I just looked at Gimleteye's posted video yesterday. Everyone: Go back and watch it!! It stinks. It is shitty. But you shouldn't miss it! This is still going on 3 miles off Virginia Key! Maybe all the brown water will float back to Fisher Island's beach...only then will something be done about it.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
FDOT: Spending more taxpayer money on dead trees ... by gimleteye
What can you say about a state agency that can't even follow its own rules? I'm sure there are reasons its tree planting around Miami-Dade County puts up one sickly tree after another. Maybe it just thinks no one is looking.
Let's Rock Mine Some More Farmland. By Geniusofdespair
I made this map so it is pretty accurate (Hit on it to enlarge it). In May our pals at Florida Power and Light are going before the Miami Dade County Commission for a CDMP amendment to change the zoning here, in the yellow square, from agriculture to rock mining. Oh, it's also outside the UDB line. I am sure it will be a slam dunk for FP&L with the unreformable majority all voting yes, go ahead. FP&L has to raise the grade to build the two new nuke reactors at Turkey Point and here is where they want to get some of the fill. A big problem is, if FP&L digs here they are probably going to get salt water intrusion, it is too close to the bay (you can see the Bay in the aerial map to the right of Biscayne National Park). Also, this is our watershed area...hello in there, is anyone thinking? You want to give us electricity but contaminate our drinking water?
May used to be an easy breezy month. Why can't they give us a break. I am told that the Miami Dade Planning Advisory Board will hear it April 27th at 9:30 a.m.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Time to stop abusing our national parks ... by gimleteye
Props to Surfrider Foundation for putting up this awesome video of the stopping of the Delray sewage outfall. Gross, huh? Good news: the Delray outfall went offline on April 1, no longer spewing 14 million gallons per day. Miami-Dade's sewage outfall, somewhere off Virginia Key, is still going at it, though, and I'm guessing it looks just like this. But that's only part of our waste stream. Most of it is dumped into an ocean of sludge somewhere underneath Mt. Trashmore at the edge of Biscayne National Park. People wonder why environmentalists are so alarmed at rock mining tens of millions of cubic yards from wetlands to provide fill for FPL's nuclear power ambition at Turkey Point. Isn't it time to stop abusing our national parks, and, threatening our water supply? Is it too much to ask to leave at least something of nature that works the way it did, before we devised 'protection'.
FDOT: Spending taxpayer money on dead trees ... by gimleteye
Maybe it is stimulus money. But it's hard to stimulate something that's dead. What is up with all the crap trees being paid for and planted at Miami International Airport and around the county?
Miami Herald redacts Associated Press article highlighting our blog ... by gimleteye
REDACT: to obscure or remove text from a document prior to publication or release.
On Sunday, the Herald reprinted the AP story on foreclosures in Homestead whose original version appeared in many newspapers around the nation and featured our blog. The lengthy national story by former Miami New Times and St. Pete Times journalist Tamara Lush featured the foreclosure crisis and included the view we expound here, on Eyeonmiami. The Herald version on the weekend, printed in the Neighbors section, redacted the AP segment of the story that featured Eyeonmiami and, specifically, my views of the crisis. (please click, 'read more')
Blog readers can venture their own opinion about the redaction, but Herald readers will not have a chance to even see it, unless they read Eyeonmiami. I will grant the editor this point: perhaps there were other stories of greater importance in the Miami Herald Neighbors Section that required some cutting of the AP story. Perhaps the editor believes my view is adequately represented in the Herald. Or, the editor could have wanted to telegraph his or her or their disagreement with views I've expressed for years, at length, that relentlessly cast Miami's development patterns and practices in a harsh light: the housing asset bubble had its origin in South Florida where the gears of Wall Street greed matched up with local politics and decision makers making terrible choices on zoning changes promoted by lobbyists and the "environmental" land use practices of big downtown law firms like Greenberg Traurig.
The Herald under-reported the tension and conflicts arising out of development in South Dade farmland, edging to the Everglades and Biscayne National Park over a very long period of time. Only Jim Morin, the Herald's acclaimed editorial cartoon artist, has dedicated the focus this subject deserves.
Yes, the Herald supported award-winning investigative stories related to the crisis, like "Borrowers Betrayed" and "House of Lies", but for the main part the paper's executives failed to judge the overdevelopment of South and West Dade of importance to its subscriber base and, in doing so, nudged the paper to irrelevance. Why? Because this story wraps up the biggest economic and political event since the Depression. Herald executives could have directed its journalists to chase it down, or as we have suggested, up the political food chain. (According to Herald reporters, in the latter stages of the housing boom, the Herald did initiate lengthy investigative pieces on the topics in South Dade, but decided not to print them.) For example, why did "Borrowers Betrayed" focus mainly on the wrongs done to poor and lower middle class homeowners and not the politics that created the upheaval in the first place? Politics that lead straight to the Governor's Office and Washington, DC. The Herald did not. Why? Out of what sense of balance? Out of what decisions regarding readers' interest? As a result, coverage of our environmental and economic crises brought about by overdevelopment, appearing for readers of regional state newspapers from the Naples Daily News to the Palm Beach Post, the Treasure Coast Palm, the Orlando Sentinel, and the St. Pete Times all surged ahead of the Miami Herald.
Reprinted below is the Herald version of the AP story and, after, the entire AP text in a side-by-side comparison, with the redacted paragraphs highlighted in the AP story so you can form your own opinion.
Posted on Sat, Apr. 04, 2009
Homestead, Florida City face high rate of foreclosures
BY TAMARA LUSH
Seventeen years after Hurricane Andrew leveled much of South Miami-Dade, a different kind of storm is devastating households here: Foreclosures.
In certain ZIP codes in places like Homestead and Florida City, about 25 percent of the homes are in a stage of the foreclosure process. Others were built by developers and sit vacant in ghostly subdivisions, with not a buyer in sight.
In the days after Andrew, then-Dade County Emergency Management Director Kate Hale said on national TV: ``Where the hell is the cavalry on this one?''
The same could be asked now, in this new disaster. People in South Miami-Dade -- like people in foreclosure-strewn cities across the nation -- are wondering: How did we get here?
And, what's next?
Here's what Jose Reina thought in 2006, when he bought the two-story, three-bedroom, 2 ½-bath home in a subdivision called The Oasis in Homestead: ``I should buy right now. The market in Florida has been going nothing but up.''
Here's what Reina thinks in 2009: ``I think I'd rather sell and go rent somewhere. For the amount that I pay here, I could rent a mansion somewhere.''
Reina, who is 31 and works as a police officer in another city, knows he can't simply sell. He paid $352,000 for his house, then spent months landscaping the front yard, laying sod and solar safety lights and little terra cotta vases for decoration near the walkway.
''See that house over there?'' he said recently, pointing to a gray house that is nearly identical to his. ``It was foreclosed on last month. The bank is trying to sell it for $147,000.''
He knows it will be years, maybe decades, until he can sell his home for what he paid for it. He's tried talking to his bank about adjusting the mortgage, but they said no.
Meanwhile, he's concerned about all the empty houses around him. Some renters moved in down the street, and he wonders if crime will follow.
''I also pay $130 a month in maintenance fees, and not even the front security gate works,'' he said.
Cathee Cotton once sold dreams. Now she's watching nightmares. Just in the past month, here's what the 30-year real-estate veteran has seen:
A family who was evicted from their rental house because their landlord was foreclosed on.
A home for a prospective buyer that was occupied by two families squatting inside -- with five children.
A propane tank and men's boots inside an empty home.
''Either it was a meth lab or someone was living without electricity,'' she said, eyes wide at the memory.
It's different from 2006. Cotton remembered standing in the driveways of $300,000 homes and watching as buyers signed purchase contracts on car hoods. She recalled bidding wars for modest ranch homes.
These days, those same homes are vacant and are the ones where everything -- including the kitchen cabinets and copper wiring -- have been stripped by thieves. And there's the places like the one on the corner of her own street, where the owners fled in the middle of the night.
They left behind a pack of dogs.
She thinks things will get worse in the coming months -- worse than when Andrew blew everything away. At least then, she said, help arrived from the rest of Florida and the nation.
''Where is the rescue going to come from now?'' she asked. ``Everyone is hurting just like we are.''
Since October, 2,257 properties have gone into foreclosure in Homestead.
Mayor Lynda Bell is quick to say that she saw the crisis brewing years ago when a parade of developers marched into the City Council's chambers, asking them to approve dozens of projects. Bell was elected in November, 2007, after serving as a council member. One of her missions: To pass a building moratorium on most residential development -- which was passed in December 2007.
