Letter to the City

Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners:

We write to demand that you protect the voters' right to vote by not letting them vote.

This is a story. In 1998 farsighted residents saw a hotel coming and wrote a rule. The rule was good. So they wrote more rules, and put them where no three of you could reach: in the Charter, beside the city limits and the oath of office, which is where parking-space dimensions belong.

Those residents were very farsighted. They could see all the way to 2026, and they knew the people living here then, a good many of whom had not yet arrived or been born, would want exactly what they wanted. Forever.

Now you propose to ask those people a question. On a ballot. In November, when all of them are there. This is a betrayal. Asking is betrayal. A public-serving Commission would already know what the public wants and would spare it the indignity of being checked.

We note that there is no grassroots movement demanding this vote. We know because we are the grassroots movement, and we checked with ourselves.

Any three of you could do anything. Three of you is a majority, and majorities are dangerous. We except the 75 percent majority of 2002, which is sacred, and reserve judgment on the majority of November 3, which is pending our review.

Everyone knows the beach would already be ruined without us. Everyone knows a great many things in Broward County. Few of them survive a records request.

If you must hold this vote, hold it in March. Among friends.

Forever yours (forever),

The Original Save Our Parking Lot

Parody. Not sent to anyone. Please do not read it into the record. The real letter is here, and you should read it.