The Dream of Florida Is Dead

[marmar]

The Dream of Florida Is Dead
The Miami condo collapse is a crisis for the entire state.

BY MARY HARRIS
JUNE 30, 202112:40 PM




(Slate) Danny Rivero was one of the first reporters on the scene of the Champlain Towers South condo collapse in the town of Surfside, Florida, not too far from Miami Beach. He’s been there almost every day since, chronicling what is still, technically, a search and rescue mission. The death toll now stands at 12, but 149 people are still unaccounted-for. And Rivero says the initial shock of the event is “starting to wear off,” turning to grief—and anger. “This didn’t happen for no reason,” he says. “Even though it came out of nowhere, in a sense, it did not come out of nowhere. There were reasons behind why this happened.”

On Wednesday’s episode of What Next, I talked to Rivero, a reporter for the local public radio station WLRN, about the decisions that led up to the disaster, the role of climate change, and what it all means for the state of Florida. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Mary Harris: An important thing to know about Champlain Towers South is that it’s a condominium. Different people own individual units, and when repairs need to be made to the building as a whole, they’ve got to find a way to pay for them collectively. They elect a board to manage these kinds of decisions. All the way back in 2018, the condo board retained an inspector who assessed the stability of the tower. He found a “major error” in the integrity of the bottom floor of the building. Residents were informed of the problem but spent years negotiating how and whether to fix millions of dollars of damage.

Danny Rivero: There were structural deficiencies identified that probably went back all the way to the construction of this building. And a lot of it has to do just with the fact that the pool deck was built flat, which is a huge no-no. I mean, even me, as a non-construction person, knows you don’t build flat.

....(snip)....

This was in addition to the fact that just having a building on the beach means it’s subject to harsh conditions because you have all the saltwater and salt air.

Right. We do know that properties that are right on the beach get more corrosion from the salt that comes from the salty air, from the saltwater that intrudes every once in a while from just harsh winds and hurricanes. But at the same time, this is a structural issue that, like I said, likely goes back to the very building of this building. And there is also the inability of the condo board to get residents on board for paying for these repairs.

....(snip)....

And I mentioned earlier that condo building is our state’s industry. I literally mean that. The state of Florida was basically considered a wasteland until developers figured out that they could sell the dream of Florida. I’m not exaggerating on this. Our economy over history has basically been a pyramid scheme of developers and people marketing the dream of Florida, to come down to Florida, it’s so beautiful, it’s so carefree. Well, now we have something to care about. This is a serious thing that this tragedy has brought to the forefront, and I think we’re going to be dealing with it for a very long time. .............(more)

https://slate.com/business/2021/06/miami-condo-collapse-florida-building-industry-crisis.html

[Stuart G]

1. Thank You for Posting This.....Outstanding...K and R

and Thank You for all the work you do for us at Democratic Underground...

[OAITW r.2.0]

2. I have coastal property up in Maine.

Hello Atlantic Ocean from BP.!......400 FT away and 12 ft vertical at hi tide.

For sale/

[Demovictory9]

3. "And I mentioned earlier that condo building is our state's industry"

[MerryBlooms]

4. I honestly don't think this collapse will not make much difference...

DeSantis and other republicans will make sure this tragedy is a fading memory for the Florida republican voter base in about 6 months. They will put the blame on the condo owners, many who perished in the collapse, for not making repairs earlier. Republicans will frame this as a one-off and continue with their deregulations, because it's up to individuals to protect themselves after inspections and receipt of repair costs, not the government's fault. The sister Champlain Tower is sound and hasn't been evacuated, their residents aren't fleeing... DeSantis will use that fact. I know there are and will be lawsuits filed, but unless those suits are won on grounds of negligence of the state regs, the state is off the hook. At this point, from what I've read, either the guests are suing the owners, or the owners are suing themselves?

[Bucky]

27. I think we're gonna start to hear of other high-rises with similar issues

An ideal world this would be an isolated case. But almost certainly there are other at risk buildings out there. Florida, with its low elevation and sandy foundation was not intended by nature to be so highly populated.

