Downtown Fort Myers

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Downtown Fort Myers. Downtown was much more diverse and "alive" than I expected it to be. I immediately noticed the historic aura of downtown. Many of the buildings have the same exterior structure they were originally built in. There are many convenient means of transportation such as the LeeTran public transportation system. Downtown is easily walkable and there are many parking lots conveniently located throughout the area. Most businesses seem very easily accessible and I had no difficulty navigating through downtown for the first time. I explored downtown by foot and noticed many traffic calming measures such as stop signs and prominently displayed crosswalks for pedestrians. These features play an important role in the relationship between automobiles and pedestrians and without a doubt keep the streets safe. Over the last decade I've noticed many areas have increased awareness of traffic calming measures such as my hometown of Miami. Three interesting landmarks I explored throughout my tour of downtown were the "Uncommon Friends" fountain in Centennial Park, the library, and Palm park. The fountain taught me new historic facts such as that Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and Thomas Edison were all winter residents of Fort Myers in it's earliest years. The fountain depicts the three historic inventors around a campfire with natural Florida wildlife such as alligators and manatees in surrounding waters. The library in downtown is one of the more modernized areas of town so that stood out to me. I noticed art installations displayed in the plaza and this was where I noticed the non-native vegetation but this area was one of the most well kept and felt safest. Palm Park was very shady and a great place to learn everything you need to know about the diversity of palm trees and their country's of origin. Palm Park is a small park that has more unique palm species than I could even account for. I could go there several times and find a new species every time. This park was important to me because it made me appreciate the world as a whole and how far some pam trees have originated from.