Almost 7 years ago Shirley Gibson stood before the County Commission and asked them to approve incorporation of Miami Gardens. Miami Gardens had tried to incorporate for several years. Like other incorporation efforts, she was subjected to all the reasons why incorporation would not work for Miami Gardens. But Shirley is smart; she knew her community better than any County Commissioner. She had been in this situation before several years earlier when she was part of the incorporation effort for the same area then called Destiny. Destiny was shot down by big money influence on the County Commissioners.This time around she would not take “no” for an answer. She was told that Miami Gardens was a poor black community and could not survive on their own. Shirley, a former cop, would not be intimidated. When Vile Natacha came at her, she fired back with facts and figures and such resolve that even the Vile One backed off. (hit read more)
In the end the Commission approved Miami Gardens’ incorporation but the sense was, ‘don’t come to us when you fail. We will not bail you out’. Today Shirley is Mayor of the largest predominantly black city in the State. One measure of their success is that Miami Gardens is the only newly incorporated city to start their own, independent police department.
On September 27, 2009, the front page of the Tampa Bay section of the St. Petersburg Times profiled Miami Gardens and Mayor Gibson, Prudent city can brag as it saves by Janet Zink. The lead says, “As other Florida cities struggle with budgets, Miami Gardens is still hiring and building”. And they are saving for rainier days too. Shirley won’t say it, but I will: The Commission was dead wrong about Miami Gardens and they are about other incorporation efforts too.
It’s time the county removes the moratorium on incorporations and lets citizens control their own destiny. We should not be slaves to the county’s bloated inefficiency and salaries.
10 comments:
Maybe Miami Gardens can bail out the County. Wouldn't that be sweet revenge.
Shirley Gibson is the best!
Palmetto Bay has done well too.
The entire county should be either incorporated or annexed, thus leaving absolutely no unincorporated areas. This way we can eliminate the "city services" which the County provides and which stretches the budget dramatically.
This was a recommendation of the Charter Review Task Force, but like every other forward thinking recommendation, it was not discussed and was used as toilet paper at the BCC. Shame.
MED.
Forced annexation should only be considered after areas have tried to carve out their own boundaries and failed. The importance of incorporation is to create cities of common interest. Every community has a sense of "self" and that should be respected. The BCC whines about having too many cities. How many are too many? What difference does it make if we have 50 or 100? There are some pretty small cities (Florida City for example) doing just fine. The worst nightmare is to have the commission carve up unincorporated Miami-Dade into 13 cities that just happen to follow commission district lines, ah la Joe Martinez.
Do you really think, if areas could "carve out their own areas", that there wouldn't be any unincorporated area left?
There are areas of Westchester, South Miami, and Kendall who have no desire whatsoever to be incorporated. Additionally, you would get neighborhood groups who only want the wealthy parts of their neighborhood to be incorporated and would leave the areas that don't generate significant revenue in little unincorporated pockets all over the County. (i.e. Naranga Goulds)
m
Is this a joke? Isn't Miami Gardens that crime-ridden dump in north Miami-Dade County? If Miami Gardens has any extra money, they should be spending it on law enforcement.I feel sorry for anyone who is forced to live there.
Silas - Yes the triangle is within Miami Gardens, but that is not the whole city. This city encompasses a very large swath of land and kudos to them for taking the bad areas with the good...they didn't get to cherry pick like other incorporated cities which dumped the low income areas.
Miami Gardens is not crime ridden, (Another Bad Stereotype), the triangle is not in Miami Garden it's in Opa-Locka and finally Miami Gardens and it's residents saw the benefit of a fair tax system where you pay for what you get.
We raised our millage to provide for services because ... low tax rate = low quality of life!
William Foot
Mayor Gibson met with me, gladly. I don't even live in her city. I have great respect for her. She has grown that city and attracted businesses to reside there. She is sharp and progressive and I believe we could use a few more of her around.
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