Q+A with John Davidson

Q: What was your initial attraction to Siesta Key?
A: I came down as a pharmaceutical representative, traveling the west coast of Florida with the idea of finding a location for a drug store. I lived in Sarasota, and I came here one year after St. Armands got its first drugstore, so it didn’t make any sense to go out there.

(This) was the only shopping area on Siesta Key, and I thought there was potential. I remember the other drugstore owners in Sarasota questioned why I going out there, because it would never grow and nothing would ever happen out there. Well, I thought there would, and it was slow for a number of years, but it’s been very good for a number of years. I opened my second store at the south end of Siesta.

Q: Describe Siesta then versus now. What was it like?
A: When I opened in 1958, I think the population of Siesta Key was about 2,500 permanent residents — probably expanded to about 5,000 during the season. Ocean Boulevard was … you couldn’t really tell where the shell was and where the pavement was; it was so unkempt, so to speak. It got very, very slow in the summer, where now our summer seasons are quite good. I knew all my customers on Siesta Key. It was part of my social life. When they came in I knew all their children. We used to have a soda fountain, and the kids would get their 5-cent Cokes. Eventually I saw those children grow up, and then their children would come in the store.

Q: What are some of the biggest challenges facing the Key now?
A: We have a very good water system, our own fire station and ambulance station. I think the biggest challenge for Siesta Key is that we don’t have self-control. The county looks at us mostly as a place to receive taxes from; it doesn’t have the interest that the residents of Siesta Key would have on their own island.

Q: How should the county and businesses cope with the increase of visitors to the Key?
A: The county’s been very, very delinquent in how they increased occupancy for stores and restaurants. I can give you an example of two restaurants that went in that I know of — one had five parking spaces for 150 seats, and the restaurant next to it had no parking for 150 seats. This puts a burden on everyone else’s parking because they have to park someplace.

The county has a big responsibility to come in and buy land and put up — I wouldn’t necessarily like to see a parking garage but I’d like to see street-level parking, anyway — and they love to accept all the taxes that they get but they don’t spend of lot in the Village.

And parking is a terrible issue; our shopping centers have more than sufficient parking for our tenants. But it’s a terrible situation keeping that parking for our tenants. We have to hire parking monitors to make sure people don’t park there. It’s an expense and doesn’t help goodwill. It’s maybe the biggest problem I’ve experienced in the Village.

Q: Do you have any other things you’d like to say about Siesta?
A: I go back to the big unanswered question that I would like to leave on the table: Siesta Key must become incorporated. I would be happy to give anyone all the information I had because we studied 10 other municipalities on islands around Florida, and you can do so much when you can govern yourself.
I’m not a big lover of government, but I’m a lover of small government. The satisfaction of what you could do for the Key would enhance the Key so much; within 10 years it would be a much nicer place to live.

— Jessica Salmond