another photo tour: lazy does lauderdale, part 1

[lazygood4nothinbum]

money money money money money money money money money. wanna have fun? let's do some math.

this is a 2004 model, 116 ft azimut docked behind the chic broward county jail on the new river. it sleeps 8 comfortably and dines 12 in good style. separate crew quarters with lounge. it carries 4,700 gallons of fuel which will not get you across the ocean. so this is just your yacht for this side of the pond, and maybe a little island hopping down to the caribbean. for the mediterranean, you place it on a transport ship if you can only afford just one.

with a sales price asking a smidge over $9,000,000, it probably costs about 10%/annually of that for docking, fuel & maintenance (assuming you will be keeping it up to yacht standard), etc. add to that about $100k for captain and, oh, i don't know, maybe $40k per crew? figure a skeleton crew of two as the budget is tight this year. anyone wanna go yachting?



meanwhile, back to reality

this is lakeridge, between me and downtown. this area had fallen into disrepair, drugs, hookers, the usual fun. my area redeveloped first and then as the gays got priced out from here they moved there. to reduce crime, heavy plastic roadblocks were set up to prevent drivebys. it became known as a gayted community. since then, lots of infill townhouses have replaced cottages, entire blocks torn down to make way for apartment & mixed-use complexes as shown here...

typical lakeridge before redevelopment


stalled empty infill


the old houses, the new townhouses and the mixed-use apt complex




heading south towards downtown, just south of lakeridge is fabulous holiday park, home to many excellent events during the year including car shows, gay pride events, friday night free concerts and all that.



lazy's urban assault vehicle in holiday park with neighborhood art museum in background


downtown as seen from holiday park


between holiday park and las olas blvd which runs through downtown and over to the beach is victoria park. this is where i would have been living had i a partner or more lucrative career. still couldn't afford that azimut, but for $500k after the bubble, i could have gotten this lovely 2/1...



you thought i was kidding?


it had some high crime for a while but since redevelopment extended almost out to federal highway, i haven't heard much of that in a few years. this was typically smaller but very nice arts & crafts sorts of houses, close to downtown and with easy access to the beach. if there ever was an assault of minimansions in what should have remained just a lovely low-key historic area, this is our ground zero.

i love the charm of the original houses


but as land values increased, the houses became teardowns.


such grandeur. such a shame.


some of the architects were sensitive to neighbors (note the added minimansion set back behind the updated original one story cottage.


but most of them just designed conspicuously consumptive crap for sale


and some developers wiped out all the charm of the existing houses for blocks of townhouse apartments


to push through such density. even definitions where changed so as to avoid complete rezoning. single family used to mean one house on a property. but now single family can mean anything. because there are only 12 single families living in that one building. fortunately at least, this area is monied enough that the character destroyed was at least replaced with some sort of charm.

view of downtown from victoria park


south of victoria park is downtown fort lauderdale and las olas blvd, anyone wanna do lunch?


or you can gondola (is that a verb?)


down the himmarshee canal


lots of bars, retail, galleries, businesses and office buildings line las olas and a linear park runs both sides of the new river immediately south of las olas.

looking east along riverwalk park


looking west (that big boy is a 130 westport asking $12.5mm. with almost 10k gal fuel, you can cross those oceans all on your own. well with the help, of course, of your crew of 7 pampering your 10 guests.


anchoring the west end of riverwalk is the The Broward Center for Performing Arts: Welcome, Fort Lauderdale Museum of Discovery and Science - Florida, USA. Ft Lauderdale, FL., various monuments to men in uniform and some new, empty waterfront condos.







along riverwalk at the fort lauderdale museum of art ||| MoAFL ||| is huizenga plaza with this dancing fountain (music is piped out of built-in speakers while the fountain "dances" to the tune being played.


to the east is one of my favorite residential areas known as colee hammock, east of that are the famed las olas isles and then the beach, subject of part 2 of this lazy series.

i stopped at my favorite little park in colee to enjoy a bag of pistachio nuts and just about the juciest sweetest most delicious orange i ever peeled.

