- April 25, 2024
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Dear Editor:
It was great hearing that the new mayor, David Alfin, recognizes, as he said, that “the parking code has served the city well in the past 20 years, reinforcing the curb appeal of our neighborhoods and contributing to the value of our homes.”
Hopefully, we can continue, as the signs say all around Palm Coast, to “keep Palm Coast beautiful.” We just need everyone to follow the other restrictions in the tiny 12-page booklet.
One of the main restrictions not being adhered to is trash pails, recycling bins and debris on driveways being kept out of sight! If you don’t have any idea about the booklet — which most people don’t because most real estate agents don’t tell you, as I confirmed by my own research when I asked many, many new people who have moved here — I suggest going online or going to the Code Enforcement office and ask for a booklet.
Pat Barile
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
The great commercial-vehicle-in-the-driveway controversy is just one of the city code’s little rules, inspired by homeowners associations, that reflect the irresistible urge to control one’s neighbors. But it may be overdue for reconsideration, as follows:
Are those who devote their lives to running other people’s lives (often in the name of “property values”) aware that the commercial vehicles they find so offensive are used to do the work (such as mowing lawns and cleaning pools) that maintains those property values? Let those lawns grow to the sky and those pools turn into swamps. See what happens to those property values then!
Are those who would tolerate commercial vehicles only if they are somehow hidden away (can a vehicle feel shame?) aware of the following?
That the great commercial parking lot in the sky (where apparently all those things which offend one’s sight supposedly go to hide) is, like the elephant’s graveyard, a figment of the imagination;
That the garages bequeathed us in Palm Coast are more suitable for holding kiddie cars with pedals than any serious adult vehicles (which is one reason why people fill their garages up with stored items instead);
That a big tarpaulin is at least as ugly as a big commercial vehicle or trailer? Alas, Star Trek’s fabled Romulan cloaking device is, as yet, unavailable.
Are those people who would enlist the city to bully their neighbors in the interest of a “beautiful” Palm Coast with high property values aware that achieving this surface “beauty” tends to encourage below the surface an ugly prejudice toward many of its citizens?
Are property-value guardians aware that other people (including workers with commercial vehicles/trailers) just might value their property, too, but are not scandalized by a working neighbor (and also might just have better manners than to harass their neighbors, or have the city do it for them)?
Some Palm Coasters seem to have more respect for property values than people values. That is the exact reverse of good sense.
Esthetics are in the eye of the beholder, and for the city to impose its will on the owner on such a uniquely personal matter is to claim a power inimical to property rights and personal liberty. The proper role of democracy is to preserve individual liberties, not to destroy them.
Anthony Teague
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
Palm Coast City Council, what are you doing? By accepting all these housing constructions, you are ruining this town! How many more cars do you want to put on these roads? Traffic is already horrible on Palm Coast Parkway and worse around Palm Harbor; can’t you see this mess ?
You just don’t care about the people, the wildlife, or the beauty of this town.
We need to save our trees and not having more concrete around us. Please, do your job: Save the environment now.
Ghislaine Joiris
Palm Coast
