Things you rarely hear in the beach cities

"Forget property values."

"You know, one beautiful sunset is pretty much the same as any other."

"One or two mobile home parks would be a great way to give more people a chance to live here."

"We need a plan to bring more diversity to this area."

"Traffic is pretty heavy on the next block. Maybe we can do something on our street to bring some of those cars over here."

"SUVs are really just too big and wasteful."

"We need to find more ways to share our beaches with families from the inner city."

"What we really need is less parking."

"Ever wonder if the thousands of real estate agents working this small area are having a negative effect on the community?"

"Could it be that this is not the best place in the world?"

"Sure, I'd love a dog park, but it just makes more sense for me to tear down that unused bedroom and make my yard bigger."

"I would rather buy my coffee from an independent coffee house."

"The sun is great, but we could really use more rainy days."

"Development is really a problem, and I'm going to fight it right here on my property by not building a condo here."

(May 10, 2005)