The Gulf is Great

Notice anything unusual about my beach photos? I spent the past week at the Gulf Coast and it was great… (for me). I can’t say the same for thousands of others who work there. I love a secluded beach, they don’t. I know the PR and marketing efforts have been churning out favorable beach forecast for the most part, but it has been confusing. Louisiana seems to have the biggest problem (from the newscast I’ve seen), but they really don’t have beaches there anyway, so, what’s the problem? Mississippi has been advertising a lot. They tout the fine beaches and no oil problems (of course the gambling industry has their agenda, too). Alabama doesn’t seem to have much of a beach problem, but, they either don’t have the money or the know-how to take advantage of the PR Buffett brought to the area.

That leaves Florida, the sunshine state. Last week there was plenty of sunshine, pristine beaches and ample room for people to spread out all over the place (at least from Destin to Apalachicola). We were thanked profusely by almost every shop owner and restaurateur we encountered (just for coming down).

Things will change, people will return and life will go on, but, there are many who will not make it. I saw empty buildings, vacancy signs everywhere and no lines at the restaurants we visited. We rented a boat on the morning we wanted to go out (they were never available that late before) and beach chairs were open from one end of the beach to the other. How can these people ever make up what has been lost.

As I have discussed before, the media is losing interest. If the capping goes well, we may not hear much about the Gulf Coast until another hurricane heads this way. Who’s stepping up and looking out for the future of the area? I’ve tried to get a multi-state forum and conference going to explore these areas, but, it seems each state is looking out for its own interest (understandable). Maybe this would be a good time for the new leadership at BP to step out in front of the issue and call for this type of meeting. It could go a long way in addressing the needs of the communities and of supporting BP’s need for positive public relations.