Lawmakers attempt to undo Key West vote
Residents voted to restrict larger cruise ships from docking, now lawmakers want to override it
Maxwell: Residents voted to limit the size of cruise ships and passenger visits, but legislators want to veto that initiative.
The folks down in Key West have always welcomed tourists.
Drunk tourists. Half-naked tourists. Tourists who look like Ernest Hemingway.
Heck, as long as you have a wallet full of cash, residents of the Conch Republic are happy to pour you a rum runner, serve you a slice of key lime pie and crank up the Jimmy Buffett.
But last November, residents there decided they didn’t want so many tourists at one time.
Residents voted to limit the size of cruise ships that can dock on any given day — no ships with more than 1,300 passengers and no more than 1,500 passengers a day, no matter how many ships.
Simple enough, right? The city owns the port. The city should be able to decide how it wants to run the port.
Well, maybe that kind of common sense flies some places. But not in Florida. Here, legislators and their lobbyist buddies hate it when local voters pass their own laws.
So now, at the urging of those who make money off big ships, lawmakers have prepared a bill that would essentially override the vote in Key West and let legislators make rules for all the ports in Florida … even though the ports are independently run.
Basically, they want to strip port authorities of their authority.
If you’re wondering what business it is of politicians in Tallahassee to decide how citizens of Key West run their city, the answer is: None.
That was a point the leader of the Key West voter’s initiative politely made to legislators during a Senate transportation committee meeting last week.
“Our referendum in Key West was a pure expression
of democracy,” said Arlo Haskell. “These were reasonable limits written by the people to protect the interests of the people and enacted by the people with a super-majority vote.”
Haskell said that when cruise lines flood the city of less than 25,000 people, they strain the infrastructure, prompt virus fears and create environmental concerns.
His starkest statistic: Haskell said cruise ship passengers account for 50% of the city’s tourists — but only 6% of the spending.
“Big ships don’t bring big money to Key West,” he said, “but they do bring big problems”
So Haskell made a cogent and sensible case … and it enraged legislators.
Sen. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville, could barely contain his disdain, mocking everything from the residents’ concerns to the number of people who voted in the election. (Haskell said Key West actually had a record turnout.)
South Florida Republican Ana Maria Rodriguez, wondered if dark money had funded the residents’ campaign. “Who funded the campaign?” she demanded.
The irony of Florida legislators — who roll around in dark money like pigs in slop — being offended by secret donations was rich. But Haskell replied that his campaign’s finances were an open book with most money coming from the people of Key West.
Democrat Shevrin Jones pounced as well, wondering if voters “were clear” about what they were voting on. (This is a popular argument in Tallahassee: Voters are too dumb to understand the issues). Jones also chastised the citizens for not cooperating better with the cruise industry.
“I’m playing devil’s advocate,” Jones said.
No, senator. You’re playing cruise-industry’s advocate. All of you were. And it was painfully obvious.
Listen, I like cruising. In fact, back before COVID — when the biggest health concern was catching a mild norovirus on the lido deck buffet — my wife and I cruised every year. We like locking our cell phones in the cabin safe and leaving the real world behind for a few days.
But you know what? The residents of Key West don’t give a flying flip what I think … any more than they do these hack politicians in Tallahassee.
Gullible lawmakers seemed to swallow the argument that cruise ships magically transform port communities into economic utopias where everyone prospers.
Right. Just look at Haiti. Or Jamaica.
The cruise industry backers told legislators that, if they let democracy run rampant in Key West, big business would frown upon Florida.
“You, as a state, want to have a very firm business-friendly stance,” said Laura DiBella, the director of the Florida Harbor Pilots Association.
Yeah, forget what the people who live here actually want. You guys have lobbyists to please.
One of the most interesting takes came from the Florida Ports Council — which represents ports throughout the state. A council exec said his group really disliked how Key West voted, but told legislators they had every right to do it. Why? Because it’s their port.
That, my friends, is intellectual honesty. Florida legislators should try it sometime.
Listen, if I was running the Key West initiative, I might’ve crafted the local rules differently. Instead of limiting ship size, which essentially blocks all major cruise lines from stopping, I might’ve just limited the number of passengers who could disembark on any given day.
But again, it doesn’t matter what I think. This is about residents of a city deciding what they want. And politicians up in Tallahassee should mind their own business.
“Legislators have to realize the people of Key West knows what’s best for the city of Key West,” Haskell said. “That seems like a simple argument anyone can understand about their own hometown.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered flags at three government buildings to be flown at half-staff Wednesday to honor the late conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, sidestepping a possible showdown with the state’s top elected Democrat.
The governor ordered the U.S. and Florida state flags to be flown at half-staff at Florida’s Capitol, the Palm Beach County courthouse in West Palm Beach and at Palm Beach’s town hall.
