Act Locally - Florida Nature Coast Gateway to Tampa Bay

In the Beginning, Now, and Your Future...

Florida has more than 1,300 miles of coastline. There are ten designated coasts: four Atlantic/east coasts, six Gulf/west coasts. The 3rd Millennium Family lives along the Florida Nature Coast. The natural beauty and harmony of ocean, sand, and palms flowing smoothly into green, low rolling hills, and oaks is both calming and energizing. And it is something almost beyond description. It is something greater than mere expression. It is a sense. It is a feeling. It is home.

From Florida Trend's2007 Economic Yearbook, the tagline for Tampa Bay is "Fulfilling the Promise." Citrus and Hernando counties are included in the Greater Tampa Bay. Indeed, moving south down the Nature Coast, Citrus and Hernando may be thought of "The Gateway to Tampa Bay."

As a gateway is an opening for a gate, the implication is they are a point of entry from the Nature Coast into Tampa Bay. Yet, could it be Hernando and Citrus possess a further, potentially greater role in the economic, social, and technological developments of the region, generally, and The Nature Coast, specifically, as "Gatekeepers of The Nature Coast"?

A gatekeeper is one who tends or guards a gate, one who controls access. A more 21st Century metaphor is stargate. Science fiction notwithstanding, a stargate is a continually collapsing star which serves as a point of entry into and return from another universe. How different are the "universes" of the Nature and Sun Coasts?

Can the flow for living, business, and ideas along The Nature Coast and Tampa Bay only be one way, outbound? Or, must Hernando and Citrus accept the responsibility of, the call to be, stargate keepers and actively manage an interflow between the Greater Nature Coast and Tampa Bay?

In effect, what and where are the 3rd Millennium Ideas which must be considered to ensure The 3rd Millennium Nature Coast? In answering these questions and acting locally, you, your business, your family, your community will be doing what is necessary and sufficient - for The Nature Coast, for Florida, for The Nation. Act locally: communicate and connect.