PARKLAND, Florida—Gerardo Velasco knew what he was looking for in a city: baseball fields and safety. Baseball is for his 15-year-old son, who wants to be a professional baseball player. And about security, he says it's because he grew up in Nezahual coyotl, a city on the outskirts of the Mexican capital. “At some point it was considered the poorest in the world and the most dangerous in Mexico,” he says. He did not want his family to live in a place like that.
Until Wednesday, when a young man entered his son's high school and killed 17 people, he had found all of this in Parkland, Florida. “I drive an hour and a half to get to work. Every time I go on the highway, I say, ‘I do not care,’ because I see that my son goes to this beautiful school,” says Velasco, whose son was in a room next to the shooting and escaped safely from the disaster. “A few days ago I spoke with my mom in Mexico and I just told her that living in Parkland is almost like paradise.”
Anonymous to most Americans, Parkland is a city in the suburbs northwest of Fort Lauderdale.* Its 31,000 inhabitants are mostly white and middle and upper class. Latinos are only 13 percent of the population and median household income stands at $107,000, compared to $52,000 in Broward County.
“Parkland is a dream community, highly affluent and mostly residential,” says Michael Udine, former mayor of the city and now Broward County commissioner. “Almost all its life revolves around its schools, open spaces, and fields. It is one of the premier places to live in Broward.”
Until Wednesday, when a young man entered his son's high school and killed 17 people, he had found all of this in Parkland, Florida. “I drive an hour and a half to get to work. Every time I go on the highway, I say, ‘I do not care,’ because I see that my son goes to this beautiful school,” says Velasco, whose son was in a room next to the shooting and escaped safely from the disaster. “A few days ago I spoke with my mom in Mexico and I just told her that living in Parkland is almost like paradise.”
Anonymous to most Americans, Parkland is a city in the suburbs northwest of Fort Lauderdale.* Its 31,000 inhabitants are mostly white and middle and upper class. Latinos are only 13 percent of the population and median household income stands at $107,000, compared to $52,000 in Broward County.
“Parkland is a dream community, highly affluent and mostly residential,” says Michael Udine, former mayor of the city and now Broward County commissioner. “Almost all its life revolves around its schools, open spaces, and fields. It is one of the premier places to live in Broward.”
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