WPBT2’s Imagining a New Florida: Has the Florida Dream Morphed into the Florida Nightmare?

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What will Florida live like in 2030? WPBT2’s original production, Imagining a New Florida, explores the issues surrounding this question on, Thursday, May 13 at 8:00 pm on WPBT2 and most Florida public television stations. (Check you local listing.)

After years of growth fueled by speculation and quick profit, Florida’s housing boom has collapsed, leaving its economy in crisis. Now for the first time since the 1940’s, more people are leaving Florida than arriving. And, though growth has stalled during the recession, it is expected to resume, increasing our numbers to some 25 million by 2030. “We were on the General Motors track for the last 50 years,” says Bruce Stephenson, a professor of environmental and growth management studies at Rollins College. “If you want to stay on the General Motors track for the next 50 years, you’re going to go bankrupt.”

While Florida was on the fast track of development, Linda Chapin, the former chairman of the Orange County Commission, says, “We wrote a lot of policies and we wrote a lot of regulations, but we never had an overarching vision of what we want to be like when we were developed.” As a result many communities in Florida have lost their sense of place and relationships with their neighbors.

For the past year, WPBT2 has criss-crossed the state exploring the meaning of community and the negative impacts of sprawl. Has the Florida dream morphed into the Florida nightmare? Is Florida too built out? Can Floridians chart a new path towards sustainable growth?

Imagining a New Florida explores these questions with Floridians. Through the voices of architects and artists, developers and historians, planners and stakeholders, it embarks on a journey of imagining a new Florida.

“A lack of vision,” says producer Jack Kelly, “got us to where we are today. So where we go from here lies in the hands of every Floridian.”

Imagining a New Florida is made possible with a grant from Florida Humanities Council, which brings Floridians together by sharing the stories of our state. And by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Contacts: Cammy Richards, cammy_richards@wpbt.org, 305-424-4013
Natalia Villegas, natalia_villegas@wpbt.org, 305-424-4190