Tuesday, September 05, 2017

Florida's Land Boom of the 1920's

Florida History Org,  Land Boom


Preface:
In the 1920's Florida was the focus of one of the greatest economic and social phenomenon in American history as hundreds of thousands of Americans of all types of financial strata poured into the Sunshine State and forever changed the global image of Florida. There were similar movements in the south of France during the 1920's, but the Florida story was so vast and complete in changed the entire scope of the state.
Two important elements played roles in the Florida Land Boom. For the first time Americans had the time and money to travel to Florida to invest in real estate. For the educated and skilled working American, the 1920's meant paid vacations, pensions, and fringe benefits unheard of during the Victorian Era. The United States also had the automobile: that indispensable family transportation that allowed you to travel to Florida. This "welfare capitalism" of time and money contributed to the arrival in Florida of a new kind of tourist - middle class families.


It was also important that millions of Americans were captured by the materialism and prosperity of the times, which seemed to indicate that anyone could become rich by simply investing in the proper instrument of instant wealth. Florida land appeared to be in 1921 one of those instruments of future success. It didn't matter if you lacked the money, credit was easy to obtain, with economic prosperity and a good job. 

Good thing we are past that nonsense.  

125 comments:

Unknown said...

..and thus launched the fashion trend of sandals with dark socks

Lawyerliz said...

Until the hurricane of 1926.

Lawyerliz said...

The cone shows that within the cone, the hurricane has a 70% Chance of being within the cone

Lawyerliz said...

Another named storm, Jose.

Rob Dawg said...

The cone of uncertainty is wide for this one.

Lawyerliz said...

Is there a Katia?

Unknown said...

people will have fun with "Jose"..

Lawyerliz said...

Sitting in Publix. Lots of water being bought.
I feel like sceaming, this is a 5 run away!!!!

Lawyerliz said...

Screaming. And most of them aren't buying enough.

Unknown said...

just back from Costco..I bought a case of water too..can't be to careful!!

Lawyerliz said...

A gallon a day for each person in your household.
Thanks Dawg for the compliment to the hub.

Lawyerliz said...

The hub says that it a only goes to 5 because that is total destruction. AND up can't get any more destruct ed than that.

Lawyerliz said...

Now people are checking out with quart sizes. Guess they ran out of gallons. They will restock by tomorrow.

Lawyerliz said...

Every check out station except one is in use. Designer water being bought. Some guys are walking out with beer.

Rob Dawg said...

Why aren't they buying those 5-20gal storage bins and a damn hose? Some packing tape if you are worried about contamination.

The 99¢ Store has three quart kids juice bottles. Pour the red stuff out and for a buck you have three quarts of perfectly good tap water. Fill the tub.

Yeah, get out but remember 60% get a big storm. 20% get a ride it out hurricane. 15% get slammed. 5% get wiped off the face of the earth. Making everyone act like the 5% isn't human nature.

Time for new zoning law. Homeowners agree that if they do not mandatory evacuate that their property zoning reverts to open space.

Lawyerliz said...

Hub has some smaller sizes even tho we wont even be there.

Lawyerliz said...

There a bunch of the really big.ones right next to me. No takers

Rob Dawg said...

> Some guys are walking out with beer.

Correction: Smart guys are walking out with beer.

Tradeable goods. Help clear = Free beer.

The one good thing about the alcohol distributor monopolies is that they respond to disasters. You can bet any major Southeastern US brewery is running flat out canning water.

Unknown said...

might be a good idea for the rest of us to stock up on plastic goods too (plastic bags, etc)...the petrochemical cos that make the ingredients used to make plastic were hit pretty hard by Harvey last week.

Rob Dawg said...

The other thing. Those wine in a box bladders. They prolly cost 5-10¢ at most. they hold 5 liters. There should be a bin of them for free at every fire station. Cheap, take no space, fill them up in an emergency, drain them or toss them after. If i were an emergency responder I would be there to make sure those taking the bladders were able to ride out, would try to use the moment to get them to evac, would get the address for post storm follow up priorities, etc.

