Everglades On The Bay: its own chapter in the Age of Stupid ... by gimleteye

A reader of "Everglades On The Bay: Kaput" asked me to post the foto I'd kept of the condo's marketing drivel. The brochure has been by my desk ever since it arrived five or so years ago in the fucked up blizzard of the real estate bubble. Here it is.
Everglades restoration has been a passion as a writer and activist for more than 20 years. In a way, these decades have been spent trying to communicate with a passive and unwilling public why it is important to focus on reforming the interlocking gears of a fraudulent an unsustainable system of managing growth: one that yielded vast private profits while eroding our shared quality of life in Florida at the same time. Readers might wonder what I felt, then, about receiving this marketing mailer for a new condo featuring a sexy model standing in the Everglades; drawing both together as a branding opportunity for a condo tower while the real Everglades was crushed by an unsustainable asset bubble in housing and construction. I felt (thanks for asking!): what a pile of crap. Like sugar barons marketing sugarcane at Winn Dixie as "green" and "environmentally friendly". No one knows, because no one is paying attention. A few of our readers do. It is simply the fact that the success of the Growth Machine in Florida depended on the public not receiving information-- from television and newspapers primarily-- in a way that might otherwise have generated resistance. Now, the Everglades and the environment generally is an even lower level of concern: the public is wrapped up in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Still I keep this missive from the past by my desk. Here's more how that hooey, then, matches up to reality, now. (click, 'read more')

"It's the triumphant return of an endangered species. Introducing Everglades On The Bay". (Marketing brochure)

"The maker of Everglades on the Bay — a condo project whose darkened windows have become emblematic of the uninhabited, ghost structures of the building boom gone bust — has become the first of the downtown Miami condo developers to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection." ("Everglades on the Bay Developer Files for Bankruptcy, Miami Herald, August 21, 2009)

"In 2003, Cabi launched the Everglades condo, which has three swimming pools. Initially it was well-received and pre-sold 93 percent of of its units, according to the developer. But by the time it opened last year, buyers refused to pay prebust prices and canceled in droves, according to the project's bankruptcy filing." ("Family faces problems in US", Wall Street Journal, Sept. 2, 2009)

"Everglades On The Bay boasts sophisticated studios, lofts and one, two and three bedroom condominiums. Sweeping views of the city and Biscayne Bay." (Marketing brochure)

"Peter Zalewski, principal with Condo Vultures, ... said the bankruptcy at Everglades on the Bay would spark a flurry of offers from buyers interested in large portions of the Class A project, or the entire project itself. (Miami Herald)

"Playful. Vibrant. Simple, yet complex. These are just a few words to describe the celebrated works of pop artist Romero Britto. But they also capture the spirit of Miami. It was only natural that he would become a part of the renaissance of his new hometown, at Everglades On The Bay." (Marketing brochure)

"It's going to be a door buster — the fact that 9 percent of the project is closed makes it so appealing.'' (Miami Herald)

"The contrasting worlds of high finance and a thriving arts community meet for lunch al fresco. And every evening, breathtaking sunsets give way to a mixed media of stars and city lights. (Marketing brochure)

"The Cababie family, of Mexico's well known Grupo Gicsa development company, is potentially on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of personal guarantees ..." (Wall Street Journal)

"This is the New Miami, as seen from Everglades On The Bay. A truly contemporary work of art." (Marketing brochure)

Maybe the banks will take Britto's paintings as collateral, or, Miami mayor Manny Diaz' word that we are all better for the thousands of empty condo units zoned and permitted on his watch that will be sold for cents on the dollar, backstopped by US taxpayers, without a hint of regret or smidgeon of doubt, reflecting in their see-thru perversity the actual state of the Everglades. Not the bankrupt condo. That other busted place.