Florida’s Climate Champion: Nancy Metayer Bowen

Kate Tucker: I'm Kate Tucker, and this is Hope is My Middle Name, a podcast from Consensus Digital Media. Today I am thrilled to bring you Nancy Metayer Bowen, all the way from the coastal floodplains of eastern Florida, where as commissioner of Coral Springs, she is determined to make her hometown a climate resilient city.

I grew up going down to Siesta Key in the summer, swimming in those beautiful white sand beaches. As hurricane season has grown longer and the storms more intense, Florida's been on my mind, and I know I'm not the only one. In a year of extreme weather, we are all looking to places like Florida for what the future holds. And as far as Commissioner Bowen is concerned, there is still time to protect our homes, our families, and of course, our planet.

As you'll hear, she is well acquainted with life in this changing climate. In fact, the day we spoke, Hurricane Adelia made landfall as a Category 3 storm along Florida's Gulf Coast. And I had to ask her how she's managed to maintain hope.

Kate Tucker: Commissioner Bowen! 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Hello. How are you, Kate? 

Kate Tucker: Oh, I'm good. How are you? 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: I'm doing well. 

Kate Tucker: Oh, thanks so much for taking the time to be here today. I'm so excited to hear all about you and about Coral Springs. Are you in Coral Springs right now? 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: I am. It's nice and sunny out. It's absolutely beautiful. 

Kate Tucker: Now, you have grown up in Florida, right?

Nancy Metayer Bowen: I have. I was born and raised in South Florida. I'm a Florida girl. Love the water. Love the ocean. 

Kate Tucker: Okay, are you an ocean swimmer or a pool swimmer?

Nancy Metayer Bowen: I'm definitely an ocean swimmer. There's something about that salt water. 

Kate Tucker: Can you go to the beach from where you live? Where is Coral Springs? 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: So Coral Springs, it's a really, really unique location. So our backyard is the Everglades. It's as far west as it can go. So on a beautiful day like today, you would go to the Atlantic Trailhead and you would walk the Everglades and see all the beautiful grass and the wildlife that's out there. And then if you want to go to the beach, 15 minutes east to Deerfield Beach, where there's a boardwalk and plenty of restaurants. So close enough, but far enough. 

Kate Tucker: So when you were a kid, did you grow up walking in the Everglades? 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: We did a lot of trailheads, airboat rides. Yes. 

Kate Tucker: Okay, so for people who've never seen an airboat – it sounds like something out of Star Wars– what is an airboat? What does it feel like to be in one? 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Super loud. So you need ear protection and there's a fan in the back of you and it typically has four passenger seating in it.

The Everglades has a very unique ecosystem. We want to make sure that we don't have propellers that are in the water that will damage any vegetation or any animals that call the Everglades their home. 

Kate Tucker: Wow. So, okay, I have so many questions about living in Florida, growing up in Florida, being a kid in Florida, but first let's just kick this off right. Tell me who you are and what you do. 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: I am Nancy Matayer Bowen and I am a commissioner and I represent 134,000 residents from the beautiful city of Coral Springs. I actively work for them. We help balance a budget and make sure that that budget really adheres to the services that they desire. Making sure that when there is an issue in terms of your potholes, street lights, anything that impacts you locally.

We deal with zoning laws, development, your parks. Coral Springs has 49 parks that we're very proud of. We also have a tree fund, so every time someone takes down a tree, they have to plant another tree, right? So we pride ourselves on being an environmentally friendly community. 

Kate Tucker: I love that. What was it like growing up there?

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Growing up in Florida, so, Coral Springs has been my home for now over 27 years. I went to elementary, middle, and high school here and South Florida. It has a special place for me, right? As I mentioned before, the ocean, the Everglades, but also the diversity. You have the Caribbean right there. 

Kate Tucker: Yeah.

