Ellis......you go, girl...we bought a place in Mandeville but will continue to visit BSL to see how things are going. BSL was just downright sweet, no place sweeter. We miss you and Lori, and Dorothy, and Geren, and Jerry, and Nancy, and Keith and the rest of the wonderful BSL friends. We get to Mandeville Dec 6 and will probably visit you the following week to join your organization. Good luck. and take care.........Will and Lee

Ellis,
I was so excited when a friend sent this article. I have wondered what happened to you and your house. I have lost everything in St. Bernard including my job. I am staying in the extra bedroom of a friend who lives in Horn Lake, MS. I made it out with my dog, Sarah and important papers. God bless you and the efforts you're making for BSL. Maybe some day I'll be back down there to stay at your lovely home.
Oh yes, pets do go to Heaven.
Love, Laura Lawrason

Those who see The Bay and Waveland primarily as cleared building-sites for Florida-style development forget the qualities that drew people to these towns before Katrina. America has an abundance of indistinguishable concrete beachfronts, from most of Florida to VA Beach to stretches of CA - - what we remember when we talk about coastal towns are the 'treasures' we've come across in our travels, not the condo on the 15th floor of 'The Dunes' and the chain restaurant next door. Let's keep this one small corner of Missisippi as special and as memorable as it always was with just enough twists in the rebuilding plan to make it storm-safer, pedestrian friendly and centered on community structures. There will be plenty of jobs and building opportunities in Gulfport and Biloxi for those who are drawn to condos and casinos. Similarly, there is room for different visions for a rebuilt Coast - - and it's important to preserve BSL and Waveland as two of the South's more distinct and liveable small towns.

Kitrina left in it's wake "threapeutic" & "corrosive" social possibilities for the future.Over the next five years a discourse will continue to emerge that addresses "risks","political power",and various visions for the future.One can only hope that maximum participation will be granted to the citizens who were the bearers of "local culture".If not, then as for disasters of the past social change may come not as a vision, but as an unanticipated collective convulsion.

Thank you Ellis! I have lived around the world because of my job(currently I live in Holland), but there was no better place I have lived than in Bay St. Louis. The local culture, the people, the little shops and art galleries, are all precious attributes that must be preserved.

To those that argue for the kind of development Ellis is fighting against, on the grounds of improving the economy, please remember the success of Port Bienville, and that your "real" tax base is comprised of people with jobs (Come on folks, to make a real and sustainable economic impact, the State of Mississippi must attract the big companies to the coast, not a hodge-podge of condo owners).

Bay St. Louis can have high employment if the state continues with tax incentives and confines the big businesses to either an industrial zone or any other kind of business zone located in an area that does not damage the local flavor and quality of life in the small towns.

Hopefully, when I come back to visit, I will find that my favorite place in the United States is much the way I remember it. Keep going Ellis! My prayers and thoughts are with you.

Keep up the good work Ellis. Rita and I have been back to the coast only once. We are still battling insurance settlement and some health problems while we are living with our son's family in St. Louis, MO. We have children in various places throughout the country including the magnificent Pacific NW, but none of them measure up to the lifestyle that we all enjoyed before the storm. We hope to return and help build the area once more. Best regards. Rita & Lee

When will work on the Bay St Louis bridge start ???

I agree with too! I go to Gulf Shores for a reason, as I go to our house in Clermont Harbor since the 1950's. I miss the little candy store, around the corner, that the tradition had been passed on to the grandkids, walking to the beach, trying not to burn our feet on the hot cement, and crabbing on the seawall, etc... We wanted to continue on with our tradtions and keep making the wonderful memories.
With the condos that will not be possible, since we are only a few blocks from the beach. ugh!!!

Thank you Ellis for your continued efforts to keep our quaint community. We lost our home on the beach in Waveland and in it was a stud set that you made.

We are building our house back and hopefully will be able to replace the stud set.

My father lives in the Pass and I hate it whenever I get down there and see all those condos blocking the Gulf. Keep up the good fight Ellis!!!!

I am e resident of "the Bay" area and want to join the group--how do I join? Please post info or e-mail me. Thanks!!

Interesting perspectives on the pros and cons of development. Seems to me you could have it all. Safer buildings with updated codes and zoning and better jobs and tax base that has all been created by the input from the folks like all of you who have lived in those areas. If you have'nt checked out Seaside, Fl. go see it and build with that concept in mind. Community, gathering places, entertainment, lots of art and artist and great culinary restaurants. Yes I tend to agree, high rise condos change the flavor and perception of certain areas however some areas have let themselve go too far down and the developers saw opportunities. Good luck

Jamie, you can e-mail me at the address below to join. No dues, no meetings, we'll just alert you to the latest happenings. Our goal is to keep people informed and give them easy options to participate in local governmental decisions affecting our future as a community.

I'd like to add that the title "condominium combatant" is a misnomer of sorts. This is an excellent article, but I'd like to reiterate that neither I, nor most of our membership are anti-development. Condos are a perfectly respectable type of dwelling. But we see that maintaining our community identity is our golden economic egg. High-rises that loom 450 ft. over our coast could kill the goose.

Pre-planned communities like Seaside, FL. seek to imitate the authentic character that we have already - and they've been phenomenally successful. Our members aren't the only ones to see this point - the Governor's Commission on Rebuilding came up with excellent concepts - and nary a high-rise in any of their plans. Some of the best planners/architects in the country were involved with that commission. They also saw that preserving our character would benefit us all by maintaining our quality of life and giving us a sound economic base.

