Urban/Environmental Solutions: A Call to Action — EATING FLORIDA

Low-density, sprawling suburbs that eat natural resources did not spring out of the ground fully formed of their own volition or even through the unilateral actions of land developers indifferent to sensitive environments. The critically intertwined energizers of 20^th Century American suburbanization and sprawl were release of pent-up housing demand caused by the end of the Great Depression, the World War II baby boom, and federally subsidized home mortgages and highways. If we truly want to preserve Florida’s land and water resources and ensure the health of the key employment centers (cities), the short-term, mid-range, and long-term solutions must be focused on reducing the pressures to eat natural and quasi-natural resources without compunction.

The single most important element in that solution toolkit has to be informed land use decisions. Those informed decisions must be crafted for and applied to specific natural and quasi-natural areas like the Green Swamp and the Kissimmee River Basin as well as to urbanizing areas such as Orange, Pinellas, Palm Beach, Broward, Jacksonville, and Miami-Dade.

The second most important element in that solution toolkit must be recognition that cities and environments are one reality, not two or more. All attempts to compartmentalize them as the Corps of Engineers has done for decades with such a spectacular lack of success will inevitably end up in the destruction of both, a situation we are facing today in central and south Florida.

The third element in that solution toolkit must be to change, however gradually, our dominant use of personal vehicles to meet all our transportation needs. In cities, the places where people live in large concentrations, coordinated strategies like traditional neighborhood development, sustainable land use planning, and greatly increased public transit systems are inseparable.

Identifying and applying urban/environmental solutions to Florida’s problems requires changes in the way political actions are treated. Business as usual in Tallahassee must be brought to a halt. The existing political system in Florida basically consists of two tiers. The first tier is structured into a class of powerbrokers that effectively promotes and defends its political and economic interests at local, state, and national levels of government; that the powerbroker interests come before those of the public has been accepted reality in Tallahassee for well more than a hundred years. The second tier consists of a class of ordinary citizens who regard themselves as too weak and powerless to act in meaningful ways. People in Florida have two basic choices vis-à-vis the existing two-tiered political system:

• Accept the status quo as fate, inevitable, or as God’s will and brace yourself for whatever comes next because it’s out of your control
• Rewrite the existing political equation by taking specific steps that have been already proven effective

From the point of view of a planner who has dealt with citizen activism for many decades, the very last thing I want to hear is that hand-wringing, pessimistic plaint from people simply because they have been persuaded that they are weak and powerless. “There’s not a damn thing we can do about it.” Whine, whine. Sob, sob.

The hell there isn’t. You want to save what’s left of Florida’s natural environments? Great. First thing you have to do is GET ANGRY. I mean get royally pissed off. Hey, it’s all of us, the American public, who are getting hosed by what’s happening in Florida. It’s our children’s, grandchildren’s and their children’s inheritance that’s being destroyed with impunity. It’s our tax dollars that are making the arrogant agribusinesses, developers, mining companies, and the politicians even fatter as they gluttonously feast on our environmental heritage.

After you’ve gotten angry, the next stage is to GET DETERMINED! Quit sitting on the couch, drinking margaritas, and moaning, “It’s too damn bad that the Corps of Engineers is destroying the Kissimmee-Everglades-Big Cypress. I really wish there was something I could do about it.” That attitude ain’t gonna hack it. You’ve got to drag your dead ass off the couch and TAKE ACTION. To remain passive and silent is to accept what has happened and will happen to the environment and to the cities.

You can start right now by financially supporting one of the many environmental organizations that are trying desperately to stop the ongoing environmental destruction. And I’m not talking about donating thousands or even hundreds of dollars. Start with whatever donation you’re able to make. Maybe that’s $10 but start today. Second, even if you don’t have much spare cash you can give your time and talents. How? In truth, there’s only one way to save Florida. Force the State and the U.S. Government to become responsive to vociferous and unrelenting citizen demands to create a genuine wetlands protection effort focused on any number of critical areas. The only way that will happen is if hundreds of thousands of people raise so much shit that the Florida representatives and Congressmen from every State are forced to listen and then to stop their shameless pandering to the powerbrokers.

