The most interesting environmental group to emerge from South Florida recently is the Palm Beach Environmental Coalition. In Miami, environmental groups are mostly walking-wounded from the beating they took during the housing boom. But it is also a matter of leadership and the seeming inability of groups to recruit new leaders to activism. Given the number of colleges and universities, that is a particular disappointment. It is not as though Miami-Dade lacks issues to build momentum for change.
The PBEC on the other hand grew out of the success in stopping the effort by former Governor Jeb Bush to put Scripps in Everglades wetlands and recently organized and mounted a passive protest outside a proposed FPL power plant in western PB County.
Panagioti Tsolkas, the group's leader, has co-authored a position paper for the Green Party on choices that Governor Crist and the Florida legislature should consider for a sustainable energy future. It is not perfect, and still light on exactly the legislative remedies that are required to put a real green energy future.
But I strongly agree with its key points: mandated conservation and providing for local government to incentivize investment by homeowners to produce energy at the household level. You can read the report, here.
The paper is not perfect nor does it claim to be: it is a work in progress but one that helps readers understand the various and complex processes that Governor Crist put into motion, to come up with new state energy policy. Crist deserves credit: unlike his predecessor or even President Bush, for whom global warming does not fit into preconceived notions about the responsibilities of government, Governor Crist has firmly stated his commitment. The problem is that Florida's big corporations and utilities are still driving the process.
Panagioti writes: "The goal of GHG (greenhouse gas) reduction will not come without a struggle. And that struggle manifests most dramatically, and often most clearly, not in legislative sessions on energy policy, but in city halls, county chambers, and even on the streets, where residents challenge new power projects. Community activists know from experience that the more they stand up to the energy industry and exercise their right to public input over polluting projects, the more interest in conservation and renewable energy is stimulated in the general public."
This is undoubtedly true. In Miami-Dade County, FPL has effectively massaged the communities and interests that will be massively impacted by its two new proposed nuclear units at the edge of Biscayne National Park. But, environmentalists are still talking about what needs to be done, to oppose them and local leaders are sleep walking (see the post below, on Homestead).
I'd also add that utilities should be required to modernize and upgrade transmission technology and the power grid, to cut energy losses. All these key points should be put into effect before a single new power plant is permitted in Florida.
Unfortunately, the big electric utilities have overpowered common sense for so long, public officials are too timid to unite on behalf of voters and taxpayers they represent.
So thanks to the PBEC, for all its work trying to energize people and showing there is a better way for Florida that would be a tremendous boost for the economy, too.
"Today, those of us with a conscience need to step forward and do what we feel to be right in our hearts; the ´practical issues´ of economy and politics can be set to the side. If we lead with compassion and humility and an apologetic sincerity for the damage we have done—to the earth, to our own communities and to ourselves—the people who attempt to hold us back will be compelled to follow our lead into the future. We are all the ones that we’ve been waiting for."
Exactly.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Housing Crash Is Doing a Number on Florida Banks. By Geniusofdespair
As we move down the food chain of the casualties of the housing crash, I would keep your eye on your bank after reading BANKING: South Florida banks' problem loans rise in the Miami Herald April 18th. The article’s reporter talks about the rating by BauerFinancial of banks based on past due loans:“At the end of 2006, a report from BauerFinancial showed that 15 of 61 South Florida banks had a ratio of nonperforming loans to all loans of 1 percent or more.
But one year later, 33 of the banks topped 1 percent or more in this key measure of a bank's financial health.
Seventeen banks had a ratio of 2 percent or more and 13 banks had a ratio of 3 percent or higher. One year earlier, five banks had ratios of 2 percent or more and three banks were above 3 percent.”
If over 1% isn’t good, what are we to make of a bank rated at a whopping 12.3%? TerraBank N.A. what are you doing? On the Florida Dept. of State website, although in business since 1986, no officers are listed for this bank and there are no Annual Reports to look at. What gives? There is no name change indicated. There should be more information. Readers do you have money at TerraBank? Ask them who is on their Board of Directors. Don't leave without this information or your money.
I looked at just one of TerraBank's customers. The bank reaffirmed a mortgage in June '06 (originally written June 21, '05) worth over $2,000,000 to M&S DEV LLC. The only problem: The Corporation had been inactive since September '05 and still is according to State records.
I Finally Have a Photo of Latterner and Rosen. By Geniusofdespair
I have written about these two guys enough. A reader sent me a photo of them. Wish it were better but at least I get so see them...sort of.
This post from Friday is moved up and posted Saturday because of the interesting comments.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Guest blogger: Beach Access Discrimination in Miami
Gimleteye writes: As far as I can tell, the only civic activism that has measured up recently is what the surfers are doing, to try to regain access to the beach at the former Harbor House in North Miami, now dominated by another bad condo project by WCI Communities. The issue: the take-over of the public parking lot by a private corporation, depriving citizens of any place to park to get access and the fact that access has been blocked, for years!, by construction activities intruding on the public right of way. I know, it seems like a small issue. But it's not.
There are so very few things that are easy for government to do, and so very few promises that should be easy to keep by government to its citizens: maintaining public access to Florida's beaches should be one of them.
The government gets so much wrong. Here is another example of government agencies that are simply unwilling to put their foot down and let people park their cars to get to a beach. Instead, Miami Dade county, Bal Harbor, and especially the Florida Department of Transportation are just throwing up their hands as if there is nothing they can do to stop contractors working at WCI Communities' project from using the public parking lot as their personal staging area. This has been going on for years!
All you have to do is read our archive feature "housing crash" and you will read about WCI Communities' role in the massive implosion of real estate markets, its corporate leadership in particular. In the post above, you can read about Lennar and its consiglieres who contributed to the trashing of Homestead and Florida City. This is another example: of all Florida builders who should be on regulators' tightest leash: WCI Communities is it. Discriminatory? Hah!
What about citizens whose fundamental rights are being stepped on every day by government, corporations, and lobbyists? Maybe it is time for surfers and fishermen should take all their surfboards and fishing rods straight into Mayor Alvarez' office at County Hall and sit there until he picks up the phone and gets FDOT to fix the problem now. And if that doesn't work, try Governor Charlie Crist. This is a problem that should have been fixed a long time ago. Here's our guest blogger's comments:
"A lot of locals have given up on going to the beach here in Miami, I hear so many say they make the drive to Hollywood or further north to spend a nice day at the beach. For good reason to, on a recent trip to Miami Beach I tried to park in one of the largest lots - 45th St. and there was no parking in the 300+ space lot on a weekday - low and behold developers had taken over and the entire lot was being used by construction workers.
Later in the week I went to a little spot I enjoy at 65th and was asked to pay $10 to park on weekday. I balked and was told Miami Beach residents only pay $2, I was there for a quick surf check and after much complaining learned that if I mentioned it I could pull-in and park at a meter - .25 for 15min. The County receives millions of US tax dollars for sand pumping projects under the premise that equal access to all is provided - the Army Corps of Engineers has specific guidelines - this seems to defy those rules in order to promote development and city parking revenue.
Finally, some of you may remember the Surfrider protest at Bal Harbour. Seems the County and FDOT ignored the largest environmental protest down here in years because the same problems are occurring, just a new twist. The new twist is that free parking now allows WCI contractors to take over the lot - leaving nothing for the public. The County and State are forgoing thousands of dollars in parking revenue every day since - a freebie of State land use by a private corporation - a clear violation of Florida's constitution. Word is Bal Harbour is also stonewalling on allowing an after-hours permit parking program for fisherman who want to access one of the best night time fishing spots in the County. Apparently, those not affluent enough to live in Bal Harbour are suspect should they seek a permit to fish at night."
There are so very few things that are easy for government to do, and so very few promises that should be easy to keep by government to its citizens: maintaining public access to Florida's beaches should be one of them.
The government gets so much wrong. Here is another example of government agencies that are simply unwilling to put their foot down and let people park their cars to get to a beach. Instead, Miami Dade county, Bal Harbor, and especially the Florida Department of Transportation are just throwing up their hands as if there is nothing they can do to stop contractors working at WCI Communities' project from using the public parking lot as their personal staging area. This has been going on for years!
All you have to do is read our archive feature "housing crash" and you will read about WCI Communities' role in the massive implosion of real estate markets, its corporate leadership in particular. In the post above, you can read about Lennar and its consiglieres who contributed to the trashing of Homestead and Florida City. This is another example: of all Florida builders who should be on regulators' tightest leash: WCI Communities is it. Discriminatory? Hah!
What about citizens whose fundamental rights are being stepped on every day by government, corporations, and lobbyists? Maybe it is time for surfers and fishermen should take all their surfboards and fishing rods straight into Mayor Alvarez' office at County Hall and sit there until he picks up the phone and gets FDOT to fix the problem now. And if that doesn't work, try Governor Charlie Crist. This is a problem that should have been fixed a long time ago. Here's our guest blogger's comments:
"A lot of locals have given up on going to the beach here in Miami, I hear so many say they make the drive to Hollywood or further north to spend a nice day at the beach. For good reason to, on a recent trip to Miami Beach I tried to park in one of the largest lots - 45th St. and there was no parking in the 300+ space lot on a weekday - low and behold developers had taken over and the entire lot was being used by construction workers.
Later in the week I went to a little spot I enjoy at 65th and was asked to pay $10 to park on weekday. I balked and was told Miami Beach residents only pay $2, I was there for a quick surf check and after much complaining learned that if I mentioned it I could pull-in and park at a meter - .25 for 15min. The County receives millions of US tax dollars for sand pumping projects under the premise that equal access to all is provided - the Army Corps of Engineers has specific guidelines - this seems to defy those rules in order to promote development and city parking revenue.
Finally, some of you may remember the Surfrider protest at Bal Harbour. Seems the County and FDOT ignored the largest environmental protest down here in years because the same problems are occurring, just a new twist. The new twist is that free parking now allows WCI contractors to take over the lot - leaving nothing for the public. The County and State are forgoing thousands of dollars in parking revenue every day since - a freebie of State land use by a private corporation - a clear violation of Florida's constitution. Word is Bal Harbour is also stonewalling on allowing an after-hours permit parking program for fisherman who want to access one of the best night time fishing spots in the County. Apparently, those not affluent enough to live in Bal Harbour are suspect should they seek a permit to fish at night."
Democrats: Stop the Madness! By Geniusofdespair
Well, it is finally done. After watching bits of the debate, I have decided I don’t like either Democratic candidate. The shrill coverage is driving me nuts. I can’t even watch The Daily Show. I am sick to death of the whole Presidential election and I am still taking bets that the Pubs will win — yet, again. Goodbye Supreme Court for the next 30 years.
Type the rest of the post here
Type the rest of the post here
Credit to The Miami Herald editorial board, by gimleteye
Good for the Herald: the editorial board published an opinion about the problem of growing crops for fuel that I blogged about, the other day.
There is a local context to the food for fuel problem: land use.
It is highly likely that food inflation related to scarcity because of climate change is here, now. The New York Times pointed out yesterday in its front page story, the worst drought in Australia's history has severely damaged agricultural output; especially rice.
Global warming will make extreme variability of food production--and high prices--a terrible fact of life.
In other words, the day is coming when Florida will have to locally produce the food it consumes. It is not going to happen tomorrow, or even next year: but we have to start planning for that day.
Next week, on April 22nd, the Miami Dade Climate Change Advisory Task Force is making its recommendations to the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners. Dr. Harold Wanless, chair of the Science Committee, will make a presentation whose conclusions were reinforced, just two days ago, by a published report: "Sea levels 'will rise 1.5 metres by 2100".
"Melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warming water could lift sea levels by as much as 1.5 metres by the end of this century, displacing tens of millions of people. That's the conclusion of a new prediction of sea level rises that for the first time takes into account ice dynamics." (April 16, 2008, New Scientist).
Yesterday in The Miami Herald, Florida Agricultural Commissioner Charles Bronson made the case for purchase of development rights (that Miami-Dade county farmers and land speculators resisted tooth and nail, while the housing markets were strong).
