Harlem Heights, FL

Harlem Heights is a Lee County census-designated place in south Fort Myers with a story that is more neighborhood than resort postcard. The area was once migrant-worker housing, and a late-1970s federal grant helped add about 40 homes. Today, the two-acre Harlem Heights Community Park off Gladiolus Drive brings basketball courts, fields, a playground, and a pavilion into the local picture; the park opened in 1999. Pine Ridge Road separates Harlem Heights from Iona to the west, while Fort Myers Beach is the familiar coastal reference point.