Nancy Metayer Bowen: So you have the beautiful food, the culture, like every time I step out, you hear a different language. You see people who practice various religions. So that's something that I love about South Florida is the diversity. My parents are both from the beautiful island of Haiti. They migrated here in the eighties. They migrated to Miami and they said, no, Miami is not where we want to raise our kids. Nothing wrong with Miami. They wanted a little bit more land. So they moved to Broward. They were able to work very hard and really live up to the American dream and did everything that they wanted to do to provide a beautiful home to me and my siblings. 

And at this time, Coral Springs was not fully built out. So for the longest time, I lived next to cows and, and heard them mooing every day. My dad, he grew up as a farmer. He really, really loved living near land. He definitely wanted to be somewhere where one day if he wanted to grow his own food, he had the opportunity to do so. We have a little garden in our home.

When you go to our backyard, we have a little bit of everything. I love to joke around with my parents and say, you all are herbalists. Every time, like, I get a cough or I feel under the weather, they're like, oh, we have leaves for that in the backyard. I'll make you some tea. They have a tea for everything. So me and my siblings joke around, saying, who needs CVS when we have our parents? 

Kate Tucker: So, how did your parents learn this? What did they do in Haiti and how did they kind of bring this over here? 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: So my mom grew up in the city. She's a city girl through and through, but my dad grew up on a farm. His family has been in agriculture for all that he can remember. My maternal grandmother who migrated to the city, she lived in the countryside and has given me fond memories about what it means to be a steward of the land. 

My grandmother is someone that I love and seek knowledge from. As a child, I was very curious. I always asked questions like, where are kids from? And all of that. But I really wanted to know my lineage and she's like your lineage is wherever your roots are. Every child that is born on the island, their umbilical cord is planted and then a tree is planted over it. And so you're always rooted. You're always here. These are all a representation of individuals.

Unfortunately, the country is experiencing deforestation because of their heavy reliance on coal. That's their source of energy. And so unfortunately, when I look back at the stories that she told me and to see what Haiti is today, it breaks my heart because being rooted is something that we pride ourselves in and being stewards of the land is something that most Haitians pride themselves in because through religion, through agriculture, growing up, all my cousins, all of our parents had gardens in their backyards, right?

It’s just something that we do. And so that resonated with me. And also, I was a weird kid. My mom always says, you were meant to be an environmentalist because I used to love playing in dirt, climbing trees, and just love to be in the garden exploring. And when I told her this is the career path that I wanted to do, she's like, yeah, it makes sense.

Kate Tucker: I love that. So you're describing this attraction or a sense of wonder when it comes to interacting with the land and with growing things and soil and trees. What about like with the community? What were you seeing modeled for you and your parents and your grandparents and how they were interacting with the community?

Nancy Metayer Bowen: My mom, I call her my freedom fighter. I learned my love for service through her. She was very involved in the church. We have a saying in Creole, ‘l’ecole, la caille, l’eglise,” which is “school, home, church.” So those are the three places you're allowed to go. And so we spent a lot of time in our church and growing up there. And my mom was always someone who would either be in charge of hospitality, or the catering with any of the programming that was going on with the church. And if people fell into really rough times, she would be the one who would lend money and get them back on their feet.

Also, our family home was the place where folks, when they migrated to the U.S., our home was their foundation. This is where they would live for a few months, even years, gather themselves, find a job, go to school, and then they would go on to bigger and better things. So community is something that has always been instilled in us at a very, very young age.

We are community, right? We lean on each other. We support each other. We make sure our folks are good. And that they're able to thrive. 

Kate Tucker: What kind of church? 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: So we grew up Baptist. I now am non-denominational. I go to an amazing church where our model is “No perfect people allowed.” I love that theme because we are all great individuals and we're not perfect. And every day is a new opportunity to do better. 

Kate Tucker: I also grew up in the church, and I love hearing what you just said, because, gosh, it's just sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves, and it's like, we're just human. 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Right, right, right. 