At the grassroots level, ordinary citizens can help influence urban and environmental sustainability by:

• Educating themselves on the key issues
• Monitoring local and statewide progress of urban development and conservation efforts
• Realizing the urban and natural environments are linked together
• Advocating a strong science-based resource conservation approach to legislators and government officials.

So, what’s the real solution? Come on, it’s obvious. GET INVOLVED! Remember the Friends of Lake Apopka? Remember the Kissimmee River? Remember Marjorie Carr, Jack Ohanian, and David Anthony, the people who opposed the Cross-Florida Barge Canal? They didn’t lie down and get steamrolled. They didn’t weep and wail about how life is so damned unfair and how screwed up things are. They gritted their teeth, dug in, got organized, fought back with unrelenting political pressure, and kicked ass. The message is there for us. But we first have to recognize it and then make it our own through individual and collective actions.

You have to become what planners call stakeholders and speak out loudly and often for that in which you believe. Don’t hide behind a bush or behind your own feelings of inadequacy. Drop-kick those polite middle-class attitudes and start your own guerrilla warfare. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things. But only if they get off their dead butts.

The glimmer of hope I’m holding out is real. It’s not a cruel delusion. Nor is it the ranting of an old deranged environmentalist that life has passed by. The political pressure tactic works in the real world. I’ve seen it happen dozens of times across the country in my assignments as a professional urban planner. But those who are committed to saving Florida’s cities and its critical environments have to build their actions on a foundation of hope-infused confidence that springs from real life experience. Not from foolish and ill-informed idealism or romanticism. And what’s the source of this critical foundation? It’s the sweet smell of success generated by three separate central and south Florida sources.

First, that most polluted, most abused natural resource in Florida, Lake Apopka, which was nearly moribund, in a far worse condition environmentally than the present weakened state of the Green Swamp. If Lake Apopka can be saved by human intervention then why can not other natural resources? They can, unless the reasons are powerbroker profits and fat-cat politicians.

Second, the Kissimmee River was nearly dead as an ecosystem after the Corps channelized it, corseted it with levees, and cut its length in half. Today, it’s the poster child for at least partial environmental restoration, thanks to a coalition of determined citizens, environmental groups, and committed politicians.

Third, the Cross-Florida Barge Canal was a victory won by Ed Ball, the Corps of Engineers, and one of the most politically powerful coalitions in modern Florida history. But that didn’t stop Marjorie Carr, Jack Ohanian, and David Anthony from fighting all the way to the White House and kicking ass. Those three little people did the impossible when they stopped the Barge Canal and the powerbrokers in their tracks.

Just think, only a little more than twenty years ago both Lake Apopka and the Kissimmee River were flat on the canvas and were in the process of being counted out. Hey! Wake up and smell the coffee! The solution to saving the environment is staring you in the face. Change is possible if determined people have a realistic vision of a doable future and act on it. Through concerted action you can change the powerbrokers’ Golden Rule: “Those with the gold make the rules.”

Politicians, even calloused, indifferent, bought and paid for politicians, respond to relentless pressure from committed constituents. Key words = relentless and committed. Especially from grassroots movements that won’t take no for an answer. And won’t go away and keep the pressure on by insisting that elected officials respond to legitimate citizen concerns. If they don’t, throw their sorry asses out in the next election and elect people who are responsive. Florida history shows it can be done.

Remember the lesson Senator Bob Graham taught us by his relentless support of the Kissimmee River restoration. Elected representatives who believe in preserving the natural environment are essential to success. Also you can’t forget that it was Federal control of the land that partially saved Cape Canaveral, Everglades National Park, and the Big Cypress National Preserve. Having Federal Senators and Congressmen on the side of environmental preservation and restoration is critical if part of the solution is going to be Federal land purchase. Demand to know your representatives’ positions on environmental restoration and sustainability and why.

Don’t be satisfied with the pabulum most politicians typically feed voters or newspaper reporters. DEMAND REAL ANSWERS! Ask if they’ve ever taken money from representatives of Florida’s agribusinesses, land developers, or from the limestone mining and well-drilling companies or their executives. If they have, demand to know why. Bite down hard and don’t let go. Where the politicians are concerned you’ve got to become a pit bull from hell. Become a royal pain in their asses. Find out their voting records on urban and environmental issues, especially those that involve agriculture, mining, land development, and wetlands. Demand that the newspapers and TV stations make that information public. What the politicians have done is to bend over for the business and agriculture interests and lie to the public about their efforts to save the environment. That has to stop or there’s no hope for sensitive environments in the future.

