• Trouble logging in? Send us a message with your username and/or email address for help.
New posts

SoWal 30A

Beach Comber
Nicely done. I like your post Paula; however, making the direct correlation between teenage drinking and DUI, is an accelerated assumption. There's no diff between teenagers and adults when it comes to that and the post author only appeared to have an issue with the teens. Furthermore, connecting drinking on the beach to DUI's is like connecting Spring Break to drinking and DUI's and that's not accurate. There's always the 10% and the deputies havent obtained funding for the crystal ball needed to identify those 10%. With that in mind, let's not pretend anyone outside the profession knows how their job should be done anymore than a deputy knows yours. Good day to you all! =)
 

bluecat

Beach Fanatic
Dec 30, 2007
399
47
kentucky
Ok, not every tourist wants to go on vacation and have to put up with loud ,drunk foul mouth teenagers. If I wanted that ,I would go to PCB.I think something should be done to let unsupervised kids know real fast that 30A is not party city.Last week was the worst spring break I have experienced in South Walton. I love it there, don't want to go elsewhere, but parents turning their kids loose can only lead to trouble.
 

JMT

Beach Lover
Aug 5, 2009
51
17
Seagrove Beach, Fl
Ok, not every tourist wants to go on vacation and have to put up with loud ,drunk foul mouth teenagers. If I wanted that ,I would go to PCB.I think something should be done to let unsupervised kids know real fast that 30A is not party city.Last week was the worst spring break I have experienced in South Walton. I love it there, don't want to go elsewhere, but parents turning their kids loose can only lead to trouble.

Manifest Destiny... These are big boy problems, and they come with the territory.. Apparently we want our roads backed up with as many tourists as could possibly fit without some sort of oxygen depletion, so I guess my advice to anyone that doesn't like drunk, unsupervised kids running around is to go somewhere else. I believe the area has a serious identity crisis, and there is only so much policing you can do when your infrastructure is "cozy beach town" and the reality is quickly becoming "Miracle Strip West". I shudder to think what the "New-Urbanists" think seeing their Shangri-La turned into Larry Clark's "Kids". But hey, there is no such thing as too much money..
 

Paula

Beach Fanatic
Jan 25, 2005
3,747
442
Michigan but someday in SoWal as well
I definitely agree that drinking and driving is a problem at any age, not just for teens. Agreed that we don't have to tell professionals how to do their jobs, especially when they are providing an important public service and are doing the best they can with limited resources. My point is that I agree that teens drinking on the beach to the point of getting drunk is certainly not a good idea for anyone involved and that SoWallers who are concerned about this have a reasonable, not trivial, concern.
 

Dawn

Beach Fanatic
Oct 16, 2008
1,203
519
All good posts - thank you. I see both sides and it is not a simple solution. JMT is dead on.
 

Paula

Beach Fanatic
Jan 25, 2005
3,747
442
Michigan but someday in SoWal as well
In my view, JMT is not dead on because there's certainly no reason for people who don't want drunk unsupervised kids to go somewhere else. I personally haven't seen a lot of drunk unsupervised kids along 30A beaches, though I'm sure there are some (along with drunk unsupervised adults). But I've seen those people everywhere - and it's rare in most places including 30A. Mostly, what I've seen are the great people who live here and appreciative guests who find this area to be beautiful and overall well-preserved. 98% of the people who have rented my cottages have left them in great shape - some even better than they found them. Otherwise, I wouldn't be renting them out - and I'd go somewhere else. But SoWal has captured my heart for all the good reasons - and the exceptions haven't yet turned into the norm nor do I expect them to over time. Too many people care about this area. Will it ever be perfect? Nah, but if it was we'd have nothing to talk about because we'd just be swooning over the sunsets, enjoying good meals with our friends and talking only about the food, enjoying walks and bike rides to look at the the different architecture in the many different communities, reading good books on the porch, and enjoying pretty drives along 30A. There are ways of talking about change and preservation without falling into black and white thinking. These are indeed big boy and big girl problems to think about, and I hope we think about them carefully with appreciation and hope as well as a critical eye.
 

SouthernBelle

Beach Comber
Oct 5, 2011
42
0
SoWal
JMT hit it about as well as anyone can! Fact is the TDC needs to put the brakes on themselves until the county can actually figure out how to deal with all the tourists the TDC is trying so hard to lure in. I don't blame law enforcement for not being everywhere. I blame the county for not financing enough for law enforcement to keep a handle on all the new breed of tourists to our area. There is only so much each person can do and on a regular day I see way more people breaking the laws than enforcing them. The good guys are just severely outnumbered this year. I've never seen as many glass bottles, unleashed dogs, and funnels on the beach as this year.

Our 2 surrounding counties have life guards and beaches patrolled regularly and they still have chaos. Kids and people in general (for all the immature grownups are just as bad as kids) are really good at figuring out where to go to get away with stuff. SoWal is a very easy target. They know it, word will be spread, expect it to only get worse.
 

Zebraspots

Beach Fanatic
May 15, 2008
840
247
Santa Rosa Beach
I am getting really tired of hearing that we can't enforce laws because it might offend tourists. We have these laws for a reason and offending people who view illegal activities as necessary for a good vacation is not a bad thing IMO!

This last week was hell and many activities I witnessed were not just spring break hijinks but potentially deadly and dangerous.

Every time I saw a cop they were actively doing something or racing off to another call, they just needed more of them.

Dogs on the beach is a nuisance, kids riding bikes down the middle of 30a after dark and drunk kids cruising 30a and 98 hanging out of speeding vehicles are real problems.
 
Last edited:

Dawn

Beach Fanatic
Oct 16, 2008
1,203
519
I am getting really tired of hearing that we can't enforce laws because it might offend tourists. We have these laws for a reason and offending people who view illegal activities as necessary for a good vacation is not a bad thing IMO!

This last week was hell and many activities I witnessed were not just spring break hijinks but potentially deadly and dangerous.

Every time I saw a cop they were actively doing something or racing off to another call, they just needed more of them.

Dogs on the beach is a nuisance, kids riding bikes down the middle of 30a after dark and drunk kids cruising 30a and 98 hanging out of speeding vehicles are real problems.


I don't necessarily disagree with you but I think the basic problem is too many people, not too few cops.

No offense just curious what your occupation is, what is the main reason you live in SoWal, and when are you going to Austalia as your signature states?
 

hippiechick

Beach Fanatic
Oct 1, 2006
275
54
Seagrove Beach
I sense alot of hostility in these posts. Lets put blame, if that is what we are doing here, squarely on the shoulders of the people responsible for the Mayhem we endure during Tourist Season, that being the TDC. Build it and they will come. Well it worked, and now we are paying for all the problems associated with large groups of ordinary people on vacation, having a blast and over indulging in lack of manners, lack of respect, lack of good sense, in an area designed and for fewer people with inadequate infrastructure to handle it all. I personally as a local living on 30A, am sick of tired of dodging kids and families on their bikes darting across roads, am tired of listening to foul mouth kids on the beach and the beer cans they leave behind. So should I go somewhere else to live? Probably, but I love it here. So what do you do, you put up and shut up because there is nothing you can do.
 
New posts


Sign Up for SoWal Newsletter