Best Florida Cities - Top 10 Jobs and Butterflies in Coconut Creek

This is one of the few cities of the world that boasts butterfly gardens in each of its neighborhoods and a magnificent “green” downtown lifestyle-center mall that includes landscaped residential areas. These features aide Coconut Creek in its designation as 48th Best Place to Live in America, as chosen by Money Magazine for 2010.

Coconut Creek is a planned community in Broward County between Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties. Its designation as Butterfly Capital of the World is the result of the city’s large butterfly sanctuary known as Butterfly World, the largest such facility on earth. The aviary is a wildlife refuge to more than 80 different species of butterflies and over 5,000 butterflies at any point in time. Tourists from around the globe travel to this aviary to enjoy the beautiful fluttering wildlife and native plants and flowers. Gardens and parks decorate every neighborhood and add to the ecosystem of the larger community. Butterfly World is also a testament to the city’s dedication to sustainability and overall wildlife conservation.

Because the city is a planned community, all of its residential neighborhoods and business districts are professionally landscaped and maintained. Two successful business districts include Lyons Technology Center and Lyons Business Park. The vibrant downtown area is called simply Main Street and includes a regional mall and lifestyle center. Coconut trees were included in the original cityscape to reflect the name of the community. Coconut Creek has won awards and recognitions from the American Planning Association and Kodak s well as Money Magazine for its landscaping, ongoing development, and impressive community plaques and signage.

Coconut Creek is planned community with an ongoing schedule of improvements and expansions. Sustainability is a large part of the residential and business community planning and the city hosts a number of trees, greenspaces, waterways, landscaping along roads, parks, and butterfly gardens in individual neighborhoods. Visitors often describe Coconut Creek as a paradise, with good reason. It is the first place in Florida to be designated a “Community Wildlife Habitat” (the entire city is a wildlife habitat) and it is among the first dozen such habitats in America.

Coconut Creek’s Vision 2020 plan, included on the city’s website, in part of its ongoing development plan for the decade 2010 – 2020. City leaders intend to broaden city emphasis on the local butterflies in several ways. They want to do this by offering additional public information such as plaques and exhibits at bus stops, closer examinations of the symbolism of the butterfly, public educational programs, student contests, connections with other local wildlife habitats, involvement of the butterfly in the 50^th and subsequent City Anniversary festivals, choosing a Butterfly Month, and hosting public butterfly art as other cities have done with cows, pigs, dolphins, and corn ears. Several additional improvements are planned as well.

No other insect installation compares to Butterfly World. While other cities have butterfly aviaries, Coconut Creek’s is the largest and furthest developed in the world. Many US garden conservatories host a astonishing Butterfly Garden exhibit annually and if you combine perhaps 10 of these, you begin to have what is available in Butterfly World. A day spent in this ambience is enchanting and brings one’s central self to a different place. Many visitors do not want to leave and many return several times. A day spent among butterflies is magic.

In The Garden

Rice paper flutters,

Gossamer wonder

Bears the soul to Paradise.

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P. Inglish © 2010

Butterfly World covers 10 acres of landscaping with avairies and botanical gardens. It includes a butterfly farm where butterflies are raised for the aviaries and operates a research laboratory. All of these features reside in Tradewinds Park. Hummingbirds and lorikeets are attractions in their own aviaries among the butterflies. The attraction has raised butterflies for zoos and other facilities, but works hardest on preserving endangered species and placing them among other wildlife in natural habitats, including butterflies, birds, and native plants and flowers. A concert series adds extra magic.

See Butterfly World and the artwork it has inspired on Facebook.

The highest demand jobs for Coconut Creek are involved in Retail, Healthcare, and Financial Products. The larger part of these job vacancies can be found in Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, and Boynton Beach; and several hundred jobs can be found in each of many of the communities within a 25-mile radius of Coconut Creek. In October 2010, over 30,000 job vacancies at once were listed mid-month across the Internet.

1. Sales Representatives
2. Account Managers – Sales and Financial products.
3. Registered Nurses – RNs, includes Specialty Nursing and Travel Nursing
4. Salespeople
5. Occupational Therapists
6. Physical Therapists
7. Administrative Assistants
8. Senior Accountants
9. Speech Language Pathologists
10. Physical Therapist’s Assistants

Job vacancies and new positions for Managers have increased across the years 2005 - 2010 to a larger extent than any other.

Florida Jobs

256,000 Job vacancies were listed for Florida in Autumn 2010. The Number One Top Advertised position is Physical Therapist. This reflects the growing number of retirees living in Florida that benefit from physical therapy as treatment for conditions and prevention of immobility. Physical therapists are also useful to amateur and professional sports teams in the state. Physical therapists are also enjoying an increase in demand among physical fitness clubs, health spas, and country clubs that cater to Florida residents and travelers.

1. Physical Therapists
2. Registered Nurses (RNs)
3. Physical Therapists – Full- and Part-Time, Home Health and Nursing Homes
4. Physical Therapists - Outpatient Clinics
5. Physical Therapists - Hospitals
6. Physical Therapist’s Assistants
7. Occupational Therapists
8. Retail Salespeople
9. Assistant Managers
10. Speech/Language Pathologists

Top 10 Major Metro Areas in Florida that offer the largest numbers of job openings:

Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale, Saint Petersburg, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Myers, and Pensacola. Several of these are in the Coconut Creek area of Southeastern Florida.