Over Southeast Florida By Kevin M. Mccarthy And Charles Feil

EVEN FROM ABOVE, SOUTHEAST FLORIDA—with its mixture of beaches, resorts, farmland, wildlife preserves, and urban enclaves— offers it own unique rhythm, part slow old Florida, part trendy new Florida, all with a background saucy Latin beat.

huge slow-moving river of grass that extends all the way to the west coast. Here we see fires, and airboats, and sunsets, and the homes and villages of the Seminoles and Miccosukees.

“Here it is: a month of southeast Florida captured from above at the turn of the twenty-first century—in all its subtropical, frenzied beauty. Southeast Florida as seen from above reveals a tropical paradise, complete with a cultural identity—an intrinsic golden coast like none other. Enjoy the views!” —From the Introduction

We fly north to Broward County with its main city, Ft. Lauderdale.We gaze at huge ships navigating the Hillsborough Inlet and then zip over to the beach where “spring break” originated and soar all along the coast of Broward and Palm Beach Counties.We encounter the contrasts of plush Palm Beach and more urban West Palm Beach and the Mediterranean sophistication of Boca Raton.

cinct text, you’ll learn fascinating facts about what you

well as photography for many major publications and corporations. He is the first gyroplane pilot to fly all fortyeight states without ground support (see www.say2000.org ). He has also created ten books of aerial images from Maine to California, including Over Key West and the Florida Keys, also published by Pineapple Press.To view more of his photography, visit his website at www.viewsfromabove.com. Rooty Kazooty is Chuck’s chariot in the sky.This two-seater experimental gyroplane is a kit aircraft by Rotary Air Force and built by Chuck Feil. Chuck holds the control stick between his knees as he shoots his photos at about five hundred feet above ground. Rooty can stay airborne at speeds as slow as five miles per hour! The result is photography unique to the team of Chuck and Rooty.

are seeing. So hop aboard Rooty Kazooty and let’s zoom over southeast Florida.

PINEAPPLE PRESS, INC. Sarasota, Florida

Kevin McCarthy is a professor of English and Florida Studies at the University of Florida. He has written twelve books for Pineapple Press, including Aviation in Florida,The St. Johns River Guidebook,Thirty Florida Shipwrecks, and Twenty Florida Pirates. He and his wife, Professor Karelisa Hartigan, often lecture on cruises in the Mediterranean and Middle East.

PINEAPPLE PRESS, INC. Sarasota, Florida ISBN 1-56164-338-6

ver Southeast Florida Photographs by Charles Feil Text by Kevin M. McCarthy

S

outheast Florida—the magic tip of the

Florida peninsula. Charles Feil offers it to you from a bird’s-eye view, or rather, the view from his little gyroplane, Rooty Kazooty, as he buzzes over the beach,

waters of the Atlantic and its bays and inlets.

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ver Southeast Florida

The tour begins in—where else—Miami, and includes Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, Vizcaya, Biscayne Bay, and all the wonders of this unique region. On we go, south to Florida City and Homestead and the farmlands to their west.Then we swoop over the mostly uninhabited Everglades, that

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Photographs by Charles Feil 9

Cover photo—Miami Beach looking north

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the cities, the Everglades, and the ever-shimmering

Feil and McCarthy

All along the way, thanks to Kevin McCarthy’s suc-

Photographer/adventurer/pilot Charles (Chuck) Feil is dedicated to producing exhilarating images of our world from above. His credits include work on Jane Goodall’s wildlife films on the Serengeti Plains of East Africa, as

Over Southeast Florida

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Text by Kevin M. McCarthy

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ver Southeast Florida Photographs by Charles Feil Text by Kevin M. McCarthy

