Estero Island

I really liked visiting the Estero Island Cottage.  As sad as it was that we couldn't go canoeing because of the storm, I did enjoy riding through the islands.  It was amazing to see how inefficient the draining systems out there are.  I guess, being on an island, there's really no where else for the water to go, but I feel bad for the folks who live out there and have to deal with that every day during the summer.  After listening to the talk at the cottage though, I don't know if the quality of life on the island actually is being enhanced.  I suppose the bridges are better, and there are stores and restaurants out there, but the island itself seems like it was better before all the development moved in.

My hometown hasn't changed much in the last couple of years.  I think the biggest change was a retirement community that was built down by the bank and the middle school.  My hometown was a small farming and bedroom community in the Farmington River/Tobacco Valley in Connecticut, right on the border with Massachusetts.  Big changes don't come often, even though we're part of the surrounding area of Bradley International Airport.  I remember, the most drastic change that happened the whole time I lived there was a Highland Park Market grocery store that opened up at the top of Main Street where there had been a gardening store or something similar before.  I think New England farm towns especially resist change better than a lot of other areas.  We felt a greater sense of community after we got the grocery store, in fact, because it meant that we didn't have to drive all the way over to the other side of the Connecticut River to get groceries in the next town anymore.

I think, if a developer offered an extreme amount of money for my childhood home in order to make it condos, I wouldn't feel too bad.  I grew up in condos before we moved to the other town, and I'm completely certain that they couldn't build condos on the land where our house is.  We actually got the chance to watch a house across the street sink into the ground, because the land bordered a wetlands area, and the foundation of the house wasn't structurally sound enough.  It's possible I have a, "It can't happen to me" mentality about it, but knowing the area, I'm comfortable that things won't change because it would take an enormous amount of time and energy, and it's just not worth it in the end.