Your Florida Has Already Been New-Yorked

 Whenever changes to the way we plan our cities in Florida are discussed, whether it's changes to land use zoning, streets and highways, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, or especially mass transit, there is invariably some mook who pops up and comments "Don't New York my Florida."  Well, I hate to break this to you, but your Florida has already been New-Yorked, and it happened decades ago, in some cases up to a century. 

If you like Florida cities that are sprawled out because land use zoning completely separates out areas for residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental purposes then you like a Florida that has been New-Yorked.  The first land use zoning laws in the country were enacted in New York in 1916.  In urban planning circles those laws are known as "Euclidian" zoning, because Euclid, Ohio enacted similar laws, which were tested in court in 1924, and found to be constitutional.  So if you like that kind of zoning regulations then you like a Florida that has been New-Yorked.  

The idea that interstate highways and expressways should drive right through the heart of urban areas came from the tormented mind of Robert Moses, who was the urban planner for New York City for 40 years.  So if you like Florida cities that have interstate highway driven through their cores then you like a Florida that has been New-Yorked.  

If you like urban areas that are completely car dependent, and devoid of functional mass transit then you like a Florida that has been New-Yorked.  Robert Moses hated mass transit, and did everything he could to destroy it in New York.  (Fortunately, he failed, but NYC is paying the price for his folly to this day.)  Prior to the end of WWII, Florida cities were relatively rich in mass transit, from rail lines to tram lines to buses.  After the end of WWII, during the GI Bill land boom, Florida cities adopted the design methods of Robert Moses, and did everything they could to make sure they were completely car dependent, and mass transit, if it existed at all, only competed with walking and never with driving.  The Federal Aid Highways Act of 1953, which created the System of Interstate and Defense Highways, compounded this by enabling and encouraging cities to drive interstate highways right through their urban cores, ala New York City under Robert Moses.  Most often displacing communities of color, and poor communities in the process.  So if you like car dependent cities devoid of functional mass transit then your Florida has already been New-Yorked.  

If you don't mind all of these things, and you think they're the way Florida cities should be, despite coming from New York, then maybe your problem isn't with New York after all, but with the idea of doing things differently from the way we have done them over the past 80 years.  In which case you need to get out more.