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NotDeadYet

Beach Fanatic
Jul 7, 2007
1,422
489
But you will NEVER catch me there in a golf cart!

And by the way, if I remember correctly you were in the doom and gloom crowd as to how SOWALMART was going to run everything else out of business. Can you name ANY local stores that have gone under, as a result of SOWALMART (go ahead, be creative), since they opened their doors?

You remember incorrectly. I never said anything of the sort.
I will freely admit I don't care for WalMart's merchandise selection, customer service, labor policies, etc., but I was never in the doom and gloom crowd, as you put it.
 

Lake View Too

SoWal Insider
Nov 16, 2008
6,861
8,295
Eastern Lake
Skunk ape, What a ridiculous statement. You do realize that most of the original owners of sowal property were, in fact, people who lived in north Walton and many, many people that live in nowal own homes and property in sowal. Most of the old original cottages that still stand in sowal are owned by families in the north end of the county and yes many business owners and developers in sowal choose to live in nowal. Why do you think that is a bad thing? Do you think only people who move to the south end from somewhere else(but not north Walton!) should own businesses on 30a? As a person who was born and raised in Walton county and a homeowner and business owner in both the
north and south end of the county, it always cracks me up when people who move to sowal from other places talk about "their beaches" and how those nowalers just want to benefit from the south end. We were playing on those pristine dunes when we were in diapers, long before everyone else discovered this piece of paradise!

Just curious: How many golf carts are allowed on Highway 90 and Highway 331 in DeFuniak? I guess if it's OK for Sowal, it is OK for Nowal?
 
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Jdarg

SoWal Expert
Feb 15, 2005
18,068
1,973
Just curious: How many golf carts are allowed on Highway 90 and Highway 331 in DeFuniak? I guess if it's OK for Sowal, it is OK for Nowal?

What a good point. I bet golf carts and LSVs wouldn't make it far on those roads. It is common sense that they are OK in enclosed neighborhoods and resorts, but not on major traffic arteries that are shared by vacationers, locals, and businesses. Since 30A is one of our major routes, why are they allowed? I am dumbfounded that this happens.
 

Zebraspots

Beach Fanatic
May 15, 2008
840
247
Santa Rosa Beach
As always, some folks who don't know when enough is enough will ruin it for everyone.

Golf carts have been around for years and served a useful and limited purpose, but now people are promoting uses and behavior that range from nuisance to outright illegal and potentially fatal.

And we need to take action before a tragedy occurs. Not because it would be bad publicity, but because it is going to be horrible.

Paving paradise with separate golf cart paths is not a solution....... even if a few individuals and businesses will profit.
 

sunny850

Beach Lover
Jul 16, 2012
59
47
Just curious: How many golf carts are allowed on Highway 90 and Highway 331 in DeFuniak? I guess if it's OK for Sowal, it is OK for Nowal?

I don't agree with golf carts on why 90, 331, or 98. My home is on 30a and can't back out of my driveway for fear of hitting a golfcart or a bicyclist in the road. My issue with skunk ape was with his attack on north Walton as carpetbaggers because they dare to benefit from businesses owned in the south end of the county. Just trying to point out that many of us are both, traveling between residences in both ends of the county. If you read his original post he seems to feel that golf cart companies should be owned only by people who live in southwalton.
 

30A Skunkape

Skunky
Jan 18, 2006
10,286
2,312
53
Backatown Seagrove
I don't agree with golf carts on why 90, 331, or 98. My home is on 30a and can't back out of my driveway for fear of hitting a golfcart or a bicyclist in the road. My issue with skunk ape was with his attack on north Walton as carpetbaggers because they dare to benefit from businesses owned in the south end of the county. Just trying to point out that many of us are both, traveling between residences in both ends of the county. If you read his original post he seems to feel that golf cart companies should be owned only by people who live in southwalton.

My point is that it is a strange business model to keep your rental inventory locked up 30 miles to the north and have to deliver it to a rental house or condo on the back of a trailer. It is then dropped off and unleashed upon a populace for one week then picked up by the absentee owner for the haul back to D-Funk. Odd. Maybe we should send a gaggle of bikini clad ladies to frolic around the scenic shores of Lake Defuniak during church hours on Sunday mornings as a goodwill offering to Los Norwales...Hey, they can even drive around the lake in golf carts! I'm sure greater Defuniak wouldn't mind as that certainly wouldn't interrupt the traditional character of Defuniak, would it?

And I don't think ANYONE should own a golf cart rental business around here-many people hate them and they are a ticking time bomb of tourist carnage waiting to explode. ANd to clarify, I don't have a problem with anyone living anywhere running a business in SOWAL, so long as they have some sense of being a good neighbor and actually contributing something positive to the community. Sorry, golf carts add nothing positive.
 

Lake View Too

SoWal Insider
Nov 16, 2008
6,861
8,295
Eastern Lake
Skunkape mentioned the concept of being a good neighbor, several times. Maybe that is the idea he is trying to get across...do onto others as you would have them do onto you...
 

BeachRob

Beach Lover
Nov 30, 2012
161
65
Skunkape mentioned the concept of being a good neighbor, several times. Maybe that is the idea he is trying to get across...do onto others as you would have them do onto you...

Ditto.

But, also add to that... "Carpetbagger" is a harsh term, especially in the South.

