It Will Take Competence To Fill The DeSantis Vacuum |
It Will Take Competence To Fill The DeSantis Vacuum
Florida’s next governor needs a stress test, not a coronation
David DeMay | July 18, 2026
A few days ago, I posited that St. Pete Beach in Florida is showing signs of strain, hinting at a lack of the resilience that was once part of its fabric. Given that hurricanes are inevitable, I worried that its general inability to cope with even minimal pressure put it at risk of collapse in the event of another natural disaster.
Some commenters thought I was exaggerating a bad restaurant experience and overextending it. It’s worth taking that criticism seriously because the objection shows that I failed to make myself clear.
I wasn’t claiming that a tight parking lot and cold fries add up to a verdict on the entire state, nor was I calling St. Pete Beach unlivable. Instead, I was arguing that a community’s standards—the small, unglamorous commitments to safety, accessibility, and basic care for the people you serve—are the first things to erode when an economy is stretched thin.
A restaurant cutting corners on parking striping and food quality isn’t a scandal. It’s a symptom. And symptoms are worth naming precisely because they’re small enough to dismiss and common enough to matter.
I spent a decade in a volunteer uniform enforcing exactly this kind of compliance for the City of Fort Lauderdale—the invisible scaffolding that keeps a community functioning for everyone, not just the people who can squeeze through a two-inch gap. I don’t think that standard should apply only to the public sector while the commercial sector gets a pass because the economy is tight and everyone’s in a hurry.
The public deserves better from both. If pointing that out counts as handing ammunition to the other side, the problem isn’t the observation—it’s how little........