Tamarac, Florida

Tamarac
—  City  —
Seal
Motto: "The City For Your Life"
Location of Tamarac, Broward County, Florida
Coordinates: 26°12′45″N 80°15′00″W
Country	United States
State	Florida
County	Broward
Incorporated (city)	15 August 1963
Government
• Type	Commission-Manager
• Mayor	Beth Talabisco
• City Manager	Michael C. Cernech
Area
• City	11.89 sq mi (30.8 km2)
• Land	11.39 sq mi (29.5 km2)
• Water	0.5 sq mi (1.3 km2)
Elevation	9 ft (3 m)
Population (2010)
• City	60,427
• Density	Bad rounding here5,100/sq mi (Bad rounding here2,000/km2)
• Metro	5,564,635
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	33309, 33319, 33320, 33321, 33351, 33359
Area code(s)	954, 754
FIPS code	12-70675
GNIS feature ID	0300337
Website	Tamarac Florida Official Website

Tamarac is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,427. It is part of the Miami–Fort Lauderdale–Pompano Beach Metropolitan Statistical Area, which was home to 5,564,635 people according to the 2010 census.

History

Black-and-white version of the first official city seal, used from 1963-1991.

In the early 1960s a young developer named Ken Behring came from the Midwest and bought land where he could, creating an active adult community of two-bedroom maintenance-free homes. He called his new city Tamarac, named after the nearby Tamarac Country Club in what's now Oakland Park.

In 1963, Behring built the city's first development east of State Road 7, Tamarac Lakes Section One and Section Two. Next came two neighborhoods of homes built on a former orange grove called Tamarac Lakes North and The Boulevards. Three of Behring's last developments were Tamarac Lakes South, then the Mainlands of Tamarac Lakes just west of State Road 7, and finally, the Woodlands community.

The city's early leaders, hoping to preserve Tamarac as a bedroom community, allowed Fort Lauderdale to annex commercial pockets, forever losing land that might have bolstered the city's coffers. In the late 1970s, the city de-annexed a long line of commercial buildings from State Road 7 all the way to Northwest 31 Avenue, but it went along with Behring's vision of Tamarac as a bedroom community. The boundaries were wherever Behring decided to build homes. The city's current eastern boundaries narrow to a sliver from Northwest 31 to 37 Avenues, then widen to the south. The city's easternmost boundary extends below Commercial Boulevard to Northwest 16 Avenue. Many newcomers do not even realize there is an east side to Tamarac - including those who live there. In the early years, neighbors might have preferred being in neighboring Fort Lauderdale who received more attention from them at the time. Things changed when Walter Falck was elected mayor. Falck, who served from 1976 to 1984, helped lead the city with an eye for his pals on the east.

Behring also named a subdivision he founded in the Pinellas Park area, the "Mainlands of Tamarac By-the-Gulf".

Geography

Tamarac is located at 26°12′13″N 80°14′47″W (26.203581, -80.246376). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 11.9 square miles (31 km²), of which 11.4 square miles (30 km²) is land and 0.5 square miles (1 km²) is water (4.21%).

Demographics

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1970	5,078		—
1980	29,376		478.5%
1990	44,822		52.6%
2000	55,588		24.0%
2010	60,427		8.7%

Tamarac Demographics
2010 Census	Tamarac	Broward County	Florida
Total population	60,427	1,748,066	18,801,310
Population, percent change, 2000 to 2010	+8.7%	+7.7%	+17.6%
Population density	5,201.4/sq mi	1,444.9/sq mi	350.6/sq mi
White or Caucasian (including White Hispanic)	67.2%	63.1%	75.0%
(Non-Hispanic White or Caucasian)	49.0%	43.5%	57.9%
Black or African-American	23.1%	26.7%	16.0%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race)	24.3%	25.1%	22.5%
Asian	2.5%	3.2%	2.4%
Native American or Native Alaskan	0.2%	0.3%	0.4%
Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
Two or more races (Multiracial)	2.8%	2.9%	2.5%
Some Other Race	4.2%	3.7%	3.6%

As of 2010, there were 32,794 households, with 13.4% being vacant. In 2000, 15.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.8% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.6% were non-families. 36.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 23.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.00 and the average family size was 2.56.

In 2000, the city the population was spread out with 13.4% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 23.5% from 25 to 44, 20.1% from 45 to 64, and 37.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 53 years. For every 100 females there were 80.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.3 males.

In 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $34,290, and the median income for a family was $41,927. Males had a median income of $32,317 versus $28,360 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,243. About 6.1% of families and 8.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.5% of those under age 18 and 7.2% of those age 65 or over.

As of 2000, speakers of English language as a first language were at 78.08% of the population, while Spanish was at 13.69%. Also, Yiddish was at 1.90%, French at 1.15%, Haitian Creole consisted of 1.12%, Italian made up 1.08%, German comprised 0.62%, and Hebrew as a mother tongue made up 0.52% of residents.

Over the years, the multicultural population has expanded in Tamarac, such as people from Latin American and Caribbean ancestry. As of 2000, Tamarac was the fifty-first most Colombian-populated area in the US, with 2.74% of the population. It also had the thirty-second highest percentage of Jamaicans in the US, (tied with Royal Palm Beach and Goulds) at 4.1% of all residents.

External links

• Tamarac Florida Official Website Portal style website, Government, Business, Library, Recreation and more
• City-Data.com Comprehensive Statistical Data and more about Tamarac
• Tamarac Historical Society
• Tamarac Talk Local News