08/17/2023 ISSUE 33

When Oak Harbor members took over ownership and management of their club two weeks ago, they didn’t waste any time before launching the first phase of a multimilliondollar slate of improvements. “Aug. 1, the first day we were in control, we rolled out a new menu in our dining room with lower prices and better selections,” said Rob Hill, one of five members of the club’s new board. “The second thing News 1-12 Arts 37-40 Books 30 Dining 52-55 Editorial 28 Games 31-33 Health 41-47 Insight 23-36 People 13-22 Pets 56 Real Estate 59-68 Style 48-51 August 17, 2023 Volume 16, Issue 33 Newsstand Price $2.00 TO ADVERTISE CALL 772-559-4187 FOR CIRCULATION CALL 772-226-7925 Holding out hope for new Alzheimer’s treatments. P42 Artist was born to be a painter. P38 New guidelines for adolescent social media use. P44 Vero Film Fest lives up to the hype. P14 © 2023 Vero Beach 32963 Media LLC. All rights reserved. For breaking news visit Vero Beach, armed with a court decision in its favor, can finally move forward with its long-delayed plan to build a significantly larger boat-storage facility at the municipal marina. That’s essentially what Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Metzger told officials last week when, acting in an appellate role, she denied a request from the project’s opponents to review and reject the process the city followed in approving the site plan. “The judge denied the petition, so it’s dead,” City Attorney John Turner said of Metzger’s decision, which was entered into the court record on Aug. 9. “There’s no ruling. There’s nothing to appeal. It’s over.” Metzger’s decision ended a Cleveland Clinic here to no longer have ‘president’ Local physicians working for Cleveland Clinic say they’ve been informed the position of president of the Indian River Hospital has been eliminated and that henceforth, final decisions for the medical center here will be made in South Florida. “We’ve been told that there will be no new president and that from now on, Conor Delaney will be in charge of everything here,” said one physician who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the matter. Cleveland Clinic has made no official announcement. Dr. Delaney, an Irish born and educated surgeon based at Cleveland Clinic’s facility in Weston, is president & CEO of Cleveland Clinic Florida, a position in which he oversees five hospitals, a research cenBY PIETER VANBENNEKOM Staff Writer Emeritus CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 Three weeks after having to temporarily cease accepting animals for the first time in its 70-year history due to a surge in surrenders of family pets, the Humane Society of Vero Beach has re-opened, thanks to an outpouring of support from island residents. According to Humane Society Board Chairman Susan Schuyler Smith, after the organization’s plight was featured on the front page of Big-hearted islanders respond to pet shelter’s plight BY SAMANTHA ROHLFING BAITA Staff Writer PHOTO BY JOSHUA KODIS Oak Harbor re-energized as members gain control of club BY STEVEN M. THOMAS Staff Writer CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Vero Beach 32963 and Vero News, “the community really stepped up. It was great. We adopted out probably 102 cats and dogs that week.” The nonprofit H.A.L.O. animal shelter also helped take in additional pets when the Humane Society’s admissions CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Judge’s ruling may mean clear sailing for marina project Enthusiasm high as Skyborne’s pilot training grows here BY RAY MCNULTY Staff Writer BY RAY MCNULTY Staff Writer Amid sharp increases in post-COVID air travel and a global pilot shortage, Skyborne Airline Academy’s Vero Beach campus has been buzzHALO Director of Volunteer Relations Jan Howington introduces youngsters to an adoptable dog at a special event in Sebastian on Sunday. PHOTOS BY BRIAN STOREY

2 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Cleveland Clinic we did was sign a contract to com - pletely reroof the club house. It got to be a busy first week.” “We are going to fix things up here,” said Lizzie Hallinan, another member of the new board. “It will take a while, but we will absolutely do it. We have a great group of members here who love this club.” “The board is already close to their goal of raising $2 million for capital improvements and renovations to the clubhouse and a new look and feel for the club’s brand,” said Dale Sorensen broker associate Stacey Morabito, who has lived in the community since 2011 and sold numerous homes there. “We’re launching a very significant membership drive, too,” Hill added. “We have 160-some members now and we want to be north of 200. We want people to know this is a fun, beauti - ful club with lots of younger members and activities.” “People think of Oak Harbor as closed off and have the idea you have to live here to be a member, but that isn’t true,” said Hallinan. “We have a number of members who live on the island and we think residents in River - wind, Lily’s Cay and other nearby com - munities are good prospects, too. They could scoot over here for dinner or a round of golf just a couple of minutes from their homes.” “There is no waiting list,” said Hill. “You could join this morning and be playing golf after lunch.” Oak Harbor members were following in the footsteps of members at neigh - boring Grand Harbor when they took control of their club – and their action was inspired to some extent by the im - pressive success Grand Harbor has had since members gained ownership in 2020. But the Oak Harbor deal proceeded much more smoothly and quickly than the prolonged, contentious process Grand Harbor went through to get free from a subsidiary of Carl Icahn Enter - prises that controlled the community. “The first phone call was on March 30 and we closed four months later, at midnight on July 31,” said Hill, a former investment banker from Chicago who specialized in acquisitions and merg - ers in the food and hospitality business. Los Angeles-based Dylan Invest - ments purchased Oak Harbor in 2015, buying the club, the remaining devel - opment land, and Somerset House, an assisted living facility that is an inte - gral part of the community. Dylan Investments founder and CEO Jeff Damavandi viewed the pur - chase as a turn-around play, believ - ing that he could add value to the club and community, and some good things followed. Membership fees were reduced, spurring a surge in new members, and a formal croquet court was built, which has led to croquet being the most ac - tive sport in the community, with 60 participants and traveling teams that compete against John’s Island, Riomar and other clubs. ter and numerous outpatient centers in five counties across the southeast - ern part of the state. The last president of Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital, Dr. Greg Rosencrance, left late last year to take a position as president of the health system associated with the University of West Virginia in Charleston. He was reportedly unhappy with the corpo - rate politics at Cleveland Clinic. Following Rosencrance’s depar - ture, Dr. David Peter, the chief medi - cal officer here, was named “interim president.” Until recently Cleveland Clinic was saying the search for a new president was ongoing. But when asked about the matter on Monday, a hospital spokesperson said: “Dr. David Peter has been the interim president and was recently named VP/ CMO (vice president/chief medical officer) of CCIRH, taking over the role. So yes, Dr. Peter is now in charge.” The hospital, which had made no public announcement it had ended the search for a president, offered no expla - nation of the significance of the change in Dr. Peter’s title. Cleveland Clinic took over the pre - viously independent community hos - pital in Vero Beach in January, 2019, after winning a competitive bidding process. At the time, Cleveland Clinic committed to invest at least $250 mil - lion in the hospital over the next 10 years as well as maintain all current services. Cleveland Clinic Indian River runs the 332-bed hospital as well as the adjacent wellness center, cancer care and mental health facilities, and also runs several diagnostic facilities and owns physician practices around the community. The organization has been plagued in the past couple of years by high turn - over rates among physicians as well as technicians at its diagnostic facilities. All appointments with local Cleve - land Clinic physicians and other pro - viders have been handled for some time out of a central facility in South Florida, and local Facebook sites have been full of complaints about dropped appointments. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Oak Harbor Club

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 3 a well-equipped fitness center and a reputation for gourmet dining. The elegant 42,000-square-foot clubhouse has a full slate of educational, social and fitness activities six days a week, along with the largest dining room in Vero Beach, according to Hill. “We can serve plated dinners to 250 people,” he said. Numerous nonprofits, including Impact 100, use the space for their large annual meetings, and Hill and Hallinan said the club wants to expand its outside event business, including hosting large wedding receptions that would be cramped in other facilities around town. There’s also a custom wellness program run by a registered nurse who creates tailored exercise and wellness regimens for individual members as part of the community’s emphasis on aging in place. “If you’ve had a procedure or something and you need some extra care in your home for a period of time, you can call the registered nurse on our staff and she will come over and do assessment as needed and work out a plan with you so you can be NEWS CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 In 2019, Dylan Investments sold the last 23 building lots to GHO Homes, which brought new attention and energy to the community, as well as new houses. GHO has since built and sold all of the houses. But Damavandi didn’t have any experience running a country club and there were problems and complaints, too, which intensified during and after covid, according to Hill and Hallinan. “COVID really knocked the socks off a lot of clubs around here, including ours,” said Hill. “When the clubs started reemerging and reconstituting activities after COVID, we were just very slow to recover. The clubhouse started to show its age and the residents started getting restive about that. “One thing leads to another and a group of residents got together and started to make some noise. There was talk of litigation, such as we saw at Grand Harbor, but Lizzie and I and others were very nervous about going down that path. We felt like there had to be a better way than spending tons of money on lawyers and years in court with no guarantee we would win. “A couple of us got together and talked with the developer and he made a proposal to us. He said, ‘I’ve decided the club was a mistake and I really don’t understand the business.’ “He can be a difficult guy to deal with, but he and I seem to have this kind of crazy rapport where we can work out our differences somehow. In the end, it was a friendly transaction – defined as both sides communicating with each other without the help of a judge.” In the transaction, members acquired the business entity of the club along with all its furniture, equipment, membership agreements and other assets, and entered into a 50-year lease of the club building and other community property. “We created a not-for-profit entity that actually received the assets,” said Hill. “Dylan Investments is still our landlord but we have an option at a fixed amount to buy the property during the first five years of the lease, and it is my expectation that we will do that once we have everything up and running.” “We aren’t really bankable today,” said Hallinan, “because we are all new at running a club. Give us a year or two.” The $2-million-plus capital improvement program will include the new roof, which is already being installed, new storm shutters, and a complete refresh of the clubhouse, including new pool furniture and a new trellis at the club’s main entrance. Those improvements will come on top of a strong package of existing country club amenities at the gated, 55-plus community, including what Hill calls “a sweet little nine-hole golf course,” tennis, croquet, swimming,

4 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ cared for in your home,” said Hill. “Having that kind of service available is one of the big selling points here because it allows people to stay in their homes, which is pretty much what most people want to do. “I am second-generation in Oak Harbor. My mom lived here independently until she was 98, with some extra help at the end. With the services we offer, she was able to stay in her home and be in control of her life until the end. She went to the hospital that morning and passed away that afternoon.” Residents can pick services as needed from the club’s wellness and healthcare menu, ranging from yoga in the clubhouse to daily blood pressure checks to nursing care at home. When life at home becomes too difficult, members have priority for getting a bed in Somerset House, a 30- bed assisted living facility that is part of Oak Harbor. “You can move into Somerset house for much more advanced care if needed while your spouse continues to live in your home in the community so you can see each other and visit. Most of the clubs don’t offer that kind of option,” Hill said. “I have been familiar with this area since the 1970s,” said Hallinan, who said she and her friends used to call Oak Harbor ‘Croak Harbor’ when she lived at John’s Island before they discovered the club’s virtues. NEWS DISCLAIMER: Information published or otherwise provided by Premier Estate Properties, Inc. and its representatives including but not limited to prices, measurements, square footages, lot sizes, calculations and statistics are deemed reliable but are not guaranteed and are subject to errors, omissions or changes without notice. All such information should be independently verified by any prospective purchaser or seller. Parties should perform their own due diligence to verify such information prior to a sale or listing. Premier Estate Properties, Inc. expressly disclaims any warranty or representation regarding such information. Prices published are either list price, sold price, and/or last asking price. Premier Estate Properties, Inc. participates in the Multiple Listing Service and IDX. The properties published as listed and sold are not necessarily exclusive to Premier Estate Properties, Inc. and may be listed or have sold with other members of the Multiple Listing Service. Transactions where Premier Estate Properties, Inc. represented both buyers and sellers are calculated as two sales. Cooperating Brokers are advised that in the event of a Buyer default, no commission will be paid to a cooperating Broker on the Deposits retained by the Seller. No commissions are paid to any cooperating broker until title passes or upon actual commencement of a lease. Some affiliations may not be applicable to certain geographic areas. If your property is currently listed with another broker, please disregard any solicitation for services. Copyright 2023 Premier Estate Properties, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Your Trusted Advisor for Vero Beach Luxury Real Estate 772.234.5555 675 Beachland Boulevard OUR INCOMPARABLE GLOBAL NETWORK 730 LAGOON ROAD $3.95 Million Info: www.V266875.com Bob Niederpruem 772.257.7369 22 SEA HORSE LANE $1.795 Million Info: www.V269773.com Talley | Hendricks 772.633.0407 3 WEST SEA COLONY DRIVE $1.95 Million Info: www.V267725.com Schwiering | Hendricks 772.559.8812 618 LANTANA LANE $3.995 Million Info: www.V266562.com Brown | Talley 772.633.0407 225 RIVERWAY DRIVE $7.5 Million Info: www.V270422.com Talley | Hendricks 772.559.8812 PremierEstateProperties.com 3160 North East 233RD Trail $17.459 Million Info: www.V270584.com Lange Sykes 772.473.7983 1025 ANDARELLA WAY $2.799 Million Info: www.V250160.com Brown | Talley 772.633.0407 UNDER CONTRACT SUNDAY OPEN HOUSE | 1 -3 PM SUNDAY OPEN HOUSE | 1 -3 PM Explore More Of Our Exceptional Vero Beach Collection CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 Oak Harbor Club

