts and fervent prayers to the Specialty Grocery God’s had (finally) been heard – a biblical prophecy of economic resurgence fulfilled. 

I’m not a marketing guru – just another rube wandering the wilderness, like you – but while our ‘powers that be’ were in a frenzy of exuberation, I harbored serious concerns that the close proximity of three competing niche stores would oversaturate the market. As usual, our gushing “movers-and-shakers” didn’t seem to share my fears.

Look, I get it.   

Every retailer wants to be close to Margaritaville – the faux beach community west of I-95 that truly has the “demographic” to support specialty grocers and Tesla dealerships. As a result, developers are working overtime to pave over every square inch of greenspace off LPGA, Williamson, Clyde Morris, etc., to accommodate more of the same.  

Not to worry, according to the News-Journal article, leasing agent Jason Keiser said he’s “trading paper” with several prospects at The Cay’s – to include another “big box” retailer (that he refused to identify) and several restaurants that are considering space in the complex.

Keep your fingers crossed, and I’ll do the same.

Here’s hoping Trader Joe and Farmer Sprout hold firm to their promise and give us bumpkins a chance to prove ourselves.

Volusia’s Legislative Delegation – Who Works for Whom? 

This week, three members of Volusia’s state legislative delegation gathered on a gilded stage in Deltona to answer questions from their confused (and increasingly claustrophobic) constituents about why they voted the way they did during that flaming shit-show that passed for a legislative session this year.

Of specific concern to waterlogged Volusia County residents was SB 180 – the new law cleverly labeled “emergencies” that blatantly strips municipal and county governments of their right to self-determination under home rule charter – and gives greed-crazed developers carte blanche to build when, where, and what they want. 

The environment, water quality and quantity, and the threat of development-induced flooding be damned…

I have to admit, I was curious how legislators who so unashamedly sold out their local governments to the benefit of their campaign benefactors could possibly explain themselves in a place where out-of-control growth has now surpassed our antiquated transportation infrastructure, utilities, and patience? 

According to a summary by reporter Mark Harper writing in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Rep. Chase Tramont (Port Orange) described the bill as “complicated” (which means he’s caught between a rock and his political donors), and explained it’s more about him than us:

In Mr. Tramont’s view, local government protections for existing homeowners facing devastating repeat flooding due to the tremendous growth that has altered the topography of the land takes second fiddle to the “”American dream” of homeownership,” (which, I think, means the ability to screw your inundated neighbor if it benefits the right last names?)

On the idea of local governments taking a commonsense tap of the brakes on growth until infrastructure and stormwater control can catch up to current demands:

“I fundamentally don’t agree with moratoriums,” Tramont said. “The idea of a moratorium… you’re not sticking it to the developer. You’re sticking it to the construction worker… You’re taking away the ability for people to work. You’re taking away from their ability to provide housing.” 

Bullshit.

For his part, it appears Rep. Webster Barnaby (Deltona) chose the monolog from “Animal House” to explain himself.  According to the report, Mr. Barnaby “…cited the U.S. Constitution in defending his vote: “These are the United States of America. We’re not the United Cities and we’re not the United Counties.”

Say what?

The only thing missing was Mr. Barnaby dramatically leading his colleagues off the dais humming the Star-Spangled Banner, screaming “Well, you can do what you want to us, but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America. Gentlemen!”

According to Rep. Barnaby, “The bill was passed to make sure people can rebuild faster and better,” Barnaby said, later adding: “I don’t want you living in a tent in a park.”

Whatever.

To add insult, the News-Journal is reporting a paltry $1 million in state appropriations to improve the City of Underwater’s antiquated and overgrown canal drainage system.  Now, Edgewater’s manchild Mayor Diezel Depew is calling the chump-change that survived Gov. Ron DeSantis’ rapierlike veto pen “a turning point for our community…”

Really?

“It’s a history-making moment in our community.”

If you say so.

Unfortunately, some flooded residents of Edgewater have a different view – and they want a more modern system of stormwater management than overgrown ditches and trash strewn canals.

In my view, Volusia’s legislative delegation knows exactly why SB 180 was written the way it was – and it has nothing to do with protecting the rights of property owners to rebuild following hurricanes – and everything to do with getting the speedbumps of local building regulations and the threat of temporary moratoriums out the way of real estate developers who have purchased a very lucrative chip in the game.

Don’t take my word for it – check the extensive list of campaign contributors who underwrite our state and local decision-makers political ambitions – time, after time, after time…

If you live in Volusia County and suffer under the notion your concerns should be the concerns of your legislative delegation – rather than their personal views, wants, and motivations – then make yourself known at the ballot box. 

