National, Regional and Local News

[ponchi101]

It has been known since the 80's, when I was there studying. The shallowness of Florida's water table means that it is super susceptible to any intrusion by the rising sea level. One issue is that the sewage system really does not work and offers all the worst options: you can't build septic tanks because they flood immediately and, if you use them, you contaminate the water table.
All the foundations of any building in Florida must be by now soaked. However, this has been well known for a long time so the building code has taken this in consideration.
Personally, if you offer me any house or condo in S. Florida (and by that I mean anything south of Lake Okeechobee) for $10,000, I pass. Florida's day of reckoning will come, and it might be soon.

[Suliso]

I wouldn't buy a house in coastal Florida. Just saying...

[JazzNU]

I listen to a sports radio show that is based in Miami. They've joked for years (but are also dead serious) that Miami and South Florida will be underwater in the next couple of decades. So yeah, likely a contributing factor. The guys I'm listening to are not rocket scientists by any stretch, so this isn't some underground secret just discovered by what happened to this building.

They've known for a good while what the deal is down there, they just didn't care. There's money in not caring, because there's money in building down there with the millions that have relocated there in the last 20 years in search of warmer weather. Condos in the building have recently sold in the $600-700k range.

[ti-amie]

I listen to a sports radio show that is based in Miami. They've joked for years (but are also dead serious) that Miami and South Florida will be underwater in the next couple of decades. So yeah, likely a contributing factor. The guys I'm listening to are not rocket scientists by any stretch, so this isn't some underground secret just discovered by what happened to this building.

They've known for a good while what the deal is down there, they just didn't care. There's money in not caring, because there's money in building down there with the millions that have relocated there in the last 20 years in search of warmer weather. Condos in the building have recently sold in the $600-700k range.

Yep

[Suliso]

There are and will be other places to seek warmer climate in US.

[ti-amie]

There are and will be other places to seek warmer climate in US.

True but for years now South Florida has attracted wealthy South Americans, Central Americans and the well off as well as the less wealthy from the Caribbean. A lot of it has to do with weather.

There are also the snow birds from the northern United States who come for tax benefits (they have to live there six months of the year I think).

Those populations will be hard pressed to find what they get in Florida.

[Suliso]

Sure, I know why people have moved to South Florida. Just saying I wouldn't and also that these people will eventually find some other place. Where eaxctly I'm not sure.

[ti-amie]

[ponchi101]

Sure, I know why people have moved to South Florida. Just saying I wouldn't and also that these people will eventually find some other place. Where eaxctly I'm not sure.

Sorry to interrupt the Derek Chavin news, which is more important.
Georgia. Atlanta is becoming fast a new destination for wealthy and not so wealthy S. Americans. Sure, no beach front but the coast is not that far away (Savannah, for example).
For South Americans Climate Change is not a "real" issue. Real issues are deranged leftists governments taking over, or deranged right wing governments that do not do anything but for the rich.

[ti-amie]

[ponchi101]

Now, something I would like to see.
This makes it clear that there are, at least, some theoretical probabilities that if you are a police officer and kill a minority person while on duty, you may end up in jail, and for a considerable time. The thing will be: will there be a decrease in the number of such cases? Or will Chauvin be an exemption?
In theory, at least a few of the cases in the recent past may have been because the officers felt total immunity. Now it is different. Will there be a change of behavior by police officers and police departments around the USA?

[JazzNU]

There are and will be other places to seek warmer climate in US.

There are also the snow birds from the northern United States who come for tax benefits (they have to live there six months of the year I think).

Those populations will be hard pressed to find what they get in Florida.

This is completely correct. And in terms of getting what they want elsewhere, for the most part, they simply can't. The deal with Florida is that, especially for those moving from many parts of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and the Upper Midwest - is that Florida is affordable and at the same time, rarely rural. They can get something near a beach in many parts of the state for under $500k. In some cases, they can do it for under $350k, like be within a couple of blocks. And that's now (or before 2020 - prices have spiked in the pandemic), they could get it cheaper than that for the last 20 years. In some areas, in and around Miami, it's more expensive, but for the most part, not as much as what it costs to live in the best neighborhoods NYC, Boston, Philly, DC, and Chicago. So, they go to Florida, some are snowbirds, some just relocate. Texas, Alabama and Mississippi are the only other places with beachfront in the same price range and it has never attracted northerners in the same way. North and South Carolina attract some, but not like Florida does when it comes to those wanting to be near the beach because it is not quite year-round beach weather.


I get what you're saying @suliso, and I wouldn't buy beachfront anywhere really, but especially in Florida, but we're in the minority in thinking that way. It doesn't make a bit of sense, but I can't begin to tell you how much the terrible hurricanes in the last decade or two have done next to nothing in discouraging the moves or the decisions when buying, they still want beachfront or as close as they can afford. You can see it play out on just about every single beach episode on HGTV.

[Suliso]

I'd not mind beachfront either, my parents live about 500 m from the beach. Just not South Florida with hurricanes, rising sea level and horrible humidity. Also I like somewhere I can walk.

Been idly pondering where we'd like to retire (in ca 20 years). Latvia cold + my girlfriend not Latvian, Switzerland expensive... Been thinking of places like Andalucia or Malta, but who knows what we think in two decades.

[JazzNU]

About George Floyd's Murderer - I'm staying away from most of the coverage because I just don't have the energy today. But I'm satisfied. I was afraid they would try to give him 10 to 15 years. I told myself months ago if he got 20 years, I'd be satisfied. So that's what I am. I need him to get like 50 to get to a level of being happy. But he's got more charges coming up so there's reason to hope that he'll be behind bars longer than this. Prison isn't a nice place for ex-cops, so I truly hope he rots away there for a good long while.

[MJ2004]

Prison isn't a nice place for ex-cops, so I truly hope he rots away there for a good long while.

Unless they put him in solitary, he may not be given the chance to rot.