The week of playing by their rules
Monday. “Miami police responding to anti-free trade demonstrators in 2003 could have done more to avoid physical contact with the demonstrators”, according to a newly released Fort Lauderdale Police Department report. “… it appeared that Miami PD desired to physically engage the protesters and push them back. Since this was their town, we played by their rules.”
Tuesday. We play by our own rules. County Commissioner Katy Sorenson proposes an ordinance that will require all county buildings to be constructed according to “green building standards”, but does not go so far as to adopt LEEDS, the industry standard developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Endorsing a county effort to reduce global warming emissions, de facto chair Natacha Seijas tells the Miami Herald (a newspaper she doesn’t read), “The whole thing with the environment is that we have to become aware,” showing how simple it is to become aware of the environment during a housing market crash. “How do we become aware? When it hits us in the pocket,” Seijas said, without elaborating if that was her personal experience talking.
Only minutes after County Manager George Burgess publicly insisted that community development funds would not be used to finance a $500 million baseball stadium, Miami City Manager Pete Hernandez said at least $15 million from the Overtown Community Redevelopment Agency has been earmarked for the project.
Wednesday. HUD indicates it plans to takeover the Miami Dade Housing Agency, despite efforts by local affordable housing advocates and Mayor Carlos Alvarez to work out a solution that includes members of the community. County Commissioner Gimenez calls the move by HUD a “done deal”, or another way of describing the golden rule: whoever has the money, rules. But, if appointments to the “independent board” put the housing agency in the hands of production home builders who need affordable housing subsidies to maintain their own cash flow during the housing crash, we'll see--as though we needed more evidence--who rules.
Thursday. The Independent UK details field reports of unprecedented changes in behavior and mortality of wildlife in Great Britain. Extreme alterations of weather, from excessively warm to cold, are disrupting wildlife breeding and hibernating patterns.
Friday. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Prevention Magazine rates Miami 98th out of 100 American cities for walkability. The list was based on such criteria as air quality, the percentage of people who walk to work, access to parks, number of athletic shoes sold, crime rate and weather.
Miami Mayor Manny, with NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, does a "green" tour of Miami.
Saturday. Traffic surpasses crime as number one visitor concern, according to the Miami Herald. “It’s unclear when traffic passed crime as Miami-Dade tourists’ top complaint.” That would be, according to our calculations, when the Chamber of Commerce started paying attention. “Executives at the tax-funded Visitor’s Bureau did not respond to several interview requests this week.”
Chapters of the rule: never criticize any development, no matter how over-the-top, no matter how little needed by the community, never pay for infrastructure now, that can be postponed for another day, and make taxpayers pay for every square foot of the “rule” that shifts, however incrementally, the right of private property owners from “build” to “protect”.
Sunday. Miami Herald, A1: A widow says she was hoodwinked by developers who paid $445,000 for her underwater land—then sold it back to the state for $7.2 million. … “A new lesson in how to get rich in real estate: Don’t build a thing.” More commentary, later, on today's New York Times, "National Perspectives: Holding the line on New Development." Frog Pond, anyone?
5 comments:
another "only in miami story": Yes this is the same James Humble of the "Frog Pond" Fame:
Patricia Ireland was a former leader of N.O.W. (longest leader).
It was Ireland's second husband, James Humble, who helped spark what she now recalls as her slowly "budding feminism." The artist and fruit farmer followed her to Miami from graduate school. After living together for awhile, they married in 1968. Ireland says that Humble helped open her eyes to the "disrespect" she was "subjected to on the job" every day.
????
"HUD indicates it plans to takeover the Miami Dade Housing Agency, despite efforts by local affordable housing advocates and Mayor Carlos Alvarez to work out a solution that includes members of the community."
We'll see in the coming months how this is going to shake out.
Dear Folks,
This afternoon, I attended a meeting of the Planning & Advisory Board of Miami-Dade County. First on the agenda, were folks from the Miami Art Museum and its related developers, Red Cloisters, Blue Cloisters, and EFT Holdings. They talked about theire planned development near the
museum and their plans for the museum. I feel they have been less than forthcoming about their plans.
Nothing was mentioned about the museum closing. What information do you have on this topic?
Also, do you have any information about the proposed development?
What is the significance of the FROG POND?
It seems like the Frog Pond deal has been scrubbed from the internet. It happened in the late 1980's: James Humble and some of the big South Dade farmers featured in the New York Times story, formed a partnership to buy land owned by Aerojet at the edge of the Everglades, where state and federal agencies knew additional water storage was needed. In other words, they went fishing for profits in wetlands.
The end game, for big farmers, is flood protection. It is the same for the developers. They will fight and have fiercely fought any attempt to revive the Everglades that would increase the chance that government control of flood operations might introduce an element of chance of increased flooding... despite the fact that big storm events are uncontrollable.
They purchased the land at a nominal value and employed some of the most prominent property rights attorneys in the nation in order to extract the highest possible price from the federal and state government, which in the end totaled tens of millions of dollars. If someone has more detail, would they please post here.
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