Tag Archives: broward county

Southeast Florida Regional Compact Uses “Sea Level Rise” To Push Far Left-Wing Agenda— Systemic Racism, Equity, Affordable Housing And Even Foreign Land Ownership—On Local Residents

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South Florida Regional Compact

Created in 2009 by a partnership of Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach County governments, the Southeast Florida Regional Compact is supposed to “discuss the climate change threats facing over six million residents in the region.” As REDBROWARD previously reported, sea level rise estimates devised by the Southeast Florida Regional Compact greatly influence projects in the City of Fort Lauderdale and across Broward. City of Fort Lauderdale Assistant Public Works Director Nancy Gassman admitted the Compact “put sea level rise in our DNA.” Now, records show Gassman worked on the plan the Southeast Florida Regional Compact is pushing on local politicians to put a myriad of progressive policies into our DNA.

In November 2022, the Southeast Regional Compact published its “Regional Climate Action Plan (RCAP) 3.0” The plan, devised by numerous government employees, bureaucrats and non-profit organizations, aims to be a “comprehensive, ambitious and timely playbook.” The Compact claims the RCAP “holds enormous promise to transform southeast Florida into a more resilient, equitable and thriving home for all.”

Instead of focusing on typical climate change topics such as agriculture and water, RCAP seeks “acceleration of local and regional climate action in southeast Florida toward a shared vision of low-carbon, healthy, prosperous, more equitable and more resilient region.”

What issues does the RCAP think will transform Broward and the region?

EQUITY

The Southeast Florida Regional Compact declares “Equity differs from equality, which treats everyone the same despite disparate outcomes.” In RCAP 3.0, the Southeast Florida Regional Compact claims “Climate change functions as a ‘threat multiplier’ which is “particularly burdensome for…individuals of low wealth or limited income and people of color due to structural and institutional forms of racism, such as housing discrimination and segregation.” The RCAP claims the “frontline communities” are “highly exposed to climate risks” while having fewer resources to cope with them. According to the RCAP these “frontline communities” include “older adults, the unhoused, immigrants, differently-abled people, youth, outdoor workers, non-English speakers and those with chronic heath conditions.” The RCAP states “individuals with multiple vulnerability factors—such as being a person of color, non-English speaker and low income—experience cascading climate impacts more acutely.”

The RCAP believes the frontline communities will directly benefit from a “just transition” to a low-carbon, resilient community.

The RCAP offers numerous recommendations on how to achieve this “just transition.” They include:

  • Determine appropriate and locally relevant performance metrics and monitor for climate equity outcomes with input from members of diverse communities.
  • Host trainings for existing community leaders…to access and understand local climate change information related to their communities.
  • Create opportunities early in decision-making process for frontline community members to help shape the vision and the plan for infrastructure, adaptation and mitigation projects.
  • Include frontline community members in comprehensive reviews of critical infrastructure such as wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, even in the absence of resident complaints.

PUBLIC POLICY ADVOCACY

The Southeast Florida Regional Compact RCAP discusses how its work is “hamstrung” by State policy. It states policy decisions in Tallahassee “work against critical and regionally shared resilience objectives.” The RCAP recommends local governments pursue State, Federal and “philanthropic” funding to support carbon pollution reduction and climate resilience work.

The RCAP urges governments to adopt its “regionally unified sea level rise projections.

The RCAP recommends local governments “design policy and infrastructure investment processes that ensure social and economic equity and environmental justice are incorporated from the beginning and through the end.”

REGIONAL ECONOMIC RESILIENCE

The RCAP recommendations under Regional Economic Resilience show their determination to politicize local stormwater and flooding policy. The RCAP recommends local governments “coordinate with municipal, county and regional agencies and governments to identify and prioritize critical infrastructure assets, systems and climate resilience needs in order to align planning and investments that address…flood risks.”

The RCAP recommends local leaders and bureaucrats use “future conditions scenarios” to guide how they address stormwater, wastewater and flood control.

The RCAP recommends local governments coordinate their efforts with the federal government via the U.S. Department Of Commerce Economic Development Administration. This recommendation includes a focus on the creation of “green jobs” under the umbrella of the “National Center For Climate Resilience In Southeast Florida.”

The RCAP wades into the affordable housing arena claiming a need to “improve understanding of the compounding role of climate change and sea level rise in the affordable housing crisis in the region.” The RCAP seeks to “identify opportunities for integrated solutions that center equity, prevent displacement and bolster economic development.”

