Might a flood of federal money be on its way to help Daytona's Midtown? Promises, promises.

John Dunbar, Daytona Beach News-Journal
·2 min read

This week, News-Journal staff writer Eileen Zaffiro-Kean, who has been writing about Daytona Beach for 16 years, tells us about new hope for Midtown, the troubled, historically black neighborhood located between Nova Road and Ridgewood Avenue.

Eileen Zaffirio-Kean
Eileen Zaffirio-Kean

It is an area that would be "easy to give up on" she writes, suffering from crippling poverty, chronic flooding, high crime rates, dilapidated public housing, and a reputation as a place that visitors may be advised to avoid.

This beat up house on the southwest corner of North Keech Street and Ken Street, seen in January 2023, was riddled with problems. Efforts are underway to improve Midtown's housing stock, but some properties are lagging behind.
This beat up house on the southwest corner of North Keech Street and Ken Street, seen in January 2023, was riddled with problems. Efforts are underway to improve Midtown's housing stock, but some properties are lagging behind.

I know, we have reported for years about grand plans for Midtown, with the city spending millions of tax dollars to buy blighted properties and attract new businesses. And yet things don't seem to be getting any better.

The most recent push comes from the Daytona Beach Housing Authority, which is using the modest sum of $1 million to be used to create a new plan for Midtown. But that plan, it is hoped, once submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, could attract another $50 million federal grant which could be leveraged to pull in yet another $200 million.

That's assuming a lot. But this is the federal government we're talking about and this sort of investment takes time and patience.

So what would all that money be used for anyway? New housing, new apartments, new infrastructure improvements, new ways to attract new businesses and investment to the neighborhood and maybe even a new grocery store.

There will be challenges, however. As Eileen writes, Midtown was not built on desirable property. It was basically constructed in a big bowl. And all those improvements won't mean squat without ending the seemingly never-ending flooding Midtown experiences.

"None of this does any good if the neighborhood still floods," City Manager Deric Feacher told her.

Some neighborhoods have flooded over and over there for decades. But there's movement on this problem as well, and again it is coming from the feds.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is conducting a $3 million flood mitigation study that is hoped to lead to a much larger flood reduction project that the federal government will help fund.

Yes, it is another "maybe." And these projects will take time. A decade or more, perhaps and residents of the 125-year-old neighborhood want to see real change.

Let's hope they get their wish.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Hope springs eternal for Midtown but can troubled neighborhood be saved?