While the ministry of propaganda is constantly reminding us of what a total catastrophe this most recent hurricane is, allow me to take the unpopular stance and say it: This may be one of the better things that has happened to the area in a long time. In the present, it may be really difficult to see through the generator smoke and debris strewn roads to see it, but I have the luxury of experience in this kind of thing allows me to be able to make this call.
As of 2020, the mean population of Punta Gorda was 20 thousand folk. That's a pretty small town by any measure. Yet, this entire last year, I was constantly finding myself sitting through three entire light cycles at traffic lights because the traffic has grown to the choking point here. This last couple of years, the community has been overrun with people looking to get away from the political dumpster fires that they created in whatever areas they came from, buy a house in Southwest Florida, and create a brand new dumpster fire here for us all to enjoy. This trend has driven housing prices to record levels, making affordable homes for the working class nearly untouchable.
This non stop drive for new housing has pushed the developments further east. If you have ever driven into Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, or Fort Lauderdale, you will understand the dire consequences of this. Strip mall after strip mall greet you for 20 miles on the main highways before you even get to the city limits. This is the future we are facing here. Unmitigated growth and unchecked expansion, unsupervised by county leaders who only care about lining their pockets, insures a miserable urban planning disaster in the future for the rest of us.
In an effort to keep up with the growth and demand, commercial traffic has exploded. U.S. 17 has been a minefield of frustration attempting to deal with the non stop dump truck parade. Every vehicle I own now had a damaged windshield because of these trucks. They run drag races down 2 lane Bermont road and have managed to successfully kill about a dozen residents down that way in the last year alone. Law enforcement turns a blind eye to it while County Commissioners hem and haw and eventually do nothing about it. When I bought my house in Cleveland 10 years ago, it was a 9 minute drive to City Hall. Today, it's a 29 minute drive.
It's not all road traffic, but air traffic. If you live anywhere on the east side of the Punta Gorda area, the constant parade of jet traffic flying in has created a whole new level of unabated noise pollution. There is a constant tug of war in the residential communities here to force the jets to fly in and out from ANY other direction to try and get 25 minutes of the silence that we originally purchased with our properties. Any don't even think about trying to get a flight into our out of the area if you live here. All flights have been overbooked for several years. Based on my own experience, there also appears to be a 2 screaming baby minimum requirement for each flight. That way we all get to enjoy our 2 hellish hours together in a sardine can.
The good news is that this all changes right now. The endless parade of fish-belly white tourists in their Crocks and surfing shorts is going to abate for a while. There won't be nearly as many people trying to flush out real estate to escape their snowy homelands. And while this is bad for tourism dollars, it gives the area a chance to step back and assess how we can work in the future to more adequately accommodate the influx of tourism and carpetbaggers. This will give communities in Lee and Collier counties the time to repair their dated infrastructure, and rebuild properly with the next hurricane in mind.
I am not going to lie to you. It is not going to be a fast process. Punta Gorda was not quite right for 3 or 4 years after Charley in 2004. The quaint old charm that people fell in love with, in some cases is going to be gone forever. We can rebuild, but we can't build new-old. I'm also sure that in many cases, with the implementation of stricter building codes, some places that you may have loved will just be gone forever. The good news is, that new, amazing, hurricane reinforced businesses and residences are going to appear. Yes, they will be newer, but they will be stronger, and more capable of accommodating the influx of travelers to the area.
This disaster is also going to cool down some of the outrageous real estate prices at least for a while. Once the rebuilding and reconstruction gets into full swing in a year or two, the prices are going to drive back up. This is going to be the litmus test of your elected officials to see how they handle the problems of affordable housing for the middle and working class. Hint: Charlotte County did almost nothing for this, and we are now paying the price for it. New businesses will spring up and replace many of the ones that were lost to the storm. New restaurants and bars will eventually open their doors and bring with them all manner of exciting new fare.
In the end, if you stick it out, you are going to find yourself in a newer, cleaner, prettier and safer community. It may be hard to envision it now, but this is how it has always played out after these events in Florida. It is reasonable to assume that the Southwest Florida area will be no different. We need to demand that our elected officials take into account the explosive growth that this event is eventually going to bring with it. If we handle this correctly, and use it to prepare for the future, Hurricane Ian could end up being one of the best things that ever happened to this area.
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