Kate Tucker: I'm seeing this picture of you as this inquisitive child growing up in a really beautiful, thriving community that's connected with nature, and I'm curious how your faith kind of informs how you see your sense of responsibility as a steward of creation. 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Yeah. So growing up in the church made me more appreciate the importance of caring for God's creations. Folks tend to think that we have domain over the earth, but in actuality, God is the overall creator, right? And we have to make sure that we protect what he's created for us.

And so that is something I think people tend to forget. Like, we're the dominant species. In actuality, we work all together. Like, it's a nexus. We rely on the Earth just as the Earth relies on us. And so it's just super important that we take care of this beautiful Earth because there is no planet B.

Kate Tucker: There isn't. So how do you share your perspective, that message of respect and stewardship? 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: I pride myself with being a teacher, an educator. I may not have that title, but everywhere I go, I want to make sure that people understand their impacts on the environment. When I go into communities where they don't have access to natural produce or in a complete food desert, that to me makes me step back and think, oh my goodness, like, this is why we have all these health disparities.

When I see people discuss sea level rise, and from a scientific standpoint, we know the waters are rising, right? We understand that, but people don't understand why they're being pushed out of certain places in their communities, right? Climate gentrification is a real concern when we talk about affordable housing.

And we're seeing this crisis throughout the country right now. The reason why the prices of homes are increasing is that sometimes the areas are vulnerable. Hurricanes, I'm speaking to Florida in particular, coastal areas are becoming more and more vulnerable to an issue where folks aren't able to get homeowner's insurance.

It's a real thing, especially when people are just struggling to make ends meet. When you add climate change to that, it just makes it an overwhelming issue. 

Kate Tucker: Yeah. How many major hurricanes have you seen hit the state in your lifetime? 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Oh, too many. I always cross my fingers because always around my birthday time, there is a hurricane that comes. So my 16th birthday, my 18th birthday, all the significant birthdays, a major hurricane hit. Hurricane Wilma hit my 18th birthday, and then I had to push back my birthday party by two weeks, and that put us out of school, our homecoming game, all of that. It was a big mess, but as we are seeing these hurricanes are becoming more and more severe, and you have individuals whose entire livelihoods are wiped away because our insurance companies no longer think the market is viable here in Florida. And so they're all pulling out. So this is a major issue here in Florida.

Kate Tucker: So I watched this past weekend a documentary on Hurricane Ian and its impact. It's so staggering to consider what it would feel like if I were planning a birthday party and I wasn't just worried about whether it was going to rain, but whether it was going to pour, you know, into a 16 foot storm surge.

It's just like, how does it feel to live under the reality that every year there's a season where your whole entire house and belongings, and potentially people you love could be washed away.

Nancy Metayer Bowen: It doesn't feel good, let's start with that. Especially with major milestones. There's whole markets who say don't have weddings during this time.

Don't have any major accomplishments during this time because we're competing against hurricane season. Hurricane seasons are between the months of June to November 31st. It's drilled into your head, just like in other parts of the country, what to do during an earthquake, what to do during a tornado.

Well, we know during these months, you need to have canned food. You need to have water, flashlights, a backup generator if you can afford it, and all of the things to make sure you're prepared and ready to evacuate if you need to. So having some money stashed away, and so this particular season you saw people becoming very panicked because they were up against inflation.

So how am I going to prepare for a storm, but also think about how am I going to live? How am I going to make sure I pay my homeowner's insurance and all of the things that are increasing? And so that created a sense of panic. Knocking on wood we are going to end hurricane season with no more hurricanes, like communities can't afford it.

And it's also very devastating to see people lose everything. People have worked their whole lives to create a home for themselves and their families. And then, in the blink of an eye, it can be washed away. 

Kate Tucker: Do you have any recollections of maybe a time, maybe it was your first major hurricane, where you had to decide if you were going to evacuate or not, or decide, you know, where you were going to go and how you were going to protect yourself?

