Just a couple points worth mentioning: mangrove trees are literally what kept Florida intact before all of this. They keep the shorelines intact with their roots even during hurricanes. This also keeps the areas inland from having to get hit as hard by the water surges. By removing the mangroves to create beachfront property, they horribly ruined their own safety net. Not only that, but after Seminole tribes had been forced to relocate to Florida, now their land was being taken over AGAIN as the wealthy elite decided to create this miserable fantasy world for themselves.
@Dardenelle Green lol you live in an alternate reality. Clearly you’ve never lived in Florida, and your understanding of the state is based on clickbait main stream media articles and anecdotes from people online rather than reality. Florida is not some “boomer fascist hellhole” that’s being very ignorant and blind to reality. Stop generalizing and spewing lies and prejudice just because the view of Florida the media indoctrinate you with fits into your preconceived self righteous notions based on false reporting, oversimplification and the fact that your brain is clearly not capable of viewing the world as anything other than having a binary good vs bad existence and that anyone who disagrees with you is clearly wrong/bad and a boomer nazi. You’re hateful oversimplification and reductive reasoning and overgeneralizing of tens of millions of people that doesn’t fit the reality on the ground of the state is telling. You don’t care about the truth. The facts about Florida are that it’s one of the fastest growing state, not just for old people, but for young people, and people from all over the world. Low taxes always attract people. Honestly your angry spiteful hate filled comment just reeks of jealousy or envy more than anything.
Would love to add, if you want a deep dive on the mistreatment of Florida's ecosystems check out the book, "Everglades River of Grass" it goes over the history of the glades and how much we tried to fuck it over (to the point where we started to drain them, only for it to go so horrible wrong we had to fix it)
@KanyeTheGayFish florida is a giant shthole filled with extremely unhealthy boomers experimenting with fascism while they wait to die from their heart disease epidemic. Florida is really a perfect microcosm of everything the baby boomer generation has stood for. Endless greed, destruction, self absorption, anti intellectualism, and political extremism. What will be interesting is what a dilapidated hell hole of a state florida will be in 30 years when the vast majority of them have met the grim reaper.
As a Floridian, I’d like to add something: the Ocala National Forest. This is a massive region of thousands and thousands of acres, with almost no major roads running through it, but just enough minor and unpaved roads that the really weird people can find places and form communities away from the watchful eye of the government. Around here, people are able to do a lot of illegal shit, but no one will really care, if they even knew. Imagine the deserts of New Mexico, but with a fuck load of trees to hide you. It breeds insanity.
I'm Norwegian and naturally I've grown up and lived my entire life in a post-glacial mountainous country with forests and fjords with no sunlight for almost six months of the year. Florida seems like a totally different planet to me. I was in Jacksonville in April and it was so bizarre. It was so warm and sunny and flat.
@Justankitty Jacksonville does not feature tropical weather. It is north by hundreds of miles of the south east coast of FL which IS considered tropical. Palm Beach and points south down to the Keys are tropical. ie Pompano, DelRay, Boynton, Ft. Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami, Homestead and the Keys. Jacksonville to Ft. Lauderdale is in excess of 350 miles. Completely different weather almost every day of the year.
@Justankitty I've lived in Florida since 1978. It is humid most of the time, rains frequently in the summer, less in the winter. Humidity drops in the winter and spring, which is when most tourists visit. It's dry enough so static electricity is a problem in Ocala in January. Strangely, in Tampa it would rain across the street but remain dry on the other side.
It is very different here. You have a come back you’ve got to see our springs are springs produce water so clear it doesn’t even look real and see though sad it’s as white as snow in Northwest Florida and right now it’s January mid January And I’m not even wearing a sweater thinking about going in the pool tomorrow
As someone who grew up in the state, fantastic video. I would make one major correction: Florida was NOT late to statehood. It became a state in 1845, same year as Texas, before California, and before the Civil War. Nevertheless, Florida was a swampy backwater until the railroads and air conditioning transformed the state.
@Jane Bucs Fan Mr. Truman visited Florida often as did countless numbers of rich folk pre and post the railroads. They did not make laborious trips of 1,000 miles to recreate in a swamp. The author would have the reader believe that the masses were too stupid to live near the beaches or on farms which are now among the elite horse training facilities in America. You can't grow citrus, tomatoes or raise cattle in marshes and swamps yet somewho Florida has been a top algricultural state for decades and remains so. Lots of folks live and work on those farms and groves. Jacksonville now has a population of 1 million people - it is a port, non-tropical weather with not a swamp in site. I have somehow missed the alleged swamps/estuaries that once comprised what is now Orlando's theme parks.
Everytime he said that I thought, ummm No. I took FL history so I know the truth. I thought it was an error until he said it again. But I disagree about swampy backwater because the early settlers didn't live in the swampy areas. They built on high ground and built houses with cross ventilation so no aircondition could be comfortable.
@Edward Greenberg out of the 13 states not the original 13 colonies, what number was Florida? I think it was 4th to last and WV shouldn’t really count as it’s statehood was prompted by the civil war, and the last two states after Florida were the furtherest west. So yes it was objectively late to statehood for its location and westward expansion of the US.
Always interesting to see an outsider’s perspective. Henry Flagler did a lot to help Florida take off, but he’s an afterthought compared to air conditioning. Once AC became widely available, the population skyrocketed.
@Krane I've lived in Arizona for 28 years after living in Florida for 28 years, and while I miss some of the people in FL - despite the occasional 110 I'll take AZ fo sho.
Agreed. Widely available AC is what makes it appealing to the masses the past 50 years. Florida is an amazing place, and my home, but most people wouldn't live here all summer without AC. Ive gone summers without AC before, and its pretty brutal.
@Tommie Dragon - Not the same. The only reason the humidity in Florida is not 100 percent is because mosquitoes displace some of the space that water molecules would take up otherwise. In the States you mentioned, at least the lower humidity gives your sweat a chance to cool you. The Florida climate is the main reason the Seminoles are about the only tribe that was never conquered by the United States. AC and pesticides absolutely made this subtropical mosquito-infested jungle tolerable for urban development.
What a terrible legacy we've left the younger generations. Florida's environmental destruction. Thanks to our irresponsible REPUBLICAN leadership in this state. Build build build. Builders can do no wrong. Let business do whatever the hell they want. Thanks for destroying Florida REPUBLICAN AHOLES
This is a good video but it is sort of left out that a lot of us that are born here are in poverty. Our most famous cities and attractions do not represent our state with good understanding. This video kind of brings it up when it mentions those who worked on the railroad as opposed to the hotels. So many people think of Florida as alligators, oranges, and tourist attractions, not a place where people live.
This is exactly how I feel after watching this. I live in Florida and have grown up here my whole life. My family is definitely not upper class though, far from it. I kept waiting to hear about the part of Florida where the people like me lived, and it just..never came. It's probably understandable because compared to whatever the heck they were doing on the east coast we weren't really doing much, but still
It leaves out a whole lot. I would call this Yankees and the Elderly move and develop parts of South FL. I wouldn't say The Villages applies to even what he was talking about in terms of the growth. But to be honest you could make a twenty hour series to discuss all of the issues of FL which make it unique, make it why it's now the 3rd largest state in population, why it's major diversity in people (Southern, Yankee, Mid-western, African-American, Native American, Foreign born American or person with a visa, etc.), why despite Hurricanes people are still clamouring to move here.
Florida is being ruined by overdevelopment, largely by big companies who come from out of state to capitalize on our resources and then underpay all of the local subcontractors. It’s become increasingly crowded and expensive over the past several years and many of my friends have moved away to escape these things, as well as the insane heat and humidity that descends anywhere from May to June and refuses to leave well into the fall.
Lee County was a disaster before Ian. Many, many long time residents are bugging out, including me. "You call something Paradise, kiss it goodbye." The Eagles
I’m surprised this video didn’t mention the influx of Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans from the 60s-80s that has made south Florida uniquely a majority - minority area and has established a distinct culture in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
@Luis Marin lmao thats funny! Miami is not all of florida and all of florida doesnt act like miami! Florida has rich culture due to the Seminoles the ones you know as afro american!
As a Florida native who traces his family heritage back to a Florida property deed dated 1854, this is one of the best presentations of the uniqueness of Florida I have ever seen. There is always something a little more to say, but for the short duration of this viedo, this was excellent. The pacing, the historical footage, the bio-diversity, narration, etc. were all well done. Thank you! I am going to share this video far and wide.
As someone who's family dates from about 1942, I think almost all of this video doesn't apply to my family's experience. It talks about a few communities but not the overall majority of the state. This video doesn't apply to the majority of the West coast which is where I grew up. My mother's family lived in the middle of the state. I'd say this video is about Yankees and the elderly coming down to FL. Also he said twice in this video that we were late to statehood which just isn't so.
This guy talked about 2 cities and how they redirected the water of the Everglades. I guarantee you haven’t been to the numerous state parks nor the national park we have in the Everglades. You haven’t seen the agricultural wonders of the state nor the cultural diversity of its small towns as well as the big cities. Everyone loves to shit on Florida but you all come here anyway.
@Nature Guitar Run Man know what? I looked it up, and apparently there were reports in Bay County. I'd never seen or heard of it north of Pasco, but when you're right, you're right. I concede.
Urban myth that will not die. STD rate for the 3 counties which The Villages are located in is no higher than anywhere else. The myth was started in 2009 by a reporter from the NY Post. Don't take my word for it. Google it. Great sound bites trump boring actual statistics every time.
People who want to see a great documentary on the Villages. I can recommend Vice's Golf, Booze and Guns, inside boomer paradise. It's rather long but it describes both the appeal and negative sides of the Villages, the environmental impact, the displacement of locals and the social 'safe space' bubble it creates. And by doing so it basically describes the entire state of Florida.
We live in a condo on the ocean in Ft. Lauderdale. We are seniors who still work full time. The average age of the folks in our building is about 52. We are within walking distance of all the clubs, restaurants frequented by 20 somethings during spring break as well as upscale adult eateries. I own a classic car which I drive regularly. The cars in our garage inclulde 2 Rolls Royces, numerous Porsches, Mercedes, BMWs, Mustangs, Camaros and other collectibles. We live on the ocean with the Intracoastal our rear view. There are very few planned activities. Our life style is as close to that of The Villages as it is to that of our 50 years in Manhattan. My brother lives on the west coast in a community with lots of kids in a 3,000 sq ft house, 3 car garage - as disimilar to The Villages or our abode in Ft. Lauderdale. Fl lifstyles are not homogenous. Their are 170,000 registered watercraft in the state and many folks call their big boat/yacht "home".
While I love visiting Florida for its subtropical ecology/wildlife watching (birds and reptiles) this video does a great job explaining why I’m not a fan of its built/populated environment.
You left out one of the most vital things that led to the growth of Florida: the invention of modern air conditioning. Without it, Florida would still be nothing but a swamp.
@Michael Hernandez 21% of India has AC. I'm also assuming Indians wear clothes that let the air in. Think of beach pants, they offer sun protection but they let the air in, as opposed to blue jeans that make you sweat.
I do think it's fucked that Florida is effective a business and not a place. It makes me very sad that money hungry people can't leave a naturally beautiful place be, and literally suck life out of it to build their own empire over its corpse.
You mean like LA, SF, NYC, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Gary, Newark, Portland OR, Baltimore etc. All on life support riddled with crime, drugs, the homeless and suffering from the defection of taxpayers with jobs and/or businesses to FL, GA NC, SC and TX? NYC was a vast estuary. The East River is NOT a river but still part of that shrinking estuary. Every inch of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx is covered by either asphalt or a building save Central Park. They destroyed the natural beauty of what is now the NYC metro area. The nerve of those folks.
