Let Them Eat Cake! ( in Fort Lauderdale)

We all remember the French Revolution and the story of Marie Antionette. Her famous, or infamous, quote has been the benchmark used to depict a disconnected elitist class out of touch from the society it governed.

Another famous saying is that history repeats itself. Fast forward to 2006 South Florida. The dubious honor of bestowing the first Bigdaddy Putz Award goes to our very own Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jim Naugle.

When asked recently about the housing affordabilty crisis in South Florida, his heiness Jim bellowed, " I'm supposed to subsidize some schlock sitting on the sofa and drinking a beer, who won't work more than 40 hours a week?" Naugle told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel last week, voicing opposition to a city plan that would force developers to build some affordable units or pay extra fees. "I deny that there is a problem."

"That's easy for him to say. King James, whose Rio Vista neighbors include captains of industry and trust fund beneficiaries, bought his home on the New River for $362,500 in 1996. Today, that kind of cabbage won't even get you a teardown shack in parts of his city."

Doing his best Joe McCarthy impersionation, King James further orated, "It's the developer and the person who buys a higher-priced unit that will be subsidizing them, and I think that's wrong," Naugle said. "It's government interfering with the marketplace and that's Karl Marx."

"The person who's working 60 hours to get ahead and making $90,000 a year is going to subsidize the person who's working only 40 hours a week and making $60,000," Naugle said."

"So now I'm a `schlock' because I only work 40 hours a week?" Michele Stadler, a full-time working mother, wrote city commissioners and Naugle by e-mail. "To insinuate that by not working more we are lazy is really a disgrace. He needs to take that silver spoon ... and look at the reality of life here in Fort Lauderdale and how it has changed in the last five years from the [perspective] of the middle class."

"Naugle said plenty of affordable housing options are around, just maybe not the single-family homes of people's dreams. He also said they should find jobs they love, not be "stuck on working 40 hours a week," and hold off on having children until they are in a better financial position."It's good to be a gatherer and build a nest before having a family," Naugle said. "That's what I did. I waited. Let's get people thinking about that."

Thanks to my wonderful wife for finding this article. Have a nice piece of cake honey.