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?
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?
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.
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...
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.