A critical point is you can’t trust what Florida politicians at any level are saying now. They’re largely in the pockets of the powerbrokers. If you don’t believe that take a close look at their voting records every time an issue comes up that the land developers, mining companies, drilling firms, or large agricultural corporations support. Nor can you trust the output or products of any Task Force or Study Group appointed by those politicians or run by government agencies. Yes, that’s sounds really whacko-paranoid. So what? It happens to be true.

Your goal must be to change the political equation that elects politicians whose sole function is to get fat by serving the interests of Florida’s powerbrokers. Because if we stick with what we have now, the end of the Everglades, the Big Cypress, the Fakahatchee, and the Green Swamp is in sight. It will just take between 30 and 50 short years for all four to wither, die, and be replaced by the subdivisions, golf courses, malls, and strip commercial centers so beloved by Ed Ball and Barron Gift Collier Senior.

The terrible reality is unless today’s political equation is destroyed and a new one put in its place the coming tidal wave of human population will roll over all of south and central Florida. But I’m not advocating that the political system be changed. Horrors! That would be flat-out crazy.

All I’m saying is that environmentally focused people and groups should take the bit between their teeth and go after their elected representatives. Force them to be accountable. If you become a determined, unstoppable force, they will be compelled to respond. It can be done. It’s not a wacko suggestion by a crazed liberal. That exact tactic has worked in Florida and elsewhere. And if the politicians don’t respond, chuck their sorry asses out of office and elect people who are committed to working with you. Just do it!

But most of all, your goal must be to MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Remember, saving the Green Swamp and the Big Cypress from destruction will only be accomplished by people just like you. Not by dispassionate scientists but by you and me and our families and friends.

It’s important to remember that the powerbrokers have been organized for decades, so don’t expect miracles in the first few months. At the start it’s going to be a difficult struggle because it’s all new and uphill for most of us beginners. But keep your eyes on the big picture. Saving sensitive environments and our cities for future generations is worth our collective efforts and our time.

I love visiting Seaside, Coral Gables, and Miami Beach. But if we can’t save the Green Swamp and the Fakahatchee what does that say about us as humans? What does it say about the future of Florida? Truth is, if we fail to save what’s left of Florida’s natural environment it’s only a matter of time for the urban areas to hit the wall and begin falling apart. Because without fresh water and clean air they won’t make it. And that’s no exaggeration because we’re there right now. Why else would the powerbrokers have agreed to the CERP?

It comes down to where you stand and what you stand for. It’s time to make conscious, informed choices and take action. Remember, it’s okay to get discouraged when you don’t achieve your goals in a few months or even a few years. But that’s when you have to conjure up the image of Marjorie Carr doing her Joan of Arc thing by taking on incredibly powerful people like Ed Ball and kicking ass. Hang in there and keep fighting. The struggle to save Florida has meaning for all Americans.

The future of Florida is in our collective hands. That’s why the sub-title of this segment is A Call to Action. Let’s don’t waste what is almost certainly one of our last opportunities to save at least some of the remaining natural resources that make the State such a beautiful and remarkable place. And that includes the Panhandle’s Emerald Coast, the Apalachicola River/Bay system, the Suwannee River, the Green Swamp, the Ocklawaha River, the Kissimmee River, the Loxahatchee River, Big Cypress, the Fakahatchee and other locations too numerous to list.

Remember, in life the people who make a difference are players, not spectators. They are doers, not casual observers. As I loved to tell the kids I formerly coached in various sports: “The only players who don’t make mistakes are the ones sitting on the bench.”

Don’t worry about not being effective at first. Get in the game and make something happen. Just listen to what the Sierra Club has to say with regard to this vital issue:

We believe sustainable development and meaningful resource conservation are not possible without the increased intervention of concerned citizens leading our elected representatives to enact policies that will bring about science-based solutions.

