(Above) The founding of Belle Glade is rooted in the richness of its fertile ground. The city’s official slogan, “Her Soil is Her Future,” nods to the Earth’s gift to the Glades. The Glades Area (including Belle Glade, Pahokee, and South Bay) earned the moniker of the “Winter Vegetable Capital of the United States,” during World War II. Its farms supplied canned and frozen vegetables (harvested partially by German prisoners of war) in the winter months when the rest of the country suffered from extreme freezes. Today, the focus has shifted from winter crops to sugar cane. U.S. Sugar Corporation now runs the town. Every breath you take in Belle Glade reminds you of their presence. A slightly sweet, burnt smell lingers around town, as a core aspect of the Glades’ identity. A standard practice in the industry is field burning before harvest to remove excess brush, sending large plumes of smoke into the air. Despite this, air quality remains relatively high in the populated areas of town.
Palm Beach and Belle Glade, Florida share one similarity: their official jurisdiction of Palm Beach County, but this is the extent of their similarities. The city of Palm Beach is the wealthiest city in the state of Florida. It’s known for its glitzy estates and Gilded Age developments. The town is overrun by wealthy New York transplants looking to escape skyhigh tax rates (cough, cough Donald Trump). On the West end of Palm Beach County, lies three of the top five poorest cities in Florida: Pahokee, Belle Glade, and South Bay (MSN News). Like agricultural cities across the country, the area has struggled to balance liveable wages with the cheap prices of their overseas competitors. The median household income in Belle Glade is just $28,028. Drive an hour and a half to the island of Palm Beach, and this number will grow to $169,003 (World Population Review). The county of Palm Beach is not unlike the rest of America. It represents the same economic disparity just on a magnified scale. Two cities, on opposite sides of the same county, tell such different stories. Being so vastly different, one wonders if these cities can find some common ground.
