Improper Gulf Breeze Protest

"This is a further divide of the proper and the improper residents
outside the city." -- Don Richards, United Peninsula Assn.
(Oct. 12)

Residents of "Gulf Breeze down the highway" -- the "improper" people -- are upset that the city council is poised to increase their water and sewer bills by 8.5 percent while leaving residents of "Gulf Breeze Proper" (within the narrow city limits) unchanged. If you live in zip code 32561 (Pensacola Beach and Gulf Breeze proper) your bills won't go up. If you live in zip code 32563, they will.

To add insult to injury, the city's sewer facilities are located "down the highway" and that's where they field-spray all the effluent, using nineteenth-century technology so typical of this part of Florida. Gulf Breeze "proper" residents also are protected from sewage spray in the eyes.

"On the surface, it seems unfair," says Mike Robertson, an "improper" resident. Yes, Mike, on the surface, deep inside, and all around.

The reason the city can, and will, get away with it is, state law allows cities to act as discriminatory as they like when setting utility rates. That, plus the "improper" ones don't get a vote on city council members because they live outside the city limits.

Another "improper" resident, Don Richards, says the handwriting is on the wall. "We're not going to stop the rate hike," he told the Pensacola News Journal today.

That's another characteristic of the local population. They're sheep. So, of course, they get shorn.

Have a little spine, people! If the "United Peninsula Association" of homeowners is worth the fee it costs to join, it should mount a boycott of all "Gulf Breeze Proper" businesses -- starting with every shop in the Publix, Seagreen, Office Depot, and [formerly named] Bruno's shopping centers.

They want "improper" business? Then, they ought to make sure the city council of Gulf Breeze doesn't treat down-the-highway residents improperly.

If UPA can't manage to mount that much of a protest, what's the use of it? Just take your annual dues and use it to offset the discriminatory impact of a city that knows no bounds -- except a zip code.

Dept. of Amplification

The Gulf Breeze Zip Code War