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The Florida History and Culture Series
Losing It All to Sprawl: How Progress Ate My Cracker Landscape
As development threatens his very sense of place, an award-winning nature writer finds hope in the rediscovery and appreciation of his historic Cracker farmhouse.
Losing It All to Sprawl is the poignant chronicle of award-winning nature writer Bill Belleville and how he came to understand and love his historic Cracker farmhouse and “relic” neighborhood in central Florida, even as it was all wiped out from under him. Belleville’s narrative is eloquent, informed, and impassioned, a saga in which tractors and backhoes trample through the woods next to his home in order to build the backbone of Florida sprawl—the mall.
As heavy machinery encircles Belleville and his community--the noise growing louder and closer, displacing everything Belleville has called home for the past fifteen years--he tells a story that is much older, 10,000 years older. The story stretches back to the Timucua and the Mayaca living in harmony with Florida’s environment; the conquistadors who expected much from, but also feared, this “land of flowers”; the turn-of-the-century tourists “modernizing” and “climatizing” the state; the original Cracker families who lived in Belleville’s farmhouse. In stark contrast to this millennia-long transformation is the whiplash of unbridled growth and development that threatens the nearby wilderness of the Wekiva River system, consuming Belleville’s home and, ultimately, his very sense of place.
In Florida, one of the nation’s fastest growing states (and where local and state governments encourage growth), balancing use with preservation is an uphill battle. Sprawl spreads into the countryside, consuming not just natural lands but Old Florida neighborhoods and their unique history. In Losing It All to Sprawl, Belleville accounts for the impacts—social, political, natural, personal—that a community in the crosshairs of unsustainable growth ultimately must bear, but he also offers Floridians, and anyone facing the blight of urban confusion, the hope that can be found in the rediscovery and appreciation of the natural landscape.
Losing It All to Sprawl is the poignant chronicle of award-winning nature writer Bill Belleville and how he came to understand and love his historic Cracker farmhouse and “relic” neighborhood in central Florida, even as it was all wiped out from under him. Belleville’s narrative is eloquent, informed, and impassioned, a saga in which tractors and backhoes trample through the woods next to his home in order to build the backbone of Florida sprawl—the mall.
As heavy machinery encircles Belleville and his community--the noise growing louder and closer, displacing everything Belleville has called home for the past fifteen years--he tells a story that is much older, 10,000 years older. The story stretches back to the Timucua and the Mayaca living in harmony with Florida’s environment; the conquistadors who expected much from, but also feared, this “land of flowers”; the turn-of-the-century tourists “modernizing” and “climatizing” the state; the original Cracker families who lived in Belleville’s farmhouse. In stark contrast to this millennia-long transformation is the whiplash of unbridled growth and development that threatens the nearby wilderness of the Wekiva River system, consuming Belleville’s home and, ultimately, his very sense of place.
In Florida, one of the nation’s fastest growing states (and where local and state governments encourage growth), balancing use with preservation is an uphill battle. Sprawl spreads into the countryside, consuming not just natural lands but Old Florida neighborhoods and their unique history. In Losing It All to Sprawl, Belleville accounts for the impacts—social, political, natural, personal—that a community in the crosshairs of unsustainable growth ultimately must bear, but he also offers Floridians, and anyone facing the blight of urban confusion, the hope that can be found in the rediscovery and appreciation of the natural landscape.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 25, 2011
Excellent and saddening depiction of how urban sprawl is killing Florida's land, animals and culture.
April 2, 2019
As a native of Florida, I find this book to be frustratingly accurate and familiar. This book should be required reading for all Florida legislators.
February 14, 2022
I've heard how over-development ruins the land, but I didn't see exactly how until I read this book. "Losing It All to Sprawl" shows the connections between so-called "progress" and the devastation of natural landscape, flooding, sinkholes. I didn't understand how wetlands channel and preserve the water we need and actually contribute to land stability. I wish everyone could read this - developers, landowners, retailers - just to see this larger picture. I also appreciated the author's satiric descriptions of apartment complexes named after English mansions, and chain restaurants that try to imitate the Southwest, totally disconnected from the land they're built on. I was a bit confused by Belleville's use of the term "Cracker architecture" - apparently it is an architectural style, but I wish he had addressed the racial undertones and white privilege earlier in the book. As his community is destroyed, we feel his affection for the native land, animals and plants, and we feel his loss.
