Reply #14: Remeber, Hurricane Camille took 30+ years to rebuild from - and that was

[gulfcoastliberal]

when we had much more honest people rebuilding the state - locals helping one another, less corruption.. but it still took over 30 years to fully recover.

Look at Punta Gorda (before Charlie Punta Gorda rated in the top 10 best places to live) - still destroyed.

Here in Pensacola 2 years after Ivan there's still plenty of damage everywhere, including my condo building - but at least it's liveable. Too bad the board of directors have zero business acumen (except for the treasurer, I can't praise him enough). But it sucks living in an area where you know you could be nuked anywhewre, anytime each year during hurricane season. And now the the real estate bubble burst, it's a buyers market. The only advantage is my condo is maybe 5-10 minute drive to Pensacola NAS, so there's lots of militray folks who can rent if not buy. During the real estate frenzy we went ahead and got a 5th floor 2 bedroom waterfront unit that got flooded Ivans rain. We lost the roof of the building, lobby still looks like a bomb went off... it's a big mess. My advice to anyone thinking about buying coastal property: don't. Buy an RV, or camper, or book hotel rooms - do NOT buy waterfdront real estate. Especially in Florida, unless you enjoy $10,000+ yearly insurance premiums, with more rate hikes inevetible.

And then look at the stock tickers of the major insurance companies and tell me their record profits despite higher reinsurance rates justify their raping of Floridas homeoners.

If I could sell, I would and move back to N California in a second. I miss Davis, CA. College town, plenty of good food, culture, bike paths, wonderful public transportation.

If you want to see whwhat smart growth looks like, click this (and remember this community is over 25 years old! A very good, informative review of Corbett and Village Homes:

http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC35/Browning.htm