I have been spending a lot of time in the Ft. Lauderdale area for work over the past few years. When I tell people that, I always get a few comments like, "lucky you." Unfortunately, I really was there for work, and did not usually have time to explore the city or go to the beach.

 

However, I did take quite a few photos during that time and was occasionally able to plan a longer trip which gave me some time to explore Ft. Lauderdale or Miami.

 

My general feeling about Ft. Lauderdale is that it is very suburban and generic. (Sorry.) What's bizarre is that the entire city (and region) is laid out on a standard grid, so it would be very easy to build walkable urban development. Unfortunately, most of the development takes the form of strip malls and subdivisions, except for the condo and hotel towers that line the ocean.

 

However, this is changing a little bit. I have seen a handful of new developments near downtown Ft. Lauderdale that are actually urban. Hopefully that trend continues.

 

Miami feels like a completely different place than Ft. Lauderdale. It's hard to believe that they're so close together. Miami has so much more diversity, more young people, way more culture and things to do. Basically, Miami feels like a real city.

 

 

Ft. Lauderdale

 

Broward County has a Bcycle bike sharing system! Unfortunately, they are one of the few Bcycle systems that does not participate in the reciprocity program. No free rides for you Cincy Red Bike or Link Dayton members!

 

 

Ft. Lauderdale Beach:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Intracoastral Waterway was a much better place to hang out than on the beach. It was less of a tourist trap, and had plenty of good restaurants that fronted it:

 

 

 

Downtown:

 

 

Old school diner:

 

 

Most of my time was spent in the "Uptown" area, which was the office park-dominated area north of the city:

 

 

 

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea

 

Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is a small city (not part of Ft. Lauderdale) with about 2 blocks of decent restaurants. It had an older population compared to Ft. Lauderdale and was mostly residential with little focus on tourism. (It was probably mostly snowbirds.)

 

 

 

 

Pompano Beach

 

Some coworkers told me that they used to call Pompano Beach "Pompton" (like Compton) growing up as it used to be sketchy. Maybe parts of it are, but I didn't see any signs of it.

 

The namesake beach:

 

 

Dining along the Intracoastal Waterway:

 

 

I did stay in a hotel in Pompano Beach a few times and it had a pretty nice view:

 

 

 

 

Miami

 

My skyline shot:

 

 

I heard a lot about the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami and when I saw it in person, it exceeded my expectations. It's basically a big warehouse district where the owners have agreed to allow graffiti artists to come in and decorate their buildings. A number of art galleries, boutique shops, and restaurants have opened there. But slowly, these warehouses are being replaced with new mid-rise towers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Side note: why doe AT&T always have the ugliest buildings?

 

 

Citi Bike Miami:

 

 

I didn't really spend much time in Downtown Miami but I had to check out their Metromover system. It was designed very logically, mostly serving as a connection between the Metrorail system and various points downtown. It also operated in both directions around a main loop, unlike Detroit's People Mover, which only goes in a one-way loop. With 35,000 riders per day, it's the most popular people mover in the U.S. by far:

 

 

 

 

 

Miami Beach

 

Miami Beach (which is a separate city from Miami) is well known for its art deco architecture:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

South Pointe Park:

 

 

 

 

 

Fisher Island, where the ultra-rich celebrities live:

 

 

 

That's all for this brief tour of South Florida!

Great pics - thanks. I lived in Miami for 5 years and your pictures bring back some good memories. I was pleased to see the pictures of Wynwood. In around 2004 that area was just getting some focus from the Midtown Miami group and was IIRC called back then the Warehouse Arts District. It looked nothing like it does today though! Was still pretty rough and not an area that anyone readily visited. We bought some furniture from one of the very first studios that opened there.

I miss it :(.

Beautiful! I lived in all of the cities in this thread except for Miami; 6 years in Miami Beach, close enough. The Gateway Theater is not quite downtown but again close enough.  :wink: There are not too many "classic" theaters remaining, this is one of them.

Ah yes. I spent most of my time in the far north, so I think of anything south of Sunrise as "downtown" Ft. Lauderdale.

 

I have never been inside one, but I assume that AT&T buildings don't have windows because they are full of telecom equipment.

 

Must be nice to work in Florida.  :wink:

Wow, I dig that street art! Miami and some of its environs is really the only truly intriguing part of Florida to me, city-wise.

I kind of dig the AT&T architecture - and of other telecom buildings for their simplicity and stark walls. They are telecom buildings and can't feature windows unless it's for the scant offices. The ones that have been retrofitted often have cinderblock walls behind the windows for security purposes.

 

The Warehouse district looks authentic - the skyscrapers built for a too-hot residential market do not. While the skyline looks clean and shiny, many of the units are not filled or bought or never occupied. I hope the market starts to correct itself and we find more mixed-use and affordable units come up. :)

I was hoping to see a South Florida thread out of you...This was certainly worth the wait! The Pompano beach views from your hotel are postcard perfect...I was glad you had a chance to make it down to Wynwood. That area has exploded in size since I've last seen it in 2009. It is probably the largest concentration of street murals that I've ever seen. I was also impressed by the amount of people I saw riding the Metromover (on a Sunday in November, no less).