Editing Florida (section)

== HOW WE GOT HERE: A BRIEF HISTORY OF NORTH AND SOUTH ==
“Look, the more north in Florida you go, the more south it gets, while the more south in Florida you go, the more north it gets.”  
Historically, North Florida had long been less-developed than South Florida for many reasons – its lack of equally accessible natural harbors, its cooler winters discouraging snowbirds, even the historical accident of where railroad tracks first crosscut the swamps. Beyond the tourist industry and the heavy military presence in the area, the economy of much of the north was precarious, with little to offer but agriculture. This history of poverty was told in a hundred ways: the naming of the Forgotten Coast, idyllic white sand paradises where few people could eke out a living – or, more darkly, incidents like the mid-1900s ‘Nub City’ self-amputation insurance scheme of Vernon, Florida. Even the capital city of Tallahassee had very little cultural or business footprint beyond the necessities of government.  
South Florida, on the other hand, attracted all of the attention, fame, and money. Tampa and Orlando served as major transportation hubs for much of the country; Miami loomed large in the nation’s psyche as a sun-soaked party paradise. Retirees flocked in droves to the many beach towns of the east coast in particular– the nation’s largest retirement community, The Villages, was a small city in and of itself. At the tip of the state, the Florida Keys provided an experience of true tropical splendor unlike anywhere else in the continental US.  
And then… the Earth warmed, and the seas began to rise.  
Large chunks of South Florida vanished under the hungry oceans, and what was left was afflicted by heat that not even northern retirees found quite as appealing anymore. Two mega-storms, Hurricane Desiree in 2063 and Hurricane Myleen in 2076, utterly rewrote the geography of North and South Florida respectively. The nigh-complete loss of Miami in particular during Myleen filled the state with an exodus of refugees… and drastically shook up all projections of Florida’s future.  
In this unsettled and rapidly changing environment, corporate interests were able to take advantage on a grand scale. Banding together to snap up land at a song, they commodified everything of Florida’s appeal that they could, making unspeakable fortunes off their projects. In return, life outside of their domain only became more difficult and poverty-stricken - the vicious cycle of inequality.

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