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 5 “We have a lot of people from JI and other parts of the island who join the club because they plan to end up here and want to make friends before they arrive,” Hallinan added. Islanders are buying homes in the community, too. “I can think of six people from the island who have purchased houses here in the past year,” said Hallinan. Dylan Investments, which has other assisted-living facilities in its portfolio, still owns and operates Somerset House. It also retains ownership of 10.6 acres of land north and west of Somerset where it has filed plans to build a 30-bed memory care unit – but the project has been in limbo for years. The company also has the ability to build two or three condominium buildings on its land, which would increase the number of residences in the community by 48 or more. Oak Harbor originally was the senior living section of Grand Harbor before the Icahn entity spun it off and sold it. Hill said there are about 235 homes, including golf cottages, larger singlefamily homes, villas and 60 condos. Hill said all but three of the members who voted on the matter were in favor of the club purchase. He and Hallinan said there is a new positive energy at the club since the members took control. “It’s palpable,” said Hill. “People are reengaging in a way that is very gratifying.” Hallinan, who had a long career in corporate HR, said the new board will NEWS DISCLAIMER: Information published or otherwise provided by Premier Estate Properties, Inc. and its representatives including but not limited to prices, measurements, square footages, lot sizes, calculations and statistics are deemed reliable but are not guaranteed and are subject to errors, omissions or changes without notice. All such information should be independently verified by any prospective purchaser or seller. Parties should perform their own due diligence to verify such information prior to a sale or listing. Premier Estate Properties, Inc. expressly disclaims any warranty or representation regarding such information. Prices published are either list price, sold price, and/or last asking price. Premier Estate Properties, Inc. participates in the Multiple Listing Service and IDX. The properties published as listed and sold are not necessarily exclusive to Premier Estate Properties, Inc. and may be listed or have sold with other members of the Multiple Listing Service. Transactions where Premier Estate Properties, Inc. represented both buyers and sellers are calculated as two sales. Cooperating Brokers are advised that in the event of a Buyer default, no commission will be paid to a cooperating Broker on the Deposits retained by the Seller. No commissions are paid to any cooperating broker until title passes or upon actual commencement of a lease. Some affiliations may not be applicable to certain geographic areas. If your property is currently listed with another broker, please disregard any solicitation for services. Copyright 2023 Premier Estate Properties, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Your Trusted Advisor for Vero Beach Luxury Real Estate 772.234.5555 675 Beachland Boulevard OUR INCOMPARABLE GLOBAL NETWORK 730 LAGOON ROAD $3.95 Million Info: www.V266875.com Bob Niederpruem 772.257.7369 22 SEA HORSE LANE $1.795 Million Info: www.V269773.com Talley | Hendricks 772.633.0407 3 WEST SEA COLONY DRIVE $1.95 Million Info: www.V267725.com Schwiering | Hendricks 772.559.8812 618 LANTANA LANE $3.995 Million Info: www.V266562.com Brown | Talley 772.633.0407 225 RIVERWAY DRIVE $7.5 Million Info: www.V270422.com Talley | Hendricks 772.559.8812 PremierEstateProperties.com 3160 North East 233RD Trail $17.459 Million Info: www.V270584.com Lange Sykes 772.473.7983 1025 ANDARELLA WAY $2.799 Million Info: www.V250160.com Brown | Talley 772.633.0407 UNDER CONTRACT SUNDAY OPEN HOUSE | 1 -3 PM SUNDAY OPEN HOUSE | 1 -3 PM Explore More Of Our Exceptional Vero Beach Collection CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

6 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ rina-area residents who waited until late in the approval process to voice their objections, then fiercely fought the plan for more than year. The alliance’s efforts, which produced an unsatisfactory compromise from the city last summer and a courtvoided referendum in November, ultimately failed. But the clash delayed the start of the project for eight months. “The Planning and Zoning Board approved the site plan last fall, and the City Council upheld the P&Z’s decision in early December,” City Manager Monte Falls said. “The lawsuit was filed in January, and we’ve been on hold since then. “If the lawsuit hadn’t been filed,” he added, “we’d be under construction by now.” Falls said the alliance’s legal action – technically, the group filed a “writ of certiorari,” a legal document asking a higher court to review a case after it’s tried in a lower court – did more than delay the project. It undoubtedly increased the cost. “Have you seen what’s been happening with prices the past year?” Falls asked rhetorically. “While we’ve been sitting around all these months, unable to move forward, prices have been going up.” The cost of the project was projected to be $7.6 million, funded by $750,000 in grant money, a $2 million capitalimprovements contribution from the city’s general fund and a low-interest $4.8 million loan. The city is currently preparing its request for bids, which Falls said should be completed and disseminated next month. He expects the city to have all bids in hand 60 days later. The permitting process shouldn’t be a problem, he said, because it’s a metal building and relatively uncomplicated design. Still, he doesn’t anticipate construction, which he predicts will take six months to complete, to start until early next spring. “If we get started April 1, the new facility should be ready by Thanksgiving 2024,” he added. “So, all in all, the lawsuit will have pushed us back about a year later than we expected.” Karen Marcil, who lives adjacent to the marina and helped found the alliance, was also a named plaintiff in the court filing. In a text message last weekend, her husband, Roger, wrote that she didn’t want to comment at this time on the judge’s decision. The alliance attempted to derail the city’s plan to demolish the existing-butdilapidated 7,850-square-foot dry storage facility and replace it with a new 21,355-square-foot structure capable of housing up to 120 boats up to 35 feet long. Opponents to the project complained the new boat barn, which will be triple the size of the current facility, was incompatible with the residential character of the adjacent neighborhood. They argued that a facility of such size would create noise, traffic and parking issues, which would disrupt and diminish nearby residents’ quality of life. They also cited the environmental impact – on marine life, water quality and natural habitats at and near the marina – of having a storage facility capable of housing so many boats, which would increase boat traffic in the area. The city’s initial plan called for a 25,768-square foot building that would increase boat-storage capacity from 64 to 160 facility in response to historically high demand after locals invested in boats during pandemic shutdowns. But in an effort to appease the alliance, officials agreed to scale back to a 21,355-square-foot structure. The alliance members were not satisfied with the compromise. Rebuffed by the city, they successfully petitioned to put a referendum on the Nov. 8 ballot. If approved, the ordinance also would have required public approval of all but the smallest improvements to parks and other charter properties. tumultuous, sometimes-contentious dispute between city officials and the Vero Beach Preservation Alliance, which was formed by a group of maNEWS The Finest Pre-Owned Rolex Watches Le Classique Jewelers and Watchmakers Every Rolex watch comes backed with our 1 year warranty. All Rolex service and repairs are done on premises. Get the Best Price For Your Pre-Owned Rolex We are proud to deliver exceptional customer service and high value offers for your pre-owned Rolex. As your trusted and reputable local jeweler, we make selling your watch a smooth experience with our guaranteed offers. Prices Upon Request 3001 Ocean Drive # 105, Vero Beach, FL 32963 772-231-2060 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Municipal marina have much better lines of communication with the staff and club members as they shape the club’s future than Dylan Investments had. “There was a deaf ear coming from California for the past several years, but we will be listening,” she said. “We are very excited about the future of the club. “Grand Harbor’s club is running beautifully since the members took over,” Hallinan added. “A lot of things are going really, really well over there and we hope to have the same result.” Morabito said the member takeover is “very good for the community, for sure. The developer’s team was successful in doing much for the community but now it is time to take it to the next level. We are very excited about the future.” CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 Oak Harbor Club CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

8 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ ing with activity as more than 300 flight students have come here for training during the past 18 months. The campus, in fact, got busier in June. That’s when the first 20 students enrolled in Delta Airlines’ pilot-career pathway program arrived in Vero Beach to train at the carrier’s Propel Flight Academy, which operates in partnership with Skyborne. This past Tuesday, Delta and Skyborne officials were scheduled to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of a newly renovated building that will serve as the Propel academy’s administration headquarters at the Vero Beach Regional Airport. “We’ll be sharing the building with Delta, which will have a presence here,” said Ed Davidson, Skyborne’s managing director of flight-training operations in Vero Beach. “We provide the training and facilities, but Delta will have at least one or two representatives on site to oversee the program and offer career counseling to their students.” Delta is the largest of the carriers with which Skyborne has established partnerships. Among the others are SkyWest Airlines, the nation’s largest regional carrier, and Envoy Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines formerly known as American Eagle Airlines. In addition, Skyborne has agreements to train pilots for two charter airlines. Those partnerships and agreements are good for business, Davidson said, adding that Skyborne students – those who start with no flight experience whatsoever – will spend as much as $85,000 to become an airline pilot. “That’s 15 to 20 percent less than it would cost you to get your medical or law degree,” Davidson said. Some Skyborne students, however, don’t have even a bachelor’s degree, since airlines no longer require a college education for its pilots. Davidson department closed, and since Aug. 1, local residents have adopted 35 of H.A.L.O.’s dogs and cats. At an adoption event Sunday on the Sebastian riverfront, five out of the eight dogs brought out as “special guests” were adopted. But the Humane Society shelter and H.A.L.O are both still operating at near capacity, and both are struggling to solve the local version of what has become a nationwide crisis of homeless pets. Smith says that now, when an animal is brought to the Humane Society to be surrendered, the owner is asked “What do you need?” This, she explains, is to determine whether there might be a way the Humane Society can help the owner keep an animal they love and consider to be part of the family, but simply feel they aren’t able to properly provide for it. “Do they need pet food? Help with the vet? We can even provide tips on how to re-home their pet. Any way we can help, we and our vet staff are more than happy to.” In this way, Smith considers the Humane Society “a social service agency,” and notes that, while there is a local government contract and the organization receives 10 percent of its budget from government funds, the remainder of the $4.5 million annual budget is “from the foundation, grants and donations.” These days, as the shelters deal dayto-day with the critical overcrowding, when an animal is brought in to surrender, Smith continues, “we ask whether they can keep it for two more NEWS CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Pet shelter rescued The city went to court to challenge the referendum’s ambiguous wording, and Circuit Court Judge Laurie Buchanan struck down the ballot initiative immediately after polls closed. Public records revealed 55 percent of Vero Beach voters had rejected it, anyway. On Dec. 6, the City Council upheld the Planning & Zoning Board’s site plan approval for the boat-storage facility. On Jan. 11, the alliance filed its petition, which Metzger denied last week. At the core of the alliance’s petition was its claim that the city violated its own code by using 21 off-site parking spaces to provide the 48 required for the larger boat-storage facility. The petition argued the off-site parking was 1,115 feet from the planned structure – more than double the 500 feet allowed under the code. Vero Beach officials countered by citing a city ordinance that allowed them to waive the off-site parking restriction. The alliance, though, claimed the ordinance was “unconstitutional.” The petition stated the applicable section of the code didn’t include any “criteria, factors, required findings or other standard” to govern that decision, thus giving the city “carte blanche to waive the parking rules at it complete, unfettered discretion, in obvious violation of Florida constitutional requirements.” Turner and the alliance’s Plantationbased attorney, Richard Grosso, responded to each other others filings, then waited for Metzger’s ruling. “They were asking the court to review the actions of a lower tribunal,” Turner said, explaining that the P&Z board was acting as a quasi-judicial body when it approved the site plan and the City Council was seated as an appellate panel when it upheld the board’s decision. For the plan to be “quashed,” as the petition requested, Turner said the plaintiffs needed to show that the apCONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 Municipal marina proval process denied them due process, the law wasn’t followed and resulted in a gross miscarriage of justice, or the city’s decision wasn’t supported by competent substantial evidence. Metzger denied the petition without comment. weeks so we can foster it out and try to find a home for it. A foster home is much better for the animal than the shelter, with so many people in and out, and noise and other animals. They just do better in a foster situation. Even those two weeks can help.” She suggests that pet owners in that situation ask family or friends whether they’d foster the animal, while a permanent home is being sought. H.A.L.O. CEO Jacque Petron agrees that it would be a great help if people would agree to keep their pet just a little longer and, during that time, use social media to let others know it is available for re-homing. “If we can’t figure something out, we give them a referral list for other shelters, and we ask they keep their pet and do a courtesy post. Our Facebook pages are currently flooded with them. At least the animal can avoid the stress of the shelter and overcrowding and be re-homed from family to family.” H.A.L.O.’s August Clear-The-Shelter adoption event “is going well,” Petron says, “but nothing like previous years. (173 pets found forever homes during last August’s event.) In good news, some of our long-term cats have found homes, so we are thrilled about that. “Our surrender list continues to grow beyond our abilities and our medical needs have more than tripled. People are still bringing and dropping daily. We use pop-up crates, fosters, our personal homes to make anything work that we can. “Honestly,” Petron admits with some exasperation, “people taking responsibility to re-home their one pet is a lot more doable than shelters having to navigate hundreds. And, let’s not even talk about the funds it takes to maintain all these lives, especially with vet, medications and food costs through the roof, employees (with no experience in the field) wanting starting pay of $15/hour or not interested in working, etc.” Ultimately, says Petron, who started H.A.L.O. in 2005 with nothing but an all-encompassing love of animals, “I am not sure there is an answer or an end, we just try to focus on the life in front of us, give them our best and know every life saved is a win!” Both the Vero Beach Humane Society and H.A.L.O. work closely with their local communities and with a statewide network of other shelters. Both are designated no-kill shelters, and, as they deal with full houses day after day, that commitment is nonnegotiable. “We don’t euthanize for space,” says Smith. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Skyborne Airline Academy

