Monday, March 12, 2012

Parrish, Florida


Driving through Parrish really brought me back to the seeds of this project. Parrish is a typical inland Florida town; populated by maybe a couple thousand people, surrounded by farmland, and close enough to a big city that the farmland is slowly being suburbanized. I stumbled upon this development, Cross Creek. Six years ago, at the back side of the housing boom, some developer decided to built a multi-section development. They built playgrounds, parks, a community pool, a dog run and five model homes, and of course, all the infrastructure needed when these home where built. 

Six years hence, there's no sign of any additional building. We have encroachment back into the roads and parks. There where people out walking the streets on their daily walk, but they didn't live there. Plenty of people came to use the dog run, but none of them lived there either. No kids played in the playgrounds; no one visited the community pool. Even though there's no houses, the Peace River Electrical Coop still has to maintain the equipment; workers where out inspecting the entire development while I was there.

I spent the better part of a day exploring this space. There's so much I wish could be done, so much that could have been done, without creating what it now a blight on the map.









No comments: