Welcome to World Famous Ft Lauderdale

 

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Executive Producers: David Martin, David Snyder, Jim Ludlow
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Transcription

David Martin: This is the good government show.

Dean Trantalis: Technically, it’s not a full time job. But it is. I’d say most of my time is spent working. Working with city issues and attending events. Last week had a major. Another major rainstorm. And a and people were disappointed. But there’s nothing I can do about the weather. All we can do as is is, is control the response.

Government is definitely, an opportunity for certainly for someone who feels that they’ve, they’ve achieved something in life or want to give back. I’m not going to be able to be a swimmer or a diver. I’m not going to be able to run cross country and throw a javelin. I said, but there are other contests that I could be a part of and and win at.

And I said, and politics is going to be one of those. So this is my Olympics. I was an environmentalist before the word environmentalist was invented.

David Martin: Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Just singing out loud makes you think of spring break beaches and sun. So when I got to talk to mayor Dean Tran, tell us the city’s mayor had a lot of questions and a lot to talk about. Welcome to the Good Government show. I’m your host, Dave Martin. First, help us share the message of good government by liking us and sharing us where we are on Facebook, Instagram and Blue Sky.

Please share this with your friends and don’t forget your reviews. Let’s get everyone excited about good government. Well, I could spend hours talking about Fort Lauderdale. As you’ll hear, I used to live close by and spend many days and nights in the bars and the beaches of the city, and you’ll hear about the world famous and legendary elbow room.

Well, you will. We’ll talk about that later. Despite living in the relative Paradise of a South Florida city on the beach, there are some big issues the mayor has to deal with. We discussed issues like sea rise and construction of new seawalls. Water is a challenge both from the ocean and underground. And as the mayor will tell you, that requires planning for today and for the future.

If you’ve ever been to Fort Lauderdale on vacation, give a listen to mayor Dean Tran. Tell us here what’s going on in this city. Just off the beach that’s coming up.

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Well, I am very excited to have with me the mayor of one of my favorite places, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Dean Tran, tell us. Yes, the show.

Dean Trantalis: Thank you, thank you.

David Martin: All right. It’s been I haven’t been to Fort Lauderdale in probably six months. What have I missed?

Dean Trantalis: Lots going on.

David Martin: Lots of good. Yeah.

Dean Trantalis: Yes. We’re a dynamic city always looking to welcome new people to our community.

David Martin: Yes.

Dean Trantalis: We embrace the diversity of cultures that, have found their home in our city, and we continue to try to attract people from all walks of life. And, and, it’s a great city to just have a good time in.

David Martin: It is a great city to have a good time. And I, I lived in Miami for a very long time, and, I spend a lot of time now in West Palm Beach, and I often go back to Fort Lauderdale. Beautiful beaches.

Dean Trantalis: Thank you. We do have the best beaches, and they’re very accessible to people and not, cordoned off by, you know, by condo developments and things like that. You know, it’s, that we have a large area of public beach. And the great thing about Fort Lauderdale is that, is for everybody, all price ranges, all affordability, you know, families, and we have a wonderful yachting community.

Certainly. Yes, we do every, every, fall. We have our, the international, boat show, which is the biggest in the world and, brings a lot of people from really everywhere in the world.

David Martin: So yes, it does.

Dean Trantalis: And yet we have other things going, and we have the Tortuga Festival, which is one of the largest country western music festivals in the country. And, it’s a,

David Martin: It should be in Davie.

Dean Trantalis: Well, it’s if they don’t have it, they don’t have the beach rehab.

David Martin: That’s true. So, David’s at West Broward. Yes.

Dean Trantalis: So we have a beautiful beach. That’s right there on the water is three days of of great music and great performances. And then, everything in between right now is June is pride month, throughout the country. And, certainly our communities are celebrating, the LGBTQ community. So it’s, it’s, it’s always something going on.

It’s, it’s, good family fun. And now we’re we’re at the edge of our seat because we’re supporting our team, the Panthers. The Florida Panthers. Yes. One more game, and we’re hoping we’re going to clinch the Stanley Cup. Everybody is really excited. And the watch parties are a jam packed with people. And again, you know, it’s just a lot of good family fun here in our community.

David Martin: For those in Broward County, you have a, new major league rugby team.

Dean Trantalis: We have, actually.

David Martin: Is that in LA?

Dean Trantalis: No, that’s in Miami. It’s in Miami. But they they they play in Fort.

David Martin: Lauderdale, right?

Dean Trantalis: Yeah. And, we’re very excited about that. The sharks. Yes. And, I went to one of their games a couple weeks ago. Yes. And, it’s, you know, that plus, you know, we have Inter Miami back home. That’s, they’re soccer. They play they’re, they’re, they’re labeled Miami. But they all they play in Fort Lauderdale.

Leo Messi lives in Fort Lauderdale. Many of the, the star players live in Fort Lauderdale. So, that plus our beautiful aquatic center. We just completed the largest dive tower. And, you know, this part of the world.

David Martin: So, the swimming hall.

Dean Trantalis: Of swimming hall of Fame. Yeah. Yep. So we have we have soccer. We have us, swimming and diving. We have, hockey. We’ve got, you know, the lot of things. And now we’re building a beautiful new, pickleball center, the 44 pickleball courts.

David Martin: Of course, you are.

Dean Trantalis: A course that.

David Martin: Whereas I could have been.

Dean Trantalis: In, southern part of our city called Snyder Park. And, it’s going to be a tournament, available for tournament play around the country and around the world. The, the people that are building it are, are going to have a beautiful restaurant and, and clubhouse. So it’s exciting all these people investing in our community.

And we’re, we’re very, very proud of very, very happy to partner with them.

David Martin: You’ve left out the Fort Lauderdale Rugger Fest. The Fort Lauderdale Knights rugby team.

Dean Trantalis: Well, they playing for us.

David Martin: Knows I’m a rugby player.

Dean Trantalis: Yeah, but they play in Fort Lauderdale. They just, they they their name is still Miami Sharks.

David Martin: I don’t know the Fort Lauderdale Knights. Is is your.

Dean Trantalis: Local the nice. Yeah. We have the Knights. Of course.

David Martin: Have. And they have, they’ve been hosting the Rugby fest. I probably played it at 20 times.

Dean Trantalis: Yeah. And, and and again, great people are wonderful to, to have them in our city and, and the good thing about it is that there’s always something great happening in our city every weekend, even during the week. And it’s, it’s a good it’s a good opportunity for people to come and visit Joy. But at the same time, we’re finding a lot of young people are moving there to, you know, start a career, build a family.

And, we’re seeing more and more of that. Our population continues to grow, especially with young people in their 20s and 30s. And, they are populating all the new restaurants. So it’s, it’s really fun, exciting to see the next generation come in and build Fort Lauderdale.

David Martin: And I go back to, spring break for Lauderdale. The elbow room, I think is the only place that still there.

Dean Trantalis: Is still there.

David Martin: The elbow room is iconic.

Dean Trantalis: Elbow.

David Martin: Room started in January right?

Dean Trantalis: And, it’ll be there forever. Even beyond our. I hope we’re gone. Even though everything around it will change. You know, the beach has matured over the years. It’s, because.

David Martin: I go back to spring break. Yeah, where the boys are, and we.

Dean Trantalis: Still host spring break there. A lot of college kids are still come every spring. It’s a little different. You know, I spending $200 a week for a hotel room. Yeah. So it’s, But we do it.

David Martin: We do it. Well, shut it down for a few.

Dean Trantalis: Years in the 80s, right? Yeah. We shut we shut down the whole idea of spring break because it was just making a mess of the city. It wasn’t really, it wasn’t productive for anybody. So, and then the the the the city fathers at the time, you know, wanted to change the branding of Fort Lauderdale. They have the more upscale we have, we have Ritz Carlton, Conrad four seasons, you know, we have all the big branded, hotels there, multiple marriotts and, the Hilton.

So, but again, the price for.

David Martin: Every boulevard has changed dramatically.

Dean Trantalis: Dramatically.

David Martin: And, it’s now, it’s it’s, restaurant,

Dean Trantalis: Restaurant galleries.

David Martin: Galleries, it’s a whole street. Cross streets. Right. And it’s beautiful.