''After Hurricane Andrew, we had 10 years of financial famine,'' Bell said. ``When we started to get food -- money -- we became gluttons. We didn't want to say no to anything that would impede the tax base. We had suffered so much.''
Bell said she opposed most of the multifamily townhome projects because she felt that lower-income families could never afford them. She did approve the single-family dwellings.
Eventually, she questioned how, in a city where the median income was around $27,000 in 2007, the median home price was more than $300,000.
The answer emerged.
''Speculators,'' she said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. ``Speculators drove up the housing market.''
Now many of those speculators are forced to rent their properties, which drives home values down even more. Many older properties that were bought and flipped two or three times are now rundown and boarded up.
Bell says she's hopeful for Homestead's future, which includes $3 million of federal money for the community of 57,000 people. The city will use the funds to buy and rehabilitate rental properties for low-income families, demolish damaged houses and provide down-payment help for single-family home buyers.
Dean Richardson steers a mud-covered golf cart through rows of tropical trees, pointing out how to tell an Alexander Palm from a Christmas Palm.
Richardson, who has farmed his 10-acre patch of land in South Miami-Dade for 27 years, was a beneficiary of the area's real-estate boom.
These days, he's a victim of the bust.
For years, Richardson sold his trees to landscapers and developers who planted those swaying slices of the tropics in shopping malls, office parks and the front yards of new homes across the country. But in mid-2008, Richardson noticed a slowdown in orders. Then business stopped altogether. Although many farmers had sold their land to developers and made a killing years earlier, it was too late for Richardson.
''It was like someone had turned the switch off,'' he said.
He laid off eight of his nine full-time employees and worried about the future.
In late August, a friend called. ''Have you thought about growing organic vegetables on your property?'' the friend asked.
''I am now,'' Richardson replied.
He decided to plant the unusual: Purple carrots, black radishes, funky beets. He's making enough to hang on.
Richardson still grows his palms -- he just got an order for 66 to be placed in a new office building -- but he knows the organic vegetables may be just the thing to ride out this downturn. He still hopes that South Florida will boom again.
''I think it will come back,'' he said. ``Let's face it. This is March, and we're in short sleeves. It's winter, and you're not going to have this in New York, ever.''
© 2009 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com
Disaster: Homestead, Fla., hit by foreclosures
By TAMARA LUSH – 13 hours ago
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Seventeen years after Hurricane Andrew leveled much of southern Miami-Dade County, a different kind of storm is devastating households here: foreclosures.
In certain ZIP codes in places like Homestead and Florida City, around 25 percent of the homes are in one stage of foreclosure or another. Countless others were built by developers and sit vacant in ghostly subdivisions, with not a buyer in sight.
In the days after Andrew, then-Dade County Emergency Management Director Kate Hale famously said on national TV: "Where the hell is the cavalry on this one?"
The same could be asked now, in this new disaster. People in south Miami-Dade — just like people in foreclosure-strewn cities across the nation — are wondering: How did we get here?
And, what's next?
___
UNDERWATER AND ANGRY
Here's what Jose Reina thought in 2006, when he bought the two-story, 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath home in a subdivision called The Oasis in Homestead: "I should buy right now. The market in Florida has been going nothing but up."
Here's what Reina thinks in 2009: "I think I'd rather sell and go rent somewhere. For the amount that I pay here, I could rent a mansion somewhere."
Reina, who is 31 and works as a police officer in another city, knows he can't simply sell. He paid $352,000 for his house, then spent months landscaping the front yard, laying sod and solar safety lights and little terra cotta vases for decoration near the walkway.
"See that house over there," he points to a gray house that is nearly identical to his. "It was foreclosed on last month. The bank is trying to sell it for $147,000."
He knows it will be years, maybe decades, until he can sell his home for what he paid for it. He's tried talking to his bank about adjusting the mortgage, but they said no.
Meanwhile, he's concerned about all the empty houses around him. Some renters moved in down the street and he wonders if crime will follow.
"I also pay $130 a month in maintenance fees, and not even the front security gate works."
___
"IT'S TERRIFYING"
Cathee Cotton once sold dreams. Now she's watching nightmares.
Just in the past month, here's what the 30-year real estate veteran has seen:
_ A family who was evicted from their rental house because their landlord was foreclosed on.
_ A home for a prospective buyer that was occupied by two families squatting inside — with five little children.
_ A propane tank and men's boots inside an empty home.
"Either it was a meth lab or someone was living without electricity," she says now, eyes wide at the memory.
It's different from 2006. Cotton remembers standing in the driveways of $300,000 homes and watching as buyers signed purchase contracts right on car hoods. She recalls bidding wars for modest ranch homes.
These days, those same homes are vacant and are the ones where everything — including the kitchen cabinets and copper wiring — have been stripped by vandals. And there's the places like the one on the corner of her own street, where the owners fled in the middle of the night.
They left behind a pack of dogs.
She thinks things will get worse in the coming months — worse than when Andrew blew everything away. At least then, she says, help arrived from the rest of Florida and the nation.
"Where is the rescue going to come from now?" she asks. "Everyone is hurting just like we are."
___
A FUTURE IN THE DIRT
Dean Richardson steers a mud-covered golf cart through rows of tropical trees, pointing out how to tell an Alexander Palm from a Christmas Palm. Richardson, who has farmed his 10-acre patch of land in south Miami-Dade County for 27 years, was a beneficiary of the area's real estate boom.
These days, he's a victim of the bust.
For years, Richardson sold his trees to landscapers and developers who planted those swaying slices of the tropics in shopping malls, office parks and the front yards of new homes across the country.
But in mid-2008, Richardson noticed a slowdown in orders. Then business stopped altogether. Although many farmers had sold their land to developers and made a killing years earlier, it was too late for Richardson.
"It was like someone had turned the switch off," he said. He laid off eight of his nine full-time employees and worried about the future. In late August, a friend called. "Have you thought about growing organic vegetables on your property?" the friend asked.
"I am now," Richardson replied.
He decided to plant the unusual: purple carrots, black radishes, funky beets. He's making enough to hang on.
Richardson still grows his palms — he just got an order for 66 to be placed in a new office building — but he knows the organic vegetables may be just the thing to ride out this downturn. He still hopes that South Florida will boom again.
"I think it will come back," he said. "Let's face it. This is March, and we're in short sleeves. It's winter, and you're not going to have this in New York, ever."
___
BLOGGING THE TRUTH
At 5:30 a.m. everyday, Alan Farago sits at his computer and tries to draw parallels between the housing crisis in Miami-Dade County and what's going on in Wall Street boardrooms and White House conference rooms.
Farago, who lives in Coral Gables — a suburb some 20 miles north of Homestead — co-writes a popular blog called Eye on Miami. Since 2006, he's rifled through public documents and detailed much of the mortgage fraud, banking shenanigans and corruption that preceded the area's economic meltdown.
"I ask myself: this is really depressing stuff. Who's going to want to read this?" he says. "Then I tell myself, someone has to lay out what has happened."
Farago moved to the Miami area from the Florida Keys just days before Andrew hit. He'd always been interested in the Everglades and Biscayne National Park — two national reserves that abut the southern part of the county — so during the rebuilding in the wake of Andrew, Farago went to planning meetings and spoke out against policies that encouraged suburban sprawl. He volunteered for a half-dozen responsible growth groups and was once involved with the state chapter of the Sierra Club, fighting to save the delicate Everglades wetlands.
His advice was ignored and thousands of acres were developed. For years, Miami-Dade County's entire economy was dependent on growth — growth that was dependent on a never-ending supply of sunshine, easy credit and new residents.
Now, Farago says, the entire country is paying the price.
"The whole of Miami's establishment prospered by the easy conversion of cheap land into suburban sprawl," he says. "It's the development pattern of South Florida that brought down the economy."
Farago places the blame of the housing crisis not only on banks, but on developers, lobbyists and — most of all — local officials who approved the projects in the first place.
"Florida's a place where the gears of the development machine were all perfected."
___
MAYOR: I TOLD YOU SO
Since October, 2,257 properties have gone into foreclosure in the city of Homestead.
Mayor Lynda Bell is quick to say that she saw the crisis brewing years ago when a parade of developers marched into the City Council's chambers, asking them to approve dozens of projects.
"After Hurricane Andrew, we had 10 years of financial famine," says Bell. "When we started to get food — money — we became gluttons. We didn't want to say no to anything that would impede the tax base. We had suffered so much."
Bell says she opposed most of the multifamily town home projects because she felt that lower-income families could never afford them. She did approve the single-family dwellings. Eventually, she questioned how, in a city where the median income was around $27,000 in 2007, the median home price was over $300,000.
