Joe and I have been here in Panama City, Florida, for about a month, and as we pack to leave, I’m reflecting on some of the things about Florida that I’ll miss, and others that I won’t.
For example, I’ll miss live oaks and Spanish moss:
I’ll miss stunning, glorious beaches with pristine white sand dunes
But I won’t miss the political climate
And I won’t miss the poor stewardship of the environment.
…such as putting up a sign about the fragility of a dune lake, then allowing a big bridge to be built across the lake, and condos built on its banks, including a housing development right by a nature trail:
In a similar vein, there seems to be little sense of reverence for the past. For example, this was all that was left of an Indian mound which we had read about and hoped to find:
I also won’t miss the rampant development, with construction everywhere, some under way, some already standing by the shore:
In Connecticut, where I come from, there’s not much land left to develop…not as much as in Florida, anyway. So when a developer submits a plan to a town, people always have a lot to say about it. And some of it doesn’t happen.
Not so here.