Unfortunately, there are people like this current Mayor who want to dwell on the negatives. Anna Maria Island is so unique, with white powder sand beaches, no high rise condos, no fast food joints, free trolley service year round and no paid parking. This is Florida, the way it was intended to be. We love Anna Maria Island!
Install a toll booth for paid admission to anna maria island, all visitors must pay for admission at the booth for each person entering at anytime, when in vehicles bicycles or on foot. The only people not to pay are home owners and longterm renters and their immediate family members but would still have to present i.D. for each family member upon entering. All visitors would put a $500 hold on their credit card for any possible litter or damages violation, one credit card hold per address or vehicle.
I am 100% behind this mayor. I hope she does whatever she can to keep these goddamn tourists, especially the ones who are from out-of-state, out of Anna Maria forever. Locals and their non-local family and friends only! Everyone else can piss off and find another beach to overcrowd and trash.
My wife and I and our family and friends have been going there for nearly 30 years. It's our favorite getaway since we left Key West. We rent a house near the beach for a week every summer. We spend a lot of money in restaurants and tip generously. We also go often for weekends, and daily jaunts to the beach. The visiting population has grown so heavily that often it takes 30-45 min waiting in traffic to get onto the Island. I don't like it, but that's what happens when Florida gets overcrowded. The word gets around, unfortunately, but that's progress. Thank goodness the Island citizens fight strongly against highrise structures and over-development! It used to be our secret place but not anymore. The secret is out, but it won't stop us from going there!! We LOVE YOU AMI!!!
many a good time there, I'll never forget, just love Rod and Reel pier, then another big pier just down a bit, good food, music sight seeer's good fishing it's a good date.
Sound like anna maria island needs bigger police presence. If want leave litter and leave garbage everywhere slap the people responsable $500 fine. If people want defecate and piss on other peoples property arrest them and haul them off to jail for indecent exposure. If want to tresspass and use peoples private outdoor showers and arrrest them for tresspassing.
Right there with the mayor. Come tourist season, I see the litter increase exponentially. The drunk people. The traffic. It's not about anyone handling themselves. It's about how people behave when they are enjoying a gift of nature. Cigarette butts. Kids chasing the exhausted seabirds. Digging massive holes on the beach and then forgetting to refill them, so a nesting turtle can fall in or hatchlings become trapped. Leaving beach toys and dirty diapers behind. Drinking alcohol on the beach when it's prohibited. Letting dogs run and crap everywhere on the beach. The tourists come, take what they want, leave a massive dump behind, and don't consider anyone but themselves because Hey, they're on vacation and they deserve it. Or something. Yes, charge them a fortune to park, that's fine.
PS I am not wealthy at all. But the tourists are obnoxious and that's just how it is. No one who lives here likes the tourists. That was a biased story.
+Kate Brenner it isn't just tourists. There will always be a segment of people who are a-holes. They have narcsistic personalities. I go to the dog beach in Venice and right in front of me was a group that let their dog sh*t without picking up after them. I handed them a f**king bag and still couldn't handle the cleanup. later they came back & wanted to sit by me because it was cleaner. So moral of story. A-holes are everywhere!
+Kate Brenner How about the city cough up more money for law enforcement to focus on those issues instead of pocketing the money? Better yet, a vigilante group that will shove the cigarette butts down the tourists throats who treat the beach like it's their toilet. The main thing is a large enforcement presence and heavy fines. That will disrupt the people who despoil the place.
I'm surprised the small business owners haven't run the mayor out of town although if someone dropped a deuce in my yard I'd be a little upset. Can you imagine having to pick that up? Yikes.
The woman at 1:46 says it perfectly..."don't bite the hand that feeds you". My guess is that Anna Maria Island would struggle financially if it weren't for tourists? Any mayor should be happy when tourists comes to his/her town for the day. More people = more $$. Unfortunately, not everyone has manners, let's be realistic. I can equate this to Belmar, NJ in the summer months. People go there for the day, by 6pm, the beaches are trashed! BUT, these folks are paying the parking meters, dining at the local restaurants, buying beach badges....they're bringing in revenue to the towns, and the mayors love this. So, the mayor of Anna Maria needs to lighten up.
We just got home from Anna Maria a couple of weeks ago. We love that place. We rent a very nice cottage close to the beach. So many things to do besides walking on the beach. We stayed there for 2 full weeks. Pretty sure we will be there again next season!
I love anna maria beach also, but like the government likes wen people said lets take more money from the people even if it is for a good cost, I tell you if tourist don't go to this plaices the small businesses don't make money and is also bad for them, I hate that some people not educate to maintain places clean some people need some kind of lesson and schooling from does who dare and are brave and wise to talk to them in a good faith. good luck I done it.
Anna Maria Island is one of the most beautiful and clean beaches in Florida. To live there or at least near enough to visit regularly is a true treasure. The few always ruin everything for the many. It looks as though they will need to start charging for parking and beach access as well as imposing tolls on the roads leading to the island.
Used to be my favorite place to go till I saw this crap, my aunt and uncle lived in the old neighborhood without a beach 40 years ago. Yeah there's always that guy who drinks wherever he wants pisses on your roses and steals your fishing hole or beach chair. Grow up and learn that you me god Noone can fix "that guy" being a responsible adult means you put up with him clean up his mess and let karma kill the idiot early. I thought Florida was above acting like a Californian or texan. Boy was I mistaken I'll spend my money on the next key down now.