Dean Trantalis: And it’s.

David Martin: And.

Dean Trantalis: Is populated with, with people of all ages. We have young people. We have the older folks that there still come there. And it’s great. It’s fun, it’s exciting, a safe. And, you see a lot of Lamborghinis and Maseratis driving up and down the street.

David Martin: Well, I was I was up in West Palm Beach and by one of my good friends was in Miami. We met in the middle, a.

Dean Trantalis: Lot of us. Oh, yeah. And it’s a great place. It’s unlike any other, you know, like Worth Avenue is is well known, but it’s kind of it’s kind of quiet and stodgy and. Yes, and, and we’re not quite sure where to go in Miami anymore. You know, Lincoln Road used to be a thing and Ocean Drive used to be a thing, and no one goes there anymore.

David Martin: I used to go to the Grove, but baby girl.

Dean Trantalis: That was the end of the day. Yes, I believe. Yeah. But the Grove is really a beautiful place. It’s coming back into its own again, I hope. Yes, it is. But, you know, every city, is doing their best. So I was talking with Mayor Suarez yesterday, and how we we we don’t compete. We compliment each other, and we we, we cater to different, a different, pool of visitors.

So, so it’s exciting. South Florida is, is really a happening place, and we’re very happy to be a part of it.

David Martin: It’s one of my favorite places. It’s Paradise, but there’s trouble. I know that one of the big problems plaguing, South Florida and and Fort Lauderdale is, water.

Dean Trantalis: Mother nature.

David Martin: Mother nature, her water.

Dean Trantalis: Packer bags and go home. Okay.

David Martin: Yeah. That’s not happening. So how do you fix this? How do you manage this? I mean, I know the high tides and heavy rain. The streets flood.

Dean Trantalis: Well, I can’t I can’t push back, you know, the, climate change, you know, we’re going to see it. We’re going to see more frequent and more intense storms that’s going to happen around the world. I just notice on the TV this morning where it’s 125 degrees in Saudi Arabia, I mean, that’s not with the heat index know.

So we’re seeing extreme climate conditions now throughout the world. City of Fort Lauderdale is, is is investing hundreds of millions of dollars and I and I and I’m not exaggerating, literally hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure to, to, create a more resilient, city where neighbors are we have storm drains that we have, the ability to withstand some of these major storms, you know.

But in April of 2023, we got a rainstorm of 26in in five hours. I mean, there’s no city in the world that can that can push that back in a, you know, in a timely fashion. So we dealt with it. A lot of families were displaced. You know, we thank the state government, the federal government, for pitching in and helping people, you know, resettle.

But that’s the reality, you know, and today we are, we continue to invest. We’re investing in a new water treatment plant. Our sewer system is, is, is being completely renovated and, and, restored. But we things that we should have done, done years and years ago, we’re trying to, you know, do it now, catch up with the with the pass.

David Martin: And we have no choice.

Dean Trantalis: We have no choice.

David Martin: We have to deal with this. Right.

Dean Trantalis: So we are dealing with it. We’re not putting it back. We’re not waiting for the federal government to fund it. We we’ve been issuing bonds and, little by little, you know, we’ll get some federal relief. But the reality is we just push forward, move ahead, and try to start to get this stuff done. And and that’s important because you cannot sustain growth if you don’t have the infrastructure to support it.

And so we realize that people are moving to Fort Lauderdale. We’re getting, I say, 25,000 people in the last two years have moved into our city. So, you know, we’re building more housing. We continue to build more housing, which, as the price of housing continues to grow, we’re hoping that the increase inventory will level off the price point, people wanting to move into our city.

And that’s starting to happen. So we’re excited about the future. But the present is fun, too. And,

David Martin: Are you doing stuff like seawall construction?

Dean Trantalis: The city is rebuilding all the seawalls. We’ve changed the law about new construction. People have to raise your seawalls if if they’re on the water and they, and they, they’re building a new home. The city has put it over two miles with a seawalls of its own. Okay. Throughout the city. We just did another dedication last week.

So seawall construction is important. But again, a lot of it has to do with individuals, private homes. They have to build their own seawalls and raise them up and make them secure. But it’s still a great place to be. You know, the like I said, we’re the yachting capital of the world, our home, a huge tourist destination.

