Letters to the Editor

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Hey, Sun Belters, move to the Great Lake states. You can have all the water you want and stop worrying about droughts. Besides, we're not piping our water south.
  • This is the flip side of freedom

    You can go and live wherever you want, but you can't control it if ten million of your fellow citizens decide to do the same. I live in the Orlando area, and when I moved here 14 years ago I saw "L.A. circa 1950" -- cheap flat land with orange groves and a decent enough climate (at least half the year). Sure enough, the nighttime sounds of frogs and crickets has given way to the drone of vehicles. And here, unlike the Southwest, the ecosystem is naturally in need of huge amounts of rainfall. The porous limestone under us can collapse like a drying sponge, taking houses and roads into the maw of expanding sinkholes.

    So, do I feel like packing up and moving to ...Duluth? Egads! People live here and happily endure the six-month sauna of "summer" and the threat of hurricanes and the wonderful home insurance rates they bring because to us, less than sixty degrees feels downright polar! I really don't think I could stand the cold and snow. Call me a wimp. But it's January 6 and 75 degrees outside. The days I have to actually wear something heavier than a short sleeve shirt to go outside are, maybe 15 a year. Wimmmmmp!

    But this is a conscious decision to live here, with the understanding that there is no place one can live consequence-free.