A 1-mile stretch of road alongside Florida International University in west Miami-Dade County is set to bear the name of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, following the passage of legislation that drew sharp debate on the Senate floor.<\/p>\n
Republican lawmakers pushed through the bill (HB 33<\/a>) by Miami Rep. Juan Porras, which will rename a portion of Southwest 107th Avenue between Coral Way and Tamiami Trail as \u201cCharlie Kirk Memorial Avenue.\u201d<\/p>\n Doral Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez sponsored the bill\u2019s Senate analogue<\/a> and carried the bill to final passage, 27-10, with all Democrats and independent Hollywood Sen. Jason Pizzo voting \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n Rodriguez offered no commentary on the bill before the vote Wednesday, which came after virtually no discussion on the Senate floor<\/p>\n The legislation, which cleared the House floor on an 82-30 vote<\/a> last month following heated debate, also authorizes the renaming of a similar span of Commercial Boulevard in Broward County as \u201cPresident Donald J. Trump Boulevard,\u201d effectuating a resolution<\/a> the town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea passed 3-2 in October.<\/p>\n A House staff analysis<\/a> of the legislation estimates the total cost of implementing the bill to be $4,800 overall \u2014 $1,200 per sign, for two signs per designation. A Senate analysis<\/a> also noted that the designations are honorary and not full street-name replacements, meaning local street signs, addresses and information for 911 systems won\u2019t need to be changed.<\/p>\n The bill was a passion project for Miami Republican Rep. Juan Porras, who filed it less than two weeks after Kirk was\u00a0shot and killed by a lone sniper<\/a>\u00a0on a Utah university campus Sept. 10.<\/p>\n Porras, who called Kirk a personal friend, said the location is appropriate, as he\u00a0helped found<\/a> Florida\u2019s first Kirk-run Turning Point USA chapter at FIU back in 2015. He noted in Committee that the city of Sweetwater had issued a resolution supporting HB 33, though the roadway in question isn\u2019t in Sweetwater\u2019s bounds.<\/p>\n Opponents of the measure argued that Kirk, who owned a vacation home in Longboat Key in Sarasota County, had little tangible connections to Florida or Miami-Dade. They also raised issues with Kirk\u2019s rhetoric, including questions he raised about the qualifications of Black pilots<\/a>, references to \u201cprowling Blacks<\/a>\u201d targeting White people in urban areas and his perpetuation of the \u201cgreat replacement theory<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n During the bill\u2019s last Committee stop Feb. 10, St. Petersburg Democratic Rep. Michele Rayner\u00a0quoted Kirk calling\u00a0Martin Luther King Jr.\u00a0\u201cawful\u201d and\u00a0George Floyd\u00a0a \u201cscumbag<\/a>.\u201d She recited another statement Kirk made about accomplished Black women like\u00a0Michelle Obama,\u00a0Joy Reid\u00a0and\u00a0Ketanji Brown Jackson\u00a0as having to \u201csteal a White person\u2019s slot\u201d through affirmative action because they \u201cdo not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have three degrees \u2014 earned; nobody gave them to me \u2014 and I\u2019m a Black woman. You want me and my colleagues to sit up here and swallow rage and be forced to have a debate on a bill like this, to name a street after someone who doesn\u2019t even live in Florida, who was not a Florida citizen, because he\u2019s your friend?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a lot of friends I would like to \u2026 have bills for. I don\u2019t do that because it\u2019s inappropriate, it\u2019s unprofessional and it\u2019s disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n Porras said Kirk did not discriminate against people based on any demographic characteristic and pointed out that the late activist had built or contributed to several minority-focused movements, including\u00a0BLEXIT<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Young Black Leadership Summit<\/a>, that have benefited \u201ctens of thousands of African Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n During debate on the House floor last week, Miami Democratic Rep. Ashley Gantt called Kirk \u201cmediocre and racist.\u201d She then contended, incorrectly, that Kirk \u201cwas not assassinated\u201d but instead suffered \u201ca death by gun violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Her comments inspired a Fox News headline<\/a>.<\/p>\n HB 33\u2019s approval comes ahead of the expected passage of another proposal (SB 194<\/a>, HB 125<\/a>) by Fort Myers Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin and GOP Reps. Yvette Bennaroch of Marco Island and Meg Weinberger of Palm Beach Gardens to establish every Oct. 14, Kirk\u2019s birthday, as the \u201cCharlie Kirk Day of Remembrance.\u201d<\/p>\n