Gulfport Pays Kipps Colony $22,500 for FEMA Efforts

GULFPORT- The city will reimburse the Kipps Colony I and II homeowner’s associations for the money spent getting FEMA to revise the flood zones in that area. The city benefited from the efforts of the associations, who spent $22,500 to get FEMA to remap the flood zone.

http://www.thegabber.com/Stories_July_December_2010/072210/kipps.html

“Physalia is half-boat, half-building, and all green. This mammoth aluminum concept by Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut is meant to travel Europe’s rivers, making filthy water drinkable. At the same time, the ship generates more energy than it uses.

A coat of titanium dioxide paint brushed onto the silvery shell will neutralize pollution by absorbing ultraviolet rays, enabling a chemical reaction that decomposes organic and inorganic toxins. (It’s the same technology used in certain high-tech concrete that breaks down airborne particulates.) As the vessel whips along, purifying waterways, it can draw on both solar and hydro power. Turbines under the hull transform water movement into electricity, and rooftop photovoltaic cells harness energy from the sun. The roof doubles as a nursery, whose carefully selected plants help filter river gunk, whether from the Thames, Rhine or Euphrates. “

http://www.popsci.com/node/46262/?cmpid=enews062410

The beach is empty, comparatively speaking, to most beaches in the surrounding area. The only demographic that would come to the beach to spend money is a younger crowd with cars which leaves you with all the problems associated with that segment of the population.

Gulfport does not have the property to operate a concession business beach similar to Salisbury, Hampton or Myrtle Beach, nor do they have the parking space or the desire for that matter.

The occasional “Event Driven” attractions is all our parking space can accommodate. The bimonthly parking intrusion into the residential neighborhoods and the overtime for our city employees is all that we can handle.

Which brings us to projects like the Mooring Field, which extends our parking and attracts a demographic that has their own living space. They also have money to spend without requiring the noise level to exceed 100 decibels. Perfect! Except when they designed the plan they placed it off the beach head instead of where the boat belong, where the boat are now.

I’m sure they had their reason for moving it from the east side of Gulfport to the Casino, but in doing so, they intruded into the only attraction the David Hearne has point too.

The future doesn’t look good for power boating or the need for mooring fields, so I suspect that idea will need to be revisited, which leaves us with “Event Driven activities for now.

Gulfport has one thing to sell: the water. It’s currently being enjoyed by people who drive up in station wagons, unload stuff they brought from home, and then leave us with the garbage having spent not a dollar in this town. Why does this happen? Because our “old” city fathers (age and sex not limiting) either have never been to a living beach town, or don’t like them. They want Gulfport to be exactly what it is: quiet and poor, but mostly quiet so they can go look at it through the window of their car. That needs to change.

Festivals schmestivals. And to that I would add “upscale schmupscale”. Who ever heard of a beach town that doesn’t have a hot dog stand and cotton candy? Who ever heard of a beach town where you can’t rent a jetski, a Hobie, or other water oriented activities? Jetskis and Hobies are actually pretty upscale, you don’t see a lot of crackheads with a 40oz on a Hobie.

But seriously, stop the feast or famine mentality and go for things which are proven winners: concessions. Concessions generate steady revenue to the city while placing the real risk where it belongs: on the entrepreneur. But you have to have places to rent to collect the rents.

My understanding, from just a few conversations, is that there are promoters with sources to deep pockets looking for good venues. Of course, when done properly, everybody makes a ton of money. They’re not looking to donate a bunch of money to a town like Gulfport as a charity out of kindness, they see big potential themselves. So it becomes a win-win for all involved. That’s why I worded it as “hosting” a large festival.

The guy I talked with said even they stopped doing the Seafood Festival in Everglades City, 70 thousand people would still show up that weekend. If I remember correctly, he also said that festival puts close to a quarter million in the city’s bank account every year.

If the city is open to the idea, there is help available to put something together. It is an opportunity that may or may not come by again.

How about, “Gulfport Bluegrass Festival” to start?

