25 things that make me happy about a place

July 17, 2010

25 things that make me happy about the beach are:

1. Relaxation

2. Beautiful view

3. Watching the animals in their habitats

4. Sand between my toes

5. Feeling the salty wind on my face

6. Swimming in the water

7. Watching the sun rise in the mornings

8. Tanning in the sun

9. Watching the fish jump out of the water

10. Time to spend with myself

11. Play volleyball with friends at the nets

12. Watching the boats and ships go by

13. A place to clear my head

14. Nothing to bother me

15. If I'm lucky, see a dolphin

16. Watching the waves crash upon the shore

17. The smell of suncreen

18. Watching the clouds in the sky go by

19. Finding the beautiful shells in the sand

20. The "fresh" air

21. Very peaceful

22. A reminder of all the great memories I had as a child there

23. On occasion surfing in the ocean

24. The beautiful scenery

25. The oceans deep blue color

Art Work

This is a picture that I drew when I sat in my back yard and looked at the plants that are there. The bigger plant is a Fox Tail Palm, the medium plants are Saw Palmetto and the small plants on the bottom ground covering plants. While I was drawing this picture I was very relaxed and was enjoying spending time by myself in my back yard. I never realized how nature can be so calming and soothing when you take the time to just listen to the natural sounds it gives off.

Field Trip 4 - Urban Environments

Field Trip 4
Urban Environments: Mizner Park, Boca Raton, FL

The Mizner Park development in the city of Boca Raton is a prime example of New Urbanism. The architecture copies the style of the former prominent architect Addison Mizner. His style was Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival. The Urban center of Mizner Park includes shops, restaurants, lots of green space, an amphitheater, movie theater, art museum and apartments available for lease or purchase. This is a vibrant development for young people to live and enjoy their leisure time. Young people will also appreciate that is plenty of street parking and garage parking, which are both free.
Mizner Park’s amphitheater hosts many artists, concerts and events. During these events there are reserved paid seats available for purchase also the green courtyard is available for people to picnic. This is a great opportunity for families at no cost to listen to their favorite artists for free. The city is very lenient about allowing people to bring their own food, cocktails chairs when there many available restaurants. The amphitheater is acoustically designed to offer the paying customers of value with their money. A nearby church and many of the houses nearby provide parking for a fee during these events, the church and the city work together to bring these events to the community.

Mizner Park is not just a business district, in addition to apartments in Mizner, residential neighborhoods surround the area. Nearby residents can walk or bike to his Urban Center. It is not unusual on a Saturday morning to see dog owners walking their dogs and enjoying a coffee and the outdoor seating area in Starbucks. At least 90 percent of the restaurants have outdoor seating and they are all pet friendly.

The Boca Raton Redevelopment Agencies original plan was to join Mizner Park with another Urban Community, Royal Palm Plaza, with walkways and safe bike paths so that the local community could enjoy museums, shopping, restaurants, concerts and other events without getting in their car. Unfortunately the down turn in the economy has put these redevelopment plans on hold. The two adjacent Urban Centers are still providing leisure and entertainment to the community but you must drive to either community.

Mizner Park is thriving because it offers so many services in one spot. There are many residents that live in the apartments above the stores, theaters and restaurants. Despite this if the economy were better there would be more concerts in the amphitheater and more events in the center. The City of Boca Raton is considering putting up parking meters on the street and charging for use of the parking garages.

Boca Raton like most coastal cities in Florida derives most of its income from tourism. The tourism industry has been adversely impacted in the last few years by hurricanes, the economy and the recent BP oil spill. The City of Boca Raton is for the most part at its full growth capacity, there is not much land available for development. Because of the downturn in the economy the assessed property values have gone down the property taxes the city collects are down as well. As in any city and especially a city in Florida where the climate is favorable there are plenty of homeless people. As a result of a lower tax base, the city has to cut services and this means the police force, fire departments and municipal services. Despite this, crime has not gone up in the city. As in all major cities there are areas that are to be avoided especially at night.

