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Making Naples a Better Place

to Live Continues

Something Funny’s Going on Around Here

by Jeff Lytle
He has covered and commented on Collier County news since 1975.
espite zoning laws that seemed to community that produces no wine – just lots of philanthropic wine
forbid multi-story condo projects, lovers. Meanwhile, a more modestly-priced charity event, Empty
Ddevelopers once were so sure of Bowls, grew to attract huge crowds at Cambier Park, usually on the
winning ultimate approval they would proceed same date in January, to feed the hungry. Meals of Hope, the main
with construction, in full public view. Naples non-profit now funded by Empty Bowls, started life to feed
Some of the projects were tapered as they the poor in places such as Haiti. Now it feeds needy locals, with
reached skyward. How could neighbors object to something with meals of rice and beans, for example, heading home in students’
a “wedding cake” design? backpacks.
The scenario is small potatoes for Dave Barry and Carl It was oddly refreshing by today’s standards when Republicans
Hiassen, who have made careers out of writing in newspapers and worked closely with Democrats to draft rules for county
books about the oddities of Florida. commissioners (all Republicans) and high-ranking staff to avoid gifts
Join me on Memory Lane for odd things that have happened from developers and others who sought to curry fancy. The effort
around the usually prim and proper Naples area. had pushback from commissioners who wanted to keep gifts of golf
The name change from Naples Philharmonic Center of the outings, galas, meals and even cash as kindnesses from dear friends.
Arts to Artis-Naples surely caught us off-guard, especially when The ethics spotlight was well earned, following the indictment of
the classic original title seemed to work just fine. four county officials for seeking shares of an ambitious development
Still, it was a welcome step beyond the norm when Artis known as Stadium Naples, with elaborate 18th hole grandstands
booked Book of Mormon, a Broadway musical as profane and for pro events to promote the homes around it. Oddly, as columnist
blasphemous as it gets. Brent Batten first observed, the made-for-TV atmosphere would have
It was odd when sand being dredged onto Naples’ precious clicked without the corruption.
beaches for renourishment brought the shock of baseball-sized Batten also helps recall a Guinness world record set in 2000 in
rocks mixed in. Solutions actually bandied about included Everglades City–the world’s largest grilled cheese sandwich, befitting
enlisting youth scout groups to gather them up or asking residents the Cheese and Florida Cracker Festival. The sandwich measured 5’
to lug some home for their gardens. by 10,’ weighed 320 pounds and required two forklift trucks to flip it
Oddities abound at the Naples Pier. In the late 1950s and on the grill. Munchers got a souvenir button from the
1960s, against the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis, two Cabot cheesemakers.
full-fledged U.S. submarines docked there. Archives show a It was odd for a conservative county government to go all-in on a
newsmobile from WNOG-AM, which stood for Wonderful strange new sport, pickleball, with spectacular success.
Naples on the Gulf, on the job at the west end of the pier. It is odd to recall booming Central Naples was home to a horrible
It was odd in a vintage Naples way to have city officials install shantytown slum known as McDonald’s Quarters.
and then remove heavy-duty binoculars, to which tourists would Odd that Naples boasts not one but two Ritz-Carltons– on the
feed quarters, to protect beachfront residents from peeping Toms. same street.
Then again, city officials had time to fret about such things. Even more odd, some otherwise smart people in town feared the
They were and still are oddly immune from weightier issues first Ritz would spell doom for tourism, which beforehand marketed
confronting Collier County commissioners such as building jails modest, low-key, rustic lodging.
and roads. The list of oddities goes on and on, with why it was so hard to
Another shore thing: for decades we heard all about the achieve the efficiencies of fire service consolidation and why the
dangers of storm surge accompanying hurricanes. Only recently sudden switch to building apartments for rent instead of condos
did we experience first-hand what storm surge means, with cars for sale.
floating down Gulfshore Boulevard and massive destruction to Now … please tell me what I missed. And does anyone know the
buildings. name of the “wedding cake” condo on the east side of north-south
It is odd that the Naples Winter Wine Festival, one of the Gulf Shore Drive on Vanderbilt Beach?
biggest fundraisers of its kind in the world, takes place in a Jeff Lytle covered and commented on the Naples area from 1979 to
2014, when he retired as editorial page editor and TV host at the Naples
Daily News. Contact him at jlytle1951@gmail.com.

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