On April 24th, the County Commission will be taking its final vote on applications to move the Urban Development Boundary-- applications that the State of Florida has determined are inconsistent with state policy. Will the same cynical politics prevail at County Hall, requiring even more lawsuits for the county to do what is required by law?
We need to stop the conversion of empty space and farmland to tract housing, including zoning changes that make more tract housing inevitable: Miami-Dade will need this land for food production much more in the future than it ever has in the past, because of endemic crop disruptions.
Land use and climate change--this is a topic The Miami Herald editorial board should put in focus before the time comes to ask taxpayers to fund a sea wall around 1 Herald Plaza and the rest of downtown.
Read below for the text of the Herald editorial.
Posted on Fri, Apr. 18, 2008
Using food for fuel disrupts food supply
Given the current global food crisis, decisions by the United States, Europe and other countries to convert corn and other food crops into fuel are beginning to look like good intentions gone awry. The biofuels push is beginning to have harmful unintended consequences, contributing to shortages of basic foods in Haiti, Egypt, Italy and countries in Africa and Southeastern Asia. The European Union is reconsidering its goal of using biofuels in 10 percent of its transportation fuels -- and the U.S. Congress should do the same.
High production costs
To help Midwestern farmers, Congress passed and energy bill last year that requires a five-fold increase in the use of ethanol and other nonfossil fuels by 2022. Achieving that goal would be hard enough just considering the high cost of producing ethanol. Expensive pipelines have to be built to deliver the fuel to coastal states. And biofuels are even less appealing now in light of their role in the worldwide food crisis.
Many factors have contributed to food shortages, including the recent drought, record-high prices for oil, high demand for meat in developing countries and, of course, the push of biofuels in the United States and Europe. Biofuels aren't the primary cause, but they are a significant factor. They are estimated to account for 25 percent to 30 percent of the price increase in world food prices, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, an agricultural consulting group in Washington, D.C.
Giving farmers subsidies and other incentives for corn and other crops to make fuel seemed like a good idea. It could lessen our reliance on foreign oil and ease concerns about seemingly never-ending increases in the cost of gas. President Bush touted the policy in his State of the Union message last year, and all of the presidential candidates made support of biofuels a major talking point when they campaigned in Iowa and other Midwestern states.
More subsidies
Nevertheless, there are serious drawbacks to biofuels, especially corn. A recent report in The New York Times said that a fifth of America's corn crop is used to make ethanol. The energy bill added even more subsidies and incentives for corn production and, as a result, more U.S. farms have switched to corn production instead of other crops, like soybeans, for example.
This caused prices to rise for soybeans, which, in turn, contributed to the worldwide shortage of vegetable oil. Other farmers complained about the high cost of feed for their livestock; and grocers were hit with sharp price increases. The ripple effect is global.
Congress can't do much about bad weather, the cost of oil or the rising demand for meat. But it can reverse its mandate to use food crops for fuel.
© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com
There is a local context to the food for fuel problem: land use.
It is highly likely that food inflation related to scarcity because of climate change is here, now. The New York Times pointed out yesterday in its front page story, the worst drought in Australia's history has severely damaged agricultural output; especially rice.
Global warming will make extreme variability of food production--and high prices--a terrible fact of life.
In other words, the day is coming when Florida will have to locally produce the food it consumes. It is not going to happen tomorrow, or even next year: but we have to start planning for that day.
Next week, on April 22nd, the Miami Dade Climate Change Advisory Task Force is making its recommendations to the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners. Dr. Harold Wanless, chair of the Science Committee, will make a presentation whose conclusions were reinforced, just two days ago, by a published report: "Sea levels 'will rise 1.5 metres by 2100".
"Melting glaciers, disappearing ice sheets and warming water could lift sea levels by as much as 1.5 metres by the end of this century, displacing tens of millions of people. That's the conclusion of a new prediction of sea level rises that for the first time takes into account ice dynamics." (April 16, 2008, New Scientist).
Yesterday in The Miami Herald, Florida Agricultural Commissioner Charles Bronson made the case for purchase of development rights (that Miami-Dade county farmers and land speculators resisted tooth and nail, while the housing markets were strong).
On April 24th, the County Commission will be taking its final vote on applications to move the Urban Development Boundary-- applications that the State of Florida has determined are inconsistent with state policy. Will the same cynical politics prevail at County Hall, requiring even more lawsuits for the county to do what is required by law?
We need to stop the conversion of empty space and farmland to tract housing, including zoning changes that make more tract housing inevitable: Miami-Dade will need this land for food production much more in the future than it ever has in the past, because of endemic crop disruptions.
Land use and climate change--this is a topic The Miami Herald editorial board should put in focus before the time comes to ask taxpayers to fund a sea wall around 1 Herald Plaza and the rest of downtown.
Read below for the text of the Herald editorial.
Posted on Fri, Apr. 18, 2008
Using food for fuel disrupts food supply
Given the current global food crisis, decisions by the United States, Europe and other countries to convert corn and other food crops into fuel are beginning to look like good intentions gone awry. The biofuels push is beginning to have harmful unintended consequences, contributing to shortages of basic foods in Haiti, Egypt, Italy and countries in Africa and Southeastern Asia. The European Union is reconsidering its goal of using biofuels in 10 percent of its transportation fuels -- and the U.S. Congress should do the same.
High production costs
To help Midwestern farmers, Congress passed and energy bill last year that requires a five-fold increase in the use of ethanol and other nonfossil fuels by 2022. Achieving that goal would be hard enough just considering the high cost of producing ethanol. Expensive pipelines have to be built to deliver the fuel to coastal states. And biofuels are even less appealing now in light of their role in the worldwide food crisis.
Many factors have contributed to food shortages, including the recent drought, record-high prices for oil, high demand for meat in developing countries and, of course, the push of biofuels in the United States and Europe. Biofuels aren't the primary cause, but they are a significant factor. They are estimated to account for 25 percent to 30 percent of the price increase in world food prices, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, an agricultural consulting group in Washington, D.C.
Giving farmers subsidies and other incentives for corn and other crops to make fuel seemed like a good idea. It could lessen our reliance on foreign oil and ease concerns about seemingly never-ending increases in the cost of gas. President Bush touted the policy in his State of the Union message last year, and all of the presidential candidates made support of biofuels a major talking point when they campaigned in Iowa and other Midwestern states.
More subsidies
Nevertheless, there are serious drawbacks to biofuels, especially corn. A recent report in The New York Times said that a fifth of America's corn crop is used to make ethanol. The energy bill added even more subsidies and incentives for corn production and, as a result, more U.S. farms have switched to corn production instead of other crops, like soybeans, for example.
This caused prices to rise for soybeans, which, in turn, contributed to the worldwide shortage of vegetable oil. Other farmers complained about the high cost of feed for their livestock; and grocers were hit with sharp price increases. The ripple effect is global.
Congress can't do much about bad weather, the cost of oil or the rising demand for meat. But it can reverse its mandate to use food crops for fuel.
© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com
Odds and ends, by gimleteye
Good to read in the Herald that the rock miners didn't get what they wanted out of the Florida Senate: a plan to circumvent local control of permits to build new mines. But with rock miners influence of the legislature, and its army of lobbyists who need to be fed, the miners will not go away.
In 2005 Miami-Dade rock miners, with the help of local attorney Miguel DeGrandy, pushed through a last minute, midnight express that capped its liability for the cost of new water treatment plants that will have to be built, because of threats its activity pose to nearby drinking water wellfields; as in "worried about your drinking water, you should be."
Now, a comment on "Push made to refurbish old stadium", relative to the Miami Marine Stadium off Rickenbacker Causeway on Key Biscayne.
The stadium is a relic of the long-gone age of local tourism. Once upon a time, Miami was a place where visitors experienced the novelty of the tropics in winter, with water-ski shows at the stadium showing, no doubt, the marvels of balance and skill. Now some rowers use the lagoon. The stadium is an eye-sore. On the other side, Seaquarium staggers along.
Surely there is a passive, public use-- like waterfront access available to people for free that makes more sense.
The Marine Stadium will never have an audience, any more than Parrot Jungle does in its new location no one visits.
Type the rest of the post here
Lennar Deed Registration Lag Time. By Geniusofdespair
A quick look at their deeds show a lag time in registration with the County Clerk on some records, not found in Shoma Home records. In October closings some deeds of Lennar were signed October 30th and recorded November 1st. That is what I would expect. However, October 24 and 25th closings were recorded November 9th, about two weeks later. I even found one that was signed September 18 and recorded November 21st.
Many closings from the end of November weren’t registered until the end of December or the middle of January. (signed 11/30 recorded 12/21, signed 11/27 recorded 12/24, signed 11/28 recorded 12/24, signed 11/27 recorded 1/17 etc.). In March and April, lag time was only a few days on most of the deals I looked at.
Is this important? Do we care? I would suspect this is some sort of marketing strategy for end of year numbers. Perhaps they are cutting prices and don’t want the records recorded so they are not used as comps. I have no answers just theories.
P.S. By the way, I found a lot of deed transfers to Lennar from Silver Palms Holdings: Officers: Michael Latterner and Wayne Rosen.
Many closings from the end of November weren’t registered until the end of December or the middle of January. (signed 11/30 recorded 12/21, signed 11/27 recorded 12/24, signed 11/28 recorded 12/24, signed 11/27 recorded 1/17 etc.). In March and April, lag time was only a few days on most of the deals I looked at.
Is this important? Do we care? I would suspect this is some sort of marketing strategy for end of year numbers. Perhaps they are cutting prices and don’t want the records recorded so they are not used as comps. I have no answers just theories.
P.S. By the way, I found a lot of deed transfers to Lennar from Silver Palms Holdings: Officers: Michael Latterner and Wayne Rosen.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Lennar: Midnight Madness is Tonight! By Geniusofdespair
I know where I will be tonight: getting a "Crazy Deal" on a new home. (Hit on image to enlarge it).Governor Crist, will you let all votes be counted in 2008? by gimleteye
If Senator John McCain is seriously considering Governor Charlie Crist as a running mate, the Republican candidate to be president might first want to be sure that the little matter of voting rights in Florida is cleared up. There is growing concern that in November, a significant number of voters will again be refused their right to vote at the polls.
Republicans have enough of a head-wind, in the worst economic slide since the Great Depression, than to pile on obstructions that might garner more votes for the team but engender even more public outrage at the mismanagement of the economy.
In just the past three weeks, Florida courts and election officials have put new roadblocks in the way for Floridians who want to participate in elections and exercise their right to vote.
The recent experience of Florida Hometown Democracy, a citizen's initiative to mount a state-wide referendum on growth, was shocking. Powerful special interests prevailed in blocking the referendum from the 2008 ballot in large part because they controlled the manner in which signed petitions were counted in offices of local supervisor of elections.
When it comes to voting, there are "three strikes against Florida voters" says the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. Read on...
April 14th, 2008
From: Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law; Project Vote; Advancement Project
Re: Three Strikes Against Florida Voters
In the past three weeks, Florida courts and election officials have put new roadblocks in the way for Floridians who want to participate in elections and exercise their right to vote. In three separate cases, the Florida Secretary of State, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and a federal District Court each issued decisions that will – absent intervention by the Governor, the Secretary of State, or the state legislature – collectively block tens of thousands of eligible Florida citizens from getting on the voter rolls and casting their ballot in the 2008 elections.
These three strikes against Florida voters are only the most recent state laws and actions that, cumulatively, have made Florida the most hostile state in the nation to new voters - particularly in traditionally underserved communities that might otherwise see record-breaking participation in this presidential election year. The current state of participation in Florida is dismal. Recent Census data show that only 65% of the voting eligible population is registered to vote, which is down from 72% in 2004.
Moreover, with less than one month remaining in the State Legislative Session, Florida lawmakers are pursuing additional legislative actions that would make voting even more difficult. Instead, they should support legislative changes that remove unnecessary, bureaucratic obstacles to voting so that all eligible Floridians can register, vote and have their votes counted.
