South Florida 2014

With many of the state's most popular destinations, including Miami, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, the Everglades, and the Florida Keys, South Florida is a vacation destination rich in possibilities for every kind of traveler. Filled with color photos, eye-popping features and fabulous maps, Fodor's South Florida is easier to browse than ever. New Coverage: From top to bottom, this edition of Fodor's South Florida has been completely revised, with new hotels and restaurants in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Palm Beach. Additional nightlife and dining choices have been added to the Florida Keys. Illustrated Features: Special "In Focus" sections throughout the book illuminate the most distinctive features of South Florida. Art Deco Miami, Snorkeling & Scuba Diving, Everglades Ecosystems, and more give travelers an unparalleled sense of South Florida. Indispensable Trip Planning Tools: An "Experience South Florida" chapter covering what's new in the region, great itineraries, helpful tips on getting there and around, and much more helps travelers choose their perfect Florida trip. Each city or regional chapter opens with four pages that include a map, "Top Reasons to Go" and other essential information to help visitors plan time and vacation details effectively. Competitive Advantage: Fodor's South Florida is the only full-color annual guide to the region. Discerning Recommendations: Fodor's South Florida offers savvy advice and recommendations from local writers to help travelers make the most of their time. Fodor's Choice designates our best picks, from hotels to nightlife. "Word of Mouth" quotes from fellow travelers provide valuable insights. ABOUT FODOR'S AUTHORS: Each Fodor's Travel Guide is researched and written by local experts.

Many people characterize urban renewal projects and the power of eminent domain as two of the most widely despised and often racist tools for reshaping American cities in the postwar period. In A World More Concrete, N. D. B. Connolly uses the history of South Florida to unearth an older and far more complex story. Connolly captures nearly eighty years of political and land transactions to reveal how real estate and redevelopment created and preserved metropolitan growth and racial peace under white supremacy. Using a materialist approach, he offers a long view of capitalism and the color line, following much of the money that made land taking and Jim Crow segregation profitable and preferred approaches to governing cities throughout the twentieth century. A World More Concrete argues that black and white landlords, entrepreneurs, and even liberal community leaders used tenements and repeated land dispossession to take advantage of the poor and generate remarkable wealth. Through a political culture built on real estate, South Florida’s landlords and homeowners advanced property rights and white property rights, especially, at the expense of more inclusive visions of equality. For black people and many of their white allies, uses of eminent domain helped to harden class and color lines. Yet, for many reformers, confiscating certain kinds of real estate through eminent domain also promised to help improve housing conditions, to undermine the neighborhood influence of powerful slumlords, and to open new opportunities for suburban life for black Floridians. Concerned more with winners and losers than with heroes and villains, A World More Concrete offers a sober assessment of money and power in Jim Crow America. It shows how negotiations between powerful real estate interests on both sides of the color line gave racial segregation a remarkable capacity to evolve, revealing property owners’ power to reshape American cities in ways that can still be seen and felt today.

"South Florida is a unique and spectacular environment for both birding and gardening, and this is a thorough and enjoyable guide."--Carl Lewis, director, Fairchild Tropical Gardens "A step-by-step guide on how to create a garden that not only benefits birds but increases your enjoyment of your yard, patio, or balconies. No space is too small for helping birds, and this book tells you how to do it."--Stephen D. Pearson, director, University of Miami's John G. Gifford Arboretum "For all South Floridians concerned about vanishing stopover habitat and hoping to contribute to the re-greening of Florida in their own backyards, Attracting Birds to South Florida Gardens is essential reading."--Brian Rapoza, author of Birding Florida Lush and warm, South Florida is a gardener's dream and a birder's delight. James Kushlan and Kirsten Hines draw on their years of experience to provide practical, ecologically sound advice for creating landscapes that will appeal to the many birds that can be found in the region. Aimed primarily at backyard gardeners and birders, but applicable for commercial landscapers as well, their precepts can be applied to a broad range of outdoor spaces, from balconies to suburban yards to rural estates. The authors identify plants that provide food or shelter and explain how each can attract specific bird species. They also explain what plants work well together, offer advice on simplifying garden maintenance, and provide tips on how other elements can make an area avian-friendly. Filled with brilliant photographs, Attracting Birds to South Florida Gardens addresses a conspicuous void in the literature on two of America's most popular activities.

