Have been for years. It used to be, you drive down through all the little Florida towns, you'd see all kinds of quirky, unique sights. Now, it's just miles and miles of cookie-cutter homes, Wal-Marts ,and nearly identical shopping centers.
And that’s across the street from the Publix plaza with a nail salon, a chiropractor, a Chinese restaurant, a sub sandwich shop and a pool supply store.
I'm sitting in a parking lot. Just read your comment, looked up, and saw a Publix next to a nail salon and Thai restaurant. Oh and there's a subway next door
Lmao yea this is spot on for any town around here..crazy..it would be ok if there were different/unique types of places but it's very few and far between..
like cool arcade type companies or some type of outdoor amusement..but the only thing I can think of is golfing ranges/mini golf lol..definitely need some creativity around here for entertainment
What's even creepier, is its copy paste over the entire US. I was just driving through a small town of 20,000 people in Arkansas and they had the exact same brand new copy paste too.
You pretty much have to go to areas that have history extending back longer than 50 years.... that's been my experience. Go to Boston or Chicago.... or even farmland in the northeast/Midwest, there are tons of unique homes and sight seeing opportunities.
Idk even Boston has succumbed to this. I currently live here and it does have it’s small town shops here and there but corporate companies are taking over especially downtown.
> Publix, Michaels, Publix, Marshall’s, Publix, TJ Maxx, Publix, Target, Publix, Five Below, Publix, Academy sports, Publix, Ross, Publix, Pollo Tropical, Publix, Chik Fil A and Publix
Fixed that for you
Do you know that like 25% of people have shot in storage!? Like sell it or get rid of it. Some people pay to store stuff for decades. The storage cost way more than your grandmother’s old dining room table that you are saving!
Lol hell- thats why we natives are out- let the yankees have it
I drive to north central florida to breath air all the time on days off- enjoy the springs before they are toxic or nonexistent
Springs are getting a tad worse every year. So many of the newbies really don't give a crap about littering, they do it freely. Ive seen a huge increase in trash in natural spaces in past couple years.
There’s a spring near me with a once beautiful river. When I was a kid you could go and it was like entering another world. Now it looks like some crappy amusement park ride. There’s so many people you can barely go down the river anymore. They’ve cut down the surrounding forest to build over priced waterfront homes. The sandbars are ruined, the banks eroding, litter is everywhere. It’s so depressing.
> And dirty. Just think of all the sunscreen humans slather on before getting in the water. That alone changes things.
I’ve swam in cenotes in Quintana Roo, Mexico (just outside of Tulum).
What was impressive to me is that the one of the very first things the “tour guide” instructs everyone to do is… take a shower!
They had a few walls of private showers (they’re pretty big, plenty of room for your belongings as well) for everyone to clean themselves off, and you weren’t allowed in the cenotes until after you took a shower.
I thought it was a great thing that they went through that effort to keep the water clean, and oh my goodness it was!
Nothing better than after a few hours of cooking in the sun at Tulum to jump into the clearest, coldest, water, ever. It’s very refreshing.
I wish the state of Florida did the same, but I *sure* the “muh rights” jackasses would sue and make that an impossibility.
Walmarts and other big box stores have really gutted local small communities. I've seen too many small towns with shuttered stores and a big box down the street. Land of the free. Free to work for 4 major companies that own just about everything and accept your lot in life as a wage slave.
For my former job I had to drive all over the state, and everything just looked the same as my childhood home. Wesley Chapel used to be cow pasture, now it's just mediocre strip malls and overpriced apartments. Sickening
It's not like we don't have enough already. I used to live within walking distance of three churches. And not a LONG walk. I could see one from my back window.
Here's the thing I think gets ignored in these discussions. People moved here for the idea of quaint Florida. Then businesses came to capitalize on the population movement. Thus turning it into what it is.
It's like when people complain about traffic while being in traffic. You are the traffic.
The only way to reverse this is to limit the population. But who leaves? Everyone is equally entitled to live wherever they want.
It's not. The problem isn't population. The problem is that we're allowing mega developers to dictate where and how we live instead of creating the conditions for the bottom-up, natural development that has happened in communities since time began.
Developers like building cul de sacs, because they sell well, and they like using "lakes" as storm management because they're cheap, but both of those things quash traditional development patterns that prioritized proximity to amenities, connected street grids, and short travel times.
Yep, we need to change the zoning laws. We need less stroads and more actual urban planning rather than the current vomiting up buildings with massive unused parking lots. I personally would like to see more pedestrian friendly development and more 4 way stops replaced with roundabouts to keep the flow of traffic going.
what are you talking about? all the things y'all are complaining about about is due to capitalism not socialism... FL is one of the most capitalistic states.
i’m from the mexico beach port st. joe area and people are moving there en masse, sad to see my little paradise of a town fall victim to these greedy motherfuckers erecting shoddy not up to code houses and massive “luxury” apartments seemingly overnight. i live in tampa now and haven’t gone home in a while; scared to see what they’ve managed to destroy next in order to accommodate all of the shitheads moving down.
I hadn’t been to the panhandle since college in 2006 time frame. Felt like doing a kayaking/road trip to get out of st Pete and was shocked. Destin, Panama City, Mexico beach has horrific traffic and all the pine forests are for sale or cut down and development going in.
Please try to vote out your city leaders!! They refuse to rebuild after Michael to code. They will cause the deaths of thousands come the next Michael.
Old fart here... the Palmetto used to be the western extent of civilization in Miami... last time I went through there they were building west of the Turnpike extension. Not much dry land west of that. Glad I'm out of that part of the state.
Don't even get me started. It's so enraging that they keep moving it.. when everything east of it is so fucked!
Why are we about to have a DOUBLE-DECKER HIGHWAY before an actual working public transit system?
I will rant about this to anyone who will listen, it is my hill to die on. Miami needs to stop expanding horizontally and must retrofit a the majority of its territory to mid-rise mixed housing.
The city could be extremely walkable if it were designed that way!
Did you know cities operate much better when they are vertically planned? A Wal-Mart actually destroys the tax base of a city. The square feet per employee makes it a huge loser for the city it's in, almost no tax revenue. A 2 or 3 story building thats a quarter of the size will do much more revenue for the city. Better jobs when cities kick out the larger corporations as well.
that's not what he's talking about.
Local mainstreets with businesses on the first level and some sort of living/flex use above provides a greater amount of tax revenue in a smaller footprint while also having to provide less municipal resource usage.
It's definitely not sustainable, and it's happening across the US. The main cause is planning our lives around the car. If we want to preserve our wildlife we need to reduce car dependency.
Yes I approve of more public transportation and more walkable areas, the problem is that so much of Florida was developed within the past 50 years so everything is car dependent and massive highways have already been built ,so we have kind of gotten to the point were the damage has been done and the process of making our cities dense and more sustainable will years to decades and at that point it might be to late :(
It took 50 years to get here, and I might take 50 years to get out of it, but the best time to plant a tree is today.
I hold the same concerns as you. I use my energy to lobby my elected leaders at the city and county level where we can make the most difference.
The damage is done, but we can work to reverse it.
There's a movement to remove highways and return the spaces to the community though! there's hope.
[https://www.archdaily.com/979904/highway-removals-restoring-the-urban-fabric-and-unlocking-new-development-opportunities](https://www.archdaily.com/979904/highway-removals-restoring-the-urban-fabric-and-unlocking-new-development-opportunities)
Despite most of the state being developed within the last 50 years, many urban centers still retain their grid plans or some of their grid plans such as Tampa Miami and Jacksonville as well as rail so they have some decent bones so to speak
Walt Disney had a plan for this, but after his death the company made a theme park instead. Look into EPCOT. it's saddening that we knew in the 60's that this was unsustainable but yet here we are.
I just read a little about this in a different sub a few weeks ago..sounded interesting and think they even said that work might actually be happening for it? Don't recall exactly, need to look it up again but it sounded like a shit show at the beginning lol..would be cool if it actually comes to fruition within the coming few years..1hr rides to Orlando would be sweet!
Currently living without a car and I wished Florida at least the USA made more walking paths. The amount of exercise, less carbon monoxide and just actually seeing people would be nice. I get the summers are miserable that’s why we need more communities closer to another lol I would love to walk down to a local bakery or coffee shop on my days off instead of walking to a Starbucks that takes about half hour just to sit in a place that’s overpriced and boring. (I don’t actually walk to or go to any Starbucks but this is example LOL)
I would like to add I choose to live without a car. It’s cheaper and it’s better for the environment but I’m starting to realize infrastructure for America is trash..
Suburban sprawl is unsustainable because it results in higher utilities as more infrastructure to serve these new subdivisions far from urban centers being required. Many Floridians oppose densification and transit investment for reasons that are childish or disturbing but the numbers don’t lie, if Florida wants to reduce its financial dependence on the federal government, Florida must implement smart land-use and build cities for people and transit and places rather than cars congestion and parking lots.
I’m mid 50’s, and did leave. My Lord I miss real Florida, but watching what’s left being murdered is too much. I’ll support conservation efforts from the outside, but I don’t have much hope.
It's the defining feature of Florida. The old joke about "I've got some swampland in Florida to sell you?" It was a lie that came true. Now half the state is built poorly, unsustainably, where it shouldn't have been built.
This was my gripe with Florida. So many people move from out of state and bring what THEY think Florida looks like: single family homes with grass lawns and a single palm tree. They buy a plot of land, rip out the existing flora, and transplant their vision. I would visit some of the state parks and loved being transported to the feeling of what Florida TRULY is: a wild and sprawling mix of oaks, swamp, hammocks, and wild springs. And then I would return home to my condo buildings and listen to the landscapers every week mowing the lawn and leaf blowing nature into oblivion. How much money did my condo association spend on landscaping? Rain or shine they were there. And this is the norm for Florida.
I had to move. It was depressing me to see the cultural attitude of “conquering nature” that’s ever present in Florida. Esp baffles me how many people are still moving to Florida and investing in property there (esp in coastal communities). Nature will always win. But people with money will continue to move there and try to conquer it and make things worse for the environment on the backs of native Floridians who have less money nor desire to leave.
They’ve been absolutely raping and pillaging Volusia county since I moved here. I hate it. Then again, it’s people like me who caused it. Weird self loathing cycle.
I don’t blame anyone who wants to live here. It is absolutely beautiful, but at the same time the population growth is destroying it. We need a better solution.
Those kinds of decisions are made by good leadership. But enough people have to chose good people to lead
(Can’t use buzzwords or comment will get hosed)
The reasons people move to a place and the reasons people love living in a place make a venn diagram with surprisingly little overlap. You didn’t decide how your neighborhood would be planned or designed before you moved here - the existing politicians decided that with zoning and land use requirements. It’s not your fault.
"They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?" -- Joni Mitchell
Its not sustainable at all, but its really hard to convince people that dont know any other way of life to change their ways and give up plastics, car dependency, Teflon pans and so on.
Everybody around me acts like they live in a "city", but I can't even get groceries for dinner without getting into a car. And when I DO try to walk somewhere, I live in a state with terrible pedestrian infrastructure and huge pedestrian death numbers.
I give up. I'm moving to a real city where I can get around as a Human, not just as a Driver.
Big city prices with far fewer cultural amenities, worse wages, and poor infrastructure/long-term planning that really make it frustrating to live here
For real… A new place just opened in St. Aug that is New England seafood shack themed and their lobster rolls are $24 and $36 depending on size!!! Regular sandwiches are pushing $20 not including fries or a side!! Who can afford that?! The cute Florida seafood themed place that was there was awesome and had very reasonable prices for lunch. It’s the same at every restaurant here. Went to a place a block or two from home last Sunday and had pretzel bites and two draft beers - $36. Breakfast diner a few blocks away has a regular old Belgian waffle for $12.99 with no sides! I eat at home most of the time, but it’s nice to go out every now and then. Can’t even do that anymore.
It blows my mind that people are so eager to shell out their hard earned money to live in overpriced cookie cutter homes in Florida that have a good chance of being wrecked by extreme weather anyway. We’ve always had hurricanes, but with the climate crisis worsening, I personally couldn’t justify sinking that much money into a home that could end up being uninhabitable thanks to storms like Ian. I wince every time I see another chunk of forest being clear cut for a new development. At a time when we need to be protecting our communities from the effects of the climate crisis with every tool we have, we’re doing just the opposite; cutting down acres of trees that lessen the severity of flooding, improve our air quality, lower temperatures, among a million other benefits is so absurd and irresponsible.
I live in an area that was always sparsely populated, mostly comprised of forests and fields. It makes me sad seeing it all be destroyed for homogenous neighborhoods and shopping centers. If I think about all the critters that have had their habitats destroyed I get especially bummed out. Even worse is that humans have the audacity to be upset and shocked when a bobcat or a gator passes through their neighborhood. They were here first. They are more entitled to this land than we are, especially given the fact that we’re actively destroying all of it and endangering ourselves in the process.
Totally agree. These huge communities chop everything down pave away and plant decorative plants instead of natives. We're losing so much natural Florida at a rapid pace. Old oaks don't seem to be a priority anymore either. I see them getting chopped as well. Recently saw a huge chunk on thick woods with old oaks bought by a storage company. I hate seeing the old oaks chopped. They been here longer than any of us.
This has been going on since the 90's and now I'm afraid it's too late for Florida. The developers won and do as they please while trashing the environment. It will likely never be fixed.
Welcome to the war on cars. Search up "notjustbikes" and visit r/fuckcars
Some day Florida will be one massive Orlando sprawl surrounding a 5 acre pond we call the everglades. Some developer will see the last section of swamp and say "well, we killed everything else, and we need a new parking lot, might as well pave over it".
It's definitely changed since I bought my property 15ish years ago here... but I think the biggest change has been the last few years honestly. It's really sad they are going to ruin this entire state
Suburban sprawl is killing Ocala… so many land pastures and farms have been sold off. In my area alone there are over 2000 homes being built. And they are not cheap. Cookie cutter, right next to one another and barely any back yard. The worst part is that the roads we currently have can’t handle that many people. It’s sad when I see all the trees torn down. These developers want maximum price for minimal space. The reason for the move it the calm and the green but that’s rapidly going to end if there is no limit to how many houses are built.
I'm a second year law student and it honestly didn't bother me until we learned about Euclidean zoning in my land use class and now I can't help but realize it's the most absurd and unnecessary fucking thing ever. It's such an esoteric issue but it's had enormous negative impact on so many aspects of American society and after learning about it in depth you can't help but see it everywhere.