In an election year when Governor Crist is a potential running mate on a presidential ticket, he could be faced with a voting crisis in his own state this fall that would rival the debacle of 2000. Governor Crist, Secretary of State Browning, and the State Legislature each have the power to reverse these damaging trends – if they choose to.
In the past three weeks alone, Florida has failed to live up to its responsibility to ensure all eligible Floridians are able to participate in democracy by making it harder to register and vote:
1) On Monday, March 31st, Secretary of State Browning gave notice in federal court that he is terminating the standstill agreement in League of Women Voters of Fla. v. Cobb – meaning that Florida now intends to enforce a law that threatens to shut down voter registration drives by imposing a series of extremely limited deadlines for the return of voter registration forms and escalating fines on groups and their volunteers alike for innocent filing mistakes.
In 2006, a very similar version of this law was declared unconstitutional in federal court. The state appealed that ruling and the Florida state legislature cosmetically amended the law -- leaving its essential, onerous features intact. While Secretary of State had so far agreed to refrain from enforcing the new law, his decision last week to implement it – starting at the end of this month – will effectively keep many voter registration drives away from the communities where they are needed most and thus will disenfranchise thousands of would-be voters across Florida.
After the original registration law went into effect in 2006, the League of Women Voters of Florida stopped registering voters for the first time in its 67-year history. The AFL-CIO and SEIU Healthcare Union also ceased their registration efforts. Black and Hispanic voters and voters from Spanish-speaking households are twice as likely to register to vote through these third-party voter registration drives than white voters or voters from English-speaking households. By making it difficult to conduct voter registration drives, Florida’s law reduces the electoral participation of eligible voters from these and other communities.
2) On Thursday, April 3rd, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta reversed the December decision of a U.S. District Court Judge in Gainesville to block a statewide election law that had kept 14,000 eligible Florida citizens off of the voter rolls, and could prevent tens of thousands more from registering and voting in the 2008 elections.
As the Associated Press reported on Friday, Florida’s law essentially “disqualifies any voter registration where the Social Security or driver license numbers on the application can't be matched with government databases.” Simple data entry typos were keeping eligible voters from getting on the rolls.
A policy like Florida’s “no-match, no-vote” law – a notoriously error-laden practice prone to bureaucratic and human error – was struck down in 2006 by a federal judge in Washington State, and California, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas have all scrapped similar rules. Florida is one of few states left that continues to refuse to add new voters to the rolls because of common but meaningless errors, for example:
• A citizen registering as “Bill” might not “match” if his Social Security number is issued under “William”;
• A woman’s married name might not match against a database that has her maiden name;
• In the 2006 Washington State case, one woman was barred from the rolls when her birthday was mistakenly entered into the system as “1976” instead of “1975”.
As Judge Stephan Mickle ruled last December, Florida’s law “makes it harder to vote by imposing a matching requirement that is a barrier to voter registration.” The matching requirement “is resulting in actual harm to real individuals” and “causes damage to the election system that cannot be repaired after the election has passed.” If it is not stopped now, he wrote, “even more people will be prohibited from registering to vote” and “the harm to a disenfranchised voter would be impossible to repair.”
3) On March 25th, a federal district court in Miami rejected a challenge to yet another portion of Florida’s voter registration law that traps voters based on meaningless mistakes. This provision prevents would-be voters who timely submit a voter registration application before the registration deadline, but inadvertently omit information from the form, to correct the application if the omission is discovered after the registration deadline.
Prior to the 2006 federal elections in Florida, thousands of eligible voters submitted applications on time but neglected to check small boxes on the registration form confirming their eligibility and citizenship. Once they received notice from election officials of the mistake, the voter applicants were prevented by Florida law from correcting the mistake in time for them to participate in the elections.
According to election officials who testified at trial, these events are likely to repeat themselves in the upcoming elections in November.
Each of these legal developments in the past three weeks threatens to disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters in the 2008 elections. Each of these developments also contributes to making Florida a true outlier in the country – piling on provision after provision making it more difficult for eligible voters to register to vote. Each also thumbs its nose at federal protections for voters, including the Help America Vote Act, which was enacted after the 2000 elections precisely to eliminate the unnecessary barriers and errors in the registration process that caused so much trouble for Florida citizens; the Voting Rights Act, which was designed in part to prevent voters from being blocked because of technical errors or omissions; and the U.S. Constitution, which protects the right to vote.
The Broader Context
The three strikes against Florida voters in the past three weeks come atop at least half a dozen other developments that are unfriendly to Florida voters and which threaten to make Florida a national symbol of the need for election reform, once again, in 2008.
Other recent developments that deserve immediate attention and remedies:
• Florida’s failure to comply with Section 7 of the federal Motor Voter law, which requires states to make voter registration available at social service agencies, resulting in significantly fewer low-income and disabled registrants than in states that comply with the law
• Florida’s poor record on ballot design, which could cause thousands of lost votes (as happened in 2000 and again in 2006 in Sarasota)
• Florida’s failure to implement safeguards against unfair purges of the voter rolls, including its failure to make its purge practices open and transparent, which makes voters vulnerable to another “suspected felon” list like those created in 2000 and 2004
• Current legislative efforts to make Florida’s voter identification law more onerous by prohibiting the use of certain IDs, such as photo IDs issued by nursing homes or state universities
• Florida’s failure to provide effective procedures by which to effectuate Governor Crist’s executive order restoring the voting rights for people with past felony convictions
What Election Officials and Legislators Can Do
Both the Secretary of State and state lawmakers have the power and ability to remedy the three recent strikes against Florida voters.
1) The onerous provisions of Florida’s third-party voter registration rules can be immediately repealed in two ways: Secretary of State Browning can issue regulations that administratively remove the extreme burdens of the law; alternatively, the State Legislature can repeal the law so that voter registration drives won’t stop in Florida leading up to the 2008 presidential election.
2) The appellate court upholding Florida’s no-match, no-vote law ruled on two narrow grounds, but declined to decide whether the law was unconstitutional. The plaintiffs intend to return to the lower court and demonstrate that disenfranchising thousands of eligible citizens because of typos is not consistent with the U.S. Constitution. Secretary Browning could save time, uncertainty, and expense by looking for a sensible settlement of the case, or by urging the legislature to repeal the unnecessary and harmful provision.
3) In light of the Florida court’s decision upholding the state’s unforgiving checkbox policy, Secretary Browning can recommend, and the Florida legislature can enact, legislation that establishes a “grace period” for correcting minor errors on timely filed voter registration applications, so that these applicants may vote in upcoming elections.
Save Florida’s Voters from Being Disenfranchised – Again
The legal developments of the past weeks will make it harder for thousands of citizens to register to vote this year, and time is running out. This is a critical moment for Governor Crist, Secretary Browning, and the Florida State Legislature to take affirmative steps to protect the right to vote for Florida citizens.
Please feel free to contact us to discuss these and other issues relating to voting rights in Florida.
Sincerely,
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
Tim Bradley, (646) 452-5637
Advancement Project
Sabrina Williams, (202) 728-9557 or (305) 904-3960
Project Vote
Sarah Massey, (202) 445-1169
"Sugar Babies": Miami Herald stories we'd really, really like to hear more about... by gimleteye
"International Film Festival is looking for a new director" reads the headline in today's B section, reminding that eyeonmiami "outed" the film festival for first inviting, then withdrawing only days before the scheduled viewing, a film documentary on worker exploitation at Miami's super-rich Fanjul sugar operations in the Dominican Republic.
"Sugar Babies" was never shown at the the Miami International Film Festival. I wrote that the Knight Foundation should withdraw its financial support of the festival-- in light of the fact that freedom of expression is central to the foundation's mission. I also noted how the Herald has gone "lite" on Big Sugar for many, many years. I believe that there is a conflict of interest at the board level of the Knight Foundation inhibiting a clear answer to this issue: and represents a black mark on independent journalism right here, in Miami, for a project funded by the Knight Foundation.According to today's Herald report, the current director was "shown the door by Miami Dade College for unspecified reasons."
This is a big deal. Did Herald reporters just reprint the Miami Dade College (sponsoring organization of the film festival) press statement, or-- given the controversy-- did they probe film festival board members? "De Bokay (the fired director) did not respond to repeated interview requests from The Miami Herald." Someone should.
The Miami Herald owes its readers a full explanation, on this story. Nothing else will do.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Steve Shiver's Fun Fundraiser Bash 2006 For the Balart Brothers by Geniusofdespair
Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart at the Home of Cire and Steve Shiver on Thursday October 12, 2006 in Homestead at the Shiver house I presume. Yes the photos are old but they are so fun -- getting them all in one shot like this.
City of Homestead Councilman Jeff Porter, City of Homestead Councilwoman Judy Waldman, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, Hosts Cire and Steve Shiver, Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, and then City of Homestead Mayor Roscoe Warren. Hey what are those Democrats doing there?? Aren't Judy Waldman, Jeff Porter and Roscoe Warren all Democrats? You 3 had better remember your party when you accept an invitation to a party. (Hit on photos to enlarge them at your peril.)
Miami Dade mayoral election, by gimleteye
The Miami Herald reports today of the significant financial support garnered on behalf of incumbent Mayor Carlos Alvarez, by former opponents.
If the status quo worried that Mayor Alvarez would 'clean up' county government in a way that fundamentally changed the relationships governing the management of county departments, the term of the incumbent has proven otherwise.
In respects, Mayor Alvarez has been a calming influence. As a matter of outward appearances, this is a good thing. From the inside, the incumbent has steadfastly remained a "team player", especially in relation to the county manager, George Burgess.
County commissioners remain committed to diluting the influence of mayoral authority at every turn. They, and the campaign supporters of the unreformable majority, must nevertheless be pleased with the arrangements. (As many faults as one may find with Burgess, he is a palpable relief from the embarrassing, earlier lapses of Steve Shiver as county manager.)
A big point of contention--and the focus of the most publicized of mayoral vetoes--with campaign contributors like Pino et al, is in respect to moving the Urban Development Boundary. (eyeonmiami, in its archive, has catalogued the UDB issue more thoroughly than anywhere else. See UDB, production home builders, housing crash).
In respect to the UDB, it is hard to say what the calculation is, from the part of contributors like Pino et al to Mayor Alvarez' campaign.
Many would enthusiastically support Marco Rubio, to run against Alvarez. But Alvarez is popular, and he has shown the ability to mobilize grass roots Hispanic voters. Also, he is close to Governor Charlie Crist and Crist is close to John McCain. If you are a betting man, or a land speculator, under these circumstances you want to be careful lining up with Rubio-- especially since the balance of these relationships portend the eclipse of Bush political fortunes with which Rubio is allied.
Someday, the Urban Development Boundary may be moved, thereby increasing the value of land held by speculators. For the time being, interest payments are piling up like winter snowdrifts in Buffalo.
Nevertheless, the State of Florida has issued serious objections to the three applications to move the UDB that the county commission will vote on, next week.
Mayor Alvarez has pledged, as he has in the past, to veto these applications. But, at a time of crashing housing and real estate markets, the stakes in moving the UDB now are not quite as high as they seemed to be in 2005, when the Latin Builders, the South Florida Builders, and their lobbyists were swinging like angry howler monkeys from a tree.
Everyone is getting paid to be there. (Except The Miami Herald, suddenly bereft of real estate advertising dollars.)
The smart developers pocketed many millions of dollars during the boom to cushion these bleak times.
So what is it, to them, if a candidate they're not so enthusiastic about gets another four year term? The Federal Reserve is printing money like mad. Thinking is, by then the markets should reverse.
In the meantime, nothing is happening fast at county government. Reform of the county charter has disappeared into the hands of the unreformable majority of county commissioners, as the campaign contributors want. Alvarez supports Burgess and his impossible job, taking marching orders from the unreformable majority and hearing, mostly, only what his department heads want him to hear.
Does that sound about right?
