Broward

Broward County, Florida

Broward County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population is 1,623,018; this makes it the second most populated county in the state. According to 2007 U.S. Census estimates, its population has increased to 1,759,591 . Its county seat is Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

It is also the fifteenth most populous county in the US.

Broward County is one of three counties that comprise the South Florida metropolitan area.

Broward County was created in 1915. It was named for Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Governor of Florida from 1905 to 1909. In 1915, Palm Beach County and Dade County contributed nearly equal portions of land to create Broward County. By the 1960s, Broward County was considered a leader in agriculture products and services within the State of Florida. The massive buildup of the South Florida region since the mid 1970s transformed the region, evidenced by the closure of the last major agriculture center within the county (Waldrep Dairy Farm) in 2003. It was one of the counties at the center of the 2000 U.S. Presidential election recount controversy. In 2002, it began an aggressive campaign of placing surveillance cameras along highways and traffic lights.

Broward boasts some notable attractions. The Museum of Science and Discovery is located in Ft. Lauderdale. The International Swimming Hall of Fame is located near the Atlantic Ocean in Fort Lauderdale. The International Game Fish Association has the Hall of Fame for Sport Fishing in Dania Beach. Flamingo Gardens is a botanical garden and wildlife sanctuary. Butterfly World is located in Coconut Creek. Sawgrass Mills, a large shopping mall, is located in Sunrise. There are also multiple entrances to Everglades parks. In Pompano Beach is the Festival Flea Market Mall, America's largest indoor flea market. The African-American Research Library & Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale boasts more than 75,000 books and materials on the experiences of people of African descent in the Caribbean, Central and South America and the United States .

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,320 square miles (3,418 km²).Approximately two-thirds -- 847 square miles (2,194 km²) -- of the county's area lies in an undeveloped Everglades conservation area. 1,205 square miles (3,122 km²) of the county's area is land and 114 square miles (296 km²) of it is water. The total area is 8.66% water.

Broward approved the construction of Osborne Reef, an artificial reef made of tires off the Fort Lauderdale beach, but it has proven an environmental disaster.

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,623,018 people, 654,445 households, and 411,645 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,346 people per square mile (520/km²). There were 741,043 housing units at an average density of 615 per square mile (237/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 70.57% White (58% were Non-Hispanic White,) 20.54% Black or African American, 0.24% Native American, 2.25% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 3.00% from other races, and 3.35% from two or more races. 16.74% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. In relation to ancestry, 10.6% were West Indian (about 5.0% Jamaican and 4.0% Haitian alone), 9.4% Italian, 7.4% American, 6.8% German, 6.7% Irish, and 4% English ancestry according to Census 2000. Notably, Broward was the only county in the nation outside the Northeast where Italian-Americans compose the largest ethnic group.

410,387 residents of Broward County, or 25.3 percent of the total population, were foreign-born (45% of whom were naturalized citizens), of which 60,241 of these were born in Jamaica, 47,445 in Haiti, 32,572 in Cuba, 12,776 in Peru, 10,843 in Mexico, 9,189 in the United Kingdom, and 9,015 in the Dominican Republic. However, in percentage form, the most common countries of foreign-born residents included Jamaica (15%), Haiti (12%), Cuba (8%), Colombia (8%), Canada (5%), Brazil (4%), and Peru (3%).

There were 654,445 households out of which 29.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.1% were married couples living together, 12.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.1% were non-families. 29.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 3.07.

In the county the population was spread out with 23.6% under the age of 18, 7.2% from 18 to 24, 31.4% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 16.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 93.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.8 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $41,691, and the median income for a family was $50,531. Males had a median income of $36,741 versus $28,529 for females. The per capita income for the county was $23,170. About 8.7% of families and 11.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.3% of those under age 18 and 10.0% of those age 65 or over.

As of 2005, Broward County led the nation's metropolitan areas in new AIDS diagnoses, with a reported rate 58.4 new AIDS diagnoses per 100,000 people. County officials think the numbers may stem from a new and successful HIV testing campaign that has resulted in many people being diagnosed with full-blown AIDS at the same time they've been diagnosed with HIV. Ironically, without the implementation of the new testing campaign, the reported numbers of new diagnoses would have probably been lower.