10 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ said the academy’s enrollment consists of a mix of high school graduates, college graduates and “career changers.” Some of those looking to change careers, he added, are well educated and in their 30s and 40s. “With the salaries, benefits and time off airline pilots are getting nowadays, it’s a very attractive career – and the national news media has really been hyping the pilot shortage,” Davidson said. “A lot of people, especially younger people, see an excellent opportunity to come into the airline industry and accelerate their careers quickly.” The website for The Boeing Company, one of the world’s largest airplane manufacturers, states that the long-term demand for newly qualified aviation personnel remains strong as 649,000 new pilots will be needed to fly the global commercial fleet over the next 20 years. The site claims the air-travel industry still faces “lingering challenges” in meeting the demand, citing “insufficient training capacity to support significant personnel shortages and the lag time required to bring personnel online while continuing to prioritize safety.” According to Boeing, investment in early career-development programs and outreach efforts that “spark excitement among future aviators” is essential to a healthy aviation market. That excitement can be found on the Skyborne’s Vero Beach campus, where Davidson said about 60 percent of the students are from the U.S. and the overall enrollment is up 135 percent since the academy began its operations here. Skyborne, which was founded at the Gloucestershire Airport in the United Kingdom in 2018, quickly earned an international reputation as one of the most respected commercial-pilot training schools in the industry. Skyborne purchased Flight Safety Academy in Vero Beach in May 2021. While the global pilot shortage has helped attract students to the Skyborne campus, it also has created a national shortage of certified flight instructors as commercial airlines – particularly regional carriers – have lured them away with better salaries, benefits and schedules. Skyborne, which currently has 49 such instructors, should have 55 to 60 to accommodate its enrollment, Davidson said. “Flight instructors typically have over 1,500 hours and the rating required by the airline industry, so they’re attractive to the airlines, especially the regional airlines desperate for first officers,” Davidson said. “They’re getting hired, and we’re trying to replace them.” To that end, Davidson traveled the state last week, making stops in Daytona Beach, Orlando, Tampa, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami in an effort to recruit instructors. “We’ve hired 15 in the last two months,” he said. “They’ve come to us from other schools, because of our higher wage level and benefits package, so our outlook is better. But it is a problem throughout the industry. “We won’t solve the pilot shortage until we solve the flight-instructor shortage.” Delta’s Propel program, launched in 2018 to identify, select and develop the next generation of pilots, is designed to take candidates though to their commercial and certified flight instructor ratings on their path to becoming a first officer. A statement from Delta described Propel as a highly selective program that provides current employees, who have worked for the company for at NEWS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8 Skyborne Airline Academy PHOTO BY JOSHUA KODIS

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 11 least three years, with a transition opportunity and the support to pursue a career as a commercial airline pilot. To qualify, candidates must have a private pilot’s license and at least 100 hours of flight time. Only a select few are chosen each year. They are then given a defined path, timeline to become a Delta pilot, and five-year leave of absence to complete their training. After being trained by Skyborne and working no more than 42 months at a Delta Connection carrier, Propel participants may transition to a pilot position at Delta Airlines. When Delta’s partnership with Skyborne was first announced last summer, Davidson said Propel candidates can expect to spend 30 to 40 weeks at the academy, where they’ll train in single-engine Piper Warrior aircraft. “Every aspect of our training is designed to prepare cadets for airline operations in terms of core knowledge and decision making, flight deck procedures and professionalism,” Davidson said. NEWS

CINEMATIC SENSATION! VERO FILM FEST LIVES UP TO THE HYPE PHIL OSBORNE, CHRISTINE LUETHJE, SUSAN HORN, DAVID YAKIR AND ELISE MAHOVLICH.

14 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 PEOPLE Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Organizers planned something for everyone during the sixth edition of the Vero Beach Film Festival, an extended weekend of “Cultivating Cinema, Celebrating Vero Beach.” Supporters got an early start at the Grand Harbor Beach Club with the Friends of the Festival Beachside Dinner, a sponsor event that featured a gourmet wine dinner, the first of many special events. The next day, David Yakir, VBFF executive director, welcomed attendees to the festival’s official opening night ceremonies at the Vero Beach Museum of Art Leonhardt Auditorium. “We think we have a great festival for you,” said Yakir, adding that they had searched for an appropriate film to open up at the museum. They chose “Close to Vermeer,” a film about a museum curator putting together a Dutch Master exhibition, with intrigue over whether one of the paintings Linda Braun and Deb Lockwood. PHOTOS BY JOSHUA KODIS CINEMATIC SENSATION! Vero Film Fest lives up to the hype Dr. Darrell and Susan Horn. Barry Shapiro and Patricia Miles. Jackson Stewart and Leslie Bergstrom. Xaque Gruber and Shelly Davis. David Yakir with Jerusha Stewart and Bob Stanley. PHOTOS BY JOSHUA KODIS Barbara Schlitt Ford and Jill Hargrave. Tor and Jennifer Jones. Quentin Walter and Karen Loeffler. Natalie and Patrick Savadge. BY MARY SCHENKEL AND STEPHANIE LaBAFF Staff Writer

PEOPLE Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 15 had, in fact, been painted by Vermeer. “I want to thank the Kite Capital people for really making this possible,” said Yakir, also extending gratitude to the numerous other event sponsors. “I just want to thank you all for being here with us for the first day. I also need to say a big thank you to all of our volunteers. This would not be happening without them,” said Susan Keller Horn, festival co-founder. “We’ve got three more incredible days left of the festival, and I know you’re going to have a lot of fun. And I think you’re going to be really impressed CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 Linda Braun and Deb Lockwood. PHOTOS BY JOSHUA KODIS

16 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 PEOPLE Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ with the winners,” said Horn. “We have about 35 films represented here, so you’re going to see a whole bunch of filmmakers all over town. Please ask them about their films. Go see their showings, and ask questions at their Q&As. I think you will absolutely have a great time,” she added, before introducing Barry Shapiro, film jury chair. “It’s been my privilege to work with the film festival to put together this incredible panel of jurors,” said Shapiro. Introducing the jurors, members of the film industry who hailed from Vero Beach and around the country, he called them “great film professionals with incredible expertise, an eye for creativity. These people spend a lot of time looking at these films and adding their incredible knowledge to bring you what we thought was the best of the best.” “It’s such a great festival. I love being part of this festival, and I love being part of this town,” said Xaque Gruber, before leading off the presentations with the student film awards. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 Alanna Alvarez and Stewart Alvarez. Linda and Gary Mastrogiovanni. Angela Morgan, Pat Battistini and Laura Howell. Jenn and Kelly Kite. Dana Lyman and Christine Luethje. Lorie Head and Norbert Kluczynski. Douglas Gallagher and Princess Thi-Nga.

PEOPLE Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 17 “I watched all of the student films, and wow, they’re pretty terrific. It was a very difficult choice,” he said. That sentiment was echoed by all the other jurors as they presented the awards to the appreciative filmmakers. “Let’s hear it for all the directors. These wonderful people who gave us their skills and their input, and thank CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 Will Mauricette, Gerri Smith and Calvin Callins, Jr. Xaque Gruber and Marie Healy Jan Williams and Mayor John Cotugno. Ashley Novander and Jenny Flanigan. Jane McNulty Snead and David Yakir. Austin Roghelia with Eve Kyomya-Vendryes and Dr. André Vendryes. Susan Smith, Joyce Ejgird, Kitty Norton and Brenda Lloyd. Pam Elliott and Carol Horn. Dave Guisto and Heather Stapleton. Juried Award Presenters and Recipients.

18 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 PEOPLE Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ you so much, judges, for the great job you did,” said Shapiro at the conclusion of the awards presentation. Afterwards, folks moved into the museum’s Laura and Bill Buck Atrium for the Filmmakers Ball, where they mingled with the filmmakers and nibbled on refreshments. Commenting that nonprofits should support one another, Yakir invited Jane McNulty Snead, director of development for United Against Poverty, to share the mission of that nonprofit with the crowd. “This community CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17 Anthony Aruffo, Monica Shotwell and John Aruffo. Karen Osborne, Paige Kimball and Phil Osborne. Joyce Ejgird and Nicolette Valdespino. Greg Hoffmaster, Jane Rosemont and Jim Hoffmaster. Paula Lerner, Shawn Murray, Pat Kelly and Barbara Murray. Daniel Seldes, Ken George and John Cranman.

20 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 PEOPLE Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ is one of the most philanthropic communities in this country. They often talk about the gap between the top level and the bottom, but they don’t talk about how much work is done by those at the top to bring people up,” said Snead. She explained that UP empowers those living in poverty to lift themselves and their families to economic self-sufficiency through four core programs: Membership Grocery, Crisis Navigation, Success Training Employment Program (S.T.E.P.), and Education. On Friday evening, following a full day of film viewing, oenophiles gathCONTINUED FROM PAGE 18 Haydn and Cynthia Curtis. Toby and Gwen Turner. David and Ruth Stewart. Harvey and Margot Kornick with Danielle Kireyczyk and Kasey Campbell. Karen Loeffler and Elke Fetterolf. Kitty and Stuart Kennedy. Rudy and Lori Childs. Maeve and Bob White. Carol Horn and Monique Sims.

PEOPLE Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 21 ered at the Heritage Center for the Engel & Völkers Grand Wine Tasting to swirl, sip and savor wines from around the world, and sampled a sumptuous charcuterie tower. Many also took advantage of the special wine-ordering opportunity through Rob and Michele Wayne at Varietals and More. The Vero Visions showings at the Dale Sorensen Theater, aka the Indian River County Commission Chambers featured films with a local flavor, with movies either about Vero Beach, filmed here, or created by someone from the area. Nine films showcasing local talent were screened, including dramatic and romantic stories, a Ballet Vero Beach dance dramatization of “Ophelia” starring BVB dancers Katherine Eppink and Anders Southerland, an insider’s look into the local pickleball scene and shorts featuring nonprofits. Other interesting options over the weekend included the Harvey and Margot Kornick Hidden Cellar at the Juried Awards: Narrative Feature: Katharina Woll, “Everybody Wants to be Loved” • Documentary Feature: Kitty Norton, “Wine, Women, and Dementia” • Documentary Short: Paige Morrow Kimball, “Powers” • Dramatic Short: Mehmoush Alia, for “Farana” • Comedy Short: Colin Alistair Campbell, “Fundamental Shapes” • Vero Visions: John David Cranman, “You Can’t Stop What’s Coming” • Next Up! Student Best Dramatic Film: Calvin Callins, Jr., “Contagious Swagger” • Next Up! Student Best Documentary Film: Marysa Tuttle, “Sand in the Wind” Audience Choice Awards: Narrative Feature: Jennifer Scott, “Eyes Upon Walking” • Documentary Feature: Kitty Norton, “Wine, Women, and Dementia” • Comedy Short: John F. Beach, “They Grow Up So Fast” • Documentary Short: Paige Morrow Kimball, “Powers” • Dramatic Short: Bryan Poyser, “Don’t You Go Nowhere” Selene and Rick Bettencourt. Gordon and Janis Nordstrom. Jonathan and April Okun. Phyllis and Ray Adams. Claire and Bob Higgins. Commissioner Laura Moss and Sandra Lackas. Sandy and Dr. Randy Divine. Jeanne Selander Miller and Susan Hazard. CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

22 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 PEOPLE Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Woman’s Club, featuring wines from their private collection, and After Hours Mixers at Edgewood Eatery for the late-night owls. A Saturday night ’50s Sock Hop at the Heritage Center drew guests dressed in poodle skirts, leather jackets and saddle shoes, who did their best to twist and jitterbug to some good old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll. Throughout the weekend, as cinephiles ventured from one venue to another watching the variety of engaging films, they cast votes for their own favorites. And at the End of Festival Mixer at the Heritage Center on Sunday, Gruber, with his usual panache, announced the Audience Choice Awards. “It’s been a fabulous festival. Thank you for supporting independent filmmakers,” said Horn, applauding everyone – filmmakers, audiences, volunteers and sponsors – for their support and toasting another successful film festival as the house lights went down, and the final credits rolled. For information about next year’s film festival, visit vbfilmfest.org. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21 Lance Glenn, Adam Schnell and Camilo Rodriguez. Jeff and Patti Hall. Brian and Kelly Joint. Jackie Jennings and Camy De Mario. Drew and Debbie Padnuk. John Cranman with Brandon and Ericka Reardin. Chris and Bethany Fletcher. Lucy Church, Julia Downing and Janet Sierzant. Trish and Mike Gabriel. Paula Lerner, Amy Alvarez and Kate Dailey. Dawn Natalie and Joe Maker. Rosemary Howardel and Sue Barde. Pei Liu and Austin Parkman. Tristan Ortiz and Sierra Jameel.