Nancy Metayer Bowen: So, one major hurricane that I will never forget, and everybody, everybody knows where they were at this time. Hurricane Andrew, that was one of the most devastating hurricanes. And I remember me and my baby sister, my mom put us in a closet and she was just like, here's some toys, hang out here, everything will be alright.

But we heard the whistling. We heard things flying. I remember being extremely, extremely scared. And then the next day seeing everything around me being devastated. You see cars over here, trees over there, roofs torn off. That is one particular hurricane I will never forget. 

Kate Tucker: Wow.

So, you're living... in this sort of tension, you know, every year there's this very long season and you go and study environmental science and policy and you return to a city that is in the FEMA coastal floodplain. There's a study from 2017 that names it fourth in the nation for cities most vulnerable to coastal flooding. How did you decide to do that and take me to where you are today with your vision for Coral Springs as a climate resilient city? 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Yeah, so what I'm super proud of our city, is that under my tenure, I advocated for a sustainability manager.

I ran on a platform that really centered environmental resiliency and environmental sustainability. When I put out my 90 day plan, that was the first thing on my list, making sure that our city is resilient, that our infrastructure is up to date, because I have a vested interest there. My parents worked very, very hard for the home that they built and created for us.

And one day, it’ll be passed down generation to generation because that's what we do. You pass things down. And so as a city commissioner, I continue to push city staff and making sure that we are as resilient as we can be, whether that is hiring staff that can make sure that we can mitigate climate change or create plans that help us adapt to climate change, whether that is creating a sustainability action plan that ensures that we are thinking 10 to 15 years ahead, making sure that we are investing in new technologies that ensures that we are divesting from fossil fuels.

Environmental issues are concerns that I take very, very seriously because I see it as protecting not only myself, but protecting my legacy. 

Kate Tucker: Was there a moment where you decided, I'm going to run for office, I have to run for office? Like, take me to that moment. 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: I did not think I was going to run for office to be quite honest with you.

I just didn't want to deal with the politics. I know it's crazy to say, but it's just, I just wanted to do the work. And so when the opportunity presented itself, I asked everybody but myself to run for office, right? I called all my friends and said, Oh my gosh, you need to run. And then I had a friend who said, I don't want to run. I can't run, but you should. Have you thought about running? I was like, no, I don't think I should run. 

Kate Tucker: And why didn't you think you should run? 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Too young. I felt like, you know, the imposter syndrome, that is very real. Like, are people going to listen to me? Are people going to think the issues that I care about are important?

And I came to find out, people listen to me. People thought those issues were important and people were very, very motivated to go to the polls to ensure that environmental issues were on the ballot. They were just as concerned. And they also wanted to find solutions to make sure they protected their legacy.

You have individuals who put all of their savings into purchasing their first home in our community. 

Kate Tucker: Right. 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: And they want to make sure that we're doing everything in our power to protect that.

Kate Tucker: So you win. 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: I win. 

Kate Tucker: First, congratulations. What crossed your mind when you found out you won? What was the first thing you thought? 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Oh, I didn't believe it at first. Me and my friends were waiting for the results. And at this time, this is COVID, everything's virtual. So we're doing a virtual watch party. And my sister nudges me and is like, Nancy, you won. And I'm like, Ah! I lose it. I completely lose it. And then I start crying because I worked really, really hard at being able to reach and share my message with 134,000 residents. That is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, but it was very rewarding.

And also, it was a sign of, we can do this. You can do anything you put your mind to, right? I have little boys and girls of Haitian descent who said, you are the first Haitian American elected official that I know that I can actually contact or be able to say, I have a Haitian American that represents me. It was very powerful because they could see themselves in me. 

Kate Tucker: So with all of that, what does the responsibility feel like? I mean, you have a very big vision. Again, I just have this picture of you standing up against a hurricane, like a wall of water and protecting your legacy and the legacy of Coral Springs.