PINEAPPLE PRESS, INC. Sarasota, Florida

A C K N OW L E D G M E N T S Thanks to the family, friends, and strangers who have unselfishly come to my aid in paving the way to the successful completion of this book.They have supported me with a place to lay my head at night, fuel for the mind and body, or hangar space for a tired Rooty at the end of a long day of flying. Kudos to Maralyce Ferree for her unwavering love and support of my passions and goals; to my son Dylan, whose sensitive insights keep the fire in my soul aglow; to Ken and Maria Feil for sharing their extensive knowledge of south Florida as well as their love and friendship; and to my parents, brothers, and friends, who have been avid supporters of my books and projects throughout my career. Special thanks go to James Wyatt of Wyatt Aviation in Homestead for allowing Rooty and me to hang our rotors and hat, respectively, at his flight base operations. Last , but not least, thanks to David and June Cussen and the staff at Pineapple Press for their belief and promotion of this unique view of southeast Florida. —Charles Feil Many thanks to Paul George, who helped me identify some of the sites in Chuck Feil’s wonderful photographs and corrected some of my captions. I’d particularly like to acknowledge the efforts of the many Floridians in southeast Florida who are working hard to keep a careful balance between the environment and the needs of the many residents and visitors whose demands for an increasing infrastructure put great strains on that fragile environment. —Kevin McCarthy

Copyright © photographs 2005 by Charles Feil Photograph of The Biltmore (page 25) copyright © The Biltmore Hotel Copyright © text 2005 by Kevin M. McCarthy

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Inquiries should be addressed to: Pineapple Press, Inc. P.O. Box 3889 Sarasota, Florida 34230 www.pineapplepress.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Feil, Charles, 1948Over southeast Florida / by Charles Feil and Kevin McCarthy. p. cm. ISBN 1-56164-338-6 (alk. paper) 1. Florida—Aerial photographs. 2. Everglades (Fla.)—Aerial photographs. 3. Miami-Dade County (Fla.)—Aerial photographs. 4. Palm Beach County (Fla.)—Aerial photographs. 5. Broward County (Fla.)—Aerial photographs. 6. Florida—History, Local. I. McCarthy, Kevin (Kevin M.) II.Title. F312.F45 2005 975.9’0022’2—dc22 2005010829

13 digit ISBN 978-1-56164-338-7

First Edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in China

CONTENTS Map

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Introduction

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Miami-Dade County The Everglades Broward County

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Palm Beach County

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Lake Okeechobee

North Palm Beach

West Palm Beach Palm Beach County

Palm Beach Lake Worth

Boca Raton Deerfield Beach Hillsboro Inlet

Broward County

Ft. Lauderdale Hollywood Hallandale Beach

Miami-Dade County

Miami Homestead Florida City

The Everglades

INTRODUCTION Florida, the Sunshine State, evokes images of endless blue skies, warm waters, golden sunsets, sugar-white beaches. If you add “southeast” in front of it, your images keep the blue skies and warm waters but add urban scenes of modern skyscrapers and long rows of either Art Deco hotels or red-tile-roofed homes with dazzling swimming pools. My mind’s eye fantasized these visions as I headed south on I-95 out of Portland, Maine, on a cold January afternoon, my camper securely strapped to my pickup bed, towing my RAF 2000 gyroplane named Rooty Kazooty. I was embarking on a new photographic journey to explore southeast Florida from the air. As the tires hummed in rhythm over the fifteen hundred miles of highway, I thought about the “snowbirds,” those human winter residents who, like migrating robins, head south as the trees lose their leaves. Of course, what I found when I arrived is that most southeast Floridians live on this warm shore year-round, many in tall condos, leading a lifestyle as urban as Manhattanites. And many have not migrated from the north like robins or snow geese, but from the south like the exotic parrots that have been blown onto the Florida peninsula by summer’s hurricanes. Southeast Florida—particularly Miami, of course—moves to a Latin beat, drinks moji-

tos and café cubano, and speaks as much Spanish as English. From the air you somehow get a sense of the cultural muddle below: the peculiar mixture of old-time Floridians, Northern newcomers, Latin immigrants, retirees, and on-to-the-next-thing young moderns that make up southeast Florida today. I spent a month flying and photographing Florida from my lofty perch of five hundred feet. For Rooty and me, it was an opportunity to explore these patchwork quilts of land that support vibrant metropolises right alongside natural wildlife habitats and vast agricultural fields. Along the way we were treated to magnificent sunrises reflecting off bay windows of beach homes and the tall glass of seaside condos. I viewed the last remains of the stilt homes in Key Biscayne and witnessed container ships and cruise ships coming and going through the narrow straits between Fisher Island and South Beach into the port of Miami. I flew over diverse communities that cling to real estate made of coral, shell, and sand. I swooped down to see protected sea and wildlife preserves that save the past for the future. I zoomed over the crowded streets of South Beach and zigzagged around tall buildings—and tall cranes building more tall buildings. I realized that no matter when I photographed this growing city, my

photo essay would soon go out of date. But here it is: a month of southeast Florida captured early in the twenty-first century—in all its subtropical, frenzied beauty. Southeast Florida as seen from above reveals a tropical paradise, complete with a cultural identity—an intrinsic golden coast like none other. Enjoy the views!

