{"id":234487,"date":"2026-04-16T17:07:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/234487\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T17:07:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T17:07:23","slug":"shade-sails-at-fort-lauderdales-tunnel-top-plaza-are-gone-with-the-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/234487\/","title":{"rendered":"Shade sails at Fort Lauderdale\u2019s Tunnel Top Plaza are \u2018gone with the wind\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The new shade sails at Fort Lauderdale\u2019s Tunnel Top Plaza looked pretty for 57 days \u2014 until one breezy day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Some of the beige-colored panels are now missing, blown down by 15 mph winds last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThe wind blew them off of the track and city staff took them down,\u201d Mayor Dean Trantalis said Thursday. \u201cThey <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/02\/13\/can-new-shade-sails-lure-crowds-to-tunnel-top-plaza-fort-lauderdale-is-about-to-find-out\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:will be replaced;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;will be replaced&quot;}\" class=\"link \">will be replaced<\/a>. They are on order. They will be the same color and texture as the other ones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There\u2019s now a plan in place to keep it from happening again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI\u2019m hopeful in the future that our park rangers will draw the shade structures so they are not exposed to the wind,\u201d Trantalis said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t expect it to be that windy. Now we know that they are vulnerable to wind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Tunnel Top Plaza, a $12 million project funded by Fort Lauderdale and built by the state, opened in December 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The shade sails <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/02\/27\/fort-lauderdales-tunnel-top-plaza-now-has-shade-but-critics-prefer-trees-to-canvas-sails\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:went up;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;went up&quot;}\" class=\"link \">went up<\/a> on Feb. 13 in an effort to bring a touch of beauty and shade, adding another $62,000 to the tab.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Some were fans of the new look.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But critics warned the shade sails might blow away in a stiff wind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When they were proven right, some poked fun on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cGone with the wind. Wasn\u2019t that a movie?\u201d one wrote. \u201cOur money is blowing in the wind,\u201d wrote another.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Vice Mayor Ben Sorensen, district commissioner for the neighborhood, says Fort Lauderdale is planning to replace the current shade sails with a more sturdy alternative.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThese were the most readily available shade structures,\u201d Sorensen said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be getting new shade structures that are more durable once we talk to the community and figure out what\u2019s best in our environment. We have a host of options we will explore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Susannah Bryan can be reached at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/mailto:sbryan@sunsentinel.com\" data-ylk=\"slk:sbryan@sunsentinel.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;sbryan@sunsentinel.com&quot;}\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sbryan@sunsentinel.com<\/a>. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new shade sails at Fort Lauderdale\u2019s Tunnel Top Plaza looked pretty for 57 days \u2014 until one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[13776,249,251,250,81563,104662],"class_list":{"0":"post-234487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-dean-trantalis","9":"tag-fort-lauderdale","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","11":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news","12":"tag-shade-sails","13":"tag-shade-structures"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}