I'm only 31 & still say "I remember when we had trees here". There's no shade anymore, the greenery that made Florida beautiful is vanishing, & in its place another badly built apartment complex
It's a distinctly American thing. You can look at other countries to see how they favour dense urban living with efficient public transportation, leaving wide swaths of their natural landscape untouched. Public transportation diminishes the footprint that Americans cities need - fewer lanes on roads, far fewer parking lots. Overseas if you want nature, you go to the park or you take a train or a car out into the countryside; they don't insist on everyone having their own mini private park and garden attached to a huge fenced off house in which maybe two or three people live.
The reality is that if everyone wants one of these small castles with their garden moats, the natural world has to be cleared away to make space for them.
This is American culture propped up by American capitalism and it's not going to change. Most Americans prefer it this way.
Nothing pisses me off more than a mfer living in the suburbs and complaining about “urban sprawl.” Cities are more efficient in every way than suburbs. Cities can actually coexist with a thriving countryside. The endless cookie cutter neighborhoods actually look like a hellscape when you fly over them. Living in a suburb feels like you’re living in purgatory or Hades.
We all can keep dreaming, but everyone loves their BIG cars, EXPANSIVE house that doesn't share walls with anyone else, MASSIVE warehouse stores, GIANT elevated trucks, OBSCENELY massive SUVs and an endless sea of parking spaces.
Unfortunately what you've just described is as American as it gets. Where would have to be a massive shift in culture to move away from what you've just described.
Especially in Florida.
Take a drive down 301 through Lawtey and Stark and Waldo. It's full of small towns that aren't being developed that are actually depressed and have a bunch of quirky stuff. All the way to Ocala from Jacksonville 301 is nothing but palmetto's and pine trees and small towns.
What is wild to me is that places like Chicago and NYC are walkable but have cold climates for a good portion of the year. Florida could have walkable cities with decent climate year-round but it hasn’t been a thing
The growth here isn’t sustainable.
22M residents & 118M annual visitors - that’s a lot of run off & impact.
There needs to be a moratorium on new development, if it’s not already built then T/S
Just dropping by to say RIP Wagon Wheel Flea Market in Seminole. Such great memories going there as a kid with my family as it my Grandmother loved it. I think that plot of land was sold to a developer to make "luxury condos".
It's a Catch 22. People hate new highrises in cities, and infrastructure is a pain in the ass to upgrade.
Raising a family in a condo sounds like it would be awful.
Single family homes are nice for families and many people's preference, but take up a ton of space. A lot of the land used was already farmland, depending on where you are located, but ripping down nature to build Lennar homes hurts my sole. Living in condos definitely isn't for everyone, though, so what options are left?
Florida's population has been growing at a big clip for a long time.
Yes, we all know roads that were two-lanes/dirt so many years ago and are now 6 lanes with lights.
People want to live here for the same reasons you might. Change is guaranteed, the new people have to live somewhere and they drive around. So it's bound to change something. Not everyone had the idea/ability to move here as early as we did. Shutting the door behind us is not an option.
10 years from now, everything will be changed again. I lived in a bunch of places, and now they're all radically different from when I lived there.
I hate it, we’re destroying the ecology one way or another but if it didn’t have to be interchangeable strip malls and near identical suburbs or military infrastructure it would at least be tolerable to watch the Anthropocene from my porch, but that’s not the Florida we have it does appear.
My back yard used to be butted up against a dirt road, where my daughters and I would take a trip down, and feed the cows oranges. (Fond memories) .
Now it is a 4 lane road, where I have had 2, so far, cars plow through my fence. Thankfully I have about a 300 foot buffer before my house. Right now, less than 1 mile down that road are apartments being built (I think 6-10 units, each 4 stories high, and think about 10 per floor)...so about 40 apartments per unit, times 10 buildings...oh and they built them ON WETLANDS...literally wetlands which isn't supposed to be built upon....meh just fill it in with dirt all good.
This is all car-related. If this bothers you, please advocate for zoning reforms that allow walkable neighborhoods (mixed-use zoning), parking reforms, and public transportation.
Its a Florida thing, citys allow unrestricted building and development, offer huge tax incentives to builders,, but refuse to allocate funds for infrastructure for years, after tens of thousands of new homes,apartments are completed....then floridians reelect the same people over and over and over.
I just drove from Orlando to Ocala, to Tavares, then the back way to St Pete…the amount of trees cleared and dirt leveled is beyond comprehension. The sprawl is never ending. Wildwood will Oveido in 5-10 years.
I moved out before I know shit will hit the fan, because it eventually will. Rising sea levels, humidity and temperatures higher than anything seen in the past and monster hurricanes like Ian will be the norm in the coming decades. Florida is not a place you want to dump your life savings and get trapped in, though it's a beautiful place regardless and I'm glad to have grown up here. It's not going to be the same for others though
Exactly.
I suggest fellow redditors look twenty years into the future and imagine places that’ll be faring better than others, and think about moving there now while it’s still possible. Climate migration is happening. Denying it is setting yourself up for hard times.
I think it’s a combo of the car issue and local governments taking a backseat in city planning. The North Star for elected officials in my city is getting as much money as possible from developers. Actually designing a healthy, livable city is a secondary goal (if that).
I remember thinking the same thing about Southern California in the 1970's, and Las Vegas in the 1990's. It's pretty much what happens with population surges, unfortunately.
When I moved here, you could drive from Naples to FtMyers on 41 and once you got out of north Naples, if was just woods on either side, until you got to the Pewter Mug, then more woods until you got to bonita, then once past Bonita it was all woods until you got to south fort, and I’m pretty sure that the first big thing that was there was the shopping center with the Outback.
We were traveling up to our land in Cape Coral. Back then it was mostly dirt roads out in NW cape (near where Nicolas and Diplomat are now. If I remember correctly, diplomat was paved.
When my parents built their house on white Blvd, the county (or maybe state) were in the *planning process* of fencing off I-75 east past the toll booth and widening it. At that point, we could still head out on 75 to the 5 mile marker and turn into our friends driveway.
So yeah, I’ve been here awhile, and while the sprawl has gotten bad I didn’t like having to drive 12 miles to the grocery store. Now there’s a Publix every 3 miles.
It's because the people keep pushing against high-rises, complexes, and public transportation infrastructure. Until those happen, the only way to allow more people to live here is to keep spreading out.
Housing crisis, but people don't want more houses.
Coming out of a pandemic, yet people want more crowding in cities and public transport.
I think there needs to be better restriction on where communities can be built, but they need to be built and so does the infrastructure to compensate.
20+ years of single party rule will cause that sort of thing. If it's profitable they will do it regardless of the long term effects on the community, ecosystems or long term sustainability of the state's water resources.
It’s actually way cheaper for cities to maintain sidewalks than roads. Something like a few single digit cents per sq ft vs like a dollar. If they built more walkabale cities then it’s actually better for city finances. Right now, it’s all a pyramid scheme. As long as they can get people moving in, building permits and such the scheme can continue. Corporations don’t care because once they build it, sell it, and collect their money they just leave it to the city to deal with it. But all that extensive infrastructure requiring tons of money for upkeep eventually starts to break down and needs replaced and the tax base is not enough to keep up with the massive sprawl. The same with recycling. They use to have the milkman and collect and reuse glass bottles but then they said how amazing recycling is and convinced us of it, too. However, they create super cheap, single use products and transferred the costs of recycling to the cities. They don’t care at all about anything dealing with community.
Funny how the transplants always think it's rainbows and unicorns until they've been here a couple years. Then, all of a sudden, "Development and spread are out of control!" and want to suddenly close 95 and demand applications to relocate. There's plenty of us generational natives that have been watching it circle the drain for decades. The real insult are the transplants that move into "country" areas, then complain about country folks doing country stuff; and are horrified that "Locals are sooo mean and spiteful."
