History has a way of repeating itself — and in Fort Lauderdale, it should.
The city’s decision, decades ago, to build a tunnel under the New River on Federal Highway was not made by a handful of politicians. It was made by the people, in a special election in 1956.
Two weeks after Dwight Eisenhower was re-elected president, as people watched “What’s My Line?” and ate their Swanson TV dinners, city fathers called a special election. They had little choice. The opponents of a tunnel, who wanted a bridge, were collecting petitions from voters to demand a special election — an option that still exists today. City leaders favored a tunnel, but many people favored a bridge.
A leading tunnel supporter was Henry Kinney, editor of the Miami Herald’s Broward bureau, while tunnel opponents were led by Jack Gore, editor of the Fort Lauderdale News, this newspaper’s parent.
Mike Stocker/Sun Sentinel
Steve Bousquet, Sun Sentinel columnist.
Money and riverboat traffic were big issues then, just as they are now.
Two days before the Nov. 20 election, Gore, in a front-page editorial, wrote: “We can see no sense in the state and federal governments spending $5 million of the public’s money on an extravagant tunnel at Federal Hwy. when a bridge, which will move just as much traffic, can be built for less than a quarter of that amount.”
Voters — not politicians — approved a tunnel. The vote was close, but the tunnel won, despite scare tactics by opponents that people would die in the tunnel from carbon monoxide poisoning (even though it takes about 10 seconds to drive through it).
A total of 7,008 people voted for a tunnel and 6,401 voted for a bridge. So if a tunnel referendum was the right idea in 1956, why not in 2024 — 68 years later?
As John Milledge, legal counsel to the Downtown Development Authority, told commissioners, a referendum would “get their (voters’) attention … to move the needle.” He’s right.
Public opinion is important on this issue.
Public opinion is not the 15 or 20 downtown civic activists who showed up at Tuesday’s commission meeting to endorse a tunnel and float scare tactics about a bridge. Public opinion is a citywide referendum in a high-turnout presidential election in November. Commissioners should put this issue on the ballot and they should not fear the results.
For the city, a tunnel referendum makes political sense, and here’s why. It allows the city to buy time, which it needs, and it backs the pro-bridge County Commission into a corner. How can the county oppose a public referendum that allows the people to be heard?
The city’s District 1 commissioner, John Herbst, proposed a tunnel referendum. He got no immediate support, but he should. Herbst said a yes-or-no question should include asking the voters to support the city’s share of a tunnel’s cost, to be financed by a general obligation bond issue, paid for with a property tax increase, like the new police headquarters that voters endorsed in 2019.
“It has got to be tied to a financial consequence,” said Herbst, who voted for a resolution that included supporting a bridge over the New River if it’s determined that a tunnel isn’t feasible due to costs or other reasons. “I want to see if the residents of Fort Lauderdale are willing to tax themselves for $100 million to make this a reality.”
Herbst later said $100 million was a preliminary ballpark figure. It could be $250 million, he said.
The point is, Broward County strongly favors a fixed bridge, and the county won’t seek any federal money for a tunnel. If the city insists on a tunnel, the city will have to find the money.
Commissioner Steven Glassman disagreed. “I’m not in favor of any kind of ballot measure in November,” Glassman said. “It’s a lot of work. I don’t think we have a lot of time to explain all of that.”
Let the public be heard on this question. It’s their city. It’s their river. It’s their future.
Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @stevebousquet.