news article<\/a> about the plans published in the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the reaction on social media and in letters to the editor has been overwhelmingly negative.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is one of the worst ideas ever. If Broward County tourism is down it\u2019s not because of name confusion. It\u2019s because international visitors are staying home. I see no reason to change an important part of our history for a marketing move that will accomplish nothing,\u201d wrote George Bishopric of Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n
Bishopric said in a telephone interview that he is a native Floridian who moved to Broward from Miami-Dade County in 1999. He said the voters\u2019 approval of a referendum to add the name Miami to Dade County in 1997 produced a \u201chorrible gibberish name.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can tell you not one tourist is going to go to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea because it\u2019s in Lauderdale County and not in Broward County. That\u2019s just insane. Please leave our history alone, and don\u2019t waste our money on stupid ideas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Others pilloried the idea even more strongly. One post called the proposal \u201ctrivial nonsense\u201d and added a brief video of money being flushed down a toilet.<\/p>\n
Some of colleagues of LaMarca and Udine are skeptical, though they didn\u2019t declare opposition.<\/p>\n
County Commissioner Steve Geller said he is skeptical that a new name would suddenly make Broward more appealing to major businesses seeking to locate in South Florida. Major financiers and CEOs are going to look at factors such as availability of new Class A office space and available spots at elite private schools, and won\u2019t be swayed by the county\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one has shown me the benefits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
State Rep. Robin Bartleman, a Democrat who is chair of the Broward Legislative Delegation, said she, too, isn\u2019t convinced a name change would produce the benefits touted by proponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still don\u2019t understand how it will help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geller also said he needs to know much more about the potential costs of renaming. \u201cIf it\u2019s $2 million, that\u2019s one thing. If it\u2019s $100 million, it\u2019s another.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fiscal impact note for LaMarca\u2019s legislation said there wouldn\u2019t be a cost to a phased name change. Udine said it would be minimal, as things such as the identifying markings on Sheriff\u2019s Office vehicles could be changed when they need to be replaced during the normal course of business.<\/p>\n
Petrillo acknowledged that \u201cthere might be some costs associated with it. But if your GDP can grow at a greater rate and create more jobs\u201d he said the costs could be well worth it.<\/p>\n
Timing<\/p>\n
The current attempt at renaming is advancing quickly \u2014 faster than its supporters in the workshop had originally envisioned.<\/p>\n
Petrillo said he brought it up at a major conference in October. The plan was for the workshop to gather information to support the idea, and then pitch it quietly to government officials.<\/p>\n
Though Hanbury produced the white paper advocating for the name change, Duke said the workshop was engaged in \u201ca very thoughtful process where it\u2019s inclusive and collaborative.\u201d He said proponents weren\u2019t quite ready to roll out the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to do a little more research and get our ducks in a row,\u201d Duke said.<\/p>\n
Petrillo also said it started moving fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt went from a study to \u2018Let\u2019s act on it,\u2019\u201d Petrillo said. \u201cWe thought we were going to start putting a committee together to study this and the whole nine yards, and it just ramped up very, very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaMarca, the longtime proponent of Lauderdale County, was operating on a different timetable.<\/p>\n
He is entering his last year in Tallahassee, and will leave the state House after the 2026 elections because of term limits, and has said he saw the coming session as his last opportunity to advance something he\u2019s long thought would be a good idea.<\/p>\n
Deadlines for submitting and advancing so-called local bills for the upcoming legislative session didn\u2019t fit with the workshop\u2019s slower timetable.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/tFl-l-sb-broward-statue03-NG_218869573.jpg\")
The statue of Napoleon Bonaparte Broward on the third floor of the Broward County Courthouse was removed in 2017. (Mike Stocker\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
\nBroward vs. Lauderdale<\/p>\n
Broward was named after Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, who served as the state\u2019s 19th governor in the early part of the 20th Century.<\/p>\n
Fort Lauderdale was named after Maj. William Lauderdale, who established a Fort at the New River in 1838 during the Second Seminole War.<\/p>\n
Nationally, Broward County is the only one with that name. There are three other U.S. counties that use Lauderdale, in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.<\/p>\n
The Broward Workshop, established in 1981, has long been one of the most influential forces in the county\u2019s business and civic affairs. Its membership is 100 and 125 top executives from the biggest and most prominent companies, law firms, nonprofits and government agencies in the county.<\/p>\n
Petrillo said changing the name \u201chas been put on the table. As soon as we gather our data we are willing to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other entities already use Fort Lauderdale in their names, including the Fort Lauderdale Alliance, the public-private business development organization, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, Visit Lauderdale, the county tourism promotion agency, and the county-owned Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. (The airport is actually located in Dania Beach, between the two cities.)<\/p>\n
One idea that\u2019s been floated over the years, but hasn\u2019t happened, is renaming the Port Everglades cruise and cargo port as \u201cPort Lauderdale.\u201d Geller said renaming the port warrants consideration.<\/p>\n
![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/TFL-L-Chip-LaMarca-01.jpg\")
State Rep. Chip LaMarca, a Broward Republican, at a hearing of the county legislative delegation on Oct. 27, 2025, at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood. LaMarca is sponsoring legislation that would place a referendum on the ballot in 2026 asking Broward voters if they want to change the county’s name to Lauderdale. (Anthony Man\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
\nOutlook<\/p>\n
Udine said he sees \u201ca lot of positive momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n
In recent days a contingent from the workshop \u2014 usually Petrillo, Hanbury, Duke and the organization\u2019s executive director Kareen Boutros \u2014 has been holding individual Zoom meetings with county commissioners, four Workshop members and commissioners said.<\/p>\n
Petrillo said most have been noncommittal. \u201cSome are very supportive. Some are very concerned,\u201d he said. \u201cMost are \u201ckeeping their cards close to the vest.\u201d<\/p>\n
He counted Udine as a strong supporter and Commissioner Nan Rich as not. Rich said in a recent interview that \u201cit\u2019s totally wrong to change the name of this county,\u201d adding she saw \u201cno reason for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Geller said in an interview he has too many unanswered questions to vote in support of the resolution on Thursday.<\/p>\n
As the county legislative delegation, the outlook is also unclear.<\/p>\n
The outcome may depend on which lawmakers attend the hearing and vote on Thursday.\u00a0 At least half the 15 delegation members are required for a quorum. Attendance varies, with some lawmakers attending every meeting and others who rarely show up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no idea what to expect,\u201d Bartleman said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coveting the cachet that they see associated with Miami and Palm Beach, leaders of the business community are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,558,740,28,29,249,251,250,114,266,5741,5742,115,99,480,3047,109],"class_list":["post-44287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-national-news","tag-national-politics","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-real-estate","tag-retail","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Tfl-l-nube-fort-lauderdale-roof-01_187262966.jpg\")
The Restaurant People\u2019s Tim Petrillo at his newest venture on the 26th floor at the rooftop restaurant-bar Nube\u2019 at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort,on Thursday April 4, 2024. (Mike Stocker\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/OATQOERJM5AJZMLWXXSZOTSJKM.jpg\")
<\/p>\n