Drinking your tax dollars away in NSB while jobs lost
Posted Tue, 2012-01-03 21:42
By BOB TOLLEY
Blog
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.
About the Blogger
Bio: Bob Tolley is a resident of New Smyrna Beach and a regular attendee at NSB City Commission meetings. He is chairman of the Public Watch Committee, which worked with NSBNEWS.net to hold three successful citizen candidate debates for the 2009 election season. E-mail him at bobtolley@nsbnews.net.
Comments
NSB Drinking your tax dollars.
Aren't the owners of the businesses on Flagler Ave. taxpayers to NSB? And probably most of the revelers were as well. Often when a city holds a festival they allow people to go from place to place carrying a drink as long as they stay in certain areas. Did anyone check to see if the two officers were on duty at the time of the event or were they hired by the businesses to work off duty as an extra job to keep the peace. Oh by the way,private security or "rent a cops" would have to call on duty officer to take care of most problems anyway.
Oh wait!!! There are people in this burg that are unemployed,just like everywhere else in Florida. If those businesses on Flagler Ave. went under,how many people would be without jobs,not only at the bars and restraunts but also with the suppliers to these businesses.
As for K-Mart, it was losing money!!!!! In order for the company to survive, it has to rid itself of the dead wood, which it is doing,live with it and go to Walmart just down the road.
Just to let you know,NSB is and always has been a tourist town, the financial engine that runs this burg is tourism. These sort of festivals,like them or not bring much needed dollars into town. Like it or not,that's the way it is and always has been. Live with it !
Editor's Note: The city does not allow the carrying of open alcohol containers from place to place as the commenter above claims. At some festivals, they allow the serving or consumption of alcohol within a designated roped off area in front of the bar establishment with alcohol served and consumed strictly on premises. As for the loss of jobs, let's be real: Flagler Avenue is right there at the beach and benefits heavily from that location. The rub for taxpayers is not the festivals, but public monies being used to subsidize bar owners through the CRA instead of addressing blight. The police were assigned to the Flagler Avenue festival locale by the department.
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