Secession for South Florida?

Threatened with rising sea level, officials want South Florida to break off into its own state 

‘South Florida’s situation is very precarious and in need of immediate attention’

Sun Sentinel,

21 October, 2014

By Adrienne Cutway

(Sun Sentinal) – Officials in the City of South Miami have passed a resolution [pdf] in favor of splitting the state in half so South Florida would become the 51st state.

Vice Mayor Walter Harris proposed the resolution and it passed with a 3-2 vote at the city commission meeting on Oct. 7.

Harris told the commission that Tallahassee isn't providing South Florida with proper representation or addressing its concerns when it comes to sea-level rising.

"We have to be able to deal directly with this environmental concern and we can’t really get it done in Tallahassee," Harris said. "I don’t care what people think -- it’s not a matter of electing the right people."

Mayor Philip Stoddard agreed with Harris' reasoning, saying during the meeting that he's advocated for secession for the past 15 years but never penned a resolution.

It’s very apparent that the attitude of the northern part of the state is that they would just love to saw the state in half and just let us float off into the Caribbean," Stoddard said. "They’ve made that abundantly clear every possible opportunity and I would love to give them the opportunity to do that.”

But the vote wasn't unanimous. Commissioners Gabriel Edmond and Josh Liebman voted against the resolution with Edmond, a history teacher, being the most vocal about it.

"I just want you guys to be careful because if you vote for this you’re setting a precedent that if other people in this city don’t like our representation or feel we’re not responsive to them they might say ‘we want to break away from the city of South Miami’.”