Dylan Gentile's personal blog on news in Defuniak Springs
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Friday, January 16, 2015
BOUTIQUE HAS BEEN OPEN FOR LIKE A MONTH, DID NOT NOTICE IT OPENED
So there is a new boutique downtown, lets say that for starters. Secondly, how did I not hear about this? Probaby because I wouldn't care. But anyways, given this is a small town this is about as newsworthy as it gets. A new boutique opened downtown on Baldwin Avenue. It sells high-end clothes and jewlery, at low end prices. There is a mannequin in the window that slightly resembles slenderman, and I find it slightly creepy, but that's just me. So to anyone in this town who could actually afford their own clothes and jewlery, you should visit this place and buy things there, I'm sure you'll be satisfied with whatever life you have after visiting. They guarantee it.I have never been there but to keep it consistent I'll give it a rating.
My rating of the new boutique I haven't been to:
3/5 creepy mannequins eyes follow you everywhere
GUY WHO MANAGES WHOLE CITIES MONEY IS GONE
Thursday, January 15, 2015
LOCAL SMALL TOWN HOUSEWIFE TURNS PROFESSIONAL BUSINESS WOMAN IN LESS THAN 6 HOURS
Local woman Kristi Mason (my mom) was just a mother with big dreams and small finances, and had wondered whether her 2-year business school education, massage licence, bar-tending licence and business experience would ever pay off, UNTIL 2pm this afternoon when she was invited to a job interview by a woman who she met at a community meeting her son was speaking at. Kristi had never known that being part of a community could actually be beneficial to herself. But the woman at the meeting spoke about how she had a program for sick individuals that had provided them with medical care and how they needed volunteers. Kristi called this woman and confirmed that this mysterious woman was interested in bringing her on board with the project. The next day Kristi got a call short-notice to let her know she had a job interview to show up at in an hour. Upon returning Kristi had announced that they had accepted her into the group and that she would start out as a volunteer massage therapist but that within the next 3 months could lead to a part-time full-paying job. Less than an hour afterwords she was invited by an investor to do a startup for a wellness center on 30A. Her and her husband Joseph Gentile, went to meet this investor at a pizza place next to a publix. The investor was serious and had money to show for it. From that point on Kristi has been in a state of shock as this has, undoubtedly been the best day of her life in the past 15 years.
My rating of Kristi Mason's life story part 4/7:
LOCAL MAN FINDS TIME PORTAL TO THE 1920'S
So a local showed me a place in the downtown area, just off of Baldwin avenue is a small store, but it's big on the inside. It's somewhat like a tartis but its official name is the little big store. When you're on the street you are like "why haven't I moved out of this town yet, where am I even going to work like really." but when you go into this store you're thinking "where in the heck am I?" You are in the 1920's. Antique tin toys litter the walls, strange foods and under-advertized gum cover the counters and it's all ridiculously cheap. After I went in I immediatley shoved a camera in this mans face and asked him all about the store. Having never seen this strange advanced camera before he had no idea how to respond. As he told me, the buildings was built in the 1850's and after a fire that wiped out the city it was rebuilt out of brick. The back of the building was meant to be a safe room but then the store closed and someone bought JUST that one room, knocked a hole in the wall and started an old fashioned general store.
