More than Beach- Ft. Lauderdale

Downtown is a word that brings to mind an idea of an urban, polluted, high skyscraping building city. Overtime downtowns have evolved from just business oriented, low class to a more sophisticated family type of environment. Ft. Lauderdale has changed from a college partying escape to a more affluent family oriented community. This east coast oasis is promoting a modern twist to its architecture and location. When first inhabited Ft. Lauderdale residents were highly interested in living off of the New River, where ferries were the highlight of the evening now people have migrated towards the beach and now the shoreline is infested with hotels and apartments. Tourism has exploded and the economy thrives on it. Yet the people must find ways to control this explosion before the people exhaust the land. On my trip to Downtown I learned that in the efforts of the people to preserve this tourism and create more touristic destinations the government allowed the disposal of hundreds of tires into the ocean in order to create a man made reef. But failed to do so because the tires drifted and destroyed other real reefs.

In spite of all the tourism and modern buildings, the downtown still has old houses, which lie along the river and gives the downtown area a homey less touristic atmosphere. The preservation of these landmarks is crucial in the preservation of history and culture of Ft. Lauderdale.

The downtown also has numerous natural parks around that are available to the public for camping, hiking and biking. Though slightly located on the outskirts of downtown they still are close enough to the high sky rise buildings to balance the concrete and nature. These parks are crucial in order to minimize the detachment of people and the land and are very likely to help control what some would label as Nature deficit disorder in many urban areas.

Overall my visitation to Ft. Lauderdale was very different than what some would experience on a day trip to the beach.