Tallahassee’s Version of The Godfather

Posted on by

 

The Florida legislative season is over. It was a hard session if you believe in local government control. The continuation of the Tallahassee brand of “pater familias knows best” attitude was pre-eminent.

 

“Pater familias” is a Latin term for head of the family. In ancient Rome, the oldest male in a family oversaw the family property and all the other family members as well. His word was law. There was no need to consult the rest of the household before making decisions. This was basically the way the mafia was organized with the godfather as head of the family.

            PINTEREST

 

 

The Florida legislature has a history of making sure that local governments do not go to far afield in how and what they do. They are eager to prevent cities and counties from passing things that would make their contributors unhappy. Industries do not want to deal with individual counties and cities. They would rather whisper in the ears of the heads of the families, as legislative leaders believe they are.

 

If a city bans plastic bags, the legislative leaders pass a pre-emption. The builders want uniformity, and the heads of our state families have the building codes changed so that locals can’t intrude on architectural details. Our state fathers proclaim freedom for their local families unless it interferes with their friends. It almost sounds like a “Godfather” movie.

 

For example, Key West residents wanted to limit cruise ship traffic as evidenced by 60% of the Key West voters saying yes to the limitation. The legislature then inserted into another bill a retroactive provision that would prohibit local ballot initiatives restricting maritime commerce. It does not matter what the people want. State pols will make sure that the plebes do not cross the economic patricians who contribute to the families’ coffers.

 

This issue of impact fees serves as another example. In my opinion, impact fees are not always justified, especially in a built-out municipality. I would much rather see individual projects pay for their impacts as part of the PUD agreements when projects are approved. Just because I think impact fees are not useful does not mean I want Tallahassee limiting the ability of local governments to collect them. How about the legislature stays out of the matter and allows local people to decide whether they should be imposed?

 

From tree ordinances to short term rentals, the best decisions are local. I thought implementation of the straw ordinance in Stuart was a waste. Even though many businesses have complied, how much has it helped the environment…none. It was a feel-good measure and nothing more.

 

Though I opposed the implementation of that ban, I supported the Stuart commission’s authority to do so. In the past several years, Florida has moved from local governments making the decisions to a dictatorship imposing its will under the guise of freedom.

 

Do not be fooled. There is not freedom when Tallahassee tells us what to do. Our political tribes call the shots because the likelihood that our state representatives will lose in a re-election are very slim to none. Martin County is a very safe Republican stronghold where there are no worries about the voters.

It is not whether you agree with a particular position, it is whether you want the decisions made by state pols who believe your preferences are immaterial. Pre-emption of local governance has slowly taken away our individuality…not enhanced it. The political dribble “new speak” is just that…a way of making you think that what they do in Tallahassee is best. Do not buy it for a second. Tallahassee does what is best for Tallahassee’s politicians.

 

Creating Housing Is Not Brain Surgery

Posted on by

We hear much about affordable/work force/attainable housing. Unless there is a continuous government subsidy of those rents, this is a dream that is going nowhere.

 

I often see that commissioners, especially in Stuart, ask that some sort of set aside be done for these type units when approving new projects. While I am not against the attempt it is almost always futile even when the developer agrees. There will just never be enough of whatever you would like to call this type of submarket housing without the hand of the federal government.

 

Washington has stayed away from any new form of subsidized housing for a long time. Decades ago, it stopped building entire projects. Those that previously did come along ended up as slums worse than any tenement that it was to replace. The grand era of government-built housing projects that were prevalent in the 1930s through 1970s will probably never be repeated.

 

For awhile the feds, administered at times by the state, had a voucher system so that this segment of the population could be serviced by the private sector. This too fell out of favor by both cutbacks at the federal and state levels and private owners that felt there were too many rules to follow before you had the money. As a private owner, I use to dread the words “Do you take Section 8?”

 

In Martin County there is a way to have much more affordable/work force/attainable housing. It is by allowing the market to operate without so many restrictions. The more housing that is built, the easier it will be to meet the demand. As new housing comes online, the less desirable existing units become cheaper in price.

                       Courtesy of Pinterest

Martin County needs several thousand additional units. These units need to be in multi-family buildings. The building of single-family homes will not drop the level of asking rents which would alleviate the shortages. Within our cities and in the county CRAs there needs to be greater density so that enough units can be built. If a developer can put 30 or more units per acre, then the price of each unit to build is lessened.

