[emilamlom]

Florida is such a weird state. Their main income is tourism by a lot, yet the government keeps hurting their main money-maker by not taking care of their beaches and environment and, I guess, trying to be more like Texas. When the deepwater horizon oil spill happened, they didn't really clean the beaches or water that well and just dumped more sand on top of the oily film to hide it before the summer tourist season. For years afterwards, you'd always find tarballs and oil spots in the sand just a few inches down.

[paxys]

Not too surprising. After many decades of sensible policies which got the state to where it is today Florida is now in its "kill the golden goose" stage. In another decade or so the economy will mirror the rest of the deep south.

[likeabatterycar]

> they didn't really clean the beaches or water that well and just dumped more sand on top of the oily film

Is there a particular technical solution you had in mind? The world's largest bottle of Dawn soap?

It was one of the worst disasters ever, they were writing the book as they went along. Sometimes the repair is worse than the event (e.g. poisoning the sea life with cleaners or dispersants). Sand is inert, so it may have been the least risky method.

In fact, if you spill motor oil in your driveway, the initial recommended cleanup method is to cover it with sand or cat litter and let it soak up the oil...

[emilamlom]

I'm not an ecologist, so no, I don't have a particular technical solution in mind. I'm going off of memory from living there at the time. That said, I would expect any oil company operating so close to shore to have a proper disaster preparedness plan. As I remember it, BP drug their feet fighting over who was responsible for the cleanup which made it end up being worse than it potentially could have been.

[wakawaka28]

There's only so much a company or anyone else can prepare for in advance. I don't recall much hesitation in trying to deal with the spillage. BP didn't do everything right, and I heard they harrassed some whistleblowers. Some of the chemicals they used to clear up the oil were themselves toxic. But seriously what can you expect anyone to do about such a huge disaster. It's literally an ocean-sized cleanup problem in response to a freak accident.

[quantified]

Did that actually hurt the tourism?

[saxonww]

It did dip right after, but tourism by number of visitors picked up again shortly after. See e.g. figure 10.2 in https://repository.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:539161/d....

The Governor's office would like you to know that tourism is record breaking, has never been better, and Florida is amazing.

[emilamlom]

I don't know the actual statistics, so I can't say for sure. From what I remember, it did hurt tourism but people quickly forgot about it. The fishing/shrimping industry locally took a major hit though as far as I know. Even not considering the moral/ethical responsibility to take care of the environment, it seems incredibly risky to the state's main form of income to not take it seriously.

[FrustratedMonky]

Yeah, without clean beaches and water, why am I vacationing there?

[jMyles]

I don't want to take away from the importance of clean beaches and water, but there are many good answers to your question, at least as St. Pete goes:

* Live music

* Great food

* Bike and pedestrian friendliness

* Wildlife

* Sports and outdoor activities in winter

* Traditional outdoor craft and fruit markets

* Exposure to greater racial, ethnic, and lingual diversity than is present in most of the USA

[rbanffy]

It appeals to Americans, but Europeans have all that, with the exception of the last one, just a train away.

[jMyles]

> just a train away

I don't think any continental European city has the quality and diversity of live music that St. Pete has. Prague is perhaps closest.

Obviously Dublin and Glasgow are world class, if they're a train away for you.

Also, wildlife? And local fruit?

My personal anecdata is that many Europeans come to and enjoy Florida's west coast for these reasons.

[rbanffy]

For Dublin, I can use the tram (an inconvenience, as I need to reach the continent by sea or plane), but Europe is wildly diverse and, as good as Glasgow, Prague, Berlin, etc are, there's always the feeling of missing out on something a couple hours away.

Wildlife, I agree, leaves something to be desired. It's unavoidable, as this place has been inhabited since the emergence of our species as a dominant power. It's hard to walk by without stepping on someone's grave (one of the reasons we don't have a subway is that nobody dares to dig and find some invaluable archaeological site).

As for St. Pete, I have my friends who live there, and in Tampa, Orlando, and Miami, and I enjoy their company and host them when they come over here. They know how to throw a party.

[jMyles]

> there's always the feeling of missing out on something a couple hours away.

Yeah, I've certainly had that feeling many times. :-)

But I do think there's a categorical difference: in several US cities (I use St. Pete as an example, as it has had a beautiful explosion of live music in the past few years), it's possible to see Blues, Rock, Country, Hip-hop, Bluegrass, Jazz and a Grateful Dead cover band all within walking or cycling distance. I've looked high and low in Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Copenhagen, Madrid, Barcelona, Naples, and while I've seen some good music here an there, I haven't been able to connect quite as tightly.

Now Glasgow, that place is amazing. You can see righteous pub trad, which runs the gammut of sounds from classical to bluegrass, in like four different places every night. It's incredible.

Am I looking in the wrong places?

It's not merely an academic question: I'll be planning my next Europe tour soon, and the venues we might play / bands for whom we might open in Prague are pretty obvious. But elsewhere, we kinda just have to plan our own events for the most part.

[FrustratedMonky]

Yeah, but even in St. Pete. How many of these activities are on the water. Like back paths, etc.. are along water ways.

[cjrp]

Disney’s the main draw for Europeans

[rbanffy]

We have the whole Mediterranean for beaches, so I guess it’s that. There is the Disney park in Paris, but I gather it’s much smaller.

Legend says they had staffing problems because, according to company regulations, staff must always greet guests with a smile and Parisians just couldn’t do that.

[likeabatterycar]

Where else can you walk from Germany to Mexico?

[rbanffy]

The places lost a lot with the translation.

[anthomtb]

Breaking up the travel on the way to the much, much better beaches and much, much clearer water in the Caribbean?

That's the only reason I'll be spending a night in America's wang.

[likeabatterycar]

You're also much, much more likely to get much, much more beaten and robbed and have your rental car stolen with everything in it, and have to deal with the corrupt cops as a foreigner in the Caribbean.

[giantg2]

Probably for Disney et al.