Put it on your schedule! Hands down, "Paving Paradise" is the best book on the recent history of Florida. Listen to the writers, and you will learn how the Growth Machine chewed up the state of Florida in the run-up of the biggest building boom in Florida history. St. Pete Times writers Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite will speak at Books and Books in Coral Gables next Monday. Don't miss it. Pass the news to your friends and lists. It is, by the way, a book length refutation of the argument that the Growth Machine is capable of self-policing or, even, following laws. We call growth "out of control" for many reasons: read this book, to understand why.
Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite- Paving Paradise
Time: Monday, June 29, 2009 8:00 p.m.
Location: Books & Books, Coral Gables
Florida possesses more wetlands than any other state except Alaska, yet since 1990 more than 84,000 acres have been lost to development despite presidential pledges to protect them. How and why the state's wetlands are continuing to disappear is the subject of Paving Paradise (University Press of Florida, $27). Journalists Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite spent nearly four years investigating the political expedience, corruption, and negligence on the part of federal and state agencies that led to a failure to enforce regulations on developers. They traveled throughout the state, interviewed hundreds of people, dug through thousands of documents, and analyzed satellite imagery to identify former wetlands that were now houses, stores, and parking lots. Exposing the unseen environmental consequences of rampant sprawl, Pittman and Waite explain how wetland protection creates the illusion of environmental protection while doing little to stem the tide of destruction.
No comments:
Post a Comment