If the status quo worried that Mayor Alvarez would 'clean up' county government in a way that fundamentally changed the relationships governing the management of county departments, the term of the incumbent has proven otherwise.
In respects, Mayor Alvarez has been a calming influence. As a matter of outward appearances, this is a good thing. From the inside, the incumbent has steadfastly remained a "team player", especially in relation to the county manager, George Burgess.
County commissioners remain committed to diluting the influence of mayoral authority at every turn. They, and the campaign supporters of the unreformable majority, must nevertheless be pleased with the arrangements. (As many faults as one may find with Burgess, he is a palpable relief from the embarrassing, earlier lapses of Steve Shiver as county manager.)
A big point of contention--and the focus of the most publicized of mayoral vetoes--with campaign contributors like Pino et al, is in respect to moving the Urban Development Boundary. (eyeonmiami, in its archive, has catalogued the UDB issue more thoroughly than anywhere else. See UDB, production home builders, housing crash).
In respect to the UDB, it is hard to say what the calculation is, from the part of contributors like Pino et al to Mayor Alvarez' campaign.
Many would enthusiastically support Marco Rubio, to run against Alvarez. But Alvarez is popular, and he has shown the ability to mobilize grass roots Hispanic voters. Also, he is close to Governor Charlie Crist and Crist is close to John McCain. If you are a betting man, or a land speculator, under these circumstances you want to be careful lining up with Rubio-- especially since the balance of these relationships portend the eclipse of Bush political fortunes with which Rubio is allied.
Someday, the Urban Development Boundary may be moved, thereby increasing the value of land held by speculators. For the time being, interest payments are piling up like winter snowdrifts in Buffalo.
Nevertheless, the State of Florida has issued serious objections to the three applications to move the UDB that the county commission will vote on, next week.
Mayor Alvarez has pledged, as he has in the past, to veto these applications. But, at a time of crashing housing and real estate markets, the stakes in moving the UDB now are not quite as high as they seemed to be in 2005, when the Latin Builders, the South Florida Builders, and their lobbyists were swinging like angry howler monkeys from a tree.
Everyone is getting paid to be there. (Except The Miami Herald, suddenly bereft of real estate advertising dollars.)
The smart developers pocketed many millions of dollars during the boom to cushion these bleak times.
So what is it, to them, if a candidate they're not so enthusiastic about gets another four year term? The Federal Reserve is printing money like mad. Thinking is, by then the markets should reverse.
In the meantime, nothing is happening fast at county government. Reform of the county charter has disappeared into the hands of the unreformable majority of county commissioners, as the campaign contributors want. Alvarez supports Burgess and his impossible job, taking marching orders from the unreformable majority and hearing, mostly, only what his department heads want him to hear.
Does that sound about right?
Losing the planet: The Miami Herald, the Florida legislature, global warming and ethanol... by gimleteye
Today's top of the fold story in The Miami Herald, "Greener Florida goal of energy proposal" acknowledges the difficulty of summarizing 200 pages of legislation making its way through the Florida legislature toward Governor Charlie Crist, but quickly gets to a key part: "requiring all gasoline sold in Florida within two years to contain 10 percent ethanol... (to) dovetail with a recent federal mandate that about 14 billion gallons of renewable fuel be sold by 2012, also about 10 percent of the country's current consumption."
There is a big, big problem with ethanol-- and The Miami Herald editors should have found the space to squeeze note of the controversy into the story.
The problem was featured in yesterday's top of the fold story in The New York Times: "Fuel choices, Food Crises and Finger-pointing": "The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high-point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels. But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people... At a weekend conference in Washington, finance ministers and central bankers of seven leading industrial nations called for urgent action to deal with the price spikes, and several of them demanded a reconsideration of biofuel policies adopted recently in the West."
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
Global warming may well be a bigger problem that humans can handle. That is the question worth exploring next week, on Earth Day, as exposed through the biofuel controversy (it may well be that drought caused by climate change is playing a significant factor in spiking food prices): Western democracies do not seem capable of acting with either the swiftness or agility required to quickly bring down the volume of greenhouse gases.
For another view of this disconcerting point of view, click on "read more" for an opinion excerpted from a new book by James Gustave Speth:
The problem with capitalism
by James Gustave Speth
James Gustave Speth is the dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. This essay is excerpted from his forthcoming book, The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability (Yale University Press).
The principal approaches to date for controlling the economy's impacts on the natural world can be thought of as today's environmentalism. This arena is where I have worked throughout my professional career. Now, near the end of my career, I find it impossible to be happy with the results. Important gains have been made, of course, including progress on local environmental problems like air and water pollution. But, all in all, today's environmentalism has not been succeeding. We have been winning battles, including some critical ones, but losing the planet.
We know that environmental deterioration is driven by the economic activity of human beings. The escalating processes of climate disruption, biotic impoverishment, and toxification that continue despite decades of warnings and earnest effort constitute a severe indictment, but an indictment of what exactly? If we want to reverse today's destructive trends, to forestall further and greater losses, and leave a bountiful world for our children and grandchildren, we must go back to fundamentals and seek to understand both the underlying forces driving such destructive trends and also the economic and political system that gives these forces such free rein. Then we can ask what can be done to change the system.
The sources of today's environmental deterioration have been clearly identified. They range from immediate forces like the enormous growth in human populations and the dominant technologies deployed in the economy, to deeper ones like the values that shape our behavior and determine what we consider important in life. Most basically, we know that environmental deterioration is driven by the economic activity of human beings. About half of today's world population lives in abject poverty or close to it, with per capita incomes of less than $2 per day. The struggle of the poor to survive creates a range of environmental impacts where the poor themselves are often the primary victims -- for example, the deterioration of arid and semi-arid lands due to the press of increasing numbers of people who have no other option.
But the much larger and more threatening impacts stem from the economic activity of those of us participating in the modern, increasingly prosperous world economy. This activity is consuming vast quantities of resources from the environment and returning to the environment vast quantities of waste products. The damages are already huge and are on a path to be ruinous in the future. So, a fundamental question facing societies today -- perhaps the fundamental question -- is: how can the operating instructions for the modern world economy be changed so that economic activity both protects and restores the natural world?
With increasingly few exceptions, modern capitalism is the operating system of the world economy. I use "modern capitalism" here in a very broad sense as an actual, existing system of political economy, not as an idealized model. Capitalism as we know it today encompasses the core economic concept of private employers hiring workers to produce products and services that the employers own and then sell with the intention of making a profit. But it also includes competitive markets, the price mechanism, the modern corporation as its principal institution, the consumer society and the materialistic values that sustain it, and the administrative state actively promoting economic strength and growth for a wide variety of reasons.
The ever-growing world economy is undermining the ability of the planet to sustain life. Inherent in the dynamics of capitalism is a powerful drive to earn profits, invest them, innovate and thus grow the economy, typically at exponential rates, with the result that the capitalist era has in fact been characterized by a remarkable exponential expansion of the world economy. The capitalist operating system, whatever its shortcomings, is very good at generating growth.
These features of capitalism, as they are constituted today, work together to produce an economic and political reality that is highly destructive of the environment. An unquestioning society-wide commitment to economic growth at almost any cost; enormous investment in technologies designed with little regard for the environment; powerful corporate interests whose overriding objective is to grow by generating profit, including profit from avoiding the environmental costs they create; markets that systematically fail to recognize environmental costs unless corrected by government; government that is subservient to corporate interests and the growth imperative; rampant consumerism spurred by a worshipping of novelty and by sophisticated advertising; economic activity so large in scale that its impacts alter the fundamental biophysical operations of the planet -- all combine to deliver an ever-growing world economy that is undermining the ability of the planet to sustain life.
In short, my conclusion, after much searching and considerable reluctance, is that most environmental deterioration is a result of systemic failures of the capitalism we have today and that long-term solutions must seek transformative change in the key features of this contemporary capitalism.
There is a big, big problem with ethanol-- and The Miami Herald editors should have found the space to squeeze note of the controversy into the story.
The problem was featured in yesterday's top of the fold story in The New York Times: "Fuel choices, Food Crises and Finger-pointing": "The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high-point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels. But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people... At a weekend conference in Washington, finance ministers and central bankers of seven leading industrial nations called for urgent action to deal with the price spikes, and several of them demanded a reconsideration of biofuel policies adopted recently in the West."
Tick, tock, tick, tock.
Global warming may well be a bigger problem that humans can handle. That is the question worth exploring next week, on Earth Day, as exposed through the biofuel controversy (it may well be that drought caused by climate change is playing a significant factor in spiking food prices): Western democracies do not seem capable of acting with either the swiftness or agility required to quickly bring down the volume of greenhouse gases.
For another view of this disconcerting point of view, click on "read more" for an opinion excerpted from a new book by James Gustave Speth:
The problem with capitalism
by James Gustave Speth
James Gustave Speth is the dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. This essay is excerpted from his forthcoming book, The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability (Yale University Press).
The principal approaches to date for controlling the economy's impacts on the natural world can be thought of as today's environmentalism. This arena is where I have worked throughout my professional career. Now, near the end of my career, I find it impossible to be happy with the results. Important gains have been made, of course, including progress on local environmental problems like air and water pollution. But, all in all, today's environmentalism has not been succeeding. We have been winning battles, including some critical ones, but losing the planet.
We know that environmental deterioration is driven by the economic activity of human beings. The escalating processes of climate disruption, biotic impoverishment, and toxification that continue despite decades of warnings and earnest effort constitute a severe indictment, but an indictment of what exactly? If we want to reverse today's destructive trends, to forestall further and greater losses, and leave a bountiful world for our children and grandchildren, we must go back to fundamentals and seek to understand both the underlying forces driving such destructive trends and also the economic and political system that gives these forces such free rein. Then we can ask what can be done to change the system.
The sources of today's environmental deterioration have been clearly identified. They range from immediate forces like the enormous growth in human populations and the dominant technologies deployed in the economy, to deeper ones like the values that shape our behavior and determine what we consider important in life. Most basically, we know that environmental deterioration is driven by the economic activity of human beings. About half of today's world population lives in abject poverty or close to it, with per capita incomes of less than $2 per day. The struggle of the poor to survive creates a range of environmental impacts where the poor themselves are often the primary victims -- for example, the deterioration of arid and semi-arid lands due to the press of increasing numbers of people who have no other option.
But the much larger and more threatening impacts stem from the economic activity of those of us participating in the modern, increasingly prosperous world economy. This activity is consuming vast quantities of resources from the environment and returning to the environment vast quantities of waste products. The damages are already huge and are on a path to be ruinous in the future. So, a fundamental question facing societies today -- perhaps the fundamental question -- is: how can the operating instructions for the modern world economy be changed so that economic activity both protects and restores the natural world?
With increasingly few exceptions, modern capitalism is the operating system of the world economy. I use "modern capitalism" here in a very broad sense as an actual, existing system of political economy, not as an idealized model. Capitalism as we know it today encompasses the core economic concept of private employers hiring workers to produce products and services that the employers own and then sell with the intention of making a profit. But it also includes competitive markets, the price mechanism, the modern corporation as its principal institution, the consumer society and the materialistic values that sustain it, and the administrative state actively promoting economic strength and growth for a wide variety of reasons.
The ever-growing world economy is undermining the ability of the planet to sustain life. Inherent in the dynamics of capitalism is a powerful drive to earn profits, invest them, innovate and thus grow the economy, typically at exponential rates, with the result that the capitalist era has in fact been characterized by a remarkable exponential expansion of the world economy. The capitalist operating system, whatever its shortcomings, is very good at generating growth.
These features of capitalism, as they are constituted today, work together to produce an economic and political reality that is highly destructive of the environment. An unquestioning society-wide commitment to economic growth at almost any cost; enormous investment in technologies designed with little regard for the environment; powerful corporate interests whose overriding objective is to grow by generating profit, including profit from avoiding the environmental costs they create; markets that systematically fail to recognize environmental costs unless corrected by government; government that is subservient to corporate interests and the growth imperative; rampant consumerism spurred by a worshipping of novelty and by sophisticated advertising; economic activity so large in scale that its impacts alter the fundamental biophysical operations of the planet -- all combine to deliver an ever-growing world economy that is undermining the ability of the planet to sustain life.
