I've nicknamed the Miami Dade county commission, the Parrot Jungle County Commission? Why?
County Hall is remote and strange as a jungle, filled with a majority of commissioners who parrot what lobbyists, the Chamber of Commerce, and Florida builders want. Have you heard the sound of 13 parrots in a tree?
Granted, these points add up obscurely to a definition of the county commission as a Parrot Jungle ... except for the Parrot Jungle itself, a bald travesty of a tourist attraction/taxpayer sinkhole.
Beginning in the mid-1930’s, the Parrot Jungle entertained newcomers to Miami who braved the excursion from downtown to Red Road, where a charming hammocky landscape fed the imagination as a gateway to the mysterious interior: the Everglades.
Over time Red Road became old growth suburbs and McMansions stacked in rows of long plowed under avocado and citrus groves.
Recently, the owners of the Parrot Jungle decided they needed something bigger and better, at taxpayer expense.
Thus the Parrot Jungle ended up on MacArthur Causeway in a location so poorly chosen for traffic and location, one drives by in amazement.
It takes a lot of $25 admissions to make the $25 million dollar loan, guaranteed by the county, that the owners can’t pay on for a hard-to-get-to facility with the native charm of a Holiday Inn lobby. Miami Today News
Cannibalizing the first attractions that once reflected natural Florida and leaving debt and poor land use planning in its wake, with taxpayers holding the bill and no one ever held to account, is the signature work of local government in Miami Dade county, Florida’s largest.
The Parrot Jungle is appropriately absorbed into the county commission, and so nicknamed the PJCC.
2 comments:
Maybe this blog should be about wasting taxpayers money. Everything mentioned is about wasting money.
Parrot heads is associated with the good Mr. Buffet -savior of Manatees. Maybe you could find a better label: The County Commission seems to need a stronger and more descriptive label: Perhaps it could be Parrot Junge with the following attractions: Lobbyist Lagoon, Port of Pet Projects, Special Favor Coaster, Waste water rapids, etc.
Found this blog on Parrot Jungle:
August 09, 2006
Another Blank Check for Parrot Jungle
Well the first place we decided to go was to the Parrot Jungle. Then we got hit with the price. $27.95 for adults and $22.95 for children. So the cost for a family of 5 cost $125.00 plus parking! Compare that to the MetroZoo which cost us just around $45.00 or the Museum of Discovery and Science in Ft. Lauderdale which cost around $40.00 and that includes an IMAX theatre movie.
I bring this up not to complain but to question exactly what is being done with hard earned tax dollars and how they are being invested.
READ MORE Overtown USA
Post a Comment