Nearly a decade later, the words of Steve Glassman ring true.
At an all-night meeting at Fort Lauderdale City Hall in 2016, he spoke out against a proposed major expansion of the Bahia Mar yachting resort.
As a citizen and president of the Broward Trust for Historic Preservation, Glassman asked the city to require a monitored archaeological dig of nearby areas, prior to construction, to safeguard a historically neglected area where one of the city’s original 19th Century military forts was built.
“What has totally been left out of the discussion is that this property is one of the most historically significant in the entire city,” Glassman told commissioners that night. “It is where we got our name.”
It’s a decade later, and the volunteer Broward Trust group continues its push for historic protection for part of the beach.
But the fight goes on without Glassman — even though he’s the chief spokesman for all things beach-related as the elected commissioner of District 2, the area that includes the beachfront.
fortlauderdale.gov
Michaela Conca is president of the Broward Trust for Historic Preservation.
“Where did that Steve Glassman go?” asks Michaela Conca, the current president of the Broward Trust for Historic Preservation.
Glassman, who proudly considers himself a historic preservationist, would instantly strengthen the case for archaeological protection by adding his voice to the cause.
‘Disheartening’
But as he has been publicly silent, Conca said, he has worked behind the scenes to pressure members of the trust to defer their request for up to a year, which she called “disheartening.”
“We had a conversation the day before the (Sept. 8) meeting,” she recalled.
Glassman did not respond to a phone request for comment from the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board. His aide did not respond to an email request for more information.
Glassman easily won re-election last year to a third and final four-year term as a commissioner. He is seen as a potential candidate for mayor, the only citywide elected office, in 2028, so his record will continue to face close scrutiny.
An unrelated campaign
The revived effort to get special protection for part of the beach comes as residents are separately mobilizing with Facebook posts and videos to prevent the bulldozing of the city’s nearby iconic beachfront basketball courts, at Bahia Mar’s request, to make room for a pickleball complex.
City of Fort Lauderdale
The city of Fort Lauderdale produced a brochure highlighting the outdoor basketball courts that it wants to tear down and move.
The decades-old courts are so familiar and popular that they are featured in a city brochure, produced at public expense, to showcase the city’s assets to applicants for city attorney.
The timing and geography are very closely related, but the two causes may not be.
Any protection of the beachfront is good news for those trying to save beach basketball, even though it likely won’t stop development, as city staff told members of the Historic Preservation Board in a report last month.
“A designation would not prevent or preclude alteration, demolition or new development,” the report said, “(but) it would be beneficial to accompany any recommendation for designation with additional archaeological testing and development of a management plan for future ground disturbing work.”
The request for archaeological designation was discussed at length at the Sept. 8 meeting of the city’s Historic Preservation Board, with no resolution.
At the advocates’ request, the matter was deferred to the next meeting, set for 5 p.m. on Nov. 3, to allow more time to refine the proposal.
‘Atmosphere of ignorance’
The site is 640 Seabreeze Boulevard, adjacent to the ocean, about 330 feet north of where Seabreeze crosses Harbor Drive.
The application noted the presence of intact deposits and artifacts associated with the indigenous Tequesta culture.
Long-time Broward archaeologist Bob Carr likely knows this property better than anyone.
Carr, who explored the site in 2011, said inevitable beach redevelopment must be also subjected to archaeological documentation “as opposed to just seeing things happen.”
“We are in this atmosphere of ignorance about the most historic site in Fort Lauderdale,” he told the historic preservation board. “Everybody is walking around in this kind of pleasurable amnesia, enjoying the beach without understanding that there’s this sense of place and depth of history that has not been confirmed with signage or any interpretive elements.”
A historic preservation board member asked Conca if the timing of the archaeological request has special significance. “No. Absolutely none,” she said, “other than the fact that it should have happened at least 10- or 15-plus years ago.”
“Everybody is walking around in this kind of pleasurable amnesia, enjoying the beach without understanding that there’s this sense of place and depth of history that has not been confirmed with signage or any interpretive elements.”
She’s right. The city should have heeded Glassman’s words.
We support the Broward Trust’s effort to safeguard this small but very special part of South Florida history.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.