Florida News

Rollins College Archives

Big news in Central Florida has been the failure of the state legislature to approve SunRail, the commuter rail designed to alleviate Central Florida's traffic gridlock. My wife pointed out that Central Florida actually had commuter railroad in the past, the Orlando-Winter Park Railroad that ran the entire six miles between the adjacent communities. Today it is difficult to know where one town stops and the other begins, but in 1889 the only alternative to the half hour train ride was a trip on horseback. According to the Winter Park Public Library website, Rollins College students living in Orlando took the train to school, making it Central Florida's first commuter rail.

Kilby Photo

In other Winter Park news, I noticed one of my favorite neon signs is gone, Holler Chevrolet. The car dealership moved quite awhile ago, so it was just matter of time before new tenants came in and took down the sign. I wonder where it is....

Also coming out of this year's legislative session was the decision not to fund the 2010 Forever Florida program designed to buy environmentally sensitive land to save it from development. Combined with new laws allowing for less regulations for developers, it is likely that the sprawl devouring our state will continue.

One person who is very committed to Florida, however, is former University of Florida basketball player Udonis Haslem. Haslem, a current member of the NBA's Miami Heat, took off his jersey and threw it up into the stands revealing a large map of the state tattooed on his back. Now that's state pride!

Flori-duh

I picked up the Orlando Weekly this week because of the clever illustration of "Peninsula Pete" an anthropomorphic rendering of our state as a vaudeville character. The feature article was "Our Dumb State Vol.5." While the Weekly always has a smarmy, sarcastic tone, and this article is no exception, I can't disagree wit the basic premise of the piece that Florida has been "the epicenter of idiocy" in recent years. And the more I learn about our state's history, the more I discover that collectively as a state, we've have a discouraging legacy of making short-sighted decisions that ultimately could harm the quality of life in our state. So now that this tendency is so blatant that a weekly tabloid like the Weekly can make a 5 part series about stupidity in our state, will we work to make things better? The news stories coming out of the current state legislative session seem to indicate we are right the middle of a tsunami of stupidity. Despite what's going in Tallahassee right now, we still have a State Park system that is second to none and a forward-thinking program like Florida Forever as long as we continue to fund them both. I'd like to see what is left of old Florida preserved so the next generation can see what it was like when the state was unspoiled.

The Orlando Sentinel also has a feature called Floriduh with the subhead "We've been in the sun too long." Is this part of Florida's colorful character, without the lens of time to make it seem eccentric and fun? Do we attract wackiness and silly behavior? Or if you looked hard enough at any state, could you find the same kind of stuff going on?

Follow ups

1.) The Arrow Motel

My friend living in the Arrow Motel tells me that it is actually a unique little community, despite being in such a run-down part of Orlando.  He says living in the Arrow is "totally safe and secure, despite the appearance of the opposite." He trusts his neighbors because "it is impossible to hide who you are because we all live in the same fishbowl."  First, I must apologize for the assumptions I made about the living conditions there based solely upon the reputation of the Trail. Second, I really want to visit and meet the folks who live permanently in a vintage Florida roadside motel!

2.) Florida Forever

Florida's Governor, Charlie Crist, surprised me by vetoing the proposed cuts that would virtually wipe out the Florida Forever program. It's nice to read some good news in the paper for once!

3.) Homosassa Springs

I found this image of Homosassa Springs, before the Fish Bowl was built, on the Florida Geological Survey website.

4.) Houses for sale

All 3 historical Orlando homes, I've blogged about are still on the market. And I learned that the one home I was told housed Buddy Ebsens' family's musical school, was perhaps not the correct location of said school.

5.) St. Johns River

The battle for Florida's water is really just beginning. Here is a fine article giving reasons for not using the St. Johns River as a source of drinking water.

6.) Peace Tower

I'm not sure where I got the term Peace Tower, it's really called the Placid Tower.

7.) Presidents Hall of Fame

I posted some video from the presidents Hall of Fame in Clermont and meant to do a more in-depth blog about it later. This article on RoadsideAmerica.com, an excellent online resource, does a better job than I would have. And it is written by a highschooler. I'm impressed and hopeful for the next generation of roadside aficianados. 

8.) Citrus Tower

I acquired this vintage postcard of the Clermont roadside attraction. I think perhaps there was some manipulation of the orange tree limb.

State of Stupidity

Props to the University Press of Florida- they publish some mighty fine books about the sunshine state. Right now I'm reading Up for Grabs by John Rothchild, a book I've had for six years but am now finally reading. It is similar to Losing it All to Sprawl, Bill Belleville's book, in that it looks at the history of Florida and how developers have shaped our state and our culture. 

Rothchild portrays Florida as a giant swamp that gets filled in by opportunists who create land out of muck and get rich by doing it. He traces the early capitalists who create Miami, St. Pete and other coastal communities, documents the growth of inland towns like Orlando and reveals more recent projects by greedy developers around the Everglades. While the book's tone is not cheerful, it does seem unwaveringly straightforward.

Both Belleville and Rothchild portray Florida's government as inept stewards of the state's natural beauty who cater to the developers that reap the rewards of plundering Florida's assets. Everyday I read the paper, I can't help but think he's right. As our current state legislature tries to make up billions of dollars in revenue by hacking the budget, their short-sightedness in considering their options is astounding to me. Our legacy as Floridians may be that we mess things up little bit more for each generation, unless we make some tough decisions.

A couple of thoughts:

- Florida's history is a series of gigantic real-estate booms followed by gigantic busts. I can't help but thinking we may be entering such a bust again. In the '80s and 90s, Church Street Station and Church Street itself was the center of social life in downtown Orlando. I'm sure that was considered when they made plans to build an enormous condo right in the middle of all the action. Today it sits empty, casting shadows over my beloved entertainment complex.

- A positive note is that our governor is considering withdrawing his support for the planned gutting of the Florida Forever program by the legislature. Lets see if he has the courage to follow through with it. I have to admit, if the choice is between keeping teachers and buying environmentally-sensitive land, it's a very tough call. Hey Charlie- why not just raise cigarette taxes and tax internet sales instead?

- Today's Sentinel has a plethora of letters about the state's absurd policy of euthanizing wild animals that stray into neighborhoods. There are neighborhoods everywhere, where else can the critters go? While there are many complaints about the quality of the Sentinel today, I still see it as an overwhelmingly positive force for raising public awareness.

State of Emergency

Florida has no state income tax so it relies on tourists and 1,000 new-comers moving into the sunshine state every day to pay sales tax to create revenue. So we have encouraged growth as it has kept us prosperous while we lost 20 acres of Florida to development every hour. Somehow we had the foresight to create Florida Forever, a state program that bought environmentally sensitive lands with state funds. Facing a huge budget deficit, state lawmakers are considering abandoning the program. At a time when low real estate values would mean a tremendous opportunity to maximize the value of state land purchases, our lawmakers are about to axe the program. And locally our County mayor is considering reducing impact fees on developers to spur growth. I wondered if the recession might be positive in terms of slowing rapid development that is destroying it's natural beauty. I think the answer is clearly no, when push comes to shove, our environmental concerns gets thrown under the bus driven by developers. I urge you to contact your state legislator today, as the critical vote is tomorrow.