[tanyev]

5. Good article, but I'm skeptical this by itself will be enough for big changes.

State leadership is allergic to regulation and there are plenty of suckers out there still willing to buy condos because it could never happen to them. Like the Robert Earl Keen song says, “The road goes on forever and the party never ends.”

[GulfCoast66]

6. Which, if memory serves, played out in Miami!

[tanyev]

12. I had to look it up, but you are correct.

The lyrics mention Miami Beach and Cuban refugees. Good catch!

[GulfCoast66]

13. One of my favorite songs.

I actually like Jerry Jeff’s music better, but not sure he had one better than this.

I like old outlaw country. Hate the new shit. Pop music for rednecks.

Have you seen Bo Burnham’s song about pandering in modern country? Funny stuff. Google it. But not at work.

[tanyev]

33. Ha! That was funny.

Yeah, country music had a moment in the late 80s/early 90s where it caught my attention--Nanci Griffith, Robert Earl Keen, Kelly Willis, etc. I never listened to country radio stations, but I'd been living in Austin and then San Antonio and it kind of soaked in. Maybe San Antonio had a local eclectic station that I listened to sometimes. Then country music moved on and I moved to a North Dallas suburb.

FF to now, when I've taken up line dancing as a hobby. Thankfully, there are dances to all styles of music, but there's still plenty of country. Some of the songs are OK, but some of them are just awful. I grit my teeth and do them in class, but when they are played at open dances, that's a great time to take a bathroom break.

[gldstwmn]

7. It ended for me when I briefly lived there for a few months in 1981.

Sorry, not Sorry. I would only ever vacation there. I haven been in 40 years.

[Yavin4]

8. Florida has never appealed to me as a state.

The best thing that you can say about it is the weather, but that just attracts too many of the wrong people.

There's something about a state that doesn't take public education seriously that just turns me off.

[PortTack]

10. Agree completely...hot muggy in summer, can be very rainy a good deal of the time

Fine to vacation there occasionally, live there.... NEVER

[PlanetBev]

11. Any weather that involves humidity is not good weather

I’ll continue live in California, even with the constant fear of earthquakes and fires. Nothing is worse than humidity, bugs, big, prehistoric swamp-dwelling meat-eating reptiles and red necks.

[GulfCoast66]

14. And I love the humidity. But grew up on the gulf coast.

Not a fan of rednecks but every state has them in different ratios.

I grew up in Louisiana and have lived in Florida for 35 years. I’ve been to California. It’s just not wet or green enough for me. Nice to visit. Like Iceland was. Live there? No way.

And today in central Florida our high was 87 with clouds and cooling rain all afternoon. No way in hell I’d trade that for 110 with low humidity. And fires. And earthquakes scare the hell out of me. I’ve got 3 days warning for a hurricane.

I guess it’s what you grew up with.

Fortunately, most transplants and tourists have not discovered the best parts of the state. Because they have no beaches or theme parks.

[Demovictory9]

21. the humidity! so uncomfortable

[ecstatic]

28. It's way too hot, too much UV exposure

I lived there briefly as a kid and was at least 20 shades darker while living there.

[Ron Green]

9. "The Dream of Florida"

has always seemed to me like a pretty bad one.

[Jon King]

15. We live in Florida and this is utter nonsense....

Seriously, complete and utter BS. This building collapse was a mess of dominoes that fell, squabbling residents, incompetence, but has zero to do with the 'dream of Florida'. People are moving here in droves, not a single house for sale in our 210 house neighborhood. A constant flow of moving trucks, our city is building technology parks for businesses, new schools, our park is absolutely unreal in its amenities.

I hate the politics of Florida, hate Desantis, vast areas of the state are redneck wastelands. But the Florida dream that might not appeal to some certainly is appealing to many, many others. We have neighbors from pretty much every country in the world,

I lived in PA, OH, NC, CA, DE, NJ, NH, and OR through the years.

