Posted October 1, 201014 yr http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/09/human_landscapes_in_sw_florida.html
October 1, 201014 yr One of the comments says it looks like circuit boards, and that's not far off. I haven't been to FL in 20 years, and even then I don't recall it being quite like this. I just can't imagine living on some of those lots, although the undeveloped ones with random houses scattered throughout would have been ace as a kid. Oh yeah, something something about sprawl :) http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/09/human_landscapes_in_sw_florida.html A couple weeks ago, I was listening to a story by NPR's Planet Money team about "Toxie" a toxic asset they had purchased to follow and help tell the story of the recent financial meltdown. One of the mortgages in Toxie was on a home bought for investment in Bradenton, Florida, and the team took a look at housing in the area. Many homes there are empty and have been for years. Huge developments sit partially completed among densely built up neighborhoods and swampland. A guest stated that there were "enough housing lots in Charlotte County to last for more than 100 years". Boom and bust residential development has drastically affected parts of southwest Florida for decades now, and I spent some time (with the help of Google Earth), looking around the area. With permission from the fine folks at Google, here are a few glimpses at development in southwest Florida.
October 6, 201014 yr Well, the southwest coast of Florida is cleary sprawlville. But in all fairness, parts of Naples and Fort Myers have some nice urban center areas with some great historic neighborhoods. To bad they didn't take pictures of that as well.
October 6, 201014 yr The eastern portion of North Port, Florida always was depressing and fascinating to me at the same time. http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=27.061782,-82.074866&spn=0.016548,0.033023&z=16 All of that infrastructure and not a house for miles. What a waste of money. They even built bridges on I-75 over the roads to access the wasteland northeast of the highway. The traffic on US-41 in Port Charlotte is very heavy all the way from the bridge over the Peace River to the mall a SR 776, and US-41 is 3 lanes in each direction. I can't imagine what a nightmare traffic would be if all of those lots were built out in North Port and southwest of the mall.
October 6, 201014 yr C-Dawg, as far as the water goes, I think it's more out of necessity due to the high water table than any other reason.
October 6, 201014 yr Well, the southwest coast of Florida is cleary sprawlville. But in all fairness, parts of Naples and Fort Myers have some nice urban center areas with some great historic neighborhoods. To bad they didn't take pictures of that as well. I was just in Naples. The historic part is really only a few blocks by a few blocks. The vast majority of it is sprawl. Even "Old Naples" appeared to be mostly new buildings.
October 7, 201014 yr Well, the southwest coast of Florida is cleary sprawlville. But in all fairness, parts of Naples and Fort Myers have some nice urban center areas with some great historic neighborhoods. To bad they didn't take pictures of that as well. I was just in Naples. The historic part is really only a few blocks by a few blocks. The vast majority of it is sprawl. Even "Old Naples" appeared to be mostly new buildings. Naples is pretty darn close to perfect in a lot of ways.
October 7, 201014 yr One can build a cheap house* on a floating slab to design requirements that match my two car detached garage. Florida has no income tax and heating bills are nil, so this is an affordable place to live. *Technically, a shotgun shack is built on piers, not a slab, so don't call it a shotgun shack.
October 7, 201014 yr Reminds me of the opening of the first Season of 'Weeds" with the timelapse of all the cul-de-sac suburbs being built.
October 8, 201014 yr Is it true that some insurance companies are pulling out of florida? I wonder how much higher home insurance premiums are compared to midwest rates.
October 11, 201014 yr Is it true that some insurance companies are pulling out of florida? I wonder how much higher home insurance premiums are compared to midwest rates. That has been happening since the big hurricane season back in 2004. For many in Florida the only insurance that is available is the state run home insurance company (I think its called Citizens Property Insurance Corporation).
October 13, 201014 yr Some of those developments look like crop circles! Florida is being developed by aliens? (and not the illegal kind) Sort of makes sense....
October 15, 201014 yr I just can't imagine living in a place like that. I wouldn't live there if you paid me. I couldn't live like that, no siree! I couldn't do the things the way those people do. I wouldn't live there if you paid me to. http://www.actionext.com/names_t/talking_heads_lyrics/the_big_country.html
November 9, 201014 yr America's suburban sprawl elevated to aerial art By Matthew Knight for CNN November 8, 2010 7:51 a.m. EST (CNN) -- Eye-catching and provocative aren't descriptions you'd readily associate with the architecture of America's sprawling suburbs. But seen from photographer Christoph Gielen's perspective, they are. From Florida's west coast through Nevada to the Californian highways, Gielen's aerial photos -- taken from a helicopter -- reveal the strange geometry of the suburban landscape of the United States. http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/11/08/urban.sprawl.images.us/index.html?hpt=C2
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