How does Ft. Lauderdale persist?
I don't get it. Is this retail-employment-sustained-retail? Ft. Lauderdale (and much of southeast Florida) is a vast expanse of streets lined with malls, mini-malls, super-malls, Home Depots every 1.24 miles, unlimited apartment/townhouse/condo acreage, and a stoplight-controlled intersection at every shopping opportunity. I didn't see any for lease signs, nor did I see any stores that were actually interesting. The people selling products over these retail counters are consistently bored and inattentive. The streets are all at least 3 lanes in each direction, and the traffic is constantly heavy. Clearly this is a populous area.
Ft. Lauderdale is classified as urban/metropolitan, but what I see is suburban sprawl, the likes of which I've never seen before. Driving 1.2 miles from my hotel (attached to a super-mall) to Nova (surrounded by malls and apartment complexes) took 25 minutes. Any requirement to drive anywhere implies the equivalent of crossing the 520 at rush hour.
Here's what I don't get: how does this economy support itself? I wasn't in a tourist area. I didn't see major employers like Boeing anywhere near the sprawl. It appears that people move here, get retail counter jobs, and shop at other retail establishments. Cash inflow appears to come from students at Nova or Broward Community College, or maybe from retirees who can't afford to live closer to the beach.
The Nova lifestyle appears to consist of dressing in scrubs, living across the street from campus, and venturing out of that capsule only when absolutely necessary.
On the map, it looks like civilization ends just east of Ft. Lauderdale, so I drove out there to see for myself. Indeed, there's nothing but swampland. I must conclude that Ft. Lauderdale is a random event, arbitrarily located, sustained by constant influx of people tired of being cold and soggy all winter.
Coincidentally, I crashed an environmental health class at UW last week, where The Story of Stuff was being shown. Highly recommended viewing: The Story of Stuff
Ft. Lauderdale is classified as urban/metropolitan, but what I see is suburban sprawl, the likes of which I've never seen before. Driving 1.2 miles from my hotel (attached to a super-mall) to Nova (surrounded by malls and apartment complexes) took 25 minutes. Any requirement to drive anywhere implies the equivalent of crossing the 520 at rush hour.
Here's what I don't get: how does this economy support itself? I wasn't in a tourist area. I didn't see major employers like Boeing anywhere near the sprawl. It appears that people move here, get retail counter jobs, and shop at other retail establishments. Cash inflow appears to come from students at Nova or Broward Community College, or maybe from retirees who can't afford to live closer to the beach.
The Nova lifestyle appears to consist of dressing in scrubs, living across the street from campus, and venturing out of that capsule only when absolutely necessary.
On the map, it looks like civilization ends just east of Ft. Lauderdale, so I drove out there to see for myself. Indeed, there's nothing but swampland. I must conclude that Ft. Lauderdale is a random event, arbitrarily located, sustained by constant influx of people tired of being cold and soggy all winter.
Coincidentally, I crashed an environmental health class at UW last week, where The Story of Stuff was being shown. Highly recommended viewing: The Story of Stuff
posted by Cy at 5:59 PM
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