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Old Posted Oct 9, 2022, 8:07 AM
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L41A L41A is offline
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Tallahassee - Florida's Capital City

I like and don't mind Tallahassee as the location of the capital of Florida.

I'm quite familiar with some of Florida state government and recognize that the departments and services it provides to its citizens is often decentralized with headquarters in different regions of the state. It is not like people come to the state capital for driver license, marriage certificates, deeds, etc.

The principal purpose of the capital city is to serve as a location for representatives to convene and make laws and set policies for the entire state. Furthermore, that legislature sessions only last for a portion of the year.

Tallahassee was selected to be the capital because it is the halfway point between the biggest population centers at the time (Pensacola and St. Augustine) which in essence made it equally 'inconvenient' for those population centers. AND Tallahassee pretty much still does the same today. Even though today communication and travel is far less burdensome.

Also, Florida's shape make the geographical center not that advantageous if you JUST want the capital in the center of the state JUST BECAUSE.
For example, Georgia and Illinois are in the same land area size range as Florida. But the geographic center of those states to their extreme corners are not nearly as disparate as Florida. Miami is still 300 miles from the geographic center. And Pensacola over 300 miles.

Unlike many of the largest 10 population states with larger land area, Florida has sizeable population centers distributed throughout the state. The panhandle (the 10 counties west of Apalachicola River) has over 1 million people which does not include the Big Bend where Tallahassee is. And the broader state's area north of Ocala has a population in the range of 5 million.
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