How Divided is Polk County?
How divided is Polk County? We're talking East vs. West here. This regional divide impacts the social interactions we have as well as politics and local issues.
In the social realm, if you live in Lakeland, how often do you hop in the car to shop/eat in Winter Haven or anywhere else on the other side of the county? Not often huh? I think the reverse happens a bit more, i.e. Winter Haven folks heading to Lakeland. This is just a result of Lakeland having more restaurant/entertainment/shopping options.
In politics and local issues, folks in Lakeland just don't care/worry about what happens politically or growth-wise in Winter Haven and vice versa. In the mean time, nobody seems to pay too much attention to the Four Corners area, which just happens to be the fastest growing part of the county.
What are your thoughts? Do you see a divide?
Comments
Well, I guess this is as good a place as any to talk about media markets. I live in
SE Winter Haven. I don't associate myself at all with Tampa Bay even though I'm part
of that market area. I wish East Polk residents had a choice in local television
stations broadcast over cable and satellite--Tampa Bay or Orlando. I'd much rather
have the Orlando feeds as I associate myself more with Orlando, frequently make
shopping and entertainment trips to that area, and head that way when I need
something 'big city'.
I can remember sometime in the '80s when the local cable company (Cablevision?)
provided both sets of channels in Winter Haven. WESH, WCPX (now WKMG), WFTV--they
were all on cable in Winter Haven along with WFLA, WFTS, etc. But then the FCC
stepped in I believe.
Now how does this tie in with the topic? Well I think that most Lakeland residents
don't have too much trouble with their media market from the people I've talked to.
They seem to associate themselves with Tampa Bay, and it's not hard to do so when
many of the Tampa stations have bureaus in Lakeland. So there might be a division.
Should we go ahead and create a new county for the east side? Polk is very large.
Posted by: Manuel | September 13, 2006 10:05 PM