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Boca Raton, Florida
Boca Raton is a city located in Palm Beach
County, Florida.
As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 74,764.
The city of Boca Raton was incorporated in May of 1925.
Boca Raton Geography
Boca Raton is located at 26°22'7" North, 80°6'0"
West (26.368699, -80.100077)1. Boca Raton is the southernmost town
in Palm Beach County. It is on the East coast between Delray Beach
to the north and Deerfield Beach, in Broward County, to the south.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total
area of 75.4 km² (29.1 mi²). 70.4 km² (27.2 mi²)
of it is land and 5.0 km² (1.9 mi²) of it is water. The
total area is 6.63% water.
Boca Raton Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000, there are 74,764 people, 31,848 households,
and 20,000 families residing in the city. The population density
is 1,061.7/km² (2,749.8/mi²). There are 37,547 housing
units at an average density of 533.2/km² (1,381.0/mi²).
The racial makeup of the city is 90.75% White, 3.76% Black or African
American, 0.16% Native American, 1.99% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander,
1.39% from other races, and 1.90% from two or more races. 8.51%
of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 31,848 households out of which 24.1% have children under
the age of 18 living with them, 53.1% are married couples living
together, 7.1% have a female householder with no husband present,
and 37.2% are non-families. 29.5% of all households are made up
of individuals and 11.6% have someone living alone who is 65 years
of age or older. The average household size is 2.26 and the average
family size is 2.81.
In the city the population is spread out with 18.9% under the age
of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 26.7% from 45 to
64, and 19.8% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is
43 years. For every 100 females there are 95.1 males. For every
100 females age 18 and over, there are 92.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $60,248, and the
median income for a family is $77,861. Males have a median income
of $52,287 versus $33,347 for females. The per capita income for
the city is $45,628. 6.7% of the population and 4.1% of families
are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 6.0% of
those under the age of 18 and 4.9% of those 65 and older are living
below the poverty line.
Boca Raton Industries
According to MessageLabs, (an email security vendor), Boca Raton
is the "spam capital of the world", being the source of
a surprisingly high fraction of all spam generated worldwide. According
to the Miami Herald, the town has a long history of involvement
in confidence tricks, and Richard Breeden (former Securities and
Exchange Commission chairman) once called the town "the only
coastal town in Florida where there are more sharks on land than
in the water." In the keynote address to a computer security
conference on 8 June 2004, Bruce Sterling described the town as
the "Capone-Chicago of cyber fraud." According to a number
of US Federal indictments, as at June, 2004 the Gambino family continues
to operate in Boca Raton.
On 22 July 2004, Boca Raton resident Scott Levine was charged with
the largest computer crime indictment in United States history.
Federal prosecutors allege that Levine unlawfully accessed databases
of consumer data aggregator Acxiom (http://www.acxiom.com/) to steal
detailed personal information about millions of persons. Several
on-line sources claim that Levine is an associate of Eddy Marin,
a pornographer and convicted cocaine dealer who runs one of the
largest Boca Raton spam outfits. The indictment against Levine also
includes money laundering charges. (http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/07/21/cyber.theft/)
Boca Raton was also the site of the first anthrax attack in the
United States when two employees at the American Media Corporation
building in Boca Raton became ill. Bob Stevens, photo editor of
the Sun newspaper, died of inhalation anthrax while Ernesto Blanco,
a 73-year old mail room employee, recovered. The American Media
Corporation relocated and their building was abandoned and behind
a chain-link fence for 3 years until in summer 2004 it became the
last building in the United States to be decontaminated of anthrax
spores using chlorine dioxide gas. See Timeline of the 2001 anthrax
attacks in Florida.
Boca Raton History
The name "Boca Raton" predates the city, and was given
to the cove where the city stands by Spanish settlers. "Boca
Raton" literally translates from Spanish as "mouth of
the mouse", but was an idiom meaning "pirate's cove".
The town's early history was as the site of Addison Mizner's Boca
Raton Hotel, its most prominent building. The "pink hotel"
today is visible from miles away as a towering building on the Intracoastal
Waterway. The Pearl City neighborhood of Boca Raton was established
to originally house the service personnel for the hotel. Japanese
farmers converted the land west of the city into pineapple plantations
about 1905. During World War II much of their land was confiscated
and used as the site of a major training facility for B-29 bomber
crews. The airbase was later donated to become the grounds of Florida
Atlantic University, many of whose parking lots are former runways
of the airbase.
In 1934, Pine Crest School, one of the top 10 schools in the nation,
was founded in Ft. Lauderdale. At a later date, a campus was brought
to Boca Raton. It was originally named Boca Academy. Many things,
including the bell tower and gym, are still left from the good 'ol
days.
In the 1970s Boca Raton became home to a special subdivision of
IBM which was responsible in 1981 for designing the first IBM PC.
IBM relocated their manufacturing facilities for the PC to North
Carolina and eventually closed down and sold their Blue Lake facility
to other tenants.
Boca Raton became famous for passing a town ordinance banning the
further develoment of multi-family housing within the city limits
and for special zoning that limits the size and types of commercial
buildings and advertisement signs which may be erected within the
city limits. There are no traditional car dealerships in Boca Raton
because of these limits on roadside use, but a luxury car dealer
did showcase a few cars inside a roadside building having glass
walls. Corporations such as McDonalds had to redesign their classic
"golden arches" restaurant to conform to Boca Raton's
sign zoning restrictions. The effects can be seen in the city in
which a number of buildings were constructed with classic Addison
Mizner architecture and in the subdued roadside advertising.
In the 1990s a new downtown shopping center, Mizner Park, was built
which has become a cultural center for the city. Featuring a landscaped
central park between two cobblestone paved roads with stores only
on the outside of the roads, Mizner Park resembles a turn-of-the-century
town more than a shopping center. It features many fine restaurants
and is home to the Boca Raton Museum of Art. In 2002 an amphitheater
was built, providing a large-capacity outdoor venue. Movies are
shown for free every Saturday at the Amphitheater.
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