Date: 07/07/2010

Urban Experience

For my urban experience I chose Historical Downtown Fort Myers. During my tour of the city I felt most comfortable at the Centennial Park(my camera died before I went back to take a picture of it) because I was just so peaceful. I saw people sitting reading books and the traffic by that area was must less than any other part that I visited in downtown. What caught my attention the most was that they had a beach volleyball court set up in Centennial Park and I personally love to play beach volleyball on my free time so I thought that that would be one of my favorite places to come to in Downtown Fort Myers. I didn’t see too many abundant parks in the downtown area but there were some and I feel like they add a lot to the environment of the city. I feel like these small parks are a little escape for people from the reality of the city that surrounds these parks. I feel like a large amount of the city is devoted to vehicles and parking and all that’s related to traffic which makes sense as for anyone who is to come and visit the city comes in a car and needs parking space; therefore, if downtown wants business they need parking. I also was amazed at the feeling I got from the city itself. I felt like I was back in Costa Rica, just walking down the streets of downtown San Jose but just a complete 180 degree turn when it comes to sanitary conditions and just the overall nice look to the city. I saw no signs of homeless people or graffiti in the walls as I would expect to see in San Jose, obviously were talking about a third world country in which every capital downtown is not very safe, but I never expect Fort Myers’ downtown to be so pretty. I don’t understand why college students don’t make more trips to downtown I thought it would be a nice place to go visit for the day, and I also saw some bars that seemed to be like really fun places that students of age could go and hangout at just as regular college students would in a big city like Boston, which I visited last spring with B.E.E.P(FGCU Programming Board). Nonetheless, I felt like downtown historic Fort Myers was really organized with their parking and it seemed like a very safe place for people to walk around, not only college but families as well. There are lots of nice things to see in the city, like the different monuments, antique stores, sculptures, and memorials and not to forget the very nicely remodeled building on Main Street.