Daytona and New Smyrna need to explain CRA blight going for street parties and bars

Headline Surfer snapshot graphic / With beach parking at a premium, check out the wasted parking spaces in front of the newly redone Flagler Avenue Boardwalk parking lot on the beach itself in this April 21 beach cam where motor vehicles are not allowed. All that means is when cars come down the ramp and turn right, there are sunbathers ready to be picked off. Every available space in the parking lot above the beach is taken -- sometimes for an entire day.

By DARLENE VANN
Headline Surfer
Musings

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- I see the CRA is in the news again. Daytona seems worried that they won’t get their fair share to put into their “blighted” beachside and New Smyrna Beach is putting a lot of CRA money into bars. Huh?

Do these CRA expenditures fit the term blight to you?  

And New Smyrna Beach is scrambling to find parking on their beachside in the Flagler Avenue area.

I wonder why instead of revamping the street (which ended up with even less room to drive along than it had before they beautified it) they didn’t use those funds to make more parking spaces somehow, build a parking garage or buy some land to have a parking space in the future?

First, they charged to drive on the beach, then they limited the places you could drive, they stopped people from parking in front of the parking area at Flagler and the ocean so people have to drag all their stuff down the steps and back up again when leaving. Now they are considering charging for that parking as well.

Many people prefer to park and walk down to avoid the fee for beach parking. Now what will those people do, stop coming to New Smyrna Beach? It’s a distinct possibility. Driving away the beachgoers is not going to help the city.

I really wish the City of New Smyrna Beach would look up the word blight and see what it actually means and use the funds properly.

Blight does not include spiffing up bars or throwing parties at CRA expense so a select few people can drink themselves into oblivion often times with their kids in tow. It’s a shameful thing going on with CRA funds.

Blight does not include spiffing up bars or throwing parties at CRA expense so a select few people can drink themselves into oblivion often times with their kids in tow. It’s a shameful thing going on with CRA funds.

I really wish the City of New Smyrna Beach would look up the word blight and see what it actually means and use the funds properly.