Urban Environment

In visiting downtown Fort Myers, the incorporation of new urbanism into the community is very evident. Many of the roads are paved of red brick to give a homely feel and encourage pedestrians to travel through the community. Many planters have been added along the right of way helping integrate the added vegetation that had long been missing in the area. Majority of the selected vegetation is the state plant, the palm tree. Visually that common type of scenery gets old in my opinion. The spacing for the area also remains extremely poor. It feels as though everything is clustered together as there is no large area of open space. Much of the open space has been dedicated to parking. In the past, limited parking during business hours made downtown Fort Myers a stress inducer and extremely congested. The atmosphere for the downtown area changes depending on the time of day. Recently two large parking garages were constructed to help alleviate some of the parking demand and issues that haunted the image of the area for several years. In the morning and afternoon times, the area is overwhelmed with business activity as much of the traffic is due for the most part to the activities from the court houses. Many of the businesses located in the downtown area consist of government services, bond offices or lawyer’s offices. The county jail is also located right next to the court house which in my opinion gives off an eerie feeling of discomfort. For much time the city of Fort Myers has also been trying to change the visual image of downtown Fort Myers caused from the deteriorating historic buildings to a combination of social friendly environment and historically preserved surroundings. The difficulty of the task was greatly increased with the presence of the neighboring east Fort Myers area, which had a reputation of severe and frequent hard crimes. As far as the landscape is concerned, majority of it as mentioned previously is reserved for parking or asphalted. There are small areas of grass landscape that can be found, the main area being the Centennial Park. In traveling through the area, I did felt out of place. I was not able to determine if that feeling was due to lack of connection I was able to form with the surrounding or the selected theme that the city selected to represent the downtown area. Perhaps the weather played a role also as a thunderstorm was moving in. During the night life the area has a couple of night clubs and bars that function during that time period. The area visually is dark and gloomy. Much of the area remains in the dark including many of the side roads and paths. In the past many homeless people sought cover under the Centennial Park pavilion or rested till the morning hours on the boardwalk which also painted a rigged image of the downtown area. The city has made huge efforts to change the image of the area including overhauling many of the major roads leading to the area, mainly Martin Luther King Boulevard. Their efforts have been rewarded with more confidence from the local residents in frequently partaking in activities surrounding the area. The city need to focus on sharing the whole area with more than just their human counterparts are much of the area still remains naked in lack of many plants and even more animals.