Post Card From Boca Raton

Damon Winter/The New York Times

BOCA RATON, Fla. — In the Mediterranean-style Mizner Park downtown, the grass is cropped as close as a golf green and three watch sellers, Van Cleef and Arpels, Hublot and Jaeger-LeCultre, sit side by side.

This is a town of “amazing wealth, you just shake your head sometimes,” said Melissa Berg, who was doing some midday shopping.

Boca Raton has twice earned a place in the political narrative this year, as the host of Monday night’s presidential debate and earlier as the setting of a high-donor dinner where Mr. Romney uttered his 47 percent remark.

No question, it’s a rich town. Forbes ranked three of its gated communities among the 10 most expensive in the United States in 2004. But it also a place where middle-class families move for the good public schools, and relatively affordable housing is within walking distance of the beach.

“We’re ordinary people,’’ said a man in orange swim trunks leaving the beach at Spanish River Park on Monday afternoon. He did not want to give his name. “I drive a Honda, my wife drives a Mazda,” he said.

He plans to vote to re-elect the president. “President Obama is for the guy in the middle class trying to work their way through it and pay the bills every month,” he said.

Carole Gotthilf, a 25-year-resident, said Boca residents were “very strong Obama for a long time; I think there’s mixed emotions now.”

The president won Palm Beach County, where Boca Raton is located, with a commanding 61.5 percent in 2008. He seems unlikely to enjoy that margin again.

“He’s done a good job,” said Ms. Gotthilf, who was looking at shoes through a window at Mizner Park. “People around me who agreed with me at one point now disagree ferociously.”

Ms. Berg, 53, a real estate agent in the luxury division of a local firm, said she was “a Republican at heart” who supported Mr. Romney, but she worried about his proposal to replace Medicare with a voucher-like system. She went to hear Mr. Romney at a big rally a couple of weeks ago in hopes he would describe his plans. “They don’t really say all that much at rallies,” she said. “I just want a direct answer.”

It was a blustery day at the beach, with a purple flag warning to keep out of the water. Scattered bathers lay in the sun. A sign said the street lights on Ocean Boulevard were now switched off for the season to protect nesting sea turtles.

Alan Hernandez, 77, and Jane Foster, 70, a couple who each retired last week – he cleaned the hulls of luxury yachts; she worked in administration for a nearby city – said Boca was not as friendly as when they moved here years ago. They, too, mentioned the wealth. “You stop at a light and say, whoa, that’s a Bentley on my right,” Mr. Hernandez said. Ms. Foster said she was “not intimidated, we’ve been here longer than them.”

Who did they plan to vote for? “I have a feeling that either one, you’re going to say, ‘What was I thinking?’,” Mr. Hernandez said.