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I hope you’ve enjoyed a wonderful summer. With schools now open and people returning to their normal routines, the energy builds for yet another exciting fall and winter season. There are so many events for children and families to enjoy, and the sports season is already underway.
But let us not forget those whose lives have become less fortunate.
Over the past month, the city of Fort Lauderdale has made substantial progress on a bold new initiative to address homelessness in the community. The state has directed municipalities across Florida to get more assertive in dealing with this national crisis, and we are determined to lead the way.
Our approach will couple needed assistance with increased power of law enforcement.
We will step up our efforts to help those who want help to get off the streets. But we are equally as determined to crack down on conduct that is harmful to public health and public safety. We already passed a new ordinance against aggressive panhandling, and we passed on first reading an ordinance that outlaws camping on public property.
In fact, this proposed ordinance, which is scheduled for approval on Oct. 1, is tougher than what the state sought cities to do. The Legislature wanted overnight camping banned, but we are making the regulation apply 24/7. Our approach is simply common sense – if something is a problem overnight, it is the same problem during the day.
It’s not that we want to make arrests. But if people disobey and reject offers of assistance, we have no other option but to engage the power of the police. Even then, our goal would then be to get them the needed help after they’ve been detained. That could be substance abuse treatment, mental health care, medical assistance, job training or family reunification.
We can do it. We did it before. When I became mayor in 2018, one of our first acts was to close the homeless encampment by the main downtown library. The people living there were helped to find housing and assistance.
To accomplish our goals, we are currently looking for a location for a full-service homeless assistance center downtown.
We could move to this location our community court program where judges work with homeless individuals charged with minor offenses to get the help they need. We could also bring in all the assistance providers to direct people to available programming and housing.
The plan is to have a location set in the fourth quarter of this year.
We also are coordinating with community partners in the private, public and nonprofit sectors to secure additional shelter space.
Homeless assistance and sheltering is supposed to be a duty of county government, not individual cities. But unfortunately, our county is woefully lacking in shelter availability.
There are only 612 shelter beds available countywide, but the county’s own fact-finding work shows that there are 2,487 homeless individuals in Broward. So, it’s not just a Fort Lauderdale problem, it’s a Miramar problem, a Sunrise problem, a Lauderhill problem and a problem for all the rest of Broward’s 31 cities.
We are in direct communications with the county to work toward immediate action. We are also actively leading on the issue by providing ideas for temporary shelters where pallet homes or tents could be set up.
While the county has in the past rebuffed the use of BSO’s old stockade, we believe there is new traction for that option.
We also could consider land that the city owns in unincorporated Broward’s Broadview Park. We have been working on plans with the Housing Authority to build workforce housing there, but we could first use it as a homeless sheltering site or merge the two projects together.
That’s just an idea. But, nothing should be off the table for consideration.
For those who do end up being cited for violating the encampment law, we have been working with the sheriff on an action plan. At first, the sheriff said he was not going to take those charged with municipal offenses any longer, changing a longstanding practice of past sheriffs. But now, he is willing to work with us.
Our hope is that maybe there could be a separate place in the jail for those charged with violating public camping ordinances and that service providers could go there and develop assistance plans with individuals. A municipal ordinance violation is not considered a criminal offense so these people would not end up with a criminal record.
We have also re-tooled a city mobile app — FixIt — so the public can help us. The app will allow individuals to report a potential public camping violation so our police and homeless outreach team can address it promptly.
And to be clear, emergency responders and our homeless outreach team are out on the streets daily dealing with homelessness already.
Last year alone, the homeless outreach team, the Police Department and Fire Rescue responded to more than 11,000 calls related to homelessness. Until the new ordinances, though, little could be done if an individual refused help unless they were violating some other statute, ordinance or park regulation.
We recognize the seriousness of this issue and are addressing it head-on. Just as the city has always done.
Before I close, let me update you on a couple other matters.
GOOGLE is coming to town!
We recently received amazing news regarding the movie studio project and its ability to grow our city’s economic base and create the kind of jobs that benefit local residents.
Remember that we’ve been working with an investment team to turn part of the old Wingate landfill site into a state-of-the-art content creation studio complex for movies, TV, streaming, gaming, e-sports, metaverse and immersive experiences. And, that’s at no cost to the taxpayers.
Infinite Reality, which is known for its immersive technology, will be the primary tenant. The sound stages and film sets will attract producers of movies, TV shows, commercials and other video content to our community and will create more than 1,000 high-paying jobs.
Just weeks ago, came an additional announcement — that Infinite Reality has formed a partnership with Google. Yes, Google. Google is coming to Fort Lauderdale.
The partnership joins together Google's Gemini AI with Infinite Reality's specialties to power a wide range of commercial and entertainment content. This is an incredible and exciting step forward for the movie studio project. The movie studio now will be at the forefront of the rapidly developing use of technology in content creation.
New River Crossing-Commuter Rail
We also have received news on the matter of commuter rail service and the New River crossing.
As you may well know, the tri-county area has been working to advance a commuter rail service that would have multiple stops between Miami and West Palm Beach and relieve congestion on major north-south roads like Interstate 95. A critical question in the discussion has been how to cross the New River without harming the multi-billion dollar upriver marine industry or increasing travel delays on streets like Broward Boulevard.
The city has long been supportive of a train tunnel, and our engineering consultants have shown how it can be constructed and maintained and for much less than the stratospheric price figures that had long been thrown around.
The county has always, though, wanted a bridge, thinking that it would be cheaper and take less time to build. But I think such a bridge would devastate downtown’s renaissance, destroy our historic district, divide communities and harm the marine industry. The county’s engineering consultants have recently come out with designs for a 48-foot high bridge for passenger service and a second, new water-level bridge for freight service.
My concerns with this remain. No matter how it is designed, it not only mars the ongoing renaissance downtown but also divides communities.
Frankly, their math does not add up. They say it can rise 48 feet over the river at an incline acceptable for passenger trains — 3 to 4 percent — without either passing above Broward Boulevard or closing it. Hey look, I’m no Pythagoras, but I don’t see that as scientifically possible.
Even if so, they use all of the existing railroad right-of-way. Residents in some of our new downtown residents would have rail cars running mere feet from their balconies. Our historic district would be obliterated under a permanent shadow of darkness.
So many trains would crisscross Broward Boulevard and other streets daily that it would bring traffic to almost a round-the-clock standstill. They say that they might build an underpass later on Broward. But when is later? And shouldn’t we add the cost of this and other necessary underpasses into the price of a bridge for a fair comparison? Actually, they didn’t include the cost of a new station that they would also need.
Another problem: you would need to close Broward Boulevard for two years during construction.
The marine industry would still be impacted. Boatyards upriver have told us that they would have major difficulty servicing large boats if the bridge planned by the county is built. And if they move their operations to other cities or even other states, there goes thousands of jobs and billions of economic impact.
Let’s keep up the fight for the only real solution — a modern, realistic tunnel.
In closing, I invite you to join me on Oct. 9 for my annual State of the City address. We will get a sneak peek inside the completely renovated War Memorial Auditorium during a reception at 5 p.m. Tours will be available. The address will follow at 7 p.m. in the nearby Parker.
I hope to see you then!
Sincerely,
Dean
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