One may assume that particular occasions that commemorate a specific tradition or demographic would assist Danzinger’s mission. But within the mayor’s thoughts, these are implements of exclusion and run the chance of alienating residents and making individuals really feel like they do not belong.
In conserving along with his aversion to cultural celebrations, the mayor final week sought to shoot down a proposal that town maintain a homosexual satisfaction occasion this coming June. While explaining his reasoning at a March 14 fee assembly, Danzinger used some rhetorical arguments that caught attendees off-guard.
“How would we really feel if we begin having the Ukraine flag flying? How will our Russian residents really feel about that? How would we really feel if we begin having Israeli day parades or shul parades that the city begins sponsoring?” Danzinger requested on the assembly.
The proposal got here from resident Brian Bey through the “normal welfare” portion of the assembly. Bey prompt that the city host a gay-pride celebration when the rainbow flag is raised in June for LGBT Pride Month. This previous August, the city fee agreed in a 3-2 vote to permit the flag to fly throughout Pride Month this 12 months after declining to boost it final 12 months.
“I believe it might be good to have some kind of occasion that makes us conscious that Surfside is open to range and inclusion, an occasion just like what we now have on Thursday and Saturday nights,” Bey stated in entrance of the fee.
Bey was apparently referring to town-promoted occasions together with the “Third Thursdays” collection the place “an array of cultural experiences” serve to “entertain individuals of all generations” each third Thursday of the month. On February 16, it was Luau Night to spotlight Hawaiian tradition, which included performances by a Polynesian band and dancers.
Bey added that earlier commissioners authorized town-sponsored homosexual satisfaction occasions, referencing a flyer from June 2021. (He famous they had been canceled due to the tragic Champlain Towers South constructing collapse.) The city fee had additionally raised the flag throughout Pride Month that 12 months.
“On this explicit situation, there is no straddling of the fence,” Bey instructed the fee. “The query at hand right here: is Surfside a city of range and inclusion or not? I believe the reply [to] that query is in every of your fingers.”
Although Commissioner Fred Landsman agreed with Bey and requested the city supervisor to plan a ceremony for this 12 months’s flag-raising, Danzinger spoke out strongly in opposition to it. He stated no taxpayer cash might be spent on any “occasion that caters to at least one group.”
“All our occasions we attempt to do [are] inclusive — which means everybody involves them. Everybody feels at dwelling, not one group,” the mayor, an Orthodox Jewish resident, added. “Inclusivity means talking to everyone, not singling out a single denomination. I do know you will have already gone to the vacationer board on this they usually have instructed you a similar factor… Every occasion that we spend city cash on goes to carry everyone out.”
The mayor included his personal ethnic background in his examples of occasions which may exclude some city residents. He additionally identified that the city hosts a “Spring Egg Hunt” as a substitute of an Easter egg hunt to enchantment to individuals of all spiritual backgrounds and make “everybody really feel snug.”
“Imagine driving up or down Harding Avenue, you move by metropolis corridor and there’s a large Israeli flag flying over city. How does that make you are feeling?” Danzinger requested. “Does that make you are feeling included on this city? How about if there was an enormous Israeli day parade going up Collins Avenue? Again, does that make you are feeling included within the city?”
Danzinger opposed the elevating of the LGBTQ satisfaction flag final June over issues it might drive the city to simply accept requests from excessive teams like “Satanic cults” or teams attempting to boost swastika flags, as he framed it. He believes city flag poles must be reserved elusively for presidency flags.
The city’s choice to not fly the satisfaction flag was met with public criticism and protest.
Commissioner Nelly Vasquez disagreed with Danzinger’s imaginative and prescient of inclusivity and voiced her assist for the city internet hosting a homosexual satisfaction occasion.
“I hope we do put together an occasion as a thanks to our whole neighborhood as we must be inclusive of everybody,” she stated. “It should not be one thing that comes right here when it is handy just for one group. We are a neighborhood of range so I absolutely assist that.”
Surfside spokesperson Frank Trigueros didn’t reply to New Times‘ request for remark.