With many of the state's most popular destinations, including Miami, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, the Everglades, and the Florida Keys, South Florida is a vacation destination rich in possibilities for every kind of traveler. Filled with color photos, eye-popping features and fabulous maps, Fodor's South Florida is easier to browse than ever. New Coverage: From top to bottom, this edition of Fodor's South Florida has been completely revised, with new hotels and restaurants in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Palm Beach. Additional nightlife and dining choices have been added to the Florida Keys. Illustrated Features: Special "In Focus" sections throughout the book illuminate the most distinctive features of South Florida. Art Deco Miami, Snorkeling & Scuba Diving, Everglades Ecosystems, and more give travelers an unparalleled sense of South Florida. Indispensable Trip Planning Tools: An “Experience South Florida” chapter covering what’s new in the region, great itineraries, helpful tips on getting there and around, and much more helps travelers choose their perfect Florida trip. Each city or regional chapter opens with four pages that include a map, "Top Reasons to Go" and other essential information to help visitors plan time and vacation details effectively. Competitive Advantage: Fodor's South Florida is the only full-color annual guide to the region. Discerning Recommendations: Fodor's South Florida offers savvy advice and recommendations from local writers to help travelers make the most of their time. Fodor's Choice designates our best picks, from hotels to nightlife. "Word of Mouth" quotes from fellow travelers provide valuable insights. ABOUT FODOR'S AUTHORS: Each Fodor's Travel Guide is researched and written by local experts.

The Everglades ecosystem is vast, stretching more than 200 miles from Orlando to Florida Bay, and Everglades National Park is but a part located at the southern end. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the historical Everglades has been reduced to half of its original size, and what remains is not the pristine ecosystem many image it to be, but one that has been highly engineered and otherwise heavily influenced, and is intensely managed by humans. Rather than slowly flowing southward in a broad river of grass, water moves through a maze of canals, levees, pump stations, and hydraulic control structures, and a substantial fraction is diverted from the natural system to meet water supply and flood control needs. The water that remains is polluted by phosphorus and other contaminants originating from agriculture and other human activities. Many components of the natural system are highly degraded and continue to degrade. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades is the sixth biennial review of progress made in meeting the goals of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). This complex, multibillion-dollar project to protect and restore the remaining Everglades has a 30-40 year timeline. This report assesses progress made in the various separate project components and discusses specific scientific and engineering issues that may impact further progress. According to Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades, a dedicated source of funding could provide ongoing long-term system-wide monitoring and assessment that is critical to meeting restoration objectives. This report examines the implications of knowledge gained and changes in widely accepted scientific understanding regarding pre-drainage hydrology, climate change, and the feasibility of water storage since the CERP was developed.

From a veteran South Florida angler comes the first fly and light tackle do-it-yourself guide to the region, focusing on fishing opportunities that don't require a boat. • The most complete fishing guide to South Florida ever published, for both fly fishing and light tackle • A perfect resource for anglers who want expert advice without the cost of hiring a guide • Includes detailed advice about lures and flies • Features fascinating stories of fishing adventures

This book integrates 30 years of mercury research in the Florida Everglades to inform scientists and policy makers. The Everglades is an iconic ecosystem by virtue of its expanse; diversity of biota; and multiple international designations. Despite this, the Everglades has been subjected to multiple threats including: habitat loss, hydrologic alterations, invasive species and altered water quality. Less well recognized as a threat to Everglades human use and wildlife populations is the toxic metal, mercury. The first half of Volume II focuses on biogeochemistry and factors unique to the Everglades that make it extraordinarily susceptible to mercury methylation following its deposition: warm subtropical climate, shallow depth, high levels of dissolved organic matter, sulfate contamination, nutrient enrichment and sediment redox conditions (for review of atmospheric mercury deposition significance, see Vol. I). The second half of Volume II answers the “so what” question – why biomagnification of the methylmercury produced in the Everglades is a threat to the health of top predators including humans. The results of the synthesis presented in Volume II suggest that the mercury problem in the Florida Everglades is one of the worst in the world due to its areal extent and the degree of risk to ecological receptors and humans.