Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Local governments are moving forward with climate change plans to deter the worst fal-
lout of a potential ecological disaster.
A House Divided
From Stand Your Ground laws to political redistricting, some of the most intense debates
over American rights and responsibilities occur in Florida. This has always been a place
where settlers tried to bend the world to fit their dreams, from Disney World emerging
from Central Florida to Miami sprouting from a swamp. This can-do attitude usually
comes hand in hand with a pro-business environment that stresses deregulation and indi-
vidual liberty over public welfare. The frontier mentality that feeds this attitude has tradi-
tionally incubated in Florida's sprawling suburbs and agricultural zones.
But as Florida's city spaces grow, so do city ideals, values and policy priorities such as
public infrastructure and mass transit. Governor Rick Scott's decision to void a high-speed
train between Orlando and Tampa was seen as fiscal prudence by supporters from the
countryside and exurbs, but urban opponents felt like a chance at alleviating the state's ubi-
quitous car culture had been squandered.
As these debates rage, the rifts between rural, white, culturally conservative North Flor-
ida and multiethnic South Florida are deepening. South Floridians feel political redistrict-
ing, seen by some as gerrymandering, has led to them being frozen out of the Florida state-
house; while the state is consistently a toss-up between Democrats and Republicans at the
national level, at the state level Republicans have carved out numerous small districts and
as a result dominate the legislature.
On the other hand, North Floridians feel like they are being demographically eclipsed
by the increasingly ethnically diverse southern part of the state. The irony is that the chil-
dren of those immigrants tend to Americanize quickly, and some would likely lean conser-
vative if the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from the American right wasn't so fiery.
These kinds of views were what caused Pablo Pantoja, director of the Republican National
Party's Hispanic Outreach program in Florida, to defect to the Democratic Party in 2013.