Intersting Article about your beaches....

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/li...B8FD12F99B3946198625712C0062C667?OpenDocument

That's a well-written and fairly comprehensive article, even though it really didn't mention 30-A. Interesting to see what is going on elsewhere. Thanks for the link.

Thanks for posting this interesting article. I thought it painted a pretty fair picture of the impact of the hurricanes.

That's a well-written and fairly comprehensive article, even though it really didn't mention 30-A. Interesting to see what is going on elsewhere. Thanks for the link.

I think most journalists, outside of this area, are so confused by the many names of beach communities, that they don't know whether to call us Destin, Panama City, Seaside, 30A, Santa Rosa Beach, South Walton County 🙂bang🙂, or what. In this case, the photo of Pompano Joes notes South Walton, FL, which is not a town...yet. ;-)

I think most journalists, outside of this area, are so confused by the many names of beach communities, that they don't know whether to call us Destin, Panama City, Seaside, 30A, Santa Rosa Beach, or what. In this case, the photo of Pompano Joes notes South Walton, FL, which is not a town...yet. ;-)

Wait till it is. We know who will be running the place. :floor:

Wait till it is. We know who will be running the place. :floor:

If it is renamed South Walton, FL, they had better not include all of South Walton, which runs all the way thru Sandestin and Miramar Beach all the way over to Destin.

I vote for SoWal.

South Walton works well enough if you're attempting to describe everything south of the Intracoastal. Wasn't that the proposed name for the new county when they were talking about a Walton County division/schism during the taxpayer's revolt a few years back?

I do not see South Walton becoming an incorporated area separate from the North County. In order to accomplish this, a majority vote is needed and too many of the homeowners in the South County are residents elsewhere. It was a very good move for the newly rich Walton County to establish South County facilities, a concession to their economic base. But the logistics of the voting show us that officials and initiatives are passed by North County voters, not those in the South County. I have always found it interesting that County Supervisors are voted upon Countywide, not just by those voters who reside/vote in an individual District. This also keeps the power base intact in the North County.

This may not be such a bad thing, frankly, in spite of a miscreant here and there. Back when the earth's crust was cooling, my thesis in urban and regional planning was boom town development, the dynamic, the aftermath, and the recovery. Starting with the mining towns of Colorado and ending with the (then) current U.S. boom towns, the one most critical element of recovery was a local jurisdiction's determination to not abdicate its local control to evolving economic players. Let's hope that common denominator still holds. I know that local officials are sometimes more influenced by developers than they should be, and sometimes are not as well informed as one would like. But by and large, I honestly believe that the people who have lived there a very long time are more conscious of protecting the beaches than perhaps beach property owners and investors are. And they certainly have a better history of the storms and their aftermath than most newcomers. In short, their stake is a bigger picture one and of longer term.

Donna, your theory sounds good. But in reality the majority of the current commission favors development before beaches, and greed before sense.

I don't know if I agree with this. The vote to use only white sand that meets rigorous specs was a very progressive direction for the County and they were brave to make that decision in the midst of a lot of angry property owners. The mandatory evacuation plans in that County are very orderly and effective. It is also quite progressive for them to be working on an inclusionary housing ordinance. And they have a very strong planning director at the helm. I'm not saying they don't weight the protection of private property with protection of beaches, and I'm not saying I'm not hugely relieved that we have the State Parks at Grayton instead of the County Commission, so far as jurisdiction goes. But I think they are doing pretty well, all things considered. Guess my memory of the Commission from many years back is too good. I worked there summers and it was pretty strange. Counties (as compared to cities) are notorious for being weak in the area of land use and environmental protection.

I also know what kind of development the County allowed in the earliest days of the South Walton beaches being "discovered." It was schlocky high-rise structures, many of which were poorly constructed. Mercy!...ladies who had brunch at that round Holiday Inn in Destin would literally get motion sickness because the building foundation shifted so badly (revolving top floor). With the advent of Seaside, there was an awareness of the importance of creating a strong sense of identity and moving away from the idea of highrises. The "old Florida villages" concept took hold, the State Park system educated the decision-makers (to some extent), and the County recognized that its fortunes would rest on the protection of those beaches. I can assure you, things might well have been a whole lot worse than what you see today.