- Aug 6, 2012
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Uh-oh. Ron has lost the support of Canadian media... Opinion | Thinking about visiting Ron DeSantis’s Florida? Think again.
TAMPA — Personally, I’ve never been charmed by the alleged attractions of Florida.
Once you get past year-round sunshine and warm temperatures — saunalike at the moment — the Alligator State, for all its sandy beaches and preserved wetlands, is just strip mall America writ monotonously large, amidst an endless tangle of highways.
To say nothing of the 1 billion tons of phosphogypsum — construction aggregate material, toxic mining waste, fertilizer by-product — that is under approval consideration by the governor for reuse in paving projects. Hence, what aghast environmentalists have dubbed “radioactive roads.” (See tangle of highways, above.)
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But clearly, many would disagree with my uncharitable take. Florida’s cup runneth over with migration, legal and illegal, ranked first in population growth last year, welcoming 1,218 new residents each day.
According to driver’s license data, more than 583,000 people traded in their out-of-state licences at Florida’s DMV in 2022, indicating a whole lot of domestic relocation to the peninsula. Although this not no longer applies to undocumented immigrants, estimated at 772,000 who’ve landed in Florida. The poor souls are now forbidden from using drivers’ licenses issued by other states — 19 states and the District of Columbia allow this. Gov. Ron DeSantis’s idea of helping undocumented immigrants — who fill all the jobs native-born Americans eschew, in agriculture, construction and hospitality — is dumping them on Martha’s Vineyard.
About 1 million Canadian snowbirds spend up to six months a year wintering in Florida, injecting an estimated $6.5 billion into the state economy. You’re welcome
TAMPA — Personally, I’ve never been charmed by the alleged attractions of Florida.
Once you get past year-round sunshine and warm temperatures — saunalike at the moment — the Alligator State, for all its sandy beaches and preserved wetlands, is just strip mall America writ monotonously large, amidst an endless tangle of highways.
To say nothing of the 1 billion tons of phosphogypsum — construction aggregate material, toxic mining waste, fertilizer by-product — that is under approval consideration by the governor for reuse in paving projects. Hence, what aghast environmentalists have dubbed “radioactive roads.” (See tangle of highways, above.)
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But clearly, many would disagree with my uncharitable take. Florida’s cup runneth over with migration, legal and illegal, ranked first in population growth last year, welcoming 1,218 new residents each day.
According to driver’s license data, more than 583,000 people traded in their out-of-state licences at Florida’s DMV in 2022, indicating a whole lot of domestic relocation to the peninsula. Although this not no longer applies to undocumented immigrants, estimated at 772,000 who’ve landed in Florida. The poor souls are now forbidden from using drivers’ licenses issued by other states — 19 states and the District of Columbia allow this. Gov. Ron DeSantis’s idea of helping undocumented immigrants — who fill all the jobs native-born Americans eschew, in agriculture, construction and hospitality — is dumping them on Martha’s Vineyard.
About 1 million Canadian snowbirds spend up to six months a year wintering in Florida, injecting an estimated $6.5 billion into the state economy. You’re welcome
(again)
