Aug 30, 2025 14 min read

Where are our Florida taxpayer dollars going again? August 29, 2025

Introduction

Finite Disappointment

Florida Gonna Florida

Historic Interlude

Infinite Hope

Bear the History Hound Finds

Support Us

Introduction

Wow, the photographer and writer were super busy this week with special coverage events and in getting the online store ready.

Speaking of the online store the first three galleries are open. The store itself is hosted by Shootproof and the fulfillment lab is Mpix, which I started using twenty some years ago to process my negatives. Point being, TWIFL trusts them and TWIFL doesn't set the shipping prices. Please check them out! Buying photos (and frames, etc) is a great way to support the work done here!

Finite

Disappointment

The crosswalk at Ocean Drive and 12th Street in Miami Beach, Florida has been slated for removal by the state of Florida. Photo Credit Philip Cardella TWIFL Copyright 2025.

A literal white washing of history

If you live and Florida you may want to know where those hard earned tax dollars go. Remember, for the working class, Florida is one of the more heavily taxed states in the country, especially when you consider no state has more tollways leading to two Florida cities, Tampa and Orlando, having the fifth and sixth most expensive commutes in the country despite a lower than average cost of gas. One answer where our tax dollars go is to paint over, in black and white paint, a mural to honor the 49 people murdered and additional 58 injured at the Pulse Nightclub in June of 2016.

Florida officials descended upon the mural under cover of darkness to paint over it. It was repainted by local citizens. Then, again under cover of darkness, Florida officials painted over it again.

FDOT taxpayer dollars are coming for Miami Beach and Key West too.

From a personal perspective, many times I've walked over the crosswalk at Ocean Drive and 12th Street that is ordered to be removed and didn't even notice it was for LGBTQIA+ rights. It's just not a big deal of a mural to those who don't take interest in it.

That said, taking gay community out of Miami Beach is like taking America out of hotdogs or apple pie. You just can't do it. That area has been associated with sexual expression and exploration since white people first colonized the island.

Miami Beach is the site of the Gay Pride Parade each year, which packs the iconic Ocean Drive each spring (the city hosts it early because even in April its unbearably hot), the crosswalk is one door down from the location of The Birdcage from the movie (link has comparison photos) of the same name (the hotel is actually named The Carlyle) and is openly embraced by many, if not all, members of the community.

The intersection of Ocean Drive and 12th Street has a rainbow above it--which is not the norm for the island city. Next to the intersection is a restaurant called Daiquiris Dogs, which if you don't think has some double entendre in it you're not looking at the photos, and The Carlyle, the exterior setting for The Birdcage in the movie The Birdcage. Photos Credit Philip Cardella TWIFL Copyright 2025.

So, why is this being done? Is it exclusive to Florida?

The reality is, the Federal Government ordered this and Florida just happens to happily taking the lead in following the order by Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. Local TV station WSVN News 7 Miami has the details:

Removal of the Pulse crossing put the dispute in the spotlight. It happened several weeks after a July 1 directive from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who gave the country’s governors 60 days to identify what he called safety improvements.

“Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork,” Duffy has said.

DeSantis is the first governor to aggressively carry out the federal guidance. “We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes,” he said recently on X.

The state [of Florida] Department of Transportation said it has a duty “to ensure the safety and consistency of public roadways and transportation systems.”

“That means ensuring our roadways are not utilized for social, political, or ideological interests,” it said.

That said, not all of the art that is being removed is political, represents left leaning groups or marginalized people. Per further reporting by WSVN News 7 Miami:

Not all of the projects tapped for removal pay tribute to historically marginalized groups. One of them, a “Back the Blue” mural on the street outside Tampa police headquarters, is also slated to go, city spokesperson Joshua Cascio said. Also on the list are painted bike lanes outside an Orlando elementary school that were designed by two fourth graders who won a Florida Department of Transportation art contest. A racing themed crosswalk in front of Daytona International Speedway was painted over overnight late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

For the record, as champions of free speech and the First Amendment, This Week in Florida is against the removal of any and all of these expressions of thought and belief– even ones we don't agree with. The removals are absurd, in and of themselves a hypocritical political statement by the government (see below), a waste of tax payer dollars (multiple intersections by my house have traffic signals with burned out lights– one would think that would be a high priority) and just plain mean.

Traffic, on the "Dolphin Expressway" at 10:30 AM on Wednesday. No, there wasn't an accident. This is ALWAYS how it is during the day. Photo Credit Philip Cardella TWIFL Copyright 2025.

For giggles, Miami is the city with the tenth most cost lost by commuting by car in the nation, meaning, Miamians spend a lot of money on tolls to sit in a whole lot of traffic.

A sign for Alligator Alcatraz on the side of the road. Visitors of any kind, whether politicians doing their duty to inspect, religious leaders serving their followers, family members or even lawyers are allowed on the property. So, why a sign several miles from the location if not for being "commandeered for political purposes," as Governor DeSantis put it? Photo Credit Philip Cardella TWIFL Copyright 2025.

Given no one not in handcuffs or escorting people in handcuffs, including religious leaders, lawyers and family members, is allowed onto the property called by the racist trope "Alligator Alcatraz" what purpose does the signs miles from it serve if not political?

And yes, if the government really wants to express itself with gleeful promotion of a detention center TWIFL clearly doesn't think should exist, that's speech protected by the First Amendment too (and we'd defend it). Though the courts have found the racist meme inserted into this one's name likely is not.