my rating:
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
NEW STUDY REVEALS YOUNG PEOPLE HATE IT HERE
A study done by a student at Walton High School (me) where 40 random students of all classes were questioned on whether or not they planned to come back to the area after they graduated college, revealed that 38 out of the 40 said they would not. One yes was from a really pale kid with a mustache and a camoflauge jacket, and the other yes came from wattson in the local ROTC. When asked why, many replied that there were no professional jobs in the area, that there was a lack of oppurtunities, it was too boring, and that it was too small. When questioned on which cities they planned to go to the top responses were LA, NYC and downtown Orlando. My rating for this city:
MYSTERY OF THE MYSTERY KID IN THE MYSTERY AMBULANCE
BREAKING NEWS! A MYSTERIOUS AMBULANCE SHOWED UP AT WALTON HIGH SCHOOL AND PICKED UP A PERSON! WE HAVE EVIDENCE COMING IN FROM HAILEY KINSEY VIA FACEBOOK MESSAGE RIGHT NOW! SHE SAYS THAT A PERSON WAS PICKED UP AT WALTON HIGH SCHOOL AT AN UN-SPECIFIED TIME. IN MY OPINION SOMEONE DIED BUT PROBABLY NOT. ANYONE WITH EVIDENCE PLEASE EMAIL ME AT DUDETHEIGUANA@GMAIL.COM WITH ANY POSSIBLE EVIDENCE YOU MIGHT HAVE! THIS MIGHT BE A DEFUNAIK SPRINGS MURDER MYSTERY! (probably not)
Pizza place opens in old furniture store
First, to let me start off, FORGET YOU MOSSY HEAD WE HAS YO PIZZA NOW! The old pizza place in mossyhead is shut down for good! We took it! It's a dog-eat-dog world out there in local politics and pizza places are in low supply! The old furniture store downtown is now a pizza place! I haven't been there yet but I hear it's amazing! This is first class gourmet dining at mcdonalds prices here! I urge everyone to go! 4.5/ 5 stars
Local JROTC gets their own drone
Honestly, anyone who has not assisted in the liftoff of a flying robot can never be a real man. Or women. I'm not sexist plz don't think that.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
C-ity hall to C-vs?
Visitor from a world away mystifies local townsfolk with fancy talk
What is this strange creature? It's called a politician. For years locals had rumored this mythical creature to exist, but had no evidence to support their claims until now. It comes from a city so far away we never would have guessed it was a real place, we call it Jak-u-sun-vu-ill, or in fancy english talk, Jacksonville. Apparently within this city is a building which produces these creatures, it is famed to be over 2 stories tall, but is not a hotel or luxury condo complex. It is called the KA-U-PI-TUL. Or in fancy english, a capitol. This creatures name was Don Gaetz. The strange intruder into our tiny community just so happened to come in peace, and asked to talk to our (community) LEADER (s). We greatfully accepted this creatures requests and there were several complaints of another foreign species SIR-A- VAY- U- ERS (surveyors) that have been invading our native lands, and requested help from this strange creature from JAK-USON-UV-ILL (jacksonville) to fend them off. Another citizen said that the civilization within district one had needed to fend off a colony northword of the current location , in order to keep rights to the civilizations water supply. Lastly one more citizen that was slightly less mysterious came from a world even further away than
JAK-U-SUN-VU-ILL and was able to communicate effectivley with this strange organism, after which the creature complimented the strange citizen on being able to effectivley convey language at the minimum required rate for understanding.
Am I articulate still Mr.Gaetz ?
Saturday, January 10, 2015
CONVINCED VICE PRINCIPLE TO INSTALL BIKE RACKS
A month or two ago during gym class (which I hate) I saw the principal Mr.Hughes come in to observe us. I think it's slightly creepy personally that the school administration like stare downthe back of our necks during classes, but alas I took this as an oppurtunity to stop embarrassing myself in this class (I suck at literally everything atheletic) and get something done that I thought should've happened and talk to Mr.Hughes about new urbanism, reducing traffic on walton road and bikes. He was definiatley listening and more than interested in what I was saying. Then during lunch I saw Mr.Brown (vice principal) going into the teacher lunch room when I litterally jumped out of the chair under the lunch table and nearly fell over, ran over to him and asked him if the school had a bike rack ( I already knew but he didn't) and he ran outside to check. The lunch bell rang so I had to go to my creative photography class but that question must of haunted him or something because he came to me the next day and said they didn't have one. Every day after that, every time I saw him I asked him if he had ordered the bike rack, he always replied "we haven't yet but we will" But this last friday, after lunch, he told me he ordered it and it'd be here by monday. That's what annoying powerful people could get you, new bike racks. Maybe next I could get a whole lane for bikes?...
SCREW SANTA AN ASTRONAUT IS COMING TO TOWN!