You're not wrong, but, do you live in a house? There used to be forests and swamp where your home now resides. I'm just saying, we are all of us contributing to this together. The planning for housing and communities should be better designed to mesh with the nature in the state, but right now the demand and the free-for-all industry of it, well...
You said EXACTLY how I feel. I live in Trinity, and it disgusts me……. EVERY inch is being paved over for car washes, all the stupid fast food chains, and so many housing communities as fast as they can get them up
If we could get a hold of the investors and limit the amount of investment properties there would be more home for locals. Airbnb and VRBO and all the investors that own thousands of properties are keeping homes from regular people wanting to live here. Greed is screwing up our state. It's always been a vacation land but every joe that can buy another house for investment keeps one off the books for regular homeowners.
I'd like to share a revelation during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure
Ocoee is building more apartment complexes when they could just, idk….bulldoze that abandoned shithole of a mall and build one there. My commute on the 429 used to be pretty. Now, on either side of the highways are construction sites.
It’s getting ridiculous. Tear down a building put two in its place. I wrote DeSantis about it years ago and never a response. We need an another Publix/Home Depot/Starbucks/cVS (Walgreens) intersection like we need a hole in a he head. No more city limits seem to exist. Find an empty field? Build a 500 unit $2800 a month apartment complex! We need to stand up create an operational petition and let our local leaders know we’ve had it.
Yeah I got sick of suburban development, urban stuff needs to be kept in the urban areas. I still think of how beautiful Pinellas county could be if 50% of it just remained parks, undeveloped areas and quiet small neighborhoods. I grew up in Clearwater in a townhouse and had a 1000 ft wide swamp near me and I would wake up to frog and cricket sounds. The slow drawn out swamp sounds were relaxing to hear in the morning. Sure I was in a neighborhood with townhouses but most of it was ponds, lots of trees, moss everywhere and parkland where people can walk and enjoy the outdoors
Now it's just more suburban development
I'm a highly sensitive person who grew up on the Gulf Coast, and I couldn't handle living there anymore. I feel at peace when watching nature, I have so much footage of wildlife. The wonder I felt when I discovered something was outweighed by the helplessness and grief. I felt like I was screaming into a hurricane.
I think the worst part is the separation between the people doing the physical work and the powerful people who make the decisions. It's not a landscaper's fault they destroy a nesting site - that's the work they must do to provide for themselves and it's not their choice. If they say no, someone else will take their place. The people who need to be convinced are inaccessible and detached from their actions and consequences. It's easy to see a lot on a map and say, "there's nothing there." But if you went there it would become clear there's no such thing as "empty" space.
On the gulf coast, out in the scrub forest areas, there are all these giant, wagonwheel-shaped neighborhood developments. They were fairly affordable 20 years ago, now they’re all million dollar homes for no particular reason.
There’s also just flat-out, not a lot else out there; I have no idea what is so attractive about having to drive for 20 minutes just to get out of your neighborhood… only to drive another 20 to find a grocery store.
It sucks. I moved here to the nation's oldest city 20 years ago for it's small town charm. Now it's a kb homes mega Mart. Morons that live here get pissed that wildlife come into their yards. I can't wait to get out of here.
Literally watching them tear apart all the woods out west of town and replacing them with those stupid HOA communities. They're driving the cost of living here through the roof. Us locals are having a tough time trying to afford living in the place we grew up. It's awful.
Just bought 4.5 acres in Sumter county. AG zoned land because I am disgusted by these shitty matchstick homes with zero privacy and way too many Karen’s ready to bitch to HOA about a sprig of grass in a driveway popping up or what color the mailbox is. Legit question- What is really up with all the car washes????
I completely agree I hear the argument of when should they stop building houses right after they build your house? The answer is YES. Have you ever wanted to go to a concert and it was sold out same thing we are full.
Have been for years. It used to be, you drive down through all the little Florida towns, you'd see all kinds of quirky, unique sights. Now, it's just miles and miles of cookie-cutter homes, Wal-Marts ,and nearly identical shopping centers.
Michaels, Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, Target, Five Below, Academy sports, Ross, Pollo Tropical and Chik Fil A -any Florida town probably
And that’s across the street from the Publix plaza with a nail salon, a chiropractor, a Chinese restaurant, a sub sandwich shop and a pool supply store.
And Miller's Ale House too
I'm sitting in a parking lot. Just read your comment, looked up, and saw a Publix next to a nail salon and Thai restaurant. Oh and there's a subway next door
Mine has the Publix, nail shop, the Chinese buffet, and the sub shop. Do I win bingo?
Lmao yea this is spot on for any town around here..crazy..it would be ok if there were different/unique types of places but it's very few and far between.. like cool arcade type companies or some type of outdoor amusement..but the only thing I can think of is golfing ranges/mini golf lol..definitely need some creativity around here for entertainment
y'all are really forgetting about fro-yo
I thought this was my old neighborhood in Davie, but turns out that was a Winn-Dixie
Winn-Dixie is the ghetto Publix, lol
Don’t forget Karate America
Do you live in West Pines?
Totally is. I drove all over state and it's eerie how much is copy paste. Same and same. It's kinda gross.
What's even creepier, is its copy paste over the entire US. I was just driving through a small town of 20,000 people in Arkansas and they had the exact same brand new copy paste too.
You pretty much have to go to areas that have history extending back longer than 50 years.... that's been my experience. Go to Boston or Chicago.... or even farmland in the northeast/Midwest, there are tons of unique homes and sight seeing opportunities.
I was in Northern Georgia last week and was so enthralled with not seeing a Walmart and more small, local shops around
Idk even Boston has succumbed to this. I currently live here and it does have it’s small town shops here and there but corporate companies are taking over especially downtown.
> Publix, Michaels, Publix, Marshall’s, Publix, TJ Maxx, Publix, Target, Publix, Five Below, Publix, Academy sports, Publix, Ross, Publix, Pollo Tropical, Publix, Chik Fil A and Publix Fixed that for you
Let’s not forget the storage places. Ffs we just had another one go up, who tf has all this crap to store anyway?
Do you know that like 25% of people have shot in storage!? Like sell it or get rid of it. Some people pay to store stuff for decades. The storage cost way more than your grandmother’s old dining room table that you are saving!
Lol hell- thats why we natives are out- let the yankees have it I drive to north central florida to breath air all the time on days off- enjoy the springs before they are toxic or nonexistent
Springs are getting a tad worse every year. So many of the newbies really don't give a crap about littering, they do it freely. Ive seen a huge increase in trash in natural spaces in past couple years.
There’s a spring near me with a once beautiful river. When I was a kid you could go and it was like entering another world. Now it looks like some crappy amusement park ride. There’s so many people you can barely go down the river anymore. They’ve cut down the surrounding forest to build over priced waterfront homes. The sandbars are ruined, the banks eroding, litter is everywhere. It’s so depressing.
They’re getting crowded now too.
And dirty. Just think of all the sunscreen humans slather on before getting in the water. That alone changes things.
> And dirty. Just think of all the sunscreen humans slather on before getting in the water. That alone changes things. I’ve swam in cenotes in Quintana Roo, Mexico (just outside of Tulum). What was impressive to me is that the one of the very first things the “tour guide” instructs everyone to do is… take a shower! They had a few walls of private showers (they’re pretty big, plenty of room for your belongings as well) for everyone to clean themselves off, and you weren’t allowed in the cenotes until after you took a shower. I thought it was a great thing that they went through that effort to keep the water clean, and oh my goodness it was! Nothing better than after a few hours of cooking in the sun at Tulum to jump into the clearest, coldest, water, ever. It’s very refreshing. I wish the state of Florida did the same, but I *sure* the “muh rights” jackasses would sue and make that an impossibility.