The problem with the government getting to make political signs but disallowing ones it doesn't like is the unacceptable hypocrisy. If the state's position is "We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes," as Governor DeSantis said, then this should apply to everyone, including the government in Tallahassee, should it not?

Florida

Gonna Florida

I saw a snake– once– in Miami, well, technically on Key Biscayne just north of the village.

Historic

Interlude

Hurricane Andrew makes landfall in Florida August 24, 1992

The Finite Disappointment section went long so I'm going to keep this one a little shorter and rely on video.

I was in California and in high school on August 24, 1992, when Hurricane Andrew smashed into the Florida coast just south of Miami, directly across, incidentally, from the entrance to Everglades National Park, some 20 miles inland.

I was doing two a days with my high school football team and I barely remember Hurricane Andrew at all.

Spend a summer in South Florida, as we have since we moved here in 2021 and you won't go but a few days without hearing someone mention the storm that crushed South Florida 33 years ago this week.

Every single person who lived through it remembers it, even people who were barely old enough to walk.

"What really got me was the sound of the storm," I heard people talking about it a few years ago. "I'd been through hurricanes before, but nothing sounded like Andrew."

I'm not even sure what that means but it sounds scary. They said it was scary.

Watch the video, its very short, but I'll say one other thing about it.

The first time I went into the Everglades National Park my kid and I went on a "slough slog" or "wet walk" with the kid's high school environmental class, waste deep in the waters of the park in the middle of a cypress dome, which, fittingly, is full of bald cypress.

The park rangers asked the group of students, students who'd been on wet walks before, students who were sophomores, juniors and seniors at the school, which focuses on environmental concerns. Only one of them was able to answer the question, "Did you see any trees in here that didn't belong?"

That would be my baby, who was a freshman at the time, who said, "There's a mangrove over there."

That was the correct answer. If you know the coastal South you know mangroves are trees that are on the coast. If you know the Everglades, you know the cypress domes are no where near the coast.

The theory is, that mangrove was a baby or maybe a seed when Andrew ripped it up and deposited it almost 40 miles inland from its kin.

Hurricane Andrew - A 1X4 board driven through the trunk of a royal palm30 feet above ground level. Click on the image to go to the source, NOAA, which despite the caption before this being from their site, has not further credit information.

Infinite

Hope

Somebody's been a good kitty. The panther statue in front of FIU's convocations building. The Panthers of FIU are the eighth ranked university in the country! Photo Credit Philip Cardella TWIFL Copyright 2024.

I want to do more on fun things here, like food. Did I mention I like pizza?

Also, I like a good hotdog and Daiquiri Dogs did in fact have a tasty foot long Chicago-style hot dog I had (replaced the nasty, evil, inedible sports peppers with jalapenos). The other dish is vegan lentils and yellow curry and it was delicious.

Foot long Chicago-style from Daiquiri Dogs in Miami Beach, Lentils and yellow curry from Lemoni Cafe in NW Miami, and the combination pizza from Rubino's in Kendall. Photo Credits Philip Cardella TWIFL Copyright 2025.

Local Public Schools get national recognition

First it was my youngest kid's high school being ranked 4th in the county and in the top 100 nationally by US News and World Report.

Then it was my alma mater and my oldest kid's future alma mater (that kid is a sophomore there) being ranked in the top ten for universities in the nation by a news organization, Washington Monthly, that thinks US News and World Report rankings are garbage.

Washington Monthly "touts its list as a response to U.S. News & World Report, which it claims 'relies on crude and easily manipulated measures of wealth, exclusivity, and prestige.' Washington Monthly ranks schools based on their contribution to the public good in four categories: access, affordability, outcomes, and promoting public service," per the Miami News story linked above.

The irony of "yay" US News and World Report loves my kid's school and "yay" the group that thinks US News and World Report's rankings are hot garbage but loves my other kid's school is not lost on us.

I will say this, I love Terra Research Academy, it's been great for my youngest. I love FIU, it has been great for my family and I'm immensely proud of the education I received there.

Also, generally, US News and World Report's rankings are hot garbage (the linked piece politely calls them "flawed" according to experts, but they have their place in our culture.

Tooting TWIFL's own horn

The TWIFL online store is finally open thanks to Shootproof and Mpix. One of the best ways to support the work done here is to purchase photos to hang on your wall! As of today, there are three galleries open, South Florida Outback (The Everglades), Buildings and Flowers, with more to come in the following weeks. Please check them out and remember, TWIFL has nothing to do with the shipping costs. LOL.

The First Amendment in Action

Long time readers (and readers of the Florida Gonna Florida section this week) know how much we here at TWIFL love the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Here's a refresher:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. From the United States Constitution

We witnessed so much of that in action this week through an interfaith prayer vigil, a panel about shutting down the detention center in the Everglades (as opposed to the one on the edge of it on Krome Ave, but that's a different story), protests, this blog and so on.

TWIFL tries to keep the emails to a minimum (because we here at TWIFL hate bloated inboxes) so when we publish a "Special Coverage Story," of which there have been four such posts in the last week, we don't send an email. So do regularly check the Special Coverage tab on this website if you're interested in that.

The Special Coverage stories this week include a review of a jazz concert and coverage of a panel on the detention center illegally built in the Everglades that received zero other press coverage.

Bear

the History Hound Finds

Had an interesting conversation with a friend about capitalism this week so it mae me think of this piece in one of my favorite sources, Time's Made by History.