"B" is for bullshit, by gimleteye

We have noted how letters to the editor of the Miami Herald often do a better job than editors or editorial board members in delineating stories of importance to the newspaper’s subscribers.

Another example appears in the “Glut of condos” letter in today’s paper.

The Herald has been noticeably reticent in reporting about the conversion of property it owns adjacent to One Herald Plaza into yet another multi-hundred million dollar windfall, or, how building a tunnel under what is now 195 (the bridge by the Herald) at more than $1 billion in public expense would dramatically increase its own property value.

No one likes to live next to a highway, right?

We give the paper credit, at least, for printing a letter to the editor that calls into question the issue: “It’s particularly disturbing that institutions such as the Miami Herald and Mercy Hospital are contributing to this disaster by providing land for developers to replace needed open space with vertical sardine cans stuffed with people.”

It is an inelegant point but important, none the less.

A significant portion of the purchase price by McClatchy of Knight Ridder is accounted for by land now used as parking lots and which might, someday, be another condo in the sky.

Miami Dade county taxpayers are increasingly restive about overdevelopment and its costs. Miami Herald readers are also restive about erratic reporting on who benefits and who gains from condo mania and suburban sprawl in Everglades wetlands.

For example, instead of hard hitting investigation of who owns land near Krome Avenue in West Miami Dade at the edge of the Everglades, the Herald prints a puff story about a powerful lobbyist turned developer of wetlands who “deeply cares” for the environment. Miami lobbyist/angler shows his wild side

The article concludes, “I think for the most part everyone would give us an ‘A’ for our efforts.”

Not us. Not by a long shot.

Update on Lennar, Latterner and Rosen by Geniusofdespair

I wanted to see what Lennar has been doing the past few months in Miami - during the real estate slump. I thought I should check to see if they are still buying land and indeed they are. I found Lennar has been purchasing blocks of land (every month) from Down Under Doral LLC. This has been going on for the past 6 months. Lennar is paying multi-millions. The purchase is in the Doral area, South of NW 33rd Street, East of NW 104th Avenue. Important? Not really, except, when I looked up the Officers of Down Under Doral, LLC, who should turn up, YET AGAIN, like a bad penny, those same two guys I have been writing about: Michael Latterner and Wayne Rosen.

Are Latterner and Rosen Stuart Miller’s (Lennar's CEO) drinking buddies? Who are these guys Latterner and Rosen and how/why do they always link up to Lennar?

Here is what I think: These 3 developers hung out together during the 70's on Miami Beach. As teens maybe they had a band. Rumor has it that the 3 could be found singing Acapella in front of the Fountainbleau Hotel most nights in 1973. Maybe? Where is a Miami Beach historian when you need one?

Hang onto your hats by gimleteye

From today’s Financial Times: “the failure of a small Californian mortgage lender yesterday increased nervousness in the credit derivatives market about the large number of US “subprime” mortgages extended this year… its failure is the latest in a series of ominous developments in the market for subprime mortgages.”

Of condos and homes built by the area’s largest builders—Shoma, Caribe, Century, Lennar, Centex, Horton Homes—what is the percentage of sales based on subprime mortgages? What is the historical foreclosure rate on these mortgages compared to foreclosures in the last three months?

We would like to know because it occurs to us, that the 13 members of the Miami Dade county commission and Miami City Commissioners who facilitate turning the region into a chop shop for condo and production home builders—lead by Natacha Seijas for the county—might take reality into account.

So far, mortgage lenders have been hanging on doggedly with frozen smiles. But you can see the vultures circling.

Little people can’t pawn their debt the way big banks can. If the pain starts spreading to bigger financial institutions—hang onto your hats.

No News in Herald so I turned to Sun-Sentinel & Sun Post by geniusofdespair

Sun-Sentinel article Study warns that Florida must curb growth or be overwhelmed by sprawl, gridlock
outlines how growth projects are going to gridlock Florida. From looking at the two maps I posted on December 6th, you should already know this because FDOT said so on maps. Maps don't lie, do they? Now we have this new study confirming the maps. The article by Andy Reid states:

"By the time today's kindergartners near retirement, the state's population should double to 36 million people and development could claim 7 million more acres of rural land, according to a University of Florida study produced for the growth watchdog group 1,000 Friends of Florida." You must use these links right away because newspapers pull the article. However I give you the title and enough information to pull it up if you really want to see it.

The Sun Post has some of the best editorals. You must look at them. Check out this weeks: The Small-Minded Game of Miami-Dade Politics The Editoral Concludes:
"The County Commission is not protecting the voters from liars by passing these laws. They are protecting themselves and other elected officials from proposed laws they don’t like."

Rebecca Wakefield of the Sun Post talks about the Sarnoff hire/fire of Frank Rollason. Check that out as well Counting to Three
Activist Marc Sarnoff Got Elected, but Now He’s Finding
There’s a Steep Political Learning Curve

Start your day with a bang, from gimleteye

One requirement of being a developer, and especially a developer of suburban sprawl in Florida wetlands, is to never look like you’re sweating. And so we read Friday's real estate section in the Miami Herald and smelled the scent of desperation.

