"Say you don't know me or recognize my face -- Say you don't care who goes to that kind of place. Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight -- Too many runaways eating up the night. Marconi plays the mambo, listen to the radio -- Don't you remember? We built this city -- We built this city on rock and roll..."
-- "We Built This City," No. 1 hit song in 1985 by Starship from the album, "Knee Deep in the Hoopla," that also featured two more No. 1 singles: "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" and "Sara."
By Henry FrederickDAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Twenty-one years after Mickey Thomas and Grace Slick of Starship rocked the World's Most Famous Beach before tens of thousands of college Spring Breakers during the heyday of MTV, it's 74-year-old County Chair Ed Kelley who was now knee deep in the hoopla in leading the cheers for a Hard Rock Hotel on the beach, but at a price.
What's the sacrificial lamb? A further reduction in beach driving, which goes against pledges made by then-candidate Kelley during the 2016 election cycle, in which he repeatedly stated he would not make further cuts in beach driving, which currently stands at only 17 miles left of drivable stretches of the nearly 49 mile-long Volusia County coastline. This latest action, today reduced it by at least another nearly 500 feet.
And he was not not alone. The controversial hotel approval saw unanimous passage, with two other newcomers having pledged as well during the campaign not to further reduce beach driving: District 2's Billie Egger Wheeler of Daytona Beach Shores, who insisted during the campaign she was a strong proponent of beach driving, and Heather Post of District 4, who also campaigned in favor of leaving cars on the beach.
And as shocking as this sounds, even Joyce Cusack, the lone vote from the previous council to vote against two hotel projects that would have reduced beach driving by a mile, was willing to reconsider her position and did just that.
After all, hotel and hospitality contributors certainly helped the politicians in their campaign messages: Post was the recipient of $12,000, Kelley received $7,000 and Wheeler about $2,500, but all three newbies told Headline Surfer the campaign contributions did not influence their votes in favor of granting the developers the time needed to finish the project. In the end, the vote was unanimous with Chairman Kelley kneed deep in the hoopla himself praising the virtues of the project and reminding everyone that his son, Brian Kelley, of the country duo, Florids-Georgia Line, could end up performing at the Hard Rock some day.
And wouldn't that be a sight, but the crowd, of course would be nowhere the size of the MTV concerts back in the Big '80s when the World's Most Fanous Beach had tens of thousands of Sprimg Breakers here for concerts featuring Starship, Mr. Mister, Vixen and many others. Cars or no cars, thodse days are long gone.