I was visiting with a client for whom I had helped buy a gulf front condo recently. He lives up north where at this time of year there's snow on the ground. It was a beautiful day as usual here in Panama City Beach. The sky was clear and blue without a trace of clouds. The sun was bright and warm but not too hot. We were having lunch at one of my favorite gulf front restaurants,
Hook'd Bar and Grill. Sitting there looking out over the sugar white sand at the emerald green waters of the gulf and eating the best smoked tuna dip on the planet, my client said something that stunned me. He said, "Good thing that oil spill happened."
At first I thought he was being facetious but after a moment or two I realized he was being serious. Not only was I shocked, I was borderline offended. How could one of the worst industrial disasters in history possibly be good? It claimed 11 lives, massacred countless varieties of marine and coastal wildlife, soured hundreds of miles of pristine coastline, devastated fishing and tourism industries, and the list goes on and on. I took a moment and several deep breaths to calm down before I asked him to explain. Before going any further let me say that this client of mine, lets just call him "Ben" for the sake of this article, is actually a really great guy. He's a devoted husband and father, an accomplished businessman who is well respected in his community and he volunteers a lot of his time for many worthwhile causes. "Ben" is not a schmuck! So I asked.....
He started by saying that when he first heard of the tragedy, he was mortified. He grieved and prayed for the 11 workers and their families and was outraged that big oil companies actually lobbied congress to relax restrictions on safety standards when it came to the manufacturing of the infamous "blow out preventer". He expressed genuine sympathy for the devastating effects felt by so many of us residents as well as the environmental impact. What he meant by his comment was that before the oil spill, the only thing he had ever heard about Panama City Beach was that it was the place where college kids migrate in the spring to get drunk and act like heathens. He had no idea how beautiful the sugar white beaches were or how intoxicating the emerald waters wine was. The constant 24 hours a day news coverage, that many of us locals were wishing would stop because it was scaring away the tourists, was in a strange way attracting new ones. Ever heard the saying, "There's no such thing as bad publicity"?
Historically, the vast majority of tourist to our area have been from Atlanta, Birmingham, New Orleans and to a lesser extent Nashville. "Ben" is from Connecticut! Several of my most recent clients are from places like Chicago, Washington D.C., Houston, and Denver! I'm even working with someone now who is in the market to buy a gulf front condo and they live in Honolulu, Hawaii!!! Now I'm not suggesting that the oil spill was a good thing, but "Ben's" comment was his way of finding some silver lining in that huge dark cloud. How does the saying go? "When life hands you lemons..."
Opey Russ
Broker-Associate, Licensed Instructor
Beachy Beach Real Estate