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Well, Kate, I would be lying to you if I said every day is glorious because there are good days and bad days, but I lean into the good days. And when those tough days become more and more apparent, I remember why I do this and that's what grounds me. My faith really grounds me as well. I'm a believer. I say, if it's in God's will and it's meant for me, nothing can come in between that. It's like marketing, making sure that any project or any initiative that comes across our desk, there's an environmental aspect to it. 

Kate Tucker: Tell me a couple initiatives that are directly related to climate resilience that you're working on.

Nancy Metayer Bowen: So, Adopt A Street initiative, Adopt A Street, Metayer Bowen Lane, where we keep clean all the time. We set a goal by 2050 to make sure all our fleets are electric, all our city buildings are relying on some type of renewable energy, and I'm super proud of that. We're building our downtown corridor, making sure there's green spaces that are incorporated in that to help absorb carbon dioxide, making sure that we are creating plastic free zones.

So we're rewarding businesses who move away from single use plastics. I fight against legislation that discourages our homeowners from getting solar panels or becoming more energy efficient. 

Kate Tucker: What about building more resiliently? You talked about development a little bit. We're watching sea level rise. And so I'm curious, you know, what cities are doing down there to build a possible future that would withstand that.

Nancy Metayer Bowen:  Yeah, I commend Broward. So Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami Dade are in the Southeast Regional Compact. So they work very closely on ensuring that they are creating policies and building infrastructure that help combat climate change.

So when we talk about infrastructure, that is something I am 100 percent ensuring that our local governments are making a priority. I'm always pushing my colleagues not to be performative, and that is not only my colleagues on the dais, but colleagues who are politicians throughout the state, whether you are Republican or Democrat, to really focus on the issue. We need to make sure that our communities are resilient because if we don't, we won't have a Florida to call home.

Kate Tucker: Take me on a walk through Coral Springs in the future, a climate strong city. What is it like? What do we see? What do we experience?

Nancy Metayer Bowen:  I see Coral Springs as a walkable city. Folks getting out of their cars and being able to get to where they need to by biking, by our public transportation. We are 100 percent running on renewable energy.

We have composting sites. We are recycling properly. We have urban gardens that we can use as a farm to table example. So I see ourselves being able to really rely on community to get the resources that we need. 

Kate Tucker: I'm fascinated by the choice that happens in the individual who loses her home, but also in the city government after such complete devastation, that there is this choice to rebuild.

So I'm curious, you know, for you, if the worst case scenario happened and you lost your family home, where do you find the hope to continue the work and how do you speak to people who have lost everything when it comes to making decisions that are going to be in the direction of hope, when this is just a really hard thing to look at, to face? Like, climate change is a hard thing to live with.

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Kate, you just made it very real for me. Like, that is a possibility. Our family home can be one day washed away. What makes our home any different than the folks who were impacted by Ian last year in Fort Myers? Nothing. So, what continues to drive me is the possibility of us being able to rebuild and rebuild in a way that's more sustainable.

This is not getting better anytime soon. We need to do better. Florida, we need to do better and make sure that Floridians are protected, whether that is providing support and assistance, whether that is ensuring that we have an industry. And when I think about education and how not everybody wants to go to college, but creating an environmental industry here in Florida, where our young people and those looking for work are able to help with resilience efforts. 

That to me is a heavy, heavy question. I don't know, but what I do know is that I'm going to do everything that I can to make sure that my community has the resources that they need to thrive and make sure that their homes are in a place or are in a position to withstand these severe hurricanes.

Kate Tucker: And there is a way to do it and it's people like you who give me hope, you know, that the work is being done because it's a giant undertaking. Obviously, we're not going to cool the climate in time to avoid these storms, but we can find ways to be not only reactionary but actually protect ourselves from future experiences by building stronger. 

And that's going to create jobs. That's going to create work, but it does take everybody working together, which is tricky. I don't have to tell you that. So talk to me about how you navigate these conversations that can be very politically charged. How do you get people to speak to each other across the aisle and really understand the shared vested interests at stake?