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MIAMI-DADE COUNTY Miami-Dade County is like no other place in the United States, not only because of its ethnic and linguistic mix (American, Cuban, Haitian), but also because of its geographic location (near Hurricane Alley and the Gulf Stream) and potential for growth. Its proximity to lucrative South American markets, diverse sports ranging from horse racing and jai alai to professional baseball and football, and its maritime heritage, including pirates and shipwrecks, and refugees arriving by raft, all make Miami-Dade unique. As a gateway to the Caribbean, it is a truly bilingual community, even trilingual in certain parts where Haitian and Cuban immigrants live side-by-side with monolingual English speakers. Although in the path of some hurricanes because of its proximity to the ocean, the county has many golden beaches dotted with deeply tanned beachgoers, Art Deco hotels, busy nightlife, homes of some of entertainment’s most glamorous stars, modern art museums, as well as quiet neighborhoods away from the hustle and bustle of downtown. The county’s population is very diverse—more than half the people were born overseas. It attracts thousands of South American shoppers each year who may take in a baseball game with the Florida Marlins or a football game with either the Miami Dolphins or the University of Miami Hurricanes. It is 6

third in popularity among cities in the United States for international visitors, behind only Los Angeles and New York. The county has had its image problems, going back to the days when mobster Al Capone lived there. But after the popular television show Miami Vice pointed out Miami’s many homicide and drug problems, a vigorous campaign in the late twentieth century, partly driven by the real threat that tourists wanted to avoid the city, has curbed violence dramatically. The city is large and keeps growing with retirees, refugees, entrepreneurs, and those wishing to enjoy the sun and surf available along the many beaches. Miami-Dade County is the size of Rhode Island and has the problems of major urban areas, but it also has a vibrancy, a beat with a Latin flavor, an attraction that keeps growing. Despite its huge size, which continues to increase as more and more people move to the city, Miami traces its modern growth to the relatively recent year of 1896. In that year, Henry Flagler extended his railroad down the east coast of Florida to Miami. Before then, very few settlers lived there. After that date, a constant stream of workers, entrepreneurs, and refugees, almost all of whom had families, settled down and added to the metropolis that is so vibrant today.

Flagler Memorial Island in Biscayne Bay, below the Venetian Causeway, has an obelisk that honors the most important person in the development of south Florida: Henry Flagler. In 1896, the same year that the City of Miami was incorporated, Flagler built a railroad to Miami after a hard freeze destroyed much of the citrus industry in north Florida. He would later extend the railroad to Key West and begin the ongoing development of south Florida.The island is accessible only by boat.

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The expensive homes on the Venetian Islands in Biscayne Bay are near the Venetian Causeway, which dates back to 1925.The islands, advertised as “Gems of America’s Mediterranean,” are man-made and have such names as Rivo Alto, DiLido, San Marino, San Marco, and Biscayne, as well as one natural island, Belle Isle. Developers had planned on building another six similar islands in Biscayne Bay, but the real estate bust of the 1920s ended that project. 8

A container ship belonging to Maersk shipping line comes into Government Cut, a man-made channel built at the beginning of the twentieth century to make Miami more accessible to big ships. In dredging the cut, engineers cut away the southern tip of Miami Beach to make Fisher Island, which is south of the channel. Only about a hundred years old, the Port of Miami is the world’s busiest cruise port. Each week several thousand passengers board large cruise ships there, and the cruise industry pours over two billion dollars into south Florida’s economy each year.

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The southern part of Miami Beach, known as South Beach, is famous for its Art Deco and colorful buildings in a rainbow of pastel shades.The placement of approximately one thousand of these buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 protected the buildings from being torn down to make way for more high-rises.The small buildings in the one-square-mile district have revived what had been a derelict area, but is now full of trendy restaurants and chic bistros.The tall building in the foreground is Loews Hotel, which opened in 1998 and has over eight hundred rooms. 10

Over Southeast Florida by Charles Feil and Kevin M. McCarthy

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