And, we like to think that there’s something for everybody.

David Martin: So. So, are there places where you’re not allowing people to build now?

Dean Trantalis: Oh, of course, we try to maintain the integrity of our single family home neighborhoods so that there’s no intrusion of development into these homes. We we more or less focus all the new development in the city center. There’s a lot of vacant land in the city center for many decades. And so we have an area called Flagler Village.

It’s deep. It’s essentially the the core of the city. And that’s where most of the development is taking place is the high rise development and, rental and condominium development. So we do concentrated in certain areas so that, so that the people that have lived there for years are not going to have intrusion as they’re into their single family homes.

Now, having said that, we have to be careful with the state legislature in Florida is finding out finding that, hey, you know, what’s, so bad to keep adding more square footage to the single family homes? So there is a statute now that permits, people that own single family homes to add on to their homes in violation of our existing zoning laws that, that permit intrusion into the setback, except, allow more square footage, within a certain, square, within a certain, building lot.

So. And that’s a little difficult for me to accept because, well, many of of many, many people say, oh, it’s to bring in the mom and, you know, dad and the brother in law and all that. We know better because we know that that extra room is going to be for vacation rentals. They’re going to rent that out.

And that’s become the scourge of most cities, especially popular destination tourist resorts like Fort Lauderdale. So many of our neighborhoods, even our, you know, no matter what the price range of the neighborhood is, you see more and more vacation rentals. And I do not want to see this as a as a burgeoning cottage industry where people add another room to their house saying it’s for a family member.

And in fact, they’re just going to have a separate doorway and that’s going to be a vacation rental. So it’s it’s a challenge.

David Martin: Are there places that you’re concerned about in Lauderdale? With Sea Rise specifically well aware of the water.

Dean Trantalis: Around the water, obviously. So, so sea level rise will continue to, be an issue, building seawalls like you suggested. We, the city on all this property will have a higher sea walls. We also are building a new water treatment plant, and we’re building it further inland, several miles inland, so that the saltwater intrusion will not permeate our well fields for a few more decades, if, if at all.

So we when we build our new water treatment plant, we are, we’re making sure that we’ll have, we’ll have pure water from which to draw in order to sustain the city for the next several decades.

David Martin: Is freshwater, an issue that you have to monitor?

Dean Trantalis: The freshwater is always an issue when you have rising sea levels, because we have a permeable subsurface.

David Martin: So people have never been there. Hey, you have miles and miles of canals and, you know, right. Coastal area and this in the intercoastal.

Dean Trantalis: And we sit on what’s called the Biscayne Aquifer, from which we get our freshwater. So not only we have a rising sea level, but we have water from underneath that keeps coming up.

David Martin: Yes.

Dean Trantalis: So, so, so we’re getting hit from multiple directions. But we have a plan. It’s a, we’re putting it into, into into effect. We’re just hoping that climate change will somehow level off or be reversed so that, you know, we’re try to become more of a, a zero carbon, economy. And, you know, we’re we’re doing our best to work with, state and national leaders in order to, to move in that direction.

But when you have a governor that has excised all the phrases, climate change from the state, say, statute books, it’s kind of, difficult to to work with people who who somehow are in denial. So we’re getting there.

David Martin: Yes it is. South Florida’s always had a,

Dean Trantalis: Immigration issues. I think every I think every state has immigration issues. Yeah. I mean, we definitely are.

David Martin: Is a is a South American, Central American destination.

Dean Trantalis: Well, I always say Miami is the capital of South America. So, yes. So so we do have immigration challenges with Haitians, Cubans, those are the people most close. Most. But the changing the Cuban policy has definitely diminished the amount of Cuban immigrants that we’ve seen in the last ten years. But but we do have, we do have Haitian folks that have that are made their way into our state, and, and just people from all over the world are finding their way.

I mean, you don’t have to come in on a boat anymore. You come in business class. Yeah, I’m sure people still come in one way or the other. You know, it’s.

David Martin: Not like a case where a boat shows up. Yeah.

