{"id":1289,"date":"2019-03-26T19:43:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T00:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/staging\/1734\/?p=1289"},"modified":"2019-03-26T19:43:01","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T00:43:01","slug":"romping-through-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/romping-through-south-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Romping through South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two weeks ago, I spun a narrative about hazard mitigation in\nHillsborough County, Florida, based on both prior knowledge and a personal tour\nconducted by long-time colleague Eugene Henry. Today, a full month or more after\nthat visit, I add notes about touring the Sarasota area with my personal friend\nand high school classmate, David Taylor. \nDavid is a Vietnam veteran and professional photographer who was part of\nthe Brecksville (Ohio) High School class of 1968. Yes, we graduated in the middle\nof it all in the late 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike me, David was drafted into the army. I maintained a\nstudent deferment initially, then went untouched by the draft lottery, which\nreached 125 the year I surrendered my deferment. Numbers were based on the\nnumber pulled for your birth date. Mine was 135. Such was the luck of the draw\nin those days. In less than two months on the ground in Vietnam, David was\nbadly injured in a mortar explosion, evacuated to a hospital and sent home. His\ninjuries were more than severe enough to terminate his service. He spent months\nin rehab. When it became clear that cold weather aggravated his disabilities,\nhe moved to Florida. He has lived there ever since. He and his wife, Linda, now\nlive in a small home in a subdivision near the water in Sarasota<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His long tenure in Florida has allowed him ample time to\nlearn the sights and sounds of his adopted home. One thing my wife and I\nlearned from staying with him for five days is that Dave is relentlessly\ncurious. He attended and videotaped my February 22 lecture for Florida Atlantic University<\/a> in West Palm Beach, then\nloaded the 37-gb high-res recording on a flash drive. Download it to your\nlaptop when you get back, then reload the flash drive with as many documents\nand photos about your work as will fit on it, he told me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think Dave completely understood. I could give him\nnearly everything I have and never fill up a drive of that size. But Dave lives\nin the film world, and all the reports I have downloaded as PDFs and all the\nstill photos I have ever taken will never equal more than a fraction of that memory.\nI gave him all I could. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More importantly, however, Dave took us on some tours to take\nmaximum advantage of the two days we had remaining after returning from West Palm\nBeach (a 3 \u00bd-hour drive across the southern interior of Florida). From an environmental\nstandpoint, it is important to know that Florida is a more diverse state than\noutsiders may realize and that, due to rapid urbanization in the past few\ndecades, it also faces environmental challenges and threats of significant\nproportions. The state has been wrestling with many of these for a long time.\nThe fate of the Everglades triggered one of the most notable environmental\npolicy battles in American history, but there are many smaller issues as well,\nmany engendering serious public health concerns as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One to which Dave took us, new to me, was the American\nBeryllium<\/a> site on Tallevast Road in Sarasota. Now abandoned, the site\nhosted a manufacturing facility for machine parts of the Loral Corporation<\/a>, parent\ncompany of American Beryllium, for more than 30 years until 1996. The\noperations created beryllium dust that contaminated the soil and groundwater. Lockheed Martin<\/a> acquired\nthe plant in 1996 and closed it down. Subsequent investigations discovered the\ncontamination and documented the need for cleanup of what was then a brownfield\nsite. By 2008, the Agency for Toxic\nSubstances and Disease Registry<\/a> (ATSDR) of the U.S. Department of Health and\nHuman Services completed its\nown assessment<\/a> of the health risks, concluding that, while there was a wide\nmargin of possibilities given the combination of contaminants including trichloroethylene\nin the beryllium-containing metals on the site, there was a definite public\nhealth hazard. Previous use of groundwater by local residents and employees,\nwhich by then had ceased, posed a credible risk of kidney cancer, liver cancer,\nleukemia, and lymphoma. By 2004, all nearby residents had been using municipal\nwater, but the long-term legacy could not be ignored. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fence provides no real security for American Beryllium site. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The site today is mostly an empty lot next to a golf course. There is a fence around it that, frankly, is not well maintained, but how much danger the site poses at this point, I do not know. The empty lot looks rather forlorn, yet the area around it contains a fair amount of operative commerce. When, if ever, the site will be ready for reuse remains to be seen. Mostly, it is a sobering reminder of our past use and misuse of such toxic materials in manufacturing processes and the problems they often leave behind. Beryllium is a divalent element, a strong metal with high thermal stability that is useful in aerospace applications, certainly of interest to a firm like Lockheed Martin. But often in the past, manufacturing firms took inadequate measures to prevent the sort of pollution that materialized on this site. The result is a long-standing eyesore for Sarasota. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But there were other things to see in the area, like Myakka River State Park<\/a>, which features a wildlife preserve that is worth visiting and attracts many visitors. Park officials are often available to explain the wildlife you are seeing, such as snowy egrets, cypress trees, vultures, and, of course, alligators. The vultures seemed exceptionally calm and contented, so Dave and I concluded that they had already had their fill for the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vultures line the shore of the river. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unable to stop myself\u2014we have a growing collection of\nsouvenir mugs in our cupboards\u2014I bought a reasonably priced mug from the gift\nshop with the state park logo embedded in the ceramic. Our children one day,\nwhen we are no longer breathing, may wonder \u201cMyakka what?\u201d and pass it on to the\nnearest Salvation Army store, but we will enjoy it for the next 20 years, or until\none of us accidentally drops it on the floor (whichever comes first). Who knows\nwhen we will be back?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

David has vivid memories of his Vietnam experiences, and to\nsome extent, like most Purple Heart veterans, of the trauma involved in his\nexperience. This remains no small part of his semi-retired life, in which he is\nalso enrolled in film and history classes at nearby State College of Florida<\/a>, and continues part-time\nphotographic work. So, he took us to the Sarasota National Cemetery<\/a>,\nwhere veterans may choose to be buried, and where he has attended and\nparticipated in numerous ceremonies. Kiosks exhibit photos documenting the\nveteran experience as far back as World War I but as recent as Afghanistan. The\ngrowing Florida population including the elderly means a growing number of\nveterans for whom the cemetery may be a final resting place. It is always a\nsobering encounter with reality to visit such a place\u2014to realize how many lives\nare affected, for good or ill, by the nation\u2019s struggles throughout our history.\nOne does not have to agree with a particular war, and I have certainly\ndisagreed with some, to recognize the magnitude of the sacrifice of those in uniform\nand the respect they deserve. Just gazing out at a wide field of gravesites\nshould be enough to convey the message. War is no trifling thing. We invariably\nowe our veterans a serious explanation when we send them into battle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On that Saturday evening, however, it was time for fun, and Dave and Linda took us to a comedy club, McCurdy\u2019s Comedy Theater and Humor Institute<\/a>, which was great fun, and on the way back to their home, we stopped at the \u201cKissing Sailor\u201d statue<\/a>, developed from an iconic photo of a sailor embracing his beloved on the streets of Manhattan as the official surrender of Japan and the end of World War II were announced. Each couple shot photos of the other standing beneath this unique feature of the urban landscape in Sarasota. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dave and Linda beneath the Kissing Sailor. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The next morning, with our free time waning before driving\nto the Tampa International Airport<\/a>, we\nall made one last stop, at the Ken Thompson Park<\/a>.\nWhat would Florida be without its beaches? Ken Thompson, the namesake of the\npark, was a long-time city manager in Sarasota. More importantly, the beach, like\nthe rest of southern Florida, was 84\u00b0 F. and sunny, with plenty of people resting\non the sand and taking in the scenery of the Gulf Coast. Not far away are\nopportunities to follow a boardwalk through a small forest. It is small wonder\nin such a setting that Florida might beckon to anyone used to northern weather\nin the winter, but duty called, and Chicago is very nice once spring arrives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In fact, I took so long to write this story that it is here. Tomorrow I plan to take time to ride my bicycle on the 606 Trail<\/a>, whose story I told in this blog when it opened nearly four years ago. Snow? It happens, but it\u2019s over for now, just a fading memory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim Schwab<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks ago, I spun a narrative about hazard mitigation in Hillsborough County, Florida, based on both prior knowledge and a personal tour conducted by long-time colleague Eugene Henry. Today, a full month or more after that visit, I add notes about touring the Sarasota area with my personal friend and high school classmate, David […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[868,109,367,520,326,1,357,878],"tags":[1302,1304,1306,1269,282,325,1301,1305,1307,1300,1270,1303,1214],"class_list":["post-1289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-environment","category-geography","category-parks","category-recreation","category-uncategorized","category-water","category-weather","tag-beach","tag-beryllium","tag-brownfield","tag-david-taylor","tag-florida","tag-gulf-coast","tag-ken-thompson-park","tag-lockheed-martin","tag-loral","tag-myakka-river","tag-sarasota","tag-sarasota-national-cemetery","tag-veterans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1299,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289\/revisions\/1299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jimschwab.com\/Hablarbooks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}