New England in Florida

A complex at Disney World meant to evoke Martha’s Vineyard

From Robert Whitcomb's "Digital Diary,'' in GoLocal24.com

A couple of months ago I was visiting some relatives in a large gated community in Port St. Lucie, Fla., where live lots of people liking Florida’s weather (or at least its winters) and disliking Northeast taxes. What most struck me, besides the cat-consuming alligators, was how much the nearby village center was constructed to look like a New England small town instead of the “there’s no there, there’’ appearance of much of Florida, with its innumerable strip malls and shoddy houses and condo developments. People still long for something evoking a longer history than you’re usually reminded of in Florida, if only a Disneyfied version such as in Port St. Lucie.