Endangered America
Endangered America
The Lollipop and The Starlux. The Shalimar and The Caribbean. The Imperial 500 and The Tangiers.
With garish neon signs, multicolored exteriors and sweeping deck overhangs, the Doo Wop motels of the Wildwoods are the architectural equivalents of a Vitalis-slicked pompadour.But they, too, are fading into the past.
One by one, the mom-and-pop motels are being razed, rendered economically obsolete by a real estate boom that has made the land underneath too valuable to support a couple of dozen $100-a-night motel rooms.
Its hard, said Daytona Motor Inn owner John Donio, who has been offered five times what he paid for his 20-unit motel, two blocks from the beach. I want to stay, I really do.
More: mercurynews.com