Community leader interview

I interviewed a family friend, April Gilligan, who currently runs a coffee shop and an online store for select items with her husbanded in Florida.

What do you think is the greatest thing about our community?

“The greatest thing about our community is the people. Everyone is so nice. We pull together is there is a crisis.”

What do you feel is the greatest challenge in our community?

“One of the biggest challenges in our community is city planning. There are not enough traffic lights and some of the intersections are dangerous. We have so much tourist traffic that they need to take a look at this.”

What is one thing that would make family life better in our community?

“One thing that would make our family life better not sure that is tough one. We love it here it is about the best place to live and raise a family. There is nothing like southern family life.”

Is there anything you see happening in the future that you are concerned about?

“There some politicians here that want to eliminate our beach as a spring break destination. I is one of our concerns here. For the most part spring breakers here are not bad. They spend a lot of money that the city would loose if they eliminated it.”

What is a new affordable service that would really help our community?

“We are also a large winter destination for older folks from up north. I think a good service to provide them with would be a mail forwarding service. It wouldn’t' take much to rent a building and for a fee they could use it as their address and you forward their mail where ever they may be traveling.”

What is a service that really needs to be improved?

“I think a service that could be improved is greater police presence during big events. This week is bike week and the bikers are showing up and I have not seen much security happing around the beach.”

Thoughts

People just want to feel safe and not just in that they know they wont get robbed but the what to feel safe economically as well. In a place that is dependent on tourists for income, laws that might not seem like that big of a deal can have a huge impact and turn a community upside down.