According to Brenda Nestor, chairman of a suburban sprawl development company, “The strong economy, robust stock market and extremely favorable local environment have contributed to the success of Windmill Reserve and confidence in our homeowners."

But we also read the New York Times report of an auction of houses about a month ago, near Naples—just a stone’s throw across the Everglades from Miami.

“On average, the houses that changed hands at the auction had fallen about 25 percent in value since 2005.”

No wonder Caribe Homes, whose owner is a long-time board member of the Latin Builders Association—the organization that runs the Miami Dade county commission like a financial subsidiary—“will not only guarantee payment of the mortgage for two years, but also assist the owner in managing the property.”

Meaning: if you are a foreign investor we want you to know we are all about selling out Miami Dade county on the cheap while we take care of the asset you bought with devalued dollars. In other words, we are bottom feeders, trust us to keep your value safe.

The Latin Builders Association and South Florida Builders Association—two sides of the same coin—manipulate zoning and building permits so they can build the cheapest forms of suburban sprawl in outlying areas or wetlands.

They have done so, for decades, virtually without criticism from the Miami Herald.

Through their political influence they have ground regulatory authorities, like the US Army Corps of Engineers, into a pulp.

But you haven't read that story in the Miami Herald. No, it was the St. Pete Times, in an award-winning series, that reported how the Corps allowed 84,000 acres of Florida wetlands to disappear to sprawl during a time when the federal government policy was “no net loss of wetlands”.Wetlands reporting earns top honor

The builders’ associations routinely grab Herald executives by the lapel the way President Lyndon Johnson used to brow-beat minor officials, to talk down any criticism of their businesses that contribute so much to the Herald advertising sections.

Florida builders have always opposed anything resembling comprehensive protections for south Florida water sheds and natural resources. And the Miami Herald has dutifully failed to report on the results.

Because of the builders’ influence at Miami Dade County Hall—and mainly through one county commissioner—Natacha Seijas (read, below)—Florida builders and their lobbyists stopped science and studies that would have protected Miami's drinking water from development too close to wellfields.

Now there is cancer-causing benzene in our drinking water aquifer. (read, below.)

Today Caribe Homes is marketing its latest development for is strategic location that “provides easy access to Florida Keys, Biscayne National Park… and plenty of other entertainment venues.”

We get it. Builders consider our national parks as entertainment when business is bad, and when business is good as natural fodder for bulldozers.

Another way to look at our national parks from the builders’ point of view: they are assets of fungible value compared to stock prices, notwithstanding the fact that stock prices of publicly traded homebuilders like Lennar Corporation are down fifty percent.

The New York Times concludes, “We may now be living on both borrowed money and borrowed time.”

In Belaire Boca, Andrea Leslie, sales director of a gated community with resort-style amenities, breathlessly offers $20,000 off the purchase price to use “any way” buyers wish and “just in time for the holidays”.

We understand how the real estate section of local papers, like the Miami Herald, must print these advertising sections and how much pressure their executives are under, to keep the news from readers when the news hurts their advertisers.

But there is a broader context, too: US Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson is now flying to China with a governing board member of the Federal Reserve and six Cabinet members to persuade the Chinese that it is not in their best interests to be waging an invisible war against US workers with a low-priced yuan.

Is it any wonder that paintings at the splashy Miami art fair, Art Basel Miami Beach, fetch far more than a home or condo in South Florida?

Polluters love Miami law firms by gimleteye

Miami law firms make boatloads of profit protecting the rights of corporations to destroy public health and the environment.

The pattern is so ingrained it has compromised public perception—including what is published in the Miami Herald. So we redress the balance, here.

Since some of our readers have asked about an earlier Gimleteye post (read below: Take the Miami ‘Does my neighbor have prostate cancer? test), we warm you up to our subject by offering the following:

Benzene in drinking water causes cancer and other serious illnesses. The maximum allowable limit by federal regulation is 5 parts per billion.

At wells in the West Dade wellfield—which supplies drinking water for 2.3 million residents of Miami-Dade County—benzene in November, 2006 was detected at 9 parts per billion.

At the present time, 7 of Miami-Dade’s 15 drinking water wells are shut down because of benzene contamination.

We hope you feel like throwing up, while we continue.

The biggest law firms in Miami, like Holland and Knight, Steel Hector Davis, and Greenberg Traurig, have all made millions defending the rights of polluters.

Having gained years of expertise defending Big Sugar, for example, they turned their knowledge to zoning changes for production home building and permits for rock mining in wetlands.

In the process, the resolve of agencies, like the US Army Corps of Engineers, to follow federal laws has been ground to a pulp.

Let’s take one example:

Yesterday an extensive hearing on remedies concluded in Miami federal court. The hearing was an interim result of successful litigation by environmental plaintiffs against the US Army Corps of Engineers for illegally-issued permits for wetlands destruction.

The intervenors are rock mining companies that pulverize fossilized coral, or lime rock, for aggregate used in concrete, highways, and related products. When you fly out of Miami International Airport, you can see what they do in big pits below you.

Only through this litigation did government agencies disclose that the quality of Miami-Dade’s drinking water aquifer, adjacent to public well fields, is kaput.

The majority of Miami Dade county commissioners, lead by Natacha Seijas, were nowhere to be seen or heard during this litigation--though we would have required them to sit in cages to watch the proceedings.

Over 33 days of hearings, rock mining interests had at least twenty attorneys in attendance. A simple calculation:

33 days X 10 hours per day X 20 attorneys X $400/ hour. Factoring in research, preparation, and expert witnesses, the payola to Miami law firms for just the hearing was far in excess of the estimated direct expenses: $2.5 million.

Rock mining is one story about cannibalization of public health and the environment that you did not read in the Miami Herald.

Another story: how the Everglades is a gift that keeps giving.

FDOT Road Ratings by geniusofdespair

On Dec. 6th I posted two maps with FDOT (Florida Dept. of Transportation) ratings on it. A to F. Here is the speed that you will be traveling on these roads. For instance, most of our roads are "F" so we will be traveling at a speed of less than 10 miles an hour on Class III arteries. PLEASE GO BACK AND LOOK AT THE MAPS AGAIN now armed with the Letter Ratings translated into speed.

This is critical information.

P.S. from FDOT:
"The rating of A-F were done to give a subjective approach to traffic. "A" being "free flow" conditions something you might experience late at night or early morning. "B" still being comfortable driving conditions but requiring more thought in lane changes etc. "C": speed and spot congestion ocurring but flow still moving.
You see the pattern emerging until you get to "E" and "F" which have more congestion until you end with stop and go conditions and in worse conditions Gridlock when nothing moves. The LOS was done so people could relate to the school grading system as a reference point."

Fred Grimm in the Miami Herald Today by Geniusofdespair

Sometimes I like the oil slick reporting in the Miami Herald as my brain feels like it is going to explode some mornings from all the despair. There are days that I just want to know what Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears are doing and the Herald is helpful with that kind of news.
Cupcakes are left on the pillows in the South Beach Hilton rooms - excellent! Sign me in Paris!

Like Gimleteye (see previous post below), I too was surprised at the quality of the Grimm column today The filthy rich make our home unaffordable
However, I related a lot of what he said as an extension of my Dec. 5th post about the excesses of the wealthy — Bermello Wedding Bell Blues.

Grimm says he has been:”seething about South Florida’s ruthless development for years...” About the condo’s themselves he says:

“The finished product provides a part-time bed for the transient rich, who sleep through rush-hour traffic, whose kids attend private schools in Connecticut, who summer in Maine and ski in the spring in Aspen, who pay full-time taxes for a part-time residence.

Maybe we've been deluding ourselves. We have a woefully under-educated workforce, an underfunded school system and a state Legislature that filters science through the Old Testament. Florida's in no position to get a jump on other states in the new technologies.”

And, finally he says:
“Two percent of the world's population now control 50 percent of the world's worth. Our economic plan is pretty simple -- suck up to the 2 percent.” Bravo Fred, I couldn’t have said it better! That is our South Florida economy: Sucking up to the rich at the expense of everyone else.

Gimleteye on the Pinzur article Vacant condos, would-be buyers: Plan would bring them together is on target (see below). Anything Martinez and yours Truly Burton are happy about makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up: WATCH OUT!

Mirror, mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all? by gimleteye

From time to time, Miami Herald editors let Fred Grimm write a hard-edged piece. (We can only imagine the conversations between executives and editors: 'is it time to let Fred write, now?')

Today Grimm mostly succeeds in describing the exact feeling we have, staring up at the seemingly numberless condominiums that only the wealthiest in Miami can afford to live in--and most of those, are tied one way or another to the development of production homes or condos.

So, the landscape whose infrastructure deficits plague the rest of us, is created by the wealthiest in Miami most for people who can use US dollars like play money. (ie. their native currencies are so much stronger than ours.)

But instead of quibbling with Grimm (Miami is sucking up to the top .5 percent of the wealthy from around the world, not 2 percent), we note his piece is another example how the Miami Herald pulls its punches.

To round out that perspective, we turn to another story in the Miami Herald by Matthew Pinzur, who reports today of outgoing chair of the county commission Joe Martinez offering to “help” mediate the vast oversupply of homes and condos with citizens who need housing by using county funding.

We think Joe Martinez is a comic at heart. Truly. He's affable with a hint of menace wrapped around his too-thin skin. Which is perfect, in a way, for the role he plays on the county commission: the clown at the circus who rides around on an tricycle while the other acts are going on.

Here is the joke.

Over time, what MIGHT have worked in Miami would have been for county and city governments (MIAMI!) to test the plans and permits for new construction against HISTORIC ABSORPTION RATES and DENY building permits and zoning changes that FAR EXCEEDED historic absorption rates.