24 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ INSIGHT COVER STORY Last summer, Joan Robertson and her husband, Mark, finally realized their yearslong goal of buying a second home in the Sun Belt to escape the brutal winters of Minnesota. Persuaded by one of their sons who loves amusement parks, they homed in on Kissimmee, Florida, just south of Orlando, and bought a three-bedroom townhouse in a gated community with resort access for $295,000. To help pay off the mortgage, they planned to operate the home as a short-term rental. They upgraded the 2000s-era mustard-colored walls and oak-paneled kitchen cabinets with pastel and white paint, hired a property management company to handle the day-to-day logistics, and booked a photographer to make their listing stand out in a sea of options on Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo. In October, they put their home online, hoping to attract other snowbirds or visitors to Walt Disney World, which is just a 10-minute drive away. Ten months in, things haven’t panned out as they’d hoped. “We have absolutely zero bookings in August,” Robertson says. “This summer is extremely slow.” She isn’t alone in feeling the pinch. Founded in 2008 as a way for travelers to find unique and affordable places to stay around the world, Airbnb Inc. has not only disrupted the hotel industry with its success but also created a whole new class of homebuyer: the short-term rental speculator. But lately hosts have hit a wall: Short-term rentals in Orlando and the surrounding suburbs saw revenue per available room drop 6.4% in the first half of this year, according to data compiled by economist Bram Gallagher at analytics firm AirDNA LLC. Near Joshua Tree National Park in California and in towns such as Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee (think: Dollywood), revenue has plummeted as much as 17% and 8.7%, respectively. Online, it’s been dubbed an “Airbnbust.” That may be an exaggeration. As a company, Airbnb is still reaping the benefits of high interest in travel, and people are still seeking out its listings around the world. It recorded 115 million nights, tours and events booked in the second quarter, up 11% from a year ago. Its share price is up over 60% this year, riding high on a recent earnings report that named this year’s second quarter the most profitable one yet. But Airbnb’s corporate earnings don’t tell the whole story either. The market is experiencing a shakeout that will reward winners – with the right location, amenities and price – and punish losers. The pandemic has a lot to do with the turmoil. At first, as people sought sanctuary from crowded citJoan and Mark Robertson at their home in South Bloomington, Minnesota. As Airbnb hosts, Robertson and her husband have made $1,000 to $3,500 a month.

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 25 INSIGHT COVER STORY COVER STORY CONTINUED ON PAGE 26 ies and relished the prospect of a yard and a home office, demand spiked for rentals on sites like Airbnb and Expedia Group Inc.’s Vrbo. But as the Covid-19 restrictions subsided and people returned to their former lives in cities, they rented out the homes they’d bought, flooding the market. Airbnb ended last year with 6.6 million global active listings, excluding China, some 900,000 more than it had at the beginning of the year. By the end of the second quarter of this year, it had more than 7 million. That glut has led to as much as a 13% decline in host revenue in 32 of the top 50 largest short-term rental markets in the country in the first half of this year, according to AirDNA. (For its part, Airbnb says the typical host made an average of more than $14,000 in 2022, up almost 88% from 2019.) Many hosts said they’ve lowered prices to make their listings more competitive. In its second-quarter financial results, Airbnb reported that average daily rates are up 42% since 2019 to $166, but rates in North America are down 1% from a year ago. Robertson had seen the social media posts about the bust and was warned by her real estate agent and others about the slow market, but says it’s much worse than she thought. “It was made to sound like you would be booked all the time, and you could make 5, 10 grand a month,” she says. But the most she’s ever gotten has been $3,500 a month and sometimes as little as $1,000. “It’s not as much as we were expecting.” It’s not that people aren’t traveling. Open Instagram: It seems as if half of its users are in Italy now. But Americans are prioritizing trips to Europe and Asia this summer after some of the world remained closed to international travel last year, while a strong dollar is discouraging foreign guests from visiting the U.S. Hotels, shunned during the pandemic for their germy common areas and elevators, are popular again, not least because they don’t ask guests to take out the trash. A shift in work policies has also called more people back to the office, giving them less flexibility to skip town for weeks or months at a time. Making good money from a short-term rental isn’t as easy anymore as leaving the key in the mailbox and clean sheets on the bed. As Airbnb’s popularity has increased, so have guests’ expectations. The surge in demand has led to high turnover, and many hosts have come to depend on management companies to deal with cleaning and maintenance and have increased their cleaning fees as a result. With so many available properties, guests can afford to be picky. High-end kitchen appliances and modern furnishings are the new normal. Amenities such as pickleball courts and the ability to bring pets can help listings get booked. “The types of guests that travel has expanded,” says Jeff Iloulian, who rode the first wave of Airbnb’s boom, running his initial rental in Los Angeles in 2014 by subleasing another person’s property while still working full time as a lawyer. In the beginning, it was “young tech people who were willing to crash on somebody’s couch,” he says. “Now it’s families and multigenerational travelers that are looking at this as a hotel alternative.” These days, Iloulisn says, “the bare essential, the level at which it takes to operate, has increased,” A pickleball court at a Joshua Tree Airbnb.

26 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 25 INSIGHT COVER STORY along with guests’ expectations. “Certain folks in certain markets didn’t used to provide amenities” such as shampoos and soaps, but that’s mostly expected now. “You can no longer, quote-unquote, get away with cheap-quality furniture and linens and mattresses and not having amenities.” Airbnb has struggled to balance the needs of hosts and guests. Airbnb Chief Executive Officer Brian Chesky has described the San Francisco-based company’s more than 4 million hosts as the “core” of the business, but many hosts would disagree. One flare-up happened early in the pandemic, when the company announced a global refund policy that allowed guests full money back upon cancellation, leaving many hosts suddenly without any income. (The company rescinded its Covid-19 extenuating circumstance policy at the end of May 2022.) Then, in August 2022, hosts howled when Airbnb further changed its refund rules to give guests more time to make complaints and seek refunds; the company ended up amending some language that made hosts responsible for putting complaining guests up in other accommodations. Since then, Airbnb has made efforts to help hosts, including doubling the number of support agents and creating a new role of global head of hosting. It also offers a variety of features to protect hosts and their homes, including liability insurance, damage protection and quicker reimbursements for damage. “We’re always looking at new ways to support our Host community so they can attract more guests,” a spokesperson for Airbnb said. “Airbnb remains a strong income generator for our Host community as we continue to innovate with our Hosts in mind.” Airbnb invested in algorithmic pricing tools for hosts starting in 2015 as a way for them to remain competitive with hotels and other listings in their area. The Smart Pricing tool automatically sets rates based on local demand. But Amber Telfer, a host of six years, laments that the Smart Pricing tool is “blind to markets with unique characteristics.” For example, she says the tool underpriced her listing in Palm Springs, California, when she wanted to maximize her return because of demand from visitors attending the annual Stagecoach and Coachella music festivals. She and some hosts prefer third-party options such as Beyond Pricing or PriceLabs, which use different data. Airbnb has recently redesigned the system, making it easier for hosts to add discounts and promotions, and added a new feature called “Similar Listings” to help them set a competitive price. Since it made the change, Airbnb said hosts have begun to lower their prices, which it believes will create more affordability for guests and ultimately more Amber Telfer is a host of six years.

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 27 INSIGHT COVER STORY bookings for hosts – albeit at less money per guest. The host crunch isn’t occurring equally across the US, of course – real estate is always about location and supply and demand. Some destinations have enacted regulations to restrict the supply; it’s been a cat-and-mouse game for cities such as San Francisco (hosts can list only so many properties) and Dallas (some residential neighborhoods are barred from providing short-term rentals) to stamp out a flood of now-illegal listings. In Phoenix, where there are virtually no restrictions, rental properties have proliferated like mushrooms, setting up an unprecedented imbalance. The Arizona city, which in February hosted both the Super Bowl and an annual PGA Tour golf tournament, has become the poster child for oversupply. Average monthly occupancy for the first half of the year dropped to 62%, from 68% in 2021, according to AirDNA data compiled by Bloomberg News. That prompted Telfer to abandon plans to renovate a property she owned there and turn it into an Airbnb. Instead, she put it up for sale. “I started thinking about selling it because prices started going down on properties,” says Telfer, a former digital marketer who’s made hosting and investing in real estate her full-time gig. “And there’s less inventory in my neighborhood now. So I might be able to get at least what I paid for it and not lose any money at this point.” The revenue per available rental in cities such as Austin and Miami has fallen, but places like Boston and Oahu, Hawaii, are up more than 10% this year, according to AirDNA. Extra effort can pay off: Chris Kelley moved to Phoenix last year from Maryland and has taken several steps to make his listings stand out among the dozen or so in the 1-mile radius around him and among hundreds more in Phoenix. His efforts seem to be working. Kelley is a “superhost,” a badge bestowed on hosts that have high-quality ratings. The listings on the properties he owns with his partner are filled with swooning comments from guests. People seemed to really like the outdoor kitchen in one of his listings, and appreciated the “vibe” of an artsy studio painted with a cactus and sunset motif. Robertson, who owns the Florida property near Disney World, is willing to hold out a bit longer. She’s blocked off a few days in early August so her husband and son can fly down to “jazz up the place.” These were not, she ruefully noted, things she thought she would have to do to get Disney fans to book her place. “I’m learning as I go,” she says.

28 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ INSIGHT EDITORIAL During the coronavirus crisis, our Pelican Plaza office is closed to visitors. We appreciate your understanding. Every couple of weeks you can read about another newspaper shutting its doors, or moving from daily to weekly, or hollowing out its newsroom until it’s little more than a skeleton staff. There now are 200 or so counties in the United States with no local paper. Local news is the oxygen of democracy, the most trusted source for the most essential information, and we’ve long known why dying newsrooms damage communities. But a look at the map presents an even more alarming picture: The very places where local news is disappearing are often the same places that wield disproportionate political power. This phenomenon affects Americans living far away from the news deserts. Demographers predict that by 2040, one-third of Americans will pick 70 percent of the Senate. Think of a typical voter in South Dakota, with its single congressional district and, of course, two senators for a population of about 895,000. Thanks to the Senate’s structural bias toward less-populated states, that gives each of the nearly 600,000 registered voters in South Dakota about 28 times more power in that body than each of the 17 million voters in Texas. When it comes to electing presidents, that South Dakota voter carries twice the weight in the electoral college as their Texas counterpart. But with all that added clout for shaping the composition of Congress and, less directly, the Supreme Court and the White House, the voters in only about half of South Dakota’s 66 counties have even a single weekly newspaper. You could do the same math for residents of Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, Vermont or Delaware, all states with similarly enhanced political clout. But finding reliable local news sources is much harder in the first three – geographically larger, rural states with dispersed populations, which are much more likely to lack high-speed internet as well. By now we know quite a bit about why this matters. The citizens whose votes count the most might have the hardest time learning about the issues and candidates running in their communities – because there’s no longer anyone reporting on them. Since 2005, newspaper employment has fallen 70 percent, and local TV, radio and new digital start-ups don’t begin to make up for that decline. Fewer knowledgeable local reporters mean less accountability, leading to higher public spending, lower social cohesion, fewer people voting or running for office, less ticket-splitting and more polarization. In 1992, a third of the states with Senate races picked a senator from one party and the president from the other. In 2016, not a single state did so, and that hadn’t happened in 100 years. If you’re a Democrat hoping to stand a chance of winning in a red state, or a Republican in a blue one, it helps if voters get to know you personally, see you at ribbon cuttings and town halls, hear where your views depart from party orthodoxy. That’s a lot harder to do without local reporters providing reliable coverage, no matter how many targeted Facebook ads you buy. By the same logic, winning candidates are accountable to the voters who elevate them – unless no one knows what they ran on or what they are doing with their power, beyond whether they have an R or a D on their jersey. If you weaken the connection between voters and their representatives, you empower their donors, lobbyists and conflict entrepreneurs. Partisan players are well aware of the opportunity presented when a local paper dies. Potemkin sites that mimic authentic newsrooms have popped up across the country, more than 1,300 in all; they have the look and feel of reliable information sources, but their content is often partisan noise, produced by dark-money-funded propaganda factories. A single purveyor, Metric Media, claims to post more than 5 million stories a month. All kinds of disinformation and conspiracy theories find the desiccated news deserts to be fertile ground. Local news is a crucial piece of a larger problem, and we can’t truly understand the forces threatening democracy without reckoning with that larger environment – both the disappearance of critical sources of essential information and the swelling of information streams that contaminate our public space. A rising alliance of entrepreneurs and philanthropists is working overtime to build alternative information sources. But they typically are based in cities, not the rural counties that will hold disproportionate power in picking the leaders of the future. All Americans need and deserve access to the information that enables good political choices – but that is disappearing fastest in places that need it most. A version of this column by Nancy Gibbs, director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, first appeared in The Washington Post. It does not necessarily reflect the views of Vero Beach 32963. Newspapers are disappearing where democracy needs them most

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 29 INSIGHT OP-ED Julie Schumer's return flight following a cruise was canceled during the Southwest Airlines meltdown in December. Southwest sent a refund to her cruise line, but her cruise line wouldn’t pass it on to her. What's going on? QUESTION: My family and I recently took a Princess cruise, and I booked my airline tickets through the cruise line's EZair program. Our return flight from Fort Lauderdale to Denver was on Southwest Airlines, and it happened in December during the airline's service debacle. Southwest canceled our flight. We had to return on another airline. Southwest Airlines sent a refund to Princess in early January for all four tickets. But I have not received the money yet. I've sent emails to the vice president of guest relations, the director of customer service and the president of the cruise line, but have received no reply. Can you help us get our $983 back? ANSWER: Princess should have refunded you promptly for the Southwest Airlines flights. After all, the airline had fully refunded the tickets to the cruise line after its service meltdown. The EZair program is Princess' air-inclusive program, and it offers certain guarantees that your airline can't. Those include the ability to cancel airline tickets up to 45 days before your departure with no fees. Princess also says you can "rest easy" that you'll make your cruise if your flight is delayed or canceled on the day of travel. Unfortunately, for the type of tickets you booked, the EZair terms stated that your flights were completely nonrefundable. So technically, Princess was following its rules. But rules are made to be broken, especially during an extraordinary event like the Southwest Airlines service disruption. Princess did respond to you initially, claiming that you are only entitled to vouchers that can be used with Southwest directly. "Southwest did not issue any refunds to Princess Cruises," the representative said. However, Southwest said it had issued full refunds following the service disruption and that it sent the money to Princess. Who's right? Well, technically, you bought your tickets through Princess, so your contract is with the cruise line. If your agreement says Princess can keep the money – which it appears to – then the cruise line could keep your money, however wrong that may seem to you or me. It looks like you contacted the Princess executives based on the list on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org. Someone should have answered you and offered to review your case. Southwest said it had refunded Princess, but Princess said it didn't have your money. So who was right? There was only one way to find out. I contacted Princess on your behalf. The cruise line reviewed your case and sent a full refund to your credit card. Get help with any consumer problem by contacting Christopher Elliott at http://www.elliott.org/help BY CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT Princess Cruises got the refund from our canceled flight. Where’s my money?