August 17, 2019
I got tired of this author's rant against economic growth. However, in his defense, I don't think he was just categorically against progress. Rather, he thought that cities should manage their growth in an ecologically friendly way. He didn't make this very clear though, and I was 3/4 of the way through the book before I caught that. Also, he never gave a solution to the problem. We all are saddened when Wal-mart destroys 3 acres of wildlife, but what can be done about it?
January 20, 2013
Well written. Belleville makes us care about his local Florida landscape through his descriptions of its history and characteristics. His descriptions of the changes in landscape, people, noise, and pollution brought by new development turn us against the forces behind that development.
While he nails the emotional arguments, he doesn’t spend much time arguing the facts. I am not convinced that the encroaching “sprawl” would be less harmful than Belleville and the other Sewell Road residents. The oncoming sprawl is probably just replacing one set of unsustainable practices with another. The cracker homes on Sewell Road sound like an older form of sprawl, especially if its residents must drive for miles to reach goods, services, and jobs. For all of its paved surface and water needs, the new development might achieve economies of scale that Belleville’s neighborhood did not. Belleville does make a good case that the wild areas surrounding the sprawl would be worse off. But, there are more criteria to consider than that. The first development is not always best.
Even though I don’t completely agree with Belleville, I do agree that the world would be a better place if we all knew the history of our local landscapes to the depth that Belleville knows his. I was amazed by the knowledge that he had of all of the tiny springs and streams within miles of his home, and the way he could extrapolate the effect of development on the landscape.
On final issue: Belleville spends too much of the book giving play-by-play of his hikes through the forests around his home. Yes, these accounts help to lead us emotionally into the natural landscape, which he uses to contrast the new events going around him. But, there is too much of it for me. I wanted him to tell me more about why the new development was bad, not just to make me assume it because it might displace some nesting birds. No, I’m not a fan of displacing birds, but every one of us lives and works in some kind of building that displaced some poor animals; it's what humans do. There is just too much hiking and not enough fact about how development was making things worse. However, Belleville writes really well, so these hiking accounts are definitely tolerable.
While he nails the emotional arguments, he doesn’t spend much time arguing the facts. I am not convinced that the encroaching “sprawl” would be less harmful than Belleville and the other Sewell Road residents. The oncoming sprawl is probably just replacing one set of unsustainable practices with another. The cracker homes on Sewell Road sound like an older form of sprawl, especially if its residents must drive for miles to reach goods, services, and jobs. For all of its paved surface and water needs, the new development might achieve economies of scale that Belleville’s neighborhood did not. Belleville does make a good case that the wild areas surrounding the sprawl would be worse off. But, there are more criteria to consider than that. The first development is not always best.
Even though I don’t completely agree with Belleville, I do agree that the world would be a better place if we all knew the history of our local landscapes to the depth that Belleville knows his. I was amazed by the knowledge that he had of all of the tiny springs and streams within miles of his home, and the way he could extrapolate the effect of development on the landscape.
On final issue: Belleville spends too much of the book giving play-by-play of his hikes through the forests around his home. Yes, these accounts help to lead us emotionally into the natural landscape, which he uses to contrast the new events going around him. But, there is too much of it for me. I wanted him to tell me more about why the new development was bad, not just to make me assume it because it might displace some nesting birds. No, I’m not a fan of displacing birds, but every one of us lives and works in some kind of building that displaced some poor animals; it's what humans do. There is just too much hiking and not enough fact about how development was making things worse. However, Belleville writes really well, so these hiking accounts are definitely tolerable.
December 28, 2014
This book is slow-paced, yet it held my interest because it describes so many places near where I live. Unfortunately, many of those places are disappearing, lost to development. Belleville's narrative is particularly depressing post-bubble. The mall that he describes being built is now struggling, as so many are.
June 7, 2010
This is an interesting book on how commercial development has affected living in Central Florida from the viewpoint of someone who has witnessed it and was affected by it. I had it confirmed that money usually wins....
March 5, 2016
I found myself following along with Google maps open to see the progress he writes about. You don't have to live in the area to appreciate the beauty of the landscape. Well researched and passionately written. Loved it.
July 19, 2010
The decline of a Florida Cracker neighborhood gracefully rendered by an excellent journalist/naturalist.
November 20, 2010
A great and heartbreaking book of central florida. A powerful and moving look at sprawl.
July 21, 2015
Title was better than the book. Sort of preachy and too wordy. But clearly he loves Central Florida nature.
July 8, 2015
If you live near the Wekiva River this is a must read. This is one of my all-time favorite Florida books!
July 16, 2014
for me, but not for thee
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews