Billionaire Island The place Bezos Lives Lobbies State Gov to Flush Its Poop Down Neighbor City’s Pipes

One of many locations that Jeff Bezos lives is a man-made island off the coast of Florida known as Indian Creek Village. The island is predominantly populated by different billionaires and is colloquially often known as the “Billionaire Bunker.” In truth, when you’re not a billionaire, it’s fairly tough to get in. The bridge from the mainland to the island is closed to the general public and protected by armed guards and a complicated safety system. Nonetheless, if the island is nearly solely lower off from the remainder of humanity, the island’s inhabitants nonetheless appear intent on sharing one factor with members of the surface world: their piss and shit.

The New York Occasions reports on an amusing tussle between Indian Creek Village and a neighboring city, Surfside, which can be populated by wealthy folks (albeit not practically as wealthy as those who reside on the island). Indian Creek doesn’t have the underground infrastructure to take care of its personal poop, so the answer it got here up with was to funnel it via Surfside right into a wider regional sewage system. Sadly, Surfside didn’t need the poop except Indian Creek was keen to contribute $10 million to the neighborhood for future sewer system enhancements. Indian Creek has referred to this request as “extortion.”

“We weren’t going to be extorted by him,” Stephen J. Helfman, the village lawyer, informed the Occasions. “We’re a neighborhood authorities similar to they’re. They’re a rich neighborhood too.”

In an effort to battle this grave injustice, the neighborhood’s village council subsequently traveled to Florida’s State Capitol to foyer on behalf of the toilet-related issues. The Occasions notes that Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, is a member of Indian Creek Village and is on the council.

The lobbying seems to have labored, because the Occasions studies that a big transportation invoice lately authorised by the state legislature now features a “new authorized measure prohibiting municipalities from blocking or charging for the set up of sure sewer strains — just like the one Indian Creek needs to construct, for instance.” The invoice now solely must be signed into regulation by Governor Ron DeSantis. Charles Burkett, the mayor of Surfside, informed the Occasions that he was blindsided by the legislative effort to resolve the matter:

Mr. Burkett mentioned he was not conscious that Indian Creek had taken the problem to Tallahassee till he bought a name from somebody within the governor’s workplace. The aide, he mentioned, gave the impression to be sympathetic to Indian Creek’s scenario.

“He’s the one who form of mentioned, ‘We’ll simply make a regulation, and that’s how we’ll resolve the issue,’” Mr. Burkett mentioned.

When reached for remark by Gizmodo, Helfman mentioned that the village had been “engaged on a plan to get rid of septic tanks to adjust to State and native environmental mandates.” Helfman relayed that when the neighborhood had “utilized for the required State of Florida environmental utility allow to do the work which features a 4-inch pipe beneath a public road inside the City of Surfside.” Surfside subsequently declined to grant “the routine administrative allow to put in the pipe. The Surfside Mayor made a number of calls for on a number of ICV Metropolis officers for a $10,000,000 cost as a situation to the allow. Indian Creek refused.”