The City of Homestead recently passed a resolution designating and branding itself as the “Gateway to Everglades and Biscayne National Parks.” I collaborated with the National Parks Service and the National Parks Conservation Association to present this concept to my fellow colleagues on the City of Homestead Council. I am excited that my colleagues unanimously passed this resolution and support the concept of linking the City of Homestead to its two neighboring National Parks, Everglades and Biscayne.
The purpose of branding the City of Homestead as the Gateway to Everglades and Biscayne National Parks is twofold. The first is to capitalize on the ecotourism generated by these parks annually. Each year more than 1.5 million visitors visit both Everglades and Biscayne National Park each year. Presently many of these visitors are bypassing the City of Homestead on their way to our neighboring national parks. By branding the City of Homestead as the Gateway to Everglades and Biscayne National parks, as well as creating National Parks themed attractions, it is hoped that these visitors will begin to associate the City of Homestead with Everglades and Biscayne National Parks and plan their vacation and stay in the City of Homestead.
There are many other gateway cities that also border National Parks nationwide. Many of these gateway cities build their entire economies around the tourists that flock to these national parks annually. A great example is Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Gatlinburg is the gateway to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park and every summer is packed with visitors and tourists who are entering or leaving the Smokey Mountains. As a direct result of the tourists, Gatlinburg is filled with attractions, hotels and restaurants. The City of Homestead is unique as it is a gateway city bordered by two national parks instead of just one, and therefore has the potential to attract and capitalize on an even more diverse group of travelers.
The second purpose is that by becoming a gateway city the City of Homestead also takes on the ability to help advocate for our neighboring National Parks. This can be in the form of bringing attention or awareness to conservation or preservation issues or advocating for additional federal funds to help with management of the natural resources. Working as a team, the national parks and the gateway cities are more powerful and have a stronger voice than they would merely by acting alone.
Designating the City of Homestead as a Gateway community is only the first step in a more comprehensive plan. My goal is to advocate to enact other programming under this Gateway umbrella that will help to further build a partnership with the National Parks and attract tourism dollars to the City of Homestead. One of the first such initiatives is the launching of the City of Homestead’s National Park Trolley service.
The National Park Trolley is a concept that I have been working on for more than two years and is a collaborative effort between the City of Homestead, the National Park Service and the National Parks Conservation Association. The National Park Trolley will leave from Historic Downtown Homestead and travel to Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park and Homestead-Bayfront Park every weekend from November through April of each year.
Riders of the National Park Trolley will not have to pay admission fees to enter any of the parks. Also, there is a tour guide on board each trolley that will give a presentation about the history of Homestead and the National Parks as well as the surrounding agricultural lands while traveling between each destination.
The National Parks Trolley stops at the Ernest Coe Visitor Center in Everglades National Park as well as the Anhinga Trail. In Biscayne National Park the Trolley stops at the Dante Fascell Visitors Center and also at Homestead-Bayfront Park.
For more information on the Homestead National Park Trolley or to plan your trip to any of the parks you can visit www.cityofhomestead.com/gateway.
Another concept that is being discussed and studied is an iconic attraction that will be built downtown only blocks away from the National Park Trolley stop. The iconic attraction is presently slated to contain an Everglades themed IMAX theatre like entertainment ride as well as a satellite Everglades National Park and/or Biscayne National Park Visitors Center. If constructed, this iconic attraction will help to increase the likelihood that the City of Homestead will be the central hub for visitors planning trips to either national park and hopefully lead to other attractions, restaurants and hotels to service the increase in visitors and tourists to the area.
I am very excited about these projects and very thankful for the many people who have worked so hard on these projects and this concept with me. I hope that this is the beginning of a new direction and identity for the City of Homestead and look forward to working on more new projects in the future.
Now that these projects are completed and underway I hope to have a little more free time to get back out and enjoy these parks myself before I get bogged down with a new project.