Limbaugh, who DeSantis called “America’s anchorman,” died Feb. 17 from lung cancer at age 70. He was a long-time resident of Palm Beach.
Last week, DeSantis said he would order flags lowered at all state offices. Democratic leaders swiftly lashed out at the decision, saying DeSantis has politicized an honor usually reserved for the death of prominent government officials, police officers or firefighters who die in the line of duty, members of the armedforcesortragicevents suchasthemassshootingsat Marjory Stoneman Douglas HighSchoolinParklandand Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.
Palm Beach County officials could not be reached immediately for comment.
Some said they would ignore any order to honor Limbaugh. Florida’s AgricultureCommissionerNikki Fried had said earlier that she would ignore any order to honor Limbaugh at her state offices. Fried’s agency —theFloridaDepartmentof Agriculture and Consumer Services — oversees numerous state offices, including nine regional licensing offices, 38 state forests and 23 agricultural law enforcement inspection stations.
None are included in DeSantis’ order, issued after 7 p.m. Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, urged local mayors to ignore any order.
“Rush Limbaugh spent his career normalizing and popularizing hatred and bigotry against people of color, immigrants, women, and the LGBTQ+ community,” she wrote in a letter to mayors in her South Florida district. “He built a brand around disgusting insults, bolstering rape culture, spewing lies about the AIDS crisis, and nonstop bullying . ... To the end, he stoked the environment that led to an insurrectionist attack on our Capitol, and dismissed calls to end such violence.”
A Florida beach has grabbed the top spot in another annual best beach list. This time the honor goes to St. Pete Beach, which was named No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 5 in the world for the TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice awards.
The Sunshine State was well represented in the U.S. Top 25 as well, landing eight sandy stretches in what is now the ninth year of the list. The travel website ranks the beaches based on the quantity and quality of its reader reviews. This is the seventh year in a row a Florida beach has landed the top spot nationally.
One of the reviews for St. Pete Beach calls it “a great walking beach with white quartz sand, clear calm water, and seashells by the truckload. The most perfect place to watch the sun set over the ocean.”
The other ranked Florida beaches are No. 9 Medeira Beach, just north of the winner; No. 12 Ormond Beach on the East Coast in Volusia County; No. 13 Henderson Beach State Park in Destin up in the Panhandle; No. 15 Pensacola Beach; No. 16 Treasure Island, also near St. Pete Beach; No. 17 Siesta Beach on Siesta Key near Sarasota; and No. 18 Clearwater Beach, also on the Gulf Coast.
The only Atlantic Ocean-facing beach was in Ormond Beach and four of the eight are in Pinellas County including St. Pete Beach.
Siesta Beach, which has twice been named the best beach in the U.S. by the annual Dr. Beach list, which comes out before Memorial Day, was the top beach in the 2020 TripAdvisor list. The 2019 list had Clearwater Beach at the top.
Florida’s swagger, though, is down from 2020, which had six of the top 10, compared to this year’s two, although this year’s total among the top 25 equaled last year’s.
The Sunshine State still had the most entries for 2021 with Hawaii coming in second with seven, California with four, South Carolina with two and one each for Oregon, Georgia, Maine and Virginia.
In world rankings, St. Pete Beach was only bested by No. 1 Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, Australia; No. 2 Santa Maria Beach in Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba; No. 3. Baia do Sancho in Fernando de Noronha, Brazil; and No. 4 Grace Bay Beach in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos. No other U.S. beach made the worldwide list.
Here is the complete 2021 list for top 25 U.S. beaches:
1. St. Pete Beach, Florida 2. Ka’anapali Beach, Lahaina, Hawaii
3. Moonstone Beach, Cambria, California
4. Wailea Beach, Wailea, Hawaii
5. Cannon Beach, Oregon
6. Napili Beach, Lahaina, Hawaii
7. Ogunquit Beach, Ogunquit, Maine
8. Wai’anapanapa State Park, Hana, Hawaii
9. Madeira Beach, Florida
10. Kailua Beach Park, Kailua, Hawaii
11. Driftwood Beach, Jekyll Island, Georgia
12. Ormond Beach, Florida
13. Henderson Beach State Park, Destin, Florida
14. La Jolla Cove, La Jolla, California
15. Pensacola Beach, Florida
16. Treasure Island Beach, Treasure Island, Florida
17. Siesta Beach, Siesta Key, Florida
18. Clearwater Beach, Florida
19. Coligny Beach, Hilton Head, South Carolina
20. Coronado Beach, Coronado, California
21. Virginia Beach, Virginia
22. Poipu Beach Park, Poipu, Hawaii
23. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
24. Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii
25. Santa Monica State Beach, Santa Monica, California
The full list from the reader-review website covers more than 300 beaches in not just U.S. and global rankings, but also by region including Asia, Europe, Africa, South Pacific and South America.