I have such incredible memories of Florida as a kid. The Everglades were so thick with mosquitoes you'd get carried away. The cattle used to be in the water in the evening but they're just their noses out to breathe. You could throw a hook with no bait and catch fish in every Lake. The diversity was incredible. Frogs covered everything. The Indians in TPS along the Everglades. Incredible memories. 💕😁💯
@Judy Duduks yes a whole different world now. I haven't been in about 15 years. But it was outrageous and depressing to see how much had been lost in so many ways. My heart still bleeds for Sanibel every Autumn somehow.. it's so funny I've lived all over and never get home sick for anywhere but there. Every year. 💓🥴💫
As a life long Floridian, there is so much uniqueness in our state that we have done most of our family vacations in our own state (seriously). We'll go to the mountains from time to time but there's so much to do here it really isn't necessary. It's convenient when the kids are young to drive a few hours and you are in a different world than you just came from.
Thanks. This is the kind honest disclosure that is welcome and that would benefit many potential home buyers! It's the kind of disclosure that is rarely available when developments are first opening! Esp your revelations about Cape Coral which probably would not be found in any sales brochure! I know from owing 2 homes (not in Florida) that the idea of "disclosure" is a joke. Any older home will have problems and they won't tell you about them (inspector may sometimes give hints but not always).
My best friend is an international student at a college close to Tampa, so when hurricane Ian hit the students had to evacuate, and where were they evacuated to you ask? The villages. Imagine some hundred college students just hanging out in this massive retirement community for like 4 days during a hurricane.
Former Floridian here. The claim that before air conditioning Florida was nothing but a swamp is mostly untrue and dismissive. There was Flagler's first Florida land boom in the 1890's and early 1900's and then the "Great Land Boom" of the 1920s - both before A/C. Electricity provided electric fans and ceiling fans, perfected swimming pool technology and other improvements made Florida livable. Two things that must be mentioned was #1 - mosquito control, and #2 - agriculture. It was Miami founder Julia Tuttle who sent Flagler a box full of oranges from Miami in the late 19th Century when the citrus crop in northern Florida was wiped out by a hard freeze to convince him to build his railroad to South Florida. As a Floridian I had to leave the state for multiple reasons: it had become over-developed, over crowded, horrible traffic, higher cost of living, and the reality of climate change causing increased flooding, tropical storms, diminished sources of fresh water. As many have said "Nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there."
My family is from Erie, PA. After the end of WWII my father went to work for General Electric. They opened up a new facility in Pinellas County, FL in the early 1960’s. My father was offered a job transfer there and jumped at the chance. He was happy to leave behind lake effect snows in order to move somewhere where he could indulge in hobbies like fishing, snorkeling, and water skiing. My four older brothers were born in Erie, but I was born in Clearwater, Florida. Our home was built in a neighborhood that had originally been orange groves. And we lived close enough to beautiful barrier island beaches that we could ride our bicycles there. It was an idyllic place to grow up. My mother was not really happy about the idea in the beginning. But she fell in love with Florida. My brothers all said that moving there was the best thing my father could have done for the family. Unfortunately, these days Florida has become overpopulated with much of its natural beauty paved over. I don’t expect the rising sea levels to be easy for it.
We live in Ft. Lauderdale. Almost 8 years ago I painted a line on the bulkhead near our then residence. It was at the height of a normal high tide. It is located at a marina which features indoor storage of boats and which has been located there over 30 years. High tide is the SAME in 2022 as it was in 2016. The marina has made no adjustments to the size or heights of its dockage in 30 years. Miami is a completely different story with many downtown streets flooding during King or Full Moon tides. The population of Miami is 450,000 the population of the state of Florida is now over 22 million. In 8 years of condo living on the ocean we have had zero hurricane damage while living in two different condos both on the ocean and 5 blocks from the Intracoastal. We had thousands of dollars in snow damage to our deck when we lived in PA from heavy snowfalls.
I appreciate this video and your research so much. I'd be curious if you could take more time to investigate the history of Florida before white settlers arrived. You referenced the Seminole and surely they were present for all of this conservative wealthy nonsense!
The Seminoles run all of the Hard Rock gambling properties among other very large commercial ventures. The Seminole Nation is in the top 5 most important constituencies for politicians.
Calling Florida’s development “weird” is a judgemental premise. I’d say novel. As stated it was to attract a variety of like minded people to what otherwise was a swap. It that in spades. Rich and poor. All races. The same could be said for NY, California, etc. It is an interesting yet judgemental approach should give some pause to know we are having a negative impact on our environment yet the same can be said for other areas of the US as well as countries around the world. This is a consequence of both life and freedom. This development brought prosperity to many people along the way. Made a better life than would have existed would have been my approach to the topic. Your videos are interesting and informative but I’d cut back on the judgement as it is at best a two edge sword and what is making America so divided.
Very interesting. In Arkansas, there is a similar, slightly less ambitious "Village". --- Everyone has heard of "Hot Springs". --- About 15 miles north of "Hot Springs", there is a totally different town, called "Hot Springs Village". --- "Hot Springs Village" is a "gated community", mostly retired from "Up North", I think about 16 miles from West Gate to East Gate, with three lakes that support water-skiing. --- Very hilly, not as densely populated as Florida Villages.
I live in Fort Myers and I hate how Cape Coral looks. You enter Cape Coral and suddenly there’s like barely any trees. Also during hurricane Ian EVERYONE came to cape coral in the beginning to get gas and supplies. It was a nightmare driving.
ive lived in Florida my whole live and never knew a lot of these things. I knew of the places mentioned in the beginning but had never seen them or knew how ritzy it was
I am a northerner (NJ) that graduated from Flagler College - which is what now occupies Henry's first FL hotel, Hotel Ponce De Leon - and now live in the state... Florida is weird. I'm a real estate developer (who cares about the planet and its wildlife) and am always shocked by the insane clearcutting and 'land reclamation' that large companies do to make space for enormous new developments. Moreover, much of the zoning dictates that new built structures are effectively required to play in to the dystopian car-centered nightmare that the USA is cementing itself as, thanks to absurd parking and drive aisle requirements/restrictions, forcing people to use cars to travel everywhere.
@The Law Although I don't even know which post you're referring to, I didn't flag anything. That said, walking to work sounds wonderful. Once again, I think your comprehension of what I'm saying is lacking - the current "real world" zoning makes such a thing a nearly impossible feat, as it forces a heavy focus on vehicles over people. If your job is something which dictates having a vehicle... like a long distance away, or package delivery, or what have you, a vehicle makes sense. What doesn't make sense is forcing the people which occupy towns to play second fiddle to inanimate vehicles. Towns are for people, and they should be designed as such - allowing for easy flow of pedestrian traffic and the movement of vehicles being utilized for the good of the town's occupants.
@Emsnews Supkis There are certainly areas which have changed. Unfortunately change is inevitable - I was lucky enough to have lived in both urban and rural NJ in my time there, each with their own pros and cons. Old homes and buildings are beautiful things which should be preserved, I truly appreciate the work you did to keep them around - too often the first solution to a minor inconvenience in building is to tear the existing structure down, resulting in a loss of history, architecture, and waste of materials (although not everything old should be saved, haha, as I'm sure you know well... old shouldn't automatically mean significant.). Mountains and forests are something that I wish Florida had, but alas, the weather makes up for it most days.
Here I thought you were going to talk about Florida Man... Still interesting, if not depressing about how much nature was utterly ruined in the name of US Urban sprawl.
I was born and raised in Fort Myers (directly adjacent to Cape Coral), and lived here and commuted into Cape Coral my whole life, have numerous friends who live there, and let me tell you. Wendover fucking nailed it! Yes the lots are cheap, house prices have gone up but still affordable, and yeah you’ll likely have a canal behind your house you can canoe or boat in, but you are going to live 45 min away from the nearest grocery or doctor, and the traffic will be INSANE! Imagine 300k residents all trying to leave to go to their job across just 2 bridges, funneled by narrow residential roads that also have houses and driveways on them so speed limits are always 30 mph. Fuuuuuck ever trying to live in that place. Also see Lehigh Acres, same issues but with no canals. Just a sprawling city-sized neighborhood with no amenities and labyrinth style roads going for miles that eventually lead to just 2 ROADS leading out of the city with no interstate access. That traffic is as bad as the east coast of florida, every day
@Keystone I suppose where my friends live and where I’m used to driving is mostly in the up and coming areas like north cape and northwest, farther away from the bridges where the housing is cheaper. But I have several friends who live closer to veterans and even they had huge traffic lines getting over the bridge to commute into our job off Daniels in fort myers. In usual conditions it’s bearable but not great. But there’s an accident I remember them coming in an hour after their shift not being all that uncommon. This was pre-pandemic, so hopefully the work from home shift changed some of this. I’m admittedly pretty biased from when I was a kid and seeing the difference 20 years ago between fort Myers (which felt more planned) and Cape Coral (which felt like a labyrinth of roads cross crossed by creeks and canals, and an endless residential neighborhood).
@Keystone 1.) Not everyone in Cape Coral lives on Del Prado or Santa Barbara. The vast majority of Cape Coral in fact lives quit far off of both of them (or other streets like them). 2.) Just because they have sidewalks doesn't mean they're walkable. Apart from the fact you only get a narrow sidewalk right next to speeding traffic and walking, biking, etc. is absolutely miserable there, there's nothing to walk or bike to. Everything is spread apart, separated by huge parking lots, empty lots, etc. For example, for a 2.5-mile stretch of Santa Barbara Blvd between Veterans and Cape Corals, there is only ONE restaurant. ONE! For that same 2.5-mile stretch of road, there are only two places to get groceries (such as a dollar general). Tell me, who in the world is going to walk a mile along a miserable congested road to go to one single restaurant or dollar general. Who?
I have lived in Florida my entire life. I absolutely love my state. But over the years it has changed so much. I live on the east coast and work in Palm Beach. The amount of people that have moved here, especially since covid, is insane! Everywhere I look there is a new gated community or apartment building being built. The roadways, especially 95, are crammed with impatient drivers. The slow pace lifestyle of Florida no longer exists. The diverse ecosystems are being destroyed daily and the native animals are being pushed from their homes because of all the humans taking over. I absolutely love my state and all its weirdness. I am glad I got to enjoy it before all this development., because everyday it's being destroyed by developers. If you have decided to move to our state, please take care of it!❤ thanks for the video!
Unsurprising given that it's among the fastest growing states in the country and that there is warm weather and low taxes, just to name a few reasons...
It still exists…. up in the panhandle! Unfortunately, people have realized that though and more keep coming… I can’t blame them though… it is a great place for families, beaches and easy going lifestyle.
I learned so much of Florida's history by reading Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard. PS-- oh! Then reading about the town of Celebration in Kurt Anderson's Fantasyland. So bizarre. Such a shame about the Everglades. There's not an ecology like that anywhere in the United States.
There's no ecology like the everglades anywhere else in the world. For example, the Everglades is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles live together. So so so many unique things about it. Depressing how much we've destroyed it...
Another weird, planned community in Florida is the town of Celebration just outside Disney World. In fact, it WAS created by Disney. So, you know how EPCOT was supposed to be this very futuristic city and that's why Walt bought so much land for it in FL? Well, that didn't happen, because Walt died, and EPCOT became a "permanent World Expo" theme park instead in 1982. However, the idea of the Walt Disney Company planning a community didn't die. So during the 1990s, ambitious CEO Michael Eisner (Defunctland's favorite person) did just that. Took a part of Disney World property, separated it from Disney World and formed a master-planned community called Celebration gathering architects like Michael Graves and Philip Johnson to create a what they hoped to be a diverse and lively community...by 2000, the makeup was revealed to be over 80 percent White. Disney did SO much advertising towards Latinos and African-Americans, and yet no one wanted to move in. Maybe it's because Celebration looks like every boring Florida retirement community, or that they didn't build subsidized housing, instead choosing to donate 900K to Osceola residents to help them purchase homes worth under 80K...the houses in Celebration are worth more than that. Telecommunications and energy services are provided to the town by Smart City Telecom and Reedy Creek Energy Services, both operated by Walt Disney World.
