Thursday, June 08, 2023

Corporate conventions are fleeing Florida over 'openly hostile' political climate: report
WHEN SHOOTING YOURSELF IN THE FOOT, REMEMBER TO REMOVE IT FROM YOUR MOUTH; FIRST
Maya Boddie, Alternet
June 8, 2023

Ron DeSantis (Photo via AFP)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' discriminatory policies and culture war tactics are starting to negatively impact the Sunshine State financially, Orlando Sentinel reports.

Two organizations recently decided to remove upcoming conventions from Florida, which Orlando Sentinel notes is "the latest economic blow to the region, coming in the wake of Walt Disney Co.'s decision to drop plans for a nearly $1 billion corporate campus in Orlando with 2,000 high-paying jobs."

This comes after the NAACP issued a travel advisory last month saying, "Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals."

California-based AnitaB.org, a technology group of female and nonbinary employees, boasts around 16,000 attendees for its annual Grace Hopper Celebration — usually held in Orlando — which is lauded the "world's largest gathering of women in computing."

The group emphasized, "[W]e will not return until this legislation is overturned, and the state becomes more welcoming to all," attributing its reason for relocation to "laws that banned most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, cracked down on illegal immigration and lifted permit requirements for carrying a concealed gun in public, along with measures that organizers said were intended 'to erase the identities and dignities of people from historically marginalized and excluded groups, including Black, Brown, LGBTQIA+, and Indigenous people.'"

The organization's Chief Executive Officer Brenda Darden Wilkerson said in a statement, "We at AnitaB.org are very proud of our diversity because that diversity is our strength. We owe it to our community — to those women and nonbinary technologists — to be vigilant."

Additionally, the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses will no longer hold "its 2027 surgical conference and expo" over "political concerns." Instead, the group of "about 7,000 nurses and exhibitors" will be hosted in Philadelphia, said the organization's spokeswoman, Linda Kanamine, adding, "The decision to move to Philadelphia was the right one for AORN for 2027."

DeSantis' Disney fight blows up major Florida real estate projects: Wall Street Journal

Adam Nichols
May 29, 2023,

Walt Disney’s scrapping of a $900 million development in Florida has derailed other major real-estate projects that are already underway, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The company canceled plans for office space and the relocation of 2,000 workers from California earlier this month amid a brutal feud with Florida’s governor and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis.

The planned office park in Orlando had been a central part of an 11,000-acre planned community – and Disney's cancellation has put the whole development in jeopardy, the Journal reported.

Disney’s development would have taken up 60 acres of an 11,000-acre planned community called Lake Nona that's being built by Tavistock Development Co. Many of the other commercial and residential projects – as well as other housing developments in the Orlando area – had planned on the influx of Disney workers.

More than 2,100 apartments have been built since Disney announced it was moving – compared to only 750 in the three years before, according to the Journal. Construction of another 1,200 was planned.

“Its pullout could contribute to a glut of homes in the community,” the Journal reported.

The Lake Nona development also includes restaurants and a hotel, which had banked on Disney bringing in business.

Disney “would have been a transformational development project for Lake Nona,” said Lisa McNatt, a market analytics expert based in Orlando.

“It would have resulted in a strong uptick in higher-income jobs that could have benefited the Orlando area at large.”

The fight between Disney and DeSantis started when Disney criticized a Florida law that bars classroom discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity. Several lawsuits have been filed since, with Disney accusing DeSantis of retaliation.























NOT DISNEY, WOKE WARNER BROS.1957


WHERE-IN DESANTIS PLAYS ELMER FUDD

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