Life in Jeb Bush’s Florida

“Police shut down girl's lemonade stand; city later offers free permit

06/18/2003

By LARRY HANNAN Naples Daily News

Avigayil Wardein may be only 6, but in the past few days she has learned a lot about permits and dealing with government regulations.

Naples police officers shut down a lemonade stand Avigayil was operating with friends at the end of her driveway on 11th Avenue South on Friday. Her mother, K.C. Shaw, said the lemonade stand was shut down because a neighbor complained.

"The police officers were really embarrassed about it," Shaw said. "One of them even bought some lemonade."

Under city rules, a permit is needed to operate a temporary commercial business in Naples.

The rule is designed to control temporary businesses. For example, the city would not want a hot dog vendor to set up a stand on Fifth Avenue South.

Collier County has similar rules. But this is the first time anyone in the city or county can remember a lemonade stand run by children being shut down.



Officials with both the city and county said the only way a lemonade stand would be shut down is if someone complained.

"No one goes around looking for lemonade stands to shut down," said Lisa Koehler, a Collier County community development spokeswoman. "But if someone complains, you have no choice but to take action."

The lemonade stand was back up again Tuesday after city officials helped the family out by granting them a permit.

"I found out you have to pay $35 for a permit each time you want to operate," Shaw said. "But when I explained my situation the city agreed to give us a permit for the whole summer for free. They were very nice about the whole thing."

Shaw said Avigayil will no longer charge 50 cents for a glass of lemonade. The lemonade will now be free and people will have the option of tipping her daughter and the other children who operate the stand.

"I spoke to a lawyer over the weekend and he told me the city couldn't shut us down if we didn't charge people anything," she said. "I think that's the way we're going to do it from now on."


The threat of rain didn't prevent Avigayil and her friends, Alysa Gonnella, 6, and Austin Dremann, 9, from reopening Tuesday.

"I want to sell a lot of lemonade today," Avigayil said.

Shaw said she usually sits on the porch while the lemonade stand is open.

"They want to be independent, so I sit up here and watch them," she said. "We get a lot of construction workers, people from the beach and people from Cambier Park who stop and buy lemonade."

The children have been operating the lemonade stand for about two years. The most money ever made during a single day was about $30 during the Fourth of July holiday last year.

"The roads were packed with people going to the (Naples Pier) to see the fireworks and a lot of people stopped and bought lemonade," Shaw said.

Austin said the number of times the lemonade stand is open depends on what else is going on.
"Sometimes we're open every couple of days," he said. "Other times it's every couple of weeks.

"We also sell more lemonade when it's sunny," Avigayil said.

Shaw said she has tried to teach Avigayil the basics of running a business through operating the lemonade stand.

"She's going into first grade and she's already learned about making change and selling a product," Shaw said. "I tell her it will be good training someday when she's a CEO."”

“I think this is part of the AP writing test Vio.”

“Damn kids trying to put honest business people out of work!”

“A sourpuss neighbor foiled.
A Happy Ending.
A'int life in Jeb Bush's Florida Great!”

“What's this got to do with the future president?”

“Really stretching for something! My God you people are pathetic!”

“"What's this got to do with the future president?"
Mutt
09:10:40 AM
06/19/03

In his effort to bring us bigger and better cut-and-pastes, Fiddleboy leaves no Bush undisturbed.”

“Well in the words of my high school Shop instructor: I hate the violin, but I love a good fiddle!”

“Why don't people name their kids decent names?? As a journalist, IT SUCKS!

Avigayil?? I tell ya, if some kid's name is TOM or BOB, I ask how to spell it!!”

“My all-time favorite: Emmaleigh. GEEZ!”

“You should have gone to my high school, lizs, you'd have loved it.”

“LMAO @ lizs!! that was the first thing i thought of...what an "interesting" name. i like that the making-of-one-syllable-into-two is actually spelled out. yikes!”

“What's even better are Celt names, which are apparently gaining popularity.

