Natacha in the Herald, Michael Lewis in Miami Today by gimleteye

I couldn't help noticing in Natacha Seijas' opinion piece (she reads the paper? I thought she only read our blog) in today's Miami Herald "County taking big steps on global warming", the following: "Rising sea levels must be countered to protect property and our drinking water supply."

Commissioner Seijas needs a little lecture on transgressions against our drinking water. As the rock miners' advocate, she is responsible for the cone of silence that descended over county government when it was discovered that benzene that causes cancer had infiltrated our drinking water supply in West Dade.

Only litigation by Sierra Club and a few other environmental groups brought to light the contamination that the county was obligated, by federal law, to disclose to residents at the time it occurred.

Does Natacha Seijas care about drinking water supply or water quality? What's a little cancer in your drinking water? I guess, as long as it's clear she'll drink it.

(I want to be clear about something here: I'm surrounded by friends and acquaintances who in middle age are getting prostate cancer... I'm sure you have your own stories.)

As to "rising sea levels must be countered to protect property": here, Seijas is consistent to the Latin Builders Association and others in the builder lobby, her power base.

Seijas needs another lecture: sea-level rise is coming and there are not enough billions in Miami-Dade taxpayers to build sea walls high enough to protect property owners. That is exactly the message insurance companies are telling South Florida businesses, with sky high rates.

The best thing Seijas could do, would be to lead the way in rejecting zoning changes and permits that allow more development in flood zones.

That would be the greenest action that Miami-Dade County could take, and if Seijas ever writes an opinion piece on THAT, I'll eat my Sunday hat.

What Michael Lewis, Miami Today publisher, left out of this week’s editorial, “Like a piñata, bursting condo bubble will spill forth goodies”, could fill a book.

Mr. Lewis “serves Florida’s Most Important Audience” with the preternatural optimism of Colonel Tom Parker, who sold Elvis Presley as an icon of American values even as he abused cocaine and painkillers.

In his editorial this week, Mr. Lewis casts tiny barbs at the condo flippers who he warns now have to come to the table and close.

But Miami Today, during the housing boom—not just condos--, was in a unique position to level its withering gaze at both the city and county commission for allowing zoning changes and permitting sought by their “most important audience”: the South Florida builders lobby.

Where Mr. Lewis’ optimism falls short is in assessing the massive dislocation of resources that accompanied the boom and now bust: the unallocated and unfunded costs of growth in South Florida will severely tax current residents long into the future.

There is nothing “uncharted” about this territory: the growth model in Florida has been unsustainable for a very long time and Mr. Lewis is among its advocates: that increased tax base is good and necessary to keep pace with population growth.

Really?

If that is the case, why is Miami Dade Water and Sewer $3 billion in the hole? Why is the infrastructure backlog in Miami Dade County alone pressing on $7 billion? (Maybe Commissioner Seijas will help answer that question?)

The building boom was built, finally, on liar loans, mortgage fraud, and the incestuous relations between builders and bankers.

But the financial wizardry that shed millions of dollars in bonuses to Wall Street and bankers and developers: the game is over.

Mainstream media and paid advertisements like Miami Today had their blinders on. Mr. Lewis had the platform and the audience to make common sense arguments that might have acted as a counter-weight to the massive fraud wrapping up local elected officials, lobbyists, and their financial sponsors.

It’s hard to find a silver lining in these clouds, but it would start with explaining for business readers why consumer confidence is shakier, now, than at any time in recent history.

Perhaps, the next time that The Miami Herald gives Commissioner Seijas a soapbox, the paper could ask her to comment on her role in allowing the expansion of rock mining to intrude well within the wellfield protection zone--even when county regulators and planners had a pretty good idea that the expansion of industry and housing was putting more than a million Miami-Dade residents in harm's way.

As in benzene.