Newly drawn districts
We may see soon what this area’s two main congressional districts will look like in revised form.
The Legislature will meet Aug. 10 in special session to redraw perhaps 20 of Florida’s 27 congressional districts. This month, the Florida Supreme Court ordered the redrawing of eight districts, but doing that will affect many others. Remember waterbeds from the 1970s? You pushed down on one side, and the whole thing rippled. Same thing with the congressional districts.
No district will change more than the 5th, which Corinne Brown represents. It stretches absurdly from Jacksonville to Orlando, and at one point is only as wide as a highway. Brown, a Democrat, likes it. She’s African-American, and the district is packed with African-American voters. Republicans like it. Keeping those Democrats in District 5 makes adjoining districts more Republican.
The problems with Districts 21 and 22, which overlap Palm Beach and Broward counties, is that they run roughly parallel. Lois Frankel has voters along the coast in District 22, and Ted Deutch has voters in the western suburbs of District 21. Under rules that voters imposed in 2010, the Legislature must observe political boundaries. The fix would be to take Broward out of one district.
In fact, the House proposed “stacking” the districts, but the Senate objected. If the new maps follow what the House proposed, Frankel and Deutch might have to run against each other. Frankel’s West Palm Beach home would be in District 21.
Or Frankel could run in District 22, with or without moving. Members of Congress don’t have to live in their districts. Harry Johnston spent eight years representing a Palm Beach County district in which he did not live. Given that Frankel has held elective office almost continuously for three decades, I can’t see her giving up the seat.
Fortunately for Frankel and Deutch, the court did not insist on a particular redrawing. In its ruling, the court noted that “the challengers have conceded that a vertical configuration could perhaps pass constitutional muster, and their alternative maps introduced at trial did, in fact, configure these districts in a vertical manner.” The court left the decision to the Legislature.
Still, the districts will change. And the court must approve the statewide congressional map. Legislative leaders promise that this time everything will be done fairly and in the open. Of course, they promised that the last time.
Boca Regional gets high marks
It’s a good week for Boca Raton Regional Hospital.
U.S. News and World Report just released its latest rankings of American hospitals. The rankings are similar to those the publication does for colleges and universities. Critics have claimed that the rankings are too subjective, but they have attained more credibility as technology to study and compare metrics has improved. You can assume that hospital and college administrators pay attention to the rankings, which can be marketing tools.
Boca Regional didn’t make the magazine’s honor roll of the 15 best hospitals nationwide. That distinction is reserved for such facilities as Massachusetts General—ranked first—and the main campuses in Ohio and Minnesota of the Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic.
But U.S. News ranked Boca Regional fourth in South Florida—tied with Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach—and 12th in Florida—tied with Mt Sinai, Indian River Medical Center in Vero Beach and UF Health Jacksonville. No other Palm Beach hospital was ranked in either category. The top-ranked South Florida hospital was Baptist Health in Miami, followed by Holy Cross in Fort Lauderdale and the Cleveland Clinic’s Weston campus.
In the last survey, Boca Raton Regional ranked 21st in the state and ninth in South Florida. If the hospital was a song and we were back in the days of Top 40 radio, you’d say that Boca Regional was No. 4 with a bullet.
Not as old as we look
Most of Boca Raton Regional’s revenue comes from Medicare. No surprise there. Palm Beach County, like the rest of Florida, has a high percentage of residents who are 65 or older.
But is Palm Beach the oldest county in the state? No, and it’s not even close. According to new census figures, nearly 53 percent of residents in north-central Florida’s Sumter County are at least 65. Sumter is home to The Villages, the huge retirement community. Charlotte County, north of Fort Myers, is second-oldest. Thirty-seven percent of residents have hit 65.
Palm Beach County? Somewhere between 20 percent and 25 percent. That’s a good thing. We want the county to attract young people, not drive them away.
Cuba bound again
My flight to Portugal for our recent vacation left from Miami International Airport. Departing from the next gate was a flight to Cuba on Eastern Airlines. How 1955.
And how fitting. For 23 years, Eastern had its hub in Miami and was Dade County’s largest private employer. That first incarnation of Eastern folded in 1991. The new version comes as the United States rolls out a new version of its policy toward Cuba.
On Monday, the two countries opened embassies in Washington and Havana. Howls of resistance continue from hard-liners in both countries, but President Obama decided that from this country’s perspective 54 years of failure—from when we cut relations—was enough.
The flight next to mine was headed to Santa Clara, east of Havana, and carried Cuban-Americans on family visits. With luck, anyone from South Florida soon can make the trip to Cuba as if it were any other country.
Already, Carnival is planning cruises to Cuba that will qualify under the “social impact” category that allows Americans to make pleasure visits. American companies are planning for when they can bid for contracts to repair the Cuban road system. Broadband providers know that only 5 percent of Cubans have Internet access.
Politicians from this state, with the country’s largest Cuban-American and Cuban presence, should support the United States changing its relationship with the island. The timing certainly works. Venezuela’s economic bust means that it can’t keep sending cheap oil. Florida companies could promote renewable energy. Why let Vladimir Putin, who just wrote off much of Cuba’s debt, let Russia resume its Cold War role as Cuba’s patron?
By wide margins, younger Americans and Cubans favor restoring diplomatic relations and ending the trade embargo, which only Congress can do. May the new Eastern Airlines flourish, and may travel to Cuba for South Floridians become as routine as it was in the 1950s.
Randy Schultz was born in Hartford, Conn., and graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1974. He has lived in South Florida since then, and in Boca Raton since 1985. Schultz spent nearly 40 years in daily journalism at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, most recently as editorial page editor at the Post. His wife, Shelley, is director of The Learning Network at Pine Crest School. His son, an attorney, and daughter-in-law and three grandchildren also live in Boca Raton. His daughter is a veterinarian who lives in Baltimore.