But instead of taking care of affordable housing, the majority of city AND county commissioners literally fell to their knees, praying at the feet of any production home builder or condo king who needed a zoning change or permit. That would be the Latin Builders Association and South Florida Builders Association: two sides of the same coin.

The Herald editorial board never protested and only rarely raised a sceptical eyebrow--which is a shame, because when the housing crash comes there will many, many more readers than us calling for scalps.

For these and sundry other reasons, we recognize what the Miami Herald won't state to be the truth: that the heart of the problem is the Miami Dade county commission, because county government provides or is supposed to provide coordinated services for the county and all the municpalities on which building permits are based, like water supply and sewerage.

Our county commission, based on single member districts--13 of them in all--is dysfunctional and cannot be reformed.

Of course, you will not read this unvarnished opinion in the Miami Herald, because its real estate advertising pages are full of the fetid problem.

Today Martinez wants to be helpful and bail out excess inventory owned by his campaign contributors. Yesterday he wanted to push through all applications to move the Urban Development Boundary to create MORE inventory.

Well you say, now the market is at work.

Not really. What Martinez is proposing is to leverage GOVERNMENT to soften the landing of a housing bust.

And so we are left, after reading the Miami Herald, steamed again.

One editorial gets it almost right, about the way “we” are sucking up to the rich through overdevelopment of housing that only a handful can afford, and one story reports on the county commission wrapping concern for ordinary people in a scheme to rescue powerful constituents—production home builders who live in those penthouse apartments and fly away on Netjets to get away from the crowds and traffic they have created for the rest of us.

We know the big builders will be on the phone today, to their friends in the executive suite of the Herald, complaining that the Herald itself with editorials like Grimm's is causing the housing crash. They will also be on the phone to their friends on the governing board of the Federal Reserve: give us lower interest rates!

It's as much bullshit as the demagoguery that will start as soon as the unemployment rate starts going through the roof--because home and condo construction slows to a halt--and claims for more concessions from planning and zoning to stimulate jobs, jobs, jobs by the Latin Builders.

But for now we are just going to point out the gap between Grimm’s editorial and Pinzur’s story, and how the Herald again fails to connect the dots.

Leading us to wonder, why exactly do we pay to read the Miami Herald?

FDOT Map South will also knock your socks off by Geniusofdespair

I am going to try to post two very large maps of FDOT's Level of Service ratings for Miami Dade roads projected out to 2015. The first post will be a North Map -- this is the second post of the South Map. (see previous for North). Remember red is "F" which means the same as it did in high school. The orange (E) and yellow roads (D) are not much better. This map includes traffic growth and planned improvements.

I hope these graphics don't crash the blog - you should be able to hit on them and they will enlarge. They will be hard to read, however, you will be able to see the red in our future. God help us all! Road rage will be the norm. Annie get your gun!

If you want both pieces together in high resolution, email me at geniusofdespair@yahoo.com And thank you FDOT Engineer you really came through in a big way.

FDOT Map North will knock your socks off by Geniusofdespair

I am going to try to post two very large maps of FDOT's Level of Service ratings for Miami Dade roads projected out to 2015. The first post will be a North Map. The second post will be a South Map. Remember red is "F" which means the same as it did in high school. I hope these graphics don't crash the blog. They will be hard to read however, you will be able to see the red in our future.

And you think county government is not important to you? by gimleteye

Take the Miami “Does my neighbor have prostate cancer test” by gimleteye


How many wells drilled into the Biscayne aquifer provide drinking water to 2.3 million Miami-Dade citizens?

What is benzene?

How many wells were shut down in 2006, because of benzene contamination?

How many wells are still shut down?

Why is there benzene in your drinking water wells?

Who permitted polluters to apply for local permits to blast rock pits near our drinking water wells without public hearings? (your county commission)

Who chairs the county commission committee responsible for doing the business of rock miners? (Natacha Seijas)

Who chairs the county commission committee responsible for oversight of drinking water? (Natacha Seijas)

Who promoted zoning changes and building permits and rock mining permits too close to our drinking water supply? (Natacha Seijas)

Who continually sought to block and repress scientific study of possible water contamination sources of our drinking water?

When did Natacha Seijas first learn about benzene pollution of Miami-Dade drinking water?

Who fired Bill Brandt, former director of Miami-Dade Water and Sewer? (Natacha Seijas)

Who asked Bill Brandt, then director of WASA, not to put anything in written memos concerning benzene pollution?

What are maximum limits for benzene in drinking water?

What levels, in comparison, of benzene have been found in Miami-Dade drinking water wells?

What kind of backup is there to assure that no drinking water with benzene pollution ends up in your faucet?

Marc Sarnoff Revisited - Ciomi Business by Geniusofdespair

The new Commissioner in the City of Miami, Marc Sarnoff, is generating a lot of comments, especially regarding his choice of staff. I decided to start a new thread for City of Miami (CIOMI) readers. (See Post December 4th). Also, what do readers think of the Mercy Hospital Development outlined in today's Miami Herald? Condos may rise behind Mercy Hospital

CIOMI readers – I ask this of you all: Please read our posts on the County. As long as the arrogant County Commission does business as usual -- we all suffer. Citizens wearing blinders to what is going on in the whole of Miami Dade County is going to bite us all in the ass. We are seeing hundred of millions of our county tax dollars wasted or stolen.