In short, my conclusion, after much searching and considerable reluctance, is that most environmental deterioration is a result of systemic failures of the capitalism we have today and that long-term solutions must seek transformative change in the key features of this contemporary capitalism.
Hobnob with the Army Corps By Geniusofdespair
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District and South Florida Water Management District will host a series of public meetings to present and receive feedback on regionally based recreation plans for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) Master Recreation Plan.
In 2006, the planning team received public input on existing recreation conditions, future recreation needs and recreation trends and issues. At the upcoming meetings, planners will discuss how they applied the information and present regional recreation analyses and conceptual plans for review.
Public meetings will begin with a short presentation, followed by an open house during which attendees may meet and talk with the planners. The meetings, run 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. and are located at:
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 - Florida City Community Center - 420 NW 5th Ave.
Monday, April 21, 2008 - African Heritage Cultural Arts Center - 6161 NW 22nd Ave., Miami.
Yes, these meetings are a yawn but you should go. It is a good networking opportunity, just ask Ed Swakon or other annoying people that always hover around these meetings trying to butter up the Corps and South Florida Water Management District Staff. Ed works for developers and he writes the applications for filling in wetlands. I guess you could call him a lobbyist engineer.
Still time to stop bad rock mining bill, in Tallahassee... by gimleteye
It's a wealthy industry that can afford, one legislative session after another, to impose its will on Florida: in this case, that would be rock mining.
In Miami Dade County, the rock miners have tried to cap their liability for the cost of new water treatment facilities serving the drinking water needs of 2 million residents, imposing the rest of the cost on taxpayers. Public officials have done nothing but serve the profits of industry and lobbyists, allowing rock mining to get too close to our wellfields.
Now something else is going on in Tallahassee: rock miners want to "pre-empt" decisions by local county commissions on whether, where, and under what conditions to locate new mines. Strange how industries are all for local control (how many times has Natacha Seijas blathered about "local control" from the dais?), until local control threatens to make life more difficult.
For more background:
Many civic and environmental groups are opposed to provisions in SB 2406 which, among other things, would pre-empt local controls, including comprehensive plans, affecting aggregate mining within their jurisdictions (See lines 158-168 for the preemption language.)
There is particular concern for the consequences of such a provision within the Everglades Agricultural Area in Palm Beach County, where Everglades restoration work is so critical, and in the Density Reduction Groundwater Recharge area of Lee County. Contact members of the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee before the next meeting at 2:00 p.m., Thursday, April 17, 2008. Ask that Section 3, which includes the pre-emption provisions, be removed from this bill.
Chair: Senator Burt L. Saunders (R) -- saunders.burt.web@flsenate.gov -- (850) 487-5124
Vice Chair: Senator Nan H. Rich (D) -- rich.nan.web@flsenate.gov -- 850) 487-5103
Senator Paula Dockery (R) -- dockery.paula.web@flsenate.gov -- (850) 487-5040
Senator Don Gaetz (R) -- gaetz.don.web@flsenate.gov -- (850) 487-5009
Senator Dennis L. Jones, D.C. (R) -- jones.dennis.web@flsenate.gov-- (850) 487-5065
Senator Charlie Justice (D) -- justice.charlie.web@flsenate.gov-- (850) 487-5075
The bill's proposals are contrary to the Consensus Recommendations adopted by the Strategic Aggregate Review Task Force presented to the Legislature in February 2008.
After six weeks of meetings and presentations the 19 Task Force members, comprising multiple interests that included the industry, found that the facts do not support the claim that there is an aggregate unavailability crisis. FDOT could not identify a projected deficit of the material.
Task force member Richard Grosso wrote: “In short, the facts do not demonstrate that there is any need for the Legislature to intervene and disenfranchise local governments and citizens relative to one of the more intrusive and intensive land uses known to the state of Florida.”
In Miami Dade County, the rock miners have tried to cap their liability for the cost of new water treatment facilities serving the drinking water needs of 2 million residents, imposing the rest of the cost on taxpayers. Public officials have done nothing but serve the profits of industry and lobbyists, allowing rock mining to get too close to our wellfields.
Now something else is going on in Tallahassee: rock miners want to "pre-empt" decisions by local county commissions on whether, where, and under what conditions to locate new mines. Strange how industries are all for local control (how many times has Natacha Seijas blathered about "local control" from the dais?), until local control threatens to make life more difficult.
For more background:
Many civic and environmental groups are opposed to provisions in SB 2406 which, among other things, would pre-empt local controls, including comprehensive plans, affecting aggregate mining within their jurisdictions (See lines 158-168 for the preemption language.)
There is particular concern for the consequences of such a provision within the Everglades Agricultural Area in Palm Beach County, where Everglades restoration work is so critical, and in the Density Reduction Groundwater Recharge area of Lee County. Contact members of the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee before the next meeting at 2:00 p.m., Thursday, April 17, 2008. Ask that Section 3, which includes the pre-emption provisions, be removed from this bill.
Chair: Senator Burt L. Saunders (R) -- saunders.burt.web@flsenate.gov -- (850) 487-5124
Vice Chair: Senator Nan H. Rich (D) -- rich.nan.web@flsenate.gov -- 850) 487-5103
Senator Paula Dockery (R) -- dockery.paula.web@flsenate.gov -- (850) 487-5040
Senator Don Gaetz (R) -- gaetz.don.web@flsenate.gov -- (850) 487-5009
Senator Dennis L. Jones, D.C. (R) -- jones.dennis.web@flsenate.gov-- (850) 487-5065
Senator Charlie Justice (D) -- justice.charlie.web@flsenate.gov-- (850) 487-5075
The bill's proposals are contrary to the Consensus Recommendations adopted by the Strategic Aggregate Review Task Force presented to the Legislature in February 2008.
After six weeks of meetings and presentations the 19 Task Force members, comprising multiple interests that included the industry, found that the facts do not support the claim that there is an aggregate unavailability crisis. FDOT could not identify a projected deficit of the material.
Task force member Richard Grosso wrote: “In short, the facts do not demonstrate that there is any need for the Legislature to intervene and disenfranchise local governments and citizens relative to one of the more intrusive and intensive land uses known to the state of Florida.”
The SiError club. By Geniusofdespair
Looks like they are having a hard time trying to get people to volunteer to work for free for Sierra Club -- to replace the Florida Chapter Leaders that the National Board threw out when they suspended the Florida Chapter for 4 years. National had to extend their deadline:
NOTE: The deadline for submitting a statement of interest has been extended to Friday, April 18, 2008.
Dear Florida Sierra Club Leaders,
We are reaching out to all current and former Sierra Club leaders in Florida to invite you to offer your time and talent as a member of the new Florida Steering Committee - the body that will have responsibility for handling statewide matters during the period of the Chapter's suspension - or to assist us identifying qualified prospective candidates.
The Steering Committee has been charged with rebuilding and managing statewide Sierra Club functions in Florida, rebuilding trust among volunteer leaders and with the Board and staff, and preparing for a transition to a well-functioning member-elected Florida Chapter leadership. (SNIP)
Really dumb si-Error club!
NOTE: The deadline for submitting a statement of interest has been extended to Friday, April 18, 2008.
Dear Florida Sierra Club Leaders,
We are reaching out to all current and former Sierra Club leaders in Florida to invite you to offer your time and talent as a member of the new Florida Steering Committee - the body that will have responsibility for handling statewide matters during the period of the Chapter's suspension - or to assist us identifying qualified prospective candidates.
The Steering Committee has been charged with rebuilding and managing statewide Sierra Club functions in Florida, rebuilding trust among volunteer leaders and with the Board and staff, and preparing for a transition to a well-functioning member-elected Florida Chapter leadership. (SNIP)
Really dumb si-Error club!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Salmon fisheries collapse and Florida Bay, too... by gimleteye
There is shocking news from California and the Pacific Northwest: the wild salmon fishery has virtually disappeared. California's Congressional delegation is seeking $150 million for the disaster, and it leaves me cold. Last week, I went deep into Florida Bay for the first time in many years, and what I saw was an ecological disaster of even greater import. A wasteland.
The question for Congresswoman Ileana Ros Lehtinen and Congressman Mario Diaz Balart, who represent the Florida Keys and much of the Everglades: do they even know that Florida Bay is a desert, right now? Do they have a clue as to the economic costs? And why, if they do, aren't they in front of the media and press asking for relief?
The same influences cited by the New York Times, below, are at work in Florida Bay: diversion of water to service agriculture's (Big Sugar) needs and, likely, warming water temperatures due to climate change.
But there is a further disaster to Florida Bay that deserves much closer attention in comparison to the collapse of the salmon fishery: the habitat in Florida Bay has been virtually erased by algae blooms. It is disgusting to witness.
And it is more disgusting that this happened while the resource was being studied from here to kingdom come as part of the vaunted Everglades "restoration" project.
April 15, 2008
EDITORIAL
The Trouble With Salmon
The federal government’s decision to shut down commercial salmon fishing from the California coast to north-central Oregon is a blow to local fishermen and the coastal economy.
This decision is necessary if there is to be any hope of salmon recovery. It will mean even more if it shocks Congress into a serious investigation of the West Coast salmon crisis, exposes the politically driven policies of the Bush administration and persuades a new president of the need to rebuild wild salmon populations and the economies that depend on them.
Chinook salmon runs in the Sacramento River in California’s Central Valley have collapsed. The numbers of salmon returning to spawn, which had held steady at about 475,000 for several years, dropped to 90,000 last year and were expected to be half that this year.
Two factors are suspected. The federal government yielded to the demands of big agricultural interests and diverted so much of the Sacramento’s normal river flow to farmers that many baby salmon — who need free-flowing water to push them downstream — could not make it to the ocean. Scientists also believe that abnormalities in ocean temperatures, possibly related to global warming, could have deprived the fish who managed to get downstream of their food supply.
Two other coastal systems, historically rich in salmon, are in trouble. The Klamath River Basin experienced devastating collapses in 2005 and 2006. In the huge Columbia-Snake River Basin, a dozen different varieties of wild salmon are listed as endangered or threatened. In both cases, federal policy that disproportionately favors energy interests and agricultural users is a major factor. Karl Rove himself intervened in the Klamath to make sure the farmers prevailed.
In the Columbia-Snake system, where dams are a huge problem, a federal district judge in Oregon, James Redden, has rejected three federal recovery plans, including one from the Clinton administration. He has threatened to assume management of the dams if Washington cannot produce an acceptable fish recovery plan.
California’s Congressional delegation said last week that it would seek as much as $150 million in disaster aid to help coastal fishermen. A long-term salmon recovery plan would be of even greater value.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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The question for Congresswoman Ileana Ros Lehtinen and Congressman Mario Diaz Balart, who represent the Florida Keys and much of the Everglades: do they even know that Florida Bay is a desert, right now? Do they have a clue as to the economic costs? And why, if they do, aren't they in front of the media and press asking for relief?
The same influences cited by the New York Times, below, are at work in Florida Bay: diversion of water to service agriculture's (Big Sugar) needs and, likely, warming water temperatures due to climate change.
But there is a further disaster to Florida Bay that deserves much closer attention in comparison to the collapse of the salmon fishery: the habitat in Florida Bay has been virtually erased by algae blooms. It is disgusting to witness.
And it is more disgusting that this happened while the resource was being studied from here to kingdom come as part of the vaunted Everglades "restoration" project.
April 15, 2008
EDITORIAL
The Trouble With Salmon
The federal government’s decision to shut down commercial salmon fishing from the California coast to north-central Oregon is a blow to local fishermen and the coastal economy.
This decision is necessary if there is to be any hope of salmon recovery. It will mean even more if it shocks Congress into a serious investigation of the West Coast salmon crisis, exposes the politically driven policies of the Bush administration and persuades a new president of the need to rebuild wild salmon populations and the economies that depend on them.
