I always find stories like this a bit disconcerting, because it seems to me that the idea of “antiques” is pretty self-explanatory, and that any community that has rules in place to a) punish people who run these businesses or b) exclude them from setting up shop, has some soul-searching to do.

Such is the case with South Daytona,Fla., which has had an ongoing battle for the past several years about whether or not to allow antiques dealers to open shops in the city's Community Redevelopment Area Overlay District.

I guess, from reading this article from the East Volusia News, that the dispute on the town council in the years preceding the current town council, is that businesses will open that call themselves antique shops but will have only a bunch of cheap tchotchkes, read "collectibles," masquerading as real antiques. This, in turn, would bring down the overall value of the neighborhood, because we all know that Daytona – home to NASCAR and mega Spring Break parties – has the rep of one of the classiest places in the U.S. In case you can’t see my face right now, I’m being sarcastic.

It seems, though, that the council of South Daytona, with a new “forward-thinking” mayor, has settled on a revolutionary new definition of what an antique is. Get this: It’s something that is more than 100 years old. Crazy, man, crazy. Anything else that is valuable, but under a century old, is collectible - even Mid-Century Modern, which is in great supply and great demand in Florida… even Daytona.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see if the vote talked about in the article, linked to here, opens the door for antiques in that part of South Florida.

-Noah Fleisher, Aug. 20, 2008