Ceilidh (pronounced "kaylee") anyone?”

“And you've never got a name wrong then Lizs... huh huh?”

“After two years in business, the neighbor must have finally got some sour lemonade.”

“We have a lot of international students here.

Zuzanna
Ioulia
Those are easy ones from E.Europe

The African and Indian names are impossible.”

“Who did that cartoon with the kid's lemonade stand years ago... ?

The sign said "Lemonade 5¢" but in small print underneath it said "(Lemonade Antidote $10)", LOL”

“Wow viola, it's amazing how you can lay the dumbest things at people's feet. you make it sound as if Jeb went out and burned down their stand.


Moron...”

“It is a bit ridiculous!”

“As far as I know, Jeb was not personally involved in this…





… and that’s exactly my point. You think it would have gone that far if the six-year-old could vote? I guess its hard to buy much political influence when your best day ever was about $30 gross.”

“WTF is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh you know.

You know!

Don't play dumb with me.”

“"A stitch in time without breaking a few eggs," eh?”

“Morons! How is the mountain coming from that mole hill?”

“Then again Viola, Florida IS in the United States so shouldn't you blame this on Dubya? I mean it's as much HIS fault as it is Jebs, right?”

“The neighbor probably complained because the stand ran out of cookies. ;-)”

“LOL”

“You're right Nigal.

The little girl would have been wise to pay protection money to the entire Bush crime family.”

“Please.
This would happen anywhere if a neighbor complained.

Implying that enforcement of local municipal business license laws have anything to do with Officers of State level government is pure ignorance and stupidity.

I'll take life in Jeb Bush's (or the next Governor's) Florida over anywhere else right about now.”

“Perhaps it is extremely stupid, moronic, etc. but I sure caught a nice string of suckers with this bait.”

“Was there any doubt of that?

We love to feed the trolls here.”

“its pathetic that someone complained about the kids stand. its also pathetic to turn it into more political hatefest. violin, i dont believe you when you say you were trolling for suckers. i think youre just backpedaling from all the backlash. this was a tactic worthy of alaska.”

“Cool!

Biting on a bare hook with a big sign next to it that says "Danger!- Fish Hook".”

“Perhaps it is extremely stupid, moronic, etc. but I sure caught a nice string of suckers with this bait."
vIoLiN
02:40:59 PM
06/19/03

And you definitely are a master of bait.”

“I think that after eight years of everything being Clinton's fault, Violin has learned a thing or two from our conservative brethren.
(Eight years? What am I thinking? Every bad thing has been Clinton's fault since the dawning of civilization.)”

“Too bad it make him look like a jackass though.”

“Squeezing a spat for all it's worth

The real story of the 6-year-old and her lemonade stand is nothing like the tale that made national headlines. A neighborhood feud and savvy marketing made sure of that.

By CHUCK MURPHY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 17, 2003

------------------------------------

NAPLES - As portrayed nationwide, the story of the little lemonade girl, the nasty neighbor and big, ugly government goes something like this:

A 6-year-old girl in sweltering Southwest Florida tries to make a little summer money by starting a lemonade stand. A crabby neighbor demands that the stand be licensed or shut down. Heavy-handed police officers force the child out of business.

Finally, stingy city officials cave to public pressure and grant the license - for free.

But the reality of Avigayil Wardein's lemonade adventure is different from the story repeated on national radio and television shows, and ultimately distorted on talk radio and around the world via the Internet.

For starters, police didn't really shut down the stand, much less arrest any children, as some have claimed. And the city had granted the license without a fee long before the first word about the controversy was broadcast or printed.

In truth, it's a rather pedestrian tale of a long-running neighborhood dispute over a carport radio and a neighbor who retaliated for months of complaints from next door by reluctantly asking police to check on the stand.

And if it hadn't given the city of Naples such a nationwide black eye as America's anti-Mayberry, police Chief Steven Moore would only chuckle at what everyone calls simply "The Lemonade Case."

