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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI15042586/00001
Notes
- Scope and Content:
- The Southeast Florida Region consists of a multitude of local community governments with a few
regional agencies that have collectively over the last hundred and five years, especially in the last fifty-five
years, successfully developed unsustainable road induced suburban sprawl from Vero Beach in the north
to Key West in the south. While each city and county thinks it is somehow better than it neighbors in the
region, they are in fact depressingly the same - mostly suburban sprawl with a few unique and special
public places designed to focus attention away from the sad sameness of the region. No elected leader or
community spokesperson has ever credibly stated that the Southeast Florida Region is or can become an
internationally significant community in the ranks of New York, Washington, San Francisco, Montreal,
London, Paris, Strasbourg, Rome, Berlin, Vienna, Zurich, Barcelona, Prague, Stockholm, St. Petersburg,
Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Mexico City, Bogota, Istanbul, Alexandria, Cape Town, or Melbourne. No one has
yet said the Southeast Florida Region will undertake the work necessary to be one of the most beautiful
communities in the world – sharing the international stage with Cambridge, Florence, Venice, Shanghai,
Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Vancouver, Toronto, Quebec, Portland, Chicago, or Boston.
While an objective physical and socio-economic statistical analysis would not associate the Southeast
Florida Region built environment with any superlative, except for back-to-back national bests for
congested and unsafe highways, things can change from bad to worse when a simple “fast forward”
reality check is undertaken. Regardless of scientific and political debates around the issues of climate
change and the needs of America to develop and continue offshore oil drilling capabilities, how well does
the Southeast Florida Region do over the next 100 years if the sea level rise (a 1 foot to 6 feet sea level
rise over the next 100 years is predicted to occur) and oil spill pollution (BP, Cuban-based, or other
offshore oil drilling or transport efforts gone wrong) continues to impact the State of Florida? The
expected long term impacts to the Southeast Florida Region from each of these threats are extremely
harsh and combined impacts could be terminal. When you throw in the occasional Category 5 hurricane,
you easily get a very unflattering picture of Florida and the Southeast Florida Region. What happens
when we do not have the funding to clean up the recurring mess? What happens when cleaning up the
mess is not thought to be worth the effort? Would it help if our communities were unique, sustainable,
beautiful, connected, productive, and competitive in the world marketplace? ( English )
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Florida International University
- Rights Management:
- Please contact the owning institution for licensing and permissions. It is the user's responsibility to ensure use does not violate any third party rights.
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