The answer emerged. "Speculators," she says, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "Speculators drove up the housing market."
Now many of those speculators are forced to rent their properties, which drives home values down even more. Many older properties that were bought and flipped two or three times are now run down and boarded up.
Bell says she's hopeful for Homestead's future, which includes $3 million of federal stimulus money for the community of 57,000 people. The city will use the funds to buy and rehabilitate rental properties for low-income families, demolish damaged houses and provide down-payment help for single-family home buyers.
The mayor says one other thing was recently approved by city officials, in hopes of reversing the damage done by the housing boom: a building moratorium on all new construction.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
On Sunday, the Herald reprinted the AP story on foreclosures in Homestead whose original version appeared in many newspapers around the nation and featured our blog. The lengthy national story by former Miami New Times and St. Pete Times journalist Tamara Lush featured the foreclosure crisis and included the view we expound here, on Eyeonmiami. The Herald version on the weekend, printed in the Neighbors section, redacted the AP segment of the story that featured Eyeonmiami and, specifically, my views of the crisis. (please click, 'read more')
Blog readers can venture their own opinion about the redaction, but Herald readers will not have a chance to even see it, unless they read Eyeonmiami. I will grant the editor this point: perhaps there were other stories of greater importance in the Miami Herald Neighbors Section that required some cutting of the AP story. Perhaps the editor believes my view is adequately represented in the Herald. Or, the editor could have wanted to telegraph his or her or their disagreement with views I've expressed for years, at length, that relentlessly cast Miami's development patterns and practices in a harsh light: the housing asset bubble had its origin in South Florida where the gears of Wall Street greed matched up with local politics and decision makers making terrible choices on zoning changes promoted by lobbyists and the "environmental" land use practices of big downtown law firms like Greenberg Traurig.
The Herald under-reported the tension and conflicts arising out of development in South Dade farmland, edging to the Everglades and Biscayne National Park over a very long period of time. Only Jim Morin, the Herald's acclaimed editorial cartoon artist, has dedicated the focus this subject deserves.
Yes, the Herald supported award-winning investigative stories related to the crisis, like "Borrowers Betrayed" and "House of Lies", but for the main part the paper's executives failed to judge the overdevelopment of South and West Dade of importance to its subscriber base and, in doing so, nudged the paper to irrelevance. Why? Because this story wraps up the biggest economic and political event since the Depression. Herald executives could have directed its journalists to chase it down, or as we have suggested, up the political food chain. (According to Herald reporters, in the latter stages of the housing boom, the Herald did initiate lengthy investigative pieces on the topics in South Dade, but decided not to print them.) For example, why did "Borrowers Betrayed" focus mainly on the wrongs done to poor and lower middle class homeowners and not the politics that created the upheaval in the first place? Politics that lead straight to the Governor's Office and Washington, DC. The Herald did not. Why? Out of what sense of balance? Out of what decisions regarding readers' interest? As a result, coverage of our environmental and economic crises brought about by overdevelopment, appearing for readers of regional state newspapers from the Naples Daily News to the Palm Beach Post, the Treasure Coast Palm, the Orlando Sentinel, and the St. Pete Times all surged ahead of the Miami Herald.
Reprinted below is the Herald version of the AP story and, after, the entire AP text in a side-by-side comparison, with the redacted paragraphs highlighted in the AP story so you can form your own opinion.
Posted on Sat, Apr. 04, 2009
Homestead, Florida City face high rate of foreclosures
BY TAMARA LUSH
Seventeen years after Hurricane Andrew leveled much of South Miami-Dade, a different kind of storm is devastating households here: Foreclosures.
In certain ZIP codes in places like Homestead and Florida City, about 25 percent of the homes are in a stage of the foreclosure process. Others were built by developers and sit vacant in ghostly subdivisions, with not a buyer in sight.
In the days after Andrew, then-Dade County Emergency Management Director Kate Hale said on national TV: ``Where the hell is the cavalry on this one?''
The same could be asked now, in this new disaster. People in South Miami-Dade -- like people in foreclosure-strewn cities across the nation -- are wondering: How did we get here?
And, what's next?
Here's what Jose Reina thought in 2006, when he bought the two-story, three-bedroom, 2 ½-bath home in a subdivision called The Oasis in Homestead: ``I should buy right now. The market in Florida has been going nothing but up.''
Here's what Reina thinks in 2009: ``I think I'd rather sell and go rent somewhere. For the amount that I pay here, I could rent a mansion somewhere.''
Reina, who is 31 and works as a police officer in another city, knows he can't simply sell. He paid $352,000 for his house, then spent months landscaping the front yard, laying sod and solar safety lights and little terra cotta vases for decoration near the walkway.
''See that house over there?'' he said recently, pointing to a gray house that is nearly identical to his. ``It was foreclosed on last month. The bank is trying to sell it for $147,000.''
He knows it will be years, maybe decades, until he can sell his home for what he paid for it. He's tried talking to his bank about adjusting the mortgage, but they said no.
Meanwhile, he's concerned about all the empty houses around him. Some renters moved in down the street, and he wonders if crime will follow.
''I also pay $130 a month in maintenance fees, and not even the front security gate works,'' he said.
Cathee Cotton once sold dreams. Now she's watching nightmares. Just in the past month, here's what the 30-year real-estate veteran has seen:
A family who was evicted from their rental house because their landlord was foreclosed on.
A home for a prospective buyer that was occupied by two families squatting inside -- with five children.
A propane tank and men's boots inside an empty home.
''Either it was a meth lab or someone was living without electricity,'' she said, eyes wide at the memory.
It's different from 2006. Cotton remembered standing in the driveways of $300,000 homes and watching as buyers signed purchase contracts on car hoods. She recalled bidding wars for modest ranch homes.
These days, those same homes are vacant and are the ones where everything -- including the kitchen cabinets and copper wiring -- have been stripped by thieves. And there's the places like the one on the corner of her own street, where the owners fled in the middle of the night.
They left behind a pack of dogs.
She thinks things will get worse in the coming months -- worse than when Andrew blew everything away. At least then, she said, help arrived from the rest of Florida and the nation.
''Where is the rescue going to come from now?'' she asked. ``Everyone is hurting just like we are.''
Since October, 2,257 properties have gone into foreclosure in Homestead.
Mayor Lynda Bell is quick to say that she saw the crisis brewing years ago when a parade of developers marched into the City Council's chambers, asking them to approve dozens of projects. Bell was elected in November, 2007, after serving as a council member. One of her missions: To pass a building moratorium on most residential development -- which was passed in December 2007.
''After Hurricane Andrew, we had 10 years of financial famine,'' Bell said. ``When we started to get food -- money -- we became gluttons. We didn't want to say no to anything that would impede the tax base. We had suffered so much.''
Bell said she opposed most of the multifamily townhome projects because she felt that lower-income families could never afford them. She did approve the single-family dwellings.
Eventually, she questioned how, in a city where the median income was around $27,000 in 2007, the median home price was more than $300,000.
The answer emerged.
''Speculators,'' she said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. ``Speculators drove up the housing market.''
Now many of those speculators are forced to rent their properties, which drives home values down even more. Many older properties that were bought and flipped two or three times are now rundown and boarded up.
Bell says she's hopeful for Homestead's future, which includes $3 million of federal money for the community of 57,000 people. The city will use the funds to buy and rehabilitate rental properties for low-income families, demolish damaged houses and provide down-payment help for single-family home buyers.
Dean Richardson steers a mud-covered golf cart through rows of tropical trees, pointing out how to tell an Alexander Palm from a Christmas Palm.
Richardson, who has farmed his 10-acre patch of land in South Miami-Dade for 27 years, was a beneficiary of the area's real-estate boom.
These days, he's a victim of the bust.
For years, Richardson sold his trees to landscapers and developers who planted those swaying slices of the tropics in shopping malls, office parks and the front yards of new homes across the country. But in mid-2008, Richardson noticed a slowdown in orders. Then business stopped altogether. Although many farmers had sold their land to developers and made a killing years earlier, it was too late for Richardson.
''It was like someone had turned the switch off,'' he said.
He laid off eight of his nine full-time employees and worried about the future.
In late August, a friend called. ''Have you thought about growing organic vegetables on your property?'' the friend asked.
''I am now,'' Richardson replied.
He decided to plant the unusual: Purple carrots, black radishes, funky beets. He's making enough to hang on.
Richardson still grows his palms -- he just got an order for 66 to be placed in a new office building -- but he knows the organic vegetables may be just the thing to ride out this downturn. He still hopes that South Florida will boom again.
