For the last several days I’ve been in St. Petersburg, Florida, for the first time in more than 50 years. As should be needless to say, it’s changed quite a bit over the years. Hardly recognizable. There isn’t a lot of the old Florida left.
I may have more observations later but suffice it to say for right now that in many ways St. Petersburg is sort of the opposite of, say, Miami’s South Beach. I saw a lot more massively overweight rednecks than I did young and obsessively fit people concerned with presenting a good image.
The very large company I was visiting hasn’t changed business processes in any substantial way over the period of the last 25 years. That’s incredible to me but it’s possible in certain niche businesses, particularly when you’re the leader in your industry. That means that a lot of the people who work there have no experience with change.
I told them rather bluntly that if they weren’t hearing Chinese footsteps gaining on them they would soon. They might have a lock on their domestic business but overseas China’s going to be giving them enormous competition.
St Petersburg in July. After a few hours you should understand why I moved back north.
Steve
I’m a St. Louisan and I once worked in a steel mill down there and lived in a house without air conditioning. I thought the weather was pretty balmy.
For the past two weeks the temp and humidity in Chicago has been worse than Naples, FL. I suspect St. Louis, not noted for arid conditions, just as bad.
Of course, I wouldn’t want to be in a steelmaking shop in any of those places. Been there, done that.
I was starting to get worried.
I’m lucky I’m in Colorado this week. Florida for the past month has been awful. Have fun swimming through the soupy air Dave.
Coastal Florida isn’t bad. Inland, away from the seabreezes, is where it gets truly miserable.
And the absolute worst is the corridor from Ocala to Gainesville.