Where the Boys Were

Where the Boys Were

Credit the 1960 film Where the Boys Are for catapulting sleepy Lauderdale environs onto that era's Haute List for spring-fling campus escape. The movie depicted college students -- upward of 20,000 -- swarming into town for the spring-break phenomenon. By 1985 the 20,000 had mushroomed to 350,000. Hotel owners bemoaned students cramming into standard-size hotel rooms by the dozen, with civility hitting new lows. Drug trafficking and petty theft proliferated, along with downscale bars staging wet T-shirt and banana-eating contests. Fed up, city leaders adopted policies and restrictions designed to encourage spring breakers to go elsewhere. They did, and the complaints of lost business are few -- given a new era attracting a far more sophisticated, affluent crowd.

A major beneficiary is Las Olas Boulevard, a shopping street once moribund after 5 PM, which has reinvented itself as a hot venue, with a mix of trendy shops and eateries. Ever more restaurants have sprung up, and both visitors and locals often make an evening of strolling the boulevard. Farther west, along New River, is evidence of Fort Lauderdale's cultural renaissance: the Arts and Entertainment District and its crown jewel, the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Still farther west, in the community of Sunrise, is the BankAtlantic Center (formerly the Office Depot Center, and before that the National Car Rental Center), serving as Broward's top sports, concert, and lecture circuit venue, and as home arena for the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers. Upscale shopping of an open-air-outlet nature arrived with the Colonnade Outlets at Sawgrass in Sunrise, featuring a slew of design stars, from Kate Spade and David Yurman to Valentino. Even so, a wave-capped shoreline with wide ribbons of golden sand for beachcombing and sunbathing is the major draw for Fort Lauderdale and Broward County.

Tying all this together is a transportation system that, though less congested than elsewhere in South Florida, is rapidly becoming overwhelmed by traffic overload. Interstate 595 connects the city and suburbs and provides a direct route to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and Port Everglades, but be sure to avoid morning and evening rush hours, when lanes slow to a crawl. For a more scenic way to really see this canal-laced city, simply hop on a water taxi, now known as a water bus. None of this was envisioned by Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Florida's governor from 1905 to 1909, for whom the county was named. His drainage schemes opened much of the marshy Everglades region for farming, ranching, and settling (in retrospect, an environmental disaster). It was for Major William Lauderdale, who built a fort at the river's mouth in 1838 during the Seminole Indian wars, that the city was named.

Incorporated in 1911 with just 175 residents, Fort Lauderdale grew rapidly during the Florida boom of the 1920s. Today its population is 150,000, and the suburbs keep growing -- 1.6 million live in the county's 31 municipalities and unincorporated areas. Once oriented toward retirees, Broward now attracts younger families, many living in such newer communities as Weston, southwest of Fort Lauderdale. A revitalized downtown and a skyline (marked by ever more high-rises) now includes multiuse complexes mixing retail and loft housing, and the city's young professionals are buying and revamping aging beachside condominiums.

Gaming has further changed the area's character. Although South Florida's Indian tribes have long offered bingo, poker, and machines resembling slots -- Hollywood's Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, where beleagured Anna Nicole Smith spent her final hours in 2007, ranks as the most glittering example -- big change came at the behest of Broward voters (despite foot-dragging by conservative state legislators). In 2005, Broward's electorate gave a thumbs-up to becoming Florida's first county to offer Las Vegas-style gambling with true slot machines at four wagering facilities: Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino, the Mardi Gras Racetrack & Gaming Center, Dania Jai Alai Casino, and Isle of Capri Pompano Park Harness Track. As of this writing, slots were whirring at Gulfstream and Pompano Park.