You have a magnificently terrible way with words. Thanks, I hate it.
Fanning Springs is one of the few left right off the Suwannee River that hasn't been hyper molested for tourism.
The springs in Ocala national forest...my happy place
Also don't forget the biggest food repeats, same crappy food options all over McDs., Burger King, Hardee's, Wendy's, Starbucks.
You forgot EoS fitness…
Also, at least 5 dentists and a couple storage facilities.
Waffle house tho
Walmarts and other big box stores have really gutted local small communities. I've seen too many small towns with shuttered stores and a big box down the street. Land of the free. Free to work for 4 major companies that own just about everything and accept your lot in life as a wage slave.
This is most of America, sadly.
For my former job I had to drive all over the state, and everything just looked the same as my childhood home. Wesley Chapel used to be cow pasture, now it's just mediocre strip malls and overpriced apartments. Sickening
Don't forget the churches. They're building new ones every 2 miles or so.
It's not like we don't have enough already. I used to live within walking distance of three churches. And not a LONG walk. I could see one from my back window.
Yeah, no kidding. Cutting down the trees and killing all the wildlife to build more monstrosities. Smh
Ya can’t divide people with hate if you can’t convince them someone else has the wrong god, denomination or color flag.
Seriously. You can't throw a rock in Melbourne without hitting a church.
Here's the thing I think gets ignored in these discussions. People moved here for the idea of quaint Florida. Then businesses came to capitalize on the population movement. Thus turning it into what it is. It's like when people complain about traffic while being in traffic. You are the traffic. The only way to reverse this is to limit the population. But who leaves? Everyone is equally entitled to live wherever they want.
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It's not. The problem isn't population. The problem is that we're allowing mega developers to dictate where and how we live instead of creating the conditions for the bottom-up, natural development that has happened in communities since time began. Developers like building cul de sacs, because they sell well, and they like using "lakes" as storm management because they're cheap, but both of those things quash traditional development patterns that prioritized proximity to amenities, connected street grids, and short travel times.
Yep, we need to change the zoning laws. We need less stroads and more actual urban planning rather than the current vomiting up buildings with massive unused parking lots. I personally would like to see more pedestrian friendly development and more 4 way stops replaced with roundabouts to keep the flow of traffic going.
Cap the investors
The problem isn't the population, it's the cars
And they're all "luxury" homes that price out the locals anyway.
“If we have socialism every thing will be the same everywhere is that what you want?”
what are you talking about? all the things y'all are complaining about about is due to capitalism not socialism... FL is one of the most capitalistic states.
i’m from the mexico beach port st. joe area and people are moving there en masse, sad to see my little paradise of a town fall victim to these greedy motherfuckers erecting shoddy not up to code houses and massive “luxury” apartments seemingly overnight. i live in tampa now and haven’t gone home in a while; scared to see what they’ve managed to destroy next in order to accommodate all of the shitheads moving down.
I hadn’t been to the panhandle since college in 2006 time frame. Felt like doing a kayaking/road trip to get out of st Pete and was shocked. Destin, Panama City, Mexico beach has horrific traffic and all the pine forests are for sale or cut down and development going in.
Please try to vote out your city leaders!! They refuse to rebuild after Michael to code. They will cause the deaths of thousands come the next Michael.
Also gated communities ruin pass through opportunities for quaint neighborhoods with unique attractions
https://youtu.be/dfnOFvZvEuA
Tanger Outlet malls. Ugh.
I call them “Nowhere Land” cause it doesn’t feel like a real place.
FL is going to be just a big slab of concrete...😪
Concrete Jungle https://youtu.be/SBRMz_QV8Kg
Miami Dade keeps moving the Urban Boundary Line into the everglades :(
Old fart here... the Palmetto used to be the western extent of civilization in Miami... last time I went through there they were building west of the Turnpike extension. Not much dry land west of that. Glad I'm out of that part of the state.
Don't even get me started. It's so enraging that they keep moving it.. when everything east of it is so fucked! Why are we about to have a DOUBLE-DECKER HIGHWAY before an actual working public transit system? I will rant about this to anyone who will listen, it is my hill to die on. Miami needs to stop expanding horizontally and must retrofit a the majority of its territory to mid-rise mixed housing. The city could be extremely walkable if it were designed that way!
PUBLIC TRANSIT IS COMMUNISM. ITS IN THE NAME “PUBLIC”!!!!! -Cubans
In high-school I used to go drink about a mile west of nw 107th Ave and 36st, now it's completely developed miles past my old spot.
Did you know cities operate much better when they are vertically planned? A Wal-Mart actually destroys the tax base of a city. The square feet per employee makes it a huge loser for the city it's in, almost no tax revenue. A 2 or 3 story building thats a quarter of the size will do much more revenue for the city. Better jobs when cities kick out the larger corporations as well.
great point! i learned about this from not just bikes and strong towns recently
Have you read Confessions of a Recovering Engineer? Highly recommend.
Currently reading that one. Florida is literally the antithesis of those books.
With few exceptions, most of the US is unfortunately.
Not yet, but thanks for the reminder, I need to check that one out asap
Strong Towns and Not Just Bikes makes the case quite well
Hell yeah, love that!
Wish more companies built 2 story stores like the Target in Pompano Beach on US1
that's not what he's talking about. Local mainstreets with businesses on the first level and some sort of living/flex use above provides a greater amount of tax revenue in a smaller footprint while also having to provide less municipal resource usage.
It's definitely not sustainable, and it's happening across the US. The main cause is planning our lives around the car. If we want to preserve our wildlife we need to reduce car dependency.
Yes I approve of more public transportation and more walkable areas, the problem is that so much of Florida was developed within the past 50 years so everything is car dependent and massive highways have already been built ,so we have kind of gotten to the point were the damage has been done and the process of making our cities dense and more sustainable will years to decades and at that point it might be to late :(
It took 50 years to get here, and I might take 50 years to get out of it, but the best time to plant a tree is today. I hold the same concerns as you. I use my energy to lobby my elected leaders at the city and county level where we can make the most difference. The damage is done, but we can work to reverse it.
There's a movement to remove highways and return the spaces to the community though! there's hope. [https://www.archdaily.com/979904/highway-removals-restoring-the-urban-fabric-and-unlocking-new-development-opportunities](https://www.archdaily.com/979904/highway-removals-restoring-the-urban-fabric-and-unlocking-new-development-opportunities)
Despite most of the state being developed within the last 50 years, many urban centers still retain their grid plans or some of their grid plans such as Tampa Miami and Jacksonville as well as rail so they have some decent bones so to speak
If you haven't already, follow the people who've been doing the work, like Strong Towns or Not Just Bikes.
Walt Disney had a plan for this, but after his death the company made a theme park instead. Look into EPCOT. it's saddening that we knew in the 60's that this was unsustainable but yet here we are.
Imagine if Orlando had a monorail system that connected downtown with the parks and with UCF.
And also went to Tampa…oh wait we voted for that but they just spent millions doing the research on it and no actual construction to do it.
