Poll: Would you vote to change Broward County to Lauderdale County?<\/a><\/p>\nLaMarca estimated the cost of the change, if approved by voters, as \u201croughly at or under $10 million,\u201d the first time supporters of the idea provided an estimate.<\/p>\n
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Several legislators said it was a mistake to consider spending that kind of money at a time when many people are struggling to make ends meet \u2014 and at a time when the state Legislature is considering proposals that could lead to massive property tax cuts that could force county governments to cut services.<\/p>\n
State Rep. Marie Woodson, D-Hollywood, said many young people can\u2019t afford first homes and many seniors are deciding between paying for medicine or food. \u201cDo you think right now this is an issue we need to focus on?\u201d<\/p>\n
LaMara said it was possible to do multiple things at once. \u201cYou made a lot of good points about things that I care about, too, but I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cassel said she didn\u2019t think it was a wise use of money. And she said the $10 million cost estimate wasn\u2019t realistic, that it would certainly be far higher. She estimated it would cost $25 million to $50 million \u201cwhen you look at all the kinds of things that have to be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, County Commissioner Nan Rich, an opponent of the idea, said it would cost \u201cmillions and millions and millions\u201d of dollars.<\/p>\n
State Rep. Michael Gottlieb, D-Davie, scoffed at his colleagues\u2019 focus on the $10 million cost.<\/p>\n
He said it would be spread over several years and that it was a pittance to pay for the economic benefits he and LaMarca said could flow from the renaming.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a complete red herring to say it\u2019s going to cost $10 million. It\u2019s going to cost $10 million over seven years,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cBut if they are correct that it\u2019s going to bring in more money, then the cost is really irrelevant. You can\u2019t grow without spending some money to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaMarca said it was not something that would require spending all at once.<\/p>\n
It would take place over time, and some things would be replaced as they wear out anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be very clear, it\u2019s not, \u2018go out tomorrow morning and make this change,\u2019\u201d LaMarca said. \u201cWe\u2019re sitting talking about the pennies of making changes in something like this where we\u2019re talking about playing at a major league level with our counties in the north and south.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaMarca and leaders of the Broward Workshop, an organization of the executives from the county\u2019s top businesses who have been pushing the change, said it would lure businesses to relocate in Broward instead of Palm Beach or Miami-Dade counties, and would help the county attract even more tourists.<\/p>\n
LaMarca predicted the name change would produce $200 million in economic benefits every year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt boggles the mind that we\u2019re talking about \u2026 over the course of almost a decade to spend a few million bucks on rebranding when I\u2019m telling you that we\u2019re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in return on investment from investment in our community,\u201d LaMarca said.<\/p>\n
State Rep. Marie Woodson, D-Hollywood, asked LaMarca could cite any studies that show \u201cjust by changing the name of the county it would stimulate an economic impact?\u201d LaMarca said he didn\u2019t. \u201cI\u2019m looking to our neighbors to the north and south of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
State Sen. Tina Polsky, a Democrat whose district includes parts of Palm Beach County and northwest Broward, was skeptical of the purported $200 million. \u201cHow do we know any of that and how do we know that one name is better than another name?\u201d Polssy said.<\/p>\n
LaMarca said the issue was about creating a global brand and image for the county, which would produce economic benefits, and pointed to a \u201cwhite paper\u201d from the Broward Workshop describing benefits.<\/p>\n
LaMarca said that Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties \u201care globally known brands. To remain competitive and visible, we should stand beside them, not beneath them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He promised \u201ca lot better data\u201d would be provided before any action in Tallahassee \u2014 if the bill makes it that far.<\/p>\n
Cassel read a long list of things that would require name changes. And Bartleman, a former School Board member, cited several potential costs to the school district \u2014 \u201cI feel like this is an unfunded mandate for public schools\u201d \u2014 including the markings on school buses.<\/p>\n
That led to one of the examples of friction during the discussion. LaMarca shot back with a note of sarcasm that the name Broward or Lauderdale on school buses was not a major issue. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to think about a single vinyl decal lettering change on yellow school buses, I\u2019ll go help them put the stickers on the buses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Worthy names?<\/p>\n
State Sen. Rosalind Osgood, D-Fort Lauderdale, said she had a far different concern. If a renaming is to be considered, she said, there should be alternatives to the county\u2019s namesake, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, or to the proposed alternative, William Lauderdale.<\/p>\n
Broward County was named after Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, who served as the state\u2019s 19th governor in the early part of the 20th Century.<\/p>\n
Broward has long been known, and criticized, for the draining of parts of the Everglades to create land for agriculture and development. But about a decade ago, new information came to light after a researcher discovered text of a speech Broward delivered to the Legislature in 1907 that revealed segregationist views and his call for creation of a separate country for Black people.<\/p>\n
Lauderdale, the namesake of several cities in Broward, arrived at the New River in South Florida where he established a fort in 1938. He was a major, leading the Tennessee Volunteers was a key figure in the forced removal of Native Americans from their ancestral lands.<\/p>\n
