About Florida...

From February 1985 to January 1994, i lived in Florida: Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Orlando. And i saw most of the state, from Pensacola and the Redneck Riviera to Fort Meyers (where the Gannett newspaper had heavy security in 1986!), Miami, Sarasota, Tampa, Clearwater and St. Pete and, well, other places.

Flying into Orlando a week ago Friday, the large bodies of water everywhere surprised me. Never much of a water person, me, but i didn't recall that many lakes and swamps. They're here, but so are tons of developments surrounding them - even more than when i left 15 years ago.

When i first moved to the "Sunshine State" (really, i think Colorado may have more actual sunny days), i read the book "Up for Grabs: A Trip Through Time and Space in the Sunshine State." (Looks like a newer edition was published in 2000 - need to check it out.) John Rothchild tells the tale of the crazy land scams that subdivided, populated and spoiled plenty of wilderness - and still do. From early on, developers destroyed wetlands, building up land with fill dirt to create building space on coastal properties as well as farther inland. They marketed lots in barren, unpopulated areas (often sans roads) to frigid northeasterners.

Those platted subdivisions (and others like them) are still making news - and providing huge fuel for the foreclosure crisis. My pals Mary and Vicki wrote last May about how subprime mortgages were fueling suburban sprawl in Orlando. The Miami Herald wrote about shady lending practices last year too. And the St. Pete Times wrote about

Now that this country is in a world of hurt because of such practices, national media is catching on that Florida is a leader in real estate fraud. The New Yorker wrote about "The Ponzi State," in its most recent issue. The New York Times followed up last weekend with a photo of the same subdivision. (My charming other argues that the print newspaper's lede photo is of a house with hurricane damage, however, not just a foreclosed upon home.)

The thing is, those lots in Lehigh Acres were platted in the 1950s. They sat dormant through other tough economic times, then sold for big prices to people with silly mortgages decades later. And you can bet when the economy recovers (and it will) Floridians will continue the development game, because it's the only one in town - drawing more snowbirds looking for a warm retirement home at a relatively cheap price with no income taxes.

In the meantime, the state continues to pave paradise to put up the cheap subdivisions, as Matt Waite of the St. Pete Times wrote about in a series and now in a new co-authored book, "Paving Paradise."

Florida is supposed to have a "growth management" system, but it really hasn't had much of an impact in the time i lived here or since i left. To save the natural world typically takes what the developers have here: cold cash.

A prime example is the river i kayaked last weekend, pictured above. Development was slated for the heavily treed banks, but the state moved in to buy the shores around the Econ.

Unfortunately, it's a rare example.