Along the Gulf to Panama City Beach

Thursday, January 17, 2013
Panama City Beach, Florida, United States
The Gulf Coast of Mississippi, Alabama and Florida is highly developed and densely settled. The Gulf Coast of Louisiana is not. Today's ride along the Gulf was completely different to yesterday's mystical experience. There were only a few stretches of coast that did not have large hotels and housing developments, malls and motels cascading along the highway. I became dizzy with the neon signage. Moments of beauty came when the road rose up on a causeway, and then peaked on a bridge. The wind was sharp, the sun was bright and the day was clear. From the top of the bridge, for one brief instant, one can look out over bay or river or wetland and see for miles. Then down again into the maelstrom of neon and beach buildings.

I discovered that by day the French Quarter was a lot more fancy than I gave it credit for last night . Many of the homes have been restored (following Katrina) to a new old look. Balconies, columns and long French doors are just right, with flowers hanging from the second story, and artistic grating and ironwork on the first story is just so. The roads are bad, but then so are the roads in Georgetown. The place is very up-market, and French. The views of the river are way better in the daytime. Although it is cold here, people are vacationing from even colder spots. I had a nice conversation with a couple from Michigan, enjoying today's sunshine.

Doug French and I once worked together in Pass Christian, Mississippi to repair the home of someone affected by Katrina. I went past the house (looked great, if all closed) and the church where we camped out. In this community at least much has been done, but the work is still not complete -- roads are dug up, the pier is being reconstructed, and people are still rebuilding.

Visited Fairhope, Alabama, the neatest tidiest surprise town along the coast. In the middle of magnolia country the other side of the bay from Mobile, public activities are funded by a single tax on land (a lease in this case). It was started in 1894 on land purchased by a foundation that wished to test out the taxation system proposed by economist Henry George. Such a single tax would remove disincentives to income generating activities, while allowing the community as a whole to benefit from development, which translates into land values and hence tax revenue. This community at least seems to have prospered.
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