OK. There are at least two subjects worth commenting on, today, from The Miami Herald: first, the editorial page finally woke up to the machinations of the Growth Machine trying to manipulate the Florida legislature to do what it couldn't achieve under two terms of former Gov. Jeb Bush; dismantle once and for all growth management in the state of Florida.
Under the Republican's incredibly idiotic conception, wetlands regulations are responsible for the housing market collapse. That's right: eliminate regulations is the answer. That's how the red state legislature intends to fix Florida, a state that lost 84,000 acres of wetlands between 1998 and 2005 during a period of no-net loss of wetlands. The timid Herald editorial board could have used a sharper pencil in its broadside: why won't it? But these Capitol Idiocrats are not today's target of ire.
Second, the Herald coverage of the imploding deal for the Marlin's professional baseball stadium is also gathering steam. The newspaper is encouraging local elected officials to acknowledge the new era of fiscal reality we have been clamoring about on our blog, for seemingly ever. But I don't want to write about the pro-stadium Idiocrats on the city and county commissions (mayors, too).
I want to write about another manifestation of the Idiocracy. A subject that deserves to be pushed up through the news blizzard: the pathetic parking meters used by the City of Miami and Miami Beach. Parking meters? The question of the day: are these oft-malfunctioning parking meters, dismal-looking and weather-beaten, a side business of tow truck companies?
I picture cubicles filled with fat, overweight guys sitting behind steel grey desks with complaint telephones in one hand and dispatch walkie-talkies in the other. ("Yeah, Marco, we got a couple of blue monsters that ain't workin over on NE 2nd. Send over my brother-in-law. He needs the work.")
I'm talking about the blue electronic monsters that eat your credit card, wrecking the magnetic striping, and print out a white receipt you put on your dashboard. Anyhow, there are slight variations among the machines, but they malfunction identically.
You put your credit card in (many cannot take dollar bills) and a couple of things happen with increasing frequency: first, the LED readout is illegible. Second, as often as not the electronic reader mis-reads the credit card information. Third, after waiting seemingly interminable amounts of time, the machine yields your credit card back but has ripped at the magnetic striping in the meantime. This really pisses me off: not only has the machine failed to read your perfectly good credit card but it has started the process of ruining the card at the same time; requiring you to now call your credit card company ("please touch tone or speak your 92 digit card number now") to get a new card that will be promptly marred by the first blue monster you slide the new card into.
When the blue meters appeared on the streets of Miami, several years ago, I thought; finally, Miami is showing a single example to the world that we belong in the developed world. It was the same kind of feeling as when Miami International Airport finally allowed rental luggage carts ("Smart Cartes"), after County Commissioner Natacha Seijas had held up the contract for years because the company didn't use her favorite lobbyists.
So how about it, Mayor Diaz. A week ago, President Obama, speaking of the trillion dollar fiscal stimulus, cautioned you and the cities of America, "don't screw this up". Let's see if you and Miami Beach can fix your electronic parking meters. Or does that set the bar too high?
3 comments:
...and the Miami Herald can't understand why nobody reads it? Of course expecting the Herald to be infront of an issue is asking way too much.
How could the permit process possibly be stream-lined any more than the current jiffy-perms? Are there any wetlands in south Florida that haven't already been developed,farmed or drained by mines and water supply projects?
Posted on Wednesday, 03.04.09
Miami Herald Editorial
What caused the recession? Wetlands
OUR OPINION: Growth-management, environmental laws under siege, again
It's a stretch, but some Florida lawmakers are blaming the state's growth-management and environmental laws for the recession. Their logic? If we had just made it easier for builders to drain wetlands, increase density, expand subdivisions well beyond established residential areas and ignore environmental-protection laws, our economy would be in clover.
If you believe that, we've got some swampland to sell you. What these lawmakers are up to is using the recession to go after growth-management and environmental laws that builders and industry groups don't like. If these proposals are adopted, they won't do one single thing to improve our economy, but they will discourage the very thing developers rely on to keep their businesses going -- new residents.
Rather than watering down state laws intended to protect our environment and make sure we grow in a way that sustains our water supply and other basics, lawmakers should look for ways to expand our economy. The real reason Florida is so hard hit by the national recession, which is fast becoming a global problem, is our limited sources of revenue. We basically rely on people who live elsewhere to do one of two things: visit Florida or move here. So the Sunshine state is hugely susceptible to boom-and-bust cycles.
Tourism is a pillar of the state economy. Development isn't. You can only build and pave for so long before you've destroyed the very things that attract people to Florida. Gone will be the wetlands that act as hurricane buffers and nurseries for the seafood we love to catch and eat. Gone will be the beaches as air pollution from ever-expanding cities contributes to global warming, which is causing seas to rise. Gone will be Florida's subtropical ambience, lost in cookie-cutter subdivisions surrounded by ever-widening freeways dotted with strip malls.
Still, some legislators propose changes that read like a laundry list of developers' pet peeves. One measure would allow counties to opt out of having the state Department of Community Affairs review their growth-plan amendments and developments of regional impact. Under that scenario, the Miami-Dade County Commission would be on the way to approving what amounts to a couple of medium-size cities beyond the Urban Development Boundary. Is that really what Miami-Dade's residents want, or only what builders want?
Even if state lawmakers weaken these laws, the economy will still be in the dumps. Developers can't get loans to build because the housing market has tanked. Lawmakers should seek effective ways to stimulate and expand Florida's economy rather than declaring war on the environment and on residents' quality of life.
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