Golf, pickleball proposed at Florida state parks
A new initiative may bring new developments to state parks in Florida.
Fox – 13 News
The beleaguered Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis backed down on Wednesday from a widely reviled plan to build elaborate developments on nine state parks, curiously blaming the firestorm on documents “intentionally leaked out to a left-wing group” about a proposal his own spokespeople were promoting last week on social media.
DeSantis called the proposal from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection “half-baked” and said he “never saw” the plans before news about them spread like wildfire last week, igniting bipartisan backlash. But he also acknowledged — as has been reported — that he’d been pitched by an outside nonprofit, Folds of Honor, on the possibility of adding a golf course to a state park, an idea conspicuously similar to DEP’s now-scuttled plan, cobbled together at the request of a mysterious Folds of Honor-aligned foundation, to add three golf courses to Jonathan Dickinson State Park.
It was a bumbling and strained defense of his administration. For example, the conspiratorial bent of his explanation — that documents were leaked to a “left-wing group” he did not identify — cuts against the plain fact that DEP had originally scheduled hearings this week to purportedly solicit public feedback on the toxic plans, not to mention the fact that government documents are public records by their very nature, DeSantis’ Nixonian fixation with executive confidentiality notwithstanding, and thus can’t really be leaked in any meaningful sense.
That allegation also seems to imply the plans were to remain a secret. Otherwise, what difference would it make if people were made aware of the elaborate DEP plans, for which their views were supposed to be solicited before any action took place?
DeSantis’ announcement ends the immediate controversy, but it did little to shed light on the provenance of this toxic proposal. How did this get so far? At times, DeSantis became oddly passive, suggesting “people have requested” modifications at some state parks. Really? Does one only need to “request” a 350-room hotel at Anastasia Park to set DEP in motion? There is clearly more to learn here.
The parks controversy, and DeSantis’ backing down from it, capped off one of the most punishing non-presidential-campaign weeks in his tenure as Florida governor. Last week, voters across Florida, including in some deeply conservative districts, rejected several of his endorsed and appointed candidates for public office, an undeniable sign his brand isn’t what it used to be. The DEP park-development plan came under fire from nearly every high-profile Republican leader in the state, none of whom appear concerned about crossing a governor they once marched in lock step with.
On Wednesday, DeSantis — perhaps the strongest governor in Florida’s modern history — sounded almost sheepish.
“I am totally fine to just do nothing,” he said.
Nate Monroe is a Florida columnist for the USA Today Network. Follow him on Twitter @NateMonroeTU. Email him at [email protected].
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Publish date : 2024-08-28 07:57:00
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