Once again Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe Martinez strikes out in the wrong direction with confidence.
In “Ads may be newest park visitor”, Martinez suggests allowing corporations to name-brand public parks is a positive step to ease the budget crunch we are facing due to the housing bubble that Martinez and his allies helped to build and pop.
Why not just let corporations name street corners?
Let corporations run our wars.
Why not invite corporations to come into your home and put their logos on your stair treads?
Parks are public spaces. The notion of public space, as something we share and maintain with our taxes, reinforces both the ideal of the citizen and democracy.
I know this is going straight over the head of Commissioner Martinez and his allies on the county commission.
The bottom line is that we completely misprice the risk to democracy by off-loading to corporations what belongs in the public realm.
You see, the public realm is public for a purpose: in theory we get to debate about what values the public shares and holds to be more important for the benefit of society than selfishness and greed.
Now granted, we chronically mistreat our parks in Miami. They’re poorly funded, largely inadequate to the needs of our population.
But increasingly corporations are vehicles for re-arranging debt so that more wealth can accrue to the class of shareholder who laws permit to engineer preferential rights to cash flow.
Giving corporations the right to name public parks as a monetary exchange is simply a form of conditioning for consumers who passivity apparently knows no boundaries.
11 comments:
Martinez wanted to name a road after Lexus. Maybe he got the car for Timoney. Martinez must get attaboys from all the corporations he prostitutes for.
Some sleazy lobbyist wants to make illegal billboards and/or murals legal. Miami-Dade County prohibits ads in parks. Martinez should be pushing M-D County to reduce its overhead not blighting its visyal landscape.
Well we already sell off commission seats so why not parks, schools, roads, and the county buildings. What a ad we could put on the the evil empire (the M-D county HQ downtown).
We do outsource our wars, witness the role of Blackwater in Iraq , legal immunity for contractors (in US courts for actions committed abroad where the courts don’t work) and the use of Blackwater in New Orleans, since US troops are abroad. Very scary.
S
Disgusting. Parks should not become advertising space sold to the highest bidder. What happened to parks as quiet havens for sports and reflection?
the commission is scrounging for ideas to not have to close any parks.
They wasted YEARS creating animosity and making bad relationships with state legislators because of their out of control egos.
This got us to this point of widespread and accurate belief at the state level that county gov't wastes and wastes money.
did anyone see in the paper today what the salary is for a lowly county commission staffer? way over paid.
Really? The Commission soured the relationship with the Legislature? Because the Commission has big egos?
Get a grip.
South Florida is finally in control of most of the power in Tallahassee and what do we have to show for it? Property insurance "reform" that fixed nothing, a tax roll-back that will cut into direct services while ignoring the bigger problem of runaway real estate speculation, marginal loan regulations leading to record foreclosures and the pain being felt by small businesses trying to stay afloat.
People give our state legislators way too much slack.
Are we allowed to plant trees in front of billboards to slow down global warming...
No. Planting trees in front of billboards would take away property rights of buildboard owners.
TO: Really? The Commission soured the relationship with the Legislature? Because the Commission has big egos? Get a grip.
You prove my point exactly, the state legislature has decided that miami dade county gov't and their waste is the target. Leading that charge are the legislators from ... miami dade county! Frankly, I'm blaming both. I've witnessed years of nasty egotistical BS from the County commission and the retribution is being felt now but it's not the first payback that the miami dade state legislative delegation has dealt the miami dade county commission and county gov't. Pay attention.
Good marketing and advertising practices have little or nothing to do with putting a corporate name on a public place. In fact, it's a bad idea. Corporation should acknowledge and honor a pubic figure, while advertising the place on their website and other marketing materials and advertising. In exchange, more people would be willing to support the corporation because it is "giving" instead of "taking," and this type of philosophy sells.
Public places should be named in honor of people who have contributed or made a difference in a community, are connected somehow with the place, or are recognized nationally in some manner. This is especially valuable when bearing the name of someone who is no longer living, such as a former leader or community figure, mayor, senator, president, actor, artist, etc. If not, the public place can be named after a type of native bird, tree, flower, geographic area or other significant thing.
Milly Herrera
Hialeah, Florida
Post a Comment