When the “President Donald J. Trump Drive” co-designation came down from Sea Grape Drive on Friday, Aug. 28, less than a year after it went up, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea residents had something worth celebrating.
Not because everyone in town suddenly agrees about national politics. The accomplishment is that residents with very different political views came together around a simpler principle: Our small, welcoming nonpartisan beach town should not become another battleground for national partisan politics.
Patrick Ferguson is a 14-year resident of Lauderdale-by-The-Sea. (courtesy, Patrick Ferguson)
Last September, many residents were blindsided when the Town Commission voted 3-2 to co-designate Sea Grape Drive as “President Donald J. Trump Drive.” Other than the posted meeting agenda, there was little broader notice before a decision that directly affected one of the most visible entrances into our town. At that meeting, 33 of 37 Lauderdale-by-the-Sea residents who spoke opposed the proposal. A subsequent canvass of 50 local businesses found 46 opposed it.
Those numbers mattered because this was never simply a question of whether residents supported Trump or party affiliation; many residents who voted for Trump also opposed putting his name on a town street. Republicans, Democrats and voters with no party affiliation found common ground in wanting to preserve the welcoming, laid-back character that has long defined Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.
After the September vote, my brother Michael Ferguson and I joined other concerned residents to organize “No Politics in Paradise” to pursue a citizen-led charter amendment requiring voter approval before personal-name honorific co-designations of town roads and public places. We believed a decision that could alter the identity of our town should ultimately belong to all the people who live here.
Then came another surprise. While residents were pursuing that local democratic process, language was added in Tallahassee to a bill designating the Lauderdale-by-the-Sea portion of Commercial Boulevard, a state road, as “President Donald J. Trump Boulevard.” Most residents and even members of the Town Commission did not learn of the legislation until it was already moving toward passage. The lack of transparency in how this unwanted bill came to be, in addition to how it undercut the local democratic process behind the charter amendment drive, seriously eroded trust in our local government.
The March 10 commission meeting that followed was packed. Dozens of residents spoke, overwhelmingly in opposition. The commission ultimately voted 3-2 to support the state designation while agreeing as a “compromise” that once the state markers were installed on Commercial Boulevard, the town’s “President Donald J. Trump Drive” signs on Sea Grape Drive would be removed.
That distinction is important. The state designation on Commercial Boulevard remains. Residents did not get everything we asked for. But the restoration of Sea Grape Drive is still a meaningful accomplishment brought on by local residents working together to publicly display their opposition, serving as a reminder that sustained civic participation matters.
This experience is also a major reason why I am running for Lauderdale-by-the-Sea Town Commission. I am not running to bring a different national political agenda into Town Hall. I am running on an agenda to put the residents of Lauderdale-by-The-Sea first.
Our commissioners have more than enough local work to do. We need to protect public safety, strengthen flooding and resiliency infrastructure, support local businesses, responsibly manage town finances, address traffic and parking, defend our building-height limits and preserve the beach-town character that makes Lauderdale-by-the-Sea special.
Those issues do not have Republican or Democratic solutions. They require neighbors to listen to one another, commissioners to be transparent and local government to stay focused on the people it serves.
In an era when national politics too often divides communities, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea residents showed another way. People who disagree on presidents, parties and elections stood side by side and said that our town belongs to all of us, not to political parties.
On Aug. 28, Sea Grape Drive once again became simply Sea Grape Drive. That is worth celebrating not as a victory for one political side over another, but as a victory for residents, local democracy and the idea that paradise is better when we keep partisan politics out of it.
Patrick Ferguson is an attorney, senior campaign organizer for the Sierra Club Florida, and 14-year resident of Lauderdale-by-The-Sea. He is a candidate for Lauderdale-by-The-Sea Commission Seat 2 District 2.