Chinook salmon runs in the Sacramento River in California’s Central Valley have collapsed. The numbers of salmon returning to spawn, which had held steady at about 475,000 for several years, dropped to 90,000 last year and were expected to be half that this year.
Two factors are suspected. The federal government yielded to the demands of big agricultural interests and diverted so much of the Sacramento’s normal river flow to farmers that many baby salmon — who need free-flowing water to push them downstream — could not make it to the ocean. Scientists also believe that abnormalities in ocean temperatures, possibly related to global warming, could have deprived the fish who managed to get downstream of their food supply.
Two other coastal systems, historically rich in salmon, are in trouble. The Klamath River Basin experienced devastating collapses in 2005 and 2006. In the huge Columbia-Snake River Basin, a dozen different varieties of wild salmon are listed as endangered or threatened. In both cases, federal policy that disproportionately favors energy interests and agricultural users is a major factor. Karl Rove himself intervened in the Klamath to make sure the farmers prevailed.
In the Columbia-Snake system, where dams are a huge problem, a federal district judge in Oregon, James Redden, has rejected three federal recovery plans, including one from the Clinton administration. He has threatened to assume management of the dams if Washington cannot produce an acceptable fish recovery plan.
California’s Congressional delegation said last week that it would seek as much as $150 million in disaster aid to help coastal fishermen. A long-term salmon recovery plan would be of even greater value.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS First Look Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map
Dissolve county government, by gimleteye
In case you haven't noticed, representative democracy in Florida is turning paler and paler under the weight of special interests that dominate local county commissions and the state legislature. People get half the story, if the story at all.
Today, the county committee on budget and finance run by Bruno Barreiro and Barbara Jordan is considering a new ordinance reflecting the ongoing struggle between the county commission and the mayor.
The public hearing on a new ordinance (Agenda Item 4F) "amends the authority to sponsor agenda items and the disposition of reports." The agenda item, relating to the responsibility of county committees which review new ordinances, reports and matters before they are brought to the full county commission, is scheduled to be heard at 2PM, at County Hall.
The current ordinance provides, "A commission committee may take any one of the following actions regarding reports presented by, among others, the Mayor, County Manager, County Attorney, Clerk of the Board, County boards or any other person or entity authorized to present a report: (1) receive the report without endorsing any of the conclusions or recommendations contained therein; (2) adopt the report including all or some of the conclusions and/or recommendations contained therein; or (3) reject the report resulting in the matter not being placed on an agenda of the county commission. Reports which have been received or adopted as provided in the preceding sentence may be placed on a county commission agenda at the request of the presenter of the report."
The new ordinance clarifies the ability of the Mayor to put reports before the commission-- the purpose of reports is to provide background and facts to substantiate further action by county government, including regulations. As these regulations pertain to land use decisions, reports are subject to intense behind-the-scenes manipulation by land speculators, developers, and campaign contributors--often one in the same.
Consider, the case of the South Miami Dade Watershed Study that was "received" by the county commission-- to the irritation and anger of Natacha Seijas-- but without endorsement.
The meaning of "received" is that the data incorporated in the report is accepted by the relevant county department and may provide guidance beyond the hands-on direction of either the county manager or individual county commissioners who meddle in the operations of county departments.
Today's public hearing, in addition to clarifying the mayor's ability to submit reports (although I'm not entirely clear what was wrong with the language of the existing ordinance that needs to be corrected) adds a toxic recommendation that makes it easier for reports to die and never emerge from committee.
The new language shows the way for committees to bottle up reports by "laying them on the table", and if action is deferred for two consecutive committee meetings the report then dies. And if a report does emerge from committee: "no recommendations contained in the report shall be implemented except as expressly provided for in the motion or resolution adopting the report."
So, recipes for gridlock in county government are being reinforced by this new proposed ordinance. Perhaps the mayor's ability to voice changes is being strengthened, but so is the capacity of the county commission to throttle his or her voice.
The real victim here is any breath of fresh air or daylight that could emerge from reports proposing changes to the status quo: these are thoroughly shackled with heavy iron chain.
Today, the county committee on budget and finance run by Bruno Barreiro and Barbara Jordan is considering a new ordinance reflecting the ongoing struggle between the county commission and the mayor.
The public hearing on a new ordinance (Agenda Item 4F) "amends the authority to sponsor agenda items and the disposition of reports." The agenda item, relating to the responsibility of county committees which review new ordinances, reports and matters before they are brought to the full county commission, is scheduled to be heard at 2PM, at County Hall.
The current ordinance provides, "A commission committee may take any one of the following actions regarding reports presented by, among others, the Mayor, County Manager, County Attorney, Clerk of the Board, County boards or any other person or entity authorized to present a report: (1) receive the report without endorsing any of the conclusions or recommendations contained therein; (2) adopt the report including all or some of the conclusions and/or recommendations contained therein; or (3) reject the report resulting in the matter not being placed on an agenda of the county commission. Reports which have been received or adopted as provided in the preceding sentence may be placed on a county commission agenda at the request of the presenter of the report."
The new ordinance clarifies the ability of the Mayor to put reports before the commission-- the purpose of reports is to provide background and facts to substantiate further action by county government, including regulations. As these regulations pertain to land use decisions, reports are subject to intense behind-the-scenes manipulation by land speculators, developers, and campaign contributors--often one in the same.
Consider, the case of the South Miami Dade Watershed Study that was "received" by the county commission-- to the irritation and anger of Natacha Seijas-- but without endorsement.
The meaning of "received" is that the data incorporated in the report is accepted by the relevant county department and may provide guidance beyond the hands-on direction of either the county manager or individual county commissioners who meddle in the operations of county departments.
Today's public hearing, in addition to clarifying the mayor's ability to submit reports (although I'm not entirely clear what was wrong with the language of the existing ordinance that needs to be corrected) adds a toxic recommendation that makes it easier for reports to die and never emerge from committee.
The new language shows the way for committees to bottle up reports by "laying them on the table", and if action is deferred for two consecutive committee meetings the report then dies. And if a report does emerge from committee: "no recommendations contained in the report shall be implemented except as expressly provided for in the motion or resolution adopting the report."
So, recipes for gridlock in county government are being reinforced by this new proposed ordinance. Perhaps the mayor's ability to voice changes is being strengthened, but so is the capacity of the county commission to throttle his or her voice.
The real victim here is any breath of fresh air or daylight that could emerge from reports proposing changes to the status quo: these are thoroughly shackled with heavy iron chain.
Charter Review was a big fat, colossal waste of time. By Geniusofdespair
Michael Lewis’ editorial in Miami Today was on target on the Charter Review: Democracy, Miami-Dade style: Don't let the people vote Miami-Dade. He said:"Commissioners set the charter review rules, picked the players, set the time limit — and now ignore everything as they prevent a public vote to protect their own interests."
Look what the Commissioners said at their first meeting to review the 21 Member Committee’s recommendations:
"We should empower them to freely discuss any item that should be brought in front of the commission," said Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, but not allow a public vote unless the commission concurs. "I don't think it's healthy for this community to allow a group to place items directly for the electors."
Sending review recommendations directly to the ballot, said Commissioner Sally Heyman, could affect the commission, causing "some unintended consequences that may be adverse to how we operate or what our future objectives are."
If measures were to go directly to voters, Mr. Moss said, his appointee "is going to mirror my views as opposed to someone who approaches it from a purely objective perspective."
"The only concern I would have," Barbara Jordan said, "is I pick someone and give them their marching orders and then they recognize the power that they have and switch out on me."
Michael Lewis said of the process:
Instead, commissioners want us to vote on their own pet changes, ideas the review team explicitly rejected. And, they're throwing their blatantly self-serving ballot questions at us at the same time. What a slap in the face to the charter review team — and to all of us!
One commission-generated proposal would amend the charter so that the mayor and manager would no longer oversee the police department. Another commission-generated proposal would do the same with the elections department. A conflicting commission-generated proposal would have voters elect the sheriff. Others would do the same with the supervisor of elections and the tax collector.
Commissioner Jordan even pulled from her pocket a 24th charter proposal — unwind the strong mayor government that voters just created, a change that vastly reduced the commission's powers.
Further, the taskforce debated six months after expert testimony, but the commission is pulling these proposed ballot questions out of the air.
Greenberg Traurig in the news! by gimleteye
Today there is just so much to write about. Should I start with "American Idol" or Greenberg Traurig.The Miami Herald reports, "The U.S. Territory of Guam has dropped criminal charges against Greenberg Traurig after Miami's biggest law firm agreed to refund $324,000 in lobbying fees it collected while now imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff worked at the firm."
Guam realized was that holding Greenberg Traurig accountable would have cost more than it was worth.
Greenberg Traurig CEO Cesar Alvarez, who is also chairman of the board of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, gets to say, "They (Guam) understood that we are the good guys in this, and that Abramoff is the one that took us for a ride."
Let's guess which Miami public relations firm came up with that little bouche amuse.
Greenberg Truarig may be an international law firm, today. But its not-so-humble roots In Miami Dade County are in land use, where the firm bootstrapped its way to wealth and fortune through zoning changes a la carte in wetlands and farmland. In the nasty politics that pass for good government here, the notion that Greenberg are "good guys, taken for a ride" deserves a little scrutiny in view of the speculative values that pass for common sense in Miami's status quo, political elite.
At Miami Dade County Hall or Miami City Hall, perhaps, the lobbyists who have worked for Greenberg garner stars on the wall of fame, but not even close to "good guys" when it comes to our built landscape. Name, one Greenberg Truarig attorney who ever did pro bono work for the environment?
I know: you could say the same of Holland and Knight or Steel, Hector etc., but Greenberg and its heavy handed lobbying deserves a place in the firmament all of its own. Until he was nailed by the law, Greenberg's affiliation with Abramoff was very good for business.
Credit The Miami Herald, at least, with not giving Alvarez the last word.
"In my viewpoint, it was more than Jack Abramoff involved," said the Guam representative. It would be very interesting to hear Abramoff's version of the story. But that's for another day.
Scam: Biofuels. By Geniusofdespair
The Clean Energy Scam
Award winning reporter, Michael Grunwald, wrote for Time Magazine about biofuels:
“But several new studies show the biofuel boom is doing exactly the opposite of what its proponents intended: it's dramatically accelerating global warming, imperiling the planet in the name of saving it. Corn ethanol, always environmentally suspect, turns out to be environmentally disastrous. Even cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass, which has been promoted by eco-activists and eco-investors as well as by President Bush as the fuel of the future, looks less green than oil-derived gasoline.”
Award winning reporter, Michael Grunwald, wrote for Time Magazine about biofuels:
“But several new studies show the biofuel boom is doing exactly the opposite of what its proponents intended: it's dramatically accelerating global warming, imperiling the planet in the name of saving it. Corn ethanol, always environmentally suspect, turns out to be environmentally disastrous. Even cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass, which has been promoted by eco-activists and eco-investors as well as by President Bush as the fuel of the future, looks less green than oil-derived gasoline.”
Monday, April 14, 2008
Question of the day, by gimleteye
OK, blog readers. Here's a Monday morning question: what daily newspaper in Miami could fail to provide an editorial opinion while reporting a) foreclosure auctions listing Miami properties selling at up to 50 percent discount from listing price, b) note, in a secondary column, the outrageous inequities of mortgage lender CEO's walking away from the real estate inferno with hundred million dollar paydays, and c) printing the massive overdevelopment of Homestead as positive, "good thing" on the front page of its Business Monday?
If you guessed The Miami Herald, you would be right:
Today's Miami Herald is a breath-taking compendium of how print news has gone off-track: so dependent on real estate advertising that it STILL, in the midst of the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, does not know how to communicate a coherent vision with its readers.
The part that is most frustrating is that Ed Wasserman's editorial on new direction in print newspapers toward hyper-local, narrow cast, circles around the core issue that we have been blogging about and around for well-over a year. In other words, there is light; only not too much of it.
eyeonmiami is the hyper-local model that tries in its anonymous, persistent way to sift the kernels of news to publish a coherent view of the economic, social and political forces that drive the region. Isn't this disconnect--between the print news that people get and the news that people want-- partly responsible for our present sad state of affairs?
Wasserman, if not the editors, acknowledges that readers have been shut out of important information because the financial model of newspapers is crippled without classifieds, which migrated to the internet, and real estate, an industry that is imploding.
And still, still, Business Monday tries to fluff up Homestead and its rampant overdevelopment led by Bob Epling, the banker who gets the first word of the story. "This was all potatoes and corn. If you came here three years ago, that would be all you'd see, as far as the eye can see."
Homestead and Florida City are the Miami-Dade model of unsustainable growth. Period.
Homestead and its "vision" created an unmitigated disaster of infrastructure and pressure, converting the last open space in South Florida, bordering two national parks, into a misery of urban planning-- notwithstanding the fact that decision makers at the county, planning staff, citizen activists and leaders all understood exactly what was happening, when it was happening, as corrupt politics and insider-dealing by the likes of Steve Shiver, the "farm bureau", and well-paid lobbyists ran gleefully over common sense like a big-wheel 4 X 4 at a tractor show.
That, of course, is not the story told by The Herald except in a simple sentence buried in the middle of the story: "... many of the new homes are vacant because of the real-estate bust."
Apparently, the real story is the flood of new retail and big box merchandisers. No critical explanation that big retail, or any retail for that matter, relies on demographic studies to show that the consumer base exists.
The problem in Homestead cried then and cries now for credible reporting by The Herald.
All that housing in farmland was ginned up by fraudulent mortgage practices in the last phase of the building boom that ended in 2005. There was never, not a single instance, when The Miami Herald laid out for readers a coherent viewpoint about the path of unsustainable growth that is now inflicting enormous pain and consequences on the state of Florida.
Recall Florida City Commons? The Lennar project outside the Urban Development Boundary that was withdrawn but that had the temerity to press its plans into Biscayne Bay wetlands with NO objection from local leaders or the county commission.
Home buyers rushed to Homestead because of the illusion of cheap housing. One buyer, cited in the article, says he moved to Homestead because he could buy more home there, than in Kendall.
The Herald never, ever takes a position on this question that is central both to the housing market crash and the dim economic prospects of South Florida: where are the real jobs being created for people chasing "cheap" housing an hour or more from places of work? does it serve our region for homebuilders and bankers to be permitted to create "opportunities" for housing which only represent the shifting of an existing market from one locale to another because of the illusion of "low cost"?
How much of the infrastructure burden of roadways and schools and wastewater is born by county taxpayers, including inner city residents, in order to subsidize "making a home in Homestead"?
This model that ginned up plenty of real estate advertising revenues for The Miami Herald has been a fiscal disaster.
That is the story of Homestead and Florida City. It spawned a crop of insider-dealing that wrecked public policy in Miami and Miami-Dade county, and it mostly happened mostly without comment by The Miami Herald (with the notable exception of Jim Morin's editorial cartoons).
Oh well: that's enough for Monday morning! There is still the rest of the week for readers who come here, to get a point of view that gets oxygen from the internet.
If you guessed The Miami Herald, you would be right:
Today's Miami Herald is a breath-taking compendium of how print news has gone off-track: so dependent on real estate advertising that it STILL, in the midst of the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, does not know how to communicate a coherent vision with its readers.
The part that is most frustrating is that Ed Wasserman's editorial on new direction in print newspapers toward hyper-local, narrow cast, circles around the core issue that we have been blogging about and around for well-over a year. In other words, there is light; only not too much of it.
eyeonmiami is the hyper-local model that tries in its anonymous, persistent way to sift the kernels of news to publish a coherent view of the economic, social and political forces that drive the region. Isn't this disconnect--between the print news that people get and the news that people want-- partly responsible for our present sad state of affairs?
Wasserman, if not the editors, acknowledges that readers have been shut out of important information because the financial model of newspapers is crippled without classifieds, which migrated to the internet, and real estate, an industry that is imploding.
And still, still, Business Monday tries to fluff up Homestead and its rampant overdevelopment led by Bob Epling, the banker who gets the first word of the story. "This was all potatoes and corn. If you came here three years ago, that would be all you'd see, as far as the eye can see."
Homestead and Florida City are the Miami-Dade model of unsustainable growth. Period.
Homestead and its "vision" created an unmitigated disaster of infrastructure and pressure, converting the last open space in South Florida, bordering two national parks, into a misery of urban planning-- notwithstanding the fact that decision makers at the county, planning staff, citizen activists and leaders all understood exactly what was happening, when it was happening, as corrupt politics and insider-dealing by the likes of Steve Shiver, the "farm bureau", and well-paid lobbyists ran gleefully over common sense like a big-wheel 4 X 4 at a tractor show.
That, of course, is not the story told by The Herald except in a simple sentence buried in the middle of the story: "... many of the new homes are vacant because of the real-estate bust."
Apparently, the real story is the flood of new retail and big box merchandisers. No critical explanation that big retail, or any retail for that matter, relies on demographic studies to show that the consumer base exists.
The problem in Homestead cried then and cries now for credible reporting by The Herald.
All that housing in farmland was ginned up by fraudulent mortgage practices in the last phase of the building boom that ended in 2005. There was never, not a single instance, when The Miami Herald laid out for readers a coherent viewpoint about the path of unsustainable growth that is now inflicting enormous pain and consequences on the state of Florida.
Recall Florida City Commons? The Lennar project outside the Urban Development Boundary that was withdrawn but that had the temerity to press its plans into Biscayne Bay wetlands with NO objection from local leaders or the county commission.
Home buyers rushed to Homestead because of the illusion of cheap housing. One buyer, cited in the article, says he moved to Homestead because he could buy more home there, than in Kendall.
The Herald never, ever takes a position on this question that is central both to the housing market crash and the dim economic prospects of South Florida: where are the real jobs being created for people chasing "cheap" housing an hour or more from places of work? does it serve our region for homebuilders and bankers to be permitted to create "opportunities" for housing which only represent the shifting of an existing market from one locale to another because of the illusion of "low cost"?
How much of the infrastructure burden of roadways and schools and wastewater is born by county taxpayers, including inner city residents, in order to subsidize "making a home in Homestead"?
This model that ginned up plenty of real estate advertising revenues for The Miami Herald has been a fiscal disaster.
That is the story of Homestead and Florida City. It spawned a crop of insider-dealing that wrecked public policy in Miami and Miami-Dade county, and it mostly happened mostly without comment by The Miami Herald (with the notable exception of Jim Morin's editorial cartoons).
Oh well: that's enough for Monday morning! There is still the rest of the week for readers who come here, to get a point of view that gets oxygen from the internet.
Wackenhut: You won’t believe the County’s response this time! By Geniusofdespair
In way of background material, I have included snippets of an April 11th Editorial by the Miami Herald below. Hit on image on left to enlarge it.The County has been stonewalling on Wackenhut over-charging them for years. The attorney for the whistle-blower, who also represents the county, is trying to get to the bottom of the over billing, he subpoenaed County Mayor Alvarez and County Manager Burgess. The county legal dept. is trying to block their depositions! I have one big: WHY?
The reason, they say:
That "the Mayor and Manager Burgess cannot uniquely provide relevant information which cannot be obtained from other sources." Maybe the Mayor can get off the hook. But Burgess? Come on, as you can see below, his staff member, Cathy Jackson, ain’t talking (against the advice of a county attorney). Who would know what is going on if not Burgess if, his underling, Jackson, won’t talk. This is bullshit pure and simple. MY GOD MAYOR! GET BURGESS TO TALK!! And, release the damn audit!
In an April 11th editorial the Miami Herald said, Answers needed on overbilling claims:
“Ms. Jackson compounded the mystery last month when, despite the advice of a county attorney, she refused to answer questions about the audit during a deposition for that lawsuit. Ms. Jackson says she doesn't want to comment on an audit that is still in draft form. The audit involved sifting through reams of paperwork from Wackenhut, which may explain why it's taking so long. Still, Miami-Dade residents are owed some answers, soon.
This isn't just about the money in question or Wackenhut's reputation, it's about the level and quality of security at Metrorail stations. Former Wackenhut employees have said that they faked time sheets, agreed to work longer shifts but then left early after rush hour and indulged in other falsehoods.”
and:
“The audit arose out of charges in 2005 that Wackenhut overbilled the county. The company claims that it has not overbilled and that the charges are coming from disgruntled former employees. Former Wackenhut employees have responded by filing a lawsuit that seeks to reclaim millions of dollars in overbillings under the county's False Claims Ordinance. It allows residents and whistle-blowers who expose fraud to collect damages. If the plaintiffs prevail, the outcome could be tens of millions of dollars because the law provides for triple damages. The county would receive some of that.”
P.S. The Herald Editorial could be wrong about this:
"In 2005 the county at the last minute pulled a $4.8 million contract it was about to award to Wackenhut because of the allegations."
However, according to a New Times article published March 29, 2007 it was a MULTI 7 YEAR contract:
"In January County Manager George Burgess miraculously recommended that the security firm Wackenhut receive a general service contract worth $4.9 million a year, for the next seven years, to guard several government sites.”
Vile Natacha Seijas' Campaign Report. By Geniusofdespair
Here are some selected donors to Natacha Seijas' campaign account:
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Who is worse: Miami Dade County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson or Opponent Val Screen? By Geniusofdespair
In today's Herald they said Edmonson has a challenger: Valria Screen. From her online bio:"Val Screen is an attorney who practices administrative law before city councils, the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners and the Florida Legislature. She also serves as the Development Director for fundraising efforts in support of ongoing restoration and the reopening of Historic Virginia Key Beach Park."
