Present: Who We Are

While the average age in Southwest Florida exceeds the national norm, the region is, in many respects, a youngster. Fifty years ago, only about 16,000 people lived in Collier County. Today that number tops 320,000.

Waterfront mansions with manicured lawns. Tattered trailers on the outskirts of farm fields. Teapartiers rallying along U.S. 41. Occupy protesters marching down Fifth Avenue South.

Take a walk through the River Park neighborhood and Joseph Williams often can be found sitting on the stoop of his modest home, doling out advice, just as he did as the reverend at the community's church. Phil McCabe can ...

Chad Phipps missed the nightlife, the live music and the ethnic food when he moved to Naples 10 years ago.But when Helen Lundergan came down a few years later, she found what she described as "my kind of town."

A farmer by trade, Frank Oakes believes in self sufficiency. That's why he opened an organic grocery store filled with fruits and vegetables from his own garden. It's the same reason he said he doesn't use plastic or recycled dishes.

How the Hispanic population is doing depends on whom you talk to. There are business owners and professionals who, after a decade or two in the area, feel it's time for political, economic and social action.

When Jean Paul moved from Haiti to Naples in 1988, there weren't any Haitian churches with their own buildings.There are at least eight now, according to public listings.

When Ted Zelman moved to the Naples area in 1979, being Jewish was not — as he called it — "mainstream." "I would go to meetings, and it was just expected that the people there were all Christians," said Zelman, ...