\u201cNapoleon Bonaparte Broward really hated Black people. He thought that we should locate to another territory. If it was left up to him, I wouldn\u2019t even be able to live here at all,\u201d Osgood said. \u201cAnd Mr. Lauderdale, who was just so racist and with his mistreatment of indigenous people, it\u2019s just we\u2019re caught between two evils.\u201d<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s a renaming, Osgood suggested, it should be part of a discussion that opens it up to a historical figure who wasn\u2019t racist. She suggested Eula Johnson or W. George Allen, both civil-rights activists who were leaders in the movement that led to the desegregation of Fort Lauderdale beach in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
Dwight Bullard, a former state senator and state representative who is now senior political adviser for the left-leaning Florida Rising organization, was one of three people members of the public who spoke at the delegation meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese folks have a very, very troubled history in terms of their violence, both committed against indigenous as well as people of color,\u201d Bullard said. \u201cAnd so whether it is Broward, who I hate to say was a racist, or Lauderdale, who also was a racist, it\u2019s probably in your best interest to probably let sleeping dogs lie.\u201d<\/p>\n
The renaming has only gotten attention in recent weeks. Broward Workshop leaders have been advocating for it in meetings with commissioners. No proponents or opponents signed up to speak before the commission on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Steve Geller said he had a town hall meeting attended by a small group of constituents on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Everyone who attended opposed the idea. County Mayor Beam Furr said he\u2019s been hearing from fellow graduates of South Broward High School who raised questions about changing the name Broward.<\/p>\n
Two people besides Bullard, both opponents, addressed state legislators.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrive through any place in Broward County, and all you see is construction cranes,\u201d said Patti Lynn of Tamarac, voicing skepticism that businesses aren\u2019t relocating to the county. \u201cWhy put an extra burden on us, the taxpayers of Broward County, to pay for this. It\u2019s just not necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennifer Jones of Sunrise said it was \u201cextremely out of touch to bring this up when there is an affordability crisis, when there is a housing crisis. \u2026 With all due respect, shame on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thursday was supposed to be the last scheduled meeting of the Broward Legislative Delegation before the beginning of the 2026 legislative session.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers have several days scheduled in Tallahassee next month. After consulting with delegation staffers about the required timeframes for advertising and complying with legislative timeline rules, Bartleman said she would schedule another hearing, most likely on Dec. 5, at which LaMarca would get another chance to advance his legislation.<\/p>\n
Community identities<\/p>\n
Five of Broward\u2019s cities, towns and villages have Lauderdale or a derivation in their names: Fort Lauderdale, Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, North Lauderdale and Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.<\/p>\n
The 26 others don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Geller said before moving forward he\u2019d want a clear indication of the sentiment from the leaders of the five cities he represents \u2014 none of which have Lauderdale in their names \u2014 before deciding whether to support or oppose a renaming.<\/p>\n
Mayor Dean Trantalis of Fort Lauderdale, the largest city in the county, said he hasn\u2019t talked to other mayors, but thinks many would not like the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of emasculates a lot of the other cities in the county by kind of taking away their identity, where the name Lauderdale kind of swallows up the rest of the county,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Trantalis said he understands why the county might want benefits from the Lauderdale brand, but is skeptical it would achieve what its proponents are seeking. \u201cRebranding the county name is not the solution to achieving greater awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trantalis, who has had some differences with county leaders on major policy issues, said a rebranding would do less to benefit the community than a reorganization of government to give Broward a directly elected mayor. That idea has been floated and died in the past.<\/p>\n
But Mayor Angelo Castillo of Pembroke Pines, the second-most-populous city in the county, said he doesn\u2019t object to the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the most part, when you say Broward County to people up north, they all know Florida, they all know Fort Lauderdale, but they don\u2019t know Broward,\u201d said Castillo, who has lived in South Florida for 30 years after living for 36 years mostly in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this will brand us better in ways that make us more prosperous, stronger, better in ways that we can enjoy, not just now, but into the future, I see no reason why we shouldn\u2019t,\u201d Castillo said.<\/p>\n
Staff writer Rafael Olmeda contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com<\/a> and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The idea of changing Broward County\u2019s name to Lauderdale County is still alive \u2014 but it\u2019s in big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,23481,30347,249,251,250,30345,30346,30348,25733,19365,2828],"class_list":["post-46416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-chip-lamarca","tag-county-commissioners","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-lauderdale-county","tag-legislative-delegation","tag-michael-gottlieb","tag-napoleon-bonaparte-broward","tag-robin-bartleman","tag-rosalind-osgood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46416","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=46416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}