30 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ I have exactly one photo from my visit to Buenos Aires’ renowned Recoleta Cemetery. It is not of Eva “Evita” Perón’s grave, nor any of the many other austere mausoleums housing major political and cultural figures. Rather, it is a blurry, zoomed-in shot of the nameplate of the little-known sculptor Gevorg Rustamyan, who is, as far as I can tell, Recoleta’s only occupant whose grave inscription includes a GeoCities link and a Yahoo email address. The GeoCities page has not worked for more than a decade. The email address bounces back. The dead make up a surprisingly large portion of the Internet’s population – on Facebook alone, dead users are expected to outnumber the living by 2070. But the Internet is not designed for them. Hosting services shut down their personal websites at the first missed bill payment. Photo-sharing services stubbornly refuse to let their next of kin access accounts when password recovery becomes impossible. LinkedIn profiles haunt their colleagues by appearing in recommendations of “People you may know.” Technology scholar Tamara Kneese’s “Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond” offers a compelling collection of case studies about how technology breaks down when faced with the messiness of mortality. The subject is large, and Kneese tries to make up for the dearth of other writing on it by covering four disparate topic areas: social media memorialization, illness bloggers, digital estate management and transhumanism. Although the stories never cohere into a single narrative, a theme emerges – the cause of these “death glitches” is not the inevitability of decay but the shortsightedness of commercialism. From this perspective, Rustamyan’s defunct epitaph is a result not just of an unlucky guess about which web platform would survive, but also of Yahoo’s cost-cutting measures, first to kill its unprofitable free web hosting service, then to purge its inactive email accounts. Kneese best captures this clash between capital and Internet death in her account of the cottage industry of digital estate management. In the 2000s and 2010s, a wave of start-ups emerged to help customers bequeath passwords, photos, final wishes and other digital remains to those who survived them. With whimsical Silicon Valley names like Dead Man’s Switch and iCroak, these companies combined the 20th-century business model of life insurance with the 21stcentury marketing speak of self-care and productivity hacking. Kneese, like any good ethnographer, signed up for many of these platforms and experienced their glitchiness firsthand. At one point, she received an email with the subject line “Dead Man’s Switch Is Worried About You,” warning that if she didn’t respond within a week, the service would send out all the messages she had scheduled for after her death. Fortunately, Kneese caught the email and had not written any dark secrets or final wishes, as the company suggested she should. If she had, they would have gone to her by-then ex-partner. Needless to say, nearly all of the digital estate start-ups Kneese tested have since shuttered. As she writes: “Digital estates can last only as long as the commercial platforms and services they depend on. The corporate structure of start-ups favors short life spans and market experimentation, making these companies ill equipped to be transgenerational stewards of anything.” Kneese constantly highlights the challenges of designing technology that accounts for death, but she rarely gives companies the benefit of the doubt in how they navigate those challenges. For instance, the first chapter recounts the evolution of Facebook’s policy regarding dead users’ profiles. Originally, if Facebook found out that a user had died, it would quietly remove their profile after a 30-day grace period. But the company revisited that policy in 2007, after the Virginia Tech shooting, when victims’ profiles became shrines of collective mourning. Over the next decade and a half, Facebook would introduce a slew of features and design tweaks to better memorialize dead users’ profiles and pass control of them to next of kin. Here, Kneese dives deep into the knotty problems that death raises for social media. Which information should be kept on a memorialized profile, and which removed for privacy? How can someone prove they should receive a dead user’s profile? How should platforms protect memorialized profiles from being defaced by “RIP trolls”? Facebook seems to earnestly wrestle with these questions, but Kneese characterizes its efforts as a shrewd play for user retention. Memorialization keeps “users invested in an imperfect, aging platform,” she writes. “Through the preservation of profiles, the dead are able to remain productive members of a network.” The bulk of Kneese’s research tapers off right before the coronavirus pandemic, so she does not delve into the most recent developments on the Internet, including the continued ascendancy of recommendation algorithms that drive most of what we see and do online. In this way, “Death Glitch” feels like an artifact of a more idyllic past, a time when one’s digital footprint was a form of self-expression worth preserving, rather than ephemeral feed for an algorithmic trough. In the case of Rustamyan, what feels so dated about the GeoCities link on his nameplate is not just his choice of web hosting service but the fact that he would want his internet presence to be part of his lasting legacy. The slight outdatedness of “Death Glitch,” though, actually gives it a sharper focus. Today’s fresh AI hell, with chatbots learning to imitate the dead from a handful of text messages and bygone celebrities being resurrected to sell cars, would serve mostly to distract from Kneese’s more timeless point: Death reveals a core power imbalance between technology companies and their users. So much media critical of today’s tech industry is in some sense about that imbalance – Social media is watching you! Hackers have your data! Big companies are too powerful! – but by focusing on death, “Death Glitch” offers a fresh angle to interrogate those relationships anew. INSIGHT BOOKS DEATH GLITCH How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond By Tamara Kneese | Yale. 257 pp. $35 Review by Gabriel Nicholas | The Washington Post Author Tamara Kneese

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 31 Remember that partner is human By Phillip Alder - Bridge Columnist There are times when an expert makes an abnormal play that works brilliantly. There is someone in the back of the expert’s mind telling him that this is the moment to deviate from the textbook. Today’s hand is a good example. North’s three-spade rebid was a limit raise, inviting game. South, with a hand not worth an opening bid despite its 13 points, passed promptly. West led the club seven: three, ace, five. Back came the club jack: queen, king, six. Reading the club position accurately, West switched to a deceptive heart four. East won with the ace, and declarer dropped the jack. Stopping to count the points, East realized there was no future in diamonds, so he returned the heart five: queen, seven, six. Not anticipating the danger, declarer ran the spade queen. However, East won with the king and played a third heart, which West ruffed to defeat the contract. Note that if West had switched to the heart seven at trick three, playing high-low, declarer would have foreseen the potential ruff. Then he probably would have played the ace and another spade and not risked the finesse. Apparently, that was a brilliant defense. But now it is time to come clean. That was how West hoped the play would go. But he had a partner who also saw the heart four. Knowing this couldn’t be high from a doubleton, East, after winning with the heart ace, returned the club nine! Now declarer could afford to take the losing spade finesse and still make his contract. The best laid plans o’ mice an’ bridge experts, gang aft a-gley. Dealer: South; Vulnerable: East-West NORTH A 10 9 8 K 8 6 3 A 4 3 6 3 WEST 3 2 7 4 J 8 6 K 10 8 7 4 2 SOUTH Q J 7 4 Q J 10 K Q 9 7 Q 5 EAST K 6 5 A 9 5 2 10 5 2 A J 9 The Bidding: OPENING LEAD: 7 Clubs SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST 1 Diamonds Pass 1 Hearts Pass 1 Spades Pass 3 Spades All Pass INSIGHT BRIDGE

32 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ The Telegraph How to do Sudoku: Fill in the grid so the numbers one through nine appear just once in every column, row and three-by-three square. The Telegraph SOLUTIONS TO PREVIOUS ISSUE (AUGUST 10) ON PAGE 58 ACROSS 1. Balance of mind (6) 4. Jason’s ship (4) 8. Quite cold (6) 9. Unruffled (6) 10. Revise; named (anag.) (5) 11. Advert; vehicle (7) 13. Locality (4) 15. Snare; goal (3) 16. Sea’s regular movement (4) 18. Out-of-the-way; hide (7) 20. Small paddled craft (5) 23. Squat (6) 24. Historical province; coat (6) 25. Group of galleries in England (4) 26. Marionette (6) DOWN 1. One who’s plotting (7) 2. Synthetic fabric (5) 3. Playthings (4) 5. Someone down-to-earth (7) 6. State a view (5) 7. Sir’s tip (anag.) (7) 12. Breakdown of law and order (7) 14. Bank fund; report (7) 17. Citadel (anag.) (7) 19. Soft hat (5) 21. Greek storyteller (5) 22. Hindu sage (4) INSIGHT GAMES CARPET ONE CREATIVE FLOORS & HOME Creative Floors & Home has more for your entire home from the floor up! With Flooring, Tile, Cabinets and even vacuum cleaners! 772.569.0240 1137 Old Dixie Hwy • Vero Beach creativefloorscarpet1verobeach.com Professional Cabinet Design Available

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 33 NOTE: The five theme answers in this puzzle have something in common (other than Christmas). Can you spot it? ACROSS 1 Very sharp-tasting 6 Opener of Capone’s vault 12 Allen successor 16 Memo abbr. 19 Scold mildly 20 One who gets around by means of brachiation 21 Getaway spot 22 It follows lunch? 23 “___ on the tree ...” 25 Clausian entranceways 27 Some trains 28 Asia crosser 29 Frequent Eastwood co-star, once 31 Fable teller 32 Gas station option 34 Florida city 36 Number of snowflake points 37 “I usually ___ in the Salvation Army ...” 45 Blind parts 48 Type of believer 49 A Christmas Carol character et al. 50 ___-Magnon 51 Sneakers brand 52 Verdun’s river 53 Drinks in big gulps 55 Wedding words 56 Descartes’ conclusion 57 Touch the clouds 58 Boxer’s advantage 59 Adrian portrayer 60 Christmas ___ 62 Valuable things 65 Exciting things 67 “___ by carolers ...” 70 Say again 72 Come up 73 May first? 76 Inventor Howe 77 Merchandise 79 Extreme conservative 81 Affectedly innocent 82 Metros and Prizms 83 Sleigh attachments 84 Martian duo 86 Weather device 87 Tapping Miller 88 Ship feature 89 Nicholas, e.g. 90 Guys 91 “We love to ___ opening their presents ...” 96 Tough wood 97 Les ___-Unis 98 Become noticeable 102 Proust character 105 Visions of sugarplums, maybe 107 Hinged fastener 109 Jackie’s second 110 “Happy ___” 112 “And Christmas just isn’t Christmas until someone ___” 116 Matador encouragement 117 Mtn. rd. abbr. 118 Play the market 119 Ex-basketball star Thomas 120 Army rank: abbr. 121 Scrape 122 Eyeball 123 Be miserly DOWN 1 Worked for a stage coach 2 Hot stuff 3 Salon offering 4 Wallet cards, familiarly 5 Intensifies 6 Speak reproachfully 7 ___ facto 8 Bus, for one: abbr. 9 Down Under denizen 10 Finished 10th out of 10 11 Neighbor of Namibia 12 Selection 13 1968 U.S. Open champ 14 “Thrilla in Manila” fella 15 Leftovers 16 Penalties of a sort 17 It’s an up-and-down thing 18 P.D. rank 24 Take it really easy 26 Postal worker’s call 30 Cleveland player, for short 33 Train or chess buys 34 Elevator man 35 It follows suit? 36 Easy arithmetic 38 “The very ___!” 39 French pointillist 40 Eary? 41 Christmastime adornments 42 Environment-related 43 Actor Stu 44 Parks and Ponselle 45 Stowe visitors stow them 46 Ballerina’s feat 47 University concerns 52 Choral work 53 Murder, She Wrote doc et al. 54 Squander 55 She has a revealing TV job 57 Eliot’s Marner 58 He used to say “Confident?” on a game show 59 Sincerely 61 Moreno et al. 63 Tangle 64 Fathers 66 Customers 68 Most recent 69 Sing like the witch’s men in Oz 70 Worthy of Henry VIII 71 Nicholas Gage memoir 74 One little piggy’s amount 75 They’re opened first on Christmas morning 78 Certain caroler, perhaps 80 “I’m ___ you, buster!” 83 Snow formation 84 Damon or Dillon 85 Works in a museum 86 Place for flowers 88 Go aimlessly 89 Pollen-bearing organs 90 Home of Graceland 92 Singer Tennille 93 To Kill A Mockingbird author 94 Home of Roma 95 Bird house 99 Wheel spokes 100 React to a pop quiz 101 Reindeer total (excluding Rudolph) 102 Look for presents 103 Fairy tale heavy 104 Author Waugh 105 Goes over the gray areas 106 Invitation letters 107 Snake sound 108 Home invaders 111 In the style of 113 Sony products 114 Witness 115 Founded: abbr. The Telegraph The Washington Post ...Mixing things up for the holiday A Wordsmith’s Christmas By Merl Reagle INSIGHT GAMES

