Broward County, Florida Pembroke Pines and Southwest Ranches

Aerial view of Pembroke Pines Photo Courtesy: Linda Wertheimer

Battered by several seasons of severe storms, Floridians are abandoning the coasts and moving inland. Hurricane immigrants have swelled the population of a once quiet farming area on the edge of the Everglades. where the neighboring towns of Pembroke Pines and Southwest Ranches in Broward County, Florida, respond in different ways to the challenges of population growth.

Pembroke Pines is a classic suburban community of subdivisions and strip malls and is the third fastest growing city in the United States. The population mushroomed from 1,500 residents in 1960, to 60,000 in 1990, to an estimated 120,000 in 2000. Now almost totally built out, the city is playing catch up with problems created by the huge influx of people: traffic, school overcrowding, water and environmental issues.

Many families moved to Pembroke Pines because they felt that it was a good place to raise a family. The city has numerous parks and recreational activities for kids and very good schools. Despite the difficulties caused by sprawl, most people still enjoy living there.

Southwest Ranches responds differently to growth. This is a much more rural town and it plans to stay that way. It fought against annexation with Pembroke Pines, and in March the city incorporated to make sure it controls its own future. Southwest Ranches residents, who number about 7,000, have decided they want to resist the spread of shopping malls, traffic lights and housing developments.

Listen as All Things Considered's Linda Wertheimer visits both towns -- by land and by air -- and talks to the people who live there about how and why each town has chosen the path it did.

Links & Resources

Jim Karas, Planning Manager for the South Florida Water Management District, ATC host Linda Wertheimer and producer Debra Schifrin prepare to fly over Pembroke Pines, Southwest Ranches and the Everglades

Construction site at the Pembroke Falls development in Pembroke Pines

Links & Resources:

For the live camera of Pembroke Pines, and the weather:
www.pembroke-pines.com

For the official website of the city of Pembroke Pines
www.ci.pembroke-pines.fl.us/index3.html

Southwest Ranches, Florida
www.southwestranches.org/

Map of South Florida
www.panther.state.fl.us/ (pdf)

The Everglades
www.florida-everglades.com/home.htm

Miami newspaper
www.miamiherald.com

Ft. Lauderdale newspaper
www.sun-sentinel.com


Produced for All Things Considered by Debra Schifrin and researched by Julie Harbin.

The Changing Face of America is an 18-month-long NPR series that tells the stories of regular, everyday Americans and the issues they face at a time of rapid and dramatic change in the U.S. This special series can be heard on NPR's Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered and Morning Edition.

The Changing Face of America series is sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts.