What was your overall opinion of Estero Island Cottage and Matanzas Pass? What sights, sounds, and/or experiences stood out? Give concrete examples of how the local quality of life is being enhanced. How has your hometown changed since you were a child? Do you still feel a sense of community? If a developer offered you 300% the market value of your childhood home to develop into condos, would you take it? What if the county approached you about purchasing the land under the 20/20 program, for 80% of its market value?

My overall opinion of Estero Island Cottage and Matanzas Pass is that it was nice. It was different than our other trips. I really enjoyed listening to the lady tell us about the history the town and actually lived it! Her home has gone under a great change but I think it may still hold its original goals and purposes; though they may be a bit altered now. This place is a little town of its own and that’s really cool. When we arrived I did not think I was going to hear the things I heard.

Some sights, sounds, and/or experiences that stood out were the boardwalk which was completely made out of plastic bottles! I thought that was pretty awesome. The photos we were shown of how the town was and how it looked as we drove through it. Another thing that stood out was all the things we encountered on the trail. The mangroves were pretty cool considering it does so much for the environment.

Looking at the pictures and listening to how Estero Island came about and then driving through really showed how much more this place has grown. There are so many more buildings, a lot more water is around this island; I believe the women said there used to be 3 canals and now there are more than ever! That is definitely a BIG change for those who lived there.

I was born in Fort Myers but I only lived there for 6 years so I do not remember much of how it was then but I have passed through that part of town once in a while and I have noticed more open roads and even a new bridge to decrease traffic jams. So I can say that is a result of a great increase in population. Do I still feel a sense of community? I think that once a place gets to….how should I put it…once a place becomes less like it originally was I feel it loses its sense of community; especially if it was a small town then all of a sudden it was transformed in to a fast passed greatly populated city. Though I did live in an apartment and it had an elementary school in it so I guess that small apartment area could still hold a sense of community…

If a developer offered me 300% the market value of my childhood home to develop into condos, I would not take it because it already is condos. If the county approached me about purchasing the land under the 20/20 program, for 80% of its market value I still would not take it because I do not live there anymore and have no intentions of living in Fort Myers, plus I think it is really cute to have an elementary school in the apartments; it is sort of like the community school though I do believe students not living in the apartments were allowed to attend. I did not attend the elementary school but my brother did.