Time/CNN: On the Lowe's Store by Geniusofdespair

"(Pepe) Diaz rejects the charge that the commission is in bed with builders."

This is a must read, Lowe's Eyes the Everglades, here is a sample:

One of the Lowe's project's biggest backers on the commission is Jose "Pepe" Diaz, who is under federal investigation for allegedly receiving gifts from developers whose plans he'd voted for. (He denies any wrongdoing.) Another, Natacha Seijas, who at one commission meeting voiced her dislike of manatees, one of Florida's most beloved and endangered sea mammals, faced a recall vote in 2006 (which she defeated) due to public complaints that she also was too cozy with developers. Other commissioners face scrutiny for alleged conflicts of interest involving real estate sweetheart deals received from builders. And:

Commission critics say the measure to move Miami's UDB sends a troubling signal that could further dampen Washington's flagging enthusiasm for a $10 billion repair bill for the Everglades — the 18,000-square-mile "River of Grass" that is an American eco-treasure and an essential source of water and flood protection for Florida's burgeoning population. "We've essentially asked the country to support Everglades restoration," says Dawn Shirreffs, head of the South Florida development watchdog group Hold The Line. "Now the country will wonder just where our values really lie." Indeed, Floridians clamored for the joint state-federal restoration project when it began eight years ago. But the UDB dispute may indicate that they, like much of the rest of America, find it too hard to curb their insatiable development urges.
And my favorite part:

"As they do in much of the Sun Belt, developers have always had the run of South Florida, which to many long-time residents has become Paradise Paved. And the 13-member Miami-Dade County Commission, as if imitating the Florida politicos of a Carl Hiassen novel, has long been considered developers' most willing abettor."