Daytona's beachside has been undergoing improvements 'street by street, block by block.'

DAYTONA BEACH — Weathered and timeworn metal sign frame structures turned into colorful public art. Blighted back alleyways constantly littered with trash and junk finally cleaned up. Sun-baked traffic light poles getting fresh coats of black paint.

These are beachside projects tackled by city government workers over the past few years.

They might seem like small improvements, but for the people who live near them, they're long-awaited refurbishment and reassurance the city cares about them and their neighborhood.

"It helps us to understand and see we have support and a backup," said beachside resident Brad Gonzalez. "That gives us the drive to improve our community even more."

 

The improvements, and more like them, began with a commitment over three years ago from Mayor Derrick Henry to work with Seabreeze neighborhood residents on remedying the chronic problems making their beachside community look and feel blighted.

"Sometimes when you work with the community, you get something better than you thought," Henry said as he reported on the improvements during the March 5 City Commission meeting.

The project went so well that the mayor wants to duplicate it now and do the same thing in other areas of Daytona Beach.

"I'm ready for the next community and neighborhood because beautification is something we should take as a priority all across the city," Henry said.

Little projects add up to big changes

The mayor's Beachside Action Committee was established at the beginning of 2021. The aim was to pursue improvements that could be made relatively quickly, easily, and inexpensively.

Most of the projects were approved and planned in 2021, and the goal was to complete them as quickly as possible. Despite some supply chain challenges and tropical storms, about a dozen projects were completed in 2022 and 2023.

One project involved a colorful outdoor welcome sign that alerted passersby that road beautification work was starting late last year on East International Speedway Boulevard. The sign featured three large palm trees and said "Welcome to our beachside."

The sign stationed at the city's main gateway to the beach was also placed there to give people hope that beachside blight is being addressed.

 

A second project grew out of a plan to remove large metal sign frames along Seabreeze Boulevard in early 2021. The towering frames were paint-starved and looking beat up.

An out-of-the-box suggestion was to repurpose them as public art. The sign frames now have ocean-themed pictures of turtles, fish and a sunrise. They're covered in durable paint that will need minimal touching up.

 

Another project centered on the unsightly trash scattered around beachside alleys and the rear of some businesses. Pictures before work got underway show stacks of wood, piles of trash bags, cardboard boxes, overturned trash cans, and buildings with graffiti and scattered junk.

"That looks horrible. We don't want to look like that," Henry said when he saw photos of the alleys and side streets before they were cleaned up.