With City Manager Landon saying drivers are feeling harassed by red-light cameras, Mayor Netts losing faith in their original purpose and council member Bill McGuire proposing an outright referendum on the matter, the backlash against ATS’s cameras has become so strong that the council will next week discuss the possibility of eliminating them.
Business & Economy
A Film Studio Grows in Palm Coast: 10th Voyage Nurtures Zombies and Ambitions
Operating from a plain-looking office complex in Palm Coast’s Hargrove Grade, 10th Voyage Studio is the creation of three young men–Patrick Appolonia, Scott Nance, and Lenny Mosco–who believe that the days of bigness in film-making are over: they’re poised to make technology and versatility pay in a city with little competition.
Single-Family Home Permits Up 29% in 1st Quarter as Construction in Palm Coast Churns
Some 126 construction permits were issued for single-family homes in Flagler County in the first three months of the year, 88 of them in Palm Coast and 34 in the unincorporated part of the county.
Farewell To Bookstores:
Why I Won’t Miss Books-A-Million
The closure of Books-A-Million is not as bad as it sounds: the chain bookstore was not living up to its billing as a cultural hub, and bookstores these days are becoming irrelevant thanks to Amazon, audio books and Google, which make the world’s libraries immediately accessible at a click.
Flagler Unemployment Creeps Up Again, to 9.4%, But Labor Force and Net Jobs Grow
Flagler County’s unemployment rate again rose in February, to 9.4 percent, a decimal-point increase over the previous month and some 80 more people went on unemployment. But The county’s overall employment went up sharply, by 364 (for a total of 31,976), and the county’s labor force went up even more, by 442–both signs of growing strength in the local economy as more workers seem encouraged to join the labor force, and more workers are actually finding jobs.
The End: Palm Coast’s Books-A-Million, Flagler’s Only General-Interest Bookstore, Is Closing
Books-A-Million in Palm Coast on Wednesday announced an everything-must-go sale ahead of closure, ending the town’s very brief romance with a bookstore larger than an attic. The company lost money in 2013. There is no known replacement for the store, a mainstay of the Target shopping center.
Marketing 2 Go, Palm Coast Pioneer in Social Media, Celebrates 4 Years in Business
It was four years ago this month that Cindy Dalecki launched Marketing 2 Go, her own start-up in the emerging but often intractable world of social media–a world almost everyone needs, especially in business, but few understand, and fewer still can navigate to their advantage.
Palm Coast Scrambles To Right Its Way After Discovery That Bulldog Drive Is a County Road
Palm Coast has never owned Bulldog Drive, a county road since 1956, though the city is widening the street, has acquired land alongside it and has engaged in an epic battle with business owner Gus Ajram as if the right of way were Palm Coast’s. City and county are speeding toward formalizing the city’s ownership.
Palm Coast’s Entrepreneur Night Taps Into a Diversity of Niches, Pollinating Local Business
In its two years on the Palm Coast business scene, Ky Ekinci’s monthly Entrepreneur Night has grown from a gathering of 20 people who knew each other to an event that consistently draws more than 100 people from all walks of business.
Ailing Palm Harbor Shopping Center Poised To Revitalize Itself as Bigger Island Walk
The remaking of Palm Harbor shopping center as Island Walk, with more and bigger stores in the old but semi-vacant heart of Palm Coast, has broad support despite a few unanswered questions, among them the likelihood that the shopping center will have enough tenants to fill the new space.