"It's really no different from hundreds of complaints that we respond to all the time," Moore said this week. "But the mother has done an excellent job of marketing this."

The mother is KC Shaw, 49, a savvy, polished technology consultant. Her neighbor is Sheila Lewis, a 52-year-old Realtor who has consistently refused to grant interviews. She also declined to comment for this story.

Shaw moved into the little home south of Naples' postcard-perfect downtown about three years ago. And for a year or so, she and Lewis apparently got along fine.

But Shaw became annoyed by Lewis' habit of playing a radio outside, beneath her carport. And, despite a large, palm hedge separating Lewis' carport from Shaw's, the radio could still be heard next door.

"When she would play her music too loud, I would call her and she would comply and turn it down," Shaw said this week. "But at some point, I guess she got tired of me calling and she told me not to call her again.

"So I really have had no choice but to use the police for volume control."

Naples police records show that Shaw has called police six times since October to complain about Lewis' radio. Each time, police arrived and asked that the volume be turned down or found that it already was. Then they left.

Lewis has called police just once about Shaw. But her call made it all the way to the Late Show with David Letterman.

Here's some of what the world has had to say about Lewis since then:

"Un-American." - Orlando Sentinel columnist Myriam Marquez.

"I hope (Avigayil) is leaving the lemon peels on her neighbor's, you know, driveway." - CNN anchor Kyra Phillips.

"Probably a Democrat." - Syndicated radio host Neal Boortz.

The call Lewis made contradicts many of the accounts on the Internet and the airwaves. For starters, a recording of the call makes it clear that Lewis never demanded that the stand be closed or anyone be cited. And she made no effort to disguise her motivation.

"She calls the police on me if my father turns the radio on once over there. . . . So I mean, she drives me just nuts. Now today she's got her little 5-year-old out there, unattended, with a stand. Right at the corner," Lewis told a dispatcher. "Could you just like send the guys there . . . and at least tell them that she is supposed to have a permit so she doesn't start doing this every day this year."

For her part, Shaw acknowledges that she knew the call was coming. As she was setting up the stand with Avigayil and other neighborhood children on the morning of Friday, June 13, Lewis came out and asked if she had a permit, Shaw recalled.

"I said, "It's a lemonade stand, Sheila. I don't need a permit,' " Shaw said. "Then she said she was going to call the police. She said, "Now you'll know how it feels.' "

It took just a few minutes for Shaw to recognize the potential in that confrontation.

By Shaw's account, a neighbor, whose child was also working at the stand, ran inside to call a local television station before police had even arrived. The station passed on the story - until there was a story.

The widely circulated tale diverges from reality here again. Though it has been reported that Naples police officers shut down the stand, a record of the call says the officers went to the home on ly to advise the mother of the ordinance. Chief Moore cautions that they never even got the chance to act, as Shaw voluntarily closed as soon as the officers arrived.

"When we got there the mother said she would close down the stand until she could get a permit, and that's what she did," Moore said. "People have us actually taking two 6-year-olds in handcuffs. I got an angry e-mail like that today. No one seems really interested in what actually happened."

As for the city caving in to public pressure, well, there was no pressure. By the time Shaw arrived to pick up a permit, city staffers had decided that the fee would be waived and the stand licensed - all before the first story had appeared on television or in the newspaper.

But it wasn't long before.

"As I was leaving City Hall, I saw a camera crew there interviewing someone," Shaw said. "So I gave them my card, and told them, "I have this little human interest story. . . .' "

The local NBC station broadcast a story on June 17. From there, the story went to the station's Web site, to the Matt Drudge Web site, to the Naples Daily News, to the Associated Press and to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, Fox's Bill O' Reilly, CNN, Rush Limbaugh and radio stations and newspapers around the world.

By her count, Shaw has done more than 40 interviews with radio stations across the country. Though the city had waived the permit fee before anyone outside of 11th Avenue S in Naples had ever heard of Avigayil, donations started pouring in. Shaw said she has started a college fund that has "a few hundred dollars."

