ATV's, The Everglades Jetport and Commissioner Pepe Diaz ... by gimleteye

Miami-Dade County and Collier County are apparently collaborating on an application to the state, to allow All Terrain Vehicles (ATV's) on a section of the Everglades where the former, proposed site of the Everglades Jetport is located. Here, County Commissioner Pepe Diaz is spear-heading the effort that is certain to create permitting obstacles, an aroused public, the diversion of government agencies, and litigation. It can only be that sowing discontent is exactly what Commissioner Diaz wants to achieve. Diaz found himself on the other side of an irritating controversy with opposing neighbors with respect to his mobile home lot in a Key Largo trailer park literally next door to lands owned by Everglades National Park (see Calusa Park Campground under our archive feature, under "Pepe Diaz"). Diaz, who has mastered professing to be all things environmental, seems vengeful. (please click, 'read more')

ATV supporters will be riled up by the impending conflict with government agencies, just the way that user groups were with the elevation of Tamiami Trail or land speculators with the 8.5 Square Mile Area. It's part of the mechanical dance of regulatory failure, that goes under the heading of partisan politics. The instigators -- who may or may not be enthusiasts of dirt bike or ATV riding-- know this perfectly well. In Miami-Dade, the design of regulatory failure has been elevated to a high art.

All concerned should watch, on Public Broadcasting Service television, the recent documentaries on the founding of Big Cypress National Preserve and Biscayne National Park (part of the Ken Burns' series, "The National Parks, America's Best Idea"). In the case of Big Cypress, in particular, the Everglades Jetport featured prominently in decisions all the way to the White House to elevate protections for this part of the Everglades. The months and years of controversies, dating back to the 1960's and 1970's, must not be forgotten in the rush to propose new controversies. Miami Dade County Commissioner Pepe Diaz knows better-- he does, after all, advertise his elevated appointments to Everglades review groups-- but within his district, there is no penalty for his behavior, cheered and egged on by powerful interests who have far more to gain by stirring popular passions against environmental protection.