Broward County and Fort Lauderdale traffic congestion: it's elementary in a vertical city

Galt Mile - Fort Lauderdale 2020

 

By Jane Feehan

South Florida traffic issues have commanded headlines for decades, offering little more than hope that roads will catch up to population.

During the 1950s the worst traffic jam in Florida was reported to be the bridge over Fort Lauderdale's New River at U.S. Highway 1, where it took 45 minutes to cross. The Henry E. Kinney Tunnel opened in 1960, helping to ease the traffic problem. That year Broward County’s population was counted at about 343,000, up from 83,000 residents in 1950.

Traffic was abysmal in 1979, the decade that many high-rises were built (and recession followed). East-west routes were inadequate (and still are in most areas). There were 793,074 registered vehicles in Broward County that year with a census of 986,000 residents. Commissioner Anne Kolb said, “Broward County roads are terrible.” She was right way back in 1979. Parts of A-1-A in Pompano then were already at 140 percent capacity, and that was only one example of the traffic problems.

Mega hotels & condos
Fort Lauderdale Beach 2021

Expectations pointed to about one million Broward County residents by 2000. That estimate was wrong. According to the U.S. Census, 1.6 million lived in Broward that year. In 2022, the population jumped to nearly 1,984,000 residents with 1.623 million auto vehicle registrations, according to  Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. (Broward County reported 1.9 million registered vehicles but probably included all vehicles, including mobile homes and vessels.)

Downtown Fort Lauderdale is booming with one project after another getting a green light from the Fort Lauderdale commission. A reported 40 projects to include 16,000 condos and apartments were in the pipeline in July 2022. New projects are announced each month—sometimes weekly. It’s already a problem getting emergency responders through downtown. Fort Lauderdale is now a vertical city. And, residents are leaving downtown as fast as they can. Quality of life issues, I’m told.

A Broward County 30-year one-penny sales tax passed a vote in 2018 and is expected to raise $16 billion for transportation projects, including rapid transit options. 

Miami-Dade passed a half-penny tax in 2002 for transportation improvements. Let’s hope Broward County’s one-penny tax is better directed. Miami-Dade’s tax has been diverted to maintenance and operations and special projects. “A lot of the transportation promises of two decades ago have not been fulfilled,” reported WLRN.

As with California, it’s doubtful Florida drivers in this big state will be using mass transit. The problems (and additional expense) always seem to be getting riders from rail stops to final locations. There is no synchronization of north-south initiatives with east-west follow-through.

And “rising seas?” When are engineers and government officials going to get brave enough to admit that developing mega hotels and mega condos on nearly every square inch of Broward County affects water runoff and adds to flooding problems? And of course, traffic is worse than ever (visualize evacuating in an EV when a hurricane threatens or returning in one when there's no electricity).  As Sherlock Holmes used to say, “It’s elementary, my dear Watson.”

 

Downtown Fort Lauderdale 2022: the vertical city

Other Sources:

Fort Lauderdale News, Jan. 7, 1979

Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles

The Real Deal, July 1, 2022

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Jan. 28, 2023

Broward County (Broward.org)

 

Tags: Broward County traffic problems, Broward County history, Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale traffic, Fort Lauderdale downtown, downtown Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale's Dooley's Basin and Dry Dock, WWII efforts and Broward Marine

Minesweepers under construction during the 1950s

Fort Lauderdale's Dooley’s Basin and Dry Dock, established in 1937 by Paul Dooley, built nearly 100 ships for the armed forces in World War II: two 110-foot sub chasers, 48 harbor patrol boats and 45 sea-air rescue craft. It was one of 21 shipyards across the nation approved for such construction.

Broward Marine was established in 1948 by Frank Denison when he bought Dooley's Basin and Dry Dock. During the 1950s, about 10 minesweepers (see photo) were constructed at the company for the U.S. and Dutch navies. Ross Petrie was Broward Marine's naval architect. 

Ownership has changed a few times for the shipyard located along the New River, east of I-95. It is now the site of Lauderdale Marine Center, the largest boat repair facility in the country. See: http://www.lauderdalemarinecenter.com/ft-lauderdale-marina.html.

For a list of boats/ships built at Broward Marine, see:

 http://shipbuildinghistory.com

Fort Lauderdale News, May 3, 1940

Fort Lauderdale News, Oct. 30, 1952

Tags: Broward County history, south Florida shipbuilding history, South Florida employers during the 1940s, 1950s, minesweepers, Fort Lauderdale history

Three BIG reasons for Florida's growth in the 1950s

By Jane Feehan

Broward County, established in 1915, underwent a dynamic expansion, as did much of South Florida, in the 1950s. Three factors contributed to that expansion:

1. Air conditioning 
2. Mosquito control and
3. Beginning of nonstop passenger airline flights from New York to Fort Lauderdale.

Broward population milestones in the 1950s:
https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/07/floridas-population-explosion-in-1950s.html

Source:  

Sun-Sentinel:  “The Fabulous '50s,” by Jane Feehan. Aug. 21, 2002.


Tags: Broward County in the 1950s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, Florida in the 1950s, aerial view of Fort Lauderdale

$100/Plate political fundraisers - a look back at JFK and Florida

1956 Fundraiser

By Jane Feehan

With today’s presidential campaign fundraising dinners fetching up to $50,000 a plate (and beyond), a glance at similar events during the 1960s shows the dramatic inflation rate of politics.

President John F. Kennedy flew to Miami Beach March 9, 1962 to help raise funds for Sen. George Smathers who had just announced a bid for a second term

Three thousand of South Florida’s Democratic Party showed up at the main ballroom of the Fountainebleau Hotel and paid $100 a plate to hear JFK. They were so wowed by the young president they did not mind – or notice – that Frank Sinatra bowed out of an appearance because of laryngitis. JFK and Sinatra for $100 - what a bargain that would have been.

Two years earlier, the Democratic Party kickoff for the 1960 campaign drew 2,500 at $100 per person to the nation’s capitol. (Video: http://tinyurl.com/9tzyrnq.)

Plate prices remained the same during Kennedy's presidency. For the anniversary of his second year in office, 5,000 supporters were invited to Washington to see the president for $100 per person. Enough money was generated by the event to retire the Democratic Party’s debt for the first time since 1952.

Dinners continued to command the same ticket price. Kennedy flew to Ohio for Gov. Michael DiSalle’s 54th birthday – a non-presidential Democratic fundraising occasion with $100-a-plate invitations in 1962.

Republicans also held fundraisers for $100 a plate. Rockefeller hosted one such event in Albany, NY in April, 1963, drawing hundreds. So, during the early 1960s, $100-a-plate fundraising dinners were the norm for both parties.

How times have changed ...

For Florida documents, including a program from a 1956 Broward County Democratic Fundraiser at the Beach Club, visit JFK Presidential Library and museum at:

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKCAMP1960-0932-008.aspx

       

By Robert L. Knudsen - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library,
hwww.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKWHP-KN-17134.aspx, Public Domain,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15978282

                            
Sources:
Miami News, Mar. 11, 1962
Miami News, May 3, 1962
Miami News, Apr. 30, 1963



Tags: Political campaigns 1960s, fundraising dinners 1960s. Florida politics 1960s, Democratic Party 1960, Republican fundraisers 1963