THIS IS GREAT! OK I was at the special events committee at city hall, and each year we have a chautauqua thing, which basically brings intellectuals from across the region together for lectures, art galleries, wine tastings (I don't paticipate in that part no worries but I look forward to it) and basically everything the town doesn't usually have! So this dude named Chris Mitchell who works with the Florida Chautauqua met me the day after the meeting in the city managers office and we had a lengthy conservation about city design and new urbanism, but then I told him that I'm part of the Walton High School ROTC and he just stopped me right there. He said that there was an astronaut named Fred something coming to speak and he needed ROTC cadets to line the halls at the Chautauqua hall of brotherhood (Pictured above) to salute this guy as he walks in. I immediatley got this guys number, I was excited, nothing EVER happens in this town and now a freaking astronaut was coming! The next day at school I went to Colonel Gardener (My ROTC teacher), shoved a issue of the VISIT DEFUNIAK SRINGS paper with this astronaut on the cover in his face and gave him Chris Mitchell's number. I am going to ask him to call this guy everyday until he does because I AM NOT MISSING OUT ON AN OPPURTUNITY TO SEE THE GUY FROM APOLLO 13 WHO ALMOST DIED IN THE VOID OF SPACE!
TESLA BUILT CHARGING STATIONS IN TOWN
This is pretty self explanatory. On the very edge of the downtown Tesla built a charging station! :) I personally think this is a great step forward, and at the city coucil meeting only one old fart was against it and pretty much everyone else thought it was cool. This old fart was like " I know I'm just a simple farmer on the border of Alabama.." WE AREN'T EVEN ANYWHERE NEAR THE BORDER WITH ALABAMA! IT'S 50 MILES AWAY! Why do you even care! But then I realized he's the guy that owns the fruit stand on US 331 next to the piggly wiggly . But then again he's nowhere near the downtown why does he care? But anyways, I'd like to attribute this to the DBPA (Downtown Business and Professional assosiation), who has been trying to get new business into a dying downtown. What do I think would bring back the downtown? 2 words PUBLIC INVESTMENT. But that's beside the point. I think it's great that we have a tesla charging station, you go guys!
OMG GUYS I GOT THE CITY TO REMOVE THE "WHITES ONLY" SIGN
Okay guys, you heard it right. The water fountain next to the tennis court by live oak rd said "whites only", until I came along of course. My african american friend Alan Lane, who is also the commander of the local JROTC corps, on the way to pizza hut with me in the back of his pickup truck and his best friend who's name I can't remember in the passenger seat said that there was some fountain by the tennis court on live oak that said "whites only" on it. I said I didn't believe him so he took me to the fountain and I was like "oh crap". It was right across from councilman Kelly's house too. I promised him that something would be done and I stuck to it, mostly because I thought it was totally ridiculous that it still existed, and partly because Alan was about to buy me pizza. The next day I went to city hall and asked the director of public works to remove it, at which he replied "I'll look at it". A week later I checked and the "whites only" was still there, so the next day at city hall I told Lorretta Laird, the local city planner about it, she didn't even know this existed. She called public works and asked if they'd take a look at it, so apparently they did. The next day at school I showed all the teachers and students I could the picture on my phone and gave them the public works department number, so basicallly this was a small-scale organized political takeover. So after like a month of pressure from community activists (me and Shayne Betts), the public and city officials public works covered the words up with plaster! You could easily call me a social justice warrior now I suppose.
Legislator is visiting Defuniak, and I'm giving him a speech
So the title pretty much explains what I'm trying to say. On January 13th 5PM at the County Courthouse, our Florida legislator/ representative of our district Don Gaetz:
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Hello my name is Dylan Gentile, I am a student at Walton high school, JROTC cadet, academic team member, part of the Defuniak springs business and professional association, community activist, founder of the “New Urbanists of Defuniak Springs” organization and future city planner. You probably have heard of me senator as you sign my scholar awards every year and replied to one of my emails. ONE of them. Today I would like to speak to you about the importance of sustainable and pedestrian friendly development within the district and intensive smart growth policies. This may not appear as high on your list of priorities because you don’t exactly see lobbyists and protestors coming up to you and saying “ Mr. Gaetz we demand more compact walkable environments and policies that promote it in our district!” but I assure you that it is much more important than you might think.
what is walk-ability you might ask? It is the ability of a person to get from point A to point B within a community by walking. people who walk to shopping, schools, work etc. tend to be happier, healthier and actually save 8% of their income. (this is because the average American spends 8% of their income on transportation), and let’s be honest in this district it’s not exactly spent on a bus pass or a train ticket.