Living in a town owned by Disney sounds like a dystopian conformity company-town nightmare, even for a queer white guy like me (I couldn't stand hearing about Disney's First Gay Character over and over again every year). I can only imagine how much more skeptical other marginalized people would feel about it. Yeah, I don't wonder why it's +80% white....
They have a Columbia Restaurant, though! So I'll deal with their Magic Kingdom cross "1984" vibe. There's also one St Armands Circle. FL needs to liven it up. Sarasota, Celebration and The Villages are all just Death's ☠ waiting room. Next time, I'm grabbing my mom and getting he out before she ends up in one of these Creepshow places. Great restaurants though
A guy murdered his entire family there (Celebration) a couple of years back and lived with their bodies for weeks after committing significant health insurance billing fraud and spending beyond his means. Luckily he was convicted for the massacre. It seemed like he took his family to Disney World regularly before the tragedy to keep up the illusion and appearance of happiness & normalcy.
As a Floridian, this is a great starting point, but it's really only about 25% of what makes Florida, 'Florida'. Somethings to point out is our deep respect for the native tribes; the fact that St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the USA (Florida was a colony for 300 years owned primarily by the Spanish, longer than the USA has existed), our thriving agricultural/fishing industry, the influence of Latin culture, the major military & space bases/influence, and the natural aspects like the everglades and the springs of north/central Florida. It's so diverse culturally and naturally from region to region, it could easily be it's own country. Many Floridians will vacation to other parts just for this reason.
Even thought I thought this was going to be a hit piece, it was enlightening even for a long time resident. Other than Tampa and Orlando -- which have similar vibes, the other major metros have their own identity.
Don’t forget about Henry plant. He brought the rails to Tampa and central FL ❤and built the hotels ports and other infrastructure in Tampa. He was the Henry Flagler of the Florida West Coast.
I was born and raised in the Florida Keys and I can safely say that I am happy to never live in the state ever again as long as current political and economic trends keep going on. The State's political structure doesn't care about the environmental impact that many of the major corporations within the state are contributing to and many politicians are directly profiting on, continuing to the environmental woes currently impacting the state, a mixture of the continual algae blooms being exacerbated by the Sugar industry and the draining of the everglades to make for continual growth in an area of the country that can't feasibly sustain said growth at the cost of some of the most beautiful wetlands in the entire U.S and the eventual decimation of the Islands I used to call home by rising seas. Florida is going to become even more of a hellscape in the coming decades. It hurts, because I love the state, but I can't abide by it, nor can I abide by the state's treatment of LGBTQ folks or the constant commodification of culture and rampant consumerism.
As someone who was born in and grew up in the exact spot where The Villages bulldozed and built over us, I tell you growing up essentially in a retirement community is wacky. It used to be beautiful farmland, small town, nice people. Not anymore.
Thanks for explaining this - great timing for me! I’ve been in Tampa the last 3 weeks and couldn’t quite get over how weird it is here compared to everywhere else I’ve been. I’ve wanted to ask online about it but never expected to get a thorough answer, and you just provided a pretty solid one.
@Fun World Times Great town if you smoke cigars. Lots of old fashioned cigar makers. The Bucs have a very nice stadium and Berne's is a great steakhouse. Beyond that, meh.
Do you think Tampa is weird compared to NOLA, Vegas, Reno, NYC, Austin, Nashville.....? Really? I just think that they are all unique like Ft. Lauderdale, Miami or LA.
I need some terrain, some landscape, something. Florida is too flat, and I find that boring. Plus, I don't know how people can live their lives with 24/7 swamp-butt.
Canadian here - thank you for showing the history of how we got to here. Great job! Florida had a reputation for being nothing but old people for as long as I can remember because of our Snow Birds.
I think you should have talked about the cost of this development, the everglades are an environment found literally nowhere else in the world and home to species that live nowhere else. I know the focus of the video was on what humans created out of Florida but the destruction of the everglades is truly tragic as there is a chance with climate change we loose that ecosystem forever. I would have appreciated at least a passing reference to the cost we are paying for Florida existing as it does today
That feeling when you're standing on the driveway of one of the inconceivably expensive homes being talked about because your construction company was hired and over-paid to complete a very simple task.
The General Contractors are the ones making the bulk of the money, not the contractors like us. We’re lucky if we do well after paying for labor (it’s hard to find any good help here), insurances, and ever rising supply bills, not to mention the cost of gasoline. If anyone is over charging, it certainly isn’t plumbing, electrical, drywall, and masonry contractors. We’re barely getting by these days.
Scotsman here, visited Florida in September. Think I was in one those exclusive communities you were talking about at the start. It was called Celebration and it a small town inspired by the New England region. Everyone was wearing Patriot or Eagles jersey's.
@Avery the Cuban-American ah okay, good to know. I'm not a big disney person so i only really knew what ive learned from living in the area over the years. thank you for letting me know :)
@Allysyn Charles Small correction: Walt didn't create Celebration, the Walt Disney COMPANY did but not him. When Celebration was created, Walt was long dead. Celebration was created by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner back in the 1990s
so the story of celebration is actually wild. Basically, Walt Disney created the entire town as what essentially ammounts to an experiment. EPCOT (one of his parks) was originally meant to be the experimental prototype community of tommorow, which was Mr Disney's pet project. He wanted to create the perfect community. Celebration was the real world attempt at that dream. the reason you saw so much new england stuff is because new engalnders are absolutely flooding florida right now to get away from the shitholes theyve created and by proxy turning our state into an absolute shithole. Hope my explanation helps!
Thank you so much for a great video on my state. Most people only know us for Disney, beaches, and Florida man, but there are countless of oddities and benefits of living here that are beloved by it's residents and gives Florida the unique culture and atmosphere that it has. I can't wait to see more
My great grandfather and great grandmother homesteaded Florida. They had to survive by living off the land hunting and fishing. There was nothing in the way of support so they had to make everything. They were pioneers. I am 4th generation Floridian. I don't see anything weird about what you have said about Florida. Btw, to those that say AC built Florida I can report I grew up in Florida without it and so did everyone I knew. My family didn't have AC until I was in college. Having said that I do like having AC now. It is a little sad though because the lack of AC weeded out the sissies and the snowbirds from the true Floridians.
I found a place on the water. One way in, one way out. No traffic, very quiet. The stores are real close , one mile at most. I Love Florida. I go barefooted and love the sand and grass feel. I'm 5 miles from beach. Grouper sandwich calls every 2 months. I have a fishing pole and bait ready to fish off of the dock. 👍
I had a friend who bought a house on the beach side of the road, she could walk outside and be in the sand after the last step down, but it washed away in a hurricane after I moved away.
The explanation I heard of for why Florida is weird is that their laws make police reports a matter of public record. So it's not so much that they have more weird crimes per capita as those weird crimes get reported on more often.
@E. Levin There is no indication as to who you may have voted and the information is likely the same as that on your driver's license which you show to liquor stores, casinos, tobacoonists, drug stores etc daily w/o giving it a second thought.
Not only crime records are public but a voter's information is completely public as well. When I was living in FL I registered to vote. One day I looked myself on the Internet to find out that my voter's registration information with full name, full address, full birthday and party were public. I got so upset that cancelled my voter's right. I dont l know if they do this in other states but who you vote for and your personal information should be personal. Since then I dont register to vote anymore no where.
@Ian billgates You would get better coverage if your population numbered in the millions and the state had countless big media markets. You guys are condemned to be weird, crazy and having fun without the folks in NYS, LA, SF, Chicago or Miami even knowing you exist. Consider yourself very lucky.
This just seems like you have an issue with people choosing where they want to live. Where do you believe retirees and wealthy people should have to live? Should engineers and developers be idle and not create additional livable areas of land on Earth? Please explain further why they are "audacious" and "unrealistic." If "every inch of Florida had to be developed," what is the problem with that? Then you literally end the video saying "Differentiation is critical to business." So it's fine in business but not for developing America.
You should do a piece on the decline of California (or San Francisco specifically). I have lived here all my life and have watched it go from number 1 in nearly everything to bottom of the barrel while still being more expensive to live in than anyplace else.
The Cape Coral case is interesting to me. As an engineer a liberal, it’s another case of people thinking they know better than experts because their option makes them money. Don’t let an accountant make decisions that engineer should be making, people
I moved to the west coast of FL from Delray Beach about 12 years ago and it was great for how chill it was compared to the east coast, now the traffic is awful, its overcrowded, the housing in completely unaffordable, the development is almost constant, the schools are being taken over by fascists, and everyone that seems to be moving here is an asshole
Dont forget Florida's cuban population, I feel like a lot of this was directed mostly on the east side of Florida and only mentioned Miami in passing, when undoubtedly it was one of Florida's most important attractors especially in the 80s
There's an interesting article in the wall street journal about how Florida alone was responsible for the summer of hell (2022). It has become the most important state aviation wise and the airspace over the state has become incredibly crowded mixed with hurricanes, afternoon thunderstorms, and ATC shortage at Jacksonville.
Florida is interesting because a lot of airlines added capacity there during the pandemic, but have begun cutting back those routes, especially the LCCs.
Florida then: a great swampland with great biodiversity. Now:a bunch of resorts and theme parks for the rich elite and tourists and tons of animals dying out at the cost.
I can recommend a 2 book series called Visiting Small Town Florida. They are still there but you have to get off the highways and hit what's left of the backroads. Many are gone since I started traveling them starting in the early 90's🙁
It was hard to look at all those millionaire mansions, while knowing people sleep in their cars to work at Disney world. Also that the people who live in those fancy mansions are also the ones who hate their tan and spanish-speaking neighbors the most.
@X3C The narrator literally named specific "people living in those mansions," and the statistics of the communities. So, yes, I do "know something," because I watched the video. "Tan, Spanish speaking mansions," ha.
Just stop believing in your own prejudices. You don't know anything about the people living in those mansions. The mansions near my home are only "tan" and Spanish speaking.
@Suz K No, there is not! There is one apartment building behind Magic Kingdom that is low income. At what Disney pays, you need 2 people in a 2 bed apt to make it. The wait to get in that place is 2 yrs. I know this because my son worked at Disney for 10 yrs living there.
So sad to see so much environmental degradation over the history of Florida. Emptying its nature to make completely unlivable sprawling suburbs is such a waste. Florida could’ve developed smarter and still can but they simply don’t care about their ecosystems.
@Briél Kate Ditto I95 portion known as "Alligator Alley" E/W coasts of Fl through Big Cypress and the Everglades. Zero development, Rec areas for fishing, kayaking, picnics etc. 82 miles with "nature" only on both sides of the road.
I am a 6th generational Floridian. And whilst, some of your info is true, it lacks in contrtrast. Yeah, the developers are out of control. But, you want to know why we are weird? We are surrounded by water, we are Southern, and people from Northern areas keep moving down here. STOP DOING THAT. Plus you retirees keep voting against education. Stop doing that as well.
Could you do a video on the history and purpose of companies putting their names on arenas? I've never understood what benefit it grants a company to spend the money to get their name on a large sports venue.
It's advertisement, if it didn't work they wouldn't do it. Even if no one conciously determines to buy something because they saw the name of a brand on a stadium. Subconciously it makes the brand familiar and therefore make you more likely to spend money on it.
@Casey Tinsley next time I’m sitting under the palm trees at Deerfield Beach, enjoying the warm fresh air and looking out at the Atlantic Ocean, before walking over to JB’s for some fresh seafood, I’ll think of your comment and have a laugh.
Are you joking, Florida has to be one of the shittiest states in the union. The only folks that go there are those looking to evade taxes or their children. Take your kid around "It's a Small World" enough times and tell me if it was worth it in the end..
As an ecologist working in Florida. Words cannot describe how depressed it was watching you talk about the wonderful engineering that took place that absolutely decimated. The Everglades ruined the watershed and has led to countless algae blooms and die offs just so we can have more land south of Okachobee, where no one wants to live anyway.
