New big blue signs in SoWal

[Jdarg]

I agree, Jdarg. I've always enjoyed reading Sean's work and think he does a good job. There is plenty o' news for everyone to cover.

Sean showed a lot of guts with his apology and I can only hope you guys would go easy on me as well, if and when I make a mistake reporting on something you feel passionate about.
You were brave, Sean. Thank you.

Please support all of your print media in our area and stay informed about what your representatives are doing in their meetings.

I'll try and get a list from our publisher about the location of all of our boxes today and post it. There is room for everyone to write but we need you guys to read it. We work for you guys so, read, read, read your local papers.

I'm getting an annual subscription! I hope others will do the same.

 

[BeachSiO2]

As I have said on other threads before, I think it would probably be best for all involved to realize that we are not as anonymous as we think we are. I know that I don't and therefore I try to think before I type .

For example, I am about 95% sure that one of the most active posters on this thread works with a TDC member. On that note, I would be curious if they have spoken with that member about their concerns. :scratch:

 

[rapunzel]

C. C., Seacrest, Laundress

I stand by my comments about the Sun.

I was at the same meeting as Mr. Boone, and l sat next to him, so I'm sure we had basically the same perspective. However, my post about the meeting and his article are vastly different. Granted, I wasn't a neutral observer, but I did attempt to report the meeting accurately for the benefit of our out of town SoWallers. Mr. Boone's personal feelings about the sign controversy -- which he chose to reveal on his blog -- clearly colored his perception of the event. If he didn't 'get' the reason for the record turn out at the TDC meeting, he could have interviewed a few people after the meeting for a quote or two. Instead, he presented the TDC's argument about community notices and the need to not waste tax dollars without mentioning the dissenting board member's remarks about having warned the Council about community reaction, or addressing the fact that more than five years elapsed between notice about the signs and their construction.

Mr. Boone saw some bored housewives, hippies looking for a cause, and rich, self-appointed arbiters of taste making much ado about nothing. There is something deeper going on. There is a huge demographic difference between the population of the county north of the Choctawhatchee Bay and SoWal. The number of people north of the bay vastly outnumbers the full time residents south of the bay. Developers and third party rental companies have been allowed to dominate the TDC and the Planning Commission and speak on behalf of South Walton rather than rank and file residents and homeowners, and though the tax revenues generated in the southern part of the county supply much of the county budget while requiring relatively fewer county services, the residents and homeowners in the southern part of the county are given little say in how it is governed. The meeting was about big vlue monsters, but it was also about the disregard of the opinions of citizens that is a pattern.

Mr. Boone is a member of the press. I have enormous respect for his position as a journalist, and consider his job to be among the most important in our community. It is for that reason that I am so passionately disappointed in his article and his blog. We all make mistakes, and I hope that on a personal level Mr. Boone realizes that it is because I have such tremendous respect for him as a member of the press that I hold him to a higher standard. With great power comes great responsibility.

As of this morning, I am a proud subscriber to the Beach Breeze.

 

[Teresa]

Also at Pedro's, used to be one in the shopping center where the Post Office is; not sure if it's still there. Tom Thumb on 30A in Dune Allen as well as the one in Seagrove and 98/331.

There is one at Winn-Dixie in Sandestin and in front of CVS.

I really think they are pretty much everywhere there are other newspaper boxes.

yes, I see them a lot around town.


hey brad biggrin - you are right about people not being annonymous on this board. sometimes we think we are and are braver than usual, and say things we wouldn't say in real life.

believe me, no one here is annonymous, except shelly.

 

[BeachSiO2]

believe me, no one here is annonymous, except shelly.

That is so TRUE!!!

 

[GoodWitch58]

Christi Commander, Seacrest, Laundress

I stand by my comments about the Sun.

I was at the same meeting as Mr. Boone, and l sat next to him, so I'm sure we had basically the same perspective. However, my post about the meeting and his article are vastly different. Granted, I wasn't a neutral observer, but I did attempt to report the meeting accurately for the benefit of our out of town SoWallers. Mr. Boone's personal feelings about the sign controversy -- which he chose to reveal on his blog -- clearly colored his perception of the event. If he didn't 'get' the reason for the record turn out at the TDC meeting, he could have interviewed a few people after the meeting for a quote or two. Instead, he presented the TDC's argument about community notices and the need to not waste tax dollars without mentioning the dissenting board member's remarks about having warned the Council about community reaction, or addressing the fact that more than five years elapsed between notice about the signs and their construction.

Mr. Boone saw some bored housewives, hippies looking for a cause, and rich, self-appointed arbiters of taste making much ado about nothing. There is something deeper going on. There is a huge demographic difference between the population of the county north of the Choctawhatchee Bay and SoWal. The number of people north of the bay vastly outnumbers the full time residents south of the bay. Developers and third party rental companies have been allowed to dominate the TDC and the Planning Commission and speak on behalf of South Walton rather than rank and file residents and homeowners, and though the tax revenues generated in the southern part of the county supply much of the county budget while requiring relatively fewer county services, the residents and homeowners in the southern part of the county are given little say in how it is governed. The meeting was about big vlue monsters, but it was also about the disregard of the opinions of citizens that is a pattern.