She is a Republican. However, Commissioner Audrey Edmonson has taken up the habit, with Natacha Seijas, of talking loudly every time Katy Sorenson speaks. Audrey has to go. This is a very hard call when you look at Screen's lobbying over the years. Here is that lobbying history:
INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS MANAGEMENT 3/16/2005
DUTY & TAX FREE CONCESSIONS AT MIA RFP MDAD-03-04 Withdrawn
SERECA SECURITY CORP 3/16/2005
BID EM7797-02/07 SECURITY GUARD SERVICES Withdrawn
CARNIVAL CORPORATION 7/23/2004
TRANS COMMITTEE ITEM 3N 7/22/04 Withdrawn
INDIGO SERVICE CORPORATION 6/3/2004
A04-PARK-02 Withdrawn
TUBOSUN GIWA & PARTNERS 2/3/2004
MISC AE SERVICES Withdrawn
AMERICAN SALES & MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION 2/2/2004
DBE RECERTIFICATION Withdrawn
BLAYLOCK-ABACUS ASSET MANAGEMENT 11/13/2003
CONTRACTING OPPORTUNITIES IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY Withdrawn
WILLIAMS ISLAND ASSOCIATES LTD 10/16/2003
CDMP APPLICATION Withdrawn
MCM CORPORATION 8/12/2003
DBD COMPLIANCE MATTERS AT AIRPORT AND PHT Withdrawn
EFC HOLDINGS 8/5/2003
GENERAL REPRESENTATION Withdrawn
MGE ARCHITECTS 5/27/2003
MIA PROJECT A02-MDAD-03 Withdrawn
BILZIN SUMBERG BAERA PRICE & AXELROD 4/22/2003
CANAL DREDGING PROJECT CO2-DERM-EEC AND OTHER RELATED MATTERS Withdrawn
COMCAST CORPORATION 2/27/2003
CHAPTER 8AA AMENDMENTS/CABLE ORDINANCE Withdrawn
SAFIRE AIRCRAFT COMPANY 12/18/2002
RELOCATION OF COMPANY TO MIA Withdrawn
AMERICAN SALES & MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION 7/19/2002
GENERAL AERONAUTICAL SERVICES PERMIT AT MIA AIRPORT Withdrawn
IBM CORPORATION 7/5/2002
RFP 317 COMPUTER AIDED DISPATCH Withdrawn
BASKETBALL PROPERTIES, LTD. 5/23/2002
PARCEL B-COMPOSITE AMENDMENT IV Withdrawn
AT&T BROADBAND 5/15/2002
RESOLUTION APPROVING THE TRANSFER OF CONTROL OF SIX NON- EXCLUSIVE CABLE TELEVISON LICENSES TO AT&T COMCAST Withdrawn
(I am tired of pressing carriage return)
DATA STREAM SYSTEM 4/24/2002
RFP 351-ENTERPRISE ASSET MGMNT SYSTEM SOFTWARE Withdrawn
CHEROKEE ENTERPRISES INC 4/11/2002
EO1-DERM 02- PRESCREENING MEETING Withdrawn
H & R PAVING INC 1/29/2002
MDAD PAVING CONTRACT AWARD Withdrawn
ADELPHIA CABLE 12/18/2001
AGENDA ITEM 13N ORDINANCE Withdrawn
HOME DEPOT U.S.A., INC 12/17/2001
ITEM NO PH-Z01-262 (01-12-CC-2) PUBLIC HEARING Withdrawn
MIAMI CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL 11/28/2001
APPLICATION FOR CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE Withdrawn
BMS MANAGEMENT COMPANY 11/9/2001
CDMP SMALL SCALE AMENDMENT APPLICATION NO 2 Withdrawn
APAC GROUP INC 10/31/2001
MASTER CONSULTANT SERVICES PROJECT NO. E01-DERM-04 Withdrawn
EARTH TECH, INC 10/31/2001
MASTER CONSULTANT SERVICES PROJECT NO. E01-DERM-04 Withdrawn
IBM CORPORATION 10/31/2001
MDAD CONTRCT #F034F SECURITY ROOMS Withdrawn
PARSONS TRANSPORTATION GROUP INC 10/31/2001
MASTER CONSULTANT SERVICES PROJECT NO. E01-DERM-04 Withdrawn
SAN MARTIN ASSOCIATES INC 10/26/2001
DERM-03 PROJECT EMERGENCY EXPIDITE PROGRAM Withdrawn
FALCON TRUST AIR 10/22/2001
DEVELOPMENTAL LEASE AT TAMIAMI AIRPORT 6A1L Withdrawn
PAN AMERICAN WEST 10/10/2001
APPLICATION NO 6 CDMP Withdrawn
AMERICAN SALES & MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION 8/10/2001
DBE CERTIFICATION APPEAL Withdrawn
THRIFTY RENT-A- CAR SYSTEM INC 7/20/2001
AGENDA ITEM 6A1C-RESOLUTION Withdrawn
CARNIVAL CORPORATION 7/20/2001
AGENDA ITEM 6P1C AND ALTERNATE-RESOLUTION Withdrawn
LAUTARO DEVELOPMENT 7/10/2001
HEARING NO. 01-58 Withdrawn
INDIGO SERVICE CORPORATION 6/27/2001
PROJECT NO. A99-PARK-01 MISC PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. Withdrawn
EARTH TECH CONSULTING INC 6/25/2001
ALL COUNTY PROCUREMENT MATTERS Withdrawn
HOMESTEAD MIAMI SPEEDWAY LLC 6/19/2001
CLASS V PERMIT APPLICATION ITEM 4V 6/19/01 Withdrawn
VICTOR P. KRESTOW, M.D., P.A. 6/13/2001
CONTINUING CONTRACTS WITH MIAMI-DADE COUNTY Withdrawn
SARMIENTO ADVERTISING GROUP LLC 6/7/2001
RFP 277 BUS SHELTER PROGRAM Withdrawn
MIAMI CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL 6/6/2001
AGENDA ITEM 9A7 Withdrawn
BUSINESS REPRESENTATION INTERNATIONAL 6/4/2001
DBE CERTIFICATION WITH MIAMI-DADE COUNTY Withdrawn
POLYDYNE, INC. 4/25/2001
INVITATION TO BID 5840-1/02-OTR POYMERIC FLOCCULENT Withdrawn
H & J ASPHALT INC 4/9/2001
CERTIFIED PAYROLL FOR DBD Withdrawn
TASCO PLUMBIN CORPORATION 4/9/2001
CERTIFIED PAYROLL FOR DBD Withdrawn
H & R PAVING INC 3/8/2001
REPRESENTATION REGARDING CERTIFIED PAY ROLL Withdrawn
HOUSING TRUST GROUP OF FLORIDA 1/29/2001
ALL HOUSING MATTERS BEFORE COUNTY AGENCIES Withdrawn
AMERIHOUSING 1/11/2001
CDMP APPLICATION Withdrawn
LARO SERVICE SYSTEMS INC 12/15/2000
RFQ MDAD 00045A ZONE1 ONLY. JANITORIAL CONTRACT RECOMMENDATION Withdrawn
CHEROKEE ENTERPRISES INC 11/8/2000
HISPANIC DISADVANTAGED AND COMMUNITY SMALL BUSINESS ENTERPRISE Withdrawn
GENET FAMILY LIMITED PARTNERSHIP 10/26/2000
CDMP APPLICATION AMENDMENT Withdrawn
ODEBRECHT CONTRACTORS OF FLORIDA 10/11/2000
NEW NORTHSIDE RUNWAY PROJECT B046B Withdrawn
EARTH TECH CONSULTING INC 9/13/2000
E99-WASD-02 ORAL PRESENTATION Withdrawn
ANTONIO GONZALEZ 7/19/2000
CDMP TRANSMITTAL/ LAKES OF THE NORTH Withdrawn
ATLAS AIR INC 7/19/2000
LEASE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT WITH MIAMI-DADE COUNTY Withdrawn
H.J. ROSS ASSOCIATES INC 7/13/2000
MISC ENGINEERING SERVICES PROJECT E99-SEA-03 Withdrawn
QUICK PACKING INC 7/11/2000
BAGGAGE WRAP SERVICES AT MIA RFP 37 Withdrawn
GABRIEL SECURITY CORP INC 6/28/2000
BID PROTEST CONCERNING #0741-4/04 OTR-SW Withdrawn
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER BUILDERS 6/12/2000
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER RFP 9501 CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Withdrawn
PARSONS/ODEBRECHT JV 5/23/2000
SOUTH TERMINAL CONSTRUCTION PROJECT AT MIA Withdrawn
MEG ONE SOUTH BEACH LTD 5/9/2000
WBE CERTIFICATION Withdrawn
MEDICS AMBULANCE SERVICE 4/14/2000
APPLICATION FOR CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE Withdrawn
BND ENGINEERS INC 4/11/2000
GROUNDWATER SURFACE WATER AND SOIL CLEAN-UP E98-DERM-01 Withdrawn
HOME DEPOT U.S.A., INC 4/11/2000
ZONING APPLICATION Z98-435 REQUEST ZONING CHANGE Withdrawn
BELL SOUTH 3/16/2000
PAYPHONE SERVICES/PRESUBSCRIPTION CONTRACT Withdrawn
HOMESTEAD AIR BASE DEVELOPERS INC 1/26/2000
SEIS FOR HOMESTEAD AIR FORCE BASE Withdrawn
EMERALD LAKES WEST INC 12/14/1999
APPLICATION #Z-99-59 TRANSWORLD MANAGEMENT SERVICE, INC Withdrawn
TREE ISLAND PARK Withdrawn
MCM ENGINEERS AND GENERAL CONTRACTORS 12/3/1999
PUBLIC HEALTH TRUST\NORTH PARKING GARAGE COMPLEX Withdrawn
LANZO LINING SYSTEM 12/2/1999
WASD PROJECT S-701 ANNUAL CONTRACT Withdrawn
CITIZENS AGAINST BLASTING 10/28/1999
ORDINANCE RELATED TO BLASTING Withdrawn
FLORIDA STEVEDORING COMPANY 10/26/1999
STEVEDORING OPERATING PERMIT Withdrawn
PULTE HOME CORPORATION 10/7/1999
CROPSEYVILLE TND APPLICATION Withdrawn
THE RELATED GROUP 8/20/1999
I think that is enough....
See newer post on Screen (put her name into search box at top)
On Obama, by gimleteye
According to The New York Times, "Obama, now on the defensive, calls 'bitter' words ill-chosen".
Politicians of all stripes appear to be fixated on delivering good news to voters and taxpayers who have been lulled to sleep or complacency by the near-total absence of real debate about the conditions driving them off the economic cliff. The drama of the Pennsylvania Democratic primary has struck the strongest nerve running through Americans dismay at the unraveling economy.
The candidacy of Barack Obama is asking Americans to pay attention. His campaign has been a search to find a new public language that rings true to Americans.
When Barack said, that voters bitter over their economic circumstances, "cling to guns or religion or antipathy who aren't like them", he was delivering the truth about one of the worst aspects of human nature: to embrace scapegoats when times are bad instead of change.
Now, instead of focusing on how bad this economy really is, Obama's opponents are pouncing on him.
One of the most common criticisms about Obama is the question of experience: what has he done, in his short career in the US Senate? The better question is how does he view the experience of government, since there is so much fault to find with the performance of Congress.
You don't get to the US Senate without understanding the costs of admission. But there is a big difference between embracing those costs or being able to compete while holding them at a certain distance.
Americans have been in the obsessive grip of the trivial, whether expressed through false religious fervor that betrays moral values, or enthusiasms of gladiators and the colosseum. These are signs of an empire in decline.
With bad economic news on the horizon-- much worse even than what has already afflicted blue collar workers in states like Pennsylvania-- America needs the language and meaning that Barack Obama brings to the 2008 presidential campaign.
He is right to say how Americans are distracted,--notwithstanding the platitudes, the posturing, and the vanities--, and he is right to go on the offensive.
Type the rest of the post here
Politicians of all stripes appear to be fixated on delivering good news to voters and taxpayers who have been lulled to sleep or complacency by the near-total absence of real debate about the conditions driving them off the economic cliff. The drama of the Pennsylvania Democratic primary has struck the strongest nerve running through Americans dismay at the unraveling economy.
The candidacy of Barack Obama is asking Americans to pay attention. His campaign has been a search to find a new public language that rings true to Americans.
When Barack said, that voters bitter over their economic circumstances, "cling to guns or religion or antipathy who aren't like them", he was delivering the truth about one of the worst aspects of human nature: to embrace scapegoats when times are bad instead of change.
Now, instead of focusing on how bad this economy really is, Obama's opponents are pouncing on him.
One of the most common criticisms about Obama is the question of experience: what has he done, in his short career in the US Senate? The better question is how does he view the experience of government, since there is so much fault to find with the performance of Congress.
You don't get to the US Senate without understanding the costs of admission. But there is a big difference between embracing those costs or being able to compete while holding them at a certain distance.
Americans have been in the obsessive grip of the trivial, whether expressed through false religious fervor that betrays moral values, or enthusiasms of gladiators and the colosseum. These are signs of an empire in decline.
With bad economic news on the horizon-- much worse even than what has already afflicted blue collar workers in states like Pennsylvania-- America needs the language and meaning that Barack Obama brings to the 2008 presidential campaign.
He is right to say how Americans are distracted,--notwithstanding the platitudes, the posturing, and the vanities--, and he is right to go on the offensive.
Type the rest of the post here
Skinhead Lobbyists Kris Korge and Rodney Barreto by Geniusofdespair
Apparently they promised to shave their heads for charity if they didn’t lose enough weight. They were in a competition with others, including Jorge Fernandez, Ray “Reggie” Rodriquez, Jose Cancela and Developer, Augustin Herran.Fat Rodney didn’t lose enough weight but instead of shaving his WHOLE head, the agreed upon punishment for the “least” weight losers, he only shaved a bit of the top of his heavily haired head. Korge, with less hair, also left most of the hair he has left. They always have to skirt the rules don’t they? The good news: if you have a helicopter you might get to see the shaved area on Barreto's head (he is pretty tall).
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