@Tanya Roberson Since nearly all new construction in Fl is done to Cat 4 standards, the chances are extremely low. The chances of nearly all of Northern California losing its forests and redwoods or several western states drying up are far, far greater. Californians buy and build in well established forests which ought be left alone for a multitude of reasons. Virtually impossible to even build a cabin in a Florida swamp, preserve, The Everglades, Big Cypress etc. Californians insist on EVs as they cut down trees and invite massive forest fires which generate more air pollution in a few days than all the cars in CA do in years.
@Jane Bucs Fan Nor did it mention the project being paid for by the Federal Dept. of Defense. Today's Sun Sentinel "To protect coastal bases, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has enlisted corals, oysters and three international teams of scientists led by investigators at the University of Miami, the University of Hawaii and Rutgers University. The researchers are developing what they call “hybrid reefs,” which combine concrete structures with living coral reefs and oyster beds to break up damaging waves. They can absorb up to 97% of the force of wave activity to protect (land)" Yup we are unsophisticated yokels down here who just ignore all ecological issues.
"The story is more of its developers making an overzealous land purchase then figuring it out as they went along" similar story with Lake Havasu City in Arizona and why it has the 1831 version of London Bridge (yes, you heard that right). Robert P. McCulloch kept buying acres to create a new community called Lake Havasu City. The problem is, he couldn't get buyers interested because of its location far from population centers and the fact that it's in an arid climate. So when the City of London put London Bridge up for sale, Robert's real estate agent convinced him to make the wild purchase of buying the bridge as a way to attract buyers as the city's main attraction. The bridge was transported through the Panama Canal in pieces, unloaded in Long Beach, and then moved to Lake Havasu City where it was re-assembled in 1967 and completed in 1971. As someone on Long Island, it doesn't surprise me one bit that The Villages has a Long Island-specific club. Long Island is one of the most expensive places to live in the country, and pretty densely populated too (to put things into perspective, over one-third of NY's population lives on Long Island), so I know many people who have made or are considering making the move to FL.
This is one of the first CHclip videos I’ve seen that accurately represents my state. I’d like to remind people that so many native Floridians hate the constant transformation that is talked about here. The destruction of our environment is still happening. Woods and swamps are destroyed for pointless suburbs and supermarkets. We need to learn from our history to stop these mistakes from happening again.
I’m only 50 seconds in, but I am *DYING* at the fact that it took you 9️⃣ seconds to name-drop The Villages. My parents are from there and most of my extended family live there, so I’ve known about that place my entire life 😅. It was a very different place when my parents were growing up 50 years ago haha. They miss how it used to be when Sumter County was just another rural area of country Florida, before The Villages existed. The locals HATE the “Villagers” (retirees)
The highest STD rate in the US is actually not a fact at all! It was started years ago after a gynocologist got angry over raised lease rates. In turn, the physician started telling people that the STD rates were the highest in the country and it took off because it’s a great story. Jackson MS is actually the highest followed by Baltimore MD. A few lewd sexual acts in public have helped the STD legend, but it's really a fun joke around here that non-residents swear to.
Locals might hate the "Villagers", but the Villagers place a pay check in their pockets, food on the table and a roof over their heads...This, not to mention the unlimited free nightly entertainment, and a vast array of restaurants and amenities...
I'm a bit confused by the split picture. Was there meant to be an updated picture on the right (I didn't see any differences in the pictures, and I even stopped the video for about 2 minutes to look for hidden changes, but didn't see anything)? Did anyone else see a difference in the two (beyond the single street card)?
I moved down to Florida to be closer to my family and not have a state income tax. One thing I quickly found out though everything else is so goddamn expensive it basically negates it.
From an outsiders perspective Florida sounds like something that could only exist in America - it's as though someone made a state out of all the stuff that oozed out of the other states and flowed south.
They did. They also took any and every bit of engineering and environmental stupidity from around the nation and went to town with it. Sunny Isles is an example - built out of coral! It is also filled with misfits from all over the nation. Broke, down on your luck? Go to FL! Even if you are homeless it is usually warm. I've said for decades FL is the Most American State. FL is a reflection of every bit of crazy, hubris, greed, creativity, independence you could imagine from the rest of the country.
I moved to Florida May of last year to be closer to family. Without even watching this video I could tell a lot of the land and ecosystem here has been planned and mostly destroyed and no longer in its original state. So with the house I'm building I'm taking advantage of the swale I have along one side of it and I'm planting 11 bald cypress trees and planning to use plenty of native flowering plants in the landscaping to do something to help the struggling flora and fauna here, even though my contribution is nearly insignificant in the grand scheme of things I'm trying to make my footprint as minimal as possible here. I am very thankful my lot didn't have any trees that needed to be cut down which is a huge plus.
While modern Florida couldn't exist without it, the draining of the everglades and building of straight canals has wrecked the natrual ecosystem. It has to be the most manufactured place in the US.
@TheRenaissanceChannel Actually much of Manhattan's east side especially where NYU/Langone Hosp. and Bellevue are located, was constructed on discarded oyster shells. In the 18th to early 20th century oysters were plentiful and a staple food of the poor. So many were consumed daily that the discarded shells became a significant problem. Very long interesting story mercifully made short, the shells were dumped in the East River (not a river) and streets and buildings constructed with pilings sunk into many feet of (now) compressed oyster shells.
The film omitted the Everglades Forever Act of 1994 and additional legislation in 2022 to protect and preserve the Everglades, /Omitted also is/are the steps already taken or under way to reduce phosphorous run off from farmers, to induce organic farming, protect water levels and quality inclusive of wildlife. Google the topic. The filmmaker left it out because it does not comport with his narrative.
@Colin Johnson There are over 8,000 miles of beach in FL (not a misprint) Of all the states in America, FL has the 5th most state/local parkland and is ranked 7th among the 50 in total state, local and federal parkland. Note that 86% of Nevada is owned by the Fed Govt., 60% of Alaska is owned by the Feds. So excluding those two anomalies, Fl has as much or more recreational areas than any state in America or remotely comparable size.
When I was a kid and we would make the drive from Tampa to Miami all of these subdivisions were empty. Just empty asphalt roads and if you even had street lights, but no homes.
Florida-The septic tank of the world. The World you say? Roughly twenty years ago a census of sorts was taken in the largest county. Miami-Dade(the powers that be didn't like Dade county. Where is that? Outsiders would comment. So they hyphenated it to Miami-Dade.) So the census was taken of the school district. They found that 194 separate dialects were spoken amongst the staff and students. For all the glitz and glamor portrayed. Florida is essentially one large ghetto with pockets of civility. When speaking to the population. If one can communicate with them. One will quickly learn that Florida is not their home. Their Home is elsewhere. Florida is just some place they live. Comments such as,"In my country or back home" are often times spoken. People forget that when they migrate. They bring the bad with them. Then they don't understand why everything is so dysfunctional. If one's culture is so awesome. Why did they ever leave?
I live south of the Villages, but my Uni is north of the Village. Every time I drive to Uni, I pass through the Villages and my dad and I make some variation of the same boomer joke. It's a weird place to say the least. You never know when you're still in the Villages or not because it seems to last for miles.
I've been to Florida a number of times, spending time in both in North and South Florida. In my experience, Florida residents I've met have almost all been among the most difficult, entitled, and arrogant people I've ever encountered. No one reads anything, and even business owners seem to be only partially literate. Fights break out over imperceptible slights, and arguments erupt over imagined microaggressions. Florida can't be saved, and the residents of Florida cannot be allowed to leave the state, no matter what happens.
Just a couple points worth mentioning: mangrove trees are literally what kept Florida intact before all of this. They keep the shorelines intact with their roots even during hurricanes. This also keeps the areas inland from having to get hit as hard by the water surges. By removing the mangroves to create beachfront property, they horribly ruined their own safety net.
Not only that, but after Seminole tribes had been forced to relocate to Florida, now their land was being taken over AGAIN as the wealthy elite decided to create this miserable fantasy world for themselves.
@Dardenelle Green lol you live in an alternate reality. Clearly you’ve never lived in Florida, and your understanding of the state is based on clickbait main stream media articles and anecdotes from people online rather than reality. Florida is not some “boomer fascist hellhole” that’s being very ignorant and blind to reality. Stop generalizing and spewing lies and prejudice just because the view of Florida the media indoctrinate you with fits into your preconceived self righteous notions based on false reporting, oversimplification and the fact that your brain is clearly not capable of viewing the world as anything other than having a binary good vs bad existence and that anyone who disagrees with you is clearly wrong/bad and a boomer nazi. You’re hateful oversimplification and reductive reasoning and overgeneralizing of tens of millions of people that doesn’t fit the reality on the ground of the state is telling. You don’t care about the truth. The facts about Florida are that it’s one of the fastest growing state, not just for old people, but for young people, and people from all over the world. Low taxes always attract people. Honestly your angry spiteful hate filled comment just reeks of jealousy or envy more than anything.
Would love to add, if you want a deep dive on the mistreatment of Florida's ecosystems check out the book, "Everglades River of Grass" it goes over the history of the glades and how much we tried to fuck it over (to the point where we started to drain them, only for it to go so horrible wrong we had to fix it)
@KanyeTheGayFish florida is a giant shthole filled with extremely unhealthy boomers experimenting with fascism while they wait to die from their heart disease epidemic.
Florida is really a perfect microcosm of everything the baby boomer generation has stood for. Endless greed, destruction, self absorption, anti intellectualism, and political extremism.
What will be interesting is what a dilapidated hell hole of a state florida will be in 30 years when the vast majority of them have met the grim reaper.
This is so in accurate
People will get by. Boo hoo.
As a Floridian, I’d like to add something: the Ocala National Forest. This is a massive region of thousands and thousands of acres, with almost no major roads running through it, but just enough minor and unpaved roads that the really weird people can find places and form communities away from the watchful eye of the government. Around here, people are able to do a lot of illegal shit, but no one will really care, if they even knew. Imagine the deserts of New Mexico, but with a fuck load of trees to hide you. It breeds insanity.
@LawDog if you leave the wildlife alone they will leave you alone
@atta enjoyer that sounds like a threat!
@Mark A. Without a gun? Yes.
@Mark A. I have camped there several times and nothing happened but that may just be where I stayed
Fascinating! I lived in Florida for years, not that far from Ocala National Forest, but I had no idea it was like that!
I'm Norwegian and naturally I've grown up and lived my entire life in a post-glacial mountainous country with forests and fjords with no sunlight for almost six months of the year. Florida seems like a totally different planet to me. I was in Jacksonville in April and it was so bizarre. It was so warm and sunny and flat.
@Justankitty Jacksonville does not feature tropical weather. It is north by hundreds of miles of the south east coast of FL which IS considered tropical. Palm Beach and points south down to the Keys are tropical. ie Pompano, DelRay, Boynton, Ft. Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami, Homestead and the Keys. Jacksonville to Ft. Lauderdale is in excess of 350 miles. Completely different weather almost every day of the year.
hello fellow norsk who also lives in FL
@Justankitty I've lived in Florida since 1978. It is humid most of the time, rains frequently in the summer, less in the winter. Humidity drops in the winter and spring, which is when most tourists visit. It's dry enough so static electricity is a problem in Ocala in January. Strangely, in Tampa it would rain across the street but remain dry on the other side.
It is very different here. You have a come back you’ve got to see our springs are springs produce water so clear it doesn’t even look real and see though sad it’s as white as snow in Northwest Florida and right now it’s January mid January And I’m not even wearing a sweater thinking about going in the pool tomorrow
@JP Sayermayor Your hatred, intolerance, and stereotyping are all duly logged and noted. Sad.
As someone who grew up in the state, fantastic video. I would make one major correction: Florida was NOT late to statehood. It became a state in 1845, same year as Texas, before California, and before the Civil War. Nevertheless, Florida was a swampy backwater until the railroads and air conditioning transformed the state.
True I saw the Florida statues at Gettysburg for their soldiers
@Edward Greenberg yep, Florida produces more cattle than Montana.