The average American also spends 4 hours a day in a car commuting from point A to point B. I am sure that’s even more in this district, because in almost every community that’s not Defuniak Springs in the district you absolutely need a car to get anywhere, think about it you get into your gas guzzling SUV, back out of your driveway, to the exit of the subdivision, drive on the collector road to the highway, wait in traffic, park in a massive concrete lot, stop at the local walmart to get the groceries for the whole week, get back on the hiway, drive to either (in the state of Florida) the office park or resort you work at, park in the giant concrete lot, go back onto the hiway, wait in traffic again, drive into the subdivision and into the driveway of your home.
This is apparently obvious in Niceville, south Walton, fort Walton, panama city, and Destin.
Before this unhuman pattern of development we had adopted you could walk out your door ask little jimmy to ride his bike to the local grocer to pick up dinner, to ask one of the neighbors a couple bocks down the tree-lined street for some eggs, and tell him to walk to the theatre downtown with the leftover money with his friends and see a movie, without worrying about little jimmy dying and crushed by a 1 ton piece of metal barreling down this road at 65 miles per hour, because the state permitted the speed limit to be higher even though it was in a mainly residential neighborhood because it was zoned mixed use and no one ever thought of what it would actually look like if you were on a ground level view and the DOT decided to add 3 more lanes .
This is a place no-one would ever attempt to walk in.
In fact it’s downright suicide to try to walk to school or work or to shops in places like this, in 1990-1994 in the state of florida 2,625 pedestrians were killed in fatal traffic incidents and 41,916 pedestrians were injured according to the Florida department of hiway safety and motor vehicles.
This is probably also why Florida’s obesity rate among adults is 26%
it’s because we spaced everything way further apart than it needed to be, provided no pedestrian or bicycle infrastructure, and legally required that each city be designed completely around the car.
This is downright negligence on behalf of the state and cities in which they occurred.
You see there are many things the state does that make it more difficult for cities to get proper infrastructure to support bikes and pedestrians, and makes it harder on local businesses on the two-lane roads with street trees that are a key factor in walkable communitiesand making it easier for places like walmart and mcdonalds on the sides of the 8 lane hiways splitting our community in half. Heck, it took several months just to get funding from the state for a sidewalk on 21st street here in town.
BUT THERE IS A SOLUTION TO THIS STATE-WIDE PLANNING CRISIS, it is called smart growth! Smart growth policies are policies that encourage higher density mixed-use developments, where streets have trees, bikelanes and sidewalks, where homes, apartments, offices, shops, schools and churches are all closer together and there are multiple modes of transportation to get from point A to point B, like trains or streetcars and not just cars! A great local example would be seaside, Florida. Back in say the 1850-1960’s this was the typical American town, but as cars and oil got cheaper we just demolished and spread over all the rural farmland and forests with giant hiways and subdivisions , this became the American dream, but now a new generation of young people is graduating college, and high school looking for jobs and places to live, but this generation’s version of the American dream is different than those of the former, they enjoy living closer to other people, prefer alternative modes of transportation over driving, and don’t want the big lawns and the picket fences, and as older generations pass away, the subdivisions and retirement communities begin to fade away and become abandoned while the walkable, multi-modal downtowns thrive and get bigger, communities are going to have to appeal to these new generations as to not fade into the history books.
Those retirement and subdivision communities make up the majority of the district, and as the price of living rises because of the wealthy developers on the coast, the poorest people will be forced to move away and as the people move away from the subdivisions and into the walkable inter-cities , these communities that make up the majority of the district will fade away too, but that doesn’t have to happen.
This is why, with large amounts of other reasons I don’t have time to talk about, I urge you to try and get more smart growth policies passed and urgently encourage cities in the district to start becoming more walkable and multi-modal. The smart growth America website has numerous numbers of policies adopted by states and cities that you could look at. Oh also I handed out surveys to all my teachers because I promised I’d at least get the issues they feel are important to them some attention from someone in the state government.
*READS TEACHER SURVEYS*
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