Invisible Boundaries: Communities of Choice, Fort Lauderdale, FL 2000 

Partners:

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
CBS 4 and Newsradio 610

The partners documented the way massive social changes have swept aside the traditional definition of “community” and replaced it with a patchwork of affiliations, raising serious issues for civic institutions.

Though focused on the suburbs of South Florida, “Invisible Boundaries: Communities of Choice” was a story of our times – very much an exploration of the forest, not the trees.

Using information gathered from two focus groups and a survey of 1,000 residents of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, the partners showed how factors such as sprawl, technology, immigration and employment options affect how people define and commit themselves to communities.

The research found, for example, that the workplace is more likely than the neighborhood to be the place where people spend most of their time, form their closest bonds, invest energy, volunteer and make charitable donations.

Technological advances allow new immigrants to stay closely connected-through e-mail, cell phones and ease of travel – to their native countries, making them less likely to become civically engaged in their new homeland.

The four-part series ran in the paper and on radio and television over a series of several months, from Aug. 13, 2000 to Feb. 2001. Also in February, the paper distributed a multicultural directory, listing agencies and organizations serving the needs of an ever-more diverse community. Reporters and editors conducted a workshop on the series at a convention of neighborhood activists from around Florida.

Contact:

David Blackwell
Deputy Managing Editor
Sun-Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Blvd.
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
Phone: (954) 356-4606
Email: dblackwell@sun-sentinel.com