Cindy Lyn Banyai is running for City Council in Ward 4 against incumbent Liston Bochette. Her top priority is updating the City’s outdated water infrastructure – citywide.
Banyai contends that the city’s water system has been neglected over the years and is badly in need of upgrades.
“We’re at over 90 percent capacity for our water system as it is,” said Banyai. “We have some investment in that coming, but I know it’s not going to be enough. I truly believe that we are on the edge of a catastrophe here in Fort Myers between our growth and the damage that we see from flooding and hurricanes.”
Additional lift stations and clean, updated pipes are among the remedial measures she’ll advocate for if elected.
The topic of hurricanes leads Banyai to her next most important issue for Ward 4 - “climate change mitigation,” a topic she named before Hurricanes Helene and Milton flooded the riverfront with more than five feet of surge apiece.
“We saw during Hurricane Ian that there was a significant amount of damage in downtown, as well as to the coastal homes and properties,” Banyai noted. “I have not seen any discussion on what we are going to do as a city to prevent the next climate catastrophe in our backyard.”
Citing the tradition of innovation established by Fort Myers winter residents Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, Banyai proposes consulting with the best minds in science, engineering and technology to find and implement effective countermeasures to both storm surge and sea level rise - now rather than after it’s really too late.
“It is estimated that in Southwest Florida, both Naples and Fort Myers, by the year 2100, we’re going to have daily tidal flooding in our downtown areas. Daily,” said Banyai. “We need to start preparing and thinking about it because these are estimates that have a very clear timeline and we’re on a ticking timeclock.”
When it comes to small and micro businesses, Banyai thinks it’s time for a shift away from providing incentives that entice big business, out-of-town developers, or the next professional baseball or soccer team.
“There are things like lowering impact fees and tax abatements that will be very attractive if you have a big investment,” Banyai said. “However, it’s unclear as to what the return on investment in the community is with that. We know that small business owners when they’re micro businesses, that money is staying in the community, right, because it’s going back to the family that runs the business and the people they employ locally and it circulates around the community. ”
Placing the emphasis on supporting small and micro business, rather than taking them for granted, will avert policy misjudgments like the parking fee fiasco that business owners and visitors have experienced recently with the new parking fees and meters.
“We can do more with less, and I know fiscal conservatives are going to love that.”
The incumbent, Liston Bochette, delineates both short and long-term priorities for improving the quality of life for all citizens of Fort Myers.
At the top of the first list is providing more green spaces, parks and environmental attractions.
Bochette is mindful that parks, greenspace and arts and culture form drivers of attachment that encourage people to move to and stay within a community.
“We’re woefully underdeveloped in the greenspaces, the parks and all these amenities that we should have because we’ve let developers have a free hand with us,” Bochette said.
In Bochette’s estimation, the General Obligation Bond initiative that’s on the November ballot will go a long way in providing the funds needed to acquire and improve parks and natural public spaces for a healthier community.
“It will guarantee that we improve our parks, our recreation, not just the greenspace, but also the kids and the programs that we can host within it.”
Next on Bochette’s short-term priority list is housing.
“We just saw a national survey that said Fort Myers is the most overbuilt rental apartments and that’s going to deflate prices now, which is good,” Bochette maintained. “But we’ve got to have the single families involved too because those are permanent people who stay and pay taxes and put their kids in school and support our arts and support our cultural programs and they become real citizens.”
Topping Bochette’s long-term list of priorities is traffic.
It’s more than avoiding congestion on Colonial, Palm Beach and McGregor Boulevards.
“We’ve got to move people, and it’s not only cars,” said Bochette. “It’s electric bicycles, and it’s going to be pedestrians. As we become a densified city, we’ve got to give alternate routes, our bus system comes in. How are we going to move people from their home to their job, to their school and back?”
Ward 4 runs along the Caloosahatchee and includes much of the historic downtown River District as well as royal palm-lined McGregor Boulevard and its surrounding corridor.
The ward’s population is 14,314.
The median age of its residents is 47.7, which makes it the city's oldest demographic.