between las olas and before the park, all on prime downtown waterfront property there is this church. for the poster who got indignant a while back that i might benefit from "save our home" value by downsizing so that i will not have to pay taxes on a $100k property, just imagine what never makes it to the coffers from this puppy...



just to for an idea, here is the property across the street from the religious tax-free zone. didn't know it until just now but it happens to be wayne's world, as in huizenga (Wayne Huizenga - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). property taxes paid in 2007? $247,563.72. wow, money money money money money.


heading east on the new river towards las olas isles and where the boys used to be on fort lauderdale beach

[REWahoo]

Originally Posted by lazygood4nothinbum

money money money money money money money money money. wanna have fun? let's do some math.

this is a 2004 model, 116 ft azimut docked behind the chic broward county jail on the new river. it sleeps 8 comfortably and dines 12 in good style. separate crew quarters with lounge. it carries 4,700 gallons of fuel

4,700 x $4.25/gal for diesel = $19,975

And to think I was complaining about the cost of filling my motorhome tank...

[bbbamI]

Wow, I feel like I've been on a tour. Thanks for the pics Lazy, very interesting!

[SteveR]

Nice photos. Thanks Lazy.

Where the heck are the people? I think I saw maybe two people in all these photos? Amazing.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Originally Posted by SteveR

Nice photos. Thanks Lazy.

Where the heck are the people? I think I saw maybe two people in all these photos? Amazing.

guess i was out in quiet part of the day. as to where's waldo?

nope, not there...


here they are in the park. it is a huge inner city park so there can be a lot of people there yet you still have a lot of space for yourself if you want it.


here they are by the gondola; i lightened the pic some. the sun is pretty strong here so anything in shade is going to be obscured. often i go into the shade to get a picture.


i took this shot from a restaurant setting up for dinner. here are people across the street having a late lunch.


ok, well, i guess this guy was obvious.

[Want2retire]

Nice photos, Lazy!

For me there is some kind of disconnect. If I had enough money to buy and maintain that yacht, or to buy a shabby 1000 sq ft 2/1 for $500K in a crime ridden urban area, that is not what I would choose to do with my money! I'd rather live someplace quieter and more beautiful, and live the life of Riley (or is it spelled Reily?). I would have more fun with a rowboat on a remote lake or inlet than partying on that yacht. I would be out there at dawn, listening to the quiet and the birds chirping and fish splashing.

I guess each person defines luxury for himself or herself.

A few blocks up from me, new houses and "doubles" (duplex townhouses) have been built, each selling for $600K - $800K, instead of ~$200K like houses on my block. My question is why anyone would pay $800K to live in my neighborhood, or to live in any neighborhood in the New Orleans "soupbowl"? Yet, they do, even though those new houses flooded in 2005 and had to be gutted and restored.

[donheff]

Great tour. I will have to take a ride around Capitol Hill with a camera one of these days and crank out a tour thread. I may need some help with catchy, descriptive captions to catch the reader's interest.

[honobob]

Originally Posted by Want2retire

A few blocks up from me, new houses and "doubles" (duplex townhouses) have been built, each selling for $600K - $800K, instead of ~$200K like houses on my block.

W2R Here's your answer.

May 01, 2008 - May 07, 2008Provided by Commercial Real Estate Direct
Apartment Rentals Rates Climb in New Orleans
Rental rates for apartment units in New Orleans have reached some significant highs, according to a report by Larry G. Shedler & Associates. The research firm found that rents have increased as much as 20 to 30% since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The survey, which focused primarily on larger apartment communities, said that apartments in the historic district of New Orleans had the highest rates, commanding $1,300/unit. The report also says that about 1,775 units are under construction in the region.

