Others moved here from other places to retire, rear children or seek solitude and a respite from state taxes. Newcomers arrive on a quest for the ideal place to live, while natives, who found their ideal long ago, clash with them on what it ought to be. But amid all that tension, all that change, are lives. Then there are stories of affluent people insulated in gated El Dorados along the Intracoastal and the Beaches, as well as stories of people struggling to survive along the periphery of that prosperity. There are stories of farmers and anglers who strain against the elements and the economy to keep tradition alive.
Town councils whose members manage to govern without the perks of junkets.
Rural teachers and parents who revel in their children's accomplishments. This column won't always be, as some people are prone to say, positive. That would be unrealistic, because not every story in the life of a community is positive. Some of the stories will come from people who have never had a voice, and when they finally get one, what they say is sometimes painful to hear. Or maybe not.