Gulf Coast Life

The School District of Lee County board is considering a new plan to determine school assignments. The Proximity-Based Plan will reduce the number of schools parents have to choose from, based on new maps that have been drawn using data to ensure they provide fair options. The primary reason behind the new plan is transportation issues the district faces under the School Choice system, which guarantees busing for all students regardless of how far from their school they live. As the student population has grown, and new schools have been built, the current system has become untenable and right now approximately 3,000 students are being delivered to school late, or home from school late, every day. The board is voting on the new plan — at this point only for elementary age students — tomorrow evening at 6:00.

In his latest book, “Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause,” retired U.S. Army Brigadier General TySeidule writes about growing up in Virginia revering Confederate General Robert E. Lee. He says that from his southern childhood to the time he spent serving in the U.S. Army every part of his life reinforced the Lost Cause myth: that Lee was the greatest man who ever lived, and that the Confederates were underdogs who lost the Civil War with honor — a position he now deeply regrets and works to refute.

Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Collier County has been an Audubon-protected site since the early 1900s and is considered a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. Science-based land management practices protect the sanctuary’s 13,450 acres, including the world’s largest remaining, old-growth bald cypress forest. And it's home to a wide variety of plants and animals, including alligators, river otters, and many bird species including the threatened Wood Stork. It's also home to many plant species, including the incredibly rare "super" ghost orchid.We meet the sanctuary’s new director, Keith Laakkonen. Keith is a southwest Florida native with a background in watershed management, environmental policy, wildlife ecology, prescribed fire management, and more.

"I Walked With Heroes" tells the story of a local WWII vet. Filmmaker Andre Degas joins us to talk about it.

Strawberry harvest season runs here in Florida from December through April, and these days Florida farmers grow strawberries on about 12,000 acres and generate more than $300 in crops each year. We learn more about the science behind breeding strawberries, and get some insight into this long-running agriculture industry in the Sunshine State, with Dr. Vance Whitaker. He leads the Strawberry Breeding and Genetics program at the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center.

While many large tracts of land in Southwest Florida have been forever lost to development over the past century or so, quite a bit of it has been preserved thanks to the dedicated efforts of countless people and organizations — and the local, state, and federal elected officials who environmental advocates could convince that wetlands were valuable for their own sake. For example, more than 70% of land in Collier County has been preserved as public land. Think Fakahatchee Strand State Park, Picayune Strand State Forest, Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Big Cypress National Preserve, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, just to name a few. We explore some of this fascinating history with the co-authors of the new book, “Enjoyment of the Same: A History of Public Lands in Southwest Florida.”

After being on staff at the Fort Myers News Press for nearly 18 years, restaurant critic Annabelle Tometich is moving on. She talks to us about it.

It’s been three and a half months since Hurricane Ian made landfall near Sanibel Island and swept across the state causing an estimated $50 to 65 billion dollars in insured damages and killing more than 100 people just here in Florida. While many people moved quickly to seek assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the storm hit, for anyone who has still not filed a claim, the deadline is tomorrow…Thursday, January 12th. Homeowners and renters have until 11:59 tomorrow night to file a claim for property loss, or damage to property, from Hurricane Ian.

Anyone who lives in southwest Florida is definitely aware of the rapid rise in housing costs — especially rentals — in recent years. It’s estimated that 40% of households in Collier County struggle with housing costs, and availability of affordable housing for essential workers and seniors in Collier is reaching crisis levels. More than 40,000 workers commute daily from outside Collier County because they can’t afford to live near their jobs.

Over the course of seven days at the beginning of 1923 a white mob killed at least five Black residents of the mostly-Black town of Rosewood, Florida about 45 miles southwest of Gainesville and burned every Black-owned building to the ground. We talk with two student reporters from the University of Florida College of Journalism to talk about their story, “Remembering Rosewood: Descendants mark racial violence that razed Florida town 100 years ago.”