For Demagogue of the Year: Ed Swift of Key West by gimleteye

It’s too early to vote for demagogue of the year. But we can collect candidates.

Last year was a banner year for demagogues in Miami and Miami-Dade county: any county commissioner qualifies who professed heartfelt concern for water supply, incorporated in the 20 year consumptive use permit from the state that took more than four years to negotiate because the county had so seriously lagged in its obligations under the law, yet voted to move the Urban Development Boundary, or, city commissioner who voted build more condos on the bay—like the Related Group’s at Mercy Hospital.

Take note, Miami Mayor Diaz—Vice President of and 2008 host of the US Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Miami. The authoritative source on “greenwashing” (a sub-heading, of demagoguery) is Harry Emilio Gottlieb, who on Earth Day 2007 wrote on the blog, transitmiami:



Mayor Diaz has almost single-handedly been the driving force for the over building and glut of unnecessary homes, condos and offices in our community. This has resulted in the total disregard for our zoning codes, destruction of neighborhoods, disrespect for citizens, increased traffic, increased demand on potable water, electricity, sewage and flood control systems.

Today, Diaz will host an invitation-only environmental event -- the PODER New America Alliance Green Forum. The forum was initially planned for Miami City Hall but was relocated to the Miami Museum of Science Planetarium because the list of attendees kept growing. Those attendees include Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Wal-Mart Vice President Andrew Ruben, and the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker himself -- former Vice President Al Gore.”
I wonder how many VIP’s will be fighting over the front row seats at this “Hot Ticket” event. With all of those many folks responsible for spot-zoning, up-zoning, variances and special permits, which include developers, lobbyists, attorneys, City of Miami and Miami-Dade County elected officials, it cold get petty nasty fighting over those precious front row seats.
The reason for all of this "Going Green" is because that is the color of money.

Who remembers that Gore never showed up, because of the controversy over Uribe’s appearance? But memory is important. Otherwise these fine details disappear in the crush of events, a fine segue to today’s candidate for demagogue of the year, Key West businessman, Chamber of Commerce mouth piece, and Growth Machine representative, Ed Swift III.

On Feb 15, The Miami Herald letters page featured Mr. Swift’s, “Apply wastewater rules equally”.

Mr. Swift raps Miami Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties for shipping its pollution to the Keys waters. Here is an excerpt: “How does it make any sense that our nearest neighbors continue with seeming impunity to dump their waste into the same waters that our national marine sanctuary purports to protect and that we in the Keys are required to protect by meeting strict waste-disposal criteria?” (the full text of the Swift letter is re-printed, below)

Mr. Swift is as correct about our abuses of water quality as Mayor Diaz is right in the elements he supports for greening Miami. But actions belie words.

In his business career, Mr. Swift and his pro-growth nonsense single-handedly turned a charming city into a mess of a cruise port, with all the attendant infrastructure woes that have piled up on taxpayers and the environment in Key West. This is not hyperbole. (For the curious, the record is well documented.)

His business is the Conch Tour Train. In managing to secure a monopoly (subject of a massive lawsuit for which the City is liable) carrying tourists from cruise ships, Mr. Swift built a business empire that deformed Key West.

Florida's most historic, small town --famous for its quirks and beauty--was transformed by Mr. Swift’s domination of business councils and the city commission, into another low-end cruise ship destination, filled with money-laundering T-shirt operators.

But there is more: Mr. Swift has been one of the key anti-environmental voices in Monroe County. In the 1980’s, Swift enforced through proxies in political office his conviction that protecting the environment was not only bad for business—his—but inimical to taxpayers and all freedom-loving Americans. It was the kind of bullshit that took root in Florida in the 1980's and has been harder to root out than Brazilian pepper.

Anything to do with the environment he perceived as a threat to his business, including the national marine sanctuary and the designation of the Keys as a state area of critical state concern. So, to see Mr. Swift's opinion featured in The Miami Herald, deserves note.

For Mr. Swift’s mean-spiritedness, exercised against the public interest in defense of private profit like a cat toying with a mouse, and his apparent senior conversion to concern for the environment, Mr. Swift is hereby nominated to our new category, “Demagogue of the Year”. Congratulations, Mr. Swift: we’re following you all the way.

Here is the text of Mr. Swift's LTE:

I have written two previous letters concerning the 300 million plus gallons of lightly treated sewage pumped into the ocean each day by Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. The Keys' ecosystems are being bombarded by other people's waste -- from this toxic effluent that returns to near-shore waters and makes its way to the Florida Keys to the nutrient-rich fresh water runoff from the Everglades that pours into Florida Bay.
Meanwhile, Keys residents are being mandated to remove their septic tanks, replacing them with central-sewer systems and advanced wastewater treatment to ensure the continued health of our near shore waters and reefs. If we do not reach these standards by a 2010 deadline, our limited building permits will be further reduced, and other sanctions such as moratoriums on construction will most certainly be imposed.
Miami-Dade announced a $2.9 billion plan to build a new Marlins stadium, a port tunnel and other projects. Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward continue to build thousands of residential and commercial units, ensuring that more millions of gallons of toxic wastewater will be pumped into the ocean.
How does it make any sense that our nearest neighbors continue with seeming impunity to dump their waste into the same waters that our national marine sanctuary purports to protect and that we in the Keys are required to protect by meeting strict waste-disposal criteria?
Would it be too much to request that our state Department of Environmental Protection, NOAA -- the federal agency responsible for our sanctuary programs -- as well as the governor, Cabinet and our South Florida Regional Planning Council require Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward to meet the same water-quality thresholds that we must?
Isn't it reasonable that, like us, they would meet a timetable to clean up their mess and that sanctions for their failure to do so reflect the same reaction from the state and the federal governments? Why shouldn't they be required to enact moratoriums on growth and building until they come into compliance? In fact, why shouldn't Miami-Dade be put under the state's ''critical concern'' legislation?
The cost to clean up Miami-Dade's sewage outfall is $1 billion, one-third the cost of the proposed mega deal to build the ball park-tunnel-museum project. What are our state agencies' priorities? Does their concern for the environment stop at the Monroe County line?
EDWARD SWIFT III, Key West