Florida's new attraction, Legoland, posts jobs, but doesn't want calls about them. Hmm..

[madfloridian]

In case you missed it Florida's historical Cypress Gardens has been sold to Legoland. It was the home of the ski shows, the Esther Williams swimming movies, and the Southern Belles. It actually had beautiful gardens. We used to go there and picnic and tour the gardens, watch the shows, and look for the movie stars. I thought I wanted to grow up to be a Southern Belle. :)

Thousands of jobs have been promised to Central Florida because of Legoland. They just don't want calls about them.

Tom Palmer is a county nature columnist and does political commentary at times.

He sure got it right on this one.

OK, quit calling Legoland

I posted a number where contractors were supposedly supposed to call to get in line to be considered for work in a couple of months when Legoland/Merlin Entertainments were getting ready to remake the former Cypress Gardens into Legoland Florida.

That information had already been shared internally by the Central Florida Development Council folks. I decided to share it because I figured there were a lot of decent, hard-working contractors out there looking for work and they might appreciate the heads up.

But, noooooo!

The guy’s phone has been ringing off the hook, I heard (shows people read what we write) and the word was put out that letting people know who to call–they’d been calling me and county commissioners up until then–was all a big mistake, a bit premature etc. etc.

Tom Palmer has their number in more ways than one.

I’m still wondering why, if they didn’t want calls, were they circulating the number to the county folks.

The intent of the county folks was, I’m sure, to let everyone have an equal chance to try for the work. It was, wasn’t it, boys?

Days of media promotion got all the people looking for any kind of job kind of excited. The deal was done quietly and secretly, and then presented to the public on every local station over and over.

Tom Palmer is right to call them out on this evasion about jobs. They promised those jobs all over the TV. You go, Tom. Tell it like it is.

[Hannah Bell]

1. It's often the case when localities cough up tax breaks for corps, the jobs promised don't

materialize.

But somehow the local authorities rarely do anything about it.

corruption, i'd guess.

[madfloridian]

2. Many are afraid they will bring in cheapie labor from elsewhere.

Wouldn't be surprised.

[Hannah Bell]

3. i think lots of them already do.

[Divine Discontent]

4. I nearly posted without reading the comments, I was going to say, watch them pull a Disney and bring

in tons of international workers for 7 bucks an hour, set them up in tiny apartments and charge them an average of half their salary just to stay in them, a la Diz...

makes ya think that when you hear their response to people calling...

[SoCalDem]

5. I always loved Silver Springs & Sea-Quarium

probably both are long gone now, but every time we went to Florida, we always stopped at those two places ...

[peekaloo]

7. Silver Springs is still around.

Big ol' amusement park/final resting place for tired musical acts.

I think Sea-Quariam (Miami) is still flippin', too. :-)

[madfloridian]

9. Wasn't big water trying to buy Weeki Wachee Springs?

Or trying to gain a foothold there? Is it still around? The word Nestle comes to mind.

[peekaloo]

13. I know Nestle got a sweet deal in Northern Florida to basically

pumped millions of gallons for a pittance, then got tax breaks for doing it. I know it was a state park but I'm unsure on Weeki Wachee. Another one of "The People's Governor" deals.

[SoCalDem]

11. We only took the glass bottom boat rides

It was wonderful:)

[mod mom]

6. Tom needs to follow up on this story and see just who the workers are and where they came from.

[madfloridian]

8. He probably will.

And you are right, he should. Every channel was covering the guys from Europe who paid plenty to get publicity for the announcement. I never heard of Legoland, and I already miss Cypress Gardens.

I hate to say it, but I think the whole thing was planned....too many garden acres and not earning enough money for the big guys. It started under Jeb, the gardens sold and many acres went to developers.

[FloriTexan]

10. But you ARE a Southern Belle ;)

I'm sure sorry to hear about this as well as Weeki Wachi which is one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited. Had a friend who lived on the river outside the park and it was amazing.

[madfloridian]

14. I only sound like one. :)

My southern drawl gives me away every time.

When I was young I idolized those girls in the beautiful dresses. Then I grew up and realized it was all show.

[ddeclue]

12. As someone who is looking, Central Florida is remarkably "job free"

I wouldn't count on all that many real jobs out of "Legoland" - the only jobs I would suspect will come out of this will be some more slave wage tourist service jobs and in the end there will probably be a net loss of those considering you are simply replacing one tourist attraction for another (Busch Gardens for Legoland) and it probably takes less people to maintain the Legos than it did the plants that were there before.

As usual, the county commissioners have no good ideas outside of real estate development (which is usually what they did before they were elected) and will tout any hare-brained scheme as being the nirvana which will save the local economy.

Ironically, turning Busch Gardens into Legoland is the perfect metaphor for what has happened to the entire State of Florida in the last 30 years - they are taking something relatively natural and beautiful and turning it into something artificial, unattractive, and plastic - in this case LITERALLY plastic being made out of millions of little plastic squares.

Perhaps they could hire Rod Blagojevich to be "Lego Man" their spokesperson:



I am probably one of the few people who could get a high paying get (some day) out of Legoland here in Central Florida because I am a highly skilled and experienced LabVIEW programmer and programming Lego Mindstorms robots is all an outgrowth of LabVIEW.

:D

[madfloridian]

15. I do love that picture.

:)

I feel like a long time place of beauty has been violated by legos. I guess Bok Tower and its serenity is next. Not much room for it in this modern corporate world.