The summer of ’25 will be remembered as a time when the heat — political heat, that is — reached a boiling point along the coast here.
In Delray Beach, impatient Florida officials demanded the city remove its colorful Pride intersection in downtown’s Pineapple Grove, originally installed as a memorial to the victims of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.
Florida Department of Transportation workers (who had already painted over a similar memorial outside of Pulse in August) rushed in again to do the job in Delray Beach in September when the city didn’t move fast enough.
In Boca Raton, meanwhile, residents mounted a successful petition drive — that may force a referendum — after they felt the City Council turned a deaf ear to their concerns about a massive public-private project moving forward downtown using city-owned property.
Delray Beach officials bristled at the bullying tactics the state used over the city’s intersection. They demanded, unsuccessfully, a fair hearing and reluctantly cried “Uncle” when it became clear the state was the state and was going to do whatever it damn-well pleased — and woe to anyone standing in its way.
Boca Raton residents bristled as well at their government leaders, but they weren’t in Delray Beach’s helpless state. They demanded a vote on the future of city-owned properties — and collected signatures to get it on the ballot, probably in March.
What happens next as autumn settles in? This is South Florida, after all, where the heat tends to linger.
Delray Beach officials are looking now for another way to honor the Pulse victims, acknowledge the city’s LGBTQ residents and show everyone that Delray Beach remains a welcoming city.
There are ideas about what could be done, including renaming part of Northeast First Street as Pride Street or hanging rainbow banners from downtown lamp posts.
Whatever is decided, I hope part of it focuses on the Pride intersection itself. Not on the pavement where the state made its stand, but alongside it or above it — some fitting rebuke to the state’s overreach.
As for Boca Raton, officials there have some big decisions coming up. They have said the proposed referendum would be draconian and have far-reaching negative consequences if approved. It would require a taxpayer-financed city election anytime there’s a planned sale or lease of virtually any city-owned property — anything more than a half-acre in size.
Terra and Frisbie Group, the developer for the city’s downtown campus project that also includes a new City Hall and Community Center, has made changes that would reduce the project’s density and increase its park space, but they are still nowhere close to overcoming residents’ objections.
Boca Raton should determine the best plan it sees for its 30-acre campus, which now includes the 17-acre Memorial Park, and put it on the same ballot as the petition referendum. That would give voters the say they want on the downtown project — and maybe make them more receptive to the city’s concerns about the petition referendum.
But city officials may discover they haven’t done enough to turn down the heat, with residents’ frustrations still at the boiling point.
A tie-the-city’s-hands-forever referendum may be exactly what residents desire. They saw how the state was ruthless in using its power in Delray Beach. They may want that same kind of power for themselves when it comes to decisions about their city’s future.
— Larry Barszewski,
Editor
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