The winner of the non-partisan race will hold office for four years until 2028.
The winner will earn $47,030 a year, broken down as $32,630 in salary plus a stipend of $14,400.
MORE INFORMATION REGARDING CANDIDATE CINDY LYN BANYAI:
On the subject of storm surge, Cindy Banyai also noted that even an offshore tropical system like Debby can result in significant flooding and inundation in downtown and coastal locations.
“I’m concerned about how our homeowners and small businesses are going to fare,” said Banyai.
Banyai cites Galveston, Texas as a template for the kind of measures that Fort Myers can, and should, consider.
In fact, many coastal towns and communities are looking at a wide range of prophylactic measures.
In 1938, downtown Providence, Rhode Island was submerged beneath storm surge generated by a hurricane known variously as The Great New England Hurricane and the Long Island Express. In the 1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers built a storm surge barrier known as Fox Point Hurricane Protection Barrier, along with another in nearby New Bedford. Both were installed beneath a bridge carrying vehicular traffic. They consist of rock abutments that lead to three scoop-shaped plates that are suspended above the river normally but can be lowered to close the channel during a tropical cyclone.
At nearby Stamford, Connecticut, the barrier is a plate that normally sits on the sea bottom between the abutments and is pulled up into place during a storm by hydraulic motors to seal the channel.
For those who are interested, author and scientist Adam Sobel considers and describes other engineering solutions to the two-headed storm surge-sea level rise monster in his 2014 book “Hurricane Sandy, Our Changing Climate and Extreme Weather of the Past and the Future" (Harper Wave).
A study conducted by Klaus Jacob and George Deodatis for a 2011 report sponsored by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority demonstrated that “there is an approximate 4-to-1 benefit-to-cost ratio for investing in protective measures to keep losses from disasters low.”
According to many scientists, downtown Fort Myers is among the U.S. cities most susceptible to loss or damage from the rise in sea level that is projected to occur in the next 75 years. In recognition of this danger, Lee County commissioned a study in 2010 of its potential sea level rise vulnerability and resiliency, but so far county leaders have not converted the ideas offered into strategic plans.
A Fort Myers News-Press analysis of property values and topographic maps conducted in 2014 shows that Southwest Florida has property valued at approximately $15 billion that is located within 3 feet of current sea levels. Since then, scientists have nearly doubled their projections of the amount of sea level rise the planet can expect by 2100 to more than six feet based on computer models that take into account loss of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated.
At six feet, real estate data firm Zillow predicts that the United States could lose more than 1.9 million homes valued at close to $1 trillion in the aggregate. Zillow based this determination on a comparison of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration maps identifying the coastal areas that would be inundated and its own nationwide database of properties most at risk of being flooded within these zones.
The state most at risk is Florida, which would account for 934,411 of the 1.9 million homes that could be lost to sea level rise.
Miami could lose nearly a third of its housing in spite of the fact that Miami Beach is already spending hundreds of millions of dollars to install pumps and raise sea walls and roads in a bid to stave off encroaching water.
The situation is equally dire in Jacksonville, Tampa and Fort Myers.
The downtown Fort Myers historic district contains 69 historic buildings. All are threatened if sea levels rise by the six feet currently projected by climate experts.
The threat is even greater in Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Captiva Islands, Matlacha and Pine Island.
It bears mentioning that seasonal flooding, storm-induced flooding and wind-driven storm surge and wave heights would take place on top of rising sea levels so even if land and buildings are not inundated by rising tides they would be at greater risk during tropical and other storms.
Banyai studied international relations and psychology at Michigan State University.
During this time, Cindy debuted as a pro boxer in 2000, then completed her bachelor’s degree in 2002.
She interned twice in Congress, with both Democratic and Republican leaders, before taking an opportunity to travel to Asia.
Overseas, Cindy completed a Master’s and Ph.D. from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan with her research focusing on community development, public administration, evaluation, and governance.
While living in Japan, Cindy also competed as a sponsored pro boxer from 2005 to 2009. This sport taught her how to prepare for a fight, plan her attacks, anticipate her opponent and use those advantages to win.
