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.