 

In new projects that doesn’t mean the rent will be lower for those units. The sheer increase in units being offered will drive down the prices at older developments. We have all heard of the supply and demand axiom. It is true.

 

What would really provide here and the rest of the U.S. even more units at more affordable prices would be a true voucher system. In the old Section 8 program, an owner could be required to have his property inspected by the government before the voucher was issued. It became a bureaucratic morass.

 

In a true voucher system, the tenant would apply for vouchers based on income. If accepted, then the voucher payment would go to the property owner each month for the duration of the lease. There would be no required inspections except those that would be performed and monitored by local code enforcement. Any sub-standard conditions would be addressed the same as if the tenant were paying the entire amount of rent without assistance.

 

Collusion or fraud by owner or tenant would be handled like any other theft of services. Audits could be performed to make sure that housing accommodations were being rented to the recipient of the voucher. There need not be an overabundance of red tape.

 

The main thing we must all remember is that the housing shortage for everyone can only be made better with more availability of units. We need to stop protesting every time something is being built. If anything, we should be encouraging more building especially of multi-family construction.

 

 

The Martin County Absurd Difference

Posted on by

It seems to me that sometimes Martin County cannot recognize absurd situations. The moving of the fair to its new home in Indiantown is one of those absurdities.

 

For years, we have heard how the Martin County Fair Association cannot raise the required funds to make the move. It isn’t for lack of trying but, according to Fair Manager Jay Spicer, they are competing with puppies and babies for funders. Mr. Spicer might be totally inept as a fund raiser, or perhaps it is the mission he is purporting that is absurd.

I know I would rather give my money to help kids and animals than build some giant “Agri-Plex” with an archery center, motorcross track, farmer’s market, and an assortment of other wow projects. Our local government is not immune to this disease of absurdity and often helps it along.

 

The BOCC cannot just build a community pool…instead it needs the razzle dazzle of a waterpark. It cannot operate a golf course but instead needs to create one that will bring golf to the next level with a Top Golf experience, night golf (for those that are not golfers) and the ability to simulate playing at Pebble Beach.

 

The new Sand Beach Cafe at Stuart Beach operated by the county cannot find a manager because of the pay scale. The Jensen Beach mooring field is off to a slow start based on the demand for ball rentals. I am surprised the county hasn’t decided to build a convention center yet.

 

Given all of this, why hasn’t the county stepped in and taken over the fair after years of non-accomplishment? Perhaps staff knows that if they propose just a simple fairground without all the bells and whistles, the commissioners will not be able to help themselves but to embrace the current absurd plan costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

 

That really is the crux of the matter…what should government do and what should the private sector (including non-profits) be involved in? It should be obvious for anyone that thinks about it for a moment. In absurd Martin County, there is no policy or philosophy which separates the two.

 

The reason that the private sector does not embrace the water park is because it is destined to be a money loser. The same goes for Top Golf and all the rest of the Martin County BOCC schemes to appropriate tax dollars for projects that should not be built in our small market.

 

Then, you have a non-profit, the Fair Association, that cannot raise money even for constructing a simple structure to house a two-week fair because there aren’t enough people that care whether there is a fair or not. They surely do not want to give money to a board that appears to be overreaching outside of their mission.

 

That is another one of Martin County’s absurd rationales. There are no boundaries between what the government, nonprofits, and private business should do. So, taxpayer dollars will continue to be spent on non-governmental functions from running restaurants to waterparks.

 

The Indiantown Chamber of Commerce successfully puts on the Indiantown Rodeo each year. It has a definitive mission and the chamber sticks to that mission. It isn’t a place to take horseback riding lessons throughout the year. Perhaps the Fair Association and the county government should take that  lesson. They probably will not.

 

And I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t hear again that the move has been postponed to at least 2023 because of funding issues at the time of the 2022.

 

 

 

 

It Is Time!

Posted on by

For more than a year I have championed mask wearing, social distancing, and all the other CDC pandemic guidelines.

 

It was a life and death situation. There was a public health crisis. More Americans, 575,000 of us, have died in the past 14 months than in any war except the Civil War. Nothing could be done to stop the death totals and spread except for following the guidelines. It was for the good of everyone.

 

I didn’t think of any of it as a curtailment of our civil liberties, and every court case in Florida claiming that premise was dismissed. Governor DeSantis’ order to rescind closing businesses, which was earlier than most other states, proved to be correct. But I thought and still do that he should have imposed a state-wide mask mandate.

