There are some things in life you just might take for granted and not realize just how important they are or how much they can improve quality of life. Of course, I am talking about a sidewalk. No, really…sidewalks. When we moved into our house a few years back, there were no sidewalks along Orlando Ave in south Cocoa Beach. To get to the beach, you walked along the shoulder of A1A until you hit the next cross street and then headed east to our sandy shores. If you lived south of 12th St and you wanted to get into town, there wasn’t a nice path to walk, run or ride a bike on heading north until you could get onto Brevard Ave. In 2015 sidewalks were added along the east side of Atlantic Ave connecting 16th St south to our downtown area at Minuteman Causeway & beyond. The end of 2016 they started working on putting sidewalks in on the west side of Atlantic Ave along with both sides of Orlando Ave. We now have continuous sidewalks along A1A connecting Port Canaveral on the north side of town, through Cape Canaveral & Cocoa Beach to Patrick Air Force Base.
It is amazing how much a sidewalk will change the dynamics of our community. I first noticed a few new bike riders checking out our new concrete path. Then the occasional walker or runner. I am now seeing we have a few more dogs in our area & who the lucky pups were that got a regular walk or even a run with their human counterpart.
It has opened up a lot of options for me and my morning runs too. South to the Patrick Air Force Base (PAFB) border where the sidewalk ends & back north to 13th St is 3.1 miles…my new 5k loop. The days I want to put in a little more, I run triangle Chevron to triangle Chevron for about a 5.5 mile run. 13th St to the pier & back is just over 10 miles. Pretty cool!
I am a little surprised at what these sidewalks are providing to our south Cocoa Beach community.
Cocoa Beach Insider 