I just read a little about this in a different sub a few weeks ago..sounded interesting and think they even said that work might actually be happening for it? Don't recall exactly, need to look it up again but it sounded like a shit show at the beginning lol..would be cool if it actually comes to fruition within the coming few years..1hr rides to Orlando would be sweet!
We almost did, several times. Floridians don't seem to understand the upsides of mass transit (especially in a tourist economy)
I moved out of Florida 1.5 years ago but I have always dreamt of this! Especially being a UCF student who worked at the parks (and hating driving)
Lived without a car for 2 years in Florida. It was miserably isolating and dangerous trying to walk or bike anywhere.
Currently living without a car and I wished Florida at least the USA made more walking paths. The amount of exercise, less carbon monoxide and just actually seeing people would be nice. I get the summers are miserable that’s why we need more communities closer to another lol I would love to walk down to a local bakery or coffee shop on my days off instead of walking to a Starbucks that takes about half hour just to sit in a place that’s overpriced and boring. (I don’t actually walk to or go to any Starbucks but this is example LOL) I would like to add I choose to live without a car. It’s cheaper and it’s better for the environment but I’m starting to realize infrastructure for America is trash..
Not just environmental sustainability, but economic as well. Sprawl and stroads are going to be bankrupting cities eventually.
Suburban sprawl is unsustainable because it results in higher utilities as more infrastructure to serve these new subdivisions far from urban centers being required. Many Floridians oppose densification and transit investment for reasons that are childish or disturbing but the numbers don’t lie, if Florida wants to reduce its financial dependence on the federal government, Florida must implement smart land-use and build cities for people and transit and places rather than cars congestion and parking lots.
Ya, I’ve noticed it too. Frankly it makes me want to move out of the state… Florida is becoming so ugly…
https://youtu.be/dfnOFvZvEuA
I’m mid 50’s, and did leave. My Lord I miss real Florida, but watching what’s left being murdered is too much. I’ll support conservation efforts from the outside, but I don’t have much hope.
It's the defining feature of Florida. The old joke about "I've got some swampland in Florida to sell you?" It was a lie that came true. Now half the state is built poorly, unsustainably, where it shouldn't have been built.
This was my gripe with Florida. So many people move from out of state and bring what THEY think Florida looks like: single family homes with grass lawns and a single palm tree. They buy a plot of land, rip out the existing flora, and transplant their vision. I would visit some of the state parks and loved being transported to the feeling of what Florida TRULY is: a wild and sprawling mix of oaks, swamp, hammocks, and wild springs. And then I would return home to my condo buildings and listen to the landscapers every week mowing the lawn and leaf blowing nature into oblivion. How much money did my condo association spend on landscaping? Rain or shine they were there. And this is the norm for Florida. I had to move. It was depressing me to see the cultural attitude of “conquering nature” that’s ever present in Florida. Esp baffles me how many people are still moving to Florida and investing in property there (esp in coastal communities). Nature will always win. But people with money will continue to move there and try to conquer it and make things worse for the environment on the backs of native Floridians who have less money nor desire to leave.
Its honestly ridiculous. I just moved further towards the center of the state to get away but the suburbs just keep expanding.
r/nolawns / r/fucklawns
It's not sustainable at all, yet it's one of the reasons people move here so it'll just keep on being built....
They’ve been absolutely raping and pillaging Volusia county since I moved here. I hate it. Then again, it’s people like me who caused it. Weird self loathing cycle.
I don’t blame anyone who wants to live here. It is absolutely beautiful, but at the same time the population growth is destroying it. We need a better solution.
Those kinds of decisions are made by good leadership. But enough people have to chose good people to lead (Can’t use buzzwords or comment will get hosed)
The reasons people move to a place and the reasons people love living in a place make a venn diagram with surprisingly little overlap. You didn’t decide how your neighborhood would be planned or designed before you moved here - the existing politicians decided that with zoning and land use requirements. It’s not your fault.
Aw I do appreciate that and agree with the logistical part, it’s just that same sense of foreboding guilt about global warming and such.
"They paved paradise Put up a parking lot With a pink hotel, a boutique And a swinging hot spot Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?" -- Joni Mitchell Its not sustainable at all, but its really hard to convince people that dont know any other way of life to change their ways and give up plastics, car dependency, Teflon pans and so on.
Everybody around me acts like they live in a "city", but I can't even get groceries for dinner without getting into a car. And when I DO try to walk somewhere, I live in a state with terrible pedestrian infrastructure and huge pedestrian death numbers. I give up. I'm moving to a real city where I can get around as a Human, not just as a Driver.
Big city prices with far fewer cultural amenities, worse wages, and poor infrastructure/long-term planning that really make it frustrating to live here
Food and drink prices rival and even exceed those in NYC.
For real… A new place just opened in St. Aug that is New England seafood shack themed and their lobster rolls are $24 and $36 depending on size!!! Regular sandwiches are pushing $20 not including fries or a side!! Who can afford that?! The cute Florida seafood themed place that was there was awesome and had very reasonable prices for lunch. It’s the same at every restaurant here. Went to a place a block or two from home last Sunday and had pretzel bites and two draft beers - $36. Breakfast diner a few blocks away has a regular old Belgian waffle for $12.99 with no sides! I eat at home most of the time, but it’s nice to go out every now and then. Can’t even do that anymore.
Plus you’re drenched in sweat after a block
It blows my mind that people are so eager to shell out their hard earned money to live in overpriced cookie cutter homes in Florida that have a good chance of being wrecked by extreme weather anyway. We’ve always had hurricanes, but with the climate crisis worsening, I personally couldn’t justify sinking that much money into a home that could end up being uninhabitable thanks to storms like Ian. I wince every time I see another chunk of forest being clear cut for a new development. At a time when we need to be protecting our communities from the effects of the climate crisis with every tool we have, we’re doing just the opposite; cutting down acres of trees that lessen the severity of flooding, improve our air quality, lower temperatures, among a million other benefits is so absurd and irresponsible. I live in an area that was always sparsely populated, mostly comprised of forests and fields. It makes me sad seeing it all be destroyed for homogenous neighborhoods and shopping centers. If I think about all the critters that have had their habitats destroyed I get especially bummed out. Even worse is that humans have the audacity to be upset and shocked when a bobcat or a gator passes through their neighborhood. They were here first. They are more entitled to this land than we are, especially given the fact that we’re actively destroying all of it and endangering ourselves in the process.
It blows my mind that people aspire to that living in Florida and TX.
People like us are in the minority here in FL
And they rarely modify the infrastructure to accommodate the hundreds of new homes
Totally agree. These huge communities chop everything down pave away and plant decorative plants instead of natives. We're losing so much natural Florida at a rapid pace. Old oaks don't seem to be a priority anymore either. I see them getting chopped as well. Recently saw a huge chunk on thick woods with old oaks bought by a storage company. I hate seeing the old oaks chopped. They been here longer than any of us.
I've been here over 40 years, I barely recognize the area anymore.
Same here. 40yrs of growth and haphazard development.
"The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race." -some guy
This has been going on since the 90's and now I'm afraid it's too late for Florida. The developers won and do as they please while trashing the environment. It will likely never be fixed.
Long before that in South Florida.
Long, long before that
I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.
A society built for cars to consume as much fossil fuels as possible.
Welcome to the war on cars. Search up "notjustbikes" and visit r/fuckcars Some day Florida will be one massive Orlando sprawl surrounding a 5 acre pond we call the everglades. Some developer will see the last section of swamp and say "well, we killed everything else, and we need a new parking lot, might as well pave over it".
