Wishes for 2006
A really bad year is behind us, and it's not one many will miss. Aside from both the world's worst natural disaster and our nation's worst manmade disaster, we've seen the pope die, the Dukes of Hazzard made into a movie, and thanks to Hurricane Dennis unearthing Gulf Trace's shameful septic tanks onto the beach, the consistency of Sheryl Crowe's stool - we also saw a huge slow down in our local real estate market, which I'm sure is unrelated, but still quite painful to our local economy.
For the past four or five years, our economy has been based less on tourism than it has on the buying and selling of real estate. Around 2003, it seems that buying and selling real estate estate became more important than actually owning or visiting the real estate. And now I believe our economy may be in a bit of trouble.
The real estate market in South Walton has always been big, but in the nineties it wasn't nearly as big an industry as tourism and its related services and businesses.
Shortly after the millennium and in response to a nationwide real estate boom, we began selling South Walton as a commodity instead of a destination, and we're now left with the consequences of living in an area we've spent millions rebranding as a giant pork belly future. Instead of new restaurants, venues and businesses that cater to tourists, we've nearly doubled the number of realtors, mortgage brokers, real estate attorneys, banks and environmental engineers, most of whom can't shuck oysters worth a damn and will only with great reluctance and resentment return to waiting tables, mixing cocktails or telling the kid on the bumper boat ride to keep his fat ass in the seat.
As an added insult to our self inflicted injury, this new community-wide focus on real estate investment drove prices through the roof and made it more difficult for tourism related businesses to find employees to serve the tourists we no longer felt were so important.
If we refocus our marketing efforts toward tourism and actually fill all the cottages, condominiums and time-shares that have been built, who is going to cook for them when they don't feel like cooking? Where will they go on rainy days when even the kids refuse to watch another second of the Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London movie they rented and can't be trusted on the balcony overlooking the pool with any object that can be successfully hurled by a six year old .
Here are my wishes for 2006:
In 2006, the Walton County Tourist Development Council, developers and even realtors need to refocus their marketing efforts on the industry that brought us all to the dance to begin with - tourism. If people want to visit, then they'll also want to buy. It's no longer enough or even honest to simply say it's a great investment, though we can with great integrity remind the world that it's still a great place.
In 2006, The Walton Board of County Commissioners needs to focus on luring other industry to Walton County so that there is a larger local sector of white collar professionals and good paying jobs to support a year round economy and healthy small business environment. There's a reason many businesses close for the winter that has nothing to do with the migrating habits of angry snowbirds.
Oh, and world peace would be nice too.
A really bad year is behind us, and it's not one many will miss. Aside from both the world's worst natural disaster and our nation's worst manmade disaster, we've seen the pope die, the Dukes of Hazzard made into a movie, and thanks to Hurricane Dennis unearthing Gulf Trace's shameful septic tanks onto the beach, the consistency of Sheryl Crowe's stool - we also saw a huge slow down in our local real estate market, which I'm sure is unrelated, but still quite painful to our local economy.
For the past four or five years, our economy has been based less on tourism than it has on the buying and selling of real estate. Around 2003, it seems that buying and selling real estate estate became more important than actually owning or visiting the real estate. And now I believe our economy may be in a bit of trouble.
The real estate market in South Walton has always been big, but in the nineties it wasn't nearly as big an industry as tourism and its related services and businesses.
Shortly after the millennium and in response to a nationwide real estate boom, we began selling South Walton as a commodity instead of a destination, and we're now left with the consequences of living in an area we've spent millions rebranding as a giant pork belly future. Instead of new restaurants, venues and businesses that cater to tourists, we've nearly doubled the number of realtors, mortgage brokers, real estate attorneys, banks and environmental engineers, most of whom can't shuck oysters worth a damn and will only with great reluctance and resentment return to waiting tables, mixing cocktails or telling the kid on the bumper boat ride to keep his fat ass in the seat.
As an added insult to our self inflicted injury, this new community-wide focus on real estate investment drove prices through the roof and made it more difficult for tourism related businesses to find employees to serve the tourists we no longer felt were so important.
If we refocus our marketing efforts toward tourism and actually fill all the cottages, condominiums and time-shares that have been built, who is going to cook for them when they don't feel like cooking? Where will they go on rainy days when even the kids refuse to watch another second of the Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London movie they rented and can't be trusted on the balcony overlooking the pool with any object that can be successfully hurled by a six year old .
Here are my wishes for 2006:
In 2006, the Walton County Tourist Development Council, developers and even realtors need to refocus their marketing efforts on the industry that brought us all to the dance to begin with - tourism. If people want to visit, then they'll also want to buy. It's no longer enough or even honest to simply say it's a great investment, though we can with great integrity remind the world that it's still a great place.
In 2006, The Walton Board of County Commissioners needs to focus on luring other industry to Walton County so that there is a larger local sector of white collar professionals and good paying jobs to support a year round economy and healthy small business environment. There's a reason many businesses close for the winter that has nothing to do with the migrating habits of angry snowbirds.
Oh, and world peace would be nice too.
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