Is Florida better set up to handle multi-culturalism than the rest of the U.S.?

by philg

When I talked to a neighbor in Cambridge, MA regarding our upcoming move to Jupiter, Florida (see Relocation to Florida for a family with school-age children) she responded that she wouldn’t want to live anywhere that had privately set up limits on human behavior, e.g., through homeowners’ associations and the covenants and deed restrictions that go with them. She didn’t like the idea that she might not be able to stage a big political demonstration on the street in front of her house (likely illegal in Massachusetts anyway as a violation of one of the governor’s 68 COVID-19 emergency orders).

I found part of the agreement for those who live in Abacoa, a neighborhood within Jupiter. Pit bulls are banned:

Obviously this is not going to increase happiness among those who love pit bulls, but for the average person it might be nice to know that something that is legal under state law won’t happen in one’s neighborhood. (A recent afternoon for a couple of pit bulls: “3-Year-Old Was Playing in Yard for 1st Time With Family When Neighbor’s Dog Attacked, Killing Him”, which notes “a neighbor’s dog escaped an enclosure and attacked them both, killing the young child and leaving his mother severely injured, a source close to the family told NBC New York.”)

My response to the neighbor:

I think Florida’s approach is more sustainable, actually. The U.S. is trending toward a population of 500 million people who have different cultures, languages, expectations, etc. With Chinese-style population density, but without a Chinese-style unified culture and language, we’re going to need more explicit rules if we want people to get along.

If we ever become stupid enough to win a bidding war for a house down there (going to rent at first), it might be burdensome to have to clean up our front yard every evening, but maybe we will come to love the fact that neighbors can’t park ugly boats and RVs in their driveways, keep human-killing dog breeds, be as messy with their yards as we’ve been with ours here in MA, etc. I’ll be sad that I never got to execute on my dream of painting one of the garage doors in a rainbow flag and the other one as a huge BLM banner, but I’ve reached the age where I realize that not all of dreams are attainable.

Readers: What do you think? Does it make sense that a country of 331 million would need more rules than a country of 100 million (the U.S., circa 1920)?

26 thoughts on “Is Florida better set up to handle multi-culturalism than the rest of the U.S.?”

  3. “Readers: What do you think? Does it make sense that a country of 331 million would need more rules than a country of 100 million (the U.S., circa 1920)?” Not necessary. Very densely populated cities show jump in rules based on politics and fear and not on population density growth, even bleeding population due to new rules. New rules create new inefficiencies: sadly a child died to a pit-bull attack but statistically pit-bull attacks are still rare and defensive use of pit-bull to protect properties and children is day to day, always. It is better to be prepared for eventualities, especially if pit-bulls are close: have at least something like a knife, a gun and another strong dog around.
    Of course, unlike during Lewis and Clark Expedition times it is unwise for pioneers shoot powerful weapons without clear back-stop but urban population density has been at the same level since mid 19th century, for over 150 years, and hypothetical (hopefully not in another 150 years) addition of another 200 million people to a such large country as USA will not make it higher, it may extend cities or create new cities, that’s about it.
    The largest country by land area, Russia, has never had deficit of rules. Now it is bleeding population and high rate and creates new rules at much higher rate. No connection.

  4. We’re overlawyered and overlegislated by a lot, it’s not going to get better. The less social cohesion you have the more rules you need and the more authority you have to transfer to the government and we see it everywhere. Pit bulls are bred and selected to attack human beings and no amount of niceness rescuing them will ever change that. I have really aggressive friends who will not own one and instead have Rottweilers because pit bulls are as unpredictable as tigers in captivity.

    I lived in a more liberal condo. development in a big American city, my upstairs neighbor was a hugely liberal woman who couldn’t figure out how to screw in a lightbulb on her own, but rescued a pit bull. I couldn’t get the condo. association to ban the dog but I told her: “Keep that THING away from me, and I really mean it.”

    I do not care about Pit Bull Lives Matter. And anyone can see what the trend in legislation and litigation have been for the past 50 years (and many more) years. You used to be able to get a J.D. out of the back of a magazine through correspondence school. It’s all bullshit.