The rotting rat is there even if you avert your eyes!

Look at how much you pay in taxes to the County. Got your tax bill handy? I pay a third of my taxes to the county. So, gentle CIOMI readers, put some of that angst and especially those good ideas to the County and its (mostly) wretched Commissioners.

During the days of Plummer/Clark and Ceasar Odio, the City of Miami was the Evil Empire but the County has that distinction now. See Michael Putney editorial today (another winner) It's time to restructure county government

Miami Herald--time to restructure county government by gimleteye

We are not polite as Michael Putney is, in today’s Miami Herald editorial, “It’s time to restructure county government” whose conclusions we agree with.

But why did so many line, mid-level and even high-ranking county employees take Putney aside in recent days to whisper in his ear that county government is off its rails?

Why aren’t these same employees telling the same story to Miami Herald REPORTERS who cover local politics, the environment, and government?

Miami Herald, are you paying attention to your own newspaper?

Your reporters are not getting these same sources to speak, because news reports are so weak, truncated, and misdirected that many sources have decided it is not in our interest to talk to them.

County employees see the influence-peddling at County Hall: it goes on every day and goes on unreported in the Miami Herald whose executives and editorial board seem as a result to have more in common with the influence peddlers than their subscribers.

But they will talk to Putney: what does that tell you? that you aren't getting the story.

Putney is right: Burgess is a decent man and a good manager. But thirteen members of the county commission—especially the de facto chair Natacha Seijas—exert powerful pressure on department heads, independently of Burgess’ involvement.

George Burgess could be Superman, but not even Superman can be in thirteen different places at once.

When Natacha Seijas or her staff calls John Renfrow, or, Carlos Espinosa, both department heads, do you imagine that they pay attention to Burgess first?

This prescription for disaster is so ingrained that many county employees assume it defines reality, and THAT IS THE REASON for the affordable housing scandal, for the accounting scandals: George Burgess sits atop a massive government that cannot be managed because wealthy influence peddlers run the show from the sidelines.

No wonder employees are fearful for their jobs.

Michael Putney appears irregularly on the editorial page of the Miami Herald—but he is widely respected for television interviews that try to penetrate the incompetence and mismanagement of county government that cover up the fact that county government exists to serve a wealthy political elite, their lobbyists and industries: mostly tied to production home builders in outlying areas.

Look at the political action committee money that is funding the effort to protect Seijas and stop the executive mayor initiative.

We agree with Putney—an executive mayor will not instantly cure the dysfunction of county government, but it is a step in the right direction.

On Seijas recall, an open letter to union workers by gimleteye

Natacha Seijas, the county commissioner from Hialeah facing a recall election from citizen insurgents, is pressuring organized labor for support.

We would not want to be on the receiving end of that kind of phone call, knowing the anger and vitriol that lurks just beneath the surface.

We hope Miami union workers will sit on their hands, because Natacha Seijas is sitting on the future of Miami Dade county like the talent agent on Borat.

Some union leaders are asking their members: 1) work against the campaign to recall Seijas, and 2) block the one measure that can restore order to Miami Dade county politics—an executive mayor who can balance an unreformable county commission.

Think about it: county commissioners swear that the first business of local government is protecting the health, safety and welfare of citizens.

Not in Miami Dade.

Here, the first business of county commissioners is to approve decisions that allow production home builders to build in outlying areas.

Who wins, in this case? The winners are NOT the workers of Miami Dade county.

This is who wins from a disabled, dysfunctional county government turned upside down to protect a wealthy political elite: production home builders, their lobbyists and cronies in outlying areas who want taxpayers and citizens to shoulder most of the direct costs of unsustainable growth—like bad roads, overcrowded schools, and poor water and sewage infrastucture—and ALL of the indirect costs—like the way two wage earner/families have to struggle to make ends meet and drive countless hours in mind-numbing traffic to and from work.

Wealthy developers are supporting union workers to protect Seijas. Union workers owe no loyalty to that crowd.

They don’t live where workers live, don’t commute like workers commute, don’t suffer the stress of family life in Miami Dade county as workers do, and don't worry about the cost of living.

This is who wins with Natacha Seijas in control of the county commission: wealthy developers who treat Hialeah as their political Bethlehem even though they live in gated communities in Coral Gables, Pinecrest, and Miami Beach.

Now we understand perfectly well why union leaders are taking positions antithetical to their members' interest: the county’s $6 billion budget protects fiefdoms.

But we also believe that union members can think for themselves.

Here is what union members should do: be guided by what is best for you, your family, and your community.

1) Recognize that unseating Natacha Seijas will send a signal that we will no longer accept county commissioners using our quality of life as their piñata,

2) Support the county-wide vote in late January for an executive mayor to balance the power of county commissioners who cannot be reformed.

If you have to, smile at the boss and nod, yes.

