Homestead, the town between Everglades and Biscayne National Parks, is getting ready to take better economic advantage of its prime location by running free weekend trolley rides to both parks from January to May.

The plan is part giveaway, part marketing scheme. If it works as intended, park visitors who’ve driven a long way to Homestead can relax on an easy sightseeing ride to Biscayne — just under 10 miles — or a longer one of about 50 miles into Everglades.

In Biscayne, there’s the waterfront of southern Biscayne Bay, with guided paddling trips along the mangrove shorelines — plus the shore birds of winter and perhaps occasionally a crocodile. The Everglades ride will go as far as Royal Palm Hammock, which includes the Anhinga and Gumbo Limbo trail hikes, a different variety of bird life, alligators and maybe even a stray Burmese python.

Marketing and promoting have begun already, with the City Council nicknaming Homestead “Gateway to the Everglades and Biscayne National Parks.”

Some country towns use speed traps to get people to stay a while. You can get a $110 ticket at the end of the Florida Turnpike if you roll the red light at the right turn to Everglades, but you won’t know you were caught (by a camera) until the ticket arrives in the mail.

That traffic light’s in Florida City anyway, and Homestead’s civic leaders have better things in mind. The town’s public info officer, Begoñe Cazalis, explains:

“The trolley will depart from Losner Park at Historic Downtown Homestead, a colorful street with a number of buildings designated as historic properties in the National Registry.

“While visitors wait for the trolley or after their visit to the parks, they can walk up and down the street and visit one of the many restaurants and stores in the area, learn about the historic buildings with the Homestead Then and Now self-guided tour, or learn about the history of Homestead and its surrounding national parks at the Homestead Old Town Hall Museum, located right across from the trolley stop.”

Stephen Shelley, a city councilman with a deep fondness for the two parks, came up with this idea. Hard to imagine nobody ever thought of it before, but Shelley’s timing was good. The city was able to get four trolleys with federal grants, and operations are to be paid for by a half-cent county sales tax.

For South Floridians driving to the national parks, Homestead and Florida City, the smaller town next door, are mere waypoints. We stop for gas, a portable snack and coffee, and away we go.
Winter tourists drive down in droves, also with little reason to stick around.

If they’re coming south on the Florida Turnpike with Biscayne as a destination, they don’t get anywhere near downtown. If successful, the trolley plan will show the place off and they will spend money there.

Without benefit of comparative economic data, we’d bet that other than gas stations, the only Homestead area business that Everglades blesses with much business now is the virtually compulsory Robert Is Here fruit and vegetable stand, hugely popular but outside the city limits.

Next thing (and last) on the way to the park is a state prison. Move along. Nothing to see there.