I have been to Key West several times. It is quite a place!
Key West is not for me, however. Now that I have made the tour of the conch style homes, been to Duval Street, Hemingway Museum, President Truman’s vacation residence, Conch Tour Train and seen several incredible sunsets, I have no reason to go back.
Key West (Pinterest)
Some people would feel the same about Stuart and Martin County. I understand that. Not everywhere is the place for everybody. Florida is a big and diverse state with many unique feels and moods for all different people. The state may not be very wide ocean to gulf, but as you traverse north to south and even east to west, places are distinctive.
And, because of that diversity, the 1968 Florida Constitution gave local government “home rule.” The concept provided that a citizen didn’t have to go to Tallahassee to obtain permission to change local zoning codes and state-level government could not define how to make a local code complaint or even how a front yard should look.
Unfortunately, Florida voters have allowed that beautiful concept to be squandered. The examples given above have been taken away from the control of cities and counties. In the minds of the legislators, Florida should be homogenized with local uniqueness unneeded. I guess you can call it the Disneyfication of the state.
The “Lords of Tallahassee” i.e., the legislature and governor, have chipped away at the concept of home rule… at first slowly and today as fast possible. They have done so year after year without much of a squawk from the voters. The concept of home rule has become a joke to state representatives and senators. It is the voters’ fault.
Local elected officials have tried to keep regulation as tailored to their jurisdictions as possible. They are the only ones that strive to make sure that the community’s fate is controlled at the municipal and county level. I was on many trips to Tallahassee and in district legislators’ offices to advocate for our communities.
What I heard from the legislators in not so many words was “you guys do not control any votes, campaign contributions, or soldiers to get us elected.” And it is true. The voters re-elect their state politicians regardless of how much they continue to impede local control. Control, once gone, is not coming back.
Which brings me back to Key West. The voters there passed three referenda having to do with the scaling back of cruise ships from docking in the city. If you have ever seen what it looks like when several thousand tourists disembark in small Key West, you would think of an invasion force landing.
The thousands of shipboard tourists spend money on cheap souvenirs but hardly anything in restaurants and bars and nothing on hotels. All of which is provided back on the mother ship. Only 7% of their tourist income comes from these behemoth floating cities. The environmental debasement of the “Conch Republic’s” water quality is hurting fishing and other parts of the environment.
Yet the legislators decided local sentiment does not matter…even the referendum that received 80% of the vote in favor. They passed a bill that overruled those referenda. The governor signed the bill, so what the citizens of Key West wanted did not matter.
Those voters did not try to pass a constitutional amendment banning cruise ships in the entire state. The residents of Key West only wanted a local say in what was going on in their town. But that was of no concern to “The Lords of Tallahassee” who are in charge and know they will not be voted out of office. Even when the legislators ignore the will of the voters.
The governor and legislators will talk about how they are saving us from tax increases, petty laws, and just making our state business friendly. Voters will continue to fill in the ballot bubble for them because of the letter after their names, while the decisions of what happens in their town or county is being taken away by the very people they keep returning to office.