As of 2000, 71.27% of all residents spoke English as their first language, while 16.33% spoke Spanish, 3.51% French Creole, 1.77% French, 1.13% Portuguese, 0.89% Italian, and 0.56% of the population spoke German as their mother language. In total, 28.72% of the population spoke languages other than English at home.

With the huge influx of immigrants since 2000, these figures have become outdated. However, since so many of them are coming from the Anglophone Caribbean, where English is spoken, the change is not as fast as the rate of immigration would suggest.

According to the most recent estimates from the U.S. Census of 2006, the total population of Broward County had risen to almost 1.8 million people, and increased by 10.1% between April 1, 2000 and July 1, 2006. This number is accounted for by an increase to 441,678 (25.3%) in its black population and an increase to 408,335 (22.8%) of its non-black Hispanic population. A significant portion of the black population has resulted from immigration, of whom are mainly Afro-Caribbeans/West Indians. Some Afro-Latinos and Afro-Brazilians might also classify themselves as only black. More black foreigners immigrated to Broward County between 2001 and 2005 than any other county in the United States. Also, 54,001 (3.0%) of Broward County's population is Asian, which is a higher figure than that of most counties in the state.

The population change is significant in at least one respect: The percentage of population identified as non-Hispanic white (as of 2005) has now dropped to less than half, at 49.9%. As such, Broward County is now "minority-majority". As of 2006, the non-Hispanic white population is now estimated by the U.S. Census to comprise 48.7% of Broward residents.

Broward County currently has the sixth largest school district in the country and the second largest in the state after Miami-Dade.

Broward County Library is one of the largest public library systems in the country, composed of 37 branch locations.

The Broward County Charter provides for a separation between the legislative and administrative functions of government. The Board of County Commissioners is the legislative branch of Broward County Government.

The County Commission is composed of nine members elected by district. Each Commissioner must be a resident of the district for which he or she seeks election. Each year the Commission elects a Mayor and Vice Mayor. The Mayor's functions include serving as presiding officer, and as the County's official representative. The Commission appoints the County Administrator, County Attorney and County Auditor. The Commission also appoints numerous advisory and regulatory boards.

The County Commission meets in formal session the first four Tuesdays of each month at 10:00 a.m. in Room 422 of the Broward County Governmental Center. Over 507,000 cable subscribers in Broward County have access to television coverage of Commission meetings, which are broadcast live beginning at 10:00 a.m. each Tuesday, and rebroadcast at 5:00 p.m. the following Sunday. Meetings can also be viewed via webcasting at www.broward.org.

Over the past fifty years, Broward County has gone from solidly Republican to solidly Democratic. In the 1972 U.S. presidential election, Broward County residents voted overwhelmingly for Richard Nixon over George McGovern. From the 1992 U.S. presidential election onward, however, voters of Broward County backed the Democratic presidential nominee over the Republican nominee by strong majorities. Broward County is now the most reliably Democratic county in the state, with the exception of the much less populous Gadsden County (where African Americans are a majority). This change in voting tendencies is most likely due to the continuous flow from large migrations of snowbirds and transplanted people from the liberal Northeast and other blue states, as well as a growing LGBT community, and also naturalized U.S. citizens born in places such as Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada, Europe, and Israel.

A street grid stretches throughout Broward County. Most of this grid is loosely based on three primary eastern municipalities, (from South to North) Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, and Pompano Beach. Deerfield Beach -- another primary eastern municipality -- has its own street grid, as do two smaller municipalities -- Dania and Hallandale.

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Miami Gardens, Broward County, Florida

Miami Gardens was a census-designated place (CDP) in Broward County, Florida, United States. The population was 2,706 at the 2000 census.

It was one of the four unincorporated neighborhoods that were incorporated to create the new city of West Park. This area is distinct from the City of Miami Gardens, a Miami-Dade County municipality which incorporated in 2003.

Miami Gardens is located at 25°58′44″N 80°12′7″W / 25.97889°N 80.20194°W / 25.97889; -80.20194.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 1.1 km² (0.4 mi²), all land.

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,706 people, 825 households, and 663 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 2,548.3/km² (6,673.3/mi²). There were 891 housing units at an average density of 839.1/km² (2,197.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 54.84% White (26.9% were Non-Hispanic White,) 26.87% African American, 0.33% Native American, 2.29% Asian, 0.15% Pacific Islander, 10.72% from other races, and 4.80% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 43.27% of the population.

There were 825 households out of which 41.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.3% were married couples living together, 18.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.6% were non-families. 14.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.28 and the average family size was 3.60.

