Drinking your tax dollars away in NSB while jobs lost

Create: Tue, 01/03/2012 - 20:42
Author: Bob Tolley

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- As NSBNews.net has pointed out, our wonderful city has outdone itself yet again, spending $13,250 for a New Year's Eve party on Flagler Avenue while many of our citizens sit at home worried about the rent money, and all too many others in the parks, in the dark, with little or no food to eat or a bed to sleep in.

When are these taxpayer-supported events that do nothing more than support the bars going to stop? Isn't that the responsibility of the business owners on Flagler Avenue? The CRA money is supposed to enhance blighted areas -- not support a drinkfest that benefits the few businesses that don't want to invest more of their own money.

While on the subject of drunkenness, why were the party revelers allowed to walk up and down Flagler while openly  drinking? If citizens in other parts of the city did that, they would be ticketed or worse. And why are the citizens having to foot the bill for two NSB police officers having to sit on Flagler babysitting the party-goers and drunks, while the rest of the city is patrolled by two or three others at most?

Why shouldn't the bars/businesses be mandated to provide their own private security out of their own pockets? This is the "charm" that our elected and appointed officials talk about? What a joke!

As for the other sham called the Loop, the only loop in New Smyrna Beach today is the one that goes from the taxpayers' wallets into the pockets of the cronies, who in turn take care of our elected officials. These same elected officials stay in power by doing their bidding while ignoring the real-world problems like the dozens of jobs that will be lost with Kmart closing.

Wake up New Smyrna Beach!

Until the next time,
Bob Tolley

Previous coverage for "Show Me the Money: New Smyrna Beach"

NSBNews.net has embarked on the most definitive journalism project ever published regarding power and influence in New Smyrna Beach with "Show Me The Money: New Smyrna Beach." Our Investigative Reports series is two years in the making with more than 100 stories and dozens of videos. We'll show you why New Smyrna Beach is at a crossroads as it strives to compete in a 21st century marketplace with a contradictory branding campaign fueled by a network of private interests, bloated municipal salaries and a public money machine that in essence has created a government within a government.

Segment 1: New Smyrna Beach taxpayer money benefiting Mayor Adam Barringer's new restaurant/bar in Maitland
 
Blog: "Show Me the Money" drawing big audience
 
Blog: Deceptions and realities not so difficult to see
 
Segment 2: New Smyrna Beach Mayor Adam Barringer opens his restaurant in Maitland ahead of schedule http://www.nsbnews.net/content/407927-new-smyrna-beach-mayor-adam-barringer-opens-his-restaurant-maitland-ahead-schedule
 
Blog: Need to help poor in New Smyrna Beach far more real than glitz of artificial Christmas tree on Canal Street

Segment 3: New Year's party on Flagler Avenue in New Smyrna Beach draws 2,000; fireworks less than 6 minutes
 

NSBNews.net is Florida's first fully-online 24/7 Internet newspaper launched April 7, 2008, and based in New Smyrna Beach. It is led by award-winning journalist Henry Frederick and award-winning blogger Peter Mallory with emphasis on breaking news, news of record and investigative reporting here and across the Sunshine State.