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“Keep Florence, Florence,” Daniel Lofy said, more than once, during our hour or so interview, in answer to the question of why he is running for mayor. 

Lofy and his family moved to Florence from California more than 30 years ago. He ran Lofy Construction until retiring recently. Lofy’s three children all graduated from Siuslaw High School, and he has a grandchild who is a senior this year, he said.  

The city is well-run on the whole, Lofy said. He thinks the city manager and public works director are doing a great job, as is the Chamber of Commerce in promoting the city and bringing in new businesses. 

It’s not about change as much as keeping things the way they are, he said. “Why am I running for mayor? To keep Florence, Florence.”

“I don’t want Florence to be Portland. I don’t want Florence to be Salem. I don’t want Florence to be Eugene. We’re not those cities,” he said. It’s not that he believes we’ll grow to the size of those cities. It’s the mindset he is concerned about. “It’s just their attitudes or their demeanors, you know, Florence is a laid-back, easy, coastal town.”

Lofy does believe we need more affordable housing, which will make it possible to bring in more businesses. He doesn’t believe manufacturing or large businesses are the answer for Florence. He wants to hear what the community wants. “We’ll have to see what people want to bring in, what companies want to come in,” he said. 

There is a need for lower-cost homes, and Lofy has a plan, he said. But he doesn’t want to go into any details yet. “We know we can’t get more business unless they have housing. You’ve got to have housing. And right now the housing is just way overpriced.” A young couple can’t afford three, $400,000 for a house. And I have an idea that will probably bring that down to 250.”

But the details of that plan will likely not be revealed until after the election, he said. “I don’t have everything in place yet. I don’t like talking about something if I don’t have it in place, you know, to me, that’s just not right.”

One specific idea he supports is creating a Parks and Recreation department, something the city lacks. And while it might add a small amount to the city budget, Lofy thinks volunteers could step up to reduce the costs. “A lot of folks are out there saying they could volunteer,” he said. 

He pointed out that the city has had the equipment for a disc golf course, but has never installed it. “For ten years now, we’ve had all the baskets to make a disc golf course, but we haven’t built it up. Why?” He said. 

I checked with City Manager Erin Reynolds after our interview. She wrote in an email, “In 2020, the Oregon Coast Visitors Association (OCVA) purchased the equipment for a disc golf course with the hopes that the City of Florence would construct a course in the Munsel Greenway.”  The greenway is where the city’s drinking wells are located. During the design phase, it was decided the course would be a risk to the wetlands and to the wells, and would require parking.  “The City does not have a revenue source for new parks outside of grant funding. Since 2021, this has not been a project prioritized in the City Council Adopted Work Plan due to lack of funding,” she wrote. 

In mid-September, Lofy wrote a long post on Facebook with the title, “Political Hatred on Social Media in Florence: Does It Have to Be This Way?” It spoke to the bitterness and divisiveness we all see on social media. It was a call for a kinder Facebook where people check their facts, leave behind their anger, and engage in respectful dialogue. “Before posting, we can ask whether a statement is true, necessary, and respectful. We can verify claims before sharing them, avoid assigning motives to people we do not know, and respond to ideas rather than attacking character,” he wrote. 

At least two people left comments, questioning how the post aligned with the many posts Lofy has shared in the past. Posts that called No Kings protestors losers, liberals fools, and seemed to call former President Obama a baboon.  Lofy has deleted those replies from his post. And he has deleted many past posts that he created or shared from others that denigrated Democrats and liberals in terms that don’t align with his own call for respect of others. 

After a bit of back and forth in our conversation, he said that perhaps his post was written in part to himself. “Maybe part of that was talking to myself. Maybe in myself writing that post, I was maybe talking to myself, saying, ‘Dan, you need to change,’ because we’re all that way. We’re people.”

Lofy thinks being mayor means listening to the community rather than being the decision-maker. The mayor represents the city and is also one among five on the city council.