Term limits are eroding the power of the network, which is why people are being arrested.
Next to lawns, the swimming pools on waterfront property have to be almost as annoying. Why live on the water if you want to swim in a pool? Irrigation and swimming pools are great if your goal is mosquito breeding and raising the humidity.
]]>i came back for the beaches. more than once [i think this is my 4th sojourn here since the mid-70s].
i’m not a fan of taking care of grass anyway, but lawns on the beach?! those people drive me nuts. i’d rather pick sandspurs out of my dog’s coat [and he’s got a lot of coat] than mow [or water] grass.
one of the few things i miss about living up north are the rosa rugosa hedges growing [mostly] wild on the beaches there. feral roses, feral cats, stray dog… i seem to have rather narrow tastes now that i think about it.
]]>Funny you should mention lawns — that’s one of the things that is often rattling around in my head when I get steamed about beach development. My last extended stay here was in 1990 – 1992 and I went a little batshit when I saw that multiple golf courses had been built on Panama City Beach. WTF? Not to mention the lushly watered turf lawns around (then) new condos in the Grayton Beach area. I’ve heard that Deer Point Lake, still the main water reservoir for the PC area, has shrunk to the point that a lot of cypress roots are exposed and local wells have had to be drilled deeper to tap the shrinking aquifer. Insane is definitely the first word that comes to mind. There are times I feel like one of those guys in a Carl Hiassen novel who just go round the bend from the sheer perversity of it all.
]]>The town would complain if it wasn’t cut.
All the lawns do is create stinking [literally] algae blooms which deplete the oxygen in the bayou.
]]>Hah!! I been sayin’ that for decades Bryan! You iz slow sumtimes m8! π π (Yeah… I’m just in a weird mood today. Probably loss of blood, had some more pathology tests done today. It’ll pass and I’ll be back to my grumpy old self!) π
Welcome paintedjaguar! Bryan’s home the the ‘net is a good place to be, and he’s a kind sharing soul! I just realized I been annoying him almost 3 years now! Wow… Patience of a Saint m8! π
Under the general banter from the regulars, you’ll find us mostly kindred spirits on *the important things* π
And it is very sad to see what’s happening, even from where I am. π
]]>Actually, the worst offenders these days seemed to have moved here from the MidWest, while the locals have mellowed out. The hardcore Kluxers are still around, but they are being supported by kindred “souls” from Indiana and Ohio, you know – “real Americans”.
My Dad was stationed at Eglin and then retired here. I came back to look after my Mom, and I really hate what has happened to the local waters as a result of “lawns” and other lame ideas. They come down for the beach and the first thing they do is put grass over it?! People are truly insane.
]]>I was an Air Force brat who got stuck in Panama City when my dad retired to his home town. I also lived in Pensacola before I left the area. Never liked it here but did appreciate the natural beauty and (to some extent, anyway) the good parts of living in a backwater. Visiting family, I’ve seen some of the transformations over the past several decades and now I find myself back here.
It seems to me that this area, like most of the South, has been overtaken by all the evils of development without losing any of the mean-spirited, backwards, plantation mentality that I disliked so much as a child. What’s more, those attitudes have been exported to the rest of the country so there’s no getting away from it anymore. Or maybe that’s just the way things look from where I’m sitting — I’m often reduced to frustrated ranting nowadays. Anyway, I’ve enjoyed finding your blog.
]]>He’s on the barrier island, so the land belongs to the county and is leased. Only the segments of the island belonging to the Feds are kept undisturbed. Unfortunately the counties have all been pushing development.
Down around Panama City most of the land belongs to St Joe Paper, and they have pushed development.
I graduated from elementary school in Okaloosa County in 1958 before heading off to bases around the world, and I am really unhappy with what happened, but the military has protected some of the beach, although hurricanes have taken and replaced the dunes several times since I came back in 1990.
Outside of Eglin AFB, the sand and the Gulf are what we have. Anything that messes with either one is a major problem. Even Okaloosa County understands it. There is no red clay allowed anywhere near a beach, which really frustrates builders and road crews. Your flour isn’t sifted as well as the sand used for beach replenishment projects which makes that white sand a good deal more expensive than potting soil in small bags.
In the old days the only things built near the beach were fishing shacks, because it was assumed that the next hurricane would take them. Old timers thought people were crazy when they came down and started building near the water, instead of on the higher ground well back.
Those condos on the barrier island do make a nice sea wall for those of us inland a ways. Without them the storm surge would come right over the island and flow further inland. They are ugly but useful.
]]>It didn’t have to happen that way. If the people who live here believed in anything beyond unchecked greed, further building on the gulf side of Hwy-98 would have been prohibited years ago, by eminent domain purchase if necessary. Height restrictive zoning would have helped too. Neither of these measures would have blocked economic development.
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