Mr. Boone is a member of the press. I have enormous respect for his position as a journalist, and consider his job to be among the most important in our community. It is for that reason that I am so passionately disappointed in his article and his blog. We all make mistakes, and I hope that on a personal level Mr. Boone realizes that it is because I have such tremendous respect for him as a member of the press that I hold him to a higher standard. With great power comes great responsibility.

As of this morning, I am a proud subscriber to the Beach Breeze.

I agree. Journalists are held to a higher standard:
http://www:spj.org/ethicscode.asp]

 

[Minnie]

And, I have been one of them. I'm just thinking that the feelings behind the article must be pretty strong, and there's no delete button for them. If yucarenow really feels that way, he should have kept the blog entry.

Not speaking for Sean, but in my history with many Net forums over a period of ten years, sometimes it is exactly as Kurt said that we write things that we later regret and sometimes it's a realization of saying it at the wrong place.

Kinda like going to AA, and asking would anyone like a drink. Sometimes it is just not worth the fall out.

 

[ASH]

Re: What are these things beside the road?

This is a TDC project approved many months ago and is separate from the multi-use path wayfinding project that was recently approved. I think you will find these signs are attractive and they will identify communities along 30A. The set backs are to be in line with the Florida Green book per WC.

I heard somewhere recently that 30-A isn't a legal width road as it is. So....if they ever need to widen 30-A to a proper width, someone is going to need to pay to move every one of these new signs further off the road. Being paid twice to place all thse signs seems like a pretty good deal to keep busy in this sagging economy.

 

[rapunzel]

Not speaking for Sean, but in my history with many Net forums over a period of ten years, sometimes it is exactly as Kurt said that we write things that we later regret and sometimes it's a realization of saying it at the wrong place.

Kinda like going to AA, and asking would anyone like a drink. Sometimes it is just not worth the fall out.

I honestly don't think anyone here is going to hold it against Sean Boone going forward. He made his point, we responded, and all is well. I'm sure he'll be a better journalist for it. And hey, at least he realizes how many people are paying attention to his words....that's got to feel a little nice.

We'll be as free with praise as we are with criticism. That's the good thing about the internet. We all feel a bit more free to speak our minds. Sometimes we'll regret putting a foot in our mouth, but more often than not we'll discover friends with whom we might have never realized we had so much in common.

It all comes out in the wash.

 

[Indigo Jill]

And Jill did the first real "outing" by posting the blog on SoWal and using his youcarenow name. At this point he lost all anonymity since the same blog was already posted on the Walton Sun website using his real name.

That is just not true. I posted a commentary I received via Google Alerts by an author with the screen name yucarenow. I did not know who that was. Someone here - I believe TFT? - was the first of several who put his real name into the discussion.

My whole point is that I don't think it's right that his identity was given as I don't remember yet this ever happening before. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I don't remember personally seeing it before. When I post something, people respond to Indigo Jill, not Jill Gaupin. And yes, it's easy to find out who I am - I put links to my website/businesses here) - but that is my perogative, my choice. This message board operates on anonymity unless soemone chooses otherwise. Unless someone chooses to put their real name, it's not right IMO for others to take it upon themselves to do so, especially if it is in response to a post someone doesn't agree with.

Either the board needs to stay anonymous for everyone and the rules need to be followed to protect that (i.e. no one exposes the identity of another) OR the board needs to operate as a non-anonymous board and everyone must expose their true identity to participate. Rules can't be bent "just a little" one way or the other IMO or the integrity of the board is lost.

My last point on this - I promise - is that it is also just not true the this board isn't as anonymous as most would think. Maybe for many of the core posters that is true but even for someone like me, who checks in several times a day, I don't know who 99% of the posters really are!

And BTW- the people that are unhappy with the signs are not the kind of people that vandalize things. I don't think the 30A Scenic Corridor people or those of us that went to the meeting, wrote letters, and sent e-mails appreciate being characterized that way..

Collectively, you don't know that and I don't know that with certainty. You know the character of only those you know personally who are unhappy with the signs and are taking the right course to address it properly - through the proper channels - and of course, they wouldn't do this. I get that.

But even if it was in jest, it has been alluded to in this thread and if I am right in my interpretation of the conversation, I believe someone mentioned that the sign coming in to SoWal on 331 looked to have been ran into with a vehicle. Intentional or accident? Who knows? But it was mentioned as something to possibly do with the signs until this is resolved (again in jest, I get that too) on this board but you never know, with all the lurkers, who would take it to that level. So absolutely not, we don't know if every single person who is unhappy with the new signage are not the kind of people that vandalize things.

This is a long thread and I am participating in a discussion that is taking it off it's intended path. I will now step down - baacck away from the podium