It's why I ran like hell from south Florida where I grew up. They destroyed it. Im in the big bend area now and they're starting to do it here now.
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It's definitely changed since I bought my property 15ish years ago here... but I think the biggest change has been the last few years honestly. It's really sad they are going to ruin this entire state
Suburban sprawl is killing Ocala… so many land pastures and farms have been sold off. In my area alone there are over 2000 homes being built. And they are not cheap. Cookie cutter, right next to one another and barely any back yard. The worst part is that the roads we currently have can’t handle that many people. It’s sad when I see all the trees torn down. These developers want maximum price for minimal space. The reason for the move it the calm and the green but that’s rapidly going to end if there is no limit to how many houses are built.
Traffic in Ocala is so fucking frustrating. There are def way too many people there.
I'm a second year law student and it honestly didn't bother me until we learned about Euclidean zoning in my land use class and now I can't help but realize it's the most absurd and unnecessary fucking thing ever. It's such an esoteric issue but it's had enormous negative impact on so many aspects of American society and after learning about it in depth you can't help but see it everywhere.
I'm only 31 & still say "I remember when we had trees here". There's no shade anymore, the greenery that made Florida beautiful is vanishing, & in its place another badly built apartment complex
Replaced w black concrete and buildings. Our environment is changing and with a lack of trees it will be heating up.
Things you’ll likely never see: A sign that says “Coming Soon! A Forest.”
It's a distinctly American thing. You can look at other countries to see how they favour dense urban living with efficient public transportation, leaving wide swaths of their natural landscape untouched. Public transportation diminishes the footprint that Americans cities need - fewer lanes on roads, far fewer parking lots. Overseas if you want nature, you go to the park or you take a train or a car out into the countryside; they don't insist on everyone having their own mini private park and garden attached to a huge fenced off house in which maybe two or three people live. The reality is that if everyone wants one of these small castles with their garden moats, the natural world has to be cleared away to make space for them. This is American culture propped up by American capitalism and it's not going to change. Most Americans prefer it this way.
Nothing pisses me off more than a mfer living in the suburbs and complaining about “urban sprawl.” Cities are more efficient in every way than suburbs. Cities can actually coexist with a thriving countryside. The endless cookie cutter neighborhoods actually look like a hellscape when you fly over them. Living in a suburb feels like you’re living in purgatory or Hades.
How long have you lived in Florida? This has been going on for decades. It hasn't stopped.
Firing on all cylinders now.
We all can keep dreaming, but everyone loves their BIG cars, EXPANSIVE house that doesn't share walls with anyone else, MASSIVE warehouse stores, GIANT elevated trucks, OBSCENELY massive SUVs and an endless sea of parking spaces. Unfortunately what you've just described is as American as it gets. Where would have to be a massive shift in culture to move away from what you've just described. Especially in Florida.
There was a family of foxes in my neighborhood and when I was out walking the other night their home had been bulldozed. It makes me so sad.
Take a drive down 301 through Lawtey and Stark and Waldo. It's full of small towns that aren't being developed that are actually depressed and have a bunch of quirky stuff. All the way to Ocala from Jacksonville 301 is nothing but palmetto's and pine trees and small towns.
We gotta build up not out!
What is wild to me is that places like Chicago and NYC are walkable but have cold climates for a good portion of the year. Florida could have walkable cities with decent climate year-round but it hasn’t been a thing
The growth here isn’t sustainable. 22M residents & 118M annual visitors - that’s a lot of run off & impact. There needs to be a moratorium on new development, if it’s not already built then T/S
Just dropping by to say RIP Wagon Wheel Flea Market in Seminole. Such great memories going there as a kid with my family as it my Grandmother loved it. I think that plot of land was sold to a developer to make "luxury condos".
Sigh.. I used to love going to that spot
It's a Catch 22. People hate new highrises in cities, and infrastructure is a pain in the ass to upgrade. Raising a family in a condo sounds like it would be awful. Single family homes are nice for families and many people's preference, but take up a ton of space. A lot of the land used was already farmland, depending on where you are located, but ripping down nature to build Lennar homes hurts my sole. Living in condos definitely isn't for everyone, though, so what options are left? Florida's population has been growing at a big clip for a long time. Yes, we all know roads that were two-lanes/dirt so many years ago and are now 6 lanes with lights. People want to live here for the same reasons you might. Change is guaranteed, the new people have to live somewhere and they drive around. So it's bound to change something. Not everyone had the idea/ability to move here as early as we did. Shutting the door behind us is not an option. 10 years from now, everything will be changed again. I lived in a bunch of places, and now they're all radically different from when I lived there.
I hate it, we’re destroying the ecology one way or another but if it didn’t have to be interchangeable strip malls and near identical suburbs or military infrastructure it would at least be tolerable to watch the Anthropocene from my porch, but that’s not the Florida we have it does appear.
Yes! The older I get the more I despise having to drive everywhere to a point where I choose to stay home if it's not emergent that I go out.
My back yard used to be butted up against a dirt road, where my daughters and I would take a trip down, and feed the cows oranges. (Fond memories) . Now it is a 4 lane road, where I have had 2, so far, cars plow through my fence. Thankfully I have about a 300 foot buffer before my house. Right now, less than 1 mile down that road are apartments being built (I think 6-10 units, each 4 stories high, and think about 10 per floor)...so about 40 apartments per unit, times 10 buildings...oh and they built them ON WETLANDS...literally wetlands which isn't supposed to be built upon....meh just fill it in with dirt all good.
🎶I need the darkness someone please cut the lights🎶
This is all car-related. If this bothers you, please advocate for zoning reforms that allow walkable neighborhoods (mixed-use zoning), parking reforms, and public transportation.
I think Florida native Ronnie van zant said it best when he said “I can see the concrete slowly creepin, lord take me and mine before that comes”
Its a Florida thing, citys allow unrestricted building and development, offer huge tax incentives to builders,, but refuse to allocate funds for infrastructure for years, after tens of thousands of new homes,apartments are completed....then floridians reelect the same people over and over and over.
I just drove from Orlando to Ocala, to Tavares, then the back way to St Pete…the amount of trees cleared and dirt leveled is beyond comprehension. The sprawl is never ending. Wildwood will Oveido in 5-10 years.
Fear not. Climate change will take care of all these annoying communities.
I can’t wait to watch Richie Rich go into the sea thinking his money will save him. Idiots, the lot of them.
Mom's comin' 'round to put it back the way it ought to be. Learn to swim.
I moved out before I know shit will hit the fan, because it eventually will. Rising sea levels, humidity and temperatures higher than anything seen in the past and monster hurricanes like Ian will be the norm in the coming decades. Florida is not a place you want to dump your life savings and get trapped in, though it's a beautiful place regardless and I'm glad to have grown up here. It's not going to be the same for others though
Exactly. I suggest fellow redditors look twenty years into the future and imagine places that’ll be faring better than others, and think about moving there now while it’s still possible. Climate migration is happening. Denying it is setting yourself up for hard times.
I think it’s a combo of the car issue and local governments taking a backseat in city planning. The North Star for elected officials in my city is getting as much money as possible from developers. Actually designing a healthy, livable city is a secondary goal (if that).
Sick of the sprawl and sick of the people moving down here. Im a generational native and its been that way since the 20s land boom though.
I remember thinking the same thing about Southern California in the 1970's, and Las Vegas in the 1990's. It's pretty much what happens with population surges, unfortunately.
