Homestead, an ol’ American town towards modernity
22 Feb 2010 Leave a Comment
What will 2010 will bring to Homestead? In the past few years we have seen this ol’ sleepy town take a leap towards development. Proof of that was on the real estate market boom that left its footprint all over South Dade and Homestead became, once again, fertile ground for new seeds. Just East of the Turnpike housing developments went up as fast as children’s building blocks and thousands of families moved from all over the continent to inhabit the new developments between exits 6, 5 and 2. And why not? It only made perfect sense to look beyond the Miami city limits to get more square footage for your money, with all the ingredients that characterizes a typical American suburb.
Suddenly, we went from having less than a handful of supermarkets to six within a five mile radius. All of them are part of a convenient shopping centers, and all of them were built in less than two years. The good news, is that we no longer had to cross to the other side of town to do our grocery shopping, drop our dry cleaning or rent a movie. We saw a new fire station built on the new side of town with a spiffy rescue team and we are very lucky to be home to South Florida’s first green hospital, Homestead’s Baptist Hospital. A state-of-the-art facility that promises to shield off a category five hurricane. Even more, banks opened in almost every shopping center as a good sign of economical progress in a city forgotten in time. After all, Homestead endured almost two decades of deficit and depreciation, a remnant of Hurricane Andrew, a devastating catastrophe that took place in 1992.
In fact, new street signs popped up everywhere giving way to new neighborhoods dressed in pristine landscapes built over old potato, corn and sunflower fields of years past. The sounds of our new city resemble more those in any corner intersecting Kendall Drive in Miami. Sirens go off at any given hour, a chopper hovers over the new hospital, cars honk impatiently at a traffic light during Homestead’s new rush hour, while the old sleepy town’s police department revamps its ranks with new officers.
Homestead’s life under the shadow of its big glamourous sister, Miami, provided us with some setbacks and contentment to conform to small American town status. Naturally, life is not simply about conforming but about aspiring. Up until recently, most people thought of Homestead as being good for only a few things, Mexican food, car races and the last stop for gas before heading to the Florida Keys. Today, Homestead’s new face lift along with new services promises all the conveniences and entertainment a city can offer. Its new residents bring to Homestead a new cultural vibe and variety. Proof of this is that Homestead, today, thrives to offer not just a new look but a renewed cultural environment that we can all enjoy, like the new art galleries in downtown and wine tasting in the Redland.
Let’s hope that glitzy life does not compromise Homestead’s integrity and that we are able to cope and manage with environmental and human changes resulting from growth. That financial progress and the local government are able to facilitate new avenues for innovating local entrepreneurs that can establish newer and better businesses thus generating new jobs and that we can all work together in making Homestead a city worth living in and set an example of social integration and cultural advancement.
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