In the CDP the population is spread out with 30.6% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 29.5% from 25 to 44, 23.1% from 45 to 64, and 7.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 100.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.3 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP is $36,786, and the median income for a family was $37,031. Males had a median income of $26,442 versus $15,469 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $11,688. About 9.9% of families and 14.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.2% of those under age 18 and 12.4% of those age 65 or over.

As of 2000, before being annexed to West Park, Spanish as a first language accounted for 51.09% of all residents, while English comprised of 45.17%, and French Creole as a mother tongue made up 3.72% of the population.

As of 2000, before West Park annexed it, the Miami Gardens section had the 103rd highest percentage of Colombian residents in the US, with 1.63% of the US populace. The forty-fourth highest percentage of Cuban residents in the US, at 9.76% of the city's population (tied with Key Largo,) the twenty-fourth highest percentage of Dominicans in the US, with 4.62%, and the fifteenth highest percentage of Jamaican residents in the US, at 6.3% of the city's population. It also had the forty-fourth most Peruvians in the US, at 1.26% (tied with North Plainfield, New Jersey,) while it had the forty-fifth highest percentage of Haitians (tied with Leisure City), at 3.6% of all residents. West Park's Miami Gardens section had the sixty-first highest percentage of Puerto Ricans, which was at an 11.2% populace.

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Napoleon B. Broward

Napoleon Bonaparte Broward (April 19, 1857–October 1, 1910) was the nineteenth governor of the U.S. state of Florida from January 3, 1905 to January 5, 1909. He also served as the sheriff of Duval County, Florida, and in the Florida House of Representatives.

Broward spent his childhood on a series of family farms along the St. Johns River in Jacksonville; during the Civil War the original farm was burned by Union troops that occupied the town. After the war, the Browards had a tough time getting back on their feet; Napoleon's father and mother died when he was still quite young, and he and his brother tended the family farm for a few short years before moving into the city with their uncle.

It was with this uncle that Broward first worked on the river, doing odd jobs on his uncle's steamboat during the summer. In 1876, having graduated high school, Broward became a ship's mate and traveled to New England, where he stayed for two years, taking odd jobs on ships up and down the New England coast. He returned to Jacksonville in 1878 and took a job working tugboats on the St. Johns River.

Broward married his captain's daughter (Georgiana Carolina "Carrie" Kemp) in January 1883. That spring he applied for a license to lead ships over the St. Johns Bar, a constantly shifting sandbar that stretched across the mouth of the St. Johns, sometimes above water and sometimes many feet below; piloting ships over the treacherous bar was quite lucrative. Broward seemed destined for a life of comfort when in December his wife died during childbirth; Broward's son died a few days later.

Broward withdrew from the river for a while and again traveled north, but by 1885 he was back on the St. Johns, piloting his father-in-law's steamboat Kate Spencer. On the ship he met Annie Isabell Douglass, a frequent passenger.They were married in 1887.

Broward had become quite well known about town as a good pilot and captain. In January 1888, a major prison break disgraced the city's sheriff and he was removed from office. The county Democratic leadership got together to nominate a new sheriff, and quickly settled on Broward as the best man for the job. The governor appointed him to the post on February 27. It took Broward less than a month to gain statewide notoriety for busting up gambling operations in the city.

Broward soon took an active part in city politics. In the early 1890s the Democratic Party in Florida was undergoing some internal strife. Two factions developed in Jacksonville that eventually became the major statewide camps, the Antis and the Straightouts. The Antis were conservative and pro-business, whereas the Straightouts were Populists and agrarians; Broward fell in with the Straightout camp.

In the election of 1892, the Straightouts, under Broward's leadership, swept the city offices - Broward's close friends, John N.C. Stockton and John M. Barrs, became city attorney and councilman, respectively, while Broward retained the sheriff's office. The Antis were not dead yet, though; two years later, the split between the two camps was more severe. Antis and Straightouts accused each other of vote fraud, complaining to the secretary of state and the governor; Anti sympathizers held most of the state offices, and the Antis won out. Broward was removed from office and Antis again took over the city.

In 1895, Broward, his brother, and an associate began building a new steamboat, The Three Friends. The builder was John Joseph Daly. During the construction, Cuban insurrectos began fighting for independence from Spain. Broward was approached by a prominent member of Jacksonville's Cuban community about shipping a load of munitions and some Cuban expatriates from Nassau to Cuba. Broward agreed, and in January 1896, The Three Friends shipped out of Jacksonville on her maiden voyage, bound for Cuba.