Dean Trantalis: 30 people. People are, under that mistaken impression that all the illegal immigration is on a on a, you know, a a rickety old, boat that comes from, you know, some Caribbean island, right? You know, that doesn’t happen. That does happen once in a while. That’s not where most of the illegal immigration is coming from. These are real people trying to get away from their countries.

Venezuela. Bless from Colombia now, but, certainly a lot of South American countries. Mexico an interesting finding. We’re finding that some of the or a good portion of the Mexican, Mexican source, immigrants are not Mexican, they’re Turkish, they’re Syrians. They’re coming through Mexico because the word is out that that’s an open border. So we’re seeing people all over the world finding a way into the US.

From places you least suspect that they would be coming from.

David Martin: So when one drives up a when a yes in Fort Lauderdale, all they see is, you know, beautiful beach on one side and and.

Dean Trantalis: Beautiful hotels on the other.

David Martin: Side. The other side. What’s the biggest problem you face?

Dean Trantalis: The popularity of the city. You know.

David Martin: That’s a problem for people I don’t know. That’s a problem for you.

Dean Trantalis: Well, trying to manage growth. Yeah. And it’s probably one of the few cities in the entire state that has that beautiful drive that goes right along the ocean. And, it’s a it’s a beautiful ride. It goes for like a mile and a half and, and and the hotels on the other side, you know, they have the best view.

And, you know, the whole in the whole state is different than Miami Beach, where where the hotels are much further back on the beach, you don’t really see the beach much. And, I just think that managing growth is the biggest challenge, making sure that our infrastructure can sustain the growth and, and just keeping people safe. Luckily, the.

David Martin: Water system that needs schools, that means parking, that means social services, it means police.

Dean Trantalis: All of that. We’ve increased our police force, our increased our firefighters, we’ve increased our homeless outreach, staff. We’ve increased, all levels of service for, for all walks of life. And, and we’ve maintained a pretty low crime rate throughout throughout the city, probably the lowest in 20, 25 years right now. So, so we’re very pleased that that we have a new police chief, great guy, a new fire chief, also great guy.

So, they all work together and, and hopefully, you know, make, make the experience coming to Fort Lauderdale, a place they want to come back to.

David Martin: I certainly want to come back. How long they’ve been there?

Dean Trantalis: I’m in my seventh year now. Okay. I’m running for reelection this November. It’ll be my last term because we are term limited. Okay. And so looking forward to finishing up some of the projects that we got started now. And, and then I’ll be happy to pass the baton to the next generation.

David Martin: What got you into this? What were you before?

Dean Trantalis: Oh, you know, I’ve always been politically involved. I majored in political science at Boston University. And, So politics has always been in my blood, but, I got I got much more active. When in the 1990s, when the, equal rights movement for the LGBT community started to percolate in Broward County. And that’s what I got more involved in.

And I became, an activist. At that time, we were able to get some laws changed back then, and, and ever since then, I just continued my activism.

David Martin: Okay. And activism as.

Dean Trantalis: Mayor. As mayor, it’s always good to have a seat at the table, I’ll tell you.

David Martin: All right, well, since we’re talking about government, we’re going to talk about good government. We’ll do that just a minute.

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David Martin: So this is our good government questionnaire. We’re going to get to your philosophy of government.

Dean Trantalis: Oh God.

David Martin: Don’t all about.

Dean Trantalis: You test.

David Martin: Me I get it. Yeah. It’s an easy test. Oh. Maybe not. You’re married seven years. Define good government.

Dean Trantalis: Defined good government? Yes. Good government is honest government. Being honest with the people and having honest goals. Not being unduly influenced by, by lobbyists and, and vendors who always try to, you know, push forward their agenda, just trying to do the right thing for the for the overall good of the community. And like I said, just be honest with the people.

If there’s a problem, come out and say there’s a problem. If there’s if there’s a real solution, you try to draw that solution from the community and not try to impose it on people.

David Martin: How do you tell? How can you tell if you’re doing a good job, if you’re if you’re delivering good government.

Dean Trantalis: Well, they’ll reelect you.

David Martin: All right. Well, that’s every four years or what.

Dean Trantalis: About a year. But that’s the biggest metric.

David Martin: The other way. How do you decide if you’ve done a good job?

