Special Events in Port St. Lucie continue to be shaped by a diversifying population of a younger average age making its way to the city.
That wider range of demographics informed recent surveys for a 10-year Master Plan through two 2 p.m. meetings on April 28 and April 30. The city also hosts an online survey (surveymonkey.com/r/PSLevents) that will close May 17.
The in-person meetings gave attendees nine stations – some with stickers, others with free responses – prepared by the Perez Planning & Design landscaping firm of Atlanta.
Despite low turnouts both nights, voters called for more recreation opportunities among families and young adults that reflect a society stretching past the city’s retirement community origins.
The April 28 meeting – held at the Tradition Keiser University campus, 9400 SW Discovery Way – brought three voters. Their comments emphasized more involvement among younger people while discussing their own childhood in the city.
When she moved in as a teenager 22 years ago, Rennay Bookall was not sold on living in Port St. Lucie. “Initially, I hated it,” she said. She recalled quiet suburbs with less communication among her schoolmates compared to Miami. “It’s not somewhere I’d want to grow up as a young teen.”
The years since instilled a different sentiment in Bookall. Since October, she has managed a TikTok (“nayjustvibin”) that documents city-run special events that, she said, coincided with her change of heart when the COVID pandemic began to subside.
Her videos include footage of the International Fest (held each November since 2023), the pre-Christmas Noche Buena, and Juneteenth, which the city first officially celebrated last year.
She voted for more family-friendly opportunities, better safety, and greater inclusion of ethnic diversity, especially for millennials like herself. “The more that appeals to them, the better.”
Geanpaul Ojeda shared concerns about more young adult involvement. Living intermittently between Ecuador and Port St. Lucie since childhood, his input focused on the potential of music festivals in the city.
He spoke of his fandom of electronic dance music (EDM) and “mid-level acts or indie artists” with little draw in smaller Florida cities. More festivals could bring lesser-known performers that people like Ojeda still venture hours to see.
The sentiment colored Ojeda’s work for years. Now a disaster response coordinator with the St. Lucie United Way, he organized youth outreach for the then-new #IAMPSL Citizen Summit before its first edition in 2023.
“I can’t imagine the demographic shifts that will be there in the future,” he said.
The April 30 meeting brought seven voters to the Saints Golf Course, 2601 SE Morningside Blvd. There, a visibly older audience brought in votes for more family entertainment and economic opportunities.
Alan Solis settled into the surrounding Sandpiper community from the Bronx, New York, during COVID. According to his research, the average age of the approximately 1,000 people in Sandpiper is 52, leaving some room for “families with kids” like himself.
He, like others, spoke of the dearth of opportunities for younger people. “When I came here, it was hard for me to find family-friendly experiences,” Solis said, adding holiday celebrations were more plentiful farther away. “We didn’t have a destination, something that impacted me.”
He brought how businesses – both corporations lining the city’s commercial sectors and small businesses in between – can bring more venues and visitors in the long run. “Those events attract tourism,” Solis said. “It’s a whole ecosystem that gets activated when you have these types of events.”
Another Sandpiper resident, Karen Moore, lived there for around three decades after moving from the Carolinas. She said the more recent development of Walton & One as a recreation nexus helped solidify a city center once “scattered all over the place.”
She added: “Unfortunately, I think that the younger teenagers and young adults aren’t serviced well enough here.”
She wrote how the city needed more child-oriented events and better physical advertising to promote events related to older people like herself.
“A lot of people don’t even know what’s going on in the community,” Moore said. “I think they’re trying hard (and) going in a good direction.”
More events, however, between vendors, parking and traffic, could risk pricing visitors out in a national economy that grows more “prohibitive,” she said. “A lot of families just don’t have that kind of money right now. I know my daughter can’t take her three little boys to the fair; she can’t do that, it’s just too expensive.”