Cathy Salustri is an accomplished author who writes about the hidden and beautiful corners of Florida. Her work includes the books Backroads of Paradise: A Journey to Rediscover Old Florida where she retraces historic driving tours to connect the past and present of this diverse state, and Florida Spectacular: Extraordinary Places and Exceptional Lives where she uncovers the state’s natural beauty and fascinating history. Cathy also hosts The Florida Spectacular Podcast where she and co-host Rick Kilby take a weekly deep dive into parts of Florida you never knew existed.
In this episode of In Our Expert Opinion Real Estate Podcast, Cathy shares insights from her travels along Florida’s backroads, emphasizing the rich cultural and natural heritage of the state. She discusses the contrasts between Florida’s tourist hubs and its serene landscapes, placing deep importance on sustainable development for a growing population.
Below is an excerpt from the interview. Listen above for the full podcast.
Cathy Salustri, author of Florida Spectacular: Extraordinary Places and Exceptional Lives
Perception of Florida. We all see Florida a certain way, right? We define Florida in a different way. I grew up by the beach, and before [traveling around Florida], I had only spent time away when I went to UCF.
I didn't have as much use for inland, but being up in the Panhandle and around some of the central parts of the state–going through the Ocala forest–it really surprised me how much value I found in those places and how much I could appreciate why people would want to live there.
What development concerns do you have? One of the biggest concerns that I had as I went through so many places was development without infrastructure in place and development that insulates people from the natural part of Florida. I'm not suggesting we should all go back to those houses without central heat and air, but I think we're doing some things that are short-sighted as we create more opportunity for people to chase the Florida dream, right?
When I see these subdivisions go in… what I think about a lot is: do we have the infrastructure in place to support all these people? Do we have an updated sanitary sewer? Do we have a way to provide them fresh drinking water? Adjacent to that is the way we build.
We're going to see more storms come through. Are we building homes that, if somebody's without power for two weeks, are they going to be okay or are they going to suffer heat stroke?
I guess my concern is if we're going to bring people to Florida–and that is a foregone conclusion, we're not going to shut that door, people are going to keep moving here–let's make sure that we're creating a situation where we help them be prepared for all the parts of paradise because hurricanes are necessary. They're not something we would want to stop, they're part of a cycle, and we need them, but we need to make sure that we're responsibly putting people in homes here.
Cathy Salustri, Florida author and travel expert, joins the In Our Expert Opinion Real Estate Podcast to discuss her journey across Florida, uncovering the sometimes hidden beauty of the Sunshine State.
How was exploring Florida with old maps? Well, Orlando was described as a big dairy town with a lot of cows, if that tells you anything.
I saw the most change south of Gainesville, with the exception of Key West, which is interesting. [Florida: A Guide to the Southernmost State] was written before there was air conditioning, before there was real pest control for mosquitoes, and if you were gonna live in Florida, you weren't gonna live in Lakeland. You simply were not going to live in Lakeland in 1938 because it would have been miserable. Most of the roads and most of the population were in the Panhandle and north of Gainesville; Jacksonville was still pretty big.
Tell us about your podcast. My podcast is called The Florida Spectacular, which coincidentally is the name of my next book that comes out in September: Florida Spectacular: Extraordinary Places and Exceptional Lives. I started the podcast because I got tired of the “Florida man” meme and hearing how stupid Floridians were.
My reaction to that was to write a book, start a newsletter, and have a podcast about it. I think it was last year, that Florida author Rick Kilby joined me as the co-host on the podcast–Rick wrote Florida's Healing Waters about Florida springs and how historically we treated the springs a little bit like a health club.
We have a really good time every week talking to people about all manners of things, but we always try and celebrate something that's good about Florida– a place to go in Florida that you're going to enjoy. We want to highlight what's right with Florida instead of what's silly about Florida.