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This is sprawl (Learn that word boys and girls because it will haunt us forever)

ceallaigh:

This past weekend I went to a wine tasting at Schnebly Redlands Winery.  They make their wine from tropical fruits and they are the southern most winery in the continental United States.  I learned about it from one of my co-workers who commutes everyday from her family’s guava farm in Homestead.  She brought in a bottle of their Category 3 Hurricane wine, which is absolutely fantastic.  After the tasting I took a bottle of Cat 3 and a bottle of Mango wine home for myself.  The Mango wine isn’t as sweet as you would think it would be, it has quite a nice balance.

The trip down there was quite interesting.  I have not been down to Homestead in about three or four years when I took my sisters down to Monkey Jungle.  It’s a refuge that was developed for preservation where the monkeys are out in the open and the visitors are in the cages. 

But I digress, my real point about the expedition, an hour south of my home, is that it has become a cookie cutter’s paradise.  I mean in the development of track homes and not in a culinary way.  I know that’s what the rest of Miami Dade (and most of Florida) is as well, but I was still surprised. It was overwhelming observing the sea of endless houses stacked right next to each other where there was once open fields.  Most of them are still under construction. Now the Redlands (mostly the farming community of Homestead) just west of the city proper of Homestead, has become the only open area of South Florida.

It just so happens that Eye on Miami wrote about the Homestead housing issue yesterday.

“Homestead, Florida is the abject example of cancerous growth gone wild. The natural amenities and historical character of the last rural place in south Florida, adjacent to two of America’s most threatened national parks, were thrown overboard by local bankers, like Bob Eppling and Bill Losner who sold his bank, and local political figures like Steve Shiver, the former mayor of Homestead, former county manager, and former developer of low cost housing who is now running an amusement park in North Carolina.”

As we were driving either Star or Karen, I can’t remember, said something along the lines of, “There are so many of them.  How do you know which one is your house, they all look the same?”

I have a competitive edge. I don’t know if it stems from having older siblings, but if I’m doing the same task or activity as someone else, you can bet I’m secretly trying to beat her.

via fitsugar