Q. I’ve heard about the raft races at the yacht club on Prima Vista Boulevard, when did they run? Do you have any pictures?

According to longtime PSL resident Walter Deemer, the Port St. Lucie Exchange Club (now defunct) organized the popular raft race event until the late 1980s. (Our files show it existed from at least 1980-1986.) It was restarted in 1995, but only lasted 3 years. A commercial event group attempted to hold a raft race in the Tradition neighborhood in 2016, but it was canceled.

Deemer said the funniest raft had an outhouse on it which got under the eastern Prima Vista Bridge okay, but had to be tipped to a 45-degree angle to get under the western one, which rafters did not realize was lower.

The photos here are believed to be from the 1984 raft race. Some entries held parties and some were more competitive. There was a big rivalry between the two daily newspapers, the News (pelican head raft) and the Tribune. (Question from Michelle Rifenburgh)




 

Q. With many northerners retiring here, why was a "downtown" never planned? It seems like even the smallest towns anywhere else have downtowns.

In most cities and towns, downtowns grew over many years. When Port St. Lucie was founded in 1961, it was planned as mostly residential area that would be sparsely populated. 

Initially General Development Corp.'s goal seemed to be to sell land, not necessarily houses. The first sales targets were future retirees in the North. Even then many downtowns were already dying in favor of shopping malls. As people came into PSL's huge geographic area, malls with basic goods and services were built and later larger malls to serve the city's far-flung neighborhoods were developed.

GDC did attempt to develop a central shopping area in the 1980s called Village Green Shopping Center (shown), which featured mall-like stores in a park-like atmosphere. It was near the southwest corner of U.S. 1 and Walton Road. The endeavor never really took off, though there were a movie theater, some retail stores, a good-sized Chinese restaurant, an ice cream shop and a pool hall. County government offices moved into some of the units.

Most of the Village Green Shopping Center was demolished in 2006 to make way for "old-fashioned downtown." The 70-acre property contains the city's Civic Center. A large area of the property has long involved in legal disputes, that is now under discussion for development of an hotel, apartments, retail stores and restaurants.
(Question asked by Andrew Marocco)