Broward continued this filibustering operation until President William McKinley declared war on Spain. Several times he was nearly caught and destroyed by Spanish gunboats; the Spanish ambassador to the United States demanded that Broward be stopped and his ship impounded. U.S. authorities attempted to do just that, but Broward managed to thwart them, by loading The Three Friends under cover of darkness in secluded locations, by hiding her behind larger ships as she left the St. Johns, and by picking up Cubans and munitions from other ships at various points near the mouth of the river. Except when trying to evade capture, though, Broward never pretended not to be a filibusterer, and gained notoriety around the state for his deeds.

In 1896 the Straightouts attempted to nominate Broward for sheriff, but he was busy with his filibustering operation and declined. In 1900, the war over and his filibustering days behind him, Broward was nominated for the State House and elected almost without opposition. In the House, Broward supported many progressive initiatives, including a state dispensary bill and a law allowing insanity as grounds for divorce (at the request of powerful developer Henry Flagler), but the most important was the state's Primary Election Law act. Broward had long supported a primary election system to replace the state's convention system, which was controlled by a small clique headed by Flagler. A strong law was drawn up in the House, which Broward enthusiastically supported, but after the Senate weakened the bill substantially Broward withdrew his support. The bill passed anyway.

Broward was not naïve when it came to politics. As a Straightout and supporter of the "common man," Broward would have been naturally opposed to Flagler's control of the party nominating system in the state. It tended to produce Democratic candidates from the Anti faction, and as Florida was at the time a one-party state, it also ensured Anti control of the state government. Broward was smart enough to sponsor Flagler's requested divorce bill, but still wanted power out of the big man's hands.

Broward began campaigning immediately. His strongest opponent was Robert W. Davis, the railroad (and hence Flagler) candidate; two other candidates presented smaller threats. Broward hit Davis early and throughout the election for being a railroad man; Davis and the city newspapers generally derided Broward as a liberal whose time had passed and an idiot.

Davis and Broward easily moved ahead into the second primary, and the campaign grew fiercer, with Davis at one point saying, "Mr. Broward is a man of but little ability and no intellectual brilliance whatever?" Broward used Davis' Congressional record to hit him for his railroad ties again and again. Broward appealed to few urban voters and no business interests, while Davis could not win support among farmers or rural voters. On election day, Broward's rural voters gave him the victory by only 600 votes out of 45,000. The general election some weeks later was uneventful, and Broward was inaugurated on January 3, 1905.

Broward's biggest push as governor was for Everglades drainage. Early in his governorship Broward was attacked often and by many different people for his drainage program and for the land tax he instituted to pay for it. One newspaper noted that, "The treasury will be drained before the Everglades." As drainage progressed, however, Broward began taking his fiercest opponents for "ocular displays" in the Glades, showing them the work that had been done and how it was progressing. John Beard, one of Broward's most effective opponents, was eventually convinced by one of these trips that the land was fertile and that drainage was working.

It was through this drainage program that Broward gained national prominence. As his administration progressed, Broward became more involved in Washington, getting federal funds for the drainage project and eventually bringing President Roosevelt down to the Glades for a trip through the drainage areas. Roosevelt was an avid supporter of drainage and became an important advocate for the program.

Broward did tackle other problems during his tenure as governor. The state universities were in bad shape and Broward determined that they were not offering an education beyond the high school level. Broward helped guide a reorganization bill through the legislature which closed some of the schools and set up a commission to determine where the remaining schools should be located. A fight ensued about where to locate the major state university, which at the time was in Lake City. The Control Board (consisting of Broward and the cabinet) eventually selected Gainesville, and for many weeks there were accusations by both cities that the commission members had been bought off.

Broward introduced a bill to the legislature in 1905 directing the state to provide life insurance for its citizens and setting up an Insurance Commission and a cabinet-level post to go along with the program, but the legislature was uninterested and voted the bill down with little debate. Broward also supported measures creating a state textbook commission, reforming the state hospital system, and making the state's Railroad Commission permanent.

