Port St. Lucie: The Sixth Most Populous City In Florida? Seriously?

Port St. Lucie, located just to the north of Stuart, is the sixth most populous city in Florida. This is indeed true, although hard to believe, since it consists of nothing but subdivisions. There is no downtown, no central focus, not even a port - just subdivisions that go on and on toward Lake Okeechobee. This city was created by the General Development Corporation and incorporated in 1961. The older parts are kind of nice, with lots of trees and beautiful landscaping, but the newer areas, are, to me, just ugly, treeless suburbia. On the plus side, Port St. Lucie has worked hard to develop a park system, and I must say, the area bordering the North Fork of the St. Lucie River is really very nice, which is where I took the photograph on the left. Although I do have to wonder - is there really only one alligator to watch out for?

For those of you who are wondering, the six most populous cities in the State of Florida are, in order, Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, St. Petersburg, and Port St. Lucie. All of those cities have a downtown area with shops, restaurants, high-rise apartments and office buildings, as well as lots of people out and about, walking around. All except for Port St. Lucie. What it does have is the North Fork of the St. Lucie River, much of which is still undeveloped and in its natural state, as seen in the photograph on the right. In fact, back in 1979, a scene from Moonraker, a James Bond film starring Roger Moore, was filmed on this segment of the river, standing in for the Amazon. The city is preserving this area and trying to make it a destination for recreation for residents and visitors alike.

Port St. Lucie has always had a reputation for being boring. After driving through it several times in the past few weeks, I have to say that reputation is well deserved. A few weeks earlier, I drove out to a subdivision there called Tradition, located way to the west, along I-95. I decided to drive through the heart of the city to get there, and it seemed to take hours. I wanted to check out Tradition Square, where a great many events are held these days, including such things as 4th of July fireworks, Sunday Green Markets, and a Taste of Italy Festival. All would probably be fun, but to eliminate the misery of having to drive through that city, I would recommend taking I-95 to get there as quickly as possible, and after the event, get the hell out of there as fast as possible. Those alligators are hard to spot in the dark, after all, and you know damn well there is more than one of them out there.