Never having actually been there, and therefore just going off vibes I get from portrayals on the internet: that city in Florida where they designed it around every property having boat access (I forget the name, looking up “Florida canal city” gives me one called “Cape Coral” so it may be that one, or there might be some other similar place ive seen pictures of before out there that im mistaking for it). Cool concept in theory but every picture Ive seen of the place it looks like someone took generic slightly rich car-filled suburbia and made it even more overpriced and dysfunctional
It took me a moment to realise that’s a circuit board of man-made canalways for waterfronts. Entirely defeating the point of why people want waterfront.
Nooo! I thought it was an awesome picture to share! off to sleep and early to rise to listen to the birdies. And I’m gonna make up with the jays. I’ve been trying to distinguish between a blue jay and something called a yard jay?
Cape Coral is fucking weird. But it is basically in the center of the state that is the most backward and weird on earth. It is beautiful if you can see Florida without massive suburban development and Wawas on every turn. But Cape Coral is very very weird. Like if you planned a city around canals, then why is it still so utterly car centric?
Like if you planned a city around canals, then why is it still so utterly car centric?
Water is recreation, but roads are for everyday living. You likely would not be able to shop easily or visit your vet via the water: the entire business district would have to be marina-style. This is about a fairy tale dreamed up by real estate developers more than anything else, not actually about water-based living.
Many years ago I briefly lived in a small Florida subdivision that was exactly like this. Like Florida itself, this canal-style layout has always been popular for people who want to live on the water, especially (at that time) snowbirds who didn’t know better. And it would have been impossible to use boats to get anywhere, because the actual marinas were nowhere near this subdivision, and to even get that far would have required actual boating skill to get in and out of the bigger swamp all of this carved-out land abutted.
It was all kind of shitty and we weren’t there long. The houses themselves tend to be overpriced because they are technically “waterfront” even if your view is the ass end of someone else’s dock. Boats are holes in the water into which you pour money. Your expensive water sports equipment sits under tarps most of the year, requiring both maintenance and insurance even when you’re not using it. And speaking of tarps, mosquitos breed in standing water.
Even the canals themselves interrupt the natural movement of water from point A to point B, so unless your locality is spraying regularly (which is another ecological nightmare) you are going to have a lot of problems with mosquitos, and even if you don’t, the water itself just gets stagnant, nasty and stinky. Look at that aerial view someone posted: how can the water naturally move or circulate past all those artificial obstacles? Answer: except for tidal motion and some wind, it really doesn’t move much at all. You cannot swim in it safely, and the nearer you get to the smell of the water the less appealing that idea of swimming even seems, which explains why you will see swimming pools behind a lot of those homes, just yards from the actual canal. Algae and excess moisture on everything exterior (and eventually interior, like on fans) is a constant problem.
I couldn’t speak for it today, but at the time there tended to be a good bit of turnover: people bought in on the dream of being able to live like it was vacation, realized what an albatross they’d hung around their own neck in terms of expense, maintenance, and general unpleasantness, and then sold up.
Some people do thrive on it, love it all and take their boats out regularly. But when they do, it’s not on a grocery run.
Aww, I heard Cape Coral is meh, but I was disappointed I didn’t get a chance to head there when I was in Florida last year. They have a ton of easily accessible Burrowing Owl populations and they put a ton of effort into caring for them.
Never having actually been there, and therefore just going off vibes I get from portrayals on the internet: that city in Florida where they designed it around every property having boat access (I forget the name, looking up “Florida canal city” gives me one called “Cape Coral” so it may be that one, or there might be some other similar place ive seen pictures of before out there that im mistaking for it). Cool concept in theory but every picture Ive seen of the place it looks like someone took generic slightly rich car-filled suburbia and made it even more overpriced and dysfunctional
This is Cape Coral FL USA
From [email protected]. sorry for no credit I’m really bad at sharing in mobile Credit: setsneedtofeed
the state that is mostly underwater half the time, or when STORM hits.
It took me a moment to realise that’s a circuit board of man-made canalways for waterfronts. Entirely defeating the point of why people want waterfront.
well it will be underwater when hurricanes hit.
Same thought. Imagining crawling a boat through miles of that maze to spend an hour in open water before having to turn around to crawl back. Smh.
Most navigable waterways of any city in the world.
We’ve got to stop meeting like this tonight
Now people are poo-pooing the Burrowing Owl capital of the east?! 😄
Nooo! I thought it was an awesome picture to share! off to sleep and early to rise to listen to the birdies. And I’m gonna make up with the jays. I’ve been trying to distinguish between a blue jay and something called a yard jay?
The picture is neat! It makes me think of SimCity.
I never heard of a yard jay and Google didn’t show me anything for that.
Stellars Jays are the ones I want to meet, but I’m on the wrong side of the country.
Cape Coral is fucking weird. But it is basically in the center of the state that is the most backward and weird on earth. It is beautiful if you can see Florida without massive suburban development and Wawas on every turn. But Cape Coral is very very weird. Like if you planned a city around canals, then why is it still so utterly car centric?
Water is recreation, but roads are for everyday living. You likely would not be able to shop easily or visit your vet via the water: the entire business district would have to be marina-style. This is about a fairy tale dreamed up by real estate developers more than anything else, not actually about water-based living.
Many years ago I briefly lived in a small Florida subdivision that was exactly like this. Like Florida itself, this canal-style layout has always been popular for people who want to live on the water, especially (at that time) snowbirds who didn’t know better. And it would have been impossible to use boats to get anywhere, because the actual marinas were nowhere near this subdivision, and to even get that far would have required actual boating skill to get in and out of the bigger swamp all of this carved-out land abutted.
It was all kind of shitty and we weren’t there long. The houses themselves tend to be overpriced because they are technically “waterfront” even if your view is the ass end of someone else’s dock. Boats are holes in the water into which you pour money. Your expensive water sports equipment sits under tarps most of the year, requiring both maintenance and insurance even when you’re not using it. And speaking of tarps, mosquitos breed in standing water.
Even the canals themselves interrupt the natural movement of water from point A to point B, so unless your locality is spraying regularly (which is another ecological nightmare) you are going to have a lot of problems with mosquitos, and even if you don’t, the water itself just gets stagnant, nasty and stinky. Look at that aerial view someone posted: how can the water naturally move or circulate past all those artificial obstacles? Answer: except for tidal motion and some wind, it really doesn’t move much at all. You cannot swim in it safely, and the nearer you get to the smell of the water the less appealing that idea of swimming even seems, which explains why you will see swimming pools behind a lot of those homes, just yards from the actual canal. Algae and excess moisture on everything exterior (and eventually interior, like on fans) is a constant problem.
I couldn’t speak for it today, but at the time there tended to be a good bit of turnover: people bought in on the dream of being able to live like it was vacation, realized what an albatross they’d hung around their own neck in terms of expense, maintenance, and general unpleasantness, and then sold up.
Some people do thrive on it, love it all and take their boats out regularly. But when they do, it’s not on a grocery run.
You may also enjoy reading about Ocean Shores WA. It’s like this but it’s sinking and then sun doesn’t really shine lol
Aww, I heard Cape Coral is meh, but I was disappointed I didn’t get a chance to head there when I was in Florida last year. They have a ton of easily accessible Burrowing Owl populations and they put a ton of effort into caring for them.