First off I’d like to make a statement that I have lived in Fort Myers for about 18 years and before taking this class I literally had no idea that Estero Island Cottage and Matanzas Pass even existed... I almost want to slap myself because it’s located right on Fort Myers Beach and I’ve passed the street that it lies on SO many times. At least I now can say I’ve gone and throughly enjoyed it. I went one early morning to visit the pass and it was desolate, so I heard a lot of animals moving around in the mangroves and birds chirping. It was so tranquil and peaceful. Not only is the path/walk way right through the mangroves but you always have some sand pathways that lead you through the trees. At one moment I was sitting in my car driving to Matanzas Pass and the next moment I’m literally submerged in nature. I was in the middle of an ecosystem that is home to so many different aquatic animals as well as birds and mammals.
I’ve lived here in Fort Myers since I was around 3-4 years old and I think it definitely has changed since I was a child. Maybe I’m only noticing this now but I think we as a community are becoming more environmentally aware, and moving towards more environmental field trips and courses. I think our community because it’s mainly an older community we sometimes are disconnected because of the huge gap between age. But I think our University does a great job at connecting students with our community, through various courses like this Colloquium course as well as classes like Civic Engagement.
If a developer offered me 300% of the market value to develop condos where my childhood home stands I think that would be a difficult decision. I know most people would jump to the offer but my childhood home is on McGregor Blvd in Fort Myers and it’s really close to college parkway and when I was younger the back of my neighborhood was actually a huge forest and on the other side of the forest was a farm full of horses and goats.. it was amazing. I use to go back there all the time with my brothers and friends. Then the owner of the land sold it and has since then built a publix shopping center, cvs, race trac, banks and a apartment complex on the land. I remember when they started building I was extremely sad to no longer see the horses and animals, and instead now all we see is over commercialized buildings. So when it comes to a developer offering me 300% of the market value to take away my childhood home I would say NO. It’s even hard to say if I would want the 20/20 program to purchase the land. I think after seeing the amazing land behind my house be completely destroyed (basically) I’ve lost all hope with humanity and the way things are.
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| This is pretty much what it looked behind my house before all of the land was bought. I was about this age too |
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