FIVE –
ALL THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES
While bitter battles between feuding interests waged on, strengthening grassroots efforts persevered in south Florida. It had been a mistake for local, state, and federal political leaders to ignore conservation activists with acute interest in both this project and the national parks. It is cheaper, easier, and better in the long run to work with, rather than against, those who can derail the cause. Conservation activists were already well organized, funded, and politically supported because of ongoing examination into the causes and necessary restoration of degradation to the south Florida ecosystem, which
included Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park. One of the nation’s most revered conservation icons, Marjory Stoneman Douglass, was at home in Miami. Regularly, over sixty organizations with nationwide influence rallied to defeat various threats to their beloved natural wonders. The Sierra Club and Tropical Audubon Society shared guardian roles in overseeing the redevelopment of the former Homestead Air Force Base. Their offense was supported by an impressive defense organized, in part, by the legal wizards in the National Resources Defense Council.
The country’s oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization, the Sierra Club, brings together 700,000 friends and neighbors inspired by nature to work together to protect communities and the planet. Its mission is to explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth; practice and promote the responsible use of the earth’s ecosystems and resources; educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.
The Sierra Club is committed to maintaining the world’s remaining natural ecosystems and to restoring and rehabilitating degraded ecosystems. Wildlife, plants, and their ecosystems have value in their own right, as well as value to humans and to the health of the biosphere. The Sierra Club believes, however, that the environment can never truly be protected unless local communities are involved in the process of building public support and holding governments accountable for environmental protection. Achieving this goal calls for defending,supporting, engaging, and inspiring communities to take action.
From website at www.sierraclub.org
Tropical Audubon Society is a group of dedicated citizens who care about the quality of South Florida’s environment. Established in 1947, it is a chapter of Audubon of Florida and the National Audubon Society that believes in the wisdom of nature’s design. We seek to foster and promote ecological conscientiousness in our community.
Tropical Audubon’s mission is conservation by working to protect the natural world and promote wise stewardship of natural resources, especially native plants and animals and their habitat; education by promoting, among members and the public of all ages, an understanding and appreciation of nature, the environment, and ecological relationships; and enjoyment through the study and protection of nature together.
From website at www.tropicalaudubon.org
The Natural Resources Defense Council uses law, science, and the support of more than 500,000 members nationwide to protect the planet’s wildlife and wild places and to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things. Its mission is to safeguard the Earth: its people, its plants and animals and the natural systems on which all life depends, and to protect nature in ways that advance the long-term welfare of present and future generations.
The Natural Resources Defense Council works to restore the integrity of the elements that sustain life—air, land, and water—and to defend endangered natural places. It seeks to establish sustainability and good stewardship of the Earth as central ethical imperatives of human society and affirms the integral place of human beings in the environment. It works to foster the fundamental right of all people to have a voice in decisions that affect their environment. Ultimately, the Natural Resources Defense Council strives to help create a new way of life for humankind, one that can be sustained indefinitely without fouling or depleting the resources that support all life on Earth.
From website at www.nrdc.org
Through collective knowledge from these organizations’ members, everyone wanting to defeat the airport proposal realized that one of the most effective strategies in overcoming opposition is to deliver what is desired. In the case of the former Homestead Air Force Base, each interested party carried the banner, or hid behind the veil, of bringing economic recovery to the south Miami-Dade area. Curiously, no one questioned the proclamation that building a commercial airport was the only way to bring recovery to the area. At the time environmental impacts of the proposal were being evaluated, conservationists initiated their own efforts to deliver economic recovery that focused on the two national parks in each concept of every strategy.
Commissioner Sorenson created an Alternatives Development Team as a brainstorming think-tank intended to generate various alternative development plans that would also be analyzed in the SEIS analysis. Slow to start, the group gained attention as the ideas began to rival the airport concept and invited community members to present their concepts. One idea was to build a spaceport that would launch satellites. Another concept was to build an east coast Hollywood for filming motion pictures.
Latching onto the initiative and its open invitation, Chinquina, Farago, and others predicted components of what they believed would be a successful alternative. A plan that highlighted and incorporated south Florida’s unique natural environment–the water, the animals that find refuge there, and the recreation experiences available–would attract the attention that would not only sustain the plan, but be more feasible than a new airport. Additionally, various industries that require a mixed labor force, a combination of high tech and low tech, would replace what was lost. They concluded that a viable alternative would have to come from an organization with the capability and reputation to pull it off.
While sitting on the floor of her kitchen, Lacy Hoover and two friends concocted a concept of a world-class aquarium and other eco-attractions housed in a complex designed to complement a visit to south Florida. Her concept was to use the appeal of the area, rather than competing with it. Water and tropical habitats make the area desirable to so many natives and visitors alike and were what she considered most promising about her plan. In addition to the aquarium, she envisioned an environmental business park with conference facilities, hotels, and research institutions. She hired a well-known aquarium designer, Peter Cermayeff, who has designed facilities in Boston, Massachusetts; Baltimore, Maryland; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Osaka, Japan; and Genoa, Italy. Together, Hoover and Cermayeff named the project “WetLand” for the interconnecting water features that would weave through the 1,800-acre complex.