Whoa. Talk about being right on the money. As Newsweek columnist Anna Quindlen wrote so eloquently in the magazine’s August 23, 2004, issue:

Only when a substantial number of ordinary citizens decide that it’s [environmental preservation] a critical national issue and follow conservation groups into battle will the destructive effects of sprawl move to the forefront of the national agenda.

A random thought hit me as I was preparing the first rough draft of what turned out to be this particular blog. During that time, Bill, my beloved younger brother and life-long confidant and best friend, lay dying in a hospice. I visited him nearly every day and tried to do everything in my power to make his last weeks comfortable. He was in the final stage of his life, losing a three-year battle with bladder cancer that had metastasized with a terrible vengeance. On those many days and nights while I sat at his bedside I often thought about the support structures that sustain each of us as individuals. What’s typically required is a healthy, functioning social system in miniature, in other words, a family that loves you and cares for you and a wider network of other relatives, friends, and colleagues. And then, of course, we rely on community-based institutions such as health care, emergency services, churches, schools, libraries, etc.

But, as I watched the light of life fade from my brother’s once vital eyes, I began wondering about the systems that sustain the larger collective, our contemporary society. As weak and hairless animals with few built-in weapons other than our brains, we have always needed the basics (food-shelter-clothing) to survive the often harsh and unforgiving elements. But we progressed well beyond those minimal requirements millennia ago. Now we rely on ever more complex organizations and technological systems to sustain us and our rapidly changing lifestyles. That process has resulted in constantly increasing stresses on the very foundation of our collective success: the environment that blesses us with food-shelter-clothing in quantities exceeding those that are necessary for mere survival.

However, for our society to continue to prosper, we have to make sure that those three elements are produced in conditions that are sustainable. And the environments in which they are produced are not consumed, destroyed, or altered beyond recovery as we use them. That issue of responsible stewardship is critical not only in our lifetimes but also for those of future generations. Healthy, functioning urban and natural environments are requisites for economic and social success, whether that success comes today or in the future. If we fail to treat our life-sustaining environments with the same care and concern as we do our loved ones, eventually they will wither and die. And our lives and those of our children will be forever changed.

The environment is a precious part of human existence, not simply because it provides us with life-sustaining essentials but because it is a multi-faceted source of beauty and wonder, of awe, joy, and a multitude of pleasures simple and complex. To experience nature is humbling, whether you are standing at the base of Angel Falls staring up three thousand plus feet into the mist; hiking through a slot canyon in southern Utah fascinated by incredibly sculpted pastel walls that rise to a barely visible cerulean sky; or marveling at the ethereal beauty of an Everglades bayhead overflowing with buttonwood, wild coffee, red bay, mulberry, hackberry, cocoplum, and dozens of other tropical and sub-tropical species. If we slow down enough to reflect, the ecosystems that remain in a relatively natural condition will constantly remind us participant-observers of our innate smallness, our finite character, and ultimately our place within the Earth’s natural systems.

Of course, life is about choices. We can chose to protect the environment by putting in place controls and systems that will secure its proper functioning today, tomorrow, and until . . ? Or we can chose to be environmental profligates, eating both the capital and the interest until the principal is so damaged and reduced that future generations will experience severe negative and irreversible consequences that will reduce their quality of life. Fragile ecosystems are finite. They cannot absorb unceasing and constant alteration without being damaged, perhaps to the point of biological death. The Everglades is the perfect example. Today and into the future the Everglades are and will be a human-managed system that only “resembles” its once natural state. Think about it: an artificial, Disneyesque Everglades.

So what are the choices? Act now as responsible adults or continue as dissolute gluttons, consuming every last natural place in Florida and forcing our grandchildren and great grandchildren to suffer consequences inevitable.

*     *     *

To keep this discussion reality-based, honest, and above board it’s time for one last injection of hard truth. Here’s something substantial to chew on: If all that needs to be done to preserve Florida’s sensitive environments is for concerned citizens to organize and take action, then why haven’t things already changed for the better? Surely environmental groups like the Sierra Club, Friends of the Everglades, Environmental Defense, the NRDC, etc. have been working their fingers to the bone trying to persuade people to band together to stop the mindless destruction of natural ecosystems throughout the State. If all they had to do was to follow the well-known examples of the Cross-Florida Barge Canal or the Kissimmee River Restoration Project, why haven’t they been more successful? Why are Florida’s natural environments disappearing at a faster rate than any time in history as they are being eaten by urban development?

