a photogram from fort lauderdale part 2: las olas isles & the beach

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Number of Florida households using food stamps jumps 19 percent, about three times the national average -- -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

The trend is statewide. Between February 2007 and February this year, the number of Florida households using food stamps jumped 19 percent — the largest statewide gain in the country and about three times the average national increase, according to figures released last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

between downtown and the beach you'll find the venice of america, the isles off las olas blvd. here deepwater houses start at $1mm & head quickly north from there.

this point lot is currently asking $2,795,000 and taxes on the full asking price will run you $47,000/year. you can find the particulars here
Single Family Home - 223 Navarro Isle, Fort Lauderdale, FL, 33301 - Realtor.com


while this one down the road will tax you $$58k/yr on the full asking price. particulars here http://tinyurl.com/6bf332


known for lots of seawall, these properties are ideal for larger yachts. here they stand like sentries guarding the canals.


though mostly single family houses, some isles have apartment buildings with lots of redevelopment there during the boom. these are also areas with liveaboard dockage, rare property in this county.


this is about the prettiest boat i saw today. it's a 1969 feadship recently refit and asking only $2,350,000. with transatlantic range, it sleeps six in owner's accomodations and has generous mess & staterooms for a crew of 7 including separate captain's cabin.


probably the prettiest isle is in the idlewyld area, right on the intracoastal waterway. i love especially the original older houses like this one


here is their view


but they are being replaced by newer houses like this one


which paid $170,328 in taxes in 2007 to enjoy the view of Fort Lauderdale Hotels & Florida Luxury Resorts - Bahia Mar Beach Resort & Yachting Center where is now docked utopia, a 235-ft feadship available to charter for just $730,000 per week plus expenses & gratuities.


other views from idlewyld include the swimming hall of fame where is currently docked the recently launched, ontario canada-built, 141-ft expedition yacht copasetic, no doubt slumming in fort lauderdale before cruising around the world in grand style.


sick of the money yet? it doesn't end there.

but if you don't have the cash to pay for those views, there's always the Water Taxi - "More than just a boat ride!" (by the way, that's not an apartment building but just a single family house across the icw)


immediately east of the las olas isles is fort lauderdale's beach, home to a new trump building and the recently opened st. regis resort & condominium pictured below. particulars here: http://tinyurl.com/5925jx. the developer died at 59 of a heart attack after a round of golf, a few months before the completion of fort lauderdale's first 5-star property.


just a block south still remains remnants of fort lauderdale's glorious past like the elbo room


and across the beach is of course, well, fabulous. (my dog used to love to walk ontop of that wall. though dogs are no longer allowed.)


our beach used to be lined by mostly just 2 & 3-story mom & pop hotels, a few chains like howard johnsons, some cheezy architecture, mostly just low-key beach stuff. but since before and of course during the boom, the area transformed. we used to host the very best annual party. spring break. wow, did i love spring break here. but in the 1980s fort lauderdale decided it had enough. the 50-year-old party was cancelled and redevelopment began. bummer. (the party moved to daytona and then to panama city beach, florida)

now instead of mom & pop we get towering structures that blot out the sky.


instead of walking along an open beach it is turning into a walk along the side of a man-made cliff of concrete, glass & balconies.


the city tried to reduce some of the effects of the towers by angling their upper floors, as if that would prevent some shadows on the beach. so now during winter there's maybe an extra 20 minutes of sun that would have been blocked completely, even though we lost the last hour of sunlight.

here's the sky we used to enjoy


and this is what's left after they took 30 degrees of sky out of view


on the north end of the strip is the village area where used to be the village zoo, host to my pre-of-age drinking. a few remnants of old florida till exist here was well.



and of course the parrot lounge (almost as world famous as the elbo room)


a block east of there is an apartment complex called coconut bay where my parents moved into their boat when they sold the house as soon as i went off to college. i lived with them some summers. and of course i stayed with them during spring break. living on the strip at spring break, every young guy's dream. thank you mom & dad. thank you thank you thank you. boy was that fun.


a block down the intracoastal from there you'll find new megayacht dockage.


and the most wonderful Main Page - Hugh Taylor Birch State Park » Florida State Parks which runs from the icw to the ocean.







along the beach east & north of birch state park was our last stand of free parking which we lost just this past year. it now costs me 3 to 5 bucks just to take the car and go for a walk in the morning (if i don't feel like biking there). what a rip off. they took away the sky, they stopped us from walking our dogs on the beach wall and now pay parking. fort lauderdale is no longer what it was. i had a great time but it is time for me to leave.

[DangerMouse]

Thanks for another wonderful look at a place I have never been too, nor would I be able to get the jist of a place as you have so eloquently described.

It is sad when planners allow developers to put up these multi storey buildings without any real thought for anything beyond the tax $'s these developments generate. Seems like money does not always buy taste, as the older housing looks preferable to me than the new gaudy McMansions.

[brewer12345]

Cripes, it looks like Cannes! 40 meter yachts and overpriced real estate out the wazoo...

[Khan]

On that second photo, what's that round thing on the railing?

A critter barrier?