I liken the golf cart industry to the "Beltway Bandits" in Virginia and Maryland. Beltway Bandits live near Washington D.C. They commute in every day to make a bunch of money off of a very lucrative customer (Federal Govt, in this case).

Their commute wrecks the local infrastructure. (DC roads are always having to be repaired.)

They steal business from local firms. (Political consulting firms pay exorbitant rent to be in the District. While Bandit counterparts operate out of Fairfax at a fraction.)

They don't contribute to local revenues, public or private. (0 income tax to DC, 0 property tax to DC, 0 car tag, they go to suburban grocery stores, send their kids to suburban schools, their kids' clothes come from a suburban Target, and they only dine in the district when they have to.) IOW, the money is gone.

It is a unilateral relationship.

Golf carts are a unilateral relationship. They bring no benefit to 30-A. There is this perceived service. But, when you strip it all down, it's just money leaving the local economy. And, to add insult to injury, we get the big, ugly, bouncy, trailer trucks on the weekend "turn" days, dropping off EZ-Gos, and streets littered with really slow cars without doors...
 

Beach Buggys

Beach Lover
Mar 13, 2012
105
3
Local
www.sowalbeachbuggys.com


My first concern has to do with principle and economics. 30-A is several things. Among those, it is a road, a concept of how to live and vacation, and a community with an economy. Try to find a national chain or franchise here, and you will be hard pressed. One fellow settler described the area to me as, "the last bastion of small business and entrepreneurship." I think you can launch a business in a lot of places. But, I love that statement.


The golf cart rental industry in our area consists of companies either headquartered in Destin or Defuniak Springs, run by individuals domiciled in those cities, or both. Revenue from rentals does not go to locals. Dollars made on carts don't go back into the community. They don't end up in the cash tills of the "last bastion of small business." Every dollar spent on cart rentals is a dollar not spent in Seaside, Rosemary, Grayton, etc. Whether you are talking about an $800 expense eating into the visitors' budgets, or the fact the company owners don't support local business, that money is gone from 30-A.

Secondly, South Walton County doesn't - and shouldn't- have the infrastructure to accommodate golf carts (or golf carts by another name) as leisure transport.

When Grayton, Seagrove, and Inlet Beach were settled, those early visitors likely came in something like a Ford 4-door Super Deluxe. One car. That was sufficient. And they had a parcel of land the size of a football field to park it on.

When Seaside was dreamt up and plotted out, the town planners likely had in mind a family coming down in a Chevrolet Caprice Classic station wagon with faux wood sides. One car... 1 (uno caro)

When Rosemary Beach and other more recent developments were dreamt up and plotted out, the town planners required parking for 2 cars. As time went on, and developers got creative, that began to be interpreted as parking space for one midsize SUV and a Mini Cooper.


The third issue is obviously my pet favorite. 30-A is a HIGHWAY... designed, built, and maintained for internal combustion automobiles; with a separately engineered path for slower moving cyclist and pedestrians. The road is not for lolly-gagging. Allowing golf carts on 30-A - or dropping the speed limit to below 36mph, which is the same thing- stifles traffic. Unlike Destin or Panama City Beach, we don't have a "front, middle, and back beach road" or north-south access every city block. And I don't want those kinds of roads. Saying any more about that on this thread would be kicking a dead horse.

I'd love to own a cart. If I had one, I'd drive it on residential roads, to get to the beach, in a development that has plenty of parking.

What a good point. I bet golf carts and LSVs wouldn't make it far on those roads. It is common sense that they are OK in enclosed neighborhoods and resorts, but not on major traffic arteries that are shared by vacationers, locals, and businesses. Since 30A is one of our major routes, why are they allowed? I am dumbfounded that this happens.

First of all, i lived in grayton for years, grew up in freeport and know more about sowal, the waterways, the area and its history than 90% of the transplants who moved here and now claim to own the place.
Second, sowal is not its own county. its walton county, and i among others love this county north and south.
Third, there is no comparison between 30A and highway 90 or 331, and for the record i drive my personal LSV all over DeFuniak Springs without any trouble at all. 30A is a scenic residential tourist destination, its not a highway supporting through traffic, highway 98 is there for the heavy traffic. what's the speed limit on scenic old 98???? I believe its 25mph, but long before the speed limit was lowered and long before LSV's were around, it had the nickname bloody 98 (known to most locals because of the many tragic accidents involving pedestrians) because people wanted to drive 55 in a 45 mph zone on a scenic residential tourist highway very similar to 30A. 30A is for lolly gagging, and its loved for that. People come here to slow down and enjoy the beauty of 30A. I've lived in the area my whole life and i still slow down to take in the beauty of 30A everyday. If someone is in a hurry there are plenty of options that will put you on highway 98 to get to wherever it is your headed without endangering pedestrians and vacationers.
As for my choice to run my business out of defuniak, I don't have a million dollar budget to open up shop on 30A, and those of you who keep saying its all about $$$, its not a cheap business to run, i have either the 2nd or 3rd largest fleet in walton county, and its still a side job for me, I haven't been able to quit my real job yet.


Street Legal golf carts are a safe fun way to get around while on vacation, I'm proud to own a business that i feel adds to the appeal of South Walton as a tourist destination, and i believe from the positive feedback i recieve from all of my customers that they feel the same way.
 
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