Florida may close 19 state parks to save money. "Nature on Chopping Block"

[madfloridian]

Since Jeb Bush took control of Florida in 1998, the efforts to cut taxes to the bone and thus cut services deeply have continued unabated.

Soon it gets to the point where there is no money left to fund anything that matters. Florida is the image of what the nation is trying to become under the Bush administration. Nothing matters but cutting taxes.

To hell with the elderly, to hell with the needy, and most definitely to hell with the environment and nature. The first two don't count among Florida Republicans, but closing those state parks will draw a strong reaction from them.

Closing Florida Parks: Nature on Chopping Block

Perhaps someone in Tallahassee will take note of what happened in Lakeland over Labor Day when city officials came up with the idea of closing some parks to save money on one of the biggest outdoor days of the year: The townspeople rebelled.

Last week, word came out of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection that, in order to meet Gov. Charlie Crist's across-the-board budget cuts, it has proposed closing 19 state parks.

One of those is the Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek State Park, located about 10 miles east of Dundee.

The list must still be approved by the governor and Legislature during the 2009 legislative session that opens in March. Some employees may be moved to other parks, where visitors' numbers might increase since there will be fewer destinations from which to choose. Sterling Ivey told The Tampa Tribune that the proposed park-closing list had only recently been given to the Governor's Office and had not been reviewed.

What happened in Lakeland, referred to in the article?

Here's what happened.


PAUL JOHNSON | THE LEDGER
A "CLOSED" sign is posted at the main entrance of Lake Bonny Park. The park, along with several other popular parks in Lakeland, will be closed on Labor day.

Florida cutting services to the bone...even closing city parks for Labor Day picnics.

I have seen something strange this week. People I have talked to who stood by silently as the poor are being deprived of health care, who never say a word as funds are taken from public schools....are no longer being silent.

Nobody closes their picnic areas on Labor Day and gets away with it. That is just hitting too close to home.

The poor, the indigent, public education, they can overlook that. But do NOT close those parks for their picnics.

This week I was remembering the movie from around 2002 called Sunshine State

One of most poignant parts of that movie should not be forgotten.

In Sunshine State, John Sayles' witty, bitter new movie about the rape of old Florida, three smart-mouth Yankee retirees on the Atlantic coast negotiate nine-irons and sand traps while philosophizing on the state as Paradise Sold. Florida was nothing, one old boy says, nothing but a place of swamps and alligators, "populated by white people who ate catfish." Then, hallelujah, the developers came and gave us the condo, the strip mall, the gated community and that highest triumph of Middle-Class Man over Wilderness, the golf course -- "Nature on a LEASH."

..."Toward the end of Sunshine State, the golfers discuss how species are going extinct right and left and how Florida will one day return to the sea from whence it came. One golfer, disgusted with the depressing intricacies of weather and global warming, snarls, "Nature is overrated." Then the other one comes back with, "But we'll miss it when it's gone."

We have taken parks for granted, but they will fall victim of the tax cuts and budget cuts that are tearing my state apart.

[SpiralHawk]

1. "State Parks are just for common American proles anyway, so who cares." - Republicons

"We 'elite' republicon homelander fatcats have our Private Reserves, our yachts, and our clubs. We don't need no steenkin public parks. Smirk."

- Republicon Homelander Fatcats

[madfloridian]

5. I am trying not to laugh at your picture.

:evilgrin:

[SpiralHawk]

6. Republicons are to be pitied (as well as laughed at, and voted out of office).

They are a boil on the ass of America.

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. They see it as vacant land. Not a park.

[ColbertWatcher]

27. That is so true. n/t

[theophilus]

2. "Nature?....we don't need no steeeenkin Nature." Republicons n/t

[raccoon]

3. The Bush touch: everything they touch turns to crap. nt

[DemoTex]

4. Carl Hiaasen .. calling Carl Hiaasen!

Sic 'em Carl.

[madfloridian]

13. Hiassen tells it like it is.

. :hi:

[summer borealis]

7. See, it's like this here...

when you cut taxes and services to the bone, people have more money to go to Wal-Mart and buy Chinese shit-cheap products.
The moral: Repukes have fucked this country up the ass with all the vision of a fucking canteloupe.
Sorry to get so fucking vulgar!
Fuck.

[onethatcares]

8. no problem, but maybe the next time you

could leave out all the vowels.:hi:

[onethatcares]

9. if you want to see a revolt, let them close Green Swamp,

during deer season.

[madfloridian]

12. You got that right.

I think closing the parks and reserves will trigger a revolt from the GOP folks. They don't care about the people who are out of work and need health care....they consider it all their own fault. But they care about hunting, and it will upset them.

[Adsos Letter]

10. They are closing over 50 state parks in California this year...budgetary constraints...

[madfloridian]

11. I fear once they close them they won't be cared for or opened again.

Maybe someday the people will catch on that there have to be some taxes or there will be nothing else.

[onethatcares]

14. oh, they'll be open again,

open to outright pillaging by whatever developers have enough pull. It's a sad state of affairs when the planet isn't cared for or about.

Peace

[iamjoy]

15. Yes...Let's Develop The Land!

Let's build more luxury condos and high rise office buildings! Tell the people it will be a good thing because it will generate jobs and revenue.

hooray!

[Sequoia]

30. No, the people put their foot down so Arnie let them remain open.

[2Design]

16. This is reaganomics and the story of tax cutting that people don't understand

they aren't going to cut the pork they will cut all the good things for the people - these idots voted for that crap tax thing last year - so the cities are taking out other places - just like palin spending money on clothes for her and her family the repukes spend it on themselves and cut parks, libraries and education


Taxes are necessary - and you canNOT believe these repukes will ever cut stuff that they want - so give up on regan tax cuts or bush tax cuts or obama tax cuts or cutting any more in this state unless you want nothing for the good of the whole - you will drive yourself into the ground trying to control by cutting taxes - go find out what they are really spending the money on and cut out the flowers on the table and their lunches and trips around the state and all the hogwash kinds of trips like palin has done to soak the tax payer

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. Damn. I wish I had seen this in time to recommend it.

The truth is, as you know, is that those good ole boys got law degrees and protected their good buddies who demanded to overdevelop everything under the guise of property rights.

[Hidden Stillness]

19. Agree, This is Real Reason--All Public Areas Will be Bought by the Rich, or Developed Commercially

This is more what I think it must be, too. Closing parks that require minimal maintenance and staffing, "to save money"--of all the things to do to save money--doesn't really make any sense, I don't think. This is either another part of their general, neverending effort to kill all the public-good aspects of Government, no matter what they are, or it is to exploit it for some later commercial reason: there is oil somewhere, it will be developed as condos or golf courses, etc.

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. Incredible disconnect between old Floridian good ole boys, and

retirees from Oop North. One enables the others. The Retirees with money want to upscale everything and once they get a hold of an Association, they begin to politic to eliminate anything that requires upkeep that doesn't fit in with their snooty, sedentary life. Commercial vehicles, dogs, common grounds for children to play on, motorcycles, they want it all gone because they believe it devalues their property. But they're not smart about how they go around to get what they want. When these old farts hold public office, there is usually a shrewd lawyer, or someone else in power who can easily control them because the geezers come from a generation that did not check the small details. They just "negotiate" verbally. Everything becomes a compromise, even when it shouldn't be. If it's something that isn't important to them, they give it away willingly for an assurance that they'll get what they want. So all the open space, parks, condominiums get shuffled off to some other part of town, and in return, every available inch of space is built out with their upscale homes. You're lucky if you're left with a sidewalk to walk on. They don't stop to think what they've compromised. In the end, nobody is happy with the deadzone they call a community and they can't understand why everyone locks their doors and stop talking to their neighbors, finding reasons, instead, to make connections outside the community.

So obviously, in comes the small business sector/developers who exploit the unrest and unhappiness that these old farts are creating for everyone. But they're no saving angel either since these professional are shrewd negotiators and have their own personal agenda. A poor homeowner is in trouble when all he has to pick from is one or the other.

The good ole boy lawyers will be on the fringes, ready to exploit these two demographics.

[madrchsod]

20. the governor in illinois tried this......

he did`t get very far because the people went ape shit on him and he had to back down. the closing of three parks in my part of illinois would have cost us 50 million in revenue.

the people in florida better start organizing now.

[earth mom]

21. The bastards are trying to sell National Parks. Make NO mistake that this is what this is all about.

:grr:

[leecanes]

23. Ridiculous

Yay! I'm so glad I'm raising an environmentally conscious, outdoor-loving, progressive child in a state that so reveres its natural resources.

(Sarcasm)

I love my home state and really wouldn't consider living anywhere else. I like the idea of kayaking in short sleeves during the months of Jan/Feb. I love being near a beach no matter what direction I go (well, except for going north into the Really Red part of the state and why would I do that???). I was born with Florida sand between my toes.

But stuff like this just makes me pull my hair out.

[Bette Noir]

24. I feel for you.

The Governator closed a bunch of our California state parks, too. I don't know how many-- 50 were threatened, but some of them are still open, so I don't know how many are closed, or whether the closures will be permanent.

[lib2DaBone]

25. The Republicans once again soil their own nest....

So sad.. the Florida I knew died in 1980. Long days on the beach with my Boston Whaler pulled up on the sand. Eating raw clams and oysters just picked and cooking mangrove snapper. Scuba diving the inlets and watching the big propellers on the cruise ship pass over head while we sat on the sandy bottom with a school of Barracuda. Spending whole weekends outdoors when you got so sunburned you could feel the sea salt encrusted on your skin.

At one time, there really was a place called "Magaritaville". Jimmy Buffet sang about it, it was the real "Old Florida" Stone Crab Houses and Orange groves. Now, it's one big strip mall stretching from Key West to Jacksonville. (with an occasional WAL-MART thrown in to compliment the view). Gated exclusive Country Clubs surrounded by working class ghettos and flea markets. The Orange groves are dying and the waterways are cloudy with pollution caused by chemical run-off from the golf courses.

Shame on Jeb Bush, Mel Martinez, Katherine Harris, Charlie Christ, Bob Martinez,.... and the king..Ronnie Ray-Gun..... greedy Repukes one and all...

[CreekDog]

26. That's okay. You can always visit Ft. Pierce instead.

:wtf: :eyes:

[lib2DaBone]

29. I like Ft. Pierce Inlet . good fishing

..we used to catch tons of Pompano along Hutchinson Island by the Power Plant.....

[ColbertWatcher]

28. First they divide people, then get elected, next they cut the budgets, finally ...

... then end up destroying what's left.