[Donzo]

Great tour LGFNB! I went to Fort Lauderdale every spring break 76-79 while in college. I would drive straight through with friends from NY - 24 hour drive. We always had such a great time. It has really changed, so much more large development..... Is the bar/club - the Button still around? That was always the hot spot to get turned down at :>)

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Originally Posted by DangerMouse

It is sad when planners allow developers to put up these multi storey buildings without any real thought for anything beyond the tax $'s these developments generate. Seems like money does not always buy taste, as the older housing looks preferable to me than the new gaudy McMansions.

while i'm not crazy about the beach redevelopment, i do very much approve of the downtown development. i think during the next boom that downtown fort lauderdale will transform into a 24-hour pedestrian friendly real little city. it is almost there now.

Originally Posted by brewer12345

Cripes, it looks like Cannes! 40 meter yachts and overpriced real estate out the wazoo...

thing is, there really is no other place like this, on this scale, on the east or west coast, possibly the world. and there will be no more building of waterfront property here, only redevelopment of existing. where else can you exit your backdoor, untie your boat and hop over to bimini for lunch?

for those who can afford it, and i did not see a lot of for sale signs in this area, i suppose it is priced just right. realtor.com shows 158 waterfront houses for sale over $1mm in 33301. foreclosures.com shows 333 preforeclosures including only 58 single family houses plus 20 reo's in 33301 area, out of total 6,700 units* (waterfront & dry lots). the beach area, zip code 33316 shows 157 preforeclosures including 30 single family houses out of total 7600 units* & 12 reo's. (*year 2000 figure).

Originally Posted by Khan

On that second photo, what's that round thing on the railing?

A critter barrier?

ya, kids.

Originally Posted by Donzo

Great tour LGFNB! I went to Fort Lauderdale every spring break 76-79 while in college. I would drive straight through with friends from NY - 24 hour drive. We always had such a great time. It has really changed, so much more large development..... Is the bar/club - the Button still around? That was always the hot spot to get turned down at :>)

thanx donzo. that's right when we lived there. i was the hippie walking the weimeraner. in fact. some guy from jersey who i hadn't seen in years once came up to me on the crowded strip, having recognized my dog (there were very few weimers back then). or you might have seen me in the wildcat convertible picking up hitchhikers along the beach. i ran a free shuttle service with some of my friends. sort of a rolling party. too much fun.

button's gone. candy store's gone. my favorite, of course, the marlin beach "where the boys really are" is gone. so much is gone. sunday tea by the sea is gone. how depressing! if it wasn't for the lack of portability of soh (prop tax advantage) before and the housing crisis now, i'd be gone too. trapped in paradise. such is life.

[CuppaJoe]

Thanks, Lazy, that's obscene. I took some photos yesterday of the area that was once beach-front property here but is now about eight blocks from the shoreline: Many photos of old and new skyscrapers and an old women digging into a garbage can for recyclable cans. One of my cousins sells "boats" in Fort Myers--I had no idea!

[bubba]

What a wonderful treat on this rainy afternoon after a 12 hour workday (ugh) to open this thread and see more of your photography. Thank you so much - I can almost smell the ocean! Post more whenever you can - I enjoy these tours very much.

[Khan]

My parents moved to Gulf Shores, AL back in '71. They referred to Orange Beach as 'Orange Beachless', because it had become so built up that you could drive for miles and only see condos.

[dessert]

Thanks for the tour Lazy. I really enjoyed it. You may have started a new idea for others.
I'm ready to see your next batch of photos.

[bbbamI]

Ditto.

I would post pics, but who wants to see TX?

[Buckeye]

Anybody want to see winter wheat growing....in the rain?

[CuppaJoe]

Originally Posted by Buckeye

Anybody want to see winter wheat growing....in the rain?

Yeah! My recipes for grinding wheat into flour at home say the winter varieties are the best. That's another hobby to plan to do more often in retirement. Rain, rain, what is rain? Yes, show us!

[frayne]

I lived in Ft. Lauderdale in the early seventies and use to frequent a number of the bars along A1A. Always wondered about how and where the people got their money to live like that along the intercoastal. Some big money there no doubt.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

Originally Posted by frayne

I lived in Ft. Lauderdale in the early seventies and use to frequent a number of the bars along A1A. Always wondered about how and where the people got their money to live like that along the intercoastal. Some big money there no doubt.

a friend's friend lived off las olas and i was in the house some. hated it. the father was a doctor who specialized, apparently, in amputation of endangered specie parts: elephant foot garbage cans, ashtrays made from hooves, skins on the floors, heads on the walls. the smell alone was insane.

i was just a kid and wrote a dumb poem about him called the great white money hunter. part of it went something like this:

a beast of prey, he prays to god
he's the animal thinking with reason.
he's on his way to a day when he'll pay
when the human is in open season.

as to where some of the others got their money to live in those icw houses:

the huge house pictured on idlewyld is ohio based-warren fabricating president john c. rebhan. neighboring point lots include mike maroone, president of autonation, 2007 salary & compensation $2,951,860 um, plus $36,742,932 in stock options, during which time their stocks fell from 22.45 to 15.66. ya gotta wonder what he gets when the stocks go up. note also that vanguard is a top institutional holder, anyone here ever been invited over for a cocktail cruise? his neighbor across the canal is antony von elbe of champlain enterprises aka commutair (continental).

the big house in the water taxi shot looks like steve willens’ (ceo of california's livingston enterprises purchased by lucent). a point lot on next isle to south is leland pillsbury, ceo of thayer lodging group. point lots south of him is jacqueline mccall (trust) next door to louis paolino jr. ceo of mace security international, 2006 salary and other compensation $1,234,154 according to forbes. so probably he can afford his property taxes of $150k, down from $162,800 in 2006.