 

All of that was before the widespread availability of vaccines against COVID. At this point, there is no reason why those who want to be vaccinated cannot do so. It is time to end the continuation of the CDC guidelines as a matter of policy.

 

The reason that the vaccines were developed was to curtail the spread of the disease. The reason that millions of us were inoculated was so that we could resume our lives free from the fear of contagion. The country is now divided by those who have been inoculated and those who have not.

 

There are still some vulnerable populations that either medically cannot be vaccinated or for whom the vaccine is not yet approved. Of those, the largest group would be children under the age of 16. That is a big concern and needs to be addressed.

 

Currently, children as young as six months are part of trials to test the vaccines for infants on up to 16-year-olds. Some scientists believe that by fall the vaccine will be approved for kids. This will greatly increase our way to herd immunity.

 

We cannot force adults to be vaccinated. There will always be those who will refuse. That is no different than those that do not get flu, pneumonia or other shots that are medically recommended. They have made a conscience decision to ignore the science and risk acquiring a very preventable disease.

 

For those of us who have had the vaccine, it is time for us to resume our normal lives. I went to a party of about fifty people last weekend which was outdoors, and it appeared that all there had the “jabs”. I don’t even like parties, but I was glad to be at this one.

 

I fully support businesses that want to continue with requiring masks. The likelihood of a vaccinated person such as myself catching the disease is infinitesimal now and if I do it will be a mild case. I respect the right of a business owner to set the requirements for entering his store. If I do not agree, I will simply not patronize the store.

 

What I will not do is participate in any more Zoom meetings when the participants are local. It has now become a convenient excuse not to be in a room with others or worse sit at home half dressed. Most of the attendees in these meetings are multi-tasking and paying as little attention to the business at hand as possible. I am tired of sorting through “technical issues” with others about why their audio or video isn’t working for most of these meetings.

 

President Biden missed a great opportunity during his speech delivered in the House Chamber. Every legislator, cabinet member, and government official should have been sitting side by side without a mask. Everyone of those officials have had the opportunity to be vaccinated beginning months ago. If they have not taken advantage of that ability, then shame on them.

 

Biden could have peered into the camera and told Americans that the vaccine has been a success. Vaccinated Americans do not have to fear being with each other. All they need to do is get the shot. Those who opted to ignore science and not be vaccinated may catch COVID, but they chose to remain vulnerable. It was their choice and decision.

Now that is liberty!

The Biggest Trick Of All

Posted on by

Once again, the legislature is getting ready to perform their most prized magic trick…the sleight of hand!

PINTEREST

While homelessness continues to grow each year, our so-called leaders in Tallahassee raid the Sadowski Fund for purposes other than its intended use which is affordable housing. Sawdowski has a dedicated funding source which are the proceeds from document stamps on real estate transactions.

 

What a perfect place to have funds allocated for the construction and repair of affordable housing. The legislature need do nothing every year to send aid for this population except leave the fund alone to operate as intended. Of course, that is too much to ask of the very people with the biggest egos.

 

Our legislators believe that they know best. It doesn’t matter how the people vote. If it gets in the way of enough legislators’ desires or that of their contributor friends, then the program or the people’s decision take a back seat.

 

If a beach town wants to stop single family homes from being rented out by the day, our legislators believe it is an infringement on someone’s property rights. Of course, our legislators forget about the neighbors’ rights to live in their single-family homes free from an “Animal House” next door.

 

From where to place a garage door (our very own Toby Overdorf) to what to plant in a front yard, nothing is too small or too insignificant not to have our legislators tell us what to do. Most of those “knowledgeable” state representatives impart to us, their mere constituents, are the wishes of their leadership, the lobbyists, and big business interests who do not want to deal with counties and cities to make their dreams come true.

 

We elect our county and city commissioners to make decisions reflecting local concerns. It is easy to make our thoughts known to them. While for the most part state legislators pretend to care about us. At the end of the day, they carry the water of the big money boys. Those that contribute to their campaigns.

 

Those legislators know they can count on your vote in the heavily gerrymandered districts. Most in Martin County wouldn’t dare not vote for the Republican no matter how they acted against their constituents’ interest and desires in Tallahassee. If you are from Broward, just substitute the Democrat Party.

