I grew up in a city that some consider an ecological disaster. Others call it the Venice of America. The city is Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. A handful of nuts created Ft. Lauderdale out of swamp and bay heads. A Chicagoan, Victor Nurmi, bought land sight unseen during the Florida boom, and yes, it turned out to be swamp and under water. Victor Nurmi can be excused, because he was from Chicago, so he decided to build land. He put in sea walls and dredged up the material outside them to make land and viola, created waterways at the same time. These are the famous Islands connecting to Las Olas Blvd that today house the rich and famous. These magnificient islands couldn't be created today with current laws anyplace in this country.

Another lunatic by name of Hugh Taylor Birch owned all of Ft. Lauderdale beach and decided to give it to the public use as long as the City of Ft. Lauderdale would prohibit any privatization other than the 200ft strip he reserved for the exclusive use of his family. Today Ft. Lauderdale has 7 miles of open beach with no obstructions open to the public. Ft. Lauderdale avoided the fate of Miami where hotel own all the desireable beach and reserve it to the exclusive use of their patrons.

The point is that it is difficult to not have mixed feelings about environmental efforts. For every abuse of the environment I can cite improvements to the natural state made by men of great vison. Every case cited is by definition in retrospect. It is easy to judge after the fact, but not so easy or clear cut up front. Florida is a state developed by man overcoming nature. Strict environmental rules would have not allowed our exponential growth since WWII. Would that have been a good thing?

Publius