One group’s boon is another’s blight.
The St. Augustine City Commission addressed mounting resident frustration over the scale and scope of the annual Nights of Lights celebration at a meeting Monday.
While the event serves as a vital commercial lifeline for local businesses and their staff, Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline said the thickening throngs are becoming untenable.
“We hear what the community is saying,” she said. “And we want a livable city. We still want to be able to live in a real city. This is a real city. It is not Disneyworld. People really live here. we have to be able to live here.”
Sikes-Kline noted that this year’s crowds were likely augmented by an extra $400,000 in marketing materials targeting those within driving distance of St. Augustine.
While that campaign sent registers ringing, Sikes-Kline said she witnessed big city-style gridlock for the first time.
“It was intense,” she said. “It was intense. And what I saw different this time was gridlock. Usually you have gridlock that moves. There’s moving cars. They move very slowly. This time they did not move. We are dangerously close to over-tourism.”
Commissioner Barbara Blonder said she has been inundated with constituent gripes this year, and personally waded into the bedlam to better understand the grievances.
“The traffic was so bad,” she said. “People were so frustrated that it was chaos.”
Blonder said that additional funding will be required to adequately manage the annual deluge — and that local taxpayers should not bear the burden.
“We’ve got to do something about Nights of Lights,” she said. “It’s great for businesses. That’s great. I’m definitely supportive of businesses. But not at the cost of our taxpayers who are footing the bill and not at the cost of our quality of life.”
Blonder urged county-level officials to re-position some monies that support the popular event.
“I want to see the county step up and not spend all the money on trying to get more tourists here and help us,” she said. “Help this city with the costs that the taxpayers are shouldering.”
Sikes-Kline suggested that ad campaigns target overnight travelers instead of the fudge and flee demographic.
Those visitors, she said, would patronize local hotels and restaurants as opposed to more snack and sweets-oriented vendors.
But local business owner held up the other side of the coin at Monday’s meeting, telling the panel that this year’s event was an inarguable success — and filled up coffers for both business owners and their employees.
“I want to commend the city for handling Nights of Lights so well,” Scott York said. “It is an amazing boost to the economy.”
He said political support for the event ensures that “our businesses and our citizens can survive the rest of the year.”
The City Commission will tackle the matter further once the event ends and an official report on this year’s numbers is compiled.
12 Responses
As a local resident that works on the island and lives on the mainland just getting to and from work every day is an absolute struggle. For the most part, I avoid downtown during nights of lights therefore, I don’t go to any of the bars, don’t go to any of the restaurants or the stores downtown because of the traffic gridlock and the nightmarish parking. I actually hate nights of lights because of this.
Same here. I will actually go out of my way to cross the 312 bridge and go around downtown to go home. The city was not built to handle this level of traffic. While having shuttle buses helps, I heard reports that in some cases, riders had an hour’s wait as the buses could not get through the gridlock.
We avoid our downtown area nearly the entire holiday season. However, we are to the point where we avoid downtown several times during the year because of the traffic. And yes, we do feel more and more like St. Augustine has become a tourist attraction and not the lovely seaside town it was just a few years ago. I fear that residents are no longer welcome in their own town.
Ya’ll have got to be kidding me. I don’t own a business, but I live here and love nights of lights. I use the 312 bridge (no big deal) and stay out of town during the evenings. Piece of cake. What we have is NOT gridlock. Try Atlanta at 5 pm. That’s gridlock. I hope nights of lights grows stronger next year. We live in a wonderful place.
I don’t think the problem is the event itself, it’s the lack of parking and the fact that vehicles keep getting bigger every year, making parking a nightmare. Of course getting around is difficult when there’s a thousand giant trucks and SUV’s everywhere. We need another parking garage maybe on the corner of king street and us1. Scooter rentals would be great and a bike path that connects 214 downtown would be incredible. The town needs to embrace old world traditions and stay walkable/bikeable. The less cars downtown the better.
One thing that City Officials and residents should realize is that EVERYWHERE in Florida is busy between Christmas and New Years. Stop and think about it for just a moment, aloner everyone so off of work, out of school and nobody wants to be up North in the cold. So where do they come for a vacation? Florida. I grew up in Orlando, it is the same way there during that 2 week period.
I agree that marketing should be adjusted towards the overnight visitors and encourage people to visit on any other day than Saturday. Many businesses beef up staffing during NOL and those employees benefit from extra shifts, hours and tips. Finding alternative transportation modes, encouraging people to park once and walk, bike, ride shuttles will go a long way towards making a difference. There is no way to eliminate all traffic and even without the light being on, people still want to come to this magical town we call home.
They need to offer the offsite shuttle parking more than one day a week. The parking at the health department is one lousy day a week. Big whoop-tee-do. As the event gets closer to Christmas, it should be offered multiple nights a week and several nights during the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
I was traveling US 1 going N and as I passed 312 I was stuck in traffic. I was in the R Lane. Traffic was pretty much at a holt. It took 2 hours just to get passed King Street. The poor delivery drivers couldn’t even get out of the parking lots. Emergency vehicles were having a difficult time also. If you think this is good for a small Town that’s a horrible thought. I’ve lived here all my life and this year was the worst I’ve ever seen it in December.
The winter season is why many employers are able to keep employees – many employees who work for tips make easily 1/3 of their annual income over a 2.5 month period and those who market their wares make 1/3-1/2 of their annual income during this time of the year. Without the influx, old town would be much different, and not in a good way. Most of the employees have to pay for their parking, do not live in the old town area and take these jobs because of what they can earn during this period.
It’s a problem the Commission has created. Going to be hard to unring that bell. They have to quit fantasizing that St Aug is a product to sell, it’s not. But regardless, I have to say that frustration isn’t the proper concept, we’re pissed off!
Mayor Kline hit the nail on the head. Quality of life is suffering for non-tourist/hospitality related residents and businesses. Think of the faculty, staff, and students of Flagler college who have to deal with this noise, traffic and drunken nonsense. Or the church goers who can’t find parking. Or the CPS parents who have to sit in traffic for an hour to pick up their kids. Or the Lincolnville residents who have witnessed historic homes repurposed into hotels (STR’s). Nights of Lights desperately needs a public/private overhaul.
We moved to St Augustine in 2003. Over that time we have witnessed a massive population growth in St Johns County. This growth has slowly eroded the small town/old Florida beach town quality of life that attracted us here in the first place. We use to enjoy going to the old city several times a month to shop and enjoy a meal. We rarely do that any more because of the traffic and the headache of parking. Remember the days when there was a heated debate about building the parking garage? Well, try and get into that garage at certain times. This growth has certainly impacted the Old City of St Augustine during the Night of Lights but it is becoming the same issue throughout the St Johns County. Our County Commissioners have said yes to just about every major development project. The growth that once was confined to the northern part of St Johns County has now moved south to areas like Pacetti Rd, Rt 208, Rt 204, Rt 207, Rt 13 and US 1. The once beautiful St Johns County countryside is now becoming a bedroom community for the City of Jacksonville. It has generated tremendous pressue on infrasturcture especially our road systems. The Night of Lights and many other yearly events have been a financial golden goose for those in the retail business but has eroded the quality of life for those who live here. Is there a balance? I think it is too late to solve that issue.