The money seems to have rubbed some of the other folks on 11th Avenue S the wrong way.

"I bet there are lots of kids in lots of neighborhoods throughout this town (and certainly elsewhere) who would enjoy having free donations for their college education," wrote neighbor Susan Weising in a guest commentary for the Naples Daily News. "Has anyone bothered to check out the facts on whether our now-famous family has any issues with nearby neighbors?"

Others in the area have their own complaints about Shaw, and even Avigayil.

"All these sympathetic letters about Avigayil breaking the law make me sick," wrote Frank Johnson of nearby Bonita Springs. "Let's have all these vehement advocates of lemonade stands, tree houses, ramshackle fruit stalls and Girl Scout cookie booths . . . come out from under their rocks and see a row of these on their streets! And then, watch out "crabby neighbors!' "

While there are four neighborhood children who work the stand regularly, most of the attention, and promotion, has fallen on Avigayil. She went on Letterman, has given countless interviews and is now going to be the national representative for the Kids Only! Sunny Day Play Lemonade Stand ($24.99), a plastic, ready-to-operate lemonade stand. The boxes will soon carry Avigayil's photo.

"It's been a wild ride, and Avi might just get college paid for out of it," Shaw said.

As for Lewis, she has called Chief Moore a couple of times. Once to complain about the media camped on her lawn. Again to complain about lemons being thrown at her house and just to reflect on her anonymous reputation as Osama bin Neighbor.

"Obviously she thinks the attention has all been completely one-sided, but that's because when only one side is speaking, only one side will get the attention," Moore said. "But I thought it would die out after a week. It just keeps going and going on."”

“It's all Bush's fault!”

“And Jeb Bush is involved how???????????”

“Reading is FUNdamental.”

“We are just going to turn this thread into a "Why we hate the Bush's"”

“I bet Shaw sleeps good at night exploiting her daughter's childhood that way.”

“stupid cows”

“Lauderhill commissioners: Purple and gold house must be repainted within 3 years

By Susannah Bryan

LAUDERHILL -- The purple and gold house that has created a neighborhood stir will need to be repainted in three years instead of five under a new city law that would control the colors residents can paint their homes.

Initially, commissioners tentatively approved a law that would give residents whose homes don't comply with the city's new color palette five years to repaint their homes. Commissioners reduced that time to three years on Monday at the urging of one of their colleagues, who had missed the first reading of the ordinance two weeks ago. Homeowners who can prove financial hardship will be granted the full five years.

<snip>

The home in the city's northwest section became the talk of the neighborhood after being painted the colors of the homeowner's college fraternity. The homeowner declined to comment for this story.

After nearby residents called City Hall to complain, city officials intervened, asking if the homeowner would be willing to find a more muted shade. He refused, saying he had paid professionals to paint the house, according to Assistant City Manager Desorae Giles-Smith.

And so the new ordinance, still awaiting a final vote, was born.

A consultant will help the city create a color palette with hundreds of shades from which homeowners can choose. Commissioners will likely vote on the palette in January.

more...”

“Ain't democracy just the bestest thing there ever was?”

“And to think, nobody would have expected that purple houses are linked to Al Quaida.”

“From the folks who campaigned to get the government off the backs of the people.”

“Sense when is the state government responsible for local city governments? I’ve seen some of your more retarded stretches in order to put things at the feet of conservatives Viola but dang, this post should be wearing a hockey helmet. LOL!

My town has some pretty stupid ordinances. No pot belly pigs allowed. No porn rented or sold. No cruising. No loud stereos. We had a group of houses that were owned by the local scummy land lord and they were all on one corner. He had the houses painted horrible colors. It was known as Rainbow Corner. The city decided that they were not in accordance with the rest of the community and ordered them painted. Of course the city ended up paying for them to be painted for the rich land lord.

OK, back on topic….
































Pretty retarded post there Viola.”