Thursday, March 6, 2008

Progress


Just when you thought it couldn't get much worse...






It was only a few years ago that I could go fishing in the back mangrove channels of Blackwater Sound or Tarpon Basin or Trout Creek and look up to see the sky turn pink when a flock of spoonbills flew over. They also congregated in pools along the narrow overseas highway (The Stretch)and slowed traffic as people pulled off to watch them frolic.

No more. The Stretch is being turned into a straight shot expressway from Florida City to Key Largo. The multi-million dollar project has wiped out all the pretty beaches along the way, and all the pools where spoonbills used to gather. All so the tourists and impatient south Floridians can get to the Keys a little faster.

But when they arrive, the spoonbills won't be there.

Progress.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awe...come on now. Carl Hiaasen has been writing about all these ridiculous things for years!
As our population increases, the developers and politicians (local, state and national) get into a feeding frenzy for money related to kickbacks, extortion, payoffs, bribes and ridiculous zoning deals!
The Keys have been a cartoon for years!
Can you fit any more restaurants and trinket shops onto the shoulders of that poor highway?

James W. Hall said...

Carl who?