Unknown said...

FEMA working up to their eyeballs in Texas, who is going to respond to Florida?

Rob Dawg said...

Respond to Florida? A DNC lawyer named Chad.

Seriously, this will be fine as far as responder allocation. We've gotten orders of magnitude better ate overlapping coverage and resource allocation. We see this all the time when a wildfire burns. Stations from Ventura leapfrog to Calabasas while the Calabasas units are out fighting the fire.

Unknown said...

I don't believe FEMA is supposed to be the primary responder in these incidents anyways..that goes to local & state agencies

Unknown said...

FEMA takes over when its declared a national disaster, typically a day or two after the event. They mobilize temp housing, supplies, etc. Theres also a huge job of insuranve assessments. A trained inspector has to look at the dmg and assign a dollar amount to the claim.

Rob Dawg said...

My mom, brother, his family, and a few remote relations near Venice Fl are hunkering in a 2016 construction with built in hurricane shutters and reinforcements several miles inland home owned by my aunt. Expect some great reports.

Unknown said...

maybe we're saying the same thing..but here is how the current head of FEMA describes their role (in a recent interview):

Although FEMA has jumped on the Texas storm, its director has emphasized in recent interviews with The Post that the initial response to a disaster — whether it’s a wildfire, a flood, a tornado or some other calamity — has to come from local and state agencies.

“Emergency management’s a partnership. It’s all based on a community’s capacity to handle an event,” Long said. “All disasters begin and end at the local level.” As Long has described it, FEMA’s job is to arrive when the local and state agencies are overwhelmed, which is what is happening in Texas.

Unknown said...

yes, we are saying the same thing. I was adding exposition that the national resources which are there to assist the overwhelmed tx locals are now going to have to divide their attention between irma and harvey victims. Relief to harvey will be worse because the national support will be overwhelmed. There literally aren't enough trained professionals in the country to handle two disasters this size. Think of how long katrina and Rita took to sort out in 2005. people were still stuck in limbo a year later.

Unknown said...

well..anybody who can get out of Florida..should get out. Don't wait..just go. If you're wrong..big deal..you're out a couple nights charges at a motel 6..you need to factor that into the cost of living on the gulf coast. jmo

Unknown said...

mandatory evacuations ordered in Miami-Dade county..

Rob Dawg said...

Already? That's potentially deadly the next time if they are wrong.

Lawyerliz said...

Wow.
We evacuated in Andrew and faced a huge traffic jam. The whole city?? Omg

Rob Dawg said...

Dolphins? Buccaneers? Wimps! I say make them play.

Unknown said...

evacuating miami takes 24-48 hrs. of drive time. they have to start this early

Lawyerliz said...

Effective when?

Lawyerliz said...

Well, where do people go. All hotel rooms in St Pete Tampa are filled. We got one of the last ones. Might not stay there if the hurricane goes somwe here else. Have room in Gainesville. After my apptment, we can go anywhere, includung North.

Lawyerliz said...

Maybe, but Miami is aware.

Lawyerliz said...

Including. Omg.

Unknown said...

Miami newspapers seem to be more worried about the damn "Dreamers" than the hurricane

Unknown said...

next week they will be complaining about FEMA response..

Lawyerliz said...

Don't think Miami is being evacuated. But it should be.

Unknown said...

yeah the headline at weather.com didn't match the text in the article..looks like limited evacuations for Florida Keys at the moment..

Lawyerliz said...

Yeay, but Miami prolly has large number of dreamers.

Unknown said...

not proportionate to the media they get..

Rob Dawg said...

Calling them "dreamers" is every bit as incorrectvand offensive as calling them "wetbacks." They are a class of illegal immigrants that Obama singled out for special treatment as a camel's nose in the tent.

Unknown said...

..and the good news is Mexico said they would love to have them back. Happy ending!!

Cinco-X said...

Real Americans!

Cinco-X said...

Back in the 30s, IIRC, Bama and Tennessee played in a hurricane...75 mph winds... That game has an NCAA record number of punts

Rob Dawg said...

I think Miami should be emptied out for non weather reasons.

Rob Dawg said...

Now it is real:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/weather/hurricane/os-hurricane-irma-disney-orlando-travel-20170905-story.html

Lawyerliz said...

Yeah, but they keep coming from every where and the Cubans are even legal.

Lawyerliz said...

One lady I talked to was happy that she had just sold her other house, and hadn't spent the money she set aside to fix up her other house. Now I am sorta glad we couldn't find a contractor to do our fixing. Now I doubt we ever will, ever being measured by years. They will rush to Houston, the ones which aren't totally overburdened with jobs now. Or Miami,n or whereever the damn storm is heading. Speghettis diverging to the west and are less consistent.

Rob Dawg said...

The perverse consequence may be huge increases in home improvement costs for all.

Rob Dawg said...

With the recent passing of my mom's long term beau "we" find ourselves with three hurricane magnets in the cone.

Lawyerliz said...

Well we already put in MiaMiDade qualified windows and garage doors and we also have roll down windows. We tried to get a new roof, no contractors.First floor cinderblock.. 2nd not. I can't see myself tearing down the 2nd floor cedar planks. A couple of them need replacing, which the hypothetical contractor was supposed to do.

Lawyerliz said...

185 winds, susrained, pressure 913. Awful. Tell her to get out now Atlanta is a nice place. At leaSt write SS number on her arm.

Rob Dawg said...

We have a 2016 construction house with the roll shutters and moat yard and all the rest several miles further inland. No worries.

Lawyerliz said...

And we won't even be there. Gainesville for tests in a couple of days. After that we have a hotel room in Tampa, if it goes there we can come back home or go north depending. 185 wind. 185!!!!!

Lawyerliz said...

Well you are safe from a hurricane. Earthquakes?

Lawyerliz said...

IIRC, the nuke plant in Miami got cracks at 190 gusts. Those things are built with immense quantities of concrete.

Lawyerliz said...

Good night. May the unForce be with you.

Unknown said...

European model has it going up the western coast of FL..that would be worst case scenario

Rob Dawg said...

If it keeps going west it strengthens then hits the Gulg Coast. That's even worse.

Like I said. Don't borrow trouble. Wait for the interaction with Cuba.

Lawyerliz said...

Days away, could be. want to see the next model run

LBD said...

Good Morning!

Day at the chemo lounge done. Now time to hit the road to the land of dust devils. TV guy is guessing Irma goes up the east coast. Hope he is right and this turns out not to that big of a big a problem.

Later :)

Lawyerliz said...

225 wind gusts. Not sure if still that fast. Don't need to borrow trouble.

Rob Dawg said...

This mornings models look like a shot up the East coast. May not even make Florida landfall. Still a big dangerous storm.

Cinco-X said...

Liz,
Maybe your insurance company will buy you a new roof now...

Unknown said...

is it too late to shift to a "Full Replacement Value" policy??

Rob Dawg said...

> "Full Replacement Value" policy??

No way, "Jose." ;)

Unknown said...

Puerto Rico about to get demolished..

Rob Dawg said...

Doesn't take much to cave in a failed nation state that's been hollowed out.

Unknown said...

Rd’s map shows where the 1928 hurricane hit. Here’s the human side of that horrible storm as written by Michael Grunwald in his 2006 book, “The Swamp” (pages 191-194)(warning: some of this is pretty gruesome):
The storm smashed into Palm Beach before heading northwest toward Okeechobee. That area the lake was mostly agricultural employing many black workers. “As the storm barreled into the area some whites managed to scramble into the regions studier homes, packing houses and hotels, but most blacks had to ride it out in their unprotected shanties in the low lying fields” The hurricane “killed 2,500 people mostly poor blacks who drown in vegetable fields ”

Unknown said...

continuing:

“ ‘The complete devastation was simply unbelievable’ recalled a cleanup worker named Chester Young. ‘Ugly death was everywhere’…Coffins were reserved for whites, and the soils of the Everglades were far too saturated for burials, so 674 black victims were stacked like cordwood …and hauled to a mass grave in West Palm Beach.”
“Once again, Florida’s initial reaction was denial. Governor Martin refused to activate the Nation Guard, claiming the storm had done little damage. But a grisly tour through the Everglades changed his mind.”
Grunwald notes that “local officials conscripted black into the cleanup at gunpoint. The governor soon sent out a telegram appealing for assistance: ‘The situation in the storm area beggars description.’

Unknown said...

I quoted from Michael Grunwald's The Swamp".

Trader Walt

Rob Dawg said...

Thanks. I remember reading that in a collection of hurricane stories including the one in New England in 1938.

Unknown said...

RD, my father told stories of the 1938 hurricane's impact in Connecticut.

(For Liz) More Grunwald on the 1928 Florida hurricane: "Meteorologist Richard Grey botched his forecast again, predicting the night before that south Florida would be spared, and there were few radios or phones in the muck land to catch his last minute change of heart the next morning."

Lawyerliz said...

Walt!!!

Lawyerliz said...

Well, hub put up transparent panels over the. First floor windows. And pUT some stuff in the garage and did some plannING and I put away some family stuff that had been sitting in the corner of the dining room for room for 5 or 6 years. Cleared up some family mysteries thereby.

Lawyerliz said...

Wonder if he was a relative of Bill Grey.

Unknown said...

Hi Liz, Grunwald's only other comment about Grey was that he worked for the U.S. Weather service and declared in 1926 that "Miami had little to fear from hurricanes. There's more risk to life in venturing across a busy street"
He, too, was caught up in the land buying euphoria.

Incidentally, in 1925 lots that had changed hands for $5,000 went back on the market for $100 after the 1926 storm.

(Off to the CME.)

Lawyerliz said...

Must clean up front porch. A disgraceful amount of gardening stuff and golf balls and dirt in the corners!

Unknown said...

It took some time, but I found the chances of hurricanes hitting major cities. I was actually looking for an article in the New Press giving the odds of a hurricane hitting within 100 miles of major Florida cities.

But this will have to do:

http://www.hurricanecity.com/rank.htm

Unknown said...

Titleist 2?? yeah that's mine..

Lawyerliz said...

I do know that. I read title that went back to them. In defence of My Green the prolly know 100 tmes more than what they knew then.

Lawyerliz said...

Dunno but someone gave him antique golf balls to him.

Rob Dawg said...

Mike, let's hope Irma has a worse hook than you. ;)

Side note. I literally have buckets of #1 golf balls. It is a rare walk when we don't get 2-3 keepers. I've never bought a golf ball.

Oh and I am trying to complete my Titleist number collection. I have 00 through 14 minus 11, 13 and one other.

Rob Dawg said...

Save those! People pay big bucks for certain brands. Check eBay. I have a brother of the one Auric Goldfinger played in the movie.

Unknown said...

if it rolls into Liz's messy dining room..do I get a free drop??

Rob Dawg said...

Circa 1967 as a ute we visited my parent's friend in Venice Fla. He lived up the "hill" straight out from the pier where he parked his boat. Classic case. Overweight, beer, fished for supper, fished more if he needed money which wasn't often. Youngster that i was I asked why there was a huge swath just south of the town there were empty dunes and scrub. He said there used to be as much town there as where we were. And guess what? There is as much town there now as anyplace else.

Rob Dawg said...

> "if it rolls into Liz's messy dining room..do I get a free drop??"

Depends on whether the windows are still in place. Consult the FEMA course judge.

BTW, I am in a really good golf place for the moment. I did 30 yard gap wedge practice this morning. Only a few clunkers and a whole bunch of one putts. One hole out.

Unknown said...

yeah..that's when you start scoring well..when the short game gets locked down.

Rob Dawg said...