@Jane Bucs Fan Mr. Truman visited Florida often as did countless numbers of rich folk pre and post the railroads. They did not make laborious trips of 1,000 miles to recreate in a swamp. The author would have the reader believe that the masses were too stupid to live near the beaches or on farms which are now among the elite horse training facilities in America. You can't grow citrus, tomatoes or raise cattle in marshes and swamps yet somewho Florida has been a top algricultural state for decades and remains so. Lots of folks live and work on those farms and groves. Jacksonville now has a population of 1 million people - it is a port, non-tropical weather with not a swamp in site. I have somehow missed the alleged swamps/estuaries that once comprised what is now Orlando's theme parks.
Everytime he said that I thought, ummm No. I took FL history so I know the truth. I thought it was an error until he said it again. But I disagree about swampy backwater because the early settlers didn't live in the swampy areas. They built on high ground and built houses with cross ventilation so no aircondition could be comfortable.
@Edward Greenberg out of the 13 states not the original 13 colonies, what number was Florida? I think it was 4th to last and WV shouldn’t really count as it’s statehood was prompted by the civil war, and the last two states after Florida were the furtherest west. So yes it was objectively late to statehood for its location and westward expansion of the US.
Always interesting to see an outsider’s perspective. Henry Flagler did a lot to help Florida take off, but he’s an afterthought compared to air conditioning. Once AC became widely available, the population skyrocketed.
@Krane I've lived in Arizona for 28 years after living in Florida for 28 years, and while I miss some of the people in FL - despite the occasional 110 I'll take AZ fo sho.
@acemarcola only the panhandle and north interior peninsula
Agreed. Widely available AC is what makes it appealing to the masses the past 50 years. Florida is an amazing place, and my home, but most people wouldn't live here all summer without AC. Ive gone summers without AC before, and its pretty brutal.
@Tommie Dragon - Not the same. The only reason the humidity in Florida is not 100 percent is because mosquitoes displace some of the space that water molecules would take up otherwise.
In the States you mentioned, at least the lower humidity gives your sweat a chance to cool you.
The Florida climate is the main reason the Seminoles are about the only tribe that was never conquered by the United States. AC and pesticides absolutely made this subtropical mosquito-infested jungle tolerable for urban development.
What a terrible legacy we've left the younger generations. Florida's environmental destruction. Thanks to our irresponsible REPUBLICAN leadership in this state. Build build build. Builders can do no wrong. Let business do whatever the hell they want. Thanks for destroying Florida REPUBLICAN AHOLES
This is a good video but it is sort of left out that a lot of us that are born here are in poverty. Our most famous cities and attractions do not represent our state with good understanding. This video kind of brings it up when it mentions those who worked on the railroad as opposed to the hotels. So many people think of Florida as alligators, oranges, and tourist attractions, not a place where people live.
@BluebirdAnd laws for workers are terrible, you protest in any way at all and you are immediately fired.
Exactly, struggling to stay above the red each month bc my pay barely covers bare necessities and rent. Can't afford to move out of Tampa 🙃
This is exactly how I feel after watching this. I live in Florida and have grown up here my whole life. My family is definitely not upper class though, far from it. I kept waiting to hear about the part of Florida where the people like me lived, and it just..never came. It's probably understandable because compared to whatever the heck they were doing on the east coast we weren't really doing much, but still
It leaves out a whole lot. I would call this Yankees and the Elderly move and develop parts of South FL. I wouldn't say The Villages applies to even what he was talking about in terms of the growth. But to be honest you could make a twenty hour series to discuss all of the issues of FL which make it unique, make it why it's now the 3rd largest state in population, why it's major diversity in people (Southern, Yankee, Mid-western, African-American, Native American, Foreign born American or person with a visa, etc.), why despite Hurricanes people are still clamouring to move here.
Maybe because it's basically the same everywhere else.
Florida is being ruined by overdevelopment, largely by big companies who come from out of state to capitalize on our resources and then underpay all of the local subcontractors. It’s become increasingly crowded and expensive over the past several years and many of my friends have moved away to escape these things, as well as the insane heat and humidity that descends anywhere from May to June and refuses to leave well into the fall.
Lee County was a disaster before Ian. Many, many long time residents are bugging out, including me. "You call something Paradise, kiss it goodbye." The Eagles
Georgia is next.
@Michael Snachez 2.2 million is not a lot...
@Adrian we had a 2.2 million people increase in 3 years, yes they are
@Birdman LOL, now it turned into lock down and vaccines? Jesus christ, thanks AGAIN for proving my point. You're a fucking imbecile. LMFAO.
I’m surprised this video didn’t mention the influx of Cubans, Puerto Ricans, and Dominicans from the 60s-80s that has made south Florida uniquely a majority - minority area and has established a distinct culture in Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
Replace Dominicans with Haitians and your comment is on point.
Cubans look very White to me.
I completely agree. Literally such an essential piece of information.
@Luis Marin lmao thats funny! Miami is not all of florida and all of florida doesnt act like miami! Florida has rich culture due to the Seminoles the ones you know as afro american!
Bro skipped the biggest influence in modern Florida 💀💀
As a Florida native who traces his family heritage back to a Florida property deed dated 1854, this is one of the best presentations of the uniqueness of Florida I have ever seen. There is always something a little more to say, but for the short duration of this viedo, this was excellent. The pacing, the historical footage, the bio-diversity, narration, etc. were all well done. Thank you!
I am going to share this video far and wide.
Florida has such awesome history!
As someone who's family dates from about 1942, I think almost all of this video doesn't apply to my family's experience. It talks about a few communities but not the overall majority of the state. This video doesn't apply to the majority of the West coast which is where I grew up. My mother's family lived in the middle of the state. I'd say this video is about Yankees and the elderly coming down to FL. Also he said twice in this video that we were late to statehood which just isn't so.
@Sally Smith7 Palatka, originally, although the Palatka today does not have same boundaries as it did then.
@Michael Tolliver 🤫
You’re a bot and this is a political hit
Its really depressing to see that Florida's entire history as a state is just a long saga of destroying its natural ecology.
This guy talked about 2 cities and how they redirected the water of the Everglades. I guarantee you haven’t been to the numerous state parks nor the national park we have in the Everglades. You haven’t seen the agricultural wonders of the state nor the cultural diversity of its small towns as well as the big cities. Everyone loves to shit on Florida but you all come here anyway.
its more depressing hearing him lie every 5 minutes
Yeah cause your home was built on prescribed home land for your family right?
@Nature Guitar Run Man know what? I looked it up, and apparently there were reports in Bay County. I'd never seen or heard of it north of Pasco, but when you're right, you're right. I concede.
@LawDog k bruh
Native Floridian here, one thing that's also talked about when the villages are mentioned is the crazy STD rate it's known for.
I do hear that life after menopause can turn very horny very quickly, just by hormones alone
Lemon parties everywhere. lol
Urban myth that will not die. STD rate for the 3 counties which The Villages are located in is no higher than anywhere else. The myth was started in 2009 by a reporter from the NY Post. Don't take my word for it. Google it. Great sound bites trump boring actual statistics every time.
I guess it must be a fun place! It sounds too artificial and too conservative for me though.
🤮
People who want to see a great documentary on the Villages. I can recommend Vice's Golf, Booze and Guns, inside boomer paradise. It's rather long but it describes both the appeal and negative sides of the Villages, the environmental impact, the displacement of locals and the social 'safe space' bubble it creates. And by doing so it basically describes the entire state of Florida.
I've' seen it. Definitely worth the watch.
We live in a condo on the ocean in Ft. Lauderdale. We are seniors who still work full time. The average age of the folks in our building is about 52. We are within walking distance of all the clubs, restaurants frequented by 20 somethings during spring break as well as upscale adult eateries. I own a classic car which I drive regularly. The cars in our garage inclulde 2 Rolls Royces, numerous Porsches, Mercedes, BMWs, Mustangs, Camaros and other collectibles. We live on the ocean with the Intracoastal our rear view. There are very few planned activities. Our life style is as close to that of The Villages as it is to that of our 50 years in Manhattan. My brother lives on the west coast in a community with lots of kids in a 3,000 sq ft house, 3 car garage - as disimilar to The Villages or our abode in Ft. Lauderdale. Fl lifstyles are not homogenous. Their are 170,000 registered watercraft in the state and many folks call their big boat/yacht "home".
While I love visiting Florida for its subtropical ecology/wildlife watching (birds and reptiles) this video does a great job explaining why I’m not a fan of its built/populated environment.
You left out one of the most vital things that led to the growth of Florida: the invention of modern air conditioning. Without it, Florida would still be nothing but a swamp.
@majahanson311 it happended to me and it wasnt fun
@Michael Hernandez 21% of India has AC. I'm also assuming Indians wear clothes that let the air in. Think of beach pants, they offer sun protection but they let the air in, as opposed to blue jeans that make you sweat.
I grew up with no ac. We lived.
@George McKenna I'll toast a pint of Oyster City to you!
And it was invented here! We made ourselves and changed the world while doing so.
I do think it's fucked that Florida is effective a business and not a place. It makes me very sad that money hungry people can't leave a naturally beautiful place be, and literally suck life out of it to build their own empire over its corpse.
You mean like LA, SF, NYC, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Gary, Newark, Portland OR, Baltimore etc. All on life support riddled with crime, drugs, the homeless and suffering from the defection of taxpayers with jobs and/or businesses to FL, GA NC, SC and TX?
NYC was a vast estuary. The East River is NOT a river but still part of that shrinking estuary. Every inch of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx is covered by either asphalt or a building save Central Park. They destroyed the natural beauty of what is now the NYC metro area. The nerve of those folks.
I have such incredible memories of Florida as a kid. The Everglades were so thick with mosquitoes you'd get carried away. The cattle used to be in the water in the evening but they're just their noses out to breathe. You could throw a hook with no bait and catch fish in every Lake. The diversity was incredible. Frogs covered everything. The Indians in TPS along the Everglades. Incredible memories. 💕😁💯
@Judy Duduks yes a whole different world now. I haven't been in about 15 years. But it was outrageous and depressing to see how much had been lost in so many ways. My heart still bleeds for Sanibel every Autumn somehow.. it's so funny I've lived all over and never get home sick for anywhere but there. Every year. 💓🥴💫
Exactly. I also grew up that way. Now I can't stand to see what Florida has become.
As a life long Floridian, there is so much uniqueness in our state that we have done most of our family vacations in our own state (seriously). We'll go to the mountains from time to time but there's so much to do here it really isn't necessary. It's convenient when the kids are young to drive a few hours and you are in a different world than you just came from.
Thanks. This is the kind honest disclosure that is welcome and that would benefit many potential home buyers! It's the kind of disclosure that is rarely available when developments are first opening! Esp your revelations about Cape Coral which probably would not be found in any sales brochure!
I know from owing 2 homes (not in Florida) that the idea of "disclosure" is a joke. Any older home will have problems and they won't tell you about them (inspector may sometimes give hints but not always).
My best friend is an international student at a college close to Tampa, so when hurricane Ian hit the students had to evacuate, and where were they evacuated to you ask? The villages. Imagine some hundred college students just hanging out in this massive retirement community for like 4 days during a hurricane.
I went to UCF in the mid-2000s and worked at the college arena there. It was all college kids and retirees. I have like 20 surrogate grandparents!
Gmilfs
@no username pfft community culture is weird
@no username Just wear a red MAGA cap, you will fit right in.
Most old people in 55 community and older are mean af
Former Floridian here. The claim that before air conditioning Florida was nothing but a swamp is mostly untrue and dismissive. There was Flagler's first Florida land boom in the 1890's and early 1900's and then the "Great Land Boom" of the 1920s - both before A/C. Electricity provided electric fans and ceiling fans, perfected swimming pool technology and other improvements made Florida livable. Two things that must be mentioned was #1 - mosquito control, and #2 - agriculture. It was Miami founder Julia Tuttle who sent Flagler a box full of oranges from Miami in the late 19th Century when the citrus crop in northern Florida was wiped out by a hard freeze to convince him to build his railroad to South Florida. As a Floridian I had to leave the state for multiple reasons: it had become over-developed, over crowded, horrible traffic, higher cost of living, and the reality of climate change causing increased flooding, tropical storms, diminished sources of fresh water. As many have said "Nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there."
