It is simply false that the single-member district structure of Miami Dade county government protects minorities.
The bottom line is not the color of the candidate, but the color of money.
In Miami Dade county, it is the same money: from developers, real estate interests, land speculators, rock miners, lobbyists who represent them, and big law firms like Greenberg Traurig. The records are public. Check for yourself.
Black, white, Hispanic, ethnic or racial—any way you jigger the combination, it is the money machine that has gamed the system of a thirteen member county commission so that government serves special interests: whether the needs of big production home builders in outlying areas or condo kings in the city.
But since the biggest issue before us now is the referendum in 16 days for the executive mayor for Miami Dade County, let’s consider the idea that somehow minorities “lose” by the election of an executive mayor.
Most African Americans would agree that affordable housing is a major concern for their district.
So, if you are a defender of the single member district system, you would also believe, then, that at least one of our African American county commissioners would make sure affordable housing policy is proactive, purposeful, and effective for district constituents.
(We won’t touch on the county housing agency scandal, documented by the Miami Herald in detail, which no member of the county commission has accepted responsibility for… it is always someone else’s fault.)
Consider what our most seasoned African American politician on the county commission, Barbara Jordan, has done, or not, in relation to affordable housing.
The Jordan inclusionary zoning ordinance has taken so long to “work out” that it missed the longest housing boom since the 1920’s. The boom is now over.
Ms. Jordan spent an eternity trying to craft a backroom deal with big developers to make it easier to get zoning changes and permits for tract housing in strawberry fields, not economically distressed neighborhoods where her constituents live.
The design examples / charts finally produced to show how Ms. Jordan conceived “affordable housing” showed a typical production home development fit for potato fields or wetlands in Florida City, not economically distressed neighborhoods in her district.
The point is this, in relation to the single member district structure: it’s not the color of the candidate, but the color of the money behind the incumbent that counts.
The demographics of Miami Dade voters are, give or take a few percentages: 10 percent Anglo, 20 percent African American, 70 percent Hispanic.
Whoever is elected executive mayor will have to appeal to the Hispanic majority. That is plain reality.
The need for good governance in Miami Dade county is percolating through voters' imagination.
In Miami Dade county, it is time for the political money that talks, to start talking sense and for voters to distinguish the difference.
The single member district structure of county government does not protect minorities, and there is nothing to lose by empowering a single executive mayor accountable to all the citizens of Miami Dade county.
We’re all in this mess together, a mess created by a dysfunctional structure of county government.
3 comments:
This is all part of that republican consperacy launched nationally and designed locally by Moreno at the FIU Metropolitian Center, and financed by the state FL Rep. party, to organize voters by ethnicity not similar interests. In other words, while blacks poor and poor whites may have similar interests they are divided by a system that thinks only in terms of race and thus continues to divide paving the way to more republican victories.
Let's look at one of the Black Commissioners. Dorrin Rolle has the Scott Project in his disrict. He must have passed the location dozens of times if not hundreds. Didn't he notice nothing was being done? Is it better to have a totally ineffective commissioner just because he is black? Or we so racially polarized that we believe a commissioner will only look out for the same ethnic/racial group? That would be very said.
If I passed the scott project land- I would be on the phone to the Manager every day to get to the bottom of it. Why would the Herald have to uncover the mess? Does no one have eyes? A bad commissioner is a bad commissioner no matter the color or ethnic background. We accept mediocrity in the name of racial/ethnic equality for us and that gets us commissioners like Seijas, Souto and Rolle.
We need to build a coaltion of anglos, hispanics and blacks to turn this all around. This is more important than giving any one official more power.
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