I reside in Orlando, a city laden with socio-economic facades which echo the theme park set pieces for which the city is best known – Shiny on the outside and hollow on the inside. If you tilt your head up in the downtown area, you’ll see glossy clean structures that speak to affluence, but it’s difficult to ignore the contradictions on street level where homeless swallow their pride and beg for money, which is not unlike most American cities. It is not uncommon to observe homeless, near retirement age, bound to wheelchairs, who announce their desperation with pleas for help on crudely rendered signage in hopes a passerby will show more empathy than a system which contributed to their plight. I’m not sure what kind of society allows its older folks with physical impediments to beg for money on the street but it’s not one I endorse.
The vacancy rate in Orlando is near 18%, which prompts the immediate question: why are there unused housing resources made for human beings to have shelter while people fight the elements just outside the walls? High priced condos and houses lay fallow all over the city, some owned by rentiers waiting for the next monied tourist to show up, others priced too high for a city whose median household income is a few thousand below the national median. The pattern of hoarding is common among the wealthy who’d rather watch a thing rot than sell it for less than they think it’s worth. Such actions raise demand…