''I think it will come back,'' he said. ``Let's face it. This is March, and we're in short sleeves. It's winter, and you're not going to have this in New York, ever.''
© 2009 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com
Disaster: Homestead, Fla., hit by foreclosures
By TAMARA LUSH – 13 hours ago
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — Seventeen years after Hurricane Andrew leveled much of southern Miami-Dade County, a different kind of storm is devastating households here: foreclosures.
In certain ZIP codes in places like Homestead and Florida City, around 25 percent of the homes are in one stage of foreclosure or another. Countless others were built by developers and sit vacant in ghostly subdivisions, with not a buyer in sight.
In the days after Andrew, then-Dade County Emergency Management Director Kate Hale famously said on national TV: "Where the hell is the cavalry on this one?"
The same could be asked now, in this new disaster. People in south Miami-Dade — just like people in foreclosure-strewn cities across the nation — are wondering: How did we get here?
And, what's next?
___
UNDERWATER AND ANGRY
Here's what Jose Reina thought in 2006, when he bought the two-story, 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath home in a subdivision called The Oasis in Homestead: "I should buy right now. The market in Florida has been going nothing but up."
Here's what Reina thinks in 2009: "I think I'd rather sell and go rent somewhere. For the amount that I pay here, I could rent a mansion somewhere."
Reina, who is 31 and works as a police officer in another city, knows he can't simply sell. He paid $352,000 for his house, then spent months landscaping the front yard, laying sod and solar safety lights and little terra cotta vases for decoration near the walkway.
"See that house over there," he points to a gray house that is nearly identical to his. "It was foreclosed on last month. The bank is trying to sell it for $147,000."
He knows it will be years, maybe decades, until he can sell his home for what he paid for it. He's tried talking to his bank about adjusting the mortgage, but they said no.
Meanwhile, he's concerned about all the empty houses around him. Some renters moved in down the street and he wonders if crime will follow.
"I also pay $130 a month in maintenance fees, and not even the front security gate works."
___
"IT'S TERRIFYING"
Cathee Cotton once sold dreams. Now she's watching nightmares.
Just in the past month, here's what the 30-year real estate veteran has seen:
_ A family who was evicted from their rental house because their landlord was foreclosed on.
_ A home for a prospective buyer that was occupied by two families squatting inside — with five little children.
_ A propane tank and men's boots inside an empty home.
"Either it was a meth lab or someone was living without electricity," she says now, eyes wide at the memory.
It's different from 2006. Cotton remembers standing in the driveways of $300,000 homes and watching as buyers signed purchase contracts right on car hoods. She recalls bidding wars for modest ranch homes.
These days, those same homes are vacant and are the ones where everything — including the kitchen cabinets and copper wiring — have been stripped by vandals. And there's the places like the one on the corner of her own street, where the owners fled in the middle of the night.
They left behind a pack of dogs.
She thinks things will get worse in the coming months — worse than when Andrew blew everything away. At least then, she says, help arrived from the rest of Florida and the nation.
"Where is the rescue going to come from now?" she asks. "Everyone is hurting just like we are."
___
A FUTURE IN THE DIRT
Dean Richardson steers a mud-covered golf cart through rows of tropical trees, pointing out how to tell an Alexander Palm from a Christmas Palm. Richardson, who has farmed his 10-acre patch of land in south Miami-Dade County for 27 years, was a beneficiary of the area's real estate boom.
These days, he's a victim of the bust.
For years, Richardson sold his trees to landscapers and developers who planted those swaying slices of the tropics in shopping malls, office parks and the front yards of new homes across the country.
But in mid-2008, Richardson noticed a slowdown in orders. Then business stopped altogether. Although many farmers had sold their land to developers and made a killing years earlier, it was too late for Richardson.
"It was like someone had turned the switch off," he said. He laid off eight of his nine full-time employees and worried about the future. In late August, a friend called. "Have you thought about growing organic vegetables on your property?" the friend asked.
"I am now," Richardson replied.
He decided to plant the unusual: purple carrots, black radishes, funky beets. He's making enough to hang on.
Richardson still grows his palms — he just got an order for 66 to be placed in a new office building — but he knows the organic vegetables may be just the thing to ride out this downturn. He still hopes that South Florida will boom again.
"I think it will come back," he said. "Let's face it. This is March, and we're in short sleeves. It's winter, and you're not going to have this in New York, ever."
___
BLOGGING THE TRUTH
At 5:30 a.m. everyday, Alan Farago sits at his computer and tries to draw parallels between the housing crisis in Miami-Dade County and what's going on in Wall Street boardrooms and White House conference rooms.
Farago, who lives in Coral Gables — a suburb some 20 miles north of Homestead — co-writes a popular blog called Eye on Miami. Since 2006, he's rifled through public documents and detailed much of the mortgage fraud, banking shenanigans and corruption that preceded the area's economic meltdown.
"I ask myself: this is really depressing stuff. Who's going to want to read this?" he says. "Then I tell myself, someone has to lay out what has happened."
Farago moved to the Miami area from the Florida Keys just days before Andrew hit. He'd always been interested in the Everglades and Biscayne National Park — two national reserves that abut the southern part of the county — so during the rebuilding in the wake of Andrew, Farago went to planning meetings and spoke out against policies that encouraged suburban sprawl. He volunteered for a half-dozen responsible growth groups and was once involved with the state chapter of the Sierra Club, fighting to save the delicate Everglades wetlands.
His advice was ignored and thousands of acres were developed. For years, Miami-Dade County's entire economy was dependent on growth — growth that was dependent on a never-ending supply of sunshine, easy credit and new residents.
Now, Farago says, the entire country is paying the price.
"The whole of Miami's establishment prospered by the easy conversion of cheap land into suburban sprawl," he says. "It's the development pattern of South Florida that brought down the economy."
Farago places the blame of the housing crisis not only on banks, but on developers, lobbyists and — most of all — local officials who approved the projects in the first place.
"Florida's a place where the gears of the development machine were all perfected."
___
MAYOR: I TOLD YOU SO
Since October, 2,257 properties have gone into foreclosure in the city of Homestead.
Mayor Lynda Bell is quick to say that she saw the crisis brewing years ago when a parade of developers marched into the City Council's chambers, asking them to approve dozens of projects.
"After Hurricane Andrew, we had 10 years of financial famine," says Bell. "When we started to get food — money — we became gluttons. We didn't want to say no to anything that would impede the tax base. We had suffered so much."
Bell says she opposed most of the multifamily town home projects because she felt that lower-income families could never afford them. She did approve the single-family dwellings. Eventually, she questioned how, in a city where the median income was around $27,000 in 2007, the median home price was over $300,000.
The answer emerged. "Speculators," she says, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. "Speculators drove up the housing market."
Now many of those speculators are forced to rent their properties, which drives home values down even more. Many older properties that were bought and flipped two or three times are now run down and boarded up.
Bell says she's hopeful for Homestead's future, which includes $3 million of federal stimulus money for the community of 57,000 people. The city will use the funds to buy and rehabilitate rental properties for low-income families, demolish damaged houses and provide down-payment help for single-family home buyers.
The mayor says one other thing was recently approved by city officials, in hopes of reversing the damage done by the housing boom: a building moratorium on all new construction.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Doral Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez on Youtube by Geniusofdespair
I watched two of the videos, Doral Mayor loses control (at counter 1:22) and City of Doral Mayor insults Police Chief (at counter .38) that were mentioned in in the Miami Herald Business Section this morning. Yes, Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez was rude but these are NOTHING in comparison to County Commissioner Vile Natacha Seijas’ dressing down of the public and staff. I have seen much worse at the City of Miami as well. This is non news, the video's were hardly worth watching. For real rude hit on the link at right "Defede: Natacha Seijas is downright mean". However, the second video of Bermudez has a funny swipe at the “Hialeah Boys.”
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Plenty of News on Coral Gables Election Today in the Miami Herald. By Geniusofdespair
The white hot race in Coral Gables between incumbent Maria Anderson and Gonzalo Sanabria was reported on in: The Metro Section and a Neighbor's Article and, finally Letters to the Editor. In the second link, on page 2 it says:
"But Anderson's supporters paint Sanabria as a developer with special interests at heart and have sent mailer ads that say he has voted several times to move the Urban Development Boundary line.
So what, asks Sanabria...adding that Gables founder George Merrick was a founding member of the planning board. "He was a developer and his main thing was to expand roads, to expand development," Sanabria said.
George Merrick died in 1942. Everyone smoked cigarette's and routinely sprayed DDT in their homes in the 40's. You would be better served studying Ruben Askew (one of my best posts) who served as Florida's Governor between 1971-1979. That is when the need for growth management in Florida was acknowledged and the concept of a master plan started to take shape. We got smarter as time went by...well most of us.
You just don't get it Gonzalo Sanabria, and you never will.
"But Anderson's supporters paint Sanabria as a developer with special interests at heart and have sent mailer ads that say he has voted several times to move the Urban Development Boundary line.
So what, asks Sanabria...adding that Gables founder George Merrick was a founding member of the planning board. "He was a developer and his main thing was to expand roads, to expand development," Sanabria said.
George Merrick died in 1942. Everyone smoked cigarette's and routinely sprayed DDT in their homes in the 40's. You would be better served studying Ruben Askew (one of my best posts) who served as Florida's Governor between 1971-1979. That is when the need for growth management in Florida was acknowledged and the concept of a master plan started to take shape. We got smarter as time went by...well most of us.
You just don't get it Gonzalo Sanabria, and you never will.
Genius Wants to Know.... By Geniusofdespair
Be honest, did you watch my Opera video post yesterday? Did you read my Jazz Fusion post last week? Is my quest to expand my musical horizons a bore? Hmmm. Do I care? I suppose not but feel free to give me your opinion...but here is the catch: Only after you've watched the opera video. Then and only then can you say: "Please, no more."
Homestead/Florida City Foreclosures and Eyeonmiami. By Geniusofdespair
I think this is the first time Eye on Miami was mentioned in the Miami Herald! We have been writing since 2006. Miami Herald, are you pretending we don't exist? Note, it isn't even a Miami Herald story, it is AP.
HEY, WAIT A MINUTE, I JUST LOOKED AGAIN, THE HERALD CUT US OUT OF THEIR VERSION OF THE ORIGINAL AP STORY!!! HERALD: WHERE IS "...A POPULAR BLOG, EYE ON MIAMI." Here is what the Herald cut about our blog and Gimleteye (They actually crucified the article):
BLOGGING THE TRUTH
At 5:30 a.m. everyday, Alan Farago sits at his computer and tries to draw parallels between the housing crisis in Miami-Dade County and what's going on in Wall Street boardrooms and White House conference rooms.
Farago, who lives in Coral Gables — a suburb some 20 miles north of Homestead — co-writes a popular blog called Eye on Miami. Since 2006, he's rifled through public documents and detailed much of the mortgage fraud, banking shenanigans and corruption that preceded the area's economic meltdown.
"I ask myself: this is really depressing stuff. Who's going to want to read this?" he says. "Then I tell myself, someone has to lay out what has happened."
Farago moved to the Miami area from the Florida Keys just days before Andrew hit. He'd always been interested in the Everglades and Biscayne National Park — two national reserves that abut the southern part of the county — so during the rebuilding in the wake of Andrew, Farago went to planning meetings and spoke out against policies that encouraged suburban sprawl. He volunteered for a half-dozen responsible growth groups and was once involved with the state chapter of the Sierra Club, fighting to save the delicate Everglades wetlands.
His advice was ignored and thousands of acres were developed. For years, Miami-Dade County's entire economy was dependent on growth — growth that was dependent on a never-ending supply of sunshine, easy credit and new residents.
Now, Farago says, the entire country is paying the price.
"The whole of Miami's establishment prospered by the easy conversion of cheap land into suburban sprawl," he says. "It's the development pattern of South Florida that brought down the economy."
Farago places the blame of the housing crisis not only on banks, but on developers, lobbyists and — most of all — local officials who approved the projects in the first place.
"Florida's a place where the gears of the development machine were all perfected."
Link to the Entire Article
HEY, WAIT A MINUTE, I JUST LOOKED AGAIN, THE HERALD CUT US OUT OF THEIR VERSION OF THE ORIGINAL AP STORY!!! HERALD: WHERE IS "...A POPULAR BLOG, EYE ON MIAMI." Here is what the Herald cut about our blog and Gimleteye (They actually crucified the article):
BLOGGING THE TRUTH
At 5:30 a.m. everyday, Alan Farago sits at his computer and tries to draw parallels between the housing crisis in Miami-Dade County and what's going on in Wall Street boardrooms and White House conference rooms.
Farago, who lives in Coral Gables — a suburb some 20 miles north of Homestead — co-writes a popular blog called Eye on Miami. Since 2006, he's rifled through public documents and detailed much of the mortgage fraud, banking shenanigans and corruption that preceded the area's economic meltdown.
"I ask myself: this is really depressing stuff. Who's going to want to read this?" he says. "Then I tell myself, someone has to lay out what has happened."
Farago moved to the Miami area from the Florida Keys just days before Andrew hit. He'd always been interested in the Everglades and Biscayne National Park — two national reserves that abut the southern part of the county — so during the rebuilding in the wake of Andrew, Farago went to planning meetings and spoke out against policies that encouraged suburban sprawl. He volunteered for a half-dozen responsible growth groups and was once involved with the state chapter of the Sierra Club, fighting to save the delicate Everglades wetlands.
His advice was ignored and thousands of acres were developed. For years, Miami-Dade County's entire economy was dependent on growth — growth that was dependent on a never-ending supply of sunshine, easy credit and new residents.
Now, Farago says, the entire country is paying the price.
"The whole of Miami's establishment prospered by the easy conversion of cheap land into suburban sprawl," he says. "It's the development pattern of South Florida that brought down the economy."
Farago places the blame of the housing crisis not only on banks, but on developers, lobbyists and — most of all — local officials who approved the projects in the first place.
"Florida's a place where the gears of the development machine were all perfected."
Link to the Entire Article
Skype on your mobile phone, for a change ... by gimleteye
There is no love in my heart for AT&T international long distance. Or any other telco for that matter who charges $2-$4 a minute for overseas calls that Skype allows you to do for free. When I first tried Skype a few years ago, the quality was very disappointing. But the company solved the problems I'm delighted to report. Skype had over a million iPhone application downloads in its first two days. Of course, the traditional carriers are mobilizing to edge out the VoIP players like Skype. As far as I am concerned, it serves AT&T right for gouging its customers over many years. Now consumers have a work around.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Miami Herald Says "NO" to Gonzalo Sanabria and Endorses Maria Anderson. by Geniusofdespair
The Miami Herald endorsed Maria Anderson for Coral Gables Commissioner and says the choice is clear. They call her a "Policy Wonk." They didn't seem very happy with Gonzalo Sanabria:
"One of Mr. Sanabria's accusations against Ms. Anderson is that she is pro development. That's unfair to Ms. Anderson, considering Mr. Sanabria's record. When he served on Miami-Dade's Planning and Zoning Board, Mr. Sanabria, a former chairman of the Latin Builders Association, consistently voted in favor of moving the county's Urban Development Boundary to allow more development." And:
"This race is turning ugly, with Mr. Sanabria sending out fliers that mischaracterize Ms. Anderson's record and hint at improprieties, using innuendo that is skimpy on facts."
"One of Mr. Sanabria's accusations against Ms. Anderson is that she is pro development. That's unfair to Ms. Anderson, considering Mr. Sanabria's record. When he served on Miami-Dade's Planning and Zoning Board, Mr. Sanabria, a former chairman of the Latin Builders Association, consistently voted in favor of moving the county's Urban Development Boundary to allow more development." And:
"This race is turning ugly, with Mr. Sanabria sending out fliers that mischaracterize Ms. Anderson's record and hint at improprieties, using innuendo that is skimpy on facts."
What is Crime Stoppers? Guestblog By Crimestoppersupporter
Crime Stoppers of Miami-Dade County was created in September 1981 in response to rising crime rates. This should not be confused with Neighborhood Crime Watch.Crime Stoppers of Miami-Dade is a community-based program that involves the public, the media and law enforcement in the fight against crime. It offers anonymity and cash rewards to people who provide information leading to the arrest and filing of criminal charges against offenders, and the capture of fugitives. Anonymity overcomes fear of involvement.
However, in some of the more recent crimes reported in the media, people are afraid to come forward to report tips, even anonymously. So, reward money sits waiting to be claimed and the crime goes unsolved, while the people who know what happened are silent. How does Crime Stoppers work?
When media partners via television, radio, internet or print present a news report or re-enactment of a crime they will often include the Crime Stopper tips line number (305 471-TIPS). it is the number commonly printed in the newspaper at the end of crime stories, flashed across news telecasts or recited with regularity on the radio news broadcasts.
If an individual recognizes the person involved or knows about the crime, they can contact the Crime Stoppers detectives through the TIPS line.
Recently, Crime Stoppers has launched a special text messaging system to allow a tipster to anonymously text information and receive a tip number. This program was launched at the University of Miami with the help of a Peacock Foundation Grant. The City of Coral Gables now provides the text messaging information on their community trolleys and tips can be send via computer on the Crime Stopper website.
Upon receiving a tip, detectives then process the information given and assign a confidential tip number to the “tipster”. Law enforcement agencies then receive the information callers provide. This information is taken anonymously for the safety of the tipster.
If the tip is called in, detectives answering the phone NEVER ask for a name and will stop the caller if they start to give it. In fact, the Crime Stopper Office phones do not have caller identity capacity; the lines are not traced nor are the calls ever recorded.
Actually, once a tipster is assigned the tip number they are the ones responsible to keep it recorded and in a secure place. They must have the tip number available to give to the detective answering the phone because that is the only way Crime Stoppers can identify the tipster and the case.
Once a tipster is given a confidential tip number, they use it to check on the status of their information. If their information results in an arrest or filing of criminal charges, or if a criminal is apprehended, arrangements are made for them to receive their reward in cash while preserving their anonymity. At no time in the process is a caller’s name or identity required, just the assigned tip number and a password for the bank giving them the money. They never meet with the police department or anyone associated with the Crime Stopper organization.
The Crime Stoppers Board of Directors is comprised of concerned citizens of the greater Miami-Dade area who oversee the operation of the program. Crime Stoppers is a non-profit organization under section 501 (C) 3 of the IRS code, and is funded through donations from the public and through a state trust fund. Depending on the circumstances of each case, the Board and Crime Stopper detectives determine the tip value, which may be $50 to $1000. The Board, like the police department, never knows who called the tip in.
It should be noted that in cases where the reward exceeds the Crime Stopper $1000 limit, there will be in most situations other people putting the additional money up for the reward. Occasionally, family members, corporations or even county commissioners will contribute to the extra reward in order to help solve the crime. The reward amount that falls beyond Crime Stopper contribution is not always rewarded through the Crime Stopper program. Crime Stopper tips must come in through the TIPS line to be eligible for the Crime Stopper’s reward.
By the way, the crimes reported, can be as simple as tips about illegal dumping, pit bulls, vandalism, stolen utilities, car theft --- all the way to illegal weapons, drugs, prostitution, fugitive warrants, murder. Any Crime, Any Time.
All emergency and crime-in-progress calls ABSOLUTELY must go to 911 before reporting to Crime Stoppers!
www.crimestoppersmiami.com
Eye On Miami has Class: Opera! By Geniusofdespair
Let me warn you, the first sixty nine seconds is sort of, well not what I like in opera, but the rest is actually very good (especially between 3:40 and 4:40). I listened to many versions, some sounded better but this one was the most unusual rendition of Delibes' Lakme Flower Duet. I like "different." I thought at least one of you out there would like it too.
Friday, April 03, 2009
Green: The Color of SAVING Money. Guestblog by Youbetcha’
What if there was a way to build a house that would eliminate the need for building any more power plants?What if that house cost no more than a standard spec home that we are always building by the thousands here in South Florida, but could generate a low two digit electric bill?
What if that house existed, and FPL knew about it and actually liked the idea? I bet you are thinking that this is just blog hype. Well, it is not hype, and it is for real!
Homeowner Albert Harum-Alvarez was stunned by Florida Power and Light’s reaction to his home building skills:
“When we built the Green House in Kendall, we weren't expecting so much love from FPL. Why did they like a house that was all about lowering the FPL bill? Florida Power and Light’s answer, “You don't understand. If everyone built like this, we'd never need another power plant."
The Green House is very real. The public is invited to join in an insider’s look at the past and future of sustainable building. This coming Saturday, April 4th there will be an introduction to the topic at Kendall’s Historic Dice Home followed by a tour of the Harum-Alvarez home. There will also be a panel discussion hosted by Dr. Greg Bush, Associate UM History Professor and Director of UM Institute for Public Policy. The panel will feature County District 8 Commissioner Katy Sorenson, Thorn Grafton, AIA, Zyscovich Architects and homeowner Albert Harum-Alvarez.
This is a great opportunity to visit a home which houses five people that actually has a light bill of $54! Without a doubt, most of us will leave the tour wondering why on earth Florida Power and Light would sink mega dollars into nuclear power plants, when that money could be successfully spent on Green Development that would be safer and of greater benefit to their stockholders.
Attend Saturday’s free event, and then attend the upcoming public hearings on Florida Power and Lights plans for Miami-Dade’s future. Harum-Alvarez states that the question to ask at that hearing should be, “What if FPL took all the money those nuclear plants would take to build and put it into greening projects like ours? Would the amount of energy saved be greater than the energy output from the additional nuclear plants?”
Sustainable Homes from the Past to the Future
Saturday, April 4, 2:00 - 6:00 P.M.
Dice House at Continental Park
10000 SW 82nd Avenue (US 1 to 104 Street, go west, make a right on SW 82nd Ave.)
Kendall.
PS: Any High School student attending the event and will write a one page paper on the experience can get community service hours. The best page will be published in the Urban Environmental League newspaper!
Jeff Burnside of NBC 6 Has an Update on North Miami City Clerk, Frank Wolland. By Geniusofdespair
Jeff Burnside Investigative Reporter for NBC 6 said:
"Readers of this blog will be interested to know that NBC 6 is scheduled to broadcast a significant update tonight on the North Miami City Clerk (also running for North Miami Mayor) story at 7pm."
By the way, Jeff Burnside was picked Best TV Reporter in 2008 by Miami New Times.
See our Jan. 30th post on Frank's ethics issue. I do like Frank Wolland and hope this news report is positive for his sake.
"Readers of this blog will be interested to know that NBC 6 is scheduled to broadcast a significant update tonight on the North Miami City Clerk (also running for North Miami Mayor) story at 7pm."
By the way, Jeff Burnside was picked Best TV Reporter in 2008 by Miami New Times.
See our Jan. 30th post on Frank's ethics issue. I do like Frank Wolland and hope this news report is positive for his sake.
GM Board of Directors Must Go ... by gimleteye
Here is the GM Board of Directors. They should all tender resignations just like Erskine Bowles. GM needs the best and the brightest on a new board independent from cozy relationships with executive management that drove the company into the ground. The Obama administration should clarify this point; that the entire board management of public corporations, when they are bailed out with federal taxpayer funds, must be held to account. They failed. We are paying. They must go.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
Gonzolo Sanabria: the inconvenient truth ... by gimleteye
Gonzolo Sanabria is a candidate for Coral Gables City Commission in the upcoming April municipal election. There are many, many reasons for voters to vote against him.
Firstly, Sanabria was a loyalist in the battle to pump up the housing bubble in Miami-Dade County. He served as a former chairman and director of the Latin Builders Association, a director of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, an appointee on the Miami Dade transportation agency, MDX, and for many years on the Miami-Dade Planning Advisory Board. In view of the costs of the economic crisis this status quo led us into, why would anyone vote for him? (please click, 'read more')
Although there were legions of insiders, like Sanabria, whose aggregate influence pushed common sense off the page during the housing boom; his role as a real estate speculator and developer promoting development on an important county board is a record that voters must understand: this is not a case where Sanabria can disavow claims to have had no role, or only a small one, or only as a by-stander to the economic disaster unfolding through unsustainable development.
The Planning Advisory Board for the county, where Sanabria was not only a reliable pro-growth vote but often a loud and insistent leader, is a crucial step on the way to county commission votes on development applications. As such, the Planning Advisory Board imposed massive risk on Miami-Dade citizens and taxpayers. There are any number of ways to describe that risk: risk to wetlands, risk to drinking water aquifers, risk to surrounding communities whose traffic patterns are immediately impacted by new developments, risks to the base cost of infrastructure that impose huge new burdens on taxpayers, and last but certainly not lease: the risk that overdevelopment would overwhelm demand.
This outcome does have a name and address: during the boom every construction and development interest in Miami-Dade was given a free pass to drive in the fast lane, or-- in a manner of speaking-- to blow through manatee protection zones.
When so many citizens attempted to express and convince decision-makers otherwise-- insiders like Gonzolo Sanabria had the final word. They believe, now, that they can say whatever they want to-- or ignore the inconvenient truth--, in part because there is a reasonable chance no one remembers or cares to look back at history.
In recently mailed campaign literature, Sanabria claims that he will "run (Coral Gables) as a business". But as the chairman of the Planning Advisory Board, he --repeatedly and often--failed to use sound fiscal prudence to decide whether or not to halt the reckless oversupply of housing and commercial real estate supply. The crowd in which he traveled included other builders, developers and speculators who believed, like former chairman of the Latin Builders, Willy Bermello, who wrote in the Herald in 2005, "This bubble is not latex. It is made of stainless steel".