Here, the Southeast Florida Regional Compact calls on local governments to “identify, pursue and establish funding strategies, including foreign and green investments, needed at the regional and local scale to ensure organized and timely investments that support the rapid transition to a low-carbon economy.”

The RCAP recommends Broward elected officials “Ensure funding strategies are all-inclusive and equally account for the needs of under-resourced communities to deliver an equitable distribution of infrastructure investments across the region.”

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES AND TRANSPORTATION

To help ensure sustainable communities, the RCAP recommends local elected officials “discourage new development or post-disaster redevelopment in climate-vulnerable areas.” The RCAP believes Broward governments can achieve this goal with “transfer of development rights and targeted buyouts.”

Under transportation, the RCAP wants our elected officials to promote Vision Zero. This plan “emphasizes the elimination of traffic-related fatalities and provides safe, equitable and healthy mobility for all.” The RCAP wants local governments to implement this plan with a “shift to non-motorized modes of transportation.”

Will the Southeast Florida Regional Compact implement these plans? They already have begun.

How do they implement their recommendations? Get our your notebooks, there’s more…

Science? City Official Admits Fort Lauderdale’s Costly Climate Resiliency Programs Based On “Perception” Of Residents

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“Perception is not reality. Just because you think something is reality doesn’t make it reality.”

—Jim Taylor, Psychology Today August 2019
Nancy Gassman Admits “Perception” Funds Costly Resiliency Programs

A high-ranking City of Fort Lauderdale official admitted her costly climate resiliency programs were based on the “perception” of residents. Nancy Gassman, the Assistant Director of Public Works, made the shocking claim during a November 2020 online seminar. REDBROWARD has previously reported on Gassman’s inept handling of drainage and flooding issues in the City of Fort Lauderdale.

The 2020 “Coastal Sustainability” seminar featured a discussion of climate change funding with Gassman and two other climate change officials. During her segment, Gassman boasted how she imbedded “sea level rise” measures into the “DNA” of multiple programs throughout Fort Lauderdale government. Then, Gassman discussed how residents’ opinions helped justify the millions of dollars spent on sea level rise and other climate change measures via annual surveys.

Gassman said, “We do an annual survey with our residents and ask them what their perceptions are of how the community is doing. Including, are you noticing sea level rise, are you noticing that there’s additional heavy rainfall events, are you noticing that it’s warmer?” Gassman said local politicians use the “perception” of residents to maintain and even increase the money poured into her resiliency programs.

“Are you noticing sea level rise, are you noticing that there’s additional heavy rainfall events, are you noticing that it’s warmer?”

—Nancy Gassman, November 2020

CREATING PERCEPTION?

Are the actions or the incompetence of local bureaucrats altering residents’ perception of reality?

Last June, REDBROWARD revealed how Nancy Gassman admitted her costly tidal valve program caused street flooding. According to Gassman, rainfall had nowhere to go during high tide because valves blocked street drains. After REDBROWARD posted video of Gassman’s shocking comments, the City Of Fort Lauderdale quickly commented on Youtube.

The City wrote, ““Tidal valves had no impact on the April 2023 flooding in the City of Fort Lauderdale. When there is a rain event during a high tide, tidal valves remain closed to prevent tidal water from backing up into the storm drain system and flooding city streets. Once the tide recedes, the tidal valves are able to reopen and allow fresh rainwater to discharge into waterways.”

The City of Fort Lauderdale admitted (again) that their drainage system caused street flooding.

What happens when a resident is asked about street flooding in next year’s survey?

The City and its local media allies repeatedly blame the flooding on sea level rise and climate change, not on tidal valves or an expensive, hair-brained seawall program.

Most residents are totally unaware that Gassman’s street flooding “fix” is making the problem worse.

Will Gassman listen to the “perception” of River Oaks and Edgewood residents deeply affected by the April street flooding?

Notice the lingo used by Gassman. Heavy thunderstorms become “extreme rainfall.” Hot summer days are now extreme heat events.

Over the last month, local media blared warnings about extreme heat advisories using the new “feels like” index.

Forget the simple thermostat. Now, Gassman and her allies want to use a nebulous formula of temperature, humidity and wind speed to create a new emergency over a hot day.

Is Gassman influencing the “perception” of residents by constantly claiming the sea will rise a couple of feet during the near future?

Surely Nancy Gassman only uses the data from the top scientific minds to justify these claims, right?

Stay tuned, there’s more…