    • And yes, I know people will nitpick the aforementioned apart when it comes to “social cohesion” but this is a blog response post, not a dissertation. I’ll add more about what I think about this subject later. I find that most liberals like the idea of multiculturalism because they come from a very high strata of society and like to listen to intelligent people on NPR discussing how much they enjoy all the diverse cooking with other people who are similarly intelligent and speak at least three languages. It’s a very elitist schtick. They’re part of a very select group of really nice people who love each other and can talk about wine, cheese and spices in their curry together.

    • Pit-bulls are not and never were bred to fight humans, they are mix of breeds that were bred to manage herds which they did unsuccessfully and breeds for pit fighting other dogs, too with limited success. Nowadays it is crime to breed them for dog fighting. It is a freak accident when they attack humans but of course they are dangerous breed. I and my small children spent many hours walking my large calm breed dog, physically a throwback to its wolf ancestors, and socializing with many pit-bulls. Probably with dozens different pit-bulls, some even bigger then my dog. Never they were a problem. One little pit-bull acted aggressively towards other dogs and mine dog. Mine dog slammed him with top of his muzzle and large ridged head and threw him into the air and gently caught the pit-bull into his wide mouth, retriever style. That schooling changed the little pit-bull behavior drastically and his owners thanked me and my dog. I and my little children petted many pit-bulls and were never attacked. It is hard to read pit-bulls and never know whether they are calm because they are happy or preparing to attack and they need competent handling and training but by no means they are bred to attack humans. When used for defense hey usually used at least in pairs to patrol well-fenced property or house interior.

    • @Alex, this is out of estimated 18 million pit-bull type dogs in the USA
      I ma not saying it is a dangerous breed. I am saying that they have place and prohibiting them outright in the country of 330 million may result in many more innocent deaths then 33 innocent victims per year based on their defensive use. And they are already extremely managed, see shelter kill rat e for pit-bulls. https://www.pitbullinfo.org/pit-bulls-population.html
      There are many dangers around and it makes sense to be prepared for them instead of creating rule based on order of 0.001 percent of fatal occurrences,.

    • @Alex, pit-bulls and pit-bull mixes which are commonly referred to as pit-bulls constitute the most popular American defensive breed segment, about 20% of all dogs in the USA, not 8%

    • @Comrade Trotsky: I don’t rely on dogs for security. I rely on Smith & Wesson. They have never failed me, and have never shot anyone I didn’t want shot. My dogs are pets. They bark a little sometimes, to alert me, but otherwise happy pooches with wagging tails and pleasant dispositions. If it ever so happens that I need more force, the perp. is going to have .40 caliber bite holes in them.

    • @Alex, In Soviet Russia circus lions fend for themselves… RIP the trainer.
      As TS says, if you like your lion you can keep your lion.

  5. loose pit bulls are fine as long as they wear a mask and don’t spread covid.

  6. This HOA needs to learn basics. Bull terrier is small white scary-looking dog that is mostly dangerous to cats. It may suddenly bite but rarely kills anyone if ever and is not a working dog. It can not be expansively described as (pit bull or pit bull mix). Pit bull is completely different breed of security working dogs that has minority bull terrier DNA.

  8. I get chased every other week on my weekly 3-miles runs through my FL neighborhood by a variety of (mostly) smaller unleashed dogs.

    One of the reasons I bought by investment (future retirement) FL condo is because pets are not allowed. Well, one current resident claims her dog is some kind of a service dog, and the condo association has not been able to do anything about it; the association has successfully forced other residents to remove their pets from the grounds.

    On the other hand, dog parks have been popping up in many FL communities and dog lovers are always trying to get sections of the beaches to be declared dog-friendly for unleashed dogs.

  9. The conservative leaders of Fl* are about to get voted out by all the new englanders & Calif*ahans moving in, so you’ll get those coercive laws & new taxes you know & love from new england. Golden retrievers will always be legal because of Greenspun, of course.

  10. To explain it to Alex – “pittbulls are bad” is a bit like “guns are bad”

  11. We moved from the big city to the suburbs to a townhome with an HOA. I thought I was going to dislike all the HOA rules, but after living here for a number of years, have come to appreciate the concept. You can’t really rely on a common background of informal rules for behavior when everyone doesn’t share the same culture or background. I think you are right.

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