Today Sanabria claims, in his campaign literature, that he will "take hold of uncontrolled growth". Yet he profited mightily from uncontrolled growth. On the Planning Advisory Board, Sanabria was frequently dismissive of development critics. It is beyond the pale to claim, as his campaign literature does, that he will "treat residents and taxpayers as shareholders."
How is that possible? In a recent report in the Tampa Tribune, a Sanabria development in Hillsborough County tried to bulldoze citizen opposition focused around traffic congestion. ("A Developer Drops Idea for Office and Retail Complex", Tampa Tribune, ) "Jordan Lewis, president of the Charleston Corners homeowners association said, "We're not opposing that the piece of property be developed. We just want the property to remain semipublic, keeping with the understanding that homeowners were presented with when we purchased our homes." ("Residents oppose the plan, and economics make profitability uncertain", St. Pete Times, )
In so far as his stated claim to "protect our green spaces"; it's all well and good when he voted to blow through protections afforded by the Urban Development Boundary just like blowing through a manatee protection zone. (07/10/2007, Judge Flora E. Seff. Gonzolo Sanabria).
Finally, what else is there to say about his claim: "Coral Gables needs an experienced and proven economist on the city commission" except to look at the past record leading to the present misery in the economy and recall the famous quip: “The only function of economists is to make astrologists look respectable.”
While on the Planning Advisory Board, Sanabria often resorted to the argument, in support of development requests, that environmental laws and regulations ensure that our wetlands, our shared water, and other natural resources are protected: the record proves how very wrong that record is. Read "Paving Paradise: Florida's vanishing wetlands": Sanabria should have read this book, before scattering his green signs over Coral Gables.
Those signs remind me of toothy beasts concealed in the clothing of lambs, of leopards painting over their spots, of people claiming environmental regulations work while blowing past them in no-speed zones. Beware.
Firstly, Sanabria was a loyalist in the battle to pump up the housing bubble in Miami-Dade County. He served as a former chairman and director of the Latin Builders Association, a director of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, an appointee on the Miami Dade transportation agency, MDX, and for many years on the Miami-Dade Planning Advisory Board. In view of the costs of the economic crisis this status quo led us into, why would anyone vote for him? (please click, 'read more')
Although there were legions of insiders, like Sanabria, whose aggregate influence pushed common sense off the page during the housing boom; his role as a real estate speculator and developer promoting development on an important county board is a record that voters must understand: this is not a case where Sanabria can disavow claims to have had no role, or only a small one, or only as a by-stander to the economic disaster unfolding through unsustainable development.
The Planning Advisory Board for the county, where Sanabria was not only a reliable pro-growth vote but often a loud and insistent leader, is a crucial step on the way to county commission votes on development applications. As such, the Planning Advisory Board imposed massive risk on Miami-Dade citizens and taxpayers. There are any number of ways to describe that risk: risk to wetlands, risk to drinking water aquifers, risk to surrounding communities whose traffic patterns are immediately impacted by new developments, risks to the base cost of infrastructure that impose huge new burdens on taxpayers, and last but certainly not lease: the risk that overdevelopment would overwhelm demand.
This outcome does have a name and address: during the boom every construction and development interest in Miami-Dade was given a free pass to drive in the fast lane, or-- in a manner of speaking-- to blow through manatee protection zones.
When so many citizens attempted to express and convince decision-makers otherwise-- insiders like Gonzolo Sanabria had the final word. They believe, now, that they can say whatever they want to-- or ignore the inconvenient truth--, in part because there is a reasonable chance no one remembers or cares to look back at history.
In recently mailed campaign literature, Sanabria claims that he will "run (Coral Gables) as a business". But as the chairman of the Planning Advisory Board, he --repeatedly and often--failed to use sound fiscal prudence to decide whether or not to halt the reckless oversupply of housing and commercial real estate supply. The crowd in which he traveled included other builders, developers and speculators who believed, like former chairman of the Latin Builders, Willy Bermello, who wrote in the Herald in 2005, "This bubble is not latex. It is made of stainless steel".
Today Sanabria claims, in his campaign literature, that he will "take hold of uncontrolled growth". Yet he profited mightily from uncontrolled growth. On the Planning Advisory Board, Sanabria was frequently dismissive of development critics. It is beyond the pale to claim, as his campaign literature does, that he will "treat residents and taxpayers as shareholders."
How is that possible? In a recent report in the Tampa Tribune, a Sanabria development in Hillsborough County tried to bulldoze citizen opposition focused around traffic congestion. ("A Developer Drops Idea for Office and Retail Complex", Tampa Tribune, ) "Jordan Lewis, president of the Charleston Corners homeowners association said, "We're not opposing that the piece of property be developed. We just want the property to remain semipublic, keeping with the understanding that homeowners were presented with when we purchased our homes." ("Residents oppose the plan, and economics make profitability uncertain", St. Pete Times, )
In so far as his stated claim to "protect our green spaces"; it's all well and good when he voted to blow through protections afforded by the Urban Development Boundary just like blowing through a manatee protection zone. (07/10/2007, Judge Flora E. Seff. Gonzolo Sanabria).
Finally, what else is there to say about his claim: "Coral Gables needs an experienced and proven economist on the city commission" except to look at the past record leading to the present misery in the economy and recall the famous quip: “The only function of economists is to make astrologists look respectable.”
While on the Planning Advisory Board, Sanabria often resorted to the argument, in support of development requests, that environmental laws and regulations ensure that our wetlands, our shared water, and other natural resources are protected: the record proves how very wrong that record is. Read "Paving Paradise: Florida's vanishing wetlands": Sanabria should have read this book, before scattering his green signs over Coral Gables.
Those signs remind me of toothy beasts concealed in the clothing of lambs, of leopards painting over their spots, of people claiming environmental regulations work while blowing past them in no-speed zones. Beware.
The County Commission 101: District 5, Bruno Barreiro. By Geniusofdespair
I decided I would do brief bio’s of the Miami Dade County Commissioners, Eye On Miami style. Some of you might not know a lot about County Commissioners, but you should! So I will do every Commissioner and here is District 5. (also see District 4, and links to 1,2,3).Bruno Barreiro has the most misspelled name on the County Commission (defying the I before E rule). That is the most important thing you should know about him. In June, 1998 he was elected to fill the vacated seat of Bruce Kaplan, who stepped down as part of his mortgage fraud sentence.
Let’s take a look at Bruno's finances:
He said his net worth was $1,365,496.70 in 2007. Barreiro makes $106,000 a year at what appears to be a family business, Fatima Homecare. He owns this small farm parcel outside the UDB Line which he paid $12,500 in 1974. He valued it at $200,000 in 2007 (a parcel next to him, same size, sold for $245,000 in '06). He bought the land from Bonanza Ranch Estates (Jose Andonie of Coral Reef Development Corp.). He paid off an Ocean Bank Mortgage for $260,000, 8/08. He gave $25,000 of his 2007 discretionary funds to Centro Mater Child Care Center. The Corporation was formed in 2006. He also gave $15,000 to Florida Venture Foundation. The officers of Florida Venture are from Broward. The Corporation helps "minorities reach success in South Florida's thriving construction business." He gave $25,000 to the Latin Quarter Cultural Center of Miami, Inc. He gave $10,000 to the Miami Boys Baseball Academy (what is with this guy and baseball?). He also gave $15,000 to St. Thomas University. I like the way Sally Heyman gives her dough (well our dough, it is our taxes) better. She spreads it around in smaller donations.
Bruno appears to be very dumb but I think he is smarter than he appears. Learning disability? He is, of course, one of the members of the unreformable majority of the Miami Dade County Commission which means there is no hope for him to be any better. He rarely votes right on any pivotal issue. He was the one with the worst argument for the Marlin's stadium. Something about South Beach and Little Havana, trust me it was dumb. The stadium is in his district so he played a big role in the vote, warding off his fellow commissioners' additions of any substantial amendments to the deal.
BTW, do your friends a favor. Send them a column or an Eye On Miami link to THEIR Commissioner so maybe they will vote better next time.
Jim Morin's Herald Cartoon Today. By Geniusofdespair
Check out Jim Morin's cartoon today. Don't think that sprawl is stopping because of the economy. The Mega-development called Parkland, outside the UDB line, is still in the pipeline. We are not out of the swamp yet.
