Our review of the past week's news in Miami and the world
Monday
Who’s pitching, who’s catching? De facto county commission chair Natacha Seijas talks to a newspaper. She unleashes a mini-tantrum at Mayor Carlos Alvarez’ audacity to schedule the State of the County address at the same time as a county commission meeting, "This is strike one," she warns Miami Today.
The real curve balls are being thrown by the county commission against Alvarez, to tie up the county bureaucracy in knots and ensure that they, not the Mayor, control the county $7 billion budget and, through the budget, county departments and managers. And what a great job they've done.
Who’s buying? We'll get to the airport, Seijas' Great Disaster, in a moment, but for now the county commission is trying to wriggle out from the unfolding fiasco of its investment in the $472 million Performing Arts Center—vastly over-budget, in the first place-- and subsidized to the tune of $3.7 this year. Center staffers have requested a $10.1 million subsidy next year.
Bruno Barreiro, nominal county commission chair, wriggles, “We have to look to alternatives including putting the center out to a private company that would manage operations." Hiding the bacon worked really well at the airport, too.
Tuesday
Rocks in their heads. The Miami Herald reports that digging up an unused airport for lime rock in northwest Dade could help offset cost overruns at Miami International Airport accumulating in the billions of dollars—using one public asset to pay down the mismanagement of another.
Rock mining near the northwest wellfield has destroyed water quality near wellfields 2.4 million residents depend on, for fresh and clean drinking water, introducing cancer-causing benzene into the water column. The cost: we predict $500 million, far above county estimates but well within the proven range of error.
Wednesday
Good news in small nuggets. The City of South Miami votes for a three month building moratorium on McMansions in order to review building code revisions that could protect neighborhood character.
Corporate earnings, according to the Wall Street Journal, fell 3.6% in the fourth quarter of 2006. The last time earnings didn’t rise in the fourth quarter, compared to the third, was in 2000 when the economy was on the cusp of a recession.
Fed Chief Ben Bernanke gives Congress an upbeat view of the economy. The stock markets close at new historic highs.
Thursday
Dizzying for a fact. The cost of the north terminal at Miami International Airport was originally pegged at less than $1 billion: it has jumped to $2.5 billion.
In late January’s Watchdog Report by Dan Ricker, County Commissioner Carlos Giminez complained about cost overruns at MIA’s South Terminal of $200 - $300 million. Two weeks later, on February 15, the Watchdog Report notes new charges of around $772 million, according to airport director Jose Abreu.
The new MIA terminals “could cost $6.2 billion up from $5.2 billion", at least TRIPLE the original cost estimates a decade ago.
Friday
Rolling in their graves or chewing Tums like there is no tomorrow. Federal Judge Lawrence King delivers a thunderbolt—asking federal investigators to go back over charges of a defendant in the fraud trial of a major engineering consulting company, PBS&J, that her allegations of massive campaign law violations and political corruption in Miami Dade County were ignored.
Pushing sprawl towards the Everglades is big business. Lennar advertises in the Miami Herald real estate guide “Savannah Ranch Estates, priced at more than $1 million”, on five acre lots outside the Urban Development Boundary within shouting distance of Everglades National Park.
The styles are inspired by “Mozart”, “Picasso”, and “Shakespeare”.
The US Commerce Department announces that housing starts plummeted 14.3 percent in January from the month before, to an annual rate of 1.408 million, the slowest pace since August 1997.
Saturday
HUD officials retreat from a plan to takeover the troubled Miami Dade Housing Agency, rife with incompetence and fraud, after sharp criticism political undercurrents including who's idea this was in the first place, possibly from builders and developers allied with the ruling majority of the county commission for whom a run at "affordable" housing could keep their cash flow from vanishing in a cratering housing market.
Sunday
1926, redux? The Miami Herald finally opens the window on the Miami housing bubble and slo-mo crash. Credit Herald reporter, Matt Haggman, for pulling together strands of the year's biggest story that could be titled, "Back to the future".
2 comments:
You know, living around here would be depressing, if wasn't for the glorious weather the past few days.
The most uplifting thing for me this week was the Hurricane Andrew Lady in Cutler Bay getting electricity. As the Cutler Bay Mayor (Paul Voorman) said, it was a story about something finally going right with a new city. Something that was literally impossible for 6 years in the county was handled in less than 3 days in Cutler Bay, and could have been done in one, if they didn't have holidays to deal with. Good Job, Cutler Bay!
I thought managing the "big" items that have county-wide importance IS the job of the county commission? And now they are delegating that responsibility to a company that we will have to pay?
The commissioners certainly don't feel that way about the airport or the port? No management companies there. Why?
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