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Renting an Apartment in Boca Raton
Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida and was incorporated in
May of 1925. As of the 2000 census, the incorporated area had a total population
of 74,764, the 2004 population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 78,069. It
is the largest city between West Palm Beach and Pompano Beach. However, on
November 2, 2004, the voters of the Via Verde Association and the residents of
the Waterside community approved annexation into the incorporated area of Boca
Raton, increasing the city population to 83,960 and land area to a total of 29.6
square miles.
Geography
Boca Raton is the second most populous and southernmost city in Palm Beach
County. It is located on the East coast of Florida between Delray Beach to the
north and Deerfield Beach, in Broward County, to the south.
Demographics
There were 31,848 households out of which 24.1% had children under the age of 18
living with them, 53.1% were married couples living together, 7.1% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 37.2% were non-families. 29.5% of all
households were made up of individuals and 11.6% had someone living alone who
was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the
average family size was 2.81.
In the incorporated area, the population was spread out with 18.9% under the age
of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 26.7% from 45 to 64, and 19.8%
who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100
females there were 95.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were
92.8 males.
The median income for a household in the incorporated area was $60,248, and the
median income for a family was $77,861. Males had a median income of $52,287
versus $33,347 for females. The per capita income for the city was $45,628.
About 4.1% of families and 6.7% of the population were below the poverty line,
including 6.0% of those under age 18 and 4.9% of those age 65 or over.
The unincorporated area of the city is known for being more affulent than the
incorporated area. Unincorporated Boca Raton consists of many census-designated
places, including Boca Del Mar, Boca Pointe, Mission Bay, Sandalfoot Cove, and
Hamptons at Boca Raton.
Boca Raton and its neighboring communities in south Palm Beach County have a
strong Jewish presence which has added immeasurably to the local culture and
economy.
History
Listed on early maps as "Boca Ratones," many people wrongly assume the name
is simply translated to "Rat’s Mouth." The Spanish word boca (or mouth) was
often used to describe an inlet, while raton (literally mouse) was used as a
term for a cowardly thief. But the “Thieves Inlet,” Boca Ratones, originally
appeared on eighteenth century maps associated with an inlet in the Biscayne Bay
area of Miami. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the term was
mistakenly moved north on most maps and applied to Lake Boca Raton, whose inlet
was closed at the time. The Spanish language pronunciation has been retained by
locals; "Boca Raton" rhymes with "tone" and "alone" (not with "baton").
The Boca Raton Resort & Club Tower. The city's early history was as the
site of Addison Mizner's Boca Raton Hotel, its most prominent building. The
"pink hotel" today is visible from miles away as a towering building on the
Intracoastal Waterway. The Pearl City neighborhood of Boca Raton was established
to originally house the service personnel for the hotel. Japanese farmers of the
Yamato Colony converted the land west of the city into pineapple plantations
beginning in 1904. During World War II much of their land was confiscated and
used as the site of a major training facility for B-29 bomber crews. Much of the
airbase was later donated to become the grounds of Florida Atlantic University,
many of whose parking lots are former runways of the airbase, while part of the
airbase is now used as Boca Raton Airport. The Japanese heritage of the Yamato
Colony survives in the name of Yamato Road (NW 51st Street) just north of the
airport and at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens northwest of the city.
Boca Raton was the site of two now vanished amusement parks, the Africa U.S.A.
park (1953-1961) and Ancient America (1953-1959). Africa U.S.A. was a wild
animal park in which the tourists drove through the park and could view the
animals outside their cars. It is now the Camino Gardens subdivision one mile
(1.6 km) west of the Boca Raton Hotel. Ancient America was built surrounding a
real Calusa Indian burial mound. Today, the mound is still visible within the
Boca Marina & Yacht Club neighborhood on U.S. Route 1, just north of Yamato
Road.
In the late 1960s, Boca Raton became the southern home to International Business
Machines. In 1965, well before the extension of I-95 into Southern Florida, IBM
purchased several hundred acres of real estate just west of the CSX rail line,
just northwest of Florida Atlantic University. Construction of IBM's main
complex began in earnest in 1967, and the mammoth manufacturing and office
complex was dedicated in March 1970. The campus was designed with
self-sufficiency in mind, and to that end sported its own electrical substation,
water pumping station, and rail-spur. Among other very noteworthy IT
accomplishments, such as the mass manufacture of the System/360 and development
of the Series/1 mainframe computers, IBM's main complex was the birthplace of
what we know today as the IBM PC, which later evolved into the IBM PS/2. In
1987, IBM relocated their manufacturing for what became the IBM PC Company to
Research Triangle Park in Raleigh, North Carolina, and converted the cavernous
manufacturing facilities into offices and laboratories, later producing
ground-breaking products such as the OS/2 operating system and VoiceType
Dictation, known today as ViaVoice voice-recognition software.
