Florida Knows All About the 1%

[Atman]

2. I left Cocoa Beach in 1984.

The quaint little resort town was already in decline, too. I return home a couple of times a year. The southern half of the island has remained in a time warp, largely the same as when I left, with the exception of some business changes. The "downtown" itself is painful to see...most businesses shuttered, taken over by tatoo parlors and bars. The end of the space program destroyed the economy. The northern end, up to Cape Canaveral is HORRENDOUS. Turned into a neon honky-tonk catering to the cruise industry, which turned the former military and shipping port into a kind of floating LA airport, except not as nice. Very sad.

There is no real tax base anymore, and for some reason everyone who moved in from other states has turned hard-core right-wing. Even most of my old friends from school, who used to be pretty liberal back in the seventies (but then, weren't we all?) are now fundies or righties. It's truly sad.

Our son went to school in Orlando. We set him up in off-campus housing, in an apartment complex on the lake. You'd think he'd have loved it after living in the boonies in Connecticut, but he couldn't wait to leave after graduation last year. He hated Orlando. Nothing but Country music and religious stations on the radio, anti-abortion billboards everywhere. He viewed it as very "backward," especially being from New England. But it's worse than that. It's not just backward, the state seems intent on propel itself backwards as quickly as possible.