Its like the Eagles song about California: "Call something Paradise
and kiss it Goodbye". As a Fl native, I grew up snorkeling in the
springs, crystal clear rivers and picking up scallops in the bays. N.
FL was devoid of the tourism that I saw as a cancer on south FL. Life
was inexpensive here, beaches were pure and isolated and wilderness
everywhere. We could skinnydip in clear sinkholes as much as we wanted
and paddle up icy cold spring runs teaming with life and carpeted with
fossils on the bottom. Lacking the breeze that blows across the
peninsular part of Fl to moderate the heat, we thought the swampy
miasma would forever deter outsiders who were not used to it.
Oystermen, fishermen and loggers could do ok making way below poverty
wages cuz it simply cost so little to live here. Sure, Panama City was
the Redneck Riviera but it was just people from AL and GA and wasnt
growing fast andt there were plenty of places with miles of untouched
beaches, bays and salt marsh.
I s'pose all good things have to come to an end and first it was
just isolated yankees who thought they had found someplace exotic off
the beaten path. In the 80s, we started to see the first influx of
refugees from the social hell of South Florida. People arrived up here
to go to school and vowed to never return to the insanity there. I'd
just nod my head knowingly cuz I'd been down there and seen it.
The cancer crept north along the west coast up from St. Pete
overwhelming Clearwater and ethnically cleansing Crystal River of its
native culture. It metastasized and colonized Destin to the west
creeping slowly east toward Mexico Beach. The Redneck Riviera
succumbed to it replaced by new hotels and condos. It spread like
plague killing St George Island covering it with condo filth.
Hurricanes seemed to be the only hope of discouraging the influx of
people but they were rare in the 80s and early 90s. We thought we were
immune to the disease cuz we really had no beaches thinking tourists
dont like salt marsh and swamp. Unfortunately, once they destroyed all
the beaches, they decided they liked bays and then they decided that
even saltmarsh was preferable to their own hellish homelands.
Its nearly all gone now, even the isolated sinkholes have been fenced
and land on puddles is listed as "Waterfront" selling for obscene
prices. If you paddle up a spring run you wind up face to face with
some transplant who insists its his property cuz he really thinks he
owns the water bottom. Local shellfish is no longer fit to eat cuz the
transplants dont want to pay for the infrastructure they really need so
their septic tanks pollute the bays. Fishermen driven out of business
by the net ban have sold out their waterfront property cuz they couldnt
do anything else. An entire culture will disappear within a single
generation.
I dont know who to blame cuz if I lived in one of those gawdawful
places like Ft Lauderdale or Boston I'd think N. FL was paradise too.
I guess I'm also a hypocrite cuz I have lived all over the US before
coming back to N. FL and really loved Wyoming. We still go back to Wy
every two yrs with the kids and I bet I know how the locals there feel
about us being there.