News DeSantis moves to bring state safety oversight of the Walt Disney World Monorail including suspending the service for inspections

[mkt]

I googled current Congress officials. 43% are lawyers in their former life.

Given the confluence of politics and law, makes sense to me.

Hell, I challenge you to find a poli-sci major at any major university whose next goal isn't attending law school.

 

[LSLS]

I think people are confusing things and we need to set some records straight. First, inspections are not bad, and I don't think the actual inspector would intentionally go after Disney (well, maybe there are some that would, but in general). If the state wanted to do more inspections during the hours the monorail is not operating, I'm not sure I'd care too much. But that is NOT what was said. Desantis said he wants to SHUT THEM DOWN to inspect them, presumably during peak hours. That is where the issues really come in. The monorails are already inspected, and they only operate once they pass that inspection. I don't think changing who is in charge would necessarily affect anything. It's the threat of impacting the business intentionally to do it that's the real issue.

Second, this idea that inspections = fixing needs to be corrected. An inspector is checking to ensure safety, they aren't going to check the smell of the monorail, or the bumpiness of it (assuming the bumpiness isn't a part of a larger issue). Just because the state wants to shut the monorail down during operating hours does not mean you are getting refurbished monorails to keep them going.

 

[mkt]

Well, since all of Disney's transportation systems are private, then this doesn't apply to them.

The new rules include privately owned.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Apparently in modern America, teachers, professors, lawyers, doctors, nurses, government bureaucrats at every level, and experts of every type are corrupt, biased liars, but state safety inspectors are uniformly angelic. Not a single one has ever been given their position for political reasons and none would ever defer to the very clearly publicly (and possibly privately) stated demands of their superiors that they engage in punitive actions or deviate in some way from the fixed, immutable platonic ideal of "monorail safety."

If you want to politically support the legislature and governor, go right ahead... but please, be honest about what you are supporting.

 

[LAKid53]

The investigators and prosecutors working below the DA are not hired to do politics, much like how employees for FDOT are not hired to do politics.

I'm going to disagree. Having worked in a state agency where politics very much plays a role in decision making, that trickles down to employees. Ask DEP employees if the then governor's edict to refrain from using "climate change" in any decision making or documents, including those generated for rule making, wasn't politics and didn't affect their job. A district manager got fired for making the correct decision on a permit solely because it upset the permitee whose lobbyist was a very powerful former member of the Legislature (and spouse of the agency head). Anyone thinking politics don't permeate decision making hasn't been paying attention.

 

[Dranth]

You know very well the DA pushed this on hard...in order to meet a campaign promise...he is leading the investigation. Again, entirely separate from an inspector going in and inspecting theme park rides...

You could make an argument that the better comparison is the connection between the gov and the new board (the gov appointed board is doing the work of the gov)....but then connecting that down to the inspectors is getting close to conspiracy theory stuff...and is low IMO

The inspector doesn't have to be corrupt or an agent of DeSantis in order to be used to punish Disney.

The person doing it may be honest and do a great job but having that person preform the inspection on a busy day forcing Disney to close the monorail vs. doing it after hours is just one way the state can stick it to Disney and they have repeatedly said that is what they want to do.

 

[mkt]

The investigators and prosecutors working below the DA are not hired to do politics, much like how employees for FDOT are not hired to do politics.

In a perfect world, yes.

 

[LAKid53]

I didn't really claim otherwise, just that they have an additional requirement. School boards don't universally require their members to have education experience, for example.

School board elections in Florida are non-partisan.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Look, I complain about Disney World A LOT. Some cheeky folks around here might even venture to argue that I complain too much! I think the quality of the parks at every level, including maintenance and general upkeep, have fallen far below previous levels.

BUT...

My concerns about what the Florida government is currently, explicitly doing utterly dwarf my concerns about the state of a collection of theme parks. They are launching a blatantly unconstitutional assault on a private entity because of protected speech. Even if this assault brought EPCOT back to its late-80s grandeur, it would still be disastrously wrong, its fruits hideously tainted. We MUST make a distinction between our complaints about the parks, as important as they might seem to us as fans, and our concern with the largely unchecked authoritarian actions of a state government.

 

[Disstevefan1]

“Lifespan” is not some hard rule as it is always presented. The Disneyland monorails have not been 100% replaced since the 60s. The Walt Disney World Railroad locomotives are a century old.

We can split hairs about the word lifespan. The WDW monorails are still in safe operation despite their age. That’s got to go to proper maintenance.

