To elaborate on a quote from Gimleteye’s post today:
Gimleteye quoted Elizabeth Aranda: “Those who have been elected to invest in the common good and to help level the playing field for marginalized groups have, instead, pursued their own interests by catering to those who are guided by the maximization of profit.”
I went to a visioning session on what should become of Virginia Key in the City of Miami last night. Mostly middle class in attendance.
There was a Hispanic man there with his teenage daughters who really seemed to care what happened to the Key. (I mention he was Hispanic because a rude reader assumed he was black because I mentioned Virginia Key. Many people care about Virginia Key from many different backgrounds. Don't "assume" rude person. This is a story about economics not color or ethnic background). Back to the story.
The man said, I pay the $1.25 toll and then they want to me to pay $5 to get into parks (Bill Baggs park I assumed, he didn’t know names of parks only admission prices). He said “I shouldn’t have to pay to go to a park.” He was upset that they were charging $3 for City Residents to go to the oceanfront park on Virginia Key. The reality hit me: This man really needed not to spend that money. He could not afford it. Spending $5 to recreate was a choice he made based on budget.
While the Related Group is proposing building condo’s to sell for up to 10 million dollars, a half of a mile from the Rickenbacker Causeway, there is a man thinking twice about paying the $1.25 toll.
Who can level a playing field with such divergent participants? Certainly not the politicians. So how do they get elected making both sides happy? They don't bother leveling the playing field, instead they make a show of very concrete, visible gestures.
I often thought, how can a politician buy a vote with a free lunch for a voter (which they often do). I now see why we have such bad people in office -- a free lunch is very important when you are getting nothing. Paella or Chicken and Rice is something you can see, taste and enjoy. A platform of good planning, standing firm on zoning or promises of tiered development ring empty to the voting masses. Good food is so much better and so real. A pothole fixed is a triumph. You can see it.
Unfortunately good government is more subtle. Too subtle for most Miami Dade voters who are content getting the new traffic light on their corner, the free lunch or the pothole filled in. That is all most County Commissioners can deliver.
8 comments:
"Take the path of least resistance" Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido
I was wondering why people would keep re-electing the same bad commissioners over and over even though there is all this wasteful spending and corruption throughout the county. It looks like if a commissioner can keep the developers happy and their district happy -- they are in it for life, damn the rest of the people!
Wait. Who got a free lunch? They may have gotten gipped.
Rumor has it that some folks got free breakfasts, then a ride to the polls in a nice bus during a certain recall election. To me that sort of implies, "I bought your vote"... That PAC could of saved money by giving everyone 5 dollar bills and then bussing them to the polls.
Politics will change when the only folks voting are not our seniors who look as voting in this county as an adventure and entertainment.
The whole tenor of this article - "Blame the voters" or the poor, or the old - is very elitist. Why don't you blame yourselves for failing to make the case and build the coalition necessary to change the system. They may be overwhelming but they are not impossible odds.
I take some blame.
I helped many underdog campaigns. By doing this I also came to a reality: Money buys county commission seats. I am through spinning my wheels. The voters don't do their due diligence so the money the developers throw at campaigns manipulates the voters. There is enough blame to go around without calling me elitist. Don't attack the messenger. Elitists don't make hundreds of calls for candidates or sit out in the sun holding signs. They sit back and throw money at the problem. I don't throw money. I walk the walk.
If you read my blog, it was about disparity in the first half then i moved on to a different subject. I was pointing out in the first part that each commissioner has very different constituencies. I then moved on to: How the commissioners have figured out how to manipulate the meat and potatoes voters whomever they are -- the ones who look for concrete change. Let me try again because it appears you misunderstood: The voters in the presidential campaign were manipulated by a swift boat made-up campaign. Are the voters dumb, poor, old? How the hell do I know. I am just saying voters sometimes vote because of stupid reasons or selfish reasons (I got the new traffic light on my corner or the pot hole fixed or he lied about swift boats).
I do know one thing, you can't change a system when no one is talking to each other. When the Hispanics, African Americans and Anglo Americans start talking maybe we can change things. How are you building a coalition throwing darts at me? I am just a person living in the county like you. I have no power, hell I wear PJ’s till noon.
I am trying to talk about things no one in the paper will and you are throwing darts at me. I am not your enemy if I say voters are manipulated. They are. I am looking for answers too. write a guest blog if you have answers but avoiding subjects is not the answer. I will print it.
there is no dialogue is right right right!
When Natacha Seijas says to the head of the NAACP, Victor Curry:
"You people...."
You know there is something wrong. If you only worry about what happens in your district, that is the kind of person you get: a Natacha Seijas. I wouldn't worry about the elitist slur Genius, the person is off base. They are looking at a needle instead of the haystack.
Voters in many Miami-Dade County districts either speak no English or they speak English very poorly. Few voters have graduated from High School. It is easy to control them. A hot meal an extra trash pick-up and you get elected.
Sad.
I don't think that the critiques are aimed at the bloger but rather the comments on this post. What is wrong with a free lunch for voting, or seniors voting, or the poor voting? People get things from politicians all of the time, the rich just get MORE! The conflict between upper middle class "reformers" who think politics should be "pure" and "working-class" voters who "want" something in return for their vote is usually seen as one of the major ruptures in the Democratic Party Coalition during the 1960s. What Miami needs more than anything is to build a reform coaliton that cleans out the corruption while re-distributing some of the housing wealth towards the poor. Even the developers would gain by creating a more sustained and less crime ridden city, but they never think that far ahead nor care enough about the city.
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