36 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ INSIGHT BACK PAGE Hi Carolyn: I am in my early 40s and have multiple sclerosis. My ex left me because she did not want to “play nurse” for the rest of her life. I never blamed her, but I am left to pick up the pieces of my life and am having a hard time getting up the motivation to dive back into the dating pool. Why would any woman want the future that I have to offer, one of inevitable debilitation? Should I just resign myself to a life of solitude? It seems like the path of least resistance at this point. – Struggling in Olympia Struggling in Olympia: I think we would all be better for resigning ourselves to a life of solitude. Not in a “woe is me” or reclusive sense, just that we are the only people we can be absolutely sure will be with us at every stage of our lives. Your illness, a rotten break by any measure, does not necessarily make you worse off than others on this particular account. The ex who was not up to dealing with your multiple sclerosis may well have decided, had you not been ill, that she was not up to the ravages of time that every longtime couple must face: familiarity, boredom, various other ills of social attrition, not to mention the physical deterioration that even the healthy endure. Committed is committed, and she was not. Where that leaves you is exactly where it leaves everyone else, which is in need of plans. Plan A represents what each of us has now. Whether paired or single, it makes the most sense both to live in the moment and to make plans for that moment to last. As in, have a healthy dinner, splurge a little on dessert, keep feeding your 401(k). Plan B is the anticipation of change. Anything we have can be gone tomorrow, including companionship or solitude, health or illness, fears or dreams. You do not need to build your life around the possibility of change, but you do need to acknowledge and accept it. Buy insurance, keep your will up to date, avoid burning bridges with people (personally or professionally), keep your eyes and heart open to opportunity in all its subtle forms. Plan C is the wild card. If you ask around, you might be surprised by the number of people whose lives bear no resemblance to the lives they expected to live. The only way you can “plan” for such a life is to get right with yourself, get right with your choices to this point and take a quick mental walk through your past to note the times you had to be braver, stronger and more flexible than you ever cared to be. If you have been this emotionally resourceful before, you can do it again. If not, you can start. It is hard work, but where is the appeal in the alternatives? No one can take away the sense of yourself, the sense of peace, you derive from passing these tests. Although your illness will deter some potential companions, your ability to plan it into a full, rewarding and well-managed life will attract others – specifically those people who appreciate that circumstances change but character does not. There may be fewer of them, but they are exactly the people you want. BY CAROLYN HAX Washington Post A chronic illness feels like resignation to a lonely life

BRUSH WITH FATE MARLENE EVANS PUTNAM WAS BORN TO BE A PAINTER

ARTS & THEATRE 38 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ “I just love painting; I just love it! It doesn’t matter what medium I do,” says longtime Vero Beach resident Marlene Evans Putnam. Well regarded for her work, particularly as a portraiture artist, she also teaches classes at the Vero Beach Museum of Art. “And I just love teaching my students how much fun it is. It can make you so happy and, sometimes, frustrated at the same time.” Putnam says she treasures the friendships she has made through her art and has also enjoyed learning about the history behind the lives of the people she has captured so beautifully on canvas. Having been raised in Connecticut, Putnam jumped at the chance to return to the Northeast when the airline she was working for as a flight attendant offered her a base transfer from Pittsburgh to Boston, where she could nurture her artistic side. “Boston was a dream. The first week I was there I went to the Boston Museum of Art school and signed up for all these art classes, up to five a week. I was determined I was going to be an artist, and I studied there for over seven years,” says Putnam. “I loved the teachers, I loved the classes, for seven and a half years. I then studied semiprivately with several really top-notch artists from around the Boston area.” Putnam also met her husband in an art class and after marrying they opened an art gallery on Rocky Neck, in East Gloucester, Mass., which they ran for 14 years. “My husband was so supportive of me and felt I had such a talent,” she recalls with fondness. Upon retirement, the couple moved to Vero Beach, which they had used initially as a ground base while searching the area. “We didn’t know a thing about this place. We came upon it when spending time visiting towns along the Treasure Coast in 1980.” After seeing a notice in the paper about a Vero Beach Art Club meeting, they decided to go. “So we went, expecting to find maybe 10 people attending. But there were over 100 artists, and they just welcomed us with open arms and said, ‘We need good instructors here, and you’ll love it if you settle in Vero.’ We decided this was the place we liked best.” BY DEBBIE TIMMERMANN CORRESPONDENT BRUSH OF FATE Artist Putnam was born Marlene Evans Putnam. to be a painter PHOTOS BY ALEX KOWALSKI

ARTS & THEATRE Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 39 She continued to paint most days and joined the Art Club, where she began teaching classes. Putnam also became involved in the Alliance for the Arts, which was established in 1978 to create what is today’s Vero Beach Museum of Art. The Alliance raised $2.5 million from local, private sources, which enabled what was then called the Center for the Arts to open its doors to the public debt-free. “Jean Armstrong, who started the museum, was such an incredible woman,” says Putnam. “She was this tiny, very petite person, soft spoken, you would never dream in a million years that she could convince people to get behind this museum, but she did. She was simply amazing. She and her husband George Armstrong really went to work on this museum, got the idea across, got people behind it, they were wonderful! That museum is there because she did what she did. She had the courage to do it.” Putnam and her husband continued to teach privately in Vero, but after her husband passed away in 2007, she was hired by the museum to teach classes there. She considers her style to be somewhere between traditional and impressionistic, and likes to paint on scene, aka plein air, or by setting up her own still life scenes rather than using photographs, except occasionally for portraiture. Her preferred portrait medium is oil, which she calls “such a sensuous medium. They stay wet, and you can go right back into them, and work and work on the painting.” Many of her landscapes are based on scenes she has seen and studied, explaining that she can retain those images in her mind. “You can feel the wind, you can smell the salt air.” Putnam is grateful that her art has been productive and well received. “That’s how I’ve made my living all these years. I have done very well with my artwork,” she says. “When I was heavily into doing my portraits, it was very different, because the digital camera hadn’t been invented. That turned me into a dinosaur. Now, if someone wants a portrait, instead of paying $4,000 to get one, they can just take a picture, have it printed on canvas as a giclee, and it looks fantastic. It’s very hard to make a living as a portrait artist now, though I did well last year, selling a lot of paintings,” she says. “I’ve met so many interesting, fascinating people here and have done so many portraits of notable people here,” she adds. “The Opera Society here in Vero asked me to paint a portrait of the great Metropolitan Opera star Deborah Voigt,” says Putnam. “I did about a three-quarter, 40-inch by 60-inch portrait of her. She was just incredible. A very pretty woman. I just really loved painting her.” After painting portraits of the late Richard Stark and his wife Barbara, ardent supporters of the arts and advocates of the homeless, she says they were so pleased with the results, they commissioned paintings of five of their grandchildren. “Meeting these people and being around them has been a delight in my life. I thank God every day. I just can’t believe how absolutely fortunate I’ve been,” says Putnam. “I’ve met the most wonderful people in town. I just finished a portrait of Kathy Barton, whose husband Jeff was former Indian River County Clerk of Court.” A portrait she painted of James Vocelle, one of Vero’s first attorneys in the 1920’s, is hanging in the County Courthouse. “A remarkable man, so courageous. His son became a judge, and his grandson is a prominent attorney here. He used to live in Georgia, and ran for State Legislature, which he won, but never accepted, needing to move from Georgia due to threats on his life from the Ku Klux Klan,” remembers Putnam. Another commissioned portrait was that of Rosemary Barkett; born in Mexico to Syrian parents, she was the first woman to serve on the Florida Supreme Court and the first female chief justice. The painting hangs alongside some 400 men in the Supreme Court Building in Tallahassee. “I thought she was incredible, she was such a brave, brave woman. She had become a nun before becoming an attorney. She realized she had this gift and she wanted to do this. She became a judge, and then was elected to the Supreme Court. The men judges used to call her ‘Atilla the Nun’. She had such a good sense of humor. She is a federally appointed judge now.” Having been a full-time artist for the past 40 years, Putnam says, “I have loved my career. If I died and was reincarnated, I’d come back as an oil painter again. I just love it that much.” MORE THAN EVER Proudly celebrating 23 years of American craft and our commitment to American-made products. 2910 CARDINAL DRIVE, VERO BEACH • 772-234-6711 • THELAUGHINGDOGGALLERY.COM THE LAUGHING DOG GALLERY | CELEBRATING 23

ARTS & THEATRE 40 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ The classic surfing film “The Endless Summer” is the subject of a documentary called “Birth of the Endless Summer.” The documentary explores the backstory to filmmaker Bruce Brown’s iconic “Endless Summer” film which is credited for the rapid rise and romantic lure of the sport. The documentary has been hailed as a “beautiful film” by Inertia and was placed in the top 10 films of the year by IndieFest Film Awards. The documentary looks behind the scenes at surfing pioneer Dick Metz journeying around the world in the late ’50s and early ’60s in search of the elusive perfect wave. Adventure Entertainment has released the documentary on limited run. Locally, that ends Thursday, Aug. 17, at the Vero Beach CW Theaters Magestic 11, 940 14th St., Vero Beach. If you like sangria and margaritas, then the Sangarita Challenge is for you. The event will be hosted by Exchange Club of Vero Beach starting 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17, at the Vero Beach Community Center, 2266 14th Ave., Vero Beach. The event costs $50 per person and includes samples of all sangria, margaritas and small plates. Proceeds benefit programs helping child abuse prevention, scholarships, veterans and community service projects. For more information, visit exchangeclubofverobeach.com or better yet, visit the organization’s Facebook page. Heaton’s of Vero Beach will have an End of Summer Luau 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18. It includes a pig roast, a DJ, fire dancers, light bites and a welcome cocktail. The cost of admission is $55 at the door. Heaton’s is at the Kimpton Vero Beach Resort and Spa, 3500 Ocean Dr., Vero Beach. Call 772-469- 4444 or visit HeatonsVeroBeach.com. Riverside Theatre’s Comedy Zone presents headliner Nathan Wallace, feature act Nadeem Awad and emcee Steve Kalisik this weekend. Wallace, a “blue-collar Dad,” was named to the top 100 in the World Series of Comedy. He was also in the finals of “Florida’s Funniest Comedian” and won the “Off the Hook” competition. He’s appeared with Jon Lovitz and Henry Cho. Awad, a south Florida native, also was a two-time finalist in the “Florida’s Funniest Comedian” contest. He has toured with Jimmy Shubert and has been on stage with Bret Ernst, Greg Hahn, Mark Normand and more. He headlined around the country on the “Happy Habibi Tour” making stops at the Boston Hard Rock, the Palm Beach Improv and the Funny Shop in Ohio. Kalisik is originally from Chicago and has lived in Indian River County for 10 years. The comedy shows start at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18, and Saturday, Aug. 19. Meanwhile, Live in the Loop concerts run from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on both nights. On Friday it’s the Samantha Russell Band, and on Saturday, the Melinda Elena Band takes the spotlight. The concerts are free for all. Best bring a chair, of course. And you can make a whole night of it at Riverside if you head to the Live in the Loop Concert and the Comedy Zone because the theater also has some tasty picnicstyle burgers and more for sale. And, there is a cash bar. So it’s hard to say you have nothing to do with Riverside Theatre in your backyard. Riverside Theatre is at 3250 Riverside Park Dr., Vero Beach. Call 772-231-6990 or visit RiverisdeTheatre.com. All those Brevard Symphony Orchestra fans will want to plan ahead for its MSC Seashore Bahamas Cruise 2nd annual fundraiser. The cruise takes you to Nassau and Ocean Cay. The all-inclusive cruise takes care of meals, Wi-Fi, drinks, taxes, port fees, cruise gratuities and entertainment. The cruise departs Artemis Parking Lot, 780 S. Apollo Blvd., Cape Canaveral, on Thursday, Dec. 7, and returns Sunday, Dec. 10. The cost is $700 per person, double occupancy, with a deluxe ocean view, or $775 for a deluxe ocean view and a balcony. A $200 deposit secures your spot. Final payment is due Sept. 4. To book your spot or more information, call 321-676-6040 or email [email protected]. 3 2 ‘Endless Summer’ documentary hits home for surf fans 1 BY PAM HARBAUGH Correspondent 4 COMING UP! 5

