On Wednesday, May 11th, Broward College Village Square hosted its final non-partisan debate titled “Mass Transportation in Broward: Dream vs. Reality” at Funky Buddha Brewery in Oakland Park, Fla. The debate was presented by the Village Square Advisory Board which is chaired by Broward County Commissioner Chip LaMarca and City of Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler; it was moderated by Jonathan Schwartz, AVP Planning Organization/Director of Real Estate at Broward College, and featured panelists Diana Alarcon, Director of Transportation and Mobility at the City of Fort Lauderdale, Bob Poole, Searle Freedom Trust Transportation Fellow and Director of Transportation Policy at the Reason Foundation, and Mayor Daniel Stermer, City of Weston.
Alarcon, Poole and Stermer discussed their different views on mass transportation with Schwartz in front of an audience of students, peers and influential members in South Florida. The goal of the Dinner at the Square events is to hold public forums to better educate the community on divisive issues in a respectful manner where ideas carry more weight than the volume of one’s voice. This was the last discussion in the series. The 2016-2017 Dinner at the Square program will coincide with the beginning of Broward College’s fall classes.