But when it is time to vote, do the right thing: vote Seijas out.

Put the unchecked power of a majority of county commissioners serving lobbyists and a political elite into the dustbin of history where it belongs.

Vile Boxy Natacha Seijas by the Numbers by Geniusofdespair

You would think Commissioner Natacha was too sour to get hired by anyone but she does in fact hold a position at the YMCA. And they pay her too! She earns $52,499.98. She also gets Social Security in the amount of $18,631. As of Dec. 31, 2005 she was worth $395,324 -- lagging behind most of the other Commissioners.

She owns two properties: one in Hialeah and the other in Coral Springs: between them they are worth under $200,000 and it appears she has a mortgage on each. My question is: Why doesn't she move to Coral Springs?

Bermello Wedding Bell Blues: In Excess by geniusofdespair

Bermello Wedding Cancelled and I wouldn't be reporting on this sad development for this Developer's daughter, except for the fact that the Herald saw fit to devote much ink to it in the Herald and El Nuevo Herald.

I read the article and was struck by the excess.

The plan was for a two month honeymoon, a rehearsal dinner with 100 at the Four Seasons, two designer wedding dresses (one for the nups and one for the reception). The wedding was suppose to be for 500 people at the Mandarin Oriental. What could that cost? I wanted to know.

I went to Mandarin’s website and, of course, the menu downloads didn't work. I called and found out an AVERAGE package is $250 to $300 per person and add tax and service. Since we must figure this is not an AVERAGE wedding, let's say $500 per person with flowers and odds and ends...$250,000 at least. Well, golly, now that it is cancelled, the Bermello’s can afford to give away one affordable housing unit.

Boston Tea Party in Hialeah? Do it-- recall Seijas now! by gimleteye

Hialeah is the political Bethlehem of wealthy Cuban American developers who use ward politics in a single district to ensure that what they want to build in other districts will come to pass, hell or high water.

Hialeah is the fortress. The stronghold. And it is the place where the unprecedented will happen on December 19: a recall election of the de facto chair of the county commission: Natacha Seijas.

Not only did the Miami Herald fail to investigate the difficulties encountered by petition signature gatherers, it participated in disinformation by asserting that collecting 3000 signatures to recall Seijas was not an insurmountable obstacle.

In point of fact, signature gatherers faced intimidation tactics used by neighborhood watch associations in Havana, Cuba.

Day after day, they were hectored, threatened, and even false arrest by the Hialeah police. Places of business where signature gatherers tried to inform citizens were also called and threatened.

What drove the signature gatherers to persist was a force of determination equal to Seijas’ wealthy developer supporters who will spend upwards of $1 million in December to protect a county commissioner who is only paid $6000 per year.

It is worth pointing out that the individuals defending Seijas are not just a handful of vaguely recognizable lobbyists or name developers like Sergio Pino.

They are important intermediaries in fundraising for national elections in both political parties.

Doing the bidding of production home builders greases the political wheel that connects Hialeah to County Hall to Tallahassee and Congress. Zoning changes in south Florida for production home builders was the foundation for law firms like Greenberg Traurig, whose executives exert no-so-subtle pressure on Herald executives they rub shoulders with.

That is why Natacha Seijas is tweaked but not worried about the December 19 recall election.

She knows it will be lightly attended because her colleagues on the county commission scheduled it that way.

How many voters in Hialeah are going to take time to go to the polls, setting aside family and Christmas preparations in order to join a 'below the media radar' incipient rebellion?

The developers and their lobbyists no longer live in Hialeah. They live in expensive gated communities in Coral Gables, South Miami, Pinecrest and Miami Beach. Their real estate taxes are higher than most Miami Dade workers make in a year.

They don’t go to Miami Beach or Key Biscayne on Sunday. They use their yachts or private planes to get away from the traffic and bad parks and bad schools you are stuck with.

Whatever happens in Hialeah on December 19, take away this lesson: the majority of the Miami Dade county commission cannot be reformed.

In the coming days, the Miami Herald will be filled with breathless accounts of 20,000 visitors descending on our city to breathe the rarified air of modern art. Meanwhile, the real story persists: of a political elite that has turned Miami into a chop shop for production home builders whose authority is vested in the county commissioner from Hialeah, Natacha Seijas.

Sarnoff's First Official Act by Genius of Despair

Heard it through the grapevine: Frank Rollason is Marc Sarnoff's Chief of Staff. Hours Later: Now apparently I have heard it is not true -- he was considered but it did not happen. I would have removed the post but the comments came in so: NEVER MIND!

December 5th
Chief of Staff is: former Outreach Specialist at Team Metro: Maggie Mestre

Dumb and dumber: Miami Herald on the ‘golden age’ of traffic woes by gimleteye

The cheerleading pom-poms are out again at the Miami Herald on traffic woes afflicting our region. Do Herald executives know that, as a result, its subscribers are fleeing as fast as attendance at the Orange Bowl Parade?

Oh boy. What is it about the Herald that its leadership is persuaded that readers are too immature to face facts?

