Bekoff's Bounty

The feds are preparing to give Broward millions for water taxis. A guy named Bob will surely benefit.

Comments (0) By Emily Bliss Thursday, Dec 21 2000

...continued from page 1

Who will use the expanded Water Taxi service, then? Bekoff argues many of the 14,000 people who work along the beach will choose his boats. With subsidies, he says, boat rides will be affordable for both tourists and the working class. "Water is a natural resource for transit that is highly underutilized," Bekoff adds. "These urban planners, they're living in the last century. When you go to less-developed countries, you see a lot more water-based transportation." Smith is, maybe, a little more realistic. She believes tourists will make up much of the traffic six months out of the year. "But it will also allow us to bring employees to and from their jobs [at hotels and restaurants]," she says.

Another problem is that most people in Broward don't work on the beach or frequent the Intracoastal. "There's no water in western Broward to get to," Bekoff comments. Perhaps some relief will come in April: Thanks to gasoline taxes, BCT's fleet will increase from 232 vehicles to 250. And with federal tax money, the county will replace 21 buses within the next two years.

Joshua Prezant

With a $2.3 million federal grant, Water Taxi mogul Bob Bekoff will use eight spanking-new ferries to float tourists up and down the Intracoastal

More About

Is that enough? Not for Audrey. "For what was a ten-minute drive in my car, I have to ride the bus an hour to do the same trip," she says. "And between connections I have to stand for 20 minutes on the side of the road."