Dean Trantalis: You know, people have no problem coming up to you at the grocery store or at the gym or wherever I go and, and tell you what they think. But I’ll tell you, for the most part, people are very complimentary at this, at least right now. And, they’re very happy with the direction that we’ve taken with the city.

You’ll see a few people that are disappointed. And like last week at a major, another major rainstorm and a lot. And people are disappointed. But there’s nothing I can do about the weather. All we can do as is, is, is control their response. And, I think our public works department really did a great job. And, and our acting city manager together, making sure that few, as few people as possible were impacted.

David Martin: If people don’t feel like you’re doing a good job other than voting you out of office, what should they do?

Dean Trantalis: Well, what they do now is they send me emails. Okay. And, we have a we get a lot of emails every day and, and, and we and we respond, almost within the same day, people looking for answers, people looking for solutions. People just looking for information. And, I have a great staff that, that we work strictly with strictly on the emails and, that I think people feel good that they’re not being ignored.

And we don’t want to ignore people. You know, we’re there as public servants to try to respond to people’s needs.

David Martin: It’s a full time job, mayor.

Dean Trantalis: It’s not a full technically. It’s not a full time job.

David Martin: But it is.

Dean Trantalis: But it is. I’d say most of my time is spent, working and working with city issues and attending events. And, you have another.

David Martin: Job.

Dean Trantalis: Or. I do have a law practice. Yes. You do. Yes. Okay.

David Martin: So are you an active law practice?

Dean Trantalis: I have an active law practice.

David Martin: I work a lot.

Dean Trantalis: I do, what we call transactional work. So there’s mostly, real estate assay planning. I do some, landlord tenant litigation. Anything related to real estate is, is something that I do. The market’s a little down right now. So, because of the high interest rates. So, so once we get through this, we’ll see, more and more interested in the real estate into my practice.

David Martin: There was the famous, apartment collapse. Was that in Fort Lauderdale or probably.

Dean Trantalis: No, no, no, that was in Miami Dade.

David Martin: Sorry.

Dean Trantalis: That was in, in, Surfside. Right. And, North Miami. Yes. It’s not North Miami. It’s in Surfside. Okay. It’s a different city.

David Martin: I’m not north Miami Beach. Separate city, but yes, exactly. I’m from South Dade.

Dean Trantalis: Okay. So that’s Surfside is a different city. It’s a small city that.

David Martin: Caused you to take a look at what you were doing. And you’re you’re.

Dean Trantalis: Well, absolutely, absolutely. The county, our county also, a little slow on the take, but, they eventually, realized that they needed to change their rules and, so we definitely have stronger, stronger requirements for especially older buildings, you know, 30, 40, 50 years old. Right. The state also got involved and, and they, they set new regulations.

So we see that.

David Martin: Where the Conference of Mayors and we’re right out here, it’s not where everyone can see us.

Dean Trantalis: Sometimes it’s Tom Corcoran, the CEO. Good.

David Martin: So, anyway.

Dean Trantalis: Yes, sir.

David Martin: You’re an elected official. What would you like people to know about government from the inside?

Dean Trantalis: Government, is definitely, an opportunity for certainly for someone who feels that they’ve, they’ve achieved something in life or want to give back and, or is for somebody that is looking to achieve something and, thinks they can do it through public service. And I think that, these opportunities are there. But the way you get involved in government is to get involved with your neighborhood, with local associations, let people know who you are, and, let people feel good about you.

And, and, and I think that’s, it’s a really, it’s a very fulfilling opportunity to do the kind of good stuff that you, you feel good about doing. And I think that, you know, have you been in government now for God, 18, 19 years now? It’s, it’s really been a very, rewarding experience.

And, once my term is concluded as mayor, you know, I, I feel that, it’s been a good, lifetime, endeavor. And I’ll be very proud of, you know, what I’ve been able to do?

David Martin: I will be a good run. What’s the best part of being mayor of Fort Lauderdale?

Dean Trantalis: The best part about being mayor is, opportunities that it offers you being able to come to events like this. The U.S. Conference of mayors meeting with other mayors, traveling to other cities, and, a lot of people give a lot of respect to the person who is mayor. And, and, it’s very, endearing and flattering and, especially, in your hometown, people are, they always want to have their picture taken with the mayor and said, all right, good.

