There’s a great article in National Geographic online that Natasha located on the culture and history of Central Florida. It’s a fairly accurate look at what life is like here in the home of Disney’s World. I like the article because the author really catches the many faces of this place.
Sure, you could focus on the fantasy of the theme parks, but the effect they have on the rest of the area is fascinating. Consider that running a theme park requires many people, but that the great majority of the jobs will be at the lower end of the pay scale. And many of the jobs are also seasonal. Professional jobs are even hard to fill here because there’s often not a similar industry breeding workers with the skills necessary to fill them. So the parks and resorts have to cast their nets pretty much world-wide to attract people interested in these jobs, be they the lower paying jobs sweeping in the parks or the higher paying jobs in administration. This really has created this interesting cultural diversity here.
Florida was already a place people came to get away from the place they lived before. It has a great climate, despite the hurricanes, and the parts of it that haven’t been replaced by strip malls and housing developments have a natural charm. I know my family moved here to get away from the grind and squalor of city life in New York. It’s sort of the ultimate suburb.
Take a gander at the article. Interesting smart stuff.
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