About Me & My Blog

Commentaries on Politics & Our World & Random Pieces of Fiction

On everything under the sun from the point of view my itsy bitsy home here in Davenport, Florida, USA.

I don’t come from Davenport but have lived here since 2012. I like to think that I came from Richmond, Virginia, because that’s where I lived for 18 years and graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), but I’m also from Puerto Rico and New York, two splices of my life that I reveal from time to time in my writings.

I started my slightly irreverent, eponymous site on January 1, 2017 to fill an information void in my community. The local newspaper, The Ledger, didn’t report much and the City of Davenport Board of Commissioners and its municipal government didn’t communicate effectively. (Still doesn’t.)

It started with getting to know a few politicians (a bit too closely) and grew into my community work, which was plenty including serving as chairperson of my city’s Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee, serving on the Charter Review Committee, serving on the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Committee, and on the Polk County Democratic Executive Committee.

I’ve done a lot of things in my short life but my most favorite thing is writing, thus this blog. One of my other favorite career choices included working in economic development for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and in Hampton and Hanover counties bringing in such giants at the time as Gateway computers and Nextel phones.

One other thing I am very proud of is my with the guardian ad litem world. I worked for Henrico County, Virginia, in their program. My guardian ad litem work put me in direct communication with judges on child abuse cases. (I am not a lawyer.) I’ve argued against lawyers, I think, three times so far, in courts of law, winning more than I lost, I must say. From these experiences, I’ve concluded that arguing a case involves invoking judgement on ethics and morality. It also involves who has the better information (evidence), as well as, the mood of the judge on any given day. I believe that the foundation of judgement is opinion.

Before Darhlene.com, for eight years I ran The Poinciana Crane,[i] starting it as a real estate blog then blossoming it into a hyper-local news source before closing in 2012. There was a lot happening that year, including yours truly running for a county seat while serving as vice president to local civic group; helping found the Poinciana Economic Development Alliance (PEDA); and managing, in a nearly unpaid position, a private for-profit blog for Poinciana’s Solivita community.

I passed Florida’s real estate exam on the first try in 2004. (Yeah, surprised me too.) It was a feat not accomplished by most licensure candidates, but I was also the one surrounded by industry sharks, I later found, ones who’d eat their mother’s for a few thousand bucks (or less, who knows).  I thought my background — which had included decades of experience in economic development, government, nonprofits, self-employment, and technology — would naturally lend me to a successful career in real estate sales. It did not.

Where Credit is Due

After all of my pre-realtor successes, I noticed that I had become a detail-oriented leader, a community activist, a social critic (much needed in Florida) than I was a salesman of any sort. I found that projects that jostled my muse involved speaking truth to power, advancing my neighborhood, and helping others. As such I helped paved the way for a restroom facility to be built in a neighborhood park in a majority-minority community called Jamestown, a $100k project.

As for the improvements to Lake Play, which is just a block away from me in my corner of the world, and with from city manager Kelly Callihan, I was the one who came up with the concept to make the Lake Play trail into a circle for joggers to enjoy. It had been in the shape of a horseshoe for eons, no connection from one side of the park to the other. Callihan had to do a little purchase, since the one section of the park was owned by the McKnight family. He got that, then completed the circle, then completed that with signage encouraging folks to jog there. You know who was not given credit for this concept?

Instead commissioners saw fit to recognize a local somebody named Sandra M. Carter. (Not to be mean but, as of this writing, there is no information about her anywhere.) They put a plaque at Lake Play for her. Nice folks our commissioners are, huh?

Regardless of their actions, I remain committed to my work as a community activist. (Somebody’s gotta hold our local politicians accountable.) So I’ve had lots of experiences and continue to have them.

To document some of those experiences — and much more — I will use my long, slender fingers to bang on my Dell keyboard like a piano and entertain my readers while doing what I like to do best: research and write. Please follow me as I venture here to talk about our world, and especially Davenport.

About Darhlene.com

This blog, where you’re at, is not my public diary, which I had always thought was a weird use for a blog. It is primarily my opinion about stuff that’s happening to us today with a foundation of fact-based sources. Most of the time, I include links to where I got my information. If you find that something I said here on Darhlene.com needs to be backed up somehow, write to me. I’m all ears.

There are two primary sources of local news where I live in a city of over 20,000: the local feel-good newspaper with MAGA editorials, that’s usually just a dozen pages long; and Darhlene.com. Yeah, this site. Rarely does my community make it to the TV/video news in Tampa or Orlando, our two closest cities with regional news that covers our area. In the year2025, my area is both a food desert, a news desert, and a cultural desert, although the culture part is getting better.

The reason I started this blog was, well, where I live, the politicians of the City of Davenport, Florida, simply don’t communicate very well at all with their constituents about what’s going on in City Hall. I started passing information I found to my community via this page, and I started getting very positive responses, so I kept going. During this time, I became a community activist. Today, I hold our Board of Commissioners, a.k.a., politicians, accountable. (They love it!)

Unable to Find Something?

With way over a 130 blog posts, you may find it hard to find what you’re looking for here. Here’s a trick. At the top-right of my blog is the search icon. Click on it and enter one or two words to find what you’re looking for. Still can’t find it? Write me.

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All images on Darhlene.com are either copyright-free images or are images created by either Darhlene Zeanwick or George D. Gordon, III.  All images on this site by George D. Gordon, III, are used with his permission.

Except for copyright-free images, all images and content on Darhlene.com are copyright of ©George D. Gordon, III, and/or ©Darhlene Zeanwick and may not be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or downloaded in any way. All rights are reserved. Copying, altering, displaying or redistribution of any of these images without written permission from George D. Gordon, III, and/or Darhlene Zeanwick is strictly prohibited.

Endnote

[i] The Poinciana Crane ran as a real estate news and commentary blog from 2004 to March 2012, ending with 159 followers.