Its coverage of the recall effort of vile county commissioner Natacha Seijas has been anemic.

Here is a pitched battle by a brave group of citizens trying to pry Hialeah loose from the domination of wealthy developers for whom Hialeah is their political Bethlehem. They are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect the single county commissioner most responsible for the real cause behind our traffic nightmares: Natacha Seijas.

Over a very long period of time, Commissioner Seijas spearheaded zoning decision after zoning decision to plow hundreds of thousands of new production homes in outlying areas without planning for transportation infrastructure.

How sad is it, you have to read about this connection in a blog, because the Herald won't print the facts?

And it gets worse. The underfunded Dan Ricker, in his page 3B “Watchdog Report” notes that county commissioners, paid $6000 per year, are getting rich on real estate deals, but doesn't report how. The net worth of Seijas' key ally on the county commission, Barbara Jordan, increased from $890,000 in 2004 to $1.84 million in 2005. How?

We don’t know who the cheerleaders are or what their fluff sessions at One Herald Plaza sound like, or the steady chatter from the outside that persuades executives and editors that its readers are too immature to face the ugly truths about our communities on a regular basis.

Take today's editorial, “Unclogging the roads”, for instance. What is the great opportunity for applause? “Broad support” at a recent Miami Chamber of Commerce for re-timing traffic lights, a website, and “a long list of other ideas”.

Who writes re-timing traffic lights to alleviate massive gridlock is a cause for optimism?

Then there is the obsequious letter to the editor, “Miami is in its golden age” by a writer who ‘moved to Miami from New York City less than two years ago’, as have many Miami Herald or El Nuevo Herald reporters.

Come on, Herald. Do your jobs!

Director of Ethics Commission Responds to Criticism in Herald Today By Geniusofdespair

In Response to Ethics Dept. Director Robert Meyers' Letter in the Herald Today defending the Miami Dade County Ethics Department:

I agree with Opus the Penguin: PHPHPT!

Re-reading the Miami Herald's vacuous coverage of the Seijas recall by gimleteye

On Sunday, another story by the Miami Herald that misses the point of the epic battle between the popular Mayor of Miami Dade County Carlos Alvarez and the de facto chair of the county commission, Natacha Seijas, whose dismal role in county politics has made Miami Dade county unpleasant for citizens and businesses alike.

A few days ago, the Herald’s Chuck Rabin reported the story as a battle of personalities. We immediately took issue. Read our blog postings below for details.

We also made the case that if the Herald and El Nuevo Herald understood, or cared for, its readership—it would put this story on Page A1, not buried in the B section.

In Sunday’s paper, again the Herald buried the story in the B section—this time on page B5.

From a battle of personalities, now the story is a “rounding error” by Seijas, who has offered a resolution to the county commission to cut her opponent’s salary by only $108,000.

Both stories misdirect readers' attention from the enormously high stakes of the recall election against Seijas, which is a prelude to the county-wide vote for a strong mayor form of government in late January. Seijas district is Hialeah, the political Bethlehem for powerful Cuban American builders and their lobbyists who live in tonier zipcodes, in gated communities in Coral Gables, in Pinecrest and South Miami.

On radio and on television, vile Natacha plays the role of innocent: “I don’t have any idea what people object to.” Ask anyone in county government: she is feared and loathed for her vindictiveness and vitriol against any who cross her agendas.

Even the unions have been cowed into submission by Seijas, despite the fact that working people have been most harmed by growth policies of the county commission which are jeopardizing the foundation of Miami-Dade's economy.

Seijas exemplifies how the single member district system of county commission government is failing.

When the media just report her astonishment how many people are opposed to her, it plays into her mode of operation.

To her Hialeah consituents, Seijas is mild and caring and attentive to seniors' needs like no one else. But to the production home builders whose interests she represents, Seijas is Miami's version of Tom Delay.

But Hiealeah is not just another exampale of tightly controlled local politics.

When petition gatherers had the courage to collect enough signatures to force a recall, they were treated to abusive tactics straight out of the neighborhood watch associations in Havana, Cuba. From verbal abuse, to intimidation of business owners where they sought to collect signatures, to detainment by the Hialeah police: the Herald failed to elevate this story to the position it deserved.

And why does Hialeah deserve a high position? Because any cursory study of electoral demographics reveals that the district is a powerhouse, because so many people vote and so many people vote the party line according to what the big production home builders and their lobbyists want.

Not a single interest that does business with Miami Dade county will drop a dime in the hat that is being passed around to collect money to unseat her. Meanwhile, she has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from developers too scared to turn away her call.

It is a sad and pathetic state of affairs, that is only deepened by the Herald’s printing in today's Issues and Ideas section, a letter from the Ethics Commission head, Robert Meyers defending the Ethics Commission that we have sharply criticized.

Meyers concludes his rambling “Delicate balance of rights and wrongs” by saying, “I am not convinced that the community needs an Ethics Commission to penalize an individual (ie. county commissioner or other elected official) for making a decision that doesn’t pass the smell test.