Drive for show, putt for dough but approach is the way to go.

Moment of correction. I said Venice Fishing Pier. Too much sun apparently. I meant and my anecdote applies to further south at the Naples Pier.

Cinco-X said...

http://www.businessinsider.com/hurricane-irma-strength-category-forecast-updates-2017-9

Liz,
This looks to be headed your way...Have you left yet?

Rob Dawg said...

Liz was clear that they would be gone in plenty of time.

Rob Dawg said...

In case anyone didn't bookmark:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-74.52,24.62,3000/loc=-73.165,23.343

Unknown said...

the compelling idea about golf..was the thought if you could just get rid of that one dumb shot each hole..you could turn from being a middling mid 90's player into a very competitive high 70's/low 80's player.

easier said than done...lol

Cinco-X said...

I think they already voted to become the 51st State. I hope this doesn't precipitate they're inclusion in the union

Unknown said...

I voted them their independence..hahaha

Lawyerliz said...

My house is more tidy than it ever was. The front porch is empty except for some dirt. Maybe it will blow away.

Lawyerliz said...

Need to pack clothes.

Unknown said...

yeah..sweeping the porch wouldn't be on my to do list right now. ;<)

Rob Dawg said...

I went to the goodwill today and bought clothes for visiting Scotland.

Cinco-X said...

Not a bad idea... Buy throwaway clothes, and fill you suitcases with new stuff for the trip back...

Cinco-X said...

BTW, we did Airbnb in Barcelona, and I only took two sets of clothing plus what I was wearing for the flight over. Packed everything is a single, carry on sized suitcase, and just wanted and dried every evening.

Rob Dawg said...

Hawaii in February will be carry on bags only. As an international next month we get a "free" checked bag. October in northern Scotland suggests a few clothes so we might check through light and maybe come back heavy.

Rob Dawg said...

Liz if she checks in will love this. Last time to Hawaii we went to the goodwill and bought masks and snorkels and fins. Had fun and donated most of them back. Kept a nice mask. Being poor works sometimes.

LBD said...

Road note, drove through what seemed like a hundred wind generatos on the eastern plains of Colorado. None seem to be turning.

Hope LL and Hub make it OK.

Unknown said...

Scotland?? let me know if you are interested in playing golf while you're there. I know a guy who owns a golf course.. ;<)

Rob Dawg said...

And to top it all off. A big azz solar flare in a few days. X9.3

Anonymous said...

By the time Liz gets back, the turtles will have reclaimed the property.

Rob Dawg said...

Playing a round in the motherland is like a dream for any duffer.

Rob Dawg said...

Turtles have been around for 157 million years. They will eventually reoccupy Merrit Island and vicinity.

Unknown said...

157 million years.

vs humans with about 6 thousand..

Rob Dawg said...

Worst case. Drink all the wine in your cellar and use the empties as flotation devices.

Lawyerliz said...

Excellent idea, except we drank most of it already.

Lawyerliz said...

All ready have

Lawyerliz said...

Maybe. HAHAHAHAHA

Rob Dawg said...

Lol.

Rob Dawg said...

Okay. I've been trying to make gin. The Octoberfest beer brew is awesome and I'm ready after touring the whiskey distillery in Utah. So before the actual still bit I thought to work the botanicals. 2oz of potato vodka and some juniper berries and cucumber zest and blood orange zest and some other stuff.

Turns out that's like 50x what is needed. I keep cutting it to make drink but it stays too potent. Apparently gin is vodka with but a whisper of fragrance.

Lawyerliz said...

Thx for your well wishes

Lawyerliz said...

Waiting for Hub to do the last few touches. I hear traffic is awlful

Unknown said...

watching a live cam of Cocoa beach pier..such a pretty morning...hopefully we get a miracle and FL is spared

LBD said...

Good Morning!

Stay safe!

Short drive to So Co, great BBQ today!

Lawyerliz said...

No bad traffic so far. Brevard to be evavuated.

Rob Dawg said...

New post.