As a resident of Cape Coral I can tell you your 50K number for canal access is grossly understated
My family is from Erie, PA. After the end of WWII my father went to work for General Electric. They opened up a new facility in Pinellas County, FL in the early 1960’s. My father was offered a job transfer there and jumped at the chance. He was happy to leave behind lake effect snows in order to move somewhere where he could indulge in hobbies like fishing, snorkeling, and water skiing. My four older brothers were born in Erie, but I was born in Clearwater, Florida. Our home was built in a neighborhood that had originally been orange groves. And we lived close enough to beautiful barrier island beaches that we could ride our bicycles there. It was an idyllic place to grow up. My mother was not really happy about the idea in the beginning. But she fell in love with Florida. My brothers all said that moving there was the best thing my father could have done for the family. Unfortunately, these days Florida has become overpopulated with much of its natural beauty paved over. I don’t expect the rising sea levels to be easy for it.
We live in Ft. Lauderdale. Almost 8 years ago I painted a line on the bulkhead near our then residence. It was at the height of a normal high tide. It is located at a marina which features indoor storage of boats and which has been located there over 30 years. High tide is the SAME in 2022 as it was in 2016. The marina has made no adjustments to the size or heights of its dockage in 30 years. Miami is a completely different story with many downtown streets flooding during King or Full Moon tides. The population of Miami is 450,000 the population of the state of Florida is now over 22 million. In 8 years of condo living on the ocean we have had zero hurricane damage while living in two different condos both on the ocean and 5 blocks from the Intracoastal. We had thousands of dollars in snow damage to our deck when we lived in PA from heavy snowfalls.
I appreciate this video and your research so much. I'd be curious if you could take more time to investigate the history of Florida before white settlers arrived. You referenced the Seminole and surely they were present for all of this conservative wealthy nonsense!
Miccosukee Casino near Homestead. Don't hear much about that tribe compared to the Seminole's.
The Seminoles run all of the Hard Rock gambling properties among other very large commercial ventures. The Seminole Nation is in the top 5 most important constituencies for politicians.
Calling Florida’s development “weird” is a judgemental premise. I’d say novel. As stated it was to attract a variety of like minded people to what otherwise was a swap. It that in spades. Rich and poor. All races. The same could be said for NY, California, etc. It is an interesting yet judgemental approach should give some pause to know we are having a negative impact on our environment yet the same can be said for other areas of the US as well as countries around the world. This is a consequence of both life and freedom. This development brought prosperity to many people along the way. Made a better life than would have existed would have been my approach to the topic. Your videos are interesting and informative but I’d cut back on the judgement as it is at best a two edge sword and what is making America so divided.
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Very interesting. In Arkansas, there is a similar, slightly less ambitious "Village".
--- Everyone has heard of "Hot Springs".
--- About 15 miles north of "Hot Springs", there is a totally different town, called "Hot Springs Village".
--- "Hot Springs Village" is a "gated community", mostly retired from "Up North", I think about 16 miles from West Gate to East Gate, with three lakes that support water-skiing.
--- Very hilly, not as densely populated as Florida Villages.
I live in Fort Myers and I hate how Cape Coral looks. You enter Cape Coral and suddenly there’s like barely any trees. Also during hurricane Ian EVERYONE came to cape coral in the beginning to get gas and supplies. It was a nightmare driving.
The Villages are exactly what it would look like if someone were to design my personal hell
😂😂
Someone did
TeXtMe DiReCtLy🤙🤙🥶🥶......
ive lived in Florida my whole live and never knew a lot of these things. I knew of the places mentioned in the beginning but had never seen them or knew how ritzy it was
I am a northerner (NJ) that graduated from Flagler College - which is what now occupies Henry's first FL hotel, Hotel Ponce De Leon - and now live in the state... Florida is weird. I'm a real estate developer (who cares about the planet and its wildlife) and am always shocked by the insane clearcutting and 'land reclamation' that large companies do to make space for enormous new developments. Moreover, much of the zoning dictates that new built structures are effectively required to play in to the dystopian car-centered nightmare that the USA is cementing itself as, thanks to absurd parking and drive aisle requirements/restrictions, forcing people to use cars to travel everywhere.
@Emsnews Supkis I miss snow every holiday season. It was more the darkness and grey skies I couldn't do anymore, Haha.
@TryAgainPlease Snow is beautiful and fun to romp in if you live on a mountain. I have snow plows.
@The Law Although I don't even know which post you're referring to, I didn't flag anything.
That said, walking to work sounds wonderful. Once again, I think your comprehension of what I'm saying is lacking - the current "real world" zoning makes such a thing a nearly impossible feat, as it forces a heavy focus on vehicles over people. If your job is something which dictates having a vehicle... like a long distance away, or package delivery, or what have you, a vehicle makes sense. What doesn't make sense is forcing the people which occupy towns to play second fiddle to inanimate vehicles. Towns are for people, and they should be designed as such - allowing for easy flow of pedestrian traffic and the movement of vehicles being utilized for the good of the town's occupants.
@Emsnews Supkis There are certainly areas which have changed. Unfortunately change is inevitable - I was lucky enough to have lived in both urban and rural NJ in my time there, each with their own pros and cons. Old homes and buildings are beautiful things which should be preserved, I truly appreciate the work you did to keep them around - too often the first solution to a minor inconvenience in building is to tear the existing structure down, resulting in a loss of history, architecture, and waste of materials (although not everything old should be saved, haha, as I'm sure you know well... old shouldn't automatically mean significant.). Mountains and forests are something that I wish Florida had, but alas, the weather makes up for it most days.
@TryAgainPlease You flagged the post you lame. Walk to work, ya right welcome to the real world.
Here I thought you were going to talk about Florida Man...
Still interesting, if not depressing about how much nature was utterly ruined in the name of US Urban sprawl.
That can happen anywhere
Your talking about the Everglades' terrible draining was so depressing man. Good video, though. Much appreciation for your work, Sam
I was born and raised in Fort Myers (directly adjacent to Cape Coral), and lived here and commuted into Cape Coral my whole life, have numerous friends who live there, and let me tell you. Wendover fucking nailed it!
Yes the lots are cheap, house prices have gone up but still affordable, and yeah you’ll likely have a canal behind your house you can canoe or boat in, but you are going to live 45 min away from the nearest grocery or doctor, and the traffic will be INSANE!
Imagine 300k residents all trying to leave to go to their job across just 2 bridges, funneled by narrow residential roads that also have houses and driveways on them so speed limits are always 30 mph.
Fuuuuuck ever trying to live in that place. Also see Lehigh Acres, same issues but with no canals. Just a sprawling city-sized neighborhood with no amenities and labyrinth style roads going for miles that eventually lead to just 2 ROADS leading out of the city with no interstate access.
That traffic is as bad as the east coast of florida, every day
Florida: Infrastructure??? Who needs it!
You summed up Cape Coral perfectly 😂
@Kianna the east coast of Florida has 5 million more people than the west coast
@Keystone I suppose where my friends live and where I’m used to driving is mostly in the up and coming areas like north cape and northwest, farther away from the bridges where the housing is cheaper. But I have several friends who live closer to veterans and even they had huge traffic lines getting over the bridge to commute into our job off Daniels in fort myers.
In usual conditions it’s bearable but not great. But there’s an accident I remember them coming in an hour after their shift not being all that uncommon. This was pre-pandemic, so hopefully the work from home shift changed some of this. I’m admittedly pretty biased from when I was a kid and seeing the difference 20 years ago between fort Myers (which felt more planned) and Cape Coral (which felt like a labyrinth of roads cross crossed by creeks and canals, and an endless residential neighborhood).
@Keystone
1.) Not everyone in Cape Coral lives on Del Prado or Santa Barbara.
The vast majority of Cape Coral in fact lives quit far off of both of them (or other streets like them).
2.) Just because they have sidewalks doesn't mean they're walkable.
Apart from the fact you only get a narrow sidewalk right next to speeding traffic and walking, biking, etc. is absolutely miserable there, there's nothing to walk or bike to.
Everything is spread apart, separated by huge parking lots, empty lots, etc.
For example, for a 2.5-mile stretch of Santa Barbara Blvd between Veterans and Cape Corals, there is only ONE restaurant. ONE! For that same 2.5-mile stretch of road, there are only two places to get groceries (such as a dollar general).
Tell me, who in the world is going to walk a mile along a miserable congested road to go to one single restaurant or dollar general. Who?
I have lived in Florida my entire life. I absolutely love my state. But over the years it has changed so much. I live on the east coast and work in Palm Beach. The amount of people that have moved here, especially since covid, is insane! Everywhere I look there is a new gated community or apartment building being built. The roadways, especially 95, are crammed with impatient drivers. The slow pace lifestyle of Florida no longer exists. The diverse ecosystems are being destroyed daily and the native animals are being pushed from their homes because of all the humans taking over. I absolutely love my state and all its weirdness. I am glad I got to enjoy it before all this development., because everyday it's being destroyed by developers. If you have decided to move to our state, please take care of it!❤ thanks for the video!
Unsurprising given that it's among the fastest growing states in the country and that there is warm weather and low taxes, just to name a few reasons...
@Getting Introspective yes please stay in NC! We were so locked down and punished during covid! Oh wait, our governor wasn't an IDIOT
Too much traffic and to many angry drivers. Slow traffic stay right.
It still exists…. up in the panhandle! Unfortunately, people have realized that though and more keep coming… I can’t blame them though… it is a great place for families, beaches and easy going lifestyle.
@Chardonnay Rutherford The issue is the numbers and the problems created by development. Drinking water will be a growing crisis in FL.
I learned so much of Florida's history by reading Carl Hiaasen and Elmore Leonard.
PS-- oh! Then reading about the town of Celebration in Kurt Anderson's Fantasyland.
So bizarre.
Such a shame about the Everglades. There's not an ecology like that anywhere in the United States.
There's no ecology like the everglades anywhere else in the world. For example, the Everglades is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles live together. So so so many unique things about it. Depressing how much we've destroyed it...
Another weird, planned community in Florida is the town of Celebration just outside Disney World. In fact, it WAS created by Disney. So, you know how EPCOT was supposed to be this very futuristic city and that's why Walt bought so much land for it in FL? Well, that didn't happen, because Walt died, and EPCOT became a "permanent World Expo" theme park instead in 1982. However, the idea of the Walt Disney Company planning a community didn't die.
So during the 1990s, ambitious CEO Michael Eisner (Defunctland's favorite person) did just that. Took a part of Disney World property, separated it from Disney World and formed a master-planned community called Celebration gathering architects like Michael Graves and Philip Johnson to create a what they hoped to be a diverse and lively community...by 2000, the makeup was revealed to be over 80 percent White. Disney did SO much advertising towards Latinos and African-Americans, and yet no one wanted to move in. Maybe it's because Celebration looks like every boring Florida retirement community, or that they didn't build subsidized housing, instead choosing to donate 900K to Osceola residents to help them purchase homes worth under 80K...the houses in Celebration are worth more than that. Telecommunications and energy services are provided to the town by Smart City Telecom and Reedy Creek Energy Services, both operated by Walt Disney World.
Living in a town owned by Disney sounds like a dystopian conformity company-town nightmare, even for a queer white guy like me (I couldn't stand hearing about Disney's First Gay Character over and over again every year). I can only imagine how much more skeptical other marginalized people would feel about it. Yeah, I don't wonder why it's +80% white....
They have a Columbia Restaurant, though! So I'll deal with their Magic Kingdom cross "1984" vibe. There's also one St Armands Circle. FL needs to liven it up. Sarasota, Celebration and The Villages are all just Death's ☠ waiting room. Next time, I'm grabbing my mom and getting he out before she ends up in one of these Creepshow places. Great restaurants though
A guy murdered his entire family there (Celebration) a couple of years back and lived with their bodies for weeks after committing significant health insurance billing fraud and spending beyond his means. Luckily he was convicted for the massacre. It seemed like he took his family to Disney World regularly before the tragedy to keep up the illusion and appearance of happiness & normalcy.
Never knew this. As a child of the 2000s we’d go there during Christmas for the snow and Santa pics. Just thought it was a weird town lol
That could be an entirely different video on it's own. I wonder if he's planning one for it.
As a Floridian, this is a great starting point, but it's really only about 25% of what makes Florida, 'Florida'. Somethings to point out is our deep respect for the native tribes; the fact that St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the USA (Florida was a colony for 300 years owned primarily by the Spanish, longer than the USA has existed), our thriving agricultural/fishing industry, the influence of Latin culture, the major military & space bases/influence, and the natural aspects like the everglades and the springs of north/central Florida. It's so diverse culturally and naturally from region to region, it could easily be it's own country. Many Floridians will vacation to other parts just for this reason.
Pensacola might of been the first
This was so fascinating and extremely well done, thank you so much.
Even thought I thought this was going to be a hit piece, it was enlightening even for a long time resident. Other than Tampa and Orlando -- which have similar vibes, the other major metros have their own identity.
@M.M. Zorn How is it a puff piece? In what way does it lack substance?
It’s a puff piece instead.
Before Disney it was all orange groves. Now it's a huge traffic jam called Orlando and Disney.
Don’t forget about Henry plant. He brought the rails to Tampa and central FL ❤and built the hotels ports and other infrastructure in Tampa. He was the Henry Flagler of the Florida West Coast.
We drove by the villages on our way to Disney World. Thought it was just a large gated community. Didn't even realize the size of it.
I was born and raised in the Florida Keys and I can safely say that I am happy to never live in the state ever again as long as current political and economic trends keep going on. The State's political structure doesn't care about the environmental impact that many of the major corporations within the state are contributing to and many politicians are directly profiting on, continuing to the environmental woes currently impacting the state, a mixture of the continual algae blooms being exacerbated by the Sugar industry and the draining of the everglades to make for continual growth in an area of the country that can't feasibly sustain said growth at the cost of some of the most beautiful wetlands in the entire U.S and the eventual decimation of the Islands I used to call home by rising seas.
Florida is going to become even more of a hellscape in the coming decades. It hurts, because I love the state, but I can't abide by it, nor can I abide by the state's treatment of LGBTQ folks or the constant commodification of culture and rampant consumerism.
Writing is really really good. Well done. I’ve been watching for years. You keep getting better.
As someone who was born in and grew up in the exact spot where The Villages bulldozed and built over us, I tell you growing up essentially in a retirement community is wacky. It used to be beautiful farmland, small town, nice people. Not anymore.
Thanks for explaining this - great timing for me! I’ve been in Tampa the last 3 weeks and couldn’t quite get over how weird it is here compared to everywhere else I’ve been. I’ve wanted to ask online about it but never expected to get a thorough answer, and you just provided a pretty solid one.
@Edward Greenberg Sounds like it could be an adventure!
@Fun World Times Great town if you smoke cigars. Lots of old fashioned cigar makers. The Bucs have a very nice stadium and Berne's is a great steakhouse. Beyond that, meh.
Hope I can visit Tampa one day!
Hope you’re not staying..
Do you think Tampa is weird compared to NOLA, Vegas, Reno, NYC, Austin, Nashville.....? Really? I just think that they are all unique like Ft. Lauderdale, Miami or LA.
I need some terrain, some landscape, something. Florida is too flat, and I find that boring. Plus, I don't know how people can live their lives with 24/7 swamp-butt.
Canadian here - thank you for showing the history of how we got to here. Great job! Florida had a reputation for being nothing but old people for as long as I can remember because of our Snow Birds.
You stay up there!
I think you should have talked about the cost of this development, the everglades are an environment found literally nowhere else in the world and home to species that live nowhere else. I know the focus of the video was on what humans created out of Florida but the destruction of the everglades is truly tragic as there is a chance with climate change we loose that ecosystem forever. I would have appreciated at least a passing reference to the cost we are paying for Florida existing as it does today
TeXtMe DiReCtLy🤙🤙🥶🥶......
You forgot the most important person in Florida history. Without Mr. Carrier, none of us would live here.
That feeling when you're standing on the driveway of one of the inconceivably expensive homes being talked about because your construction company was hired and over-paid to complete a very simple task.
The General Contractors are the ones making the bulk of the money, not the contractors like us. We’re lucky if we do well after paying for labor (it’s hard to find any good help here), insurances, and ever rising supply bills, not to mention the cost of gasoline. If anyone is over charging, it certainly isn’t plumbing, electrical, drywall, and masonry contractors. We’re barely getting by these days.
@Tommy Dolan BWAHAHHA. 😂
@Mikey X pot saint lousy sorry
@Tommy Dolanoh hey I live in Port Saint Lucie
Take their money !!
Scotsman here, visited Florida in September. Think I was in one those exclusive communities you were talking about at the start. It was called Celebration and it a small town inspired by the New England region. Everyone was wearing Patriot or Eagles jersey's.
@Avery the Cuban-American ah okay, good to know. I'm not a big disney person so i only really knew what ive learned from living in the area over the years. thank you for letting me know :)
@Allysyn Charles Small correction: Walt didn't create Celebration, the Walt Disney COMPANY did but not him. When Celebration was created, Walt was long dead. Celebration was created by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner back in the 1990s
so the story of celebration is actually wild. Basically, Walt Disney created the entire town as what essentially ammounts to an experiment. EPCOT (one of his parks) was originally meant to be the experimental prototype community of tommorow, which was Mr Disney's pet project. He wanted to create the perfect community. Celebration was the real world attempt at that dream. the reason you saw so much new england stuff is because new engalnders are absolutely flooding florida right now to get away from the shitholes theyve created and by proxy turning our state into an absolute shithole. Hope my explanation helps!
Now that's weird
TeXtMe DiReCtLy 👆👆.....
Thank you so much for a great video on my state. Most people only know us for Disney, beaches, and Florida man, but there are countless of oddities and benefits of living here that are beloved by it's residents and gives Florida the unique culture and atmosphere that it has. I can't wait to see more
My great grandfather and great grandmother homesteaded Florida. They had to survive by living off the land hunting and fishing. There was nothing in the way of support so they had to make everything. They were pioneers. I am 4th generation Floridian. I don't see anything weird about what you have said about Florida.
Btw, to those that say AC built Florida I can report I grew up in Florida without it and so did everyone I knew. My family didn't have AC until I was in college. Having said that I do like having AC now. It is a little sad though because the lack of AC weeded out the sissies and the snowbirds from the true Floridians.
Florida sucks
I found a place on the water. One way in, one way out. No traffic, very quiet. The stores are real close , one mile at most. I
Love Florida. I go barefooted and love the sand and grass feel. I'm 5 miles from beach. Grouper sandwich calls every 2 months. I have a fishing pole and bait ready to fish off of the dock. 👍
I had a friend who bought a house on the beach side of the road, she could walk outside and be in the sand after the last step down, but it washed away in a hurricane after I moved away.
The explanation I heard of for why Florida is weird is that their laws make police reports a matter of public record. So it's not so much that they have more weird crimes per capita as those weird crimes get reported on more often.
@E. Levin There is no indication as to who you may have voted and the information is likely the same as that on your driver's license which you show to liquor stores, casinos, tobacoonists, drug stores etc daily w/o giving it a second thought.
Not only crime records are public but a voter's information is completely public as well. When I was living in FL I registered to vote. One day I looked myself on the Internet to find out that my voter's registration information with full name, full address, full birthday and party were public. I got so upset that cancelled my voter's right. I dont l know if they do this in other states but who you vote for and your personal information should be personal. Since then I dont register to vote anymore no where.
@The Duck Sanctuary Illinois doesn't share criminal records with other states.
@Coochie Mane They make FL an "outdoor" culture. Folks spend more time outside so whatever they do is more likely witnessed by others.
@Ian billgates You would get better coverage if your population numbered in the millions and the state had countless big media markets. You guys are condemned to be weird, crazy and having fun without the folks in NYS, LA, SF, Chicago or Miami even knowing you exist. Consider yourself very lucky.
This just seems like you have an issue with people choosing where they want to live. Where do you believe retirees and wealthy people should have to live? Should engineers and developers be idle and not create additional livable areas of land on Earth? Please explain further why they are "audacious" and "unrealistic." If "every inch of Florida had to be developed," what is the problem with that? Then you literally end the video saying "Differentiation is critical to business." So it's fine in business but not for developing America.
You should do a piece on the decline of California (or San Francisco specifically). I have lived here all my life and have watched it go from number 1 in nearly everything to bottom of the barrel while still being more expensive to live in than anyplace else.
Such a fun state and a perfect representation of the US in terms of diversity and weirdness.
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Lived there for a little while last year. It really does feel like the modern wild west.
"An affront to mother nature"
*Shows Floridaman seemingly trying to fight off a hurricane with an American flag*
The Cape Coral case is interesting to me. As an engineer a liberal, it’s another case of people thinking they know better than experts because their option makes them money. Don’t let an accountant make decisions that engineer should be making, people
I think the accountants only analyze the accounts. The management makes the decisions.
I moved to the west coast of FL from Delray Beach about 12 years ago and it was great for how chill it was compared to the east coast, now the traffic is awful, its overcrowded, the housing in completely unaffordable, the development is almost constant, the schools are being taken over by fascists, and everyone that seems to be moving here is an asshole
I get the impression this guy has an issue with Republicans.
😂😂❤️🍀
Please, Wendover. Please don’t forget what’s important here. How does Florida factor in to airline logistics?
Tampa International Airport is rated as one of the best mid-size airports in the country
Dont forget Florida's cuban population, I feel like a lot of this was directed mostly on the east side of Florida and only mentioned Miami in passing, when undoubtedly it was one of Florida's most important attractors especially in the 80s
There's an interesting article in the wall street journal about how Florida alone was responsible for the summer of hell (2022). It has become the most important state aviation wise and the airspace over the state has become incredibly crowded mixed with hurricanes, afternoon thunderstorms, and ATC shortage at Jacksonville.
Florida is interesting because a lot of airlines added capacity there during the pandemic, but have begun cutting back those routes, especially the LCCs.
Most of Atlanta airport’s connecting traffic come from Florida.
Florida then: a great swampland with great biodiversity. Now:a bunch of resorts and theme parks for the rich elite and tourists and tons of animals dying out at the cost.
I can recommend a 2 book series called Visiting Small Town Florida. They are still there but you have to get off the highways and hit what's left of the backroads. Many are gone since I started traveling them starting in the early 90's🙁
Did you know that the Villages has one of the highest cases of STD in the state of Florida?
Videos like this is why this channel will always be great.
It was hard to look at all those millionaire mansions, while knowing people sleep in their cars to work at Disney world. Also that the people who live in those fancy mansions are also the ones who hate their tan and spanish-speaking neighbors the most.
@X3C They literally all do. If you can't see the overt bigotry they exude, it makes me wonder about you. "So..."
@Firsty Lasty None of the people mentioned fit what you say so...
@X3C The narrator literally named specific "people living in those mansions," and the statistics of the communities. So, yes, I do "know something," because I watched the video.
"Tan, Spanish speaking mansions," ha.
Just stop believing in your own prejudices. You don't know anything about the people living in those mansions. The mansions near my home are only "tan" and Spanish speaking.
@Suz K No, there is not! There is one apartment building behind Magic Kingdom that is low income. At what Disney pays, you need 2 people in a 2 bed apt to make it.
The wait to get in that place is 2 yrs.
I know this because my son worked at Disney for 10 yrs living there.
"An affront to mother nature where supercharged capitalism and an ignorance of the pragmatic celebrate bizarre wonders" should be the state motto.
TeXtMe DiReCtLy🤙🤙🥶🥶......