A lot of smiling. So, it’s fun.

David Martin: Is is your picture on the wall of various diners?

Dean Trantalis: And yet.

David Martin: The Bay area?

Dean Trantalis: Not yet. That. Yeah.

David Martin: What’s the hardest part of being mayor of Fort Lauderdale?

Dean Trantalis: The hardest part of being mayor is, you know, try to satisfy everybody. You know, and I’ve come to learn long ago, you’re not going to make everybody happy or you’re not. So I do my best to simply, you know, accomplish what I think is in the best interest of the community overall and, and not get caught up in the minutia of, dissident opinions that oftentimes, you know, I think people just post negative things just because they feel they can and, they’re not really engaged in the issue, but they just want to, to you know, to voice something and then get the attention of others.

David Martin: That’s the hard part.

Dean Trantalis: So you don’t read those comments.

David Martin: To read the press?

Dean Trantalis: I read the press. I don’t read the internet comments.

David Martin: What about the opinion columns?

Dean Trantalis: Yeah, yeah. Of course.

David Martin: All right, well, you know, this leads me to my next question. Where do you get your news from?

Dean Trantalis: I get my news from newspapers. I get my news from you.

David Martin: Still get the sunset.

Dean Trantalis: I started the Sun-Sentinel. Sun-Sentinel delivered to my door as well as the Miami Herald. Good. But I find that fewer and fewer people read them. Yes. And so, sadly, sadly, a lot of people get the newspaper online. And, that’s another way to to get the same news. But unfortunately, the newspapers have had to cut back on their newspaper staff.

Yep. So we don’t have the quality of reporting that we used to. So the Sentinel still has a couple of really, really good people there. And we work closely with try to get the news out through them. But, you know, I mean, it’s by word of mouth, you know, I, I sometimes go on the internet, and Facebook, Instagram to see what people are posting about news, newsworthy events.

I just don’t read the comments.

David Martin: Well, you know, as an ex newspaper man, you know, one of the reasons we started this was because, you know, back in the day that we’re probably three reporters at every town council meeting, and you probably don’t have that.

Dean Trantalis: We have one. Yeah, yeah. One is she’s good. She reports things. Well, we have a columnists who says he’s not a reporter. He’s just an opinion maker. I think he’s a gossip columnist. Okay. That that that, puts together a, a, an opinion piece that, is often based on a lot of misinformation, but that’s another story for another time.

David Martin: Okay. Who’s your political hero? Who inspired.

Dean Trantalis: You? My political hero. I don’t think there’s any one political hero. Okay, but I will say this. You know, when I first decided to run for office, I. There happened to be. It was that it was a summer, the summer of 2002. And, we were I was watching the Olympics and I said to myself, you know, I’m not going to be able to be a swimmer or a diver or I’m not going to be able to run cross-country and throw a javelin.

I said, but there are other contests that I could be a part of and at with Atwitter. And I said, and politics is going to be one of those. So this is my Olympics, okay. And and that’s what inspired me just to know that I can still achieve, but in a different, context, a different form and still do good and still, try to be a good person as a result of it.

David Martin: Had you always thought about politics, you said.

Dean Trantalis: Yeah, I mean, I, I, you know, you know, I say one of the early, one of the early heroes that I had was Ralph Nader, when I was really young. And he started this organization called Purge Public Interest Research Group. Yes. And, I was in high school and, and it just got me much more.

But we were very concerned about the environment back then in the 1960s. And, it was a big thing. And I was an environmentalist before the word environmentalist was invented. And, I would say he was one of my early, role models wanting to, you know, pursue public interest goals as he tried to get all of us, you know, back then, excited about those things.

And then I, you know, then there were other politicians in office. Hubert Humphrey, was always, a person that I admired. And then all along the line, you know, there were always people that, both locally and nationally that I felt were were good role models to follow.

David Martin: Did you want to be president when you grew up?

Dean Trantalis: No. Never wanted to be president? No. And even now, less and less so.

David Martin: Okay.

Dean Trantalis: Politics has changed.

David Martin: Yes, it has.