I fear that’s the only hope for substantive change we have left… 

Quote of the Week

“We in Volusia County are blessed. We have the best county-council members that money can buy. And, as a bonus, we have a planning department staffed with mental midgets, divinely chosen for their expertise. With perhaps the exception of Jeff Brower, these folks revel riding in the hip pocket of real estate developers. Like obedient robots, they rubber-stamp zoning changes, building plans, impact fee waivers and sundry requests made by their campaign contributors. The developers get what they pay for.

Years of citizens’ concerns about chronic flooding and unbridled growth go unheeded. As more bulldozers are unleashed daily on our shrinking woodlands, nary a scrub is left standing when construction begins. Destruction always precedes construction.

When completed, the projects are given quaint names like Hidden Creek, Whispering Pines, or Golden Oaks. More often than not, the name reflects what used to be on the property and no longer is. When construction is completed, a few small saplings are planted, a chunk of sod laid down, and this is called landscaping.

Little concern is paid to environmental impact or water retention. Drainage is simply an afterthought. If rainwater is pushed onto your neighbor’s property, so be it. This “build, baby, build” policy is a financial windfall for developers, who often are not local, and have no stake in a project when finished.

A short tour of the Interstate 95 area of Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach is a fine example of raped landscape now covered with ticky-tacky apartment construction. More mega-projects are soon to come. Responsible growth, with an emphasis on a healthy green environment, should be a mandatory policy, both at a state and county level. Quality of life should supersede quantity of construction.

The claim that we have a housing shortage, partly due to the influx of new Florida residents, is valid. But the quality of construction should take precedence over quantity of construction.

A moratorium on new development is long overdue. We are now building future slums, barren of any greenery or pedestrian amenities. Density, setbacks and infrastructure needs have to be planned responsibly. Unfortunately, corporate developers have been let loose by our governor, and the plunder of our resources and neighborhoods continues unabated.

After the next storm, we can cry again about high insurance rates, flooding, and traffic congestion. And our “bought and paid for” commissioners can go home to their gated communities and schedule another workshop to discuss and delay any meaningful action.”

–Chuck Oakwood, DeLand, writing in The West Volusia Beacon, Letters to the Editor, “Quality should take precedence over quantity,” Tuesday, July 1, 2025

What he said…  

And Another Thing!

The Daytona Beach News-Journal’s outstanding investigative reporter Eileen Zaffiro-Kean recently penned one of those feel-good “Top Ten” lists – signs that let us denizens of the Daytona Beach Resort Area know we’re “real locals” – or as Eileen so aptly put it, “…if you stick around long enough the Daytona-ness of it all finds its way into your psyche.”

I’ll say…

The News-Journal’s inventory included common experiences like our righteous preoccupation with the Atlantic Hurricane Season, and shared connection to the Daytona International Speedway, Flea Market, what remains of the Daytona Beach Boardwalk, and the venerable “Who’s Who of Daytona Beach,” which includes Matthias Day; Charles Burgoyne; Bill France Sr., and his descendants; Mary McLeod Bethune; J. Hyatt Brown; Mori Hosseini; and Glenn Ritchey.

As a lifelong resident of the Halifax area, I’ve developed my own list of the universal familiarities that form the communal bond between us hardy souls who eke out a living, raise families, educate our kids, and (as the Chamber of Commerce set likes to say) “live, work, play, and learn” here on this salty piece of land we call home:

10.       You expect to be hit in the ass by an uninsured motorist driving a “car” held together with bailing wire and bubblegum, towing a utility trailer with no taillights, (who may or may not be fleeing from the police).  But that’s okay, because if you live anywhere in East Central Florida, you know the name, telephone number, and recent client settlements of at least three personal injury attorney’s – including their spouse, kids, and dog.     

9.         As a savvy “local” you know better than to walk.  Anywhere. 

For years, the Deltona-Daytona-Ormond “metro” has received the dubious distinction of being among the most dangerous areas in the nation for pedestrian fatalities.

By a lot…

Of course, our hospitality gurus in Tallahassee used this grim statistic to do what they do best and put some polish on the turd, claiming with a straight face, “Florida is a state with weather warm enough to invite walking outdoors nearly the entire year, as opposed to, say, Provo, Utah, or Madison, Wisconsin, or Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, the three safest places to walk.”

