Chapter Four: Megalpolis

This is a birds eye view of downtown Miami, FL

Although Megalopolis does not directly apply to my location, it is similar in certain ways. As I learned from our textbook, Megalopolis consists of tall buildings, busy streets, crowded housing, industrial plants, traffic, etc.

Upon searching many websites, I found one with a helpful chart to give us an idea of Downtown Miami's Demographics. ( http://www.downtownmiami.com/Downtown-Miami-Demographics )

Similarly to the largest cities in Megalopolis, Land is a great demand in areas near downtown Miami.


Additionally, I learned that Miami does not have an issue with congestion. As our textbook states under the "Accessibility and Density" section, congestion "occurs when activity sites become so densely packed that the level of interaction between them so intense that the routes for interaction become overcrowded" However, this seems to not affect Miami as much as it does to other cities.

Additional sources:
 http://www.citytowninfo.com/places/florida/miami

Chapter Three: Huamn Activity

To give us a general idea of what the populations are like in Florida.

As the picture above shows, Florida has a pretty broad range of populations throughout it's borderlines. One of the more populated regions as I learned is around Miami, with less population in northern Florida. 

  

Early in the twentieth century, when Florida was sparsely populated, more people meant more jobs and more opportunities. And in a state with considerable land area and few people, every new resident lowers the cost of providing basic services to all. But as an area gets more populated, its infrastructure bumps up against its carrying capacity. Police forces, roads, and schools no longer satisfy the demands of a growing population. Farmland and forests are sacrificed to strip malls and housing developments. And eventually growth no longer lowers the average cost of services, but instead raises it. When this point is reached, population growth increases the tax burden on communities; the revenue brought in by new growth is outweighed by the costs it creates.³

Florida, the seventh-fastest growing state in the country, has reached this downside to growth. A mid-1999 survey of Florida voters found that more than 80 percent considered the state’s burgeoning population a problem and 40 percent said that Florida has become a less comfortable place to live over the past five years.⁴

But the population growth that has transformed Florida into a crowded mass of subdivisions, congested highways, and paved-over pastures has just begun. If current trends continue, the state’s population will increase by 5.5 million by 2025 and will have doubled by 2050, when its population could surpass 32 million – or twice the 15,982,378 counted in the 2000 census. (That does not include the close to one million “snowbirds” who reside in the state every winter.⁵ )

 References:

http://www.npg.org/specialreports/FL/fl_report.html

3] Alan Altschuler and Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez, Regulation for Revenue: A Political Economy of Land Use Exactions (Washington: Brookings Institute; Cambridge: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 1993), p. 77.
4] Stephen G. Reed, “Poll: Pace of Growth Affects Quality of Life,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, October 14, 1999.
5] Kate Gurnett, “With Snowbirds Comes the Sprawl,” Times Union, February 25, 2001.

Chapter Two: The Physical Enviroment

Florida, as I came to lean, has a lot to it's topography. Since there are many interesting features of the state, I will be mentioning a few of them that particularly stood out to me.

1) Rivers: 

When I first read up on the topography of Florida, the first thing that stood out to me were the rivers. The state of Florida contains more than 1,700 rivers, including streams and creeks.

The longest river is the St. Johns, which empties into the Atlantic 19 mi (42 km) east of Jacksonville: estimates of its length range from 273 to 318 mi.


2) Everglades

Almost all the southeastern peninsula and the entire southern end are covered by the Everglades, the world's largest sawgrass swamp, with an area of approximately 5,000 sq mi (13,000 sq km). The Everglades is, in a sense, a huge river, in which water flows south–southwest from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay. No point in the Everglades is more than 7 ft (2 m) above sea level. Its surface is largely submerged during the rainy season—April to November—and becomes a muddy expanse in the dry months. Slight elevations, known as hammocks, support clumps of cypress and the only remaining stand of mahogany in the continental US. To the west and north of the Everglades is Big Cypress Swamp, covering about 2,400 sq mi (6,200 sq km), which contains far less surface water.

CHAPTER ONE: Regions and Themes

(Source of picture: http://iguide.travel/Florida/Regions)

As many of us know, a state is compromised of cities and regions within its borderlines. Our textbook refers a region to “An area having characteristics that distinguish it from other areas. A territory of interest to people and for which one or more distinctive traits are used for its identity”

In terms of Florida, I came to learn that there are essentially six regions of the state (See picture)

The Northwest Region
The Northeast Region
The Central Region (Includes Orlando)
The Central West Region (Includes Tampa)
The Southwest Region
The Southeast Region
Resources: As I came to learn, Florida has many natural resources. Some of which include:

• Sugar canes
• Oranges
• Cows
• Seafood
• Natural Spring Water

Since our chapter talks a little about resource abundance and resource dependence, I thought it would be interesting to look into Florida’s contribution of resources to the US.

After reading this I found that Florida citrus is not only one of florida’s more common natural resource, but rather an essential commodity to the whole country. If you ask anyone where the best oranges come from, chances are that they’ll mention Florida!


“In 1915 the first citrus processing plant in America was built in Haines City, Florida. Mr. Claude E. Street realized the great waste from ‘cull fruit’ and began an endeavor that would be profitable for the grower. Mr. Street’s company was known as the Florida Fruit Products Company, Inc.”
http://www.grandmaberries.com/citrusfacts.asp

Additionally, I learned…
“Florida citrus is one of the best regulated commodities produced in this country. Through a complex network that includes the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the Florida Citrus Commission, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, both Florida fresh citrus and Florida processed juices are under continual inspection, to insure that the consumer gets quality.”
http://www.grandmaberries.com/citrusfacts.asp