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The Blue Angels flew right over my house. That was cool. So I saw what I wanted to see of the Air & Sea Show from my own Florida room this past weekend, the Angels and some of the other great pilots and their aircraft. Didn’t need to go to the beach at all. Until today.
When I left for my regular morning beach exercise and meditation session, I was expecting the worst. I’ve always read about the hordes of people who pack every square inch of sand during this big annual event. It seems like some red-white-and-blue version of Woodstock or something, everyone partying and eating and drinking. With all the trash that goes with it. I thought the city of Fort Lauderdale would need days of clean-up to get the beach back to anything near normal condition. I was wrong.
I arrived at the South Beach parking lot before 8 a.m. on Monday after the show and walked north for many blocks, more than halfway to Sunrise Boulevard. Even that early, the sidewalk was clear of debris. Amazingly, so was the sand. One small spot of South Beach still hadn’t been cleaned when I first got there. But when I passed the same area two hours later, it was as pristine as every other part of the beach.
How did those folks get that huge job done so quickly? I did see a small army of street cleaning trucks and city pickup trucks and so on. But by that time, their efforts seemed more like let’s-give-it-some-finishing-touches rather than let’s-get-started-with-this-mess. I truly was impressed with the condition of the streets, walks and sand at that early time of day, only about 15 hours or so after the Air & Sea Show finale.
Several weeks ago, I wrote about the general cleanliness of Fort Lauderdale’s beach and about how much I appreciate this, being the regular beachgoer that I am. As you may know, the non-profit Clean Beaches Council in Washington has awarded Broward’s beaches the Blue Wave Certification. That means these are some of the cleanest, safest and easiest-to-use beaches in the United States.
But I really was fairly amazed today. I mean, here it is immediately after the biggest beachside event of the year in Fort Lauderdale, and things looked great. There are still barricades and other remnants of the show, but no trash to speak of. It was a pleasure to take my walk, looking out at the expanse of clean tan sand dipping into the sparkling waves, just as on any other day of the year.
So all this to say great job to the hard-working crews who managed to pull off such a fast clean-up. I’m not quite sure how they did it. But I’m grateful.
When I left for my regular morning beach exercise and meditation session, I was expecting the worst. I’ve always read about the hordes of people who pack every square inch of sand during this big annual event. It seems like some red-white-and-blue version of Woodstock or something, everyone partying and eating and drinking. With all the trash that goes with it. I thought the city of Fort Lauderdale would need days of clean-up to get the beach back to anything near normal condition. I was wrong.
I arrived at the South Beach parking lot before 8 a.m. on Monday after the show and walked north for many blocks, more than halfway to Sunrise Boulevard. Even that early, the sidewalk was clear of debris. Amazingly, so was the sand. One small spot of South Beach still hadn’t been cleaned when I first got there. But when I passed the same area two hours later, it was as pristine as every other part of the beach.
How did those folks get that huge job done so quickly? I did see a small army of street cleaning trucks and city pickup trucks and so on. But by that time, their efforts seemed more like let’s-give-it-some-finishing-touches rather than let’s-get-started-with-this-mess. I truly was impressed with the condition of the streets, walks and sand at that early time of day, only about 15 hours or so after the Air & Sea Show finale.
Several weeks ago, I wrote about the general cleanliness of Fort Lauderdale’s beach and about how much I appreciate this, being the regular beachgoer that I am. As you may know, the non-profit Clean Beaches Council in Washington has awarded Broward’s beaches the Blue Wave Certification. That means these are some of the cleanest, safest and easiest-to-use beaches in the United States.
But I really was fairly amazed today. I mean, here it is immediately after the biggest beachside event of the year in Fort Lauderdale, and things looked great. There are still barricades and other remnants of the show, but no trash to speak of. It was a pleasure to take my walk, looking out at the expanse of clean tan sand dipping into the sparkling waves, just as on any other day of the year.
So all this to say great job to the hard-working crews who managed to pull off such a fast clean-up. I’m not quite sure how they did it. But I’m grateful.
posted by LauderBLOGGER at 5:04 PM
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