HOLDING ON TO HOPE New Alzheimer’s treatments slowly emerging

HEALTH 42 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Dementia remains a grim diagnosis but new treatments for Alzheimer’s and other dementias are being developed and approved, bringing a glimmer of hope to the 55 million people afflicted by these diseases worldwide. There is still no cure, but scientists are figuring out ways to slow progression of the diseases. “Medicare has just approved a new drug called Leqembi for early onset and mild Alzheimer’s which claims to have reduced the progression of the disease by up to 35 percent in clinical trials,” Vero Beach Neurologist Dr. James Shafer said. “Unfortunately, there is no evidence that this or any treatment can restore or reverse lost memories and cognitive function, but it has been shown to slow the progression, giving the patient more time to participate in life and live independently. “There are also companies out there developing antibodies targeting both amyloid and tau proteins,” Dr. Shafer added. “Integrative and functional medicine using IV Nutrient Therapies is another avenue in caring for Alzheimer patients. Our patients receive both traditional medical care and IV nutrient therapies such as NAD+. Hydrogen Peroxide and Phosphatidylcholine are known to preserve normal cell function. There’s even an Alzheimer’s vaccine being investigated that would potentially prevent getting the disease.” So what is the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s and how do doctors diagnose them? “Dementia is a descriptor of a state by which a person has cognitive difficulties to the level that they have impacted them socially, personally or professionally,” Dr. Shafer explained. “There are many different types of dementia, and many conditions cause it, including endocrine issues, infections and other underlying causes. Alzheimer’s is an organic cognitivedementia and the most common form of dementia, accounting for Holding on to hope: New Alzheimer’s treatments slowly emerging BY KERRY FIRTH Correspondent “The age demographic most at risk for developing Alzheimer’s is the 65 plus group and the risk goes up with each decade.” – Dr. James Shafer Dr. James Shafer. PHOTOS BY JOSHUA KODIS

HEALTH Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 43 60-to-80 percent of dementia cas - es.” Dementia is not a normal part of aging. It is caused by damage to brain cells that affects a person’s ability to communicate, think and feel. Al - zheimer’s is a degenerative brain dis - ease that is caused by complex brain changes following cell damage. “The age demographic most at risk for developing Alzheimer’s is the 65-plus group and the risk goes up with each decade,” Dr. Shafer continued. “Alzheimer’s stems from an accumulation of plaque in the brain formed from proteins. While all people have some plaque buildup, what makes it abnormal for people with Alzheimer’s dementia is that the plaque builds up faster and collects in the memory centers and in circuits of the brain that control short and long-term memory. That is why the onset of Alzheimer’s is usually in older patients as it takes time for this plaque buildup. Once you’ve hit your 90’s, about 60 percent of those people will have some degree of Alzheimer’s associated cognitive problems.” Memory is only one component of Alzheimer’s. Language changes can occur earlier than memory issues. Naming and word finding are early symptoms but also can occur with normal aging. People with Alzheimer’s may have trouble joining in a conversation or struggle with vocabulary. They may have trouble recalling the name of a familiar object and resort to describing it in an improvised way, such as calling a watch a wrist clock. “The four primary symptoms of Alzheimer’s are personality and behavior changes, language and communication changes, memory changes and functional changes; understanding one or all of these symptoms may be evident at presentation,” Dr. Shafer said. “Changes will become more prevalent as the disease progresses and these symptoms should not to be confused with typical age-related changes like sometimes forgetting the right word or misplacing your keys.” In order to determine whether a new patient has Alzheimer’s or an - other form of dementia, neurologists conduct several standard tests. An MRI scan, for example, will be used to see if there are other reasons for the cognitive changes, like a brain tumor or previous strokes. If no other causes are shown, an EEG will be performed giving the physician some insight into the cortex function of the brain. This test will help identify any “short circuits” in the brain. A very thorough cognitive evaluation will be conducted with comprehensive tests for language, reasoning and thought. And lab work will be done to look for other causes of the dementia, like a low thyroid or infection. “More advanced testing like a SPECT scan of the brain, which can identify parts of the brain with a low metabolism, and beta-amyloid ratio testing that evaluates the ratio of proteins in spinal fluid may also be used to establish a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s,” Dr. Shafer said. “We will be using these tests more frequently as we look at patients who may be candidates for the new monoclonal antibody drugs just entering the marketplace.” Alzheimer’s disease remains a major public health challenge with a growing global impact. In the United States alone more than 6 million people are living with Alzheimer’s and by 2050 that number is expected to rise to nearly 13 million, and the disease kills more seniors than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The economic impact is staggering. It’s estimated that in 2023, Alzheimer’s and other dementias will cost the nation $345 billion, with those costs rising to nearly $1 trillion by 2050. While current drug treatments offer limited benefits, ongoing research into new therapies provides hope for more effective treatment. Dr. James Shafer has practiced Adult Neurology in Vero Beach and the surrounding area since 1997. He received his medical degree from Medical School at the University of Miami at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, followed by an internship in Internal Medicine at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He completed his residency in Adult Neurology at the University of Florida at Shands Teaching Hospital. He can be reached at his solo practice, Vero Beach Neurology and Re - search Institute, located at 1040 37th Place #201 in Vero Beach. Call 772-492-7051 or visit verobeachneurol - ogy.com to learn more or schedule an appointment.

HEALTH 44 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ After the American Psychological Association (APA) issued a health advisory about the dangers of social media use in adolescence, Vero Beach mental health professional Gwen Zorc, MEd, LMHC – who has 11 children – talked with Vero Beach 32963 about the challenges of monitoring Internet and social media usage to protect children and adolescents. As the APA report stated, youth, parents, caregivers, educators, policymakers, practitioners and members of the tech industry all share responsibility to ensure adolescents’ well-being. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy is on record noting the importance of the issue and the need for science-informed input. Zorc, who has a counseling practice in Vero Beach, knows from both professional and personal experience that monitoring your child’s social media usage isn’t easy – and the challenge is constantly evolving. “My oldest son is now 33 years old and he got his first phone – a flip top – when he was 16,” Zorc said. “My youngest is now 15, with an iPhone and the technical ability to have access to anything on the Internet.” Zorc said that as with most things, there are pluses and minuses to social media and families need to weigh how it affects them. The APA guidance includes the following recommendations: 1. Youth using social media should be encouraged to use functions that create opportunities for social support, online companionship and emotional intimacy that can promote healthy socialization. The Pew Research Center said social media has given teens the ability to instantly connect with others. Teens describe these platforms as a key tool for connecting and maintaining relationships, being creative and learning more about the world. 2. Social media use, functionality and permissions/consenting should be tailored to youths’ developmental capabilities; designs created for Addressing new guidelines for adolescent social media use BY JACKIE HOLFELDER Correspondent Gwen Zorc, M.ED, LMHC. PHOTOS BY JOSHUA KODIS

HEALTH Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 45 or those that encourage eating-disordered behavior (e.g., restrictive eating, purging, excessive exercise) should be minimized, reported, and removed; moreover, technology should not drive users to this content. Dr. Jason Nagata, an adolescent medicine specialist with the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco who specializes in eating disorder treatment, said teens should encouraged to ask: “Do I feel parents are monitoring what apps their children are using with their maturity and need for privacy in mind.” 4. To reduce the risks of psychological harm, adolescents’ exposure to content on social media that depicts illegal or psychologically maladaptive behavior, including content that instructs or encourages youth to engage in health-risk behaviors, such as self-harm (e.g., cutting, suicide), harm to others, adults may not be appropriate for children. Zorc cautions that social media apps are designed to be addictive. As a parent, it’s important to be aware of those that are basically clickbait. Bark, an online company that helps parents monitor content, manage screentime and provide online safety for their children, reported that the intent behind some clickbait is to spread information that is inflammatory, negative or false. Sometimes there are political motivations, but some scammers simply enjoy spreading false narratives. Children may struggle to understand what they’re viewing or why it’s harmful. The disinformation can lead to both personal and societal problems. 3. In early adolescence (typically 10 to 14 years), adult monitoring (i.e., ongoing review, discussion, and coaching around social media content) is advised for most youths; autonomy may increase gradually as kids age and if they gain digital literacy skills. However, monitoring should be balanced with youths’ appropriate needs for privacy. “The movies make it easy to judge what’s age-related by its rating system,” said Zorc. “But kids mature at different times and it’s critical that bad about myself while looking at this?” Though the negative effects of social media on girls’ body image have been widely discussed, Dr. Nagata emphasized that parents should encourage this kind of practice with children of both genders. 5. To minimize psychological harm, adolescents’ exposure to “cyberhate” including online discrimination, prejudice, hate or cyberbullying especially directed toward a marginalized group (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, religious, ability status) or toward an individual because of their identity or allyship with a marginalized group should be minimized or eliminated as much as possible. Zorc added that when her kids were little, there was a family computer room in her home where they all did their homework. “But the Internet has become increasingly more hidden and it takes more of an effort to learn what they’re watching while still allowing them that important sense of privacy.” 6. Adolescents should be routinely screened for signs of “problematic social media use” that can impair their ability to engage in daily roles and routines and may present risk CONTINUED ON PAGE 46

HEALTH 46 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ in social media literacy to ensure that users have developed psychologically informed competencies and skills that will maximize the chances for balanced, safe, and meaningful social media use. Before getting a child his or her first phone, it’s important that every parent have “that talk” that involves how inappropriate choices – including how photos they post can affect their future, said Zorc. 10. Substantial resources should be provided for continued scientific examination of the positive and negative effects of social media on adolescent development. Gwen Zorc, M.Ed, LMHC, is a Vero Beach native. She received her master’s in Counselor Education from Florida Atlantic University. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor registered with the State of Florida. Her practice, Splash Counseling, is located at 2770 Indian River Boulevard, Suite 402K, Vero Beach. She is accepting new patients. For more information call 772-879-5585 or visit splashcounseling.com. for more serious psychological harms over time. Is your child getting more secretive? asked Zorc. Maybe that online friendship isn’t so innocent. The Addiction Center, an informational web guide for those who are struggling with substance use disorders and co-occurring behavioral and mental health disorders, says signs of problematic social media use also include feeling the urge to use social media more and more and using it to forget personal problems. 7. The use of social media should be limited so as to not interfere with adolescents’ sleep and physical activity. Is your child getting enough sleep? asked Zorc. How about exercise? 8. Adolescents should limit use of social media for social comparison, particularly around beauty- or appearance-related content. To quote Bark again, when kids are constantly bombarded with socalled “ideal” beauty standards, the desire to fit in and match them can be intense. This can lead to anxiety and depression as they struggle to deal with how they are perceived and how they present themselves to the outside world. Constant worrying about whether they’re pretty CONTINUED FROM PAGE 45 enough, thin enough, tall enough or muscular enough can be taxing, especially during puberty, when bodies are in flux. 9. Adolescents’ social media use should be preceded by training “... kids mature at different times and it’s critical that parents are monitoring what apps their children are using with their maturity and need for privacy in mind.” – Gwen Zorc, M.ED, LMHC

HEALTH Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 47 The weight-loss drug Wegovy reduced the risk of strokes, heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems by 20 percent among overweight people with a history of heart disease, its manufacturer said last week, results that could increase demand and bolster the case for insurance coverage for the medication. The better-than-expected result was announced by Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk in a news release. Experts said the results of the trial, called Select, demonstrate that a new crop of drugs commonly used for weight loss, such as Wegovy, can provide important health benefits, not just cosmetic ones. Obesity should be treated as a serious illness given its connection to other problems such as heart disease, specialists said. Still, private insurers have been slow to cover Wegovy, and Medicare is barred from paying for weight-loss medications. With Wegovy costing more than $1,300 a month, the lack of insurance coverage has put the drug out of reach for many people. The study is important because it could shift perceptions of Wegovy and similar drugs, said Andres J. Acosta, an assistant professor of medicine and a consultant in gastroenterology and hepatology at the Mayo Clinic. Previously, the medications were highlighted for their cosmetic results. “It’s a new era,” Acosta said. “It matters because if you lose weight, your risk of dying is reduced.” The data from the highly anticipated trial have not been published. The results released Tuesday were top-line findings, and the company said it would release detailed results at a conference later this year. Steven Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist, noted that while the announcement is promising, he wants to see the full results. “We have to be cautious until we actually see the peer-reviewed publication,” said Nissen, who is leading a similar trial involving Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro, a diabetes drug commonly used for weight loss. “I cannot yet call this a blockbuster result because we have not seen the publication.” The five-year study of Wegovy involved more than 17,600 patients who were at least 45 years old and were overweight or obese, with a history of heart disease. The trial compared the effects of a weekly injection of 2.4 milligrams of the drug with a placebo, along with standard care for prevention of major heart problems. Wegovy, also known generically as semaglutide, mimics a naturally produced hormone – glucagon-like peptide-1 – that increases insulin production, suppresses appetite and slows the emptying of the stomach, creating a full feeling even when patients eat less. A previous study showed that another semaglutide drug, Ozempic, cut the risk of heart problems for diabetes patients at high risk for cardiovascular complications. The Select trial was the first large study of semaglutide in people who are obese but who do not have diabetes. Ozempic is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating Type 2 diabetes, although doctors commonly prescribe it for weight loss. Mounjaro, which is also called tirzepatide, mimics GLP-1 but also targets a second, closely related hormone called GIP, which also stimulates insulin production. Lilly is seeking FDA approval to market Mounjaro to manage weight loss as well as diabetes. The results will probably boost Novo Nordisk’s bottom line and could brighten prospects for makers of similar medications, according to industry analysts. The results are “close to best case scenario for SELECT, should add to Wegovy and obesity market momentum,” analysts at TD Cowen said in a note. The company’s stock soared on the news, finishing Tuesday up more than 17 percent from the day before. Martin Holst Lange, executive vice president for development at Novo Nordisk, called the Select trial a “landmark study” in the company’s statement. “People living with obesity have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but to date there are no approved weight-management medications proven to deliver effective weight management while also reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death,” Lange said. Study: Weight-loss drug cuts heart attack risk among obese BY LAURIE MCGINLEY AND DAVID OVALLE The Washington Post