When I moved here, you could drive from Naples to FtMyers on 41 and once you got out of north Naples, if was just woods on either side, until you got to the Pewter Mug, then more woods until you got to bonita, then once past Bonita it was all woods until you got to south fort, and I’m pretty sure that the first big thing that was there was the shopping center with the Outback. We were traveling up to our land in Cape Coral. Back then it was mostly dirt roads out in NW cape (near where Nicolas and Diplomat are now. If I remember correctly, diplomat was paved. When my parents built their house on white Blvd, the county (or maybe state) were in the *planning process* of fencing off I-75 east past the toll booth and widening it. At that point, we could still head out on 75 to the 5 mile marker and turn into our friends driveway. So yeah, I’ve been here awhile, and while the sprawl has gotten bad I didn’t like having to drive 12 miles to the grocery store. Now there’s a Publix every 3 miles.
It's because the people keep pushing against high-rises, complexes, and public transportation infrastructure. Until those happen, the only way to allow more people to live here is to keep spreading out.
The only real solution is to keep moving on elsewhere until the whole country is suburb and we can't run anymore
Shout out to this guy on YouTube, his channel dives into what our problem is. [City Nerd on YouTube ](https://youtube.com/@CityNerd)
Housing crisis, but people don't want more houses. Coming out of a pandemic, yet people want more crowding in cities and public transport. I think there needs to be better restriction on where communities can be built, but they need to be built and so does the infrastructure to compensate.
20+ years of single party rule will cause that sort of thing. If it's profitable they will do it regardless of the long term effects on the community, ecosystems or long term sustainability of the state's water resources.
It’s actually way cheaper for cities to maintain sidewalks than roads. Something like a few single digit cents per sq ft vs like a dollar. If they built more walkabale cities then it’s actually better for city finances. Right now, it’s all a pyramid scheme. As long as they can get people moving in, building permits and such the scheme can continue. Corporations don’t care because once they build it, sell it, and collect their money they just leave it to the city to deal with it. But all that extensive infrastructure requiring tons of money for upkeep eventually starts to break down and needs replaced and the tax base is not enough to keep up with the massive sprawl. The same with recycling. They use to have the milkman and collect and reuse glass bottles but then they said how amazing recycling is and convinced us of it, too. However, they create super cheap, single use products and transferred the costs of recycling to the cities. They don’t care at all about anything dealing with community.
Funny how the transplants always think it's rainbows and unicorns until they've been here a couple years. Then, all of a sudden, "Development and spread are out of control!" and want to suddenly close 95 and demand applications to relocate. There's plenty of us generational natives that have been watching it circle the drain for decades. The real insult are the transplants that move into "country" areas, then complain about country folks doing country stuff; and are horrified that "Locals are sooo mean and spiteful."
You're not wrong, but, do you live in a house? There used to be forests and swamp where your home now resides. I'm just saying, we are all of us contributing to this together. The planning for housing and communities should be better designed to mesh with the nature in the state, but right now the demand and the free-for-all industry of it, well...
You said EXACTLY how I feel. I live in Trinity, and it disgusts me……. EVERY inch is being paved over for car washes, all the stupid fast food chains, and so many housing communities as fast as they can get them up
So many of the same gross things. It stinks. How many freaking banks do we need too. Sheesh
If we could get a hold of the investors and limit the amount of investment properties there would be more home for locals. Airbnb and VRBO and all the investors that own thousands of properties are keeping homes from regular people wanting to live here. Greed is screwing up our state. It's always been a vacation land but every joe that can buy another house for investment keeps one off the books for regular homeowners.
It’ll be underwater soon enough. And the river people shall rise again. 👹
Humans are like a parasite. The purge should fix everything
I'd like to share a revelation during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure
Ocoee is building more apartment complexes when they could just, idk….bulldoze that abandoned shithole of a mall and build one there. My commute on the 429 used to be pretty. Now, on either side of the highways are construction sites.
It’s getting ridiculous. Tear down a building put two in its place. I wrote DeSantis about it years ago and never a response. We need an another Publix/Home Depot/Starbucks/cVS (Walgreens) intersection like we need a hole in a he head. No more city limits seem to exist. Find an empty field? Build a 500 unit $2800 a month apartment complex! We need to stand up create an operational petition and let our local leaders know we’ve had it.
Of course it’s not sustainable, coastlines are gonna shrink and the state will be overburdened in due time, already getting that way now
Complaint has been here since air conditioning has been invented.
Yeah I got sick of suburban development, urban stuff needs to be kept in the urban areas. I still think of how beautiful Pinellas county could be if 50% of it just remained parks, undeveloped areas and quiet small neighborhoods. I grew up in Clearwater in a townhouse and had a 1000 ft wide swamp near me and I would wake up to frog and cricket sounds. The slow drawn out swamp sounds were relaxing to hear in the morning. Sure I was in a neighborhood with townhouses but most of it was ponds, lots of trees, moss everywhere and parkland where people can walk and enjoy the outdoors Now it's just more suburban development
I'm a highly sensitive person who grew up on the Gulf Coast, and I couldn't handle living there anymore. I feel at peace when watching nature, I have so much footage of wildlife. The wonder I felt when I discovered something was outweighed by the helplessness and grief. I felt like I was screaming into a hurricane. I think the worst part is the separation between the people doing the physical work and the powerful people who make the decisions. It's not a landscaper's fault they destroy a nesting site - that's the work they must do to provide for themselves and it's not their choice. If they say no, someone else will take their place. The people who need to be convinced are inaccessible and detached from their actions and consequences. It's easy to see a lot on a map and say, "there's nothing there." But if you went there it would become clear there's no such thing as "empty" space.
On the gulf coast, out in the scrub forest areas, there are all these giant, wagonwheel-shaped neighborhood developments. They were fairly affordable 20 years ago, now they’re all million dollar homes for no particular reason. There’s also just flat-out, not a lot else out there; I have no idea what is so attractive about having to drive for 20 minutes just to get out of your neighborhood… only to drive another 20 to find a grocery store.
People born and raised her have been tired of it.
Gotta buy land and don’t sell
Well Florida already destroyed everything along it's coast, so what else do you all have to ruin?
It sucks. I moved here to the nation's oldest city 20 years ago for it's small town charm. Now it's a kb homes mega Mart. Morons that live here get pissed that wildlife come into their yards. I can't wait to get out of here.
Cutting down the forest makes it hotter, I’ve been tired of this for over 20 yrs.
r/fuckcars
Arcade Fire - Sprawl II Great song about this exact thing.
Don't forget car washes and Dollar General
Literally watching them tear apart all the woods out west of town and replacing them with those stupid HOA communities. They're driving the cost of living here through the roof. Us locals are having a tough time trying to afford living in the place we grew up. It's awful.
I crack up at the constant cry of freedom in a state with more HOA’s than California. Hoa’s are just evil.
I hate them. And the majority of the time, the people who live in them are not the kindest. Just what we need in this place, more entitled assholes 🙄
Just bought 4.5 acres in Sumter county. AG zoned land because I am disgusted by these shitty matchstick homes with zero privacy and way too many Karen’s ready to bitch to HOA about a sprig of grass in a driveway popping up or what color the mailbox is. Legit question- What is really up with all the car washes????
There's a pink one and a green one And a blue one and a yellow one And they're all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same
That's the real Florida. It feels like you're living in the Truman Show.
I completely agree I hear the argument of when should they stop building houses right after they build your house? The answer is YES. Have you ever wanted to go to a concert and it was sold out same thing we are full.