Those complex questions deserve honest answers. I’ll do my level best to provide straightforward responses that may not be satisfying but have the advantage of being reality-based.

First, no environmental movement in the history of Florida has ever faced the kind of entrenched opposition that is operational today. The powerbrokers and their political lap dogs have gotten their acts together and rule the roost with iron fists. They also have learned from the environmental success stories I referred to above and have adjusted their tactics accordingly. Like them or not, those guys are smart and are extremely action-oriented. Over the past several decades the moneyed interests have paved the way to Tallahassee and Washington with gold, gold that one way or another winds up deep in the pockets of bend-over politicians on both sides of the aisle. As a result, meaningful reform will be a tremendous uphill struggle.

One in-your-face indication of that hard reality is the CERP, which became the chosen plan of action precisely because it provides no meaningful restoration of south Florida’s natural systems. But, that sad fact aside, it has one incalculable advantage that endears it to its proponents: year in and year out it will continue enriching the powerbrokers. Fat, baby, it’s all about getting fat by eating one Florida environment after another. That’s exactly why the bonds between Florida powerbrokers and their pet politicians must be broken.

Second, the environmental issues we face today are more complex and convoluted than those of even the recent past. And as time passes those issues will grow increasingly difficult to resolve in a positive manner. Many people have neither the time nor the inclination to pierce the veils that shroud both the problems and potential solutions. The truth is too many people have been conditioned by television and have developed short attention spans that demand simple, bite-size answers to hellaciously complex issues. When easy to understand answers aren’t forthcoming, too many people lose patience, throw their hands up in frustration, and turn their backs on the problem.

Third, although Florida powerbrokers have always lied through their collective teeth about the nature of the problems confronting us, they have progressively grown more sophisticated. The CERP is the latest example. Moreover, they have hired well-known shills to pacify the population with reassuring, nonsense answers or to throw up smoke screens to obscure the core issues. That situation is a constant in Florida and most likely will not change unless we do something about it.

Fourth, the grip of the powerbrokers on American politics is so strong that even well-known academic ecologists like Jared Diamond and conservation organizations like the Florida Audubon Society have adopted what they like to call a “middle-of-the-road” position, in which they willingly engage big business and supposedly establish a reasonable common ground towards which both groups can work. The only problem is it was precisely that bend-over, compromise approach that gave us the CERP and the horrific situation we face today, tomorrow, and forever in the Everglades.

So, given all of the above, what’s next? The equation recommended in this blog is complex and full of perils. But by failing to secure the future of Florida’s environment now, we run the risk of doing too little and of being too late. No matter what the anti-environmentalists claim, technology can never substitute for the real thing. Just ask the chuckleheads at the Corps of Engineers and wait for their topsy-turvy answers.

By this time anyone with a functioning brain knows that life offers no guarantees. Given the nature of existing damage to natural systems and the pace/intensity of ecosystem alteration, if we fail to act now to protect Florida’s environment, it is highly unlikely that the future will offer better opportunities to mitigate the increased damage that will have been added to what we have today.

It’s time to stop sighing wistfully and lamenting about what a self-destructive species we are. That’s romantic, middle-class crap that has no place in an action-oriented strategy. The reality is that unless we do something drastic now the environmental destruction taking place in Florida today will become the terrible future for our grandchildren and their children.

The bottom line is, no matter how difficult the task, this opportunity may be our last shot. If we fail to do everything in our power now to protect the environment, in effect we throw up our hands in helpless frustration and turn our backs on the future.

We all believe in protecting our families from danger. If we do less for places like the Everglades, the Green Swamp and the Floridan Aquifer, and the Fakahatchee Strand, generations unborn will pay harsh penalties. I only hope that you will be guided by a famous quote from Winston Churchill: “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” So, keep your chins up and work like there’s no tomorrow because that’s the only way to success.

It is my deeply held hope that, in the ongoing struggle against the conscienceless powerbrokers and fat-cat politicians who are indifferent to the destruction of Florida’s remaining semi-natural environments, the following words will be held dear and acted upon by all those who love the land and are determined to save what remains for posterity:

 “. . . never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

Winston Churchill