48 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Style She was controversial, but became one of the most successful fashion designers of all time thanks to her revolutionary ideas. One of the most challenging aspects for anyone assessing Coco Chanel’s long, productive life is how slippery its facts are. Coco’s genius for all things aesthetic extended to her own past. She couldn’t resist tidying it up. “If only you’d stop lying,” Boy Capel, the first of her wealthy English lovers, once remonstrated with her. (A bit rich coming from a serial adulterer, but still.) The work, however, doesn’t lie. Chic, revolutionary, original, liberating and instantly recognizable, so much of what Coco Chanel designed in the 1920s, ’30s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s is still not only relevant, but driving other designers today. Iterations of her bouclé tweed jackets are currently lodged in hundreds of other labels, from local stores to haute. Ditto pumps with contrasting colored tips, extravagant faux-pearl jewels, quilted bags … The list goes on. It’s her work rather than her biography that Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto, the forthcoming blockbuster at the Victoria and Albert Museum, examines. “What’s really surprised us is the way the garments themselves are made,” says Oriole Cullen, the V&A’s senior curator in textiles and fashion. “We looked at hundreds. The textiles and cuts are incredible, timeless, sophisticated, elegant and quietly avant garde – they never really go in or out. There are so many pieces, including a 1930s sequined trouser suit, you could wear now.” And yet … the personal can rarely be entirely disentangled from an oeuvre. That’s particularly true with Chanel, whose output was an expression of her inimitable taste which, in turn, was a response to her own experiences and desires. Born a pauper on Aug. 19, 1883, dumped in a convent, a second-rate singer obliged to make her living elsewhere (initially making straw boaters) and blessed with impeccable style, it’s easy to trace her influences. The fact that she became, via a series of affairs with rich and illustrious men, one of the most famous and successful businesswomen of her era, adds to her aura. She was at the intersection of fashion and culture: friends with Picasso, Cocteau, Diaghilev and the poet Pierre Reverdy, whom she would pay to polish her many aphorisms so they became as famous as she is. In 1938, French Vogue published 31 of her/Reverdy’s maxims, including, “The face is a mirror in which the movements of the inner life are reflected: give it a lot of care,” and, “Disgust is often the rearguard of pleasure, and often the vanguard.” No wonder there are, says Cullen, 172 biographies to date – no other designer has attracted that level of scrutiny. She is, simply, fascinating. These days, no interrogation of the past can escape presentism – aka the tendency of some critics to disregard context and judge everything exclusively through a modern lens. Chanel is particularly problematic for these people. Even by the standards of her time, some of her actions were monstrous. It’s not just that she took up with Hans Günther von Dincklage, a Nazi officer, during the war. In ‘Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel, Nazi Agent,’ investigative reporter Hal Vaughan offers convincing evidence that she was an incorrigible antisemite and an active Nazi intelligence operative whose code name, as Agent 7124, was ‘Westminster’. Paradoxically, she had also, through her affair with the then Duke of Westminster, become friendly with Winston Churchill. In one of her later retellings, Chanel claimed Churchill deployed her as a kind of peace envoy with senior Nazis, a reading that has been undermined by documents that were declassified decades on. Perhaps Churchill was unaware of this betrayal. It’s thought that he intervened immediately after the war to prevent Chanel from being charged as a collaborator. Fashion Manifesto assiduously avoids the political. Debuting in 2020 in Paris, at the Palais Galliera, the original exhibition was seen by relatively few because of the pandemic. It has been significantly augmented by the V&A, building out into Chanel’s deep British connections and delving into its own archives, considerably enhanced in the 1970s by Cecil Beaton. Beaton, who did so much to burnish a fairytale image for the Windsors from the late 1930s onwards, had a similar passion for the V&A. Concerned that couture was dying out, he began cajoling its clients to donate to the museum. Ultimately Fashion Manifesto attempts to outline what Chanel did for women, and that was quite a lot, not because she was an altruist but because what was good for Coco often BY LISA ARMSTRONG The Telegraph The eight Coco Chanel creations that changed how women dress

Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 49 Style turned out to be good for women across the world. “She did what she had to do to survive,” her great-niece Gabrielle Labrunie would later say. Either way, Chanel is a major cultural figure from the 20th century and canceling her in the 21st century would be an own goal. In practice if not principles, she embodied many feminist – and feminine – fundamentals and her clothes were both the medium and the message for women who wanted a similar sense of freedom for themselves. Chanel changed the way we dressed forever. No 5 perfume It might seem provocative to lead Chanel’s many design innovations with a perfume, but as Cullen says, “Chanel No 5 has underpinned the Chanel empire since it was launched.” That was on May 5 (Chanel was a devout numerologist), 1921. Not many other perfumes still seem contemporary after more than a century, but No 5 was truly radical at the time, consisting as it did of a blend of natural ingredients (jasmine, rose, sandalwood, ylang-ylang and neroli) with aldehydes, which had only recently begun being used by perfumers. The resulting formulation was a standout. Unlike the rose, lavender and musk scents then popular, it didn’t smell of a single identifiable ingredient. It was far more abstruse and sophisticated. Years later, during one of her many imaginative retellings of her life, Chanel claimed she had come up with it all on her own, during a trip to the south of France where she’d escaped to mourn the death of her lover Boy Capel. Ernest Beaux, technical director of Chanel perfumes from 1924 until 1954, would have raised an eyebrow at this. A chemist and soldier (he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur for bravery), he created No 5 in 1920 after he returned from a campaign in the Arctic Circle in a bid to capture the fresh perfume exuded by the lakes and rivers there. It took him several years to find aldehydes that were sufficiently stable to hold and enhance the scent. He presented nine options to Chanel, who plumped for the fifth one. The following evening – according to Justine Picardie’s biography, “Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life” – she took a sample of the new perfume to the most fashionable restaurant in Cannes, sprayed the air round her table and waited for the reaction. With its elegantly minimalist, androgynous bottle, No 5 was an instant hit with her customers, which gave Coco an idea. Why not go big with it? She wasn’t the first couturier to launch scent – Paul Poiret got there in 1911. But she was the first to go mass, recognizing that its appeal could stretch far beyond the wealthy clients who came to her clothing boutiques in Deauville, Paris and Biarritz. The owner of Galeries Lafayette, one of the foremost French department stores, which had supported her from her early days as a milliner, introduced her to Pierre Wertheimer, who with his brother Paul had transformed Bourjois, a theatrical make-up house, into one of the largest cosmetic companies in France. Chanel needed their factories if she was to achieve her dream of producing industrial quantities of No 5. Would they oblige? They would – provided she agreed to them having 70 percent of Les Parfums Chanel. Coco held 10 per cent and Theophile Bader, proprietor of Galeries Lafayette, the remaining 20 (the Wertheimers would later buy him out). Ironically, antisemitic Coco would owe her subsequent financial security to a Jewish family. That 10 percent in Les Parfums Chanel made Coco fabulously rich. More perfumes followed, plus, in 1924, her first red lipstick, the prelude to a mighty beauty line. But for the rest of her life she resented that she hadn’t held on to a bigger financial stake. At some point during the war, according to Vaughan, she tried to get all of the perfume company back, using the Nazis’ Aryan laws. It is, perhaps, a delicious irony that a century on the Wertheimer family owns all of Chanel, which, in 2022, generated $18.58 billion. Chanel No 5, somewhat tweaked, but not beyond recognition, remains a top 10 global bestseller. The scent Chanel conceived of as something “women would buy for themselves,” rather than be gifted something else not to their taste by a man, is a cornerstone of the entire enterprise. An original, now fragile, bottle is in the Fashion Manifesto exhibition. The little black dress Other designers had designed black dresses. “Truth to tell, after the First World War, lots of women were dressed in mourning,” says Cullen. “But Chanel’s had such ease.” The one pictured here is from 1922, with embroidery by Kitmir, a business set up by her friend the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, a Russian émigré. Vogue called Chanel’s 1926 black dresses the Ford of fashion. “They were the ultimate dress-me-up, dressme-down item of clothing, which was a radical modern concept because until then women were changing five times a day for various functions,” says Cullen. Undoubtedly her childhood at the convent, surrounded by nuns in monochrome habits and a Spartan environCONTINUED ON PAGE 50

50 Vero Beach 32963 / August 17, 2023 Your Vero Beach Newsweekly ™ Style ment, sparked her enthusiasm for minimalism, but so did a love of drama and contrariness. When all around were sumptuously overdressed, she saw the power of restraint. She also knew the power of a signature. While she didn’t overtly brand her clothes, she developed distinctive codes. “There’s one particular LBD in the exhibition,” says Cullen, “in jersey, with a dropped waist and long sleeves, that was relatively easy to copy. She loved that. She knew it would make her name even more famous if women were running around in ‘Chanel-esque’ styles.” These days, co-opting humble, quotidian items and imbuing them with luxurious qualities is commonplace. But Coco would lead the way. She did it with jersey and she did it with fake jewelry, which she heaped on to her minimalist designs, creating a satisfying yin and yang sense of balance. Costume jewelry At the time, it was quite the audacious act to convince aristocrats with tiaras in their vaults to pay top dollar for ‘faux’, but so chic and baroquely modern were Chanel’s baubles, they did just that. Her designs were sufficiently accomplished that, in 1932, she launched her first collection of fine jewelry, mounting it as an exhibition and charging an entry fee. Tickets were a sellout – and so too was the collection. By piling on lashings and lashings of pearls, on elaborate brooches or as strands dangled down a bare back and looped around wrists with abandon, she made pearls seem modern and sexy. Prior to Chanel they had been considered slightly fusty, or childish. One more little sting in the tail? Chanel herself, thanks to her liaisons with the Duke of Westminster and her own career success, amassed a magnificent collection of fine jewelry, which she nearly always wore. Let her aristocratic clients wear fakes. The little seamstress wore the real thing. A sense of ease It’s mind-boggling to consider that the woman who brought comfort, sportiness and a dancer’s sense of elegant ease to fashion (Chanel was a generous patron of Les Ballets Russes, the itinerant dance company, and conducted a tempestuous affair with Igor Stravinsky who composed for them) spent her formative years in whalebone corsets and yards of constricting Edwardian frills. But from 1914, with her infallible instinct for the future, she became fascinated by menswear, co-opting items from Boy Capel’s sporting wardrobe. “Since you are so attached to them,” Capel told her, “I’m going to get you to have the clothes you have always worn remade elegantly by an English tailor.” Much of what would emanate from Rue Cambon, the site of her flagship boutique (across the road from her beloved Ritz hotel), had its roots in Savile Row. Pleat-front trousers, silk tennis dresses, the co-respondent brogue, which she refashioned as a mid-heel court shoe, stripy sailor’s tops and her long, slimline jackets, which owed their genesis to the cardigans Capel and the Duke of Westminster wore, would all become Chanel hallmarks. These weren’t just useful, stylish items of clothing. They summed up attitudes of masculine confidence and a feeling of bien dans sa peau that Chanel wanted for all her women customers. The oversized, slouchy and ‘boyfriend’ proportions of today owe their existence to the elegance that she imbued them with a century ago. The movement and flow came from her love of dance and sport, and the clothes they spawned. The earliest outfit in the exhibition is a silk tennis dress with a sailor collar from 1916. The tweed suit Chanel’s love of tweed has its roots in her love for Bendor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, with whom she had a decadelong affair from 1923. Chanel spent so much time in Britain – not just in London, but on his estates in Cheshire and Lochmore in Scotland, as well as on his vast yacht, which prowled the Mediterranean – it’s amazing she managed to run a successful business in France. In 1927, she opened a salon on Davies Street in Mayfair, close to Bendor’s Georgian mansion. While she brought her pared back, youthful Parisian sophistication to London, she also understood the local market, designing gowns for Royal Ascot and The Season – and launching the tweed suits that were based on Bendor’s sporting tweeds, which she had borrowed and worn. She tracked down mills in Scotland and Carlisle to make them to her own design. Linton in Carlisle still makes tweeds for Chanel. Chanel’s suits were slim-lined, but deconstructed – little or no padding in the shoulders, lined in silk, weighted by a fine gold chain sewn into the hem, armholes cut high to create a narrow, elegant sleeve that still allowed the wearer to move their arms freely. For her comeback show in 1954, after an absence of 15 years (she closed her couture house in 1939 on the outbreak of war, moving to Switzerland in 1945), she rethought her suits for a new era. Shorter, boxier jackets, shorter, but still slim skirts – they were a streamlined, elegantly pragmatic response to Dior’s over-the-top, wasp-waisted New Look of 1947. And, like the rest of that collection, they initially bombed … until American fashion editors began to cheerlead it. The bouclé suit has remained a classic ever since, famously worn by Jackie Kennedy, as well as Lauren Bacall (one of hers, pictured above, is in the exhibition), Marlene Dietrich, Jeanne Moreau, Grace of Monaco and many more. Later Karl Lagerfeld would have endless fun playing with its precepts, presenting the jacket in scuba, denim … ensuring it remained current and millions of women would wear some version of it. In the 1960s, Coco too subverted her own monument to restraint, remaking it in sequins and bright colors. She couldn’t stand entirely aloof from the times she lived in – nor did she want to. The adaptability CONTINUED FROM PAGE 49