Dean Trantalis: It’s, it’s, it’s not as, I don’t know, something about politics today that, make it more difficult. And you really have to pay attention to the to the dynamics of politics. It’s become, I don’t know, maybe I’m becoming more as it should be as I become more involved with politics. Maybe I’m seeing the reality of it more.

When I was younger, I never was exposed to it. Maybe it was always there, but, But something tells me just watching it on TV, that you see a lot of partizanship, a lot of polarization, a lot of, you know, dead on arrival stuff where people really want to listen to you. Yeah. We don’t see that at the local level.

Local level, we’re much more collegial, and we try to work together. You know, when you run for office, you have.

David Martin: To get it done.

Dean Trantalis: We have to get it done.

David Martin: You have to build the seawall.

Dean Trantalis: Right?

David Martin: There’s no this is not, you.

Dean Trantalis: Know, and we don’t run. We don’t run by party affiliation either at the city level in Florida, at, the city level, it’s nonpartisan. So we don’t we don’t fuss with Partizan issues. I stick I don’t talk about national issues or state issues. I just focus on, matters that I have some control over.

David Martin: Okay. I’ve been in Fort Lauderdale many times. This question is, is, for someone, I don’t know, for an an area, I don’t know. What’s your favorite place to dine? What’s your favorite dish? And, a lot of, you know, you know, look, you can catch some fresh tuna and or some snappers, of course. Yeah.

Right off the docks there.

Dean Trantalis: At some point, you can get you can you can, fish for your own food. Yes. We have a lot of good restaurants in Fort Lauderdale now. I mean, depends on how much you want to spend. I love seafood, yeah, we have great seafood places. There are Greek restaurants, Italian restaurants, steak and steak and seafood restaurants.

I mean, we just have. There’s really no one best, every every restaurant, that I could think of has, has, you know, their stand out dish.

David Martin: And is there a place you love with, like, the freshest catch?

Dean Trantalis: The freshest catch? You know, there’s the lobster bar. There’s, you know, there’s, I don’t know, there’s just a lot of good restaurants that.

David Martin: Afford a lobster guy. Yeah.

Dean Trantalis: I prefer Maine. Okay. Yeah, they do, but I do like, I do like, something that New England doesn’t have, which is stone crabs, I think. So crab crabs is better than lobster. Okay, so I, I look forward to the stone crab season when I can afford it. They’re very expensive, but I just think the the meat is sweeter, and, juicier, and, and so I look forward to stone crabs when we have Florida.

David Martin: So. Crab. Yeah. Go. Right, right. Do you guys have you got a.

Dean Trantalis: No, I don’t, I don’t, all right.

David Martin: I’ve I’ve pulled a few up. Yeah. So this is the good government show. And they always try to bring it back to good government. Give me an example of a good government project that you’re proud of.

Dean Trantalis: I would say the good government projects that I’m proud of are the are all the P3, projects that we’ve done, the, the soccer stadium that was built by Inter Miami Beckham, the P3 that we did with the Panthers, where they built two ice skating rinks in our in our downtown parks, the pickleball, center that I told you about, they do water treatment plant.

These are all P3 projects. And when you do it that way, you accomplish things more quickly and more effectively and more cost efficiently. And those are the kinds of projects that we focus on and we’re one of the few cities in Florida that is that have really implemented that, approach that was authorized by the state government to really get public projects done.

So we’re excited about the P3 approach. And, and I think that other cities, when they try to, build public works projects or public use projects, they should really think about those things.

David Martin: Dean Trenton as mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a place I’ve been to many times, and we’ll go back many times to.

Dean Trantalis: Well, thank you for having me. It’s really been.

David Martin: Exciting. Thank you for having me. I thank you for taking care of Fort Lauderdale.

Dean Trantalis: Thank you. Okay. Take care.

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Managing growth. That’s the biggest challenge for Mayor Trent Ellison for Audible Florida, he said. Some 25,000 people moved into his city in the previous two years. That means more schools, more cops, more housing and a lot of growth. But as the mayor said, planning for the future is the challenge of the city in South Florida. Well, that and finding the freshest seafood for dinner.

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**This transcription was created using digital tools and has not been edited by a live person. We apologize for any discrepancies or errors.