But whatever the future of our little stretch of the coast, we think that as many residents as possible should have a say. Isn’t that the way things are supposed to work in this country? Residents may be scattered now, yet the letters I receive daily convince me that we’re all united by a common love for this place. Katrina may have changed a lot about the community, but she only strengthened that.

Great work, get a website/blog and put the positive activity you generate on there. You will persevere and win, because you are on the side of what is right. How about recalling the town council or the county supervisors who say yes to unrestricted development.

Hi Ellis - keep up the good work!! We are planning on coming back to the Bay as soon as we possible can. Currently in Baton Rouge and although filled with friends and very kind people it's not "home"!! All the jewelry of yours went in the safe I took with the other pieces and I HAVE IT ALL!!! It was devastating losing everything but we'll all get back to some sense of normalcy one of these days. So glad your house survived. Hope to see you on one of our trips over to the Bay. Our son and his wife are still there, he'll be opening his skatepark back up hopefully first of April. Luv ya - Alice

I just got back from staying several days at a hotel billed as "ocean front" in Cocoa Beach, FL. My first visit, and, though I was on business, being the naive Mississippi Coastian I am, I was looking forward to seeing the ocean. Although I traveled this barrier island several times, I never caught more than a quick glimpse of blue between the buildings! High rise buildings, stuff, everywhere! Driving along our Coast is so relaxing--but this was just one mass urban strip. Though I was in a hurry when I left, I was determined to at least walk on the beach for a minute and see the ocean. There was a narrow strip leading to the ocean near the hotel--next to beachfront condos. The parking was far from the beach, and was metered! I said, forget it!

I'm sure the economy of Cocoa Beach is thriving, but I know there is a better way to achieve this. Thank God for Ellis and all the people in Coastal Community Watch. I am willing to do anything I can to control condo growth. I'm all for pretty, low rise, condos that are set back off the beach behind (what's left of) our tree canopy. Not these ugly mega boxes developers want to build on our beaches!

We can retain the character of our area and make it even more desirable for condo buyers. As Ellis said, if we don't "kill the goose." Then the value of the condos will be high and escalate and, instead of volume, we can have quality with minimum impact on the character of our beachfront towns. And we will all still be able to experience the relaxation of driving along our beaches, even while working!

GOD HELP US. it's small wonder that or subdivision is under attack.we have bneen aproved for habitat for humanitie to build house in our nieborhood. So now our mid income is now the dumping place for the poor shame shame shame. coruption abounds the in state now not only do we have thousands of narcotics officers.who would have the guts to say we need police not undercover peaple. and not a single federal police officer.PLEASE GOD HELP US THE POOR ARE BEING ABUSED. THEY STARTED TAX SALES OF LANDS RIGHT AFTER THE STORM OMG HELP. HOW CAN ANYONE PAY. WE ARE IN A DISASTER AREA GODAMIT.

Ellis - God bless you in your fight, but to be honest you're tilting at windmills. Bay-Waveland is goners. Without a decent tax base, these communities will never ever recover (I know). Without a decent population, you will never ever have a decent tax base.

Good luck. Me, I'm gone.

Dear Ellis; I know how you feel about restoring and preserving the flavor of your town. I live in Kennebunk,Maine, where I once could walk down Main Street and knew almost everyone.We had beautiful open
fields, now gone.We have condos galore where there once were woods.Developers own the town and there is nothing attractive about it. Keep fighting before it's too late like it is here.

Ellis is doing a fantastic job. You don't have to destroy Bay St. Louis to save it. And no one seems to realize that developers have no long-term relationship with the places they develop, so when these 15-year-construction buildings are ghettos a couple decades from now (most new construction is only designed to last that long), those guys are long gone with their enormous profits, we're stuck with blight and we'll wonder why we allowed someone to destroy our coast.

Further, casinos and condos are not magic, steady-growth bullets, they're luxury expenditures whose sustainability depends on scarcity. The real estate/condo bubble is already cooling off, and people only have so much disposable income to gamble away. Does anyone want to stake their future to things that are so unsustainable, and which are the first to go in economic downturns?

Keep up the good work.I am an Alabamian who remembers Gulf Shores when it was a nice place,now it should be renamed HighRiseHeaven.That beautiful view of the gulf now is a peekaboo tween the buildings if you can view.Bless you for your work to keep you area as it always has been

We have been frequent visitors to the Alabama Gulf Coast for thirty years, and there has been a lot of development in the area. But guess what, we keep on going, like millions of tourists every year. It's supply and demand. If the condos weren't rented they wouldnn't be built.

Go Ellis go! And don't forget Henderson Point! Direct access to the beach without crossing a highway! Even though there were two small condo's there, they were kept in check. My family has spent summers there as long as I can remember. I remember my dad telling me stories of his childhood when family spent the entire summer there, but the men would take the train back to NO on Monday mornings, work for the week and return to their families on Friday aftrenoons. What a dream! Several family members made the area their permanent home, including a small condo at HP. All lost eveything. All look forward to rebuilding.

And so we move into another year, post-Katrina.
A few weeks ago I discovered extensive notes from a
day spent in Bay St. Louis, March 2004, and the town, pre-storm, came to mind -- clear and beautiful.
I'll be down for another visit soon. In the years I lived in New Orleans, the small Gulf towns were my refuge, and part of my heart remains there. Keep up
the wonderful work, Ellis. Blessings to everyone involved.

I am gone, and have been gone for a little while. Someone bought our BSL house. I miss this town, but the town I miss doesn't exist anymore.