Seriously.  I don’t make this shit up, folks…

8.         We are forced to accept that our collective civic vision, and that of our ‘powers that be,’ are not the same.  Not even close…   

For instance, although we live in the most dangerous place in the known universe for pedestrians, experiential learning – that weird pain/habituation “nocebo” effect – has taught us to get comfortable with waiting through three cycles of a traffic light at (enter any intersection east or west of the Palmetto Curtain here).

As veterans of the Volusia County soft-shoe, when it comes to transportation infrastructure, we expect gaseous lip service from our elected officials and regional transportation planning organization (who is big on “policy positions” and light on actually improving our near-gridlocked streets and roadways). 

Regardless, hard-earned experience has taught we never ask the Florida Department of Transportation to “fix” a traffic problem. 

Ever. 

Don’t take my word for it.  When someone at the City of Ormond Beach asked:

“How could we possibly f*&K up Granada Boulevard and A-1-A more than it already is, you know, a real abomination that makes it almost impossible to navigate – while doing maximum damage to tires, bumpers, and undercarriages – requiring motorists have the skills of Joie Chitwood to get east, west, north, or south?” 

FDOT responded: “Hold my beer…”

7.         You remember when a trip around the Ormond Scenic Loop was, well, “scenic.” 

A time before massive development was shoehorned between US-1 and Old Dixie Highway – slash-n-burn land clearing that left a thin veneer of trees that only partially obscure the ugly zero lot line cracker boxes to the west – along with the near-constant stream of stormwater flowing over the pavement due to the drastic change in topography we were all promised would not occur…

6.         We are governed by a wacky Clown Troupe – a strange “Political Fun House” – where truth is always stranger than fiction. 

A weird Theater of the Absurd where our elected officials make pacts that require they completely ignore the presence of any constituent who comes before them.

For instance, whenever a Volusia County taxpayer takes time away from their “good paying job,” drive to DeLand, find parking, and approach the Monarchy – we are met with a catatonic gaze from our elected gargoyles – a bureaucratic aphasia that lets us know those we elect to represent our interests don’t give two-shits about our piddly-problems.

From flood victims demanding relief, to environmentalists asking the tough questions about overdevelopment, and exsanguinated taxpayers questioning a $1.3 billion+ annual budget, the eerie silence from the dais is deafening.

A one-way conversation where enquiries, anecdotal information, requests for assistance, and good old-fashioned public input into policy decisions, flow into a communication black hole, one so dense that when a disgusting racist diatribe was recently launched from the podium, it was met with stone-faced silence (later buffered by ridiculous claims of acute deafness) from our detached Council members…    

Of course, things change each election cycle when those same perennial politicians seeking reelection invite us to campaign launches – “get-togethers” and stilted “hob nobs” – where they shake our hand, slap our backs, call us neighbors, and tell us how much they enjoy “serving” our needs.  

Right.

A bizarre form of political gaslighting to distract from the fact they are accepting massive campaign contributions from all the right last names to ensure their personal and professional “needs” outpace ours every time.

Look, Volusia County taxpayers may be rubes, but we are not dumb.

Increasingly, our elected dullards are having a difficult time convincing us they care about the myriad issues we face when they are constantly sending subliminal signals that they don’t…

5.         We’ve become calloused to the latest “game-changer.”

When a speculative developer completes a project which invariably involves some government handout – such as a massive influx of our tax dollars in the form of “economic incentives” or “public/private partnerships” – schemes which use public funds to increase private profits – our elected and appointed officials soil themselves with excitement-induced urinary incontinence.    

In turn, everyone who is anyone catches the fever and fawns to the point of nausea for days on end, while the rest of us – the long-suffering taxpayers who either footed the bill or gave up a public amenity – are left feeling like an afterthought.

A necessary nuisance who pays the bills.  A means to an end who ask too many questions.  

Each and every time, We, The Little People who hand over our hard-earned tax dollars to underwrite the for-profit motives of our “Rich & Powerful,” are considered ingrateful bastards for not blindly accepting the latest panacea project as a miracle cure for everything from our social, civic, and economically depleted beachside to swimmer’s itch…

Heck yeah!  Excited!  Catalyst!  Difference!

Whoop-Whoop!

4.         You’re still sore about giving up beach driving to accommodate someone’s idea of “progress” in our disastrously distressed core tourist area.

Anyone remember standing at the gilded barrier like grubby Dickensian urchins – looking on as our political elite rubbed elbows, enjoyed cocktails, and were lavishly entertained by a private firework spectacular and staged concert (on the first evening of sea turtle nesting season?) – at an “invitation only” VIP soiree as the politicians who traded away our beach access for a row of poison poles celebrated the grand opening of Hard Rock Daytona?

