Pembroke Pines was born as a city in 1960. But it wasn’t until the early ‘90s that it became a boomtown. That’s when thousands of people displaced from Hurricane Andrew in South Miami-Dade began new lives in the suburbs of South Broward.
During the early years, the Pines might have been best known as the home to the Hollywood Sportatorium, where people stuck in a long line of cars snaked along a two-lane road to see rock concerts. The other city staple has been West Perry Airport, home of the banner planes and lots of student pilots.
But over the past couple of decades, Pembroke Pines has been all about growth, with residential communities, a major shopping mall, big box stores, a city charter school system, big-name restaurants and a new city center that looks and feels like a downtown…