Downtown Fort Lauderale Adds Floating Docks for Small Boats

Fort Lauderdale, Florida has added four new floating docks to its downtown area for boats that travel on the New River. Prior to the installation on these new docks, smaller boats were not really able to gain access to the city’s downtown. The city wanted to give people boat owners with small recreational boats a chance to make their way downtown by boat and get to shops, restaurants and other venues.

As is often the case with changes to a city, everyone does not agree that this is a good thing. Some people don’t think it was an attractive addition to the downtown area and others are concerned that it will not be used enough to justify the expense.

However, you can see that city meant well. The downtown area had formerly been dominated by yachts, tour boats and chartered boats. Even when these boats were not taking up most of the space, there was a high seawall and this was not exactly something that small boat owners would find welcoming.

One boat owner told the Orlando Sentinel, “What is exciting to me is that you can now take a small boat, run up the river, enjoy a show at the performing arts center, have dinner, get back in your boat and go home.”