You could not pry our family out of Florida with a crowbar. We love it here to no end......and a ton of others are joining us each year.

[PsakiPswirli]

16. A ton of people moving to Florida

It's true, and that's the problem. I live on a barrier island on the east coast. Housing prices have doubled in four years. Too many people in areas that have historically been a buffer for tropical storms. A severe, long overdue category 5 hurricane will result in serious carnage. People won't evacuate and will be statistics.

[Chipper Chat]

17. I lived in Florida for 5 years.

Unfortunately had to return to Indiana to take care of parents.
Things I loved about it:
1. The beach
2. Fresh citrus
3. FISH !
4. Neighbors did NOT want to know your business
5. Plumeria

Hated:
Traffic
Jellyfish

[Warpy]

19. My mother hated it, a sentiment shared by most of the women she knew

because while men retired, women still had to cook 3 meals a day, clean, shop, do laundry...you get the picture, and all in a sauna.

She loved seeing those high rises going up because they'd make Florida sink faster.

I'm old, so I remember Florida when it was largely undeveloped, with unspoiled beaches on both coasts and agricultural land in between. Now it's just mile after mile of tract houses, trailer parks, strip malls, and grouchy people who can't afford to run the AC. Those unspoiled beaches are now spoiled, walled off by those high rise condos and time shares. Turns out "y'all come" has a real downside to it.

I miss my parents like crazy, but I don't miss going to Florida to visit them after they retired, not even when I flew out of Boston during a blizzard to get there. Some of us just don't like that year round steam bath. You can have it.

(Oh, and I'm a bona fide Cracker, born in Orlando, parents lived in Kissimmee. They left when I was a few months old. I have always been grateful for that)

[GulfCoast66]

20. I love the parts of Florida I love. I don't see the allure of condo living in SE Florida.

But I did not grow up with high rises and just city living. Lots of people love it.

I love the less populated parts of the state. The big bend from north of Tampa to just east of Panama City. All the springs as such.

People are shocked to know we have coastal counties that have with less than 20,000 residents.

No beaches. But super clean water and great fishing.

I like the heat and humidity as well. But I’m from Louisiana and have been here 35 years. A day on the boat on the gulf is the perfect day for me.

I’ve been to most states. Europe 10 times. Asia twice. I hope to live out my life in Florida.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. What dream of Florida?

Many of us have been completely not enamored of the bullshit dream of Florida. Honestly. Heat, humidity, rising oceans. What is there to love?

Perhaps more to the point, the collective responsibility for upkeep and maintenance of a building is the point. More than three years ago a report was filed that said serious repairs were needed. And that report was essentially ignored.

None of those who died in this collapse deserved to die. But the need for repairs was crucial. If I had a time machine I'd go back and let every owner and resident know the danger. I'm sure that would not have mattered, but at least I'd have done my best.

[XanaDUer2]

23. Grew up in Miami

it's great if you're wealthy. My family was not. Many regular people move to Florida to "start over". The ones from blue states love the lower cost of living. Until stuff like low salaries, no unions, right to work kick in. Off the charts insurance costs. Hurricanes.

We've known unhappy campers sorry they moved there. Yeah, there's no snow. But SE Florida. Hell even NE Florida, are not nice places to live unless you have a good job, retirement pension. Over crowded, too. The Everglades is being destroyed. I'd never live there again.

The Florida dream is a joke.

[Klaralven]

22. Think of condo associations as like small-scale socialism.

Think of condo associations as like small-scale socialism. You all have ownership stock in this thing. You make decisions about it. You have the board, which is kind of like the Politburo. No, really, it is socialism. And the thing about socialism is that when you collectively own something, you collectively make a decision about it. Well, some of those decisions are going to be very hard.

