Coastal Geography
While the land of Florida differs from that of coastal Massachusetts, there are still common elements. Both Massachusetts and Florida have an abundance of water along the coast with wetlands and tidal marshes. There are also bay areas, like Tampa that are similar to the Boston Bay area because they offer protection from the open sea and have allowed for developed cities. If you look on the map on page 235 of the textbook, you will see that Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are "karst" areas, which is pretty much what the entire state of Florida contains. The caves and springs that are created by this process are found around Cape Cod. My dad's friend lives next to a fresh water pond in South Yarmouth which is fed by an underground, "artesian" spring.
City of Boston on the River Charles
Miami_Biscayne Bay, FL
Big Cities: Boston Versus Miami
Due to the government shutdown and a "lapse in government funding", I was unable to access information on the U.S. Census Bureau website. According to Wikipedia's information from the 2000 U. S. Census, Boston has a population of about 645,149. Miami's population is about 362, 470. The land area of Boston proper is about 48 square miles whereas Miami has an area of 35 square miles. Therefore both cities have had a huge population density with Boston edging Miami by about 3,000 people per square mile. When you begin to look at outlying areas like Cambridge, Massachusetts and Miami Beach, Florida, the figures are even greater and Miami Dade County catches up with the Boston metropolitan area.
The city of Boston has about three times the land area that the original area had when the hills were leveled and the lands and marshes were filled. Miami and pretty much all of Florida's coast has been created by draining and filling islands and wetland and creating manmade areas of land. Both cities went through a population decline with a period of regrowth in the 1980s. Boston redeveloped because of the technologic research universities and hospitals that made it a "technopole" while Miami redeveloped due to the restructure of the city as a wealthy resort town.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Fountainbleu Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida
Both cities are highly dependent on tourism. For Miami it is about the only industry. According to the Miami Herald in 2012 Miami Dade County registered almost 14 million tourists who spent more than $21 billion dollars. According to BostonUSA.com in 2012 the Boston/Cambridge area had about 22.5 million tourists who spent more than $8.5 billion. Tourists spend a lot more money in Miami than in the Boston area. Boston/Cambridge are highly involved in recent attempt to "go green" and create a sustainable development. City government has encouraged the use of solar power and water saving solutions with incentives for private industry and private citizens. Water consumption in the Boston area is one of the lowest in the nation. Miami has not made many moves toward building greener or retrofitting old buildings but since they depend on tourism alone, the city has some of the lowest CO2 levels in the nation and have created some public incentives to reduce the CO2 levels even further.
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