"Homes are selling at 80% off their peak prices,'' the NYT says. "Only two years after there were more jobs than people to work them, fast-food restaurants are laying people off or closing. Crime is up, school enrollment is down, and one in four residents received food stamps in December, nearly a fourfold increase since 2006."
Gannett and other publishers with businesses in Florida have been nailed as that state's housing collapse worsens. Indeed, this is at least the second time that the NYT has presented Fort Myers as the poster child for everything that's gone wrong in the mortgage meltdown.Related: In The Ponzi State, a New Yorker magazine video about Florida's foreclosure disaster
The New Yorker also has an indepth piece in its recent issue about the Florida debacle. When you read about the true reality in Florida it makes you wonder if Gannett has been hurt much worse there than they are saying.
ReplyDeleteBulldoze the land and return it to agriculture ... or a wildlife refuge similar to the Buffalo Commons concept that would have returned more than 100,000 acres of arid land in a number of Great Plains states to tallgrass prairie.
ReplyDeleteObviously the rapacious development is ill suited for this neck of the woods.
Hmmm....why is it I think the NYT and others are looking at Ft. Myers and its economic problems because Obama is coming there this week as part of his sales campaign for the stimulus package. You think there might be some connection?
ReplyDeleteI imagine that President Obama's visit would be the 21st century version of President Johnson visiting Appalachia in the 1960s, to kick off the war on poverty.
ReplyDeleteI posted the first comment. No 11:32 you are more wrong that right. Ft. Myers is one of the hardest areas of Florida when it comes to the collapse in real estate. The Tampa Bay area was also very hard hit. Interestingly, there are newer housing developments in these areas that are almost literally abandoned. Check out the New Yorker story. But considering the devastating blow that the real estate market left in Ft. Myers and other places in Florida, it leaves one to wonder just HOW MUCH money GCI is really losing there. I know it must be a lot.
ReplyDeleteWhat does it say about Gannett's leadership that until a few months ago the news operation at the Fort Myers newspaper was Kate Marymont, now chief journalist for Gannett? Either she was complicit in not covering the story or she was ineffective in pushing such coverage onto published pages. We can only hope that the pattern, whatever it was, doesn't continue in her present job.
ReplyDeleteHow come these misery in Ft. Myers stories never comment on the good times on the tennis courts of Marco Island nearby, or the million dollar hideaways in Naples. So a subdivision built in the swamps has gone belly up, but millionaires are still moving into Marco Island in droves. I only visited there, but the extravagance I saw was truly revolting. Reminded me of what Miami Beach used to look like.
ReplyDeleteWow. Florida real estate goes belly up. Unprecedented disaster. How many times does real estate in Florida need to collapse before everyone gets the message not to buy there?
ReplyDeleteIt just amazes me that all these companies have such huge charities, but continue to lay people off and pay the big shots big money. Isn't charity supposed to begin at home?
ReplyDelete