07-03-2025
I don't care if they rename Southern Boulevard for Trump. But let locals decide.
So, how do you feel about a couple of state lawmakers living roughly 200 miles outside of Palm Beach County filing legislation to change the name of a section of Southern Boulevard near Mar-a-Lago to President Donald J. Trump Boulevard? House Bill 697 and Senate Bill 1408, would glorify an area that every MAGA supporter in the county knows well.
State Rep. Danny Nix Jr., R-Port Charlotte and state Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, filed bills, which would rename the boulevard from South Ocean Boulevard in front of Mar-a-Lago Club on Palm Beach island, across the Intracoastal Waterway to Kirk Road in West Palm Beach. The legislative session just started and both bills are beginning to move through the committee process. Given Trump's popularity with Republicans and the Republican-led Florida Legislature's zeal to please him, the odds of the bills becoming law are good. It doesn't hurt either that one of the sponsors chairs the Senate's Transportation Committee.
Don't get me wrong. I don't have a problem renaming a street, government building or public facility after a president. Hialeah has a road named after Trump. Rivera Beach has a highway named after former President Barack Obama, and by now almost every Floridian has been cruising on the Ronald Reagan Turnpike after state lawmakers renamed the Florida's Turnpike after the 40th president. Floridians, like most Americans, think highly of their favorite presidents. I get that.
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I'm just a little aggrieved that state legislators with little connection to this community are proposing the change. It was the residents of Riviera Beach who convinced their city council in 2016 to rename a section of Old Dixie Highway after the 44th president. In 2023, the Hialeah City Council unanimously approved a proposal to call a four-mile stretch of Palm Avenue, President Donald J. Trump Avenue. They even gave Trump one of the new street signs.
There hasn't been much of a groundswell among West Palm Beach residents, and more importantly persons living on Palm Beach island, clamoring for the name change. So the job fell to outsiders from Florida's west coast who want to show support for the president, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and law enforcement in Charlotte and Hillsborough counties. The bill contains name changes for another strip of Southern Boulevard and roads in west Florida.
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The legislation hasn't had a hearing yet, but given the hold the president has on the Florida GOP, I would be surprised if the two bills didn't get any consideration in this legislative session. Lawmakers face more pressing issues — a looming condo crisis and an ongoing property insurance debacle to name just two.
Honorary designations, though, resonate in the state capitol. Even if they further undermine what's left of home rule.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: FL roads shouldn't be named for Trump without local support | Opinion