[Hortensis]

25. We owned a share in an old cooperative mobile home park on an

estuary near the mouth of Tampa Bay and the Gulf. Almost all of the 200+ owners are snowbirds with homes elsewhere, so their 50-year-old MHs on the water are a nice winter amenity, not necessity. At some point before we bought in, the park spent or otherwise decided not to meet the reserves law, which would have accumulated a large fund to meet disasters, or needs such as a higher sea wall and raising the lower areas. Probably an easy "cooperative" decision then, but every big storm was flooding our raised patio when we sold to people who only needed it for about 5 years.

Developers have been wooing owners and predatorily hunting and trying to buy up enough individual shares for years, but living on the water in FL for almost nothing has become increasingly prized. I'm afraid the writing's on the wall for this little treasure when a big one happens. Most are not going to dip into savings for, what, $30K?, far more?, whatever, to restore the park to livablity itself, plus whatever their home requires.

It's going to be very sad when the park finally goes. But whether it's pre-disaster due to sea level rise or post-disaster, the hard decision will probably be no decision at all at that point. A majority will vote their interest, if they have one worth figuring left.

[Klaralven]

31. In the case of Champlain Towers South, the HOA would go bankrupt and the land sold to next developer

The HOA's asset is now whatever the land is worth, minus the costs of demolishing the remaining part of the building and structures. Given its location something like the luxury condo next door could be erected, so the land is pretty valuable.

Presumably the proceeds of sale will be eaten up by lawsuits and lawyer's fees, so it's unlikely that the surviving owners will see a penny.

[Hortensis]

32. Right. It's the land. Our old park's very well located, and

as far as developers are concerned removing what's on it's a very minor development expense.

[Hortensis]

24. Oh, brother. Fwiw, the "economic life" of these buildings

is usually considered to be about 30 years. Their actual lives can extend much longer, of course. But no one should hold his breath while expecting investors to stop buying up coastal properties to build high rises on. They raise the ground level of the buildings these days.

As an indication of how breathtakingly repsonsible Florida government is, a law was passed just a couple of years ago (not 30!) requiring sea level and viability/impact studies for construction on the coast of PUBLIC buildings using public money.

As for the dream of Florida, it roars to life in millions of hearts every fall, the more so as increasingly harsh climate-change winters make living more difficult and as the average age of populations increases. Only some fortunates are able to follow it, of course.

[ecstatic]

26. Do newer buildings have this issue as well?

Joe Scarborough said that Florida buildings built after 1992 were built under stricter regulations.

[Swede]

29. There are 4 or 5 Trump towers on that island.

Anyone would be nuts to buy a condo in Florida now. And I imagine the prices will free fall.

[lagomorph777]

30. My wife has finally stopped yammering about moving to FL.

Between the craziness of Governor DeSatan, the disastrous climate change effects, and now this, I think she's over it.

[Aristus]

34. Can't say I ever dreamed of owning a condo in Florida.

I visited Florida once. That was more than enough...

[Tommy Carcetti]

35. Speaking as a Floridian...

...I absolutely love most of the things about the state. It's why I specifically decided to move here.

The weather (I'm not bothered by heat or humidity, and the winters are great), the natural scenery (the springs, the everglades, the beaches, the forests, the wildlife, the Keys--all stunning), the wildlife (love all the birds and mammals and alligators), the clouds (yes, the clouds are more beautiful here), the history (despite the fact much of our architecture is new, we're home to the oldest European settled town in America). All of these things I was lacking when I was up north.

Of course, there are a few things I distinctively do not love about the state. Namely:

--The conservative Republican power structure, aided in great part by extreme gerrymandering
--Excessive urban sprawl, and the pro-development attitude that leads to urban sprawl
--The large amount of people who come here from out of state simply for tax purposes who don't seem to care about anything that actually makes the state so great
--Gnats. The one thing about summers here I actively dislike. Little buggers fly around your head and get in your pool.

And of course, the threat of the impact of climate change on Florida is very real and cannot be ignored.

My Florida "dream" is not dead, but it might very well be in danger.

[treestar]

36. Extreme headlines can be a turn off

One building collapsed. The media makes too many huge generalizations to get people riled up and out of perspective.