Able to afford Cermayeff’s expertise, Hoover wanted to contribute a meaningful alternative to the puzzle in tribute to her father, Herbert Hoover, Jr., an avid supporter of Biscayne National Park and former president of his family’s vacuum cleaner company.
“My father made a lot of money in his lifetime. So, he is paying for this. It will be his legacy,” she explained.
In the 1920s, Herbert Hoover Jr. began a long and loving relationship with Biscayne Bay during family vacations. In an interview with The Miami Herald in 1986, he described captivating experiences that shaped his life, “Every single boat out in the ocean was escorted by three or four porpoises. I remember black clouds of mosquitoes rising up out of the mangroves. I remember pulling shrimp out of the bay by the bucketful, and looking down at a sea bottom covered with what looked like a living black carpet. It was a carpet of lobster!”
The reporter claimed to be able to detect shielded delight when Hoover described his head-to-head battle with a wealthy New Yorker pushing plans for a massive oil refinery on the Bay’s shore in the 1960s. Using his vast resources, Hoover secured scientific studies to rebuke those put forward by the refinery’s proponents. Then, he joined with other determined bay-lovers and went into the community to educate people about the deleterious impacts of a refinery. Hoover even attached a bacteria meter to his boat and recorded the findings as further proof of impacts from shoreline development. His efforts and those of others ultimately helped turn Biscayne National Park into what it is today.
With her father’s determination, influence, and love of the park, Lacy Hoover presented her aquarium idea to Commissioner Sorenson’s Alternatives Development Team. It gained approval and was submitted to the SEIS team for consideration as a viable alternative to the proposed airport construction. It was, in fact, the first alternative that stood a chance of successfully competing with the airport alternative.
“Our idea is to respect and mirror the function of waterways in south Florida that connect habitats. We don’t need to build a national park; we will be between two of them. Our complex will bring environmentally friendly businesses to the area and entice others for visits,” she explained at a local community meeting, one of many that she attended in order to build support for her proposal. “The central water feature would occupy the footprint of the runway that would be removed. Envisioned industries include biomedical research companies, as well as companies conducting environmental restoration. The project itself would be a showcase of environmental sustainability utilizing solar energy, recycled and re-used building material, and stormwater treatment wetlands.” Through her impassioned and informed presentations, she succeeded in generating excitement and support for the project.
Follow the Money
Lacy Hoover’s brainchild was as important as the location of its conception in her kitchen. In an exclusive gated community at the end of a deliberately designed deserted road, 1,900 residents that comprise the Ocean Reef community strive for an anonymous existence. At the northern tip of Key Largo, the community borders Biscayne National Park’s southern boundary and is just eleven miles from the air base runway. It is a tight community with common interests, especially those that involve enjoying the peaceful and beautiful surroundings. Most national parks benefit from the support of influential benefactors; however, few experience the kind of influence exerted by the Ocean Reef community in support of Biscayne National Park.
Hoover’s wealthy and well-connected neighbors include current and former congressional leaders, as well as administration officials and media moguls. Guests to Ocean Reef and their hosts are rarely singleminded in their agendas. Political candidates from across the nation, both Republican and Democratic, understand the importance of friendly relations with this community and their visits increase as election years approach. Critical issues for Ocean Reef residents routinely enter party platforms and legislative agendas.
Hoover’s wealthy and well-connected neighbors include current and former congressional leaders, as well as administration officials and media moguls. Guests to Ocean Reef and their hosts are rarely singleminded in their agendas. Political candidates from across the nation, both Republican and Democratic, understand the importance of friendly relations with this community and their visits increase as election years approach. Critical issues for Ocean Reef residents routinely enter party platforms and legislative agendas.
A typical verse from one of Reed’s letters describes anxiety during his last unsuccessful fishing trip. The growing anxiety did not stem from his inability to land a tarpon; rather, the nagging notion that his tranquil experience was threatened by unenlightened decisions concerning the former air base unsettled him. He, like others, firmly believed that there were redevelopment plans that would leave the two national parks intact and committed his energy and efforts to those who were also in pursuit of that goal.
Reed successfully provoked as he suggested. Some of his ideas remained little more than amusing cocktail party conversations. Other ideas took hold. Through his conversations within influential networks of people, his poetic descriptions created images of a center of science, the most advanced kind of science. The center could involve exploration of the seas, even space–a project that epitomized the essence of sustainability in the future. Reed’s imagination and persistence created lasting memories in the minds of the people he engaged.
Although Hoover’s WetLand alternative and her determination were admired by local leaders, there was lingering doubt in Washington about its viability because of her inexperience in such developments. It did not surprise many, therefore, when the Collier families of Naples, Florida, entered the competition with another alternative. The families of Barron and Miles Collier had a previous relationship with Secretary Babbitt that was initiated when the Colliers offered to exchange their mineral rights in Arizona for development rights in downtown Phoenix. The first deal was made, and the environmentally friendly office park and residential community earned praise from all sectors. The Colliers were ready for a second deal.
