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TOO LATE! PARADISE IS ALREADY LOST!
By
Jan Bergemann
Published June 14, 2019
I don’t think that
anybody in his/her right mind can call Florida a PARADISE
anymore!
I live in Florida
since 25 years – and the changes this State has undergone are
only too obvious. Traffic is outrageous, especially in the
Tri-County area – and the permanent road constructions surely
don’t help the traffic flow.
My wife lived in
Pompano Beach (Broward County) and driving in that area was
anything but fun. I always got the impression that half of the
people driving down there don’t have a driver’s license, or – if
they do – don’t have the faintest idea how to drive. I often had
the feeling that some of the “drivers” were aiming at me
and my car. Parking is nearly unavailable and even in the big
parking lots of the shopping malls you have to drive around a
while hoping that somebody will leave so you can quickly take
that place.
But even here in
Deland, a once peaceful laid-back community in Central Florida
(made famous by the Stetson University), I often have trouble
finding a place to park in the Publix parking lot. When I moved
here, I had the pick of which parking space to use, maybe even
looking for a place in the shade, under a tree. That’s just a
memory of the past.
But it’s not only
the traffic that has me concerned. It’s as well our aquifer that
causes me to worry. Especially here in Central Florida we do
have serious drink-water issues. Not only does our government in
Tallahassee sell our water to out-of-state companies, the steady
growth of population here in Florida puts serious strains on our
aquifer. Here in Central Florida you read and hear a lot about
sinkholes. We see more and more sinkholes popping up, because
the water levels of our aquifer go down and the caves holding
the water are emptying out and while a cave filled with water
can hold the weight of the many homes built on top of it, a cave
filled only with air will collapse if too much weight is built
on top of the cave. And especially HOAs and townhomes built with
zero lot-lines put a lot of weight on caves that sometimes are
just below the surface.
In all reality the
question is: How long can we abuse nature before everything
collapses?
PARADISE?
I think it was lost quite a while ago!
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Jan Bergemann is president of Cyber Citizens For Justice,
Florida
's largest state-wide property owners' advocacy group.
CCFJ works on legislation to help owners living in
community
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associations. He moved to
Florida
in 1995 - hoping to retire. He moved into a HOA, where the
developer cheated the homeowners and used the association dues
for his own purposes. End of retirement!
CCFJ was born in the year 2000, when some owners met in
Tallahassee
- finding out that power is only in numbers. Bergemann was a
member of Governor Jeb Bush's HOA Task force in 2003/2004.
The organization has two websites to inform interested
Florida
homeowners and condo owners:
News Website: http://www.ccfj.net/.
Educational Website: http://www.ccfjfoundation.net/.
We think that only owners can really represent owners, since all
service providers surely have a different interest! We are
trying to create owner-friendly laws, but the best laws are
useless without enforcement. And enforcement is totally lacking
in
Florida
!
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