Maximo Alvarez’s family escaped from communist Cuba and came to the United States, the greatest country in the world. Now, Alvarez owns 300 gas stations. He was the most compelling speaker in favor of President Trump during the first night of the Republican National Convention.
Some on the Left are going to suggest that Alvarez is a bad guy because he’s lobbied against ridiculous local sign codes.
About that Cuban-American gasoline businessman who just talked: https://t.co/9Dzicm9fPC pic.twitter.com/XnRXTY8mCF
— Person Woman Man Camera TV (@ClaraJeffery) August 25, 2020
The guy speaking right now: Max Alvarez is a top donor to scores of Republicans. So when he sought to keep local cities and counties from regulating his use of signage and advertising on his business properties, Florida lawmakers paid attention. https://t.co/5WG5CyrjAK
— Pat Dennis (@patdennis) August 25, 2020
Politico carried a story on this fight back in 2017. The bills Alvarez advocated for prohibited local governments from enforcing aesthetic requirements on gas station signs: A county couldn’t force a BP gas station to make its signs pink, for instance. The legislation would also make sure height restrictions on a gas station’s price signs couldn’t make the signs invisible from the road.
It may be my own deregulatory biases, but it hardly seems to undermine Alvarez’s message from Monday night — that the U.S. represents freedom, and that freedom is worth fighting for — that he fought like crazy for the ability of his businesses and his competitors to put up signs on their own property without unreasonable regulation.
