The National Conference of Mayors is coming to town, in a few weeks, and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz is sprucing up the place, planting new trees on bus routes the conference attendees are likely to take.
But as always, what's on the side streets and alleyways of Miami politics is where our problems fester. Miami and Miami-Dade County politics are cemented to the profit motives of development and developers/lobbyists/campaign contributors who, even in the midst of the worst housing market crash in a century, continue to grind the machinery gears—zoning changes in farmland to benefit land speculators, new rock mines in the Redland, or plans to move the Urban Development Boundary by forces allied to former Governor Jeb Bush.
How did it happen? For insight, consider The New Yorker Magazine profile of Republican political operative, Roger Stone. The magazine's focal point is Stone’s part in bringing down Eliot Spitzer, the former Governor of New York. It appears that Stone stumbled across news of Spitzer’s follies in a dark Miami sex club. Ed Rollins, Reagan’s first political director, says, “Roger was a fringe player around town. … I don’t think you’ll find anyone in the business who trusts him. Roger was always a little. Rat.” Then there is Michael Caputo.
Caputo makes a brief cameo appearance in the story (beginning on page 6).
Caputo was hired by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries, and Florida builders to run down the citizens’ ballot initiative for a state-wide referendum on growth: Florida Hometown Democracy.
What Florida Hometown Democracy would do is change the corrupt equation that has turned local governments in Florida into rubber stamps for developers. Changes to local master development plans, like moving the Urban Development Boundary in Miami-Dade County, would be decided on by voters if Florida Hometown Democracy passes in a state-wide election. The development industry invested millions to be sure that Florida Hometown Democracy was excluded from the November 2008 state-wide ballot: wouldn't want the first serious measure to address suburban sprawl and its runaway costs to contaminate a presidential election cycle!
In public, Mr. Caputo comports himself like a one-man band, but the Chamber of Commerce brings a lot of firepower to his act. It turns out that for political operatives like Stone and Caputo, citizens' ballot initiatives to change the status quo are a gold mine.
The full story how local supervisor of elections in Florida worked to keep Florida Hometown Democracy from qualifying from the November ballot deserves the scrutiny of the national press. For the time being, though, you have to read through The New Yorker report and, also, if you are very energetic, consider two of the books on my bedside table: The Trillion Dollar Meltdown, by Charles R. Morris and The Three Trillion Dollar War, by Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes.
You start reading these books and wonder at once, how in the world did the party of fiscal consveratism get us into this mess? And how did they get elected?
Stone and Caputo have no plan B but attack, attack, attack. They are not running for office, but how do the values voters of Florida square Republican candidates with tactics devised by operatives in a Miami sex club wearing straw boaters?
4 comments:
Thanks, Gimleteye for another good column.
Caputo uses props effectively...I heard him speak. He waves big wads of paper saying something like: "Look what Hometown Democrcy will do!" And, you think to yourself "Yuk, not more paper. Do I have to read all of that because of Hometown Democracy?" Chilling effect.
He is a man who does not exude trust. You know he is selling something big time when he talks. He does not come off as sincere. I guess I would describe him best as:
A snake oil salesman waving a bottle of elixir.
Perhaps you missed the article in the Herald on 5/23 about worker housing. A scheme by a national real estate organization, Urban Land Institute, seeks government subsidies to BUILD middle-class housing. This is the same bone-headed thinking that got us in this mess. If government help is a good idea for middle class housing, apply that help to the existing homes on the market. The 3 year inventory in Miami-Dade should last a long time, even with government help. Why build a bigger problem?
Both of our bloggers are a boom to the rest of us. I sincerely hope that lots of people have the opportunity to read them. Most of the time I have nothing to say because you guys (I know) really tell it all. Bless you both and keep it up.
Why thank you Mensa.
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