There have been plenty of critics who have criticized the recently concluded Florida Legislative session when it comes to issues like growth management. Now departed St. Pete Times columnist Howard Troxler told CL last month that he felt the Legislature was rolling Florida back to a pre-1980's "backwardism," adding that "I think the people of Florida will be amazed and disappointed when they see the full effect of it."
Former Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Graham goes further, citing a 1971 conference on water management that then Governor Reuben Askew convened, which ultimately resulted in four different pieces of legislation dealing with growth management that was then approved by the Legislature in 1972.
Graham says that what came out of that 1971 meeting formed the "architecture" to protect the state's natural resources for the decades that followed. But he says that architecture "was exploded this past spring," referring to the Legislature's actions on dismantling growth management laws, adding, "it would be like a beautiful building that you put dynamite in and just blew it up, it ‘s just incredible…"
Graham made the comments in an interview at offices of Creative Loafing on Tuesday, during a discussion to hype his just published novel, Keys to the Kingdom.
This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2011.