commentary

milt thomas

According to a recent study by StorageCafe, a national storage space marketplace, Vero Beach is one of the top three snowbird destinations in the US. That probably explains the emergence of new, super-sized storage facilities around town popping up at more “in-your-face” locations. While storage facilities are certainly a necessary by-product of people moving to sunny Florida and needing space to store their stuff, they have been historically confined unobtrusively to outlying areas west and south of town. Now they are growing like out-of-control tumors in very visible locations that seem to emerge where they don’t belong.

The most obvious one so far is a massive multi-level behemoth between our quaint City Hall and the original 1890s era Gifford home, both tiny by comparison. I can’t wait to see what comes out of the ground where the Press Journal building once stood. Oh, and don’t forget the new boat storage facility planned for our cozy riverfront area.

Enough has been written and said about these facilities being so dissonant with our city’s small town aesthetics, so we can only hope the City will not make this mistake again just because a piece of property is available to do it.

On the bright side, if you are new to town and need a place to store your old stuff, you won’t have to get a map to find storage facilities anymore. They are the huge buildings you will pass by every day that seem more appropriate for the cities you moved away from.

Want to read the article about Florida’s leading destination for snowbirds with things to store, read it (here).