Cindy teaches courses on American Government and global issues at a local university, while also serving in leadership roles in regional non-profits.
She has also founded her own small business to provide organizational and management consulting to businesses across the globe.
She received the Donald W. Littrell New Professional Award in 2015 from the Community Development Society for her work on regional initiatives at the Southwest Florida Community Foundation and for her commitment to community-based advocacy organizations such as BikeWalkLee.
Dr. Banyai continues to serve the field of community development as the President of the Community Development Society and representative to the United Nations for International Association for Community Development, an NGO with UN consultative status.
For more, visit https://www.cindybanyai.com.
MORE INFORMATION ON CANDIDATE LISTON (LIN) BOCHETTE III
Liston “Lin” Bochette is a five-time Olympic Athlete, internationally recognized artist and civic leader.
Bochette was born at Lee Memorial Hospital.
He is a third generation Southwest Floridian.
Lin attended Fort Myers High School. While he played baseball, basketball and football, Bochette was a national standout in Track and Field and was ultimately inducted into the State of Florida Track Hall of Fame in 1998. He also co-founded the Fort Myers Track Club during his youth in the 1970s, further cementing his local sporting legacy.
He received his B.F.A from the University of Florida, which he attended on Track and Field Scholarship offered to him by Olympic Coach Jimmy Carnes. Bochette was inducted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame in 2008.
then went on to complete his M.A from InterAmerican University, and Ph.D. from Pacific Western University.
Bochette won the Decathlon at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Havana, Cuba in 1982 and was presented with a Gold Medal in the arts by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch during the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992.
He received meritorious citations from the Senate of Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee, and was the USSA International Sport Artist of the year in 1996.
Bochette has been a delegate to the White House for Olympic Affairs. Over the years, he worked closely with Olympic bid and host cities around the world as a senior advisor on management, budget, transportation, housing, security, infrastructure, and programing. He has been responsible for multi-million dollar budgets and complex work forces.
Bochette was elected to serve two terms as the Secretary General to the World Olympians Association, overseeing 200 national bodies with over 100,000 members. Additionally, he served as President of the Pan American Olympians Association, and sat on the Athletes’ Commissions of the International Olympic Committee and International Paralympians.
Bochette served on the Community Redevelopment Agency Board and in 2018 was appointed to the Fort Myers City Council by Mayor Randall P. Henderson to complete the term of a retiring councilperson.
He was elected to represent Ward 4 again in November 2020.
Where his opponent, Cindy Lyn Banyai, contends that the City’s water system is outdated and badly in need of repair, Bochette maintains that the City has “improved the quantity and quality of water … over the last few years.”
Bochette’s emphasis on the need for more parks and public greenspaces recognizes that Fort Myers is 37% below the median municipal benchmark of 12.4 acres of parks per 1,000 residents.
According to the talking points that the City’s Department of Parks & Recreation is circulating to explain its Master Plan and General Obligation Bond referendum, only 34% of Fort Myers residents currently have access to a public park within half a mile of their homes. Expanding the availability of parks is a top priority to ensure more residents can enjoy green spaces close to where they live.
Between 2008 and 2011, the Knight Foundation and Gallup surveyed 43,000 people in 26 cities about what they wanted most from their communities. To the surveyors’ surprise, the respondents stated that “the aesthetics of a place – its art, parks and green spaces” ranked higher than education, safety and the local economy as “drivers of attachment.”
“This is not to say that jobs and housing aren’t important,” the Knight Foundation said when it released the survey’s results. “Residents must be able to meet their basic needs in a community in order to stay. However, when it comes to forming an emotional connection with the community, there are other community factors which often are not considered when thinking about economic development. These community factors seem to matter more when it comes to attaching residents to their community.”
In addition to adding and improving greenspaces and parks and encouraging more single-family housing, Bochette lists safe neighborhoods and hurricane preparedness as the third and fourth priority on his short-term list.
In addition to traffic, Bochette mentions “growth management” as a long-term priority. In this regard, said Bochette, “retaining the charm of our neighborhoods” assumes overriding importance.