[Want2retire]

Honobob, either I am not awake yet or your statement does not even attempt to explain why people would spend $800K for a house in a $150K-$200K neighborhood, where many "lesser" houses (1970's instead of 2005) are available at much lower prices. (sigh)

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Originally Posted by REWahoo

4,700 x $4.25/gal for diesel = $19,975

And to think I was complaining about the cost of filling my motorhome tank...

that boat likely buys bulk rate. but how about the bigger boat; that's about $40k in fuel to cross the atlantic at a decent clip. yet fuel is just a minor cost for these things. at the standard 4% figure for the smaller boat, you'd need about a $25mm stash set aside after the $9mm purchase just to keep that thing running.

Originally Posted by bbbamI

Wow, I feel like I've been on a tour. Thanks for the pics Lazy, very interesting!

being sans yacht, i am not beyond accepting tips for the tour. tip: "plant your crops early this year."

Originally Posted by donheff

Great tour. I will have to take a ride around Capitol Hill with a camera one of these days and crank out a tour thread. I may need some help with catchy, descriptive captions to catch the reader's interest.

would love to see it. in fact i've been thinking about getting back to tour d.c. again. i really liked biking around there. the captioning comes from my past of doing what i used to call photograms from camp and later from college. family and friends used to love getting them. somewhat before internet.

Originally Posted by Want2retire

why people would spend $800K for a house in a $150K-$200K neighborhood, where many "lesser" houses (1970's instead of 2005) are available at much lower prices.

i've always run under the assumption of buying the worst house in the best area. that way on upswings the neighborhood brings my value up. seems it works just the opposite for those buying the best in the area. better to win going up and down.

still, some people just really like their granite kitchens. for others, they like a lot of space. i live in an area of mostly smaller houses 2/1's, 3/1's like mine and some 3/2's with a sprinkling of 4-bedrooms. though the location here was always excellent, for whatever reason it went into disrepair early in it's life and didn't come out of it until after i got here. now that it is such a great neighborhood, it attracts those with more money, only we don't have the houses they enjoy. so now we have about 30 or 40 minimansions in the area including two across the street from me (which fortunately stayed on 1-story, the rest are two-story ugly things).

for someone to live in a better area, in that size house, likely would be far beyond their means. they could put their 4-6,000 sq ft new house in an area that had 2-4,000 square foot houses from early on, but they are going to pay through the nose to buy the teardown to rebuild there.

so we wind up with a $1mm house next to a $300k one. nature of the beast. probably harder to sell one of those though. but then, how many buyers are there for a $12mm boat. and really, isn't this a preferable and more democratic mix than merely maintaining stratified neighborhoods where there is less chance for social interaction among differing economic classes.

[Ronstar]

Thanks for the tour Lazy!

[Want2retire]

I see what you mean, LG4NB. Especially here, where land is at a premium and they pretty much have to tear something down to build a new home. I hadn't thought about that aspect but it does make sense.

Personally, if I wanted to spend that many bucks on a house here I'd buy an older house up by the lake (fancier neighborhood). But if they must have a newer McMansion, I suppose this is an option.

Of course, we DO seem to have a lot more tear-downs available all over town than are available in some other cities...

[Moemg]

Lazy , Your picture tours are really motivating me to capture Sarasota with a camera . It has so many nice areas .

[Achiever51]

Love the photo tours, Lazy! Keep em coming.

[bubba]

I love the photo tours from Florida (Moemg, please post a tour of Sarasota). I can't afford to own a place on the water, but I surely enjoy looking! So keep those pictures coming and thanks for sharing those.

[BunsGettingFirm]

Part 1 is great! Where is part 2?

[Buckeye]

Very nice tour to look at on a rainy, overcast day in the midwest in May. Thank you.

"gayted" community...I love it!

[lazygood4nothinbum]

thanx for such nice comments. i also want to see moemg's sarasota tour and i think you should all do one of your areas.

getting to part two buns. also i want to do a tour of some of the major foreclosure areas: notalottayachts there. i was hoping for another cool day to bike around without getting all sweaty but seems summer's arriving fast and strong. 94 degrees today, yuck. i'm afraid i'd drip all over the new digital and short it out.

edit: just realized what i wrote. sorry about that. where's hfwr when you need him?