T-REX Corporate Center was originally one of IBM's research labs where the IBM
PC was created.IBM maintained its facilities at Boca Raton until 1996, when the
facility was closed and was sold to Blue Lake Real Estate, who in turn sold it
to the T-REX Management Consortium. Today, T-REX has revitalized the facility
and its surrounding real estate into a highly-successful and beautifully
landscaped business/research park. What used to be IBM's Building 051, a highly
robust, secure, and secretive complex, separated from the former main IBM campus
by Spanish River Boulevard was donated to the Palm Beach County School District
and converted into Don Estridge High-Tech Middle School. It is named for the
late Don Estridge, whose team was responsible for giving the world the first IBM
PC.
Due to Boca Raton's population explosion, many areas began to decay, including
the downtown area. During the crisis, the only places that were popular were the
Bank and Trust Tower (now the Bank of America Tower) and Royal Palm Plaza (now
Royal Palm Place). The Boca Raton Mall, a popular icon of shopping in the 1970s
was going vacant, due to the opening of Town Center at Boca Raton in 1979. Many
buildings were also being boarded up from the lack of customers and high traffic
from cars going to the beach.
However, in the late 1980s, the city came up with a master plan to revitalize
the decaying area that included mass landscaping, expansion of the downtown
park, Sanborn Square, restoration of the old city hall to become a museum (The
city council completely moved out in the late 80s), and a large outdoor mall to
replace the dead Boca Raton one.
To do this, Boca Raton then passed a city ordinance banning the further
development of multi-family housing within the city limits and for special
zoning that limits the size and types of commercial buildings and advertisement
signs which may be erected within the city limits. There are no traditional car
dealerships in Boca Raton because of these limits on roadside use, but a luxury
car dealer did showcase a few cars inside a roadside building having glass
walls. Corporations such as McDonald's had to redesign their classic "golden
arches" restaurant to conform to Boca Raton's sign zoning restrictions. The
unincorparated part of Boca Raton still feature the classic arches, but the
heights of the signs were reduced. The effects can be seen in the city in which
a number of buildings were constructed with classic Addison Mizner architecture
and in the subdued roadside advertising.
Mizner Park is a downtown attraction in Boca Raton's thriving financial
district.In 1991, a new downtown shopping center, Mizner Park, was completed
over the site of the Boca Raton Mall. It has since become a cultural center for
the city. Featuring a landscaped central park between two cobblestone roads
(collectively called Plaza Real) with stores only on the outside of the roads,
Mizner Park resembles a Mediterranean suburb with a more contemporary look. It
features many fine restaurants and is home to the Boca Raton Museum of Art. In
2002, a new amphitheater was built replacing a smaller one, providing a
large-capacity outdoor venue.
However, despite Mizner Park's success, crime and racism occurred. In the mid
1990s, the Ku Klux Klan marched down Plaza Real; there were also several
shootings, stick-ups, and a minor crime causing fountain damage from liquid
soap. It was fixed many months after and was eased from Hurricane Frances
washing it away. The faux bell tower was however severely damaged. These harsh
crimes and natural problems didn't stop the downtown remodeling project. Six new
high-rise buildings were built downtown. The historical Bank of America building
built in the 1960s was renovated and Charles Schwab moved in on the east side.
It is the only building above the height limit that is allowed to be and is a
symbol of Boca Raton's skyline.
In the early 21st century, Simon Malls bought out Town Center at Boca Raton and
rebuilt the mall with an extension. Originally, it was feeling doomed since
Mervyn's closed its store as well as another in the city. Saks Fifth Avenue then
took and renovated the space and the old Saks was demolished and the lot was
extended with a new anchor Nordstrom. The finished product was unveiled in late
2000 with over 25 new stores to shop in. It has now become a tourist attraction
and one of the largest Simon malls in South Florida.
Other projects, such as the renovation and expansion of Boca Raton's YMCA
facility will expand the incorporated area's limits.