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Simple, money. It's going to impact your pockets. That is our common denominator. And so we all want the same things, whether you're a Democrat or Republican. That is, we want to be able to call a place home. We want to be able to provide for our families. We want to be able to ensure that our kids have all the things that they need and deserve.

We see hurricanes coming. We see the impacts of hurricanes. We see people's businesses being impacted by it. Tourism is being impacted by it. We see individuals who have to relocate. And so when individuals are saying, Hey, wait a minute, this is impacting my livelihood. Let's have a conversation. And so that brings people together.

Kate Tucker: What does your family think about the work that you're doing in environmental science and in government?

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Me and my siblings laugh about this. Growing up in a Caribbean household, you can be four things. That is a doctor, an engineer, a nurse, or a lawyer. And so when I told my grandma what I was going to do, she's like, okay, I don't get it.

So she continues to tell everyone I'm a lawyer. It's so funny. She's like, you're a lawyer, you're advocating for the community. I was like, grandma, you have to go to law school to be a lawyer. But my parents, they can't explain what I do. All they know is that I'm a community advocate and I get paid for it.

I go out and make sure that folks are able to be heard, are able to access the resources that they deserve and pay into because we all pay taxes and ensure that we live in a place where our environment is clean. And so when they explain it, they say, yeah, my daughter is an advocate. She helps the community.

And so I'm happy with that. I don't need a fancy title. I just want to be able to look myself in the mirror and know that I'm doing right by my community and those that I serve and represent. 

Kate Tucker: What has this role taught you about community and connection? And how is that connected to what you learned growing up?

Nancy Metayer Bowen: That you aren't going to be right all the time. You don't know everything. It's so funny, like growing up, you think your parents know everything, right? You kind of look to them as the guiding star. as you get older, you're like, I know everything. I'm like, no, I don't need to listen to you. And so it's the same thing with community, right?

Your community comes to you because they think you know everything. And sometimes I have to let them know, like, listen, I have to lean on you all. You all drive legislation. If I don't know the issues that impact you, I can't do my job well. We need each other to make sure that we live in a place where everyone can thrive. And so I lean heavily on my community to help guide me. I lean on my colleagues to help really have those tough conversations because we're not always going to agree. And I rely on city staff to make sure that we get the work done. 

Kate Tucker: What's giving you reasons to hope these days?

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Whew. That's another heavy question, Kate. Young people. When I look at young people coming up now, they are a no nonsense generation. And I look at young people as a beacon of hope because every influential movement has started with young people. Look at the civil rights movement. Look at the climate justice movement.

These are all movements that were started by young folks. And I think that if they continue on the path that they're in and making sure that they're advocating for a better planet for themselves and their children, I think we're in a good place. 

Kate Tucker: Mm hmm. Well, I don't want to keep you any longer because you have very important work to do, but I am so thankful we got to have this conversation. Thank you so much for joining me today. 

Nancy Metayer Bowen: Thank you so much, Kate. This was so amazing. I truly appreciate you sharing your platform with me, just sharing the work that I'm doing. And I know that you will continue highlighting great folks in the community. So thank you for all the work that you do.

Closing Credits: Thank you so so much to Commissioner Bowen for giving us the inside take on building climate resilience against all odds with purpose, love, and a whole lot of hope.

Hope is My Middle Name is hosted and executive produced by me, Kate Tucker. You can find me on Instagram at katetuckermusic. And if there's someone you think belongs on the show, send me a message. This episode was produced by Christine Fennessy with editing from Rachel Swaby. Our production coordinator is Percia Verlin.

Our sound designer and engineer is Mark Bush. Music by the fantastic artists at Epidemic Sound, Soundstripe, and me. Big thanks to Conor Gaughan, our publisher and fearless leader at Consensus Digital Media. Hope is My Middle Name can be found on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. It would mean a lot to us if you would follow, rate, and review the show.

Hope is My Middle Name is a podcast by Consensus Digital Media, produced in association with Reasonable Volume. See you next time!