#11-downtown!

When I think of Downtown fort myers I think of (honestly...)::
-bums
-MLK and the ghetto
-heavy drinking and bars
-downtown pizza
-taste of town and other festivals held in the park
-the dirty water
-jail

... I have grown up in fort myers so I think that I have a view comparable to most who have also been raised in the area.

The main idea when downtown was built was so that people could walk everywhere they needed to go within a couple short blocks or within 5 minutes.  Well, it definitely takes much longer than that now.  I think that is pretty funny that the one building by the court house was supposedly painted in "UF" colors... more like Miami Dolphin colors. 

A few cool things that I learned today:
-Fort Myers was actually a military base (with a different name!) that was used to scare off the Indians. 
-Fort Myers was huge on cattle herding and McGregor was one of the main trails!
-the 3 uncommon friends are Edison, Firestone, and Ford (the main statue in centennial park)
-Red mangroves are all along the water's edge
-There is an "Art of the Olympians" musuem! (I had NO idea AND they had an autographed basketball from Chris Bosh--my favorite!!)
-There are many significant statues and works of art (like the tile mosaic of the 3 different generations on the building behind the back entrance to starbucks) all around the downtown area
-The odl bank was used to folm day of the dead-cool!

Downtown is trying to fix tiself however it is nowhere near where it needs to be and far from being sustainable.  There is much work that needs to be done and plenty of fixing up to do!!