So sad to see so much environmental degradation over the history of Florida. Emptying its nature to make completely unlivable sprawling suburbs is such a waste. Florida could’ve developed smarter and still can but they simply don’t care about their ecosystems.
I miss old Florida... My hometown on the beach was wonderful until the rich, the elderly and the crazies took over...
Driving from Miami to the everglades is incredible, it is the sharpest contrast between urban and wilderness I ever saw.
@silvastian I live there so yeah. But if you want to count west Miami itself as a swamp, I wouldn’t argue that.
@Johann Gambolputtynah.. op is more drastic u jus wanted to pitch in lol
@Briél Kate Definitely true & so lovely
@HipHipJorge ! It's a beautiful fact
@Briél Kate Ditto I95 portion known as "Alligator Alley" E/W coasts of Fl through Big Cypress and the Everglades. Zero development, Rec areas for fishing, kayaking, picnics etc. 82 miles with "nature" only on both sides of the road.
Newfound respect to the sheer magnitude of engineering involved to transform Florida, it’s a shame it’s now a state of Florida Men and Women. 😅
Damn 2 genders? Are you a transphobe or somthin.
I am a 6th generational Floridian. And whilst, some of your info is true, it lacks in contrtrast. Yeah, the developers are out of control. But, you want to know why we are weird? We are surrounded by water, we are Southern, and people from Northern areas keep moving down here. STOP DOING THAT. Plus you retirees keep voting against education. Stop doing that as well.
Could you do a video on the history and purpose of companies putting their names on arenas? I've never understood what benefit it grants a company to spend the money to get their name on a large sports venue.
😂😂😂😂
Because said arenas become household names with the companies name attached
It's advertisement, if it didn't work they wouldn't do it. Even if no one conciously determines to buy something because they saw the name of a brand on a stadium. Subconciously it makes the brand familiar and therefore make you more likely to spend money on it.
I go to Florida every year. It’s not that it’s weird it’s that the other states suck by comparison. 👍
@Casey Tinsley next time I’m sitting under the palm trees at Deerfield Beach, enjoying the warm fresh air and looking out at the Atlantic Ocean, before walking over to JB’s for some fresh seafood, I’ll think of your comment and have a laugh.
Are you joking, Florida has to be one of the shittiest states in the union. The only folks that go there are those looking to evade taxes or their children. Take your kid around "It's a Small World" enough times and tell me if it was worth it in the end..
As an ecologist working in Florida. Words cannot describe how depressed it was watching you talk about the wonderful engineering that took place that absolutely decimated. The Everglades ruined the watershed and has led to countless algae blooms and die offs just so we can have more land south of Okachobee, where no one wants to live anyway.
No one? 6 million people from Palm Beach to Dade County !
@Tanya Roberson Since nearly all new construction in Fl is done to Cat 4 standards, the chances are extremely low. The chances of nearly all of Northern California losing its forests and redwoods or several western states drying up are far, far greater. Californians buy and build in well established forests which ought be left alone for a multitude of reasons. Virtually impossible to even build a cabin in a Florida swamp, preserve, The Everglades, Big Cypress etc. Californians insist on EVs as they cut down trees and invite massive forest fires which generate more air pollution in a few days than all the cars in CA do in years.
What's the chances of it being hit by a giant natural disaster that turns it back to swamp?
@pervertt Yes, in some places that is exactly what happens.
@Jane Bucs Fan Nor did it mention the project being paid for by the Federal Dept. of Defense. Today's Sun Sentinel "To protect coastal bases, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has enlisted corals, oysters and three international teams of scientists led by investigators at the University of Miami, the University of Hawaii and Rutgers University. The researchers are developing what they call “hybrid reefs,” which combine concrete structures with living coral reefs and oyster beds to break up damaging waves. They can absorb up to 97% of the force of wave activity to protect (land)" Yup we are unsophisticated yokels down here who just ignore all ecological issues.
"The story is more of its developers making an overzealous land purchase then figuring it out as they went along" similar story with Lake Havasu City in Arizona and why it has the 1831 version of London Bridge (yes, you heard that right). Robert P. McCulloch kept buying acres to create a new community called Lake Havasu City. The problem is, he couldn't get buyers interested because of its location far from population centers and the fact that it's in an arid climate. So when the City of London put London Bridge up for sale, Robert's real estate agent convinced him to make the wild purchase of buying the bridge as a way to attract buyers as the city's main attraction. The bridge was transported through the Panama Canal in pieces, unloaded in Long Beach, and then moved to Lake Havasu City where it was re-assembled in 1967 and completed in 1971.
As someone on Long Island, it doesn't surprise me one bit that The Villages has a Long Island-specific club. Long Island is one of the most expensive places to live in the country, and pretty densely populated too (to put things into perspective, over one-third of NY's population lives on Long Island), so I know many people who have made or are considering making the move to FL.
Its avery the cuban american
The way you said Clematis street, as a local here 🤪 So cute. Great video. I love my home state!
"Ugh Florida, too many conservatives and weirdos." ...20 years later, retires, sells everything and moves to Florida.
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This is one of the first CHclip videos I’ve seen that accurately represents my state. I’d like to remind people that so many native Floridians hate the constant transformation that is talked about here. The destruction of our environment is still happening. Woods and swamps are destroyed for pointless suburbs and supermarkets. We need to learn from our history to stop these mistakes from happening again.
I’m only 50 seconds in, but I am *DYING* at the fact that it took you 9️⃣ seconds to name-drop The Villages. My parents are from there and most of my extended family live there, so I’ve known about that place my entire life 😅. It was a very different place when my parents were growing up 50 years ago haha. They miss how it used to be when Sumter County was just another rural area of country Florida, before The Villages existed. The locals HATE the “Villagers” (retirees)
The highest STD rate in the US is actually not a fact at all! It was started years ago after a gynocologist got angry over raised lease rates. In turn, the physician started telling people that the STD rates were the highest in the country and it took off because it’s a great story. Jackson MS is actually the highest followed by Baltimore MD. A few lewd sexual acts in public have helped the STD legend, but it's really a fun joke around here that non-residents swear to.
Fun fact: Did you know that the Villages is actually the STD capital of the United States?
Yep them retirees be swangin.
Plenty of local jokes about the place from Tampa to St Augustine, too. The Villages has a bawdy reputation
All of Florida was different back then.
Locals might hate the "Villagers", but the Villagers place a pay check in their pockets, food on the table and a roof over their heads...This, not to mention the unlimited free nightly entertainment, and a vast array of restaurants and amenities...
Wow!!
Thank you for this comprehensive, in-depth ecological and developmental historical perspective. Very informative...
TeXtMe DiReCtLy🤙🤙🥶🥶........
Recently finished Dave Barry's "Best. State. Ever." so this video has great timing
I'm a bit confused by the split picture. Was there meant to be an updated picture on the right (I didn't see any differences in the pictures, and I even stopped the video for about 2 minutes to look for hidden changes, but didn't see anything)? Did anyone else see a difference in the two (beyond the single street card)?
TeXtMe DiReCtLy 👆👆.
I moved down to Florida to be closer to my family and not have a state income tax. One thing I quickly found out though everything else is so goddamn expensive it basically negates it.
From an outsiders perspective Florida sounds like something that could only exist in America - it's as though someone made a state out of all the stuff that oozed out of the other states and flowed south.
Kind of reminded me of Dubai
Not really. If there’s land in a habitable climate people will live there obviously.
They did. They also took any and every bit of engineering and environmental stupidity from around the nation and went to town with it. Sunny Isles is an example - built out of coral!
It is also filled with misfits from all over the nation. Broke, down on your luck? Go to FL! Even if you are homeless it is usually warm.
I've said for decades FL is the Most American State. FL is a reflection of every bit of crazy, hubris, greed, creativity, independence you could imagine from the rest of the country.
👆Thanks for watching and leaving a comment behind you have been selected among my lucky winners dm to claim your prize❤️.
Is this technically the most successful planned community ever?
This is such a well made video.
Loved this video man, happily Floridian for the last 8 years
I moved to Florida May of last year to be closer to family. Without even watching this video I could tell a lot of the land and ecosystem here has been planned and mostly destroyed and no longer in its original state. So with the house I'm building I'm taking advantage of the swale I have along one side of it and I'm planting 11 bald cypress trees and planning to use plenty of native flowering plants in the landscaping to do something to help the struggling flora and fauna here, even though my contribution is nearly insignificant in the grand scheme of things I'm trying to make my footprint as minimal as possible here. I am very thankful my lot didn't have any trees that needed to be cut down which is a huge plus.
Most of Florida was unlivable in its original state.
While modern Florida couldn't exist without it, the draining of the everglades and building of straight canals has wrecked the natrual ecosystem. It has to be the most manufactured place in the US.
@Colin Johnson 825 miles of public ocean beaches NOT including the beaches surrounding countless islands scattered from the Keys up to Tampa.
@TheRenaissanceChannel Actually much of Manhattan's east side especially where NYU/Langone Hosp. and Bellevue are located, was constructed on discarded oyster shells. In the 18th to early 20th century oysters were plentiful and a staple food of the poor. So many were consumed daily that the discarded shells became a significant problem. Very long interesting story mercifully made short, the shells were dumped in the East River (not a river) and streets and buildings constructed with pilings sunk into many feet of (now) compressed oyster shells.
The film omitted the Everglades Forever Act of 1994 and additional legislation in 2022 to protect and preserve the Everglades, /Omitted also is/are the steps already taken or under way to reduce phosphorous run off from farmers, to induce organic farming, protect water levels and quality inclusive of wildlife. Google the topic. The filmmaker left it out because it does not comport with his narrative.
@Colin Johnson There are over 8,000 miles of beach in FL (not a misprint) Of all the states in America, FL has the 5th most state/local parkland and is ranked 7th among the 50 in total state, local and federal parkland. Note that 86% of Nevada is owned by the Fed Govt., 60% of Alaska is owned by the Feds. So excluding those two anomalies, Fl has as much or more recreational areas than any state in America or remotely comparable size.
@X3C and destroy the earths lungs?
When I was a kid and we would make the drive from Tampa to Miami all of these subdivisions were empty. Just empty asphalt roads and if you even had street lights, but no homes.
It’s definitely cheaper to live here till you gotta buy insurance 😂😂😂😂😂. Auto insurance is 38% higher then the national average.
I myself believe that the heat and humidity have an adverse effect on the human brain.
Florida-The septic tank of the world. The World you say? Roughly twenty years ago a census of sorts was taken in the largest county. Miami-Dade(the powers that be didn't like Dade county. Where is that? Outsiders would comment. So they hyphenated it to Miami-Dade.)
So the census was taken of the school district. They found that 194 separate dialects were spoken amongst the staff and students. For all the glitz and glamor portrayed. Florida is essentially one large ghetto with pockets of civility. When speaking to the population. If one can communicate with them. One will quickly learn that Florida is not their home. Their Home is elsewhere. Florida is just some place they live. Comments such as,"In my country or back home" are often times spoken.
People forget that when they migrate. They bring the bad with them. Then they don't understand why everything is so dysfunctional. If one's culture is so awesome. Why did they ever leave?
I live south of the Villages, but my Uni is north of the Village. Every time I drive to Uni, I pass through the Villages and my dad and I make some variation of the same boomer joke. It's a weird place to say the least. You never know when you're still in the Villages or not because it seems to last for miles.
An otherwise potentially more interesting video turned into an overly politicized rant.
TeXtMe DiReCtLy 👆👆.
One of your best ones yet, Wendover broski. Here's to many more.
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I've been to Florida a number of times, spending time in both in North and South Florida. In my experience, Florida residents I've met have almost all been among the most difficult, entitled, and arrogant people I've ever encountered. No one reads anything, and even business owners seem to be only partially literate. Fights break out over imperceptible slights, and arguments erupt over imagined microaggressions. Florida can't be saved, and the residents of Florida cannot be allowed to leave the state, no matter what happens.