Mr. Meyers has completely lost his sense of smell.

The Herald did report that the chair of the county commission Joe Martinez was given a free pass by the Ethics Commission although he took free work from the son of a powerful member of the Latin Builders Association on his new home, built on a lot whose purchase cost to him was considerably lower than other lot sales in the area at a time when Martinez was lining up to approve applications to move the Urban Development Boundary sought by the Latin Builders Association.

What the Herald AND El Nuevo Herald need to do, is to inform its readers what is at stake with the Seijas recall and the strong mayor county-wide vote in late January. That requires a clear editorial direction and positioning the issue on the front page of both papers.

Our position is that the only glimmer of hope is for a strong executive mayor, with line of authority, responsibility and accountability to the public for the county manager and department heads of county government. The 13 single member district system of county government is killing Miami Dade county, and it cannot be reformed by commissioners--a majority of whom have carved out unassailable fiefdoms.

We applaud Mayor Carlos Alvarez for taking on an urgent quest. While we are concerned that the production home builders who support Seijas today will rush to elect one of their own to be a new county mayor, we are more confident that abuse of power--should it occur--by an executive, strong mayor will be redressed by voters county-wide in a way that is impossible today, because of exactly the situation we have: Seijas sitting astride the county commission like the talent agent on Borat.

My Chin Buried in My Chest by geniusofdespair

Last night at a dinner party I was asked whether there was anyone I admired. I mentioned Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. I thought again about it, after writing the previous post about Cody: About lawyers who are able to take both sides in a heartbeat. Do I have a more current hero? One living perhaps.

There was a lawyer I much admired for years in Florida who worked for the Federal Government. He was handsome, thoughtful, well-spoken, gentle and so idealistic. I was proud to count him as my friend.

He started working for the dark side and last time we talked, he talked about how he was helping a very important economic engine and how the County would virtually collapse if rock mining was stopped. The phone was to my ear but my chin dropped so low, it was buried in my chest. I was in despair. I soon hung up the phone a hero wrenched from my being. I felt like saying to him: BUT AT WHAT COST: OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE? WHAT DO WE GIVE UP FOR ECONOMICS and the comfort it brings? And I thought also about his comfort: New family, new life, have to make a living yadda, yadda.

I have a rock I took from a rock mine from Western Dade County and it is filled with little shells, beautiful miniature shells cemented together. When I look at it I think: Are we not strip mining? Can anyone put all those little shells back on earth? Let’s just grind the shells down for more road beds for more developments.

Back to the dinner party: I now see a new hero emerge - one living - to take the place of the one I lost on the phone that day: Federal Judge William Hoeveler. Why do I keep picking Federal Judges as my heroes? Maybe it is because they can be purer of heart. They don’t have to worry about who butters their bread and what is best for the economy. They can figure out what is wrong and right based on truth. I have been in Judge Hoeveler’s Court Room. He is a towering man. A giant among men. I wish everyone could have such a hero.

Re: Vile Seijas - Pizzi & Cody face off today on TV by Geniusofdespair

The Vile Seijas’ recall was debated by her lawyer/pal Stephen Cody and Miami Lakes Councilman Mike Pizzi on Channel 4, today.

The new Prince of Darkness Cody baited Pizzi with how little money the recall effort has raised – insinuating it was an unpopular effort. Pizzi said he wore it as a badge of honor that the recall effort has raised hardly any money. Pizzi said it was a grassroots effort and he countered that the other side raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from Developers/Lobbyists/special interests and much of that money was going to pay Cody. Cody didn't reply to this.

Cody also brought up that the recall effort was an out of the District effort. Pizzi “The Face of the Recall Effort” countered: Not only am I personally living in the district: I am a Councilman in the district — voted in by a wide margin -- representing thousands of voters in the district.

What about this Cody dude? I found this on the web: March 6, 2002, in an article titled: Redistricting legal team mostly GOP loyalists, DeGrandy mentions Cody as part of the team. Cody gave $500 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2003 yet it appears he was a member of Howard Dean’s Democracy for America. Maybe it was a different Stephen Cody or he goes both ways: with whomever will butter his bread. I believe Citizens for the People’s Choice is the PAC group supporting Natacha in the recall. They have raised about $142,000 as of 10/27. And they have paid Cody about $78,000.

By the way, Cody also got much mullah to fight the strong mayor: In Citizens for Open Government PAC records, there is an expense listed as “Attorney At Law” instead of the law firm name. However the $70,000 in 9/2005 went to the address Cody uses: 800 Douglas Road. In 10/2005 they did use Cody’s name and paid him an additional $24,449.75. He got another $40,159.53 from this pac.

So who made out like a bandit: Stephen Cody! From these two PAC's he made about $212,609.

AND WORSE: WE PAID CODY TOO! The Commission voted to use OUR TAX dollars to hire him to fight the Strong Mayor Referendum. What was it $300,000? I forget, I tend to block out bad memories...but I have a sour stomach just thinking about it.

Herald: You could do this research too you know. I don’t get paid to do it. Monica Leal could do the research.