They did not quite pledge their lives, fortunes and sacred honor, but voters in Staten Island, N.Y., and Key Biscayne, Fla., have decided to declare their independence. By an 81% vote last week, Staten Islanders approved a commission to study the feasibility of breaking away from New York City. Staten Island's 400,000 residents are irate over the political powerlessness of their borough, which, they claim, receives a smaller portion of municipal services than the city's four other boroughs and more than its fair share of mental institutions, prisons and landfills.
In Key Biscayne, the affluent residential island of 12,000 south of...
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