Minzer Park in the City of Boca Raton is a major Urban Center, however there is plenty of green space, abundant of parks and nature centers especially near the ocean. The city has provided bike paths for the recreation enjoyment of the community. Because of the lack of land the city cannot build anymore parks. However they can make more walking and biking paths that join existing parks.

I think Boca Raton has been doing a great job in making the city more welcoming to people without vehicles. There is not enough green space for this to ever be a sustainable city. The city population is dominated by the elderly and they are not educated in the concept of sustainability. They are looking for convenience of services.

Leopoldian Way

July 17, 2010

A ‘Leopoldian’ way would be a way in which land ethic existed. Leopold discusses the idea of ethics as being a way of guiding an individual’s relationship with the land. This relationship includes the soils, waters, plants, animals and collectivity that live upon the land. From the field trips and other different topics of this class I agree that we need a connection with land ethic. A land ethic will help conserve biotic member of the community, since we unfortunaelty choose something’s worth on economic value, something that leaving a piece a land alone would not have. All organisms and ecosystems are interconnected in some form or another. Even if just the smallest organism is eliminated, the entire ecosystems will we greatly affected. We need to consider nature into the picture before we decide to destroy a wonderful piece of land for a building.

Colloquium Experience

July 16, 2010

My colloquium experience has been very interesting and I have learned so much about the environment that I was previously unaware of. It was nice to be able to take a class that was not just dealing with the textbook. I enjoyed the field trips we had to go on, even though I did not go on all the field trips in Fort Myers, I still made a great connections with the local ones I went to in Boca Raton. The readings from the SOW textbook were very interesting, I liked that it talked about other countries around the world and the similar problems they are having with sustainability. I also liked how the authors would give possible solutions in these short chapters, I wish more people would read these books because if everyone was educated on these issues it would make it easier for everyone to come together and use less resources. Some things that I would change about this class would be the paper topics. I found it quite difficult to write about some of the topics that were given to us. The colloquium book with the passages from Louv, Orr, Douglas and Dewey, I found to be a little hard to understand and relate to. I think that the University is doing a great job with the Colloquium class. I think that it is neat that it is a class that everyone has to take. That it is a good idea that everyone with a different major can communicate with one another.

Lifestyle and Health

July 10, 2010

There are many environmental influences that have affected my lifestyle and health. I have asthma and now days the environment is not as clean and the air is polluted with many toxins that affect my lungs every day. I have to take medicine everyday to allow myself to breathe normally. I am not saying that because of the environment I have asthma, I am just implying that it makes my condition worse because the air in not clean. I am very grateful for the lifestyle that I live and the environment has played a huge role on how I have shaped my life. I enjoy many outdoor activities and have had many experiences as a child with nature. Besides having asthma I have very good health, mostly due to the part that I am very active and treat my body well. I try to stay away from all the processed food and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. The environment has been abused throughout mankind and because of this I have change my lifestyle to a more “greener” route. I try to use less water, less energy and fewer resources. I believe that if everyone starts this trend we can tremendously help out the environment. The environment has influenced the way I carry out my day to day activities, I always make sure to recycle and use alternate ways of transportation rather than always driving my car. I believe that the environment has influenced my health a lot. I am always exorcising outside, I refuse to get a gym membership because I enjoy running outside along the beach paths near my house. I have a great joy improving my health just by exorcising outside and playing various sports with my friends.

Class Discussions

July 7, 2010

The class discussions that we did weekly I found to be very helpful. I really enjoyed reading other students posts and hearing their opinion about the information we had to read. I liked commenting on their posts and agreeing or disagreeing with what they had to say. It also allowed me to understand some of the curriculum better when I would read others opinions on the topics. I felt that the discussions were a vital tool in communicating with one another since it was an online class. It kept everyone connected and allowed everyone to give any opinion that they wanted to write about. My favorite discussion posts where when we would read a chapter in the State Of The World textbook and would write if we agreed with the author and how we felt about that subject. As well as reading others posts about the same chapters.