Me neither…  

3.         You are no longer shocked by News-Journal articles with the headline, “Is that an algae bloom or raw sewage in the Indian River?  How to tell the difference…”

Note to newcomers to the region: Don’t taste it.

For the uninitiated, according to a recent report, “Sewage and algae blooms can be difficult to distinguish visually, especially during warmer months.  Sewage typically contains debris like toilet paper and has a foul odor, while algae has an earthier smell.”

Cleared that up. You’re welcome.

2.         Despite the threat of hurricanes, wildfires, and recurrent flooding, our greatest collective terror remains losing the air conditioner…   

I know, I know – don’t even think about it. 

The News-Journal’s list of ten signs you’re a local included, “No tolerance for cold temperatures.”  I would submit that we’re not big on the hellish heat of a Central Florida summer either…

Having lived in Florida for nearly 65 summers now, I have a weird theory that refrigeration is the only thing that separates us from the Great Apes.

Remember the 1986 movie The Mosquito Coast?

It was an excellent sociological study of an increasingly insane inventor who set out with his family to build a utopia in the jungles of Central America.  In a pivotal scene, as the cheese slowly slips off his cracker in the heat and humidity, the mad man – expertly portrayed by actor Harrison Ford – screams at the indifferent natives, “Ice is civilization!”

Dude was right.  We’ve all been there. 

While most Floridian’s don’t have a clue who their mayor is, they can immediately tell you the name of their HVAC repair tech…   

1. We share a growing political apathy – a “ho-hum” acceptance that our politicians are wholly owned by “special interests” with a very lucrative chip in the game – and many of us have become so disillusioned we don’t care anymore… 

We “Fun Coasters” are a strange group – victims of a long line of pirates; swashbuckling thieves who traded tri-corn hats and cutlasses for Armani suits and Montblanc pens.  As a result, we have become conditioned to endure a lot from those who claim to be looking out for our interests…   

Author John Gunther accurately said in his 1947 work on the United States and our unique politics, Inside U.S.A., that Florida’s “freakishness in everything from architecture to social behavior [is] unmatched in any American state.”

That’s still true today.

I call Tallahassee “The Biggest Whorehouse in the World.” 

Because it is.

A skewed unmeritocratic system where hand-select candidates for political office – typically dimwitted egoists who are chosen by local party “kingmakers” for their Gumby-like malleability and individual talent, accomplishment, or intelligence be damned – wade into the fetid shitpit of modern Volusia County political contests.

Then we watch as the “Rich & Powerful” (i.e., the same five people who pass the same nickel around in this artificial economy) steam shovel large sums of money into the groaning war chests of the ‘chosen ones.”

The subliminal ‘return on investment’ it buys is important as their political benefactors are not used to being told “No” – especially at the nexus of public funds and private projects…

In turn, local campaigns now resemble a back-alley knife fight, underwritten by these massive contributions flowing from powerful forces, cash that skews the battlefield, as special interests cut-and-thrust using ominous television advertisements and exaggerated glossy mailers touting scandalous claims to gain an advantage.  

In the clamor and din of the political warfare, it becomes increasingly difficult to know who we can trust.  

I think that’s the plan.   

Through hard-earned experience, claustrophobic Volusia County residents are beginning to reject the empty promises of perennial politicians seeking reelection – those who say one thing at election time, then do the exact opposite once assuming power.   

(I don’t know about you, but I identify their horseshit by its earthy smell…)

Unfortunately, far too many area residents have fallen victim to the curse of political apathy – that feeling of frustrated indifference born of having the rug pulled out from underneath them one too many times.

The sense that participation in their local government doesn’t count now that their voice is increasingly muted by compromised elected officials (and the entrenched insiders they serve) who seek to suppress citizen input at every turn.

So, where do we go from here?

In my view, “Fun Coast” residents are slowly coming to the waterlogged realization that business as usual cannot continue.  We’ve reached the point where malignant sprawl is having profound consequences that impact our quality of life. 

We truly are in this together.  A shared experience. One totally foreign to our marionettes in Tallahassee and many ensconced on our local councils and commissions.

Despite the divisions and differences of opinion we face, we are stronger when we work together to set goals, find common ground, take a stand for our neighbors, and determine our civic destiny by setting a shared vision for the future.

I think that’s what ‘community’ means.    

At the end of the day, returning a local government of, by, and for the people is our responsibility. 

Vote like our lives and livelihoods depend upon it.

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!