2010 Statewide Elections: will Floridians finally have a dialogue about the costs of growth? ... by gimleteye

Florida Democrats are giddy over the commotion in Republican ranks caused, yesterday, by the quick endorsement by the national Republican leadership of Gov. Charlie Crist in his primary race for US Senate against former leader of the Florida House, Marco Rubio. What a spectacle to watch telegenic Republican also-rans do battle with Gov. Crist like the squid and the whale, or, the python and alligator. Republican radicals who want another turn at the wheel after so much economic carnage would run over Crist and straight into the buzzsaw: that Florida's electorate is increasingly moderate and angry.

For Democrats looking at a slate of open statewide seats, including Governor, there's one problem: they actually have to win. As a boxed-in political minority in Florida’s gerrymandered districts, state Democrats have a drained battery and little spark to speak of.

There is one place where opposing energies could finally be engaged: the costs of growth based on the unsustainable development of Florida's suburbs. The irony is that Republicans planned to claim the suburbs for themselves and, for a long time, did. But the overwhelming number of foreclosures and rapidly spreading misery scrambled the equation. Like millions of Rip Van Winkles, suburban voters have woken up scratching their heads: how were we persuaded, or conned, into buying into the housing bubble madness mis-labeled, "the ownership society"?

Here is how it works out. Marco Rubio, the Jeb Bush standard bearer, stands for the growth-at-any-cost policies that inflated the housing bubble in Florida, laying waste to Florida’s quality of life, overburdening schools in crowded urban areas, decimating the environment, while enriching a small group of very wealthy bankers, land speculators, and developers.

Gov. Charlie Crist has been careful to avoid a frontal battle with the rock miners, the highway builders and the development lobby. But under the public radar, a battle has been raging through successive sessions of the state legislature—which Democrats have been powerless to influence—over policies reflecting what developers and speculators want at the expense of the environment and quality of Florida's communities.

That battle is exemplified right now by a bill, SB 360, that will soon be delivered to Gov. Crist. Its effect, and of next year’s anticipated sunset review of the Florida Depatment of Community Affairs, is to further eviscerate protections of the public interest in favor of the development industry and land speculators. But there are dozens of other examples, too.

For instance, Florida Hometown Democracy, the grass roots citizens initiative to change the Florida constitution by qualifying through petition. The referendum is likely to qualify for the 2010 ballot box if enough citizens get off their butts and sign petitions. (By all means, make this your priority today if you haven't already.) Florida Republicans have passed one measure after another, to dampen its chances including a measure that now requires sixty percent and not a simple majority of the statewide vote to amend the Florida constitution. FHD provides that changes to growth plans already adopted by counties and municipalities would be subject to popular vote and not the charade of local politics operating as extensions of campaign contributors from the Growth Machine.

The Republican majority has been fueled by money in opposition to Florida Hometown Democracy. The Chambers of Commerce and Associated Industries have pledged to spend whatever it takes to defeat the will of citizens who are far more energized than either political party against the excesses of the building boom and economic crash.

It would seem this great populist cause at a time of severe economic hardship, underscored by the outstanding book by St. Pete Times writers Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite, “Paving Paradise: Florida’s vanishing wetlands” would energize state Democratic leadership. But so far, not. State Democrats have failed to connect the current economic crisis, and budget deficits, to the frantic accommodation by Republicans to developers and speculators.

Floridians have been the gullible victims of the greatest Ponzi scheme in state history: a housing market bubble whose beneficiaries are still, in large part, rigging the system to reignite suburban sprawl and a failed pattern of economic growth. The game is about sprawl's costs, imposed on taxpayers who are now being asked to bail out the insiders and the schemers. For decades, it's been the game but neither political party wanted to challenge its rules. Now, the side lines on the field have changed with the economic collapse. All that remains is to see if the Democrats are willing to run the full width of the field, or, if they stay to plan to head back to the barn after days spent chewing roughage.