Florida Megaloposis
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Look at this map. It's worse than I thought.
Rural Florida is beautiful (rural anywhere is beautiful). I wanted to live there when I was younger. The problem with rural Florida is the problem in most rural places. There aren't any jobs.
Florida development looked nothing like this map when I was growing up.
I've definitely decided I want to live in an urban area for the way everything you need is within a short distance, there are more choices you have in terms of where you can do business and their are more cultural activities (e.g. the Dalí Museum in Saint Petersburg, the Ringling Museum in Sarasota).
I've never lived in an apartment building. I'd like to live in one with at least three stories and an elevator or ideally in a tall building. (Medieval tower houses are my favorite residential architecture along with Georgian houses and Norman castles).
One thing I won't be doing again this time around is spending a lot of time driving in what is now a continuous traffic jam.
I can't think of the exact figure off the top of my head but Florida has a population that is about double what it was when I was born.
I don't think this is good for Florida's fragile ecology or for its quality of live but what can I say about it.
I don't love it here but maybe because I was born here I don't have any trouble making sense of it.
I've been pleasantly surprised by the women.
The men are in their own worlds (however different from each other they might be-- the polar opposite of the culture in HI-- where being on the DL is almost a requirement for residency).
Almost all of the women you meet are culturally sophisticated, wise, and have no judgment. They just address you as "honey" (unless it's a serious business situation), it's light-hearted, friendly, and no problem.
This is the norm because there are definitely woman who deviate from it. They stand out like a sore thumb.
Women who routinely show bigotry in the way the their behavior with Blacks are also rare and likewise stick out like neon signs.
I'm pretty sure they have no self-awareness.
The men are very self-contained, and as I said, ignore strangers for the most part. They generally seem to care as much about the appearance of gender roles as a lot of men I knew in the NE. A lot of them are from there.
In Hawaii you might be in a professional office, think a mixed-race man doesn't know you're alive. You might step outside to wait at the same time, realize he is staring you down with unadulterated feelings. This happened every day in Hawaii. It never happens in Florida.
They have two very different cultures.
Anyway, urban/ suburban sprawl has consumed Florida.
Edited, Tues, for clarity.
Also, I forgot to post the link to the map yesterday.
It's staggering. Urban/ suburban areas run almost the entire west coast, the entire east coast, connect the east and west coasts via Orlando and run up the middle to Gainesville, and run the length of the panhandle--- all contiguous.
Sorry. I'll look for it.
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One of my favorite development facts about Florida is that, in 1912 before the Key West rail bridge was finished, Key West was the largest city in the entire state, even though it was reachable only by ship. Its population? Less than 20,000.
In other words it speaks to the total lack of development in the state as a whole back then.
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