We lack the hospitality industry for large-scale events, and the stores really don’t have the products that would interest a Motorcycle enthusiast, though you could park more bikes in our small parking spaces.

Something water oriented perhaps, kites, sail-kites, water planes, parasailing, model speed boat races or a fashion show. Car shows really don’t bring in any money, from my experience, but maybe something High-tech—smart phone convention or contest sponsored by AT&T T-Mobile and Verizon, HTC, Blackberry, Apple, create a controversy with WiFi phones that won’t reach the shoreline. No-Bars on the beach…my Samsung is better than your Sony-Ericsson. Wine Tasting, Home Made Beer (Micro Brewery) Bash.

Robots that pick up oil ball convention, green tea drink-a-thon.

I think we could use a Citywide WiFi network to attract many people. High-Tech game weekends. Book Signings on the beach.

Best bar tender blowout, with a sponsored prize.

I think this is a great idea! St. Pete has first friday and the public is allowed to enjoy alcohol in the streets of downdown in certain areas. Now there are always problems when people overindulge in alcohol and act stupid, but incidents like that are few. Why can’t we make every art walk like first friday? It could draw more people (a plus for the businesses) and the city could open up the casino and sell food, alcohol or whatever.

Also, if the beach businesses get bent out of shape over the city selling booze, why can’t the city sell permits to beach business for sidewalk vending of alcohol on a by event basis. The city would then make a little money off of the permitting. ($100 an artwalk, times 2 a month, times 12 months is 2$400 per business per year. I think a business would make more than that in sales during the events for the year)

I think the hardest thing would be to get sponsors who would be willing to spend a little money on this.

Seafood Festival? ( I think Gport actual had one when I was a kid in the 80′s. I remember lots of folks attended)

Bike Fest? (May be noisey but would definately draw a crowd.)

I’ve been discussing this very idea with a few people around town and here is what I am told:

1.) “The city will NEVER allow a two-day festival.”

I don’t buy this at all, even if it is true today. With some planning I have no doubts this could be worked out.

2.) “We do not have the parking for that many people.”

Again, with some logical planning this could be worked out. Towns with seemingly less available parking figure out how to do it and even make money from it.

3.) “The city will never allow beer sales on the street.”

Kind of silly to me as this is one of the most profitable ways for a city to make a nice chunk of cash.

4.) “The restaurants would be upset that the city is selling beer on the street taking away their business.”

If the city packed the streets with out-of-town visitors for two days, it would be the best weekend of the year for all of our restaurants and nobody would be complaing about losing business. In fact, our local businesses would look forward to it happening again.

5.) “The police would not be able to keep people from camping on the beach if there was a two-day festival.”

I don’t think the police would have much trouble preventing that from happening. And if they did, fines and tickets are always a good revenue source for a city.

6.) “We don’t have the lodging for a mass of people.”

This would be a great opportunity for the beach hotels and resorts to be involved and participate in promoting a festival.

7.) “Some locals would fight the idea of a large festival in Gulfport.”

Yes there would be some, but there are always some people who will fight any idea, regardless of of the benefits.

And so on…

Realistically Gulfport could become a town known for great festivals, and we already have a growing reputation for small ones and we all do love our current festivals. The difference is the scale. Now we do them on a shoestring without major sponsors or outside help.

If the city was open to a large two-day festival, I know for a fact that we would have available outside help with a lot of experience. Maybe a Bluegrass Festival? We would definitely have access to big name bands and great resources to help make it happen. It has been suggested to me by a promoter of large successful festivals in small towns across the country that Gulfport would be perfect venue. He came to visit and fell in love with our town. His words to me when he left was that if the city was open to the idea, he’d eagerly help put it together.

I tell you, I think it is a fantastic idea. Would Gulfport lose its cool small town charm? I know Telluride has not lost one iota of its small town charm and has several large festivals every summer. For one or two weekends a year Gulfport might be packed full of people spending a lot of money, but then afterwards we could enjoy the same lifestyle we love now with a little less worry about the budget.

Property values would increase too.