 

When we shed those crocodile tears for the homeless, the funds to do something are there in the state treasury. We just turn a blind eye to legislators disregarding what we voted to fund. There is no penalty to pay. Those legislators are just playing by the rules we allow.

 

Think about that the next time you pull the lever and ignore what your legislators actually did do in the secretive Tallahassee swamp.

 

I Love Wawa…And Costco!

Posted on by

I love Wawa. I love Costco.

 

Wawa treats their customers very well. I go there for gas and because of the free air for provided. I make it a point to buy all my gas at Wawa whether I need air or not because of that service.

 

Costco is the best warehouse club hands down. When I lived up north, I would shop there all the time. No supermarket beats the quality of their meat.

 

But, if I had to choose which of the two businesses I would rather have located here, it would be Costco.

 

Some of Palm City’s vocal residents by their continuous and contentious opposition to Costco has now resulted in Wawa with its 6000 square foot convenience store and 12 pumps locating on the site. Additionally, there will be a Tractor Farm Supply store and a 16,400 square foot Aldi supermarket going there. As a bonus, there may be a hotel and car wash too.

 

This is what has been approved where Costco considered building a store.  Many area residents came out and defeated the store going there. I wonder if they now will be much happier with this amalgam of businesses over that nuisance known as Costco.

 

Because if there is anything we hate in Martin County, it is change. And people think that these infill projects will never be developed. “Landowners should keep the property vacant,” we hear over and over as if the owner has no right to derive economic benefit from his asset.

 

In this instance, those complaining were the people now living in the developments that were once on empty scrub land. They moved into houses built on lands that were smack in the middle of the woods and pastures of Palm City. Their schools and churches were on bulldozed sites that were home to native animals, birds and plants that were forced to go elsewhere.

 

At the LPA meeting, there was only one gentleman who spoke in opposition according to an article in TC Palm. The board approved Wawa and the rest of the development on a 5-0 vote. According to Bob Raynes, the developer’s attorney, the use is as of right. But then so was Costco.

 

The difference was hundreds of people fought Costco and no one did this time. Did they just get tired, which ultimately happens, or were they manipulated by foes of the earlier project, which also occurs. Is Martin County better by having another Wawa and Aldi than Costco with its upscale merchandise and minimum $20 per hour jobs? I guess Palm City thinks so.

 

Costco is supposedly coming to Stuart. It will be sited close to the foot of the Memorial Bridge on Kanner Highway. The site provides easy access to the Palm City customer base which is their demographic. Many have voiced the same old concerns regarding traffic, etc. that they raised for the High Meadow Road project. The mob may sway enough Stuart commissioners to vote against the project. Politicians have the backbone of jelly fish.

 

Mark my words that if Costco does not go on that site something else will eventually. It is an infill project that will be built upon. Somebody will live in an apartment on that site. Someone will work in a store or other business on that site. The naysayers will not permanently stop the owners of the property from maximizing their investment.

 

I just hope they do not accomplish for Stuart what they did for Palm City. At least Palm City isn’t getting a giant adult bookstore or truck stop according to current plans. However, when it is built, Phase 2 may have something different than that hotel. Both the bookstore and truck stop also are zoned as of right for the property.

Florida scrub habitat in early springtime at Lake Kissimmee State Park in Lake Wales.

We Need To Fight For Home Rule!

Posted on by

The Orlando Sentinel had an editorial regarding how Tallahassee is undermining the concept of home rule as defined in the Florida Constitution. There is no doubt about that!

 

That is nothing new. As a city commissioner, I received the “Hometown Hero” award every year for fighting that battle. It was a loosing battle if not quite the way the Alamo turned out for the Texans.

 

The way the legislature picks at local government’s ability to craft ordinances that address the concerns of their individual communities is more like fighting a guerilla insurgency instead of a full-scale war.

 

Little by little, cities and counties are forbidden from doing this or that in the name of “property rights” or some other slogan popular in Tallahassee that year. However, the real reason is a single contributor or lobbyist has been whispering in a legislator’s ear to get the result for themselves or a client that they want. It may be a good result for an individual or industry but not so good for the people the legislators supposedly represent.

 

What can be done to arrest this undemocratic trend? The passing of a constitutional amendment that would require any preemption of local authority to have two thirds vote in the legislature before being enacted. The concept of home rule is in our state constitution. It is time that the legislature honors the constitution.