In February 1909, Senator Bryan died of typhoid fever, shocking the state. Broward appointed William Hall Milton to the post. Milton pledged not to run for the seat in November, and Broward soon announced that he was a candidate. He was roundly criticized for this, but nonetheless took to the stump against his opponents, among them his old adversary John Beard and a former political ally, Jacksonville mayor Duncan U. Fletcher. Beard and Fletcher attacked Broward throughout the campaign, but Broward prevailed in the first primary, and entered the second primary campaign against Fletcher. Broward's friend John Stockton also advanced to the second primary in the governor's race with General Albert Gilchrist of Fort Myers. Fletcher was an old liberal, and though now more conservative than Broward, the two men still agreed on many things. Gilchrist, however, was much feared as a railroad man, and Broward worked as much for Stockton as he did for himself.

Despite all his work, Broward and Stockton both lost. Newspapers statewide loudly proclaimed the end of the Broward era, and the drainage project seemed doomed. But Broward was not through. The 1908 Democratic National Convention was to be held shortly in Denver, and Broward planned to attend. He had been mentioned for months in newspapers throughout the South as a potential candidate for the Vice Presidency, and he was nationally known through his drainage work and for his earlier filibustering. Upon his arrival in Denver he was greeted by banners reading' "Bryan, Broward, and Bread," and an editorial in the Denver Post spoke very favorably of him, concluding that he was an excellent choice for the position. But presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan telegraphed from his home that he wanted a Midwesterner, rather than a Southerner. Although the crowd at the convention continued to back Broward, Bryan was able to name his own candidate.

The 1908 election was not all bad for Broward. Fletcher was an old friend and still a mild progressive, and Gilchrist proved to be much more liberal than anyone had believed, becoming an avid supporter of drainage and greatly furthering the program.

In 1910 James Taliaferro's Senate seat was up for election. Big city newspapers endorsed Taliaferro for re-election, but Broward soon entered the race against him. The race, expected to be an exciting showdown, proved to be such a bore that election news was pushed off the front page by coverage of Halley's Comet. Broward and Taliaferro entered the second primary after a quiet election.

The second primary campaign proved scarcely more interesting, though Broward took to the stump, travelling throughout the state. After an exciting election eve rally at which Broward's supporters got so carried away that Taliaferro left in disgust, Broward pulled out a victory.

Broward remains one of the very few Florida politicians to achieve any lasting national recognition, and was for many years after his death the one Florida politician whose name was still known by many in the state (Claude Pepper being one of the others). As recently as the 1950s, Floridians still referred to the Broward Era and to Browardism—remarkable staying power in a state that changed as much and as quickly as did Florida. The main aspect of his legacy was the draining of the Everglades- opponents have argued this damaged the Everglades more than helped, while pro-Broward, and pro-Floridan supporters have recognized the longterm agritarian effects his efforts had on the Florida citrus industry making it into the international powerhouse it is today. Broward remains a rather bright and fascinating star in Florida's admittedly questionable political constellation.

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Broward Estates, Florida

Broward Estates was a census-designated place (CDP) in Broward County, Florida, United States. The population was 3,416 at the 2000 census. It now serves as Lauderhill's neighborhood. Residents of this neighborhood often refer to their neighborhood as "Parkway" as well, as it also contains Parkway Middle School.

Broward Estates is located at 26°7′31″N 80°11′48″W / 26.12528°N 80.19667°W / 26.12528; -80.19667 (26.125404, -80.196559).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 1.3 km² (0.5 mi²), all land.

As of the census of 2000, there were 3,416 people, 993 households, and 831 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 2,536.4/km² (6,611.4/mi²). There were 1,025 housing units at an average density of 761.1/km² (1,983.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 0.82% White, 96.96% African American, 0.03% Native American, 0.29% Asian, 0.32% from other races, and 1.58% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.23% of the population.

There were 993 households out of which 28.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.1% were married couples living together, 32.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 16.3% were non-families. 12.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.43 and the average family size was 3.70.

In the CDP the population was spread out with 31.7% under the age of 18, 7.6% from 18 to 24, 24.2% from 25 to 44, 25.4% from 45 to 64, and 11.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 87.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.7 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $37,298, and the median income for a family was $38,712. Males had a median income of $26,726 versus $24,360 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $12,471. About 23.3% of families and 23.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28.9% of those under age 18 and 25.5% of those age 65 or over.

As of 2000, English as a first language accounted for 98.31% of all residents, while Spanish made up 1.68% of the population.

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