Secretary Babbitt contacted his old friend Roy Cawley, consultant for the Collier Resources Company, and explained that there might be another project that the family would find fruitful. After all, it was in the family’s area and required consideration of sensitive environmental issues, as did the Phoenix project. The secretary even praised the company’s track record of success with these types of issues.
Cawley was convinced and unveiled a proposal to the Clinton Administration, including Secretary Babbitt. The 717-acre parcel would be the site of a research and development office park, golf course, hotels, and a city center with shops and restaurants. Coincidentally, ten acres of the development was identified for an aquarium and water sports venue. Cawley tossed around development price tags in the millions of dollars and, the linchpin, the creation of 6,800 jobs. An attractive element of this plan, an exchange instead of a giveaway, turned heads at the Interior Department. The deal being offered was land at the former Homestead Air Force Base in exchange for a percentage of oil and gas rights the Colliers owned on 760,000 acres within the Big Cypress National Preserve. However, Cawley did not offer the value of those rights or how much of them were actually on the negotiating table.
While officials at the Interior Department researched details of the Collier proposal, they were certain that the new proposal would have to enter the environmental analysis just as the proposal for the airport and WetLand were required to do. They directed the Colliers to make the pitch to Commissioner Sorenson’s Alternatives Development Team. The Collier’s proposal became the second alternative to be analyzed and compete in the process with the proposed airport.
In addition to individual efforts, the Ocean Reef community raised $2 million to oppose the airport proposal in a group effort. In 1999, the community association hired Farago away from his job as financial analyst and volunteer post as chair of the Sierra Club’s Miami Chapter. As the group’s new public relations strategist for an undisclosed salary, Farago accepted the responsibility of blitzing leaders and residents of the communities surrounding the parks with information to challenge and change predetermined ideas about benefits and impacts from a commercial airport at the former Homestead Air Force Base.
The Ocean Reef financial war chest was comparable to funds HABDI and Miami-Dade County spent urging politicians and administration officials to approve the airport. HABDI hired the powerful Washington lobbying firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand, whose list of clients include tobacco companies and former Senator Bob Dole. However, the Homestead Air Force Base issue produced one of the firm’s most lucrative contracts, $1 million. It was the second highest-paid lobbying firm in Washington, and it opened its seventh office in downtown Miami. Mayor Penelas’s former top aide, Jorge Luis Lopez, was the managing attorney of the Miami office.
Both sides of the issue financially supported legal strong-arm groups to advise them and to keep the pressure on. Reed joined the Natural Resources Defense Council Board of Directors and kept the issue high on its radar.
Brad Sewell, one of its leading attorneys, mused, “To say this decision won’t be affected by politics is being naïve.”
“It is a very complex playing field,” Ramon Rasco, HABDI’s attorney explained. “It’s made more complex by the fact that both sides are trying to figure out, based on what the decision is, what their recourses would be in court.”
An Ageless Issue
Because the stakes were high and the feuding intense, it was small surprise that local children and young adults developed opinions and entered the debate. Oliver Bernstein, an 18-year-old senior at Ransom Everglades High School and Sierra Club member organized the Youth Environmental Senate as a grass-roots movement with one purpose: to defeat the proposal to convert the former Homestead Air Force Base into a commercial airport.
“The construction of such an immense facility in such a fragile area would mean environmental devastation and the destruction of our national parks,” he explained.
With similar conviction, forty-five students from Gulliver Preparatory School, Ransom Everglades High School, the MAST Academy, Flanagan High School, and North Miami Beach, Miami Beach, and South Miami-Dade High Schools spread the word about environmental impacts from a commercial airport in between the two national parks. Laurie Ripple, president of the MAST Academy Ecology Club learned of the issue from her science teacher and was quick to conclude, “The Everglades is the only one of its kind in the world, and right now it’s half the size it was once. Putting an airport near there is ridiculous. They can put it somewhere else.”
The YES group’s membership spanned the county, and its influence was impressive. One project entailed sending more than 5,000 green postcards signed by individual students to Mayor Penelas:
“Your support for the airport to date indicates your disregard for my future. Mayor Penelas, if this airport is built, no national park will be safe from development and it will haunt you for the rest of your political career.”
The group’s president, 17-year-old Alexander Lewy was proud of the postcard project. He wanted to educate other students about the issue and send a message to the Mayor. He explained, “We are not looking for blind votes against the airport. We want to make sure that the students know what they are signing, so we explain the issue to them.”
Apparently educating the mayor wasn’t enough. As teenagers are known to do, they grow into young voting adults who move from home. When presidential candidates Bill Bradley and Al Gore assembled in late 1999 for their first nationally broadcast appearance from New Hampshire, they were greeted by a line of protesters outside Dartmouth College Theater waving posters opposing a commercial airport at the former Homestead Air Force Base almost 1,500 miles away. Who was the organizer behind the protest? Oliver Bernstein likened the cause to saving the Grand Canyon, “Whether you are from New Hampshire or Florida or California, this decision will set some dangerous precedents about development around national parks.”
If they had not done so previously, advisors to presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle scrambled to learn about the former Homestead Air Force Base, Everglades National Park, and Biscayne National Park. That night was not the last time the issue would be echoed in the offices of those seeking to reside in the White House.