 

[fgmnt]

In a perfect world, yes.

I'm just challenging the assertion made by Andrew that certain administrative employees of the state are immune to political pressure and others are not.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Its really interesting how this thread has spawned so many new members. Quite intriguing.

 

[Andrew C]

The inspector doesn't have to be corrupt or an agent of DeSantis in order to be used to punish Disney.

The person doing it may be honest and do a great job but having that person preform the inspection on a busy day forcing Disney to close the monorail vs. doing it after hours is just one way the state can stick it to Disney and they have repeatedly said that is what they want to do.

Less of an issue if they follow their SOPs....but point taken.

Also, it seems some are confusing the benefit of the doubt being given to state inspectors with the support of the decisions that the gov has made. To agree with the former does not mean an automatic agreement to the latter.

 

[OceanBlue]

Maybe off-topic, but when I was getting off the highway to Disney World coming from St Cloud, the FDOT maintained exit sign to Disney World was missing paint in almost every word. The sign looked noticeably like it needed to be replaced and I laughed because no other sign (we were watching because it was a new route for us) looked like it. Almost seemed on purpose. Wondering if anyone else has seen this.

 

[celluloid]

Imagine hour(s) long break downs and doors falling off monorails, cement chunks of track falling off and pieces of the monorail falling on guest areas below happening more frequently than they should in recent years, and not being for a third party inspection.


I don't think a department of agriculture type inspection situation is to the level of authoritarianism extremes that some are concerned with.

 

[CntrlFlPete]

It may be a grey area, here is Florida's legal definition of a "fixed-guideway transportation system".

"Florida law further defines a “fixed guideway transportation system” as a public transit system for the transporting of people by a conveyance, or a series of interconnected conveyances, which conveyance or series of conveyances is specifically designed for travel on a stationary rail or other guideway, whether located on, above, or under the ground."

so all in how "other guideway" is interpreted from within the sentence -- it does have an OR in front of imagine the money will always be spent in figuring out how to play the grey areas.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Look, I complain about Disney World A LOT. Some cheeky folks around here might even venture to argue that I complain too much! I think the quality of the parks at every level, including maintenance and general upkeep, have fallen far below previous levels.

BUT...

My concerns about what the Florida government is currently, explicitly doing utterly dwarf my concerns about the state of a collection of theme parks. They are launching a blatantly unconstitutional assault on a private entity because of protected speech. Even if this assault brought EPCOT back to its late-80s grandeur, it would still be disastrously wrong, its fruits hideously tainted. We MUST make a distinction between our complaints about the parks, as important as they might seem to us as fans, and our concern with the largely unchecked authoritarian actions of a state government.

Indeed. It seems people don't really believe anything anymore.

The governor has plainly stated that he is retaliating against Disney for making a critical statement about a piece of legislation, so there's no genuine way to deny that is what is happening here. Because he is from their party, however, people seem to have to convince themselves that they don't actually mind this kind of government retaliation based on the exercise of free speech as long as it potentially results in a positive outcome. No real thought about the implications for when they disagree with what the government is doing.

It shows people will justify almost anything as long as the political party with which they identify is doing it even if it flies in the face of everything that political party was supposed to stand for which, presumably, was the reason they identified with the party in the first place.

 

[Andrew C]

Indeed. It seems people don't really believe anything anymore.

The governor has plainly stated that he is retaliating against Disney for making a critical statement about a piece of legislation, so there's no genuine way to deny that is what is happening here. Because he is from their party, however, people seem to have to convince themselves that they don't actually mind this kind of government retaliation based on the exercise of free speech as long as it potentially results in a positive outcome. No real thought about the implications for when they disagree with what the government is doing.

It shows people will justify almost anything as long as the political party with which they identify is doing it even if it flies in the face of everything that political party was supposed to stand for which presumably was the reason people identified with the party in the first place.

Also, it seems some are confusing the benefit of the doubt being given to state inspectors with the support of the decisions that the gov has made. To agree with the former does not mean an automatic agreement to the latter.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I’m not a fan of DeSantis either, but enough with the petulant name-calling. I’m actually trying to understand what’s going on here.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Also, it seems some are confusing the benefit of the doubt being given to state inspectors with the support of the decisions that the gov has made. To agree with the former does not mean an automatic agreement to the latter.

Does it really matter if the inspectors are upstanding professionals if they only reason they are being sent in is to make life difficult for the company for expressing an opinion?