The City of Orlando and Mayor Buddy Dyer were exposed for numerous Pulse scandals in public comments at the recent memorial design plan meeting.
In scathing public comments at the recent meeting, advocates for Pulse Families and Survivors for Justice disagreed with the plans and took on the City of Orlando. The impressive speakers made their message clear, and Mayor Buddy Dyer and the City of Orlando should be listening.
One wounded Pulse survivor, Jorshua Hernandez Carrion, tried to speak at the memorial design meeting, but was not able to make his public comments. “The City of Orlando continues with its circus,” he said after the meeting.
“I tried to make my comment public but they didn’t let me talk,” Pulse survivor Jorshua Hernandez Carrion said. “I think they blocked my audio so I couldn’t talk. They say they listen to families and survivors but they don’t. It is only the chosen ones that the city wants to listen to.”
In his public comment request form, obtained by West Orlando News through a public records request, Jorshua Hernandez Carrion said: “We do not want a visitor center. It is a miniature museum where the City controls the narrative and silences survivors. We want to tell our own stories. The City has repeatedly misled the public and cannot be trusted with history-making. This memorial should be a quiet green space for the 49 and those who survived—not a spectacle for tourists. The City has the funds. Please stop the Annual CommUNITY Rainbow Run. Our tragedy should not be a fundraising stream for City. We have asked you before. Enough is enough.”
That is a horrible reflection on Mayor Buddy Dyer and his administration. But the speakers who were able to make public comments exposed even more.
“The 49 who were murdered deserve a respectful, dignified, and peaceful memorial that their families control, not the City of Orlando,” public comment speaker Christine Hanavan said. “The Pulse memorial shouldn’t be an overdesigned, attention grabbing tourist destination and vanity project.”
Hanavan, who spoke as an opponent (against), discussed the demolition of the Pulse site prior to the conclusion of the premises liability trial and the planned visitor center for the permanent memorial. She also exposed scandals the City of Orlando does not want to discuss.
“The unpermitted nightclub was a death trap,” Christine Hanavan continued. “And there’s an open premises liability lawsuit against the former owners. An inspection is long overdue to document what’s still possible to document. That’ll be impossible if you carry out the demolition as scheduled. Families and survivors deserve justice, and you can’t undo further destruction of evidence once it’s over.”
In the public comments, she also said the Pulse site was already “irreparably tampered with” and she said that whether or not the court intervened, the City of Orlando should delay the demolition. The demolition of Pulse was set for March 18, 2026.
“I’m especially concerned that the wood floor and outside patio tiles were on the so-called artifact list, and that you’re going to use the unpermitted dance floor for the reflecting pool,” Hanavan said. “Dozens of people died on those floors. Another person died on that patio. And others were trapped by the unpermitted fencing around it. All of this is absolutely abhorrent. It shows zero empathy and consideration for the survivors and victims.”
“You’re perverting their traumas and deaths for a tacky, performative rainbow spectacle,” she concluded as she stood publicly against the proposed plans.
Dr. Zachary Blair, President of VictimsFirst, also demanded better from the City of Orlando. He emphasized that the criticism from Pulse Families and Survivors for Justice was not about design opinions or unchecked emotions or grief like some at the City of Orlando have alleged.
“It’s about injustice, and the ongoing revictimization of Pulse survivors by this city,” Dr. Blair said in his public comment. “This design is the product of that harm.”
He said that victims’ mothers were excluded from being on the advisory committee. He said the mothers should have led the memorial’s design. He also raised serious questions and additional scandals related to Pulse.
“Will a piece of Pulse’s unpermitted fence that hindered escape be displayed as an artifact in the visitor center?” he asked. “Will the Coke refrigerator that blocked egress be preserved? Will the cash register the city removed from the building tell future memorial tourists that nightly cover charges violated Pulse’s conditional use permit? Or will those facts be erased by this memorial and the interpretive vision that you just presented?”
The Pulse advocate said the city was dictating what moving forward should look like to shield themselves from accountability.
Dr. Blair said the planned memorial “sanitizes history, exhausts survivors, and helps sustain a cover up.”
He made the allegation that the office of Mayor Buddy Dyer sought to have city’s backup server erased to conceal permitting records related to Pulse after the mass shooting. He referenced Commissioner Shan Rose as the source of that information, and said there was “an effort from the top” to erase any records that showed the city’s failures under Buddy Dyer.
He also discussed the fact the Pulse dance floor was unpermitted, and that is only a reminder of the City of Orlando’s failure to enforce the law and bring the Pulse nightclub into compliance prior to the tragedy.
“A dignified public memorial park is the only ethical path forward,” Dr. Zachary Blair said. “A green space, not this tourism spectacle that looks like a Turnpike rest area stop. A design that allows the city to tell the stories of the victims and survivors should never be built, cause they are liars. And a memorial without accountability not remembrance, it’s a continuation of harm.”
The City of Orlando and Mayor Buddy Dyer do not want these public comments to be “public” and no responses were given to any of the speakers. Watch the full public comments by clicking below – which were not readily made public by the City of Orlando as West Orlando News and even those who spoke were forced to submit a public records request to obtain the public comments:
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