 

They will not do so except if legally forced. Not only do we need to pass a constitutional amendment by a voter initiative, but more is needed. There must be proposed implementation legislation that the voters can read and agree to in the voter education campaign to have this amendment pass. The proposed bill needs to be just as well known as the amendment.

 

Too many times, we have seen voter passed initiatives such as restoring the right to vote for felons, or medical use of marijuana thwarted by the way the legislature writes the law for implementation. They ignore the intent of the voter. There needs to be a clear understanding that if the constitutional amendment is passed, there is also voter-approved enabling legislation with it.

 

That does not mean legally that the tricksters of Tallahassee must pass that legislation, but it should mean that politically they have no choice. The initials after the legislators’ name should afford no protection if they go against the will of the people.

 

We need to stop fighting this guerilla war with Tallahassee and engage in an all-out battle over home rule. Yes, local appropriations may suffer for a while, but if the concept of home rule continues to deteriorate, local government will not be allowed to spend the money anyway.

clipart review

ClipArt Review

Costco Is Just Not Costco

Posted on by

How many times can you write about the coming of Costco?

 

It seems many times. That is because you are not writing about just Costco but what it has come to represent to Stuart and all of Martin County. It is a touchstone or metaphor for what the soul of the county and city will be. The concept of Costco has become a symbol for the end of paradise or the beginning of enlightenment.

 

For years I have heard people say that Martin County could become a paradise lost. Just last week a woman that moved here from Miami to a just-finished development was claiming a new apartment complex was unacceptable because it would change Martin County’s character. A few years earlier, someone else said the same thing about why the development where she now lives should not be built.

Rick Hartman, who is a rancher, real estate broker, and developer tells a story about a meeting he attended. People were complaining about how a new proposed development would change things for the worse. He asked the person standing next to him where he lived? When the person answered Rick went on to tell him that as a boy he had hunted where his house now stands That he and his father would cut down a Christmas tree there each year. Rick said, “Your moving here changed the character of my surroundings. Should your home not have been built?”

 

I will bet many of us can tell such stories. Native Americans were telling those stories when the Pilgrims arrived. Our surroundings change. It is inevitable.

 

Martin County has had an aversion to building. Stuart has stayed about the same for the past 50 years. Even if all the approved development in both is built, the population is still projected to grow no more that 2% per year for the next 30 years. Not exactly Port St. Lucie in its scope or breath.

 

At present, we are not even building enough replacement housing for people who are already here. Never mind for those that want to come from Miami and live our “bucolic” lifestyle.

 

When you think about it, all of Stuart is an infill project. Costco is considered an infill project with the plan for 396 rental units, a gas station, and restaurants. Where would you have people live and work in the endangered wetlands that we have? Density is the friend of the environmentalist. Adaptive reuse of existing sites such as underutilized strip malls and larger retail plazas is useful for the goal of preventing sprawl.

 

Martin County is not going to become Dante’s “Seventh Circle of Hell” which how many envision Broward County. The county is beginning to see that proper planning and zoning can direct development away from the outskirts and into its CRAs and more eastern areas. That is where the infrastructure is already in place. And regarding schools, I keep hearing that they will become inundated with new students when in fact they have fewer students now than they did before.

 

Costco symbolizes neither an overdeveloped future nor a prosperous one. What it really symbolizes is another step in our evolution. For Stuart and Martin County need to have more economic diversity. This is just one more step along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

A Crisis Can Have A Benefit

Posted on by

Covid may be a change agent in a wide variety of arenas in addition to being a deadly virus.

 

For years, the taxing of internet sales has gone nowhere. Bills would be introduced only to die in committee.

 

Some Republican legislators took the position that taxing products that were bought on the internet would be tantamount to a tax increase. It was fine to pay tax if you bought the item from a local retailer, but if it was shipped from Way Fair, collecting sales tax was verboten. The law stated that the buyer was obligated to remit the sales tax to the state, but how many of us ever did that?

 

Along comes Covid and in store sales dropped resulting in less tax revenue for the state. Now Tallahassee is looking to make up some lost money. Florida may finally join the majority of other states and begin having online merchants collect sales tax. It is about time that internet sales are on a level playing field with the brick-and-mortar merchant.

 

Another part of the Covid crisis is school enrollment. In Martin County, we are fortunate that there are only about 20 students who are unaccounted for since Covid hit. But that does not mean that district enrollment is down by only that many students. It is significantly more. Statewide there are 87,000 kids unaccounted for. Poof…they are gone!

