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FLORIDA
– FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published
April 14, 2014
It’s
hard for me to believe, but in July I will be a resident of
Florida for 25 years, or more than half of my life.
The change that has taken place in these 25 years is
nothing short of dramatic. In
terms of population, Florida has just leap-frogged New York
State and jumped into 3rd place with over 19 million
residents. I
remember a time when I vacationed here as a child, or teenager
and felt like I was in a far quieter place, with a relaxed
attitude and little to do in terms of entertainment other than
Jai-Lai or attending a Dolphin game during the football season.
There were also delicatessens everywhere and today almost
none exist. There
was no traffic and no need for reversible lanes on highways, or
the need to pay for high cost express lanes.
We
were a far less diverse community too.
Today, Florida and especially South Florida, is almost
the melting pot that New York is.
South and Central Americans, Cubans, Canadians
and now Europeans make up large percentages of our
cities. Different
languages can be heard spoken at Starbucks that seems to be on
each corner where none previously existed.
There
was only one Disney theme park.
Universal didn’t exist.
Even professional sports was almost non existent where
today, there are nine professional sports franchises throughout
the state. If you
wanted to gamble, you had to board a gambling cruise, whereas
today Indian reservations and other hotels have slot machines
and table games all over the state.
The
skylines in our major cities look nothing like they did 25 or 30
years ago. The
building of massive large
scale condominiums keeps on happening because it seems as if the
people keep coming and coming.
Florida is no longer “god’s waiting room” as the
number of families with children in our state rises every year.
We are simply growing and growing and growing.
The massive amount of baby boomers who are expected to
retire in the coming years only means that this trend in
population growth will continue with no end in sight.
So
to those of you that have lived through this meteoric rise in
population, I ask if you think Florida has gone from better to
worse or visa versa? Do
you miss the Florida that was once known solely as a place to
relax and retire, or is the trend toward families, entertainment
and youth a trend that has made Florida a better place to live?
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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Eric Glazer graduated from the University of
Miami School of Law in 1992 after receiving a B.A. from
NYU. He is currently entering his 20th year as a
Florida
lawyer practicing |
community association law and is the owner of
Glazer and Associates, P.A. an eight attorney law firm in
Orlando
and Hollywood. For the past two years Eric has been the host of Condo Craze and
HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show on 850 WFTL. See: www.condocrazeandhoas.com.
He is the first attorney in the State of Florida
that designed a course that certifies condominium residents as
eligible to serve on a condominium Board of Directors and has
now certified more than 7,500 Floridians. He is certified as a
Circuit Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has
mediated dozens of disputes between associations and unit
owners. Finally, he recently argued the Cohn v. Grand
Condominium case before The Florida Supreme Court, which is
perhaps the single most important association law case decided
by the court in a decade.
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