 

School districts receive a fixed amount of money for each student registered in the district. If kids are no longer enrolled in your school district, then the amount of money the district has available to spend is less. If you lose approximately 600 students to Florida Virtual, home schooling, or private schools, suddenly some teachers are no longer needed. Special programs are cut. Music and art become casualties along with other so-called extras.

 

The state will pretend that those 87,000 kids are still there this year for funding allocations but that is a one-shot deal. Our educational system may be in for a shake-up going forward. There is a broad Republican consensus in Tallahassee that other ways to educate children should be tried. Vouchers are leading the way for choice in education.

 

Another never changing issue just might change. Employer and business liability for actions has been broadened over the years. In many instances, businesses did ignore worker safety and the public good. An entire industry of tort litigation has grown larger and larger with each passing year.

 

Of course, that allows for businesses and professions to be held responsible for their actions. It also makes everything more expensive. From doctors to real estate agents to drug manufacturers and everyone else, there is always now a presumption by them that you can be sued so act defensively.

 

The latest fear are businesses being sued by customers and employees if they contract Covid. How you would ever prove where someone caught it would be

difficult. But an absence of proof never stopped someone from initiating a lawsuit. And defending a lawsuit is expensive…even frivolous ones.

 

The legislature has bills in both the House and Senate erecting barriers to allowing individuals to claim that they contracted Covid at a particular business or non-profit. Maybe this is the beginning of tort reform. I certainly hope so. Most people believe that the “sue for anything and everything” legal bar needs to be reformed.

 

A crisis such as Covid can be useful in reforming things that would never change without prodding. I hope that reform is perceived as making our lives better. It should be something that allows for society to change and improve. I hope we see more of it and not just protectionism and cronyism masquerading as true reform.

 

 

A Tale of Two Cities

Posted on by

When Stuart was already an established city, the City of Port St. Lucie was nothing but a developer’s dream.

 

Fast forward 60 years and Stuart is much the same geographically as it was in 1961, a charming relic of Old Florida. Port St. Lucie is a city of over 200,000 people and still growing by leaps and bounds. As a Stuart resident, is my quality of life better or worse than someone who lives in Port St. Lucie? I will say that it is different.

Stuart was (and for the most part still is) the home of entertainment for much of the area but that is changing as Port St. Lucie continues to expand. As Port St. Lucie grows, the availability of restaurants and night life becomes better and more diverse to service its growing population. It is just natural that the more people that live in a city, the more opportunities there are for businesses of all sort.

 

That may be happening with the expansion of Cleveland Clinic. Even when it was Martin Health, the hospital in Tradition became the future and had a much bigger footprint than the original in downtown Stuart. Cleveland Clinic has bought an additional 44 acres in Tradition. Does anyone not think that will be where much of the future lies for the hospital system on the Treasure Coast?

 

Long ago, Stuart decided not to annex surrounding land as Port St. Lucie has continued to do. Now even if Stuart wanted to do so, there isn’t much available vacant land left. Geographically, Stuart is about as big as it ever will be. People have a conniption anytime Stuart annexes a few acres while in Port St. Lucie thousands of acres come in as a matter of course.

 

For all intents and purposes, Stuart has stopped growing. Sure, there are approved projects that could bring as many as 7,500 more people into the city if all is built. The population will still be significantly under 30,000 people. Not exactly a metropolis.

 

Economically, you cannot grow anywhere near what is needed to have enough jobs and create enough wealth for long term viability. At some point, the fire department will go away as will the police department as the ability to fund them is diminished. As municipal services shrink, so will the opportunities for everything from events to new business ventures.

 

Who do you think the politicians in Tallahassee will look to please…Port St. Lucie or Stuart in the years ahead? Stuart is like Blanche DuBois, the character in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” She a southern belle from a forgotten age living off her charms which are fading ever so slightly with each year that passes.

 

At some point, she is unable to cope with the brutality of life represented by her brother-in-law, Stanley. The vivaciousness and sheer sexual alure of her little sister, Stella, steals the spotlight from Blanche. Delusion and illusion of some mythical past no longer can be contained as the wider world intrudes on Blanche’s self-vision of a long ago past that could be only in her mind.

 

When does little sister, Port St. Lucie, consume it’s sibling Stuart to the south figuratively if not literally?