See comments for context of this photo.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Gun Bounty Program: I’ve Got the Skinny on my Earlier Post Questions. By Geniusofdespair
Well what do you know, I got the info I was looking for in my earlier post today (read it), on Gun Bounty Funds. The offices of Mayor Alvarez and County Commission Chair Moss both responded and here it is for you - hot off the blog press. From Marie Bertot, Media Relations Manager, is some very good news about the results of the Gun Bounty Program so far:"Please note the Gun Bounty Program is not tracked by district. The stats from June 1, 2007, through March 29, 2009 are as follows: Number of Guns recovered is 285 and the number of arrests made is 171."
That is 285 illegal guns off the street! I think those are pretty good stats. In response to Moss's $25,000 (also explained in the earlier post today) Ms. Bule from the Office of the Chair said:
"Regarding the Gun Bounty Program regarding Chairman/Commissioner Moss. After further discussion with my Chief of Staff, Mr. Bannerman, he discovered that you may be confusing the “Gun Bounty Program” with the “District 9 CRIMESTOPPERS Bounty Program”. Commissioner Moss did indeed allocate $25,000 from his discretionary funds toward the District 9 CRIMESTOPPERS Bounty Program which was a program connected to CRIMESTOPPERS “Unsolved Homicides” in District 9. After these homicides were not solved, the funds were returned to his discretionary funds. Only $1,000 were given to the Gun Bounty Program from Commissioner Moss’ discretionary funds to support the Mayor’s Gun Bounty Program."
If they had put "Crime Stopper" in the discretionary fund title, it might have been clearer, whatever, I now know what is going on. BTW, why weren't the crimes solved? Wouldn't the money be spent trying or was the money a reward that didn't have to be paid? I am so loaded with questions, I could drive them crazy. As much as I hate what these two did using the bed tax money for the Marlins stadium, I do think these crime preventative initiatives are good. I think addressing crime is always a good think and they should get some brownie points for that.
Even though I think Rebeca Sosa should not have voted for the stadium, and if I remember correctly, a couple of odious UDB line moves, I still do not include her with the unreformable majority. She is still reformable. Moss is not ALWAYS wrong and neither is the Mayor. You won't agree with them ALL the time. Be satisfied if you get some of what you want, because with the unreformable: You get zip.
Florida should end Ponzi scheme based on growth, economist says ... by gimleteye
"It is now obvious that the reason we're experiencing a simultaneous meltdown in the financial system and the climate system is because we have been mispricing risk in both arenas-- producing a huge excess of both toxic assets and toxic air that now threatens the stability of the whole planet." That's Tom Friedman, in the New York Times today. When we said the same, twenty years ago, we were called Chicken Little and worse. Things change, but not too quickly to obliterate the history of miscalculations. Yesterday, the Orlando Sentinel reported that "one of the nation's leading economic forecasters in recent years", Sean Snaith, said, "Florida can no longer rely on an economic model built on adding more homes and attracting more people." (please click, read more)
It is only by mispricing risk that Florida's growth based on population expansion, the expansion of suburbs into Everglades wetlands, could occur at all. Now, finally, the writing on the wall as a matter of common sense and fiscal prudence for decades is now apparently available for even the mainstream media to see. It is why so many observers support Florida Hometown Democracy, the state wide referendum that would put up the failed growth model to a vote. Here is another point the media is missing: people simply don't believe the purveyors of growth-at-any-cost. Take the Latin Builders Association, for example, whose past chairman and politically connected insider, Willy Bermello, wrote in the Miami Herald-- unchallenged by any other point of view-- in 2005 of the real estate markets: "This bubble is not made of latex. It is made of stainless steel." Boo-yah. We are now in the midst of the longest recession in seven decades.
Today, the Herald reports another in its seemingly endless point-and-click stories, shaded to optimism: "Homebuilder sees sign of hope." Never mind that Lennar's "losses climbed 77 percent" or that completed home sales for the company fell 40 percent. Stuart Miller, Lennar CEO, is reading from the same set of tea leaves as the Latin Builders, "the housing market could be thawing soon."
What else could Lennar say, in defense of the failed financial model that made such a few people extraordinarily wealthy?
The Wall Street Journal reports otherwise:
FHA Default Rates By Metro
Rank MSA Dec-08 Dec-07
1 PUNTA GORDA, FL 17.99% 10.19%
4 FORT MYERS-CAPE CORAL, FL 15.07% 9.20%
7 FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 11.77% 6.47%
8 SARASOTA-BRADENTOWN, FL 11.76% 7.40%
10 OCALA, FL 11.37% 7.35%
13 NAPLES, FL 11.25% 4.99%
18 MELBOURNE-TITUSVILLE-PALM BAY,FL 10.92% 6.67%
20 WEST PALM BEACH-BOCA RATON, FL 10.71% 5.48%
23 MIAMI, FL 10.52% 5.10%
27 JACKSONVILLE, FL 10.28% 7.69%
29 FORT PIERCE-PORT ST.LUCIE, FL 10.04% 6.20%
30 LAKELAND-WINTER HAVEN, FL 9.95% 7.39%
33 DAYTONA 9.84% 6.55%
44 TAMPA-ST.PETERSBURG-CLEARWATER, FL 9.46% 6.44%
All Sum of above 10.65% 6.62%
What is most disturbing about these numbers is that a large portion of the loans in the FHA’s book in these areas represent loans originated last year, suggesting that defaults are occurring very early in the life of the loans. The number of FHA-insured homes was more than 25% higher in December 2008 than in December 2007, and in some areas ( Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Naples, Fort Pierce-St. Lucie) it was up by over 40%. Defaults are defined by the FHA as loans that are 90 days or more delinquent.
The question: why should anyone believe Lennar, the Latin Builders, the South Florida Builders or anyone half a mile within those spheres of influence? Florida's landscape-- bruised and battered by the growth Ponzi scheme-- tells the whole story.
OrlandoSentinel.com
By Jerry W. Jackson
Sentinel Staff Writer
10:32 AM EDT, March 31, 2009
Florida can no longer afford to rely on an economic model built on adding more homes and attracting more people, a Ponzi growth scheme that is "collapsing all around us," University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith said today in his latest forecast for the state and 12 metro areas.
Snaith, ranked as one of the nation's leading economic forecasters in recent years, said Florida needs to grab all the federal stimulus money it can to help prop up an economy that clearly relied too much for too long on strong population growth.
"Any Ponzi scheme can be sustained as long as new investors continue to be added to the pyramid," Snaith said in his report this morning. "But we're seeing a breakdown in the financing of government across Florida. This steady influx of population that provided the additional revenues need to prop up the system has evaporated, and the pyramid is collapsing all around us."
Snaith said he expects the state's housing construction sector will finally bottom out in the second quarter this year, ending June 30, at a low point "deeper than many expected." Construction likely will fall to annual rate of 38,250 housing starts, a level that would be only 13 percent of the peak during the boom that crested in the fourth quarter of 2004.
Unemployment statewide will continue to rise, he predicted, and likely will remain above 10 percent for most of 2010 "before beginning a very slow decline from its peak."
Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel
It is only by mispricing risk that Florida's growth based on population expansion, the expansion of suburbs into Everglades wetlands, could occur at all. Now, finally, the writing on the wall as a matter of common sense and fiscal prudence for decades is now apparently available for even the mainstream media to see. It is why so many observers support Florida Hometown Democracy, the state wide referendum that would put up the failed growth model to a vote. Here is another point the media is missing: people simply don't believe the purveyors of growth-at-any-cost. Take the Latin Builders Association, for example, whose past chairman and politically connected insider, Willy Bermello, wrote in the Miami Herald-- unchallenged by any other point of view-- in 2005 of the real estate markets: "This bubble is not made of latex. It is made of stainless steel." Boo-yah. We are now in the midst of the longest recession in seven decades.
Today, the Herald reports another in its seemingly endless point-and-click stories, shaded to optimism: "Homebuilder sees sign of hope." Never mind that Lennar's "losses climbed 77 percent" or that completed home sales for the company fell 40 percent. Stuart Miller, Lennar CEO, is reading from the same set of tea leaves as the Latin Builders, "the housing market could be thawing soon."
What else could Lennar say, in defense of the failed financial model that made such a few people extraordinarily wealthy?
The Wall Street Journal reports otherwise:
FHA Default Rates By Metro
Rank MSA Dec-08 Dec-07
1 PUNTA GORDA, FL 17.99% 10.19%
4 FORT MYERS-CAPE CORAL, FL 15.07% 9.20%
7 FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 11.77% 6.47%
8 SARASOTA-BRADENTOWN, FL 11.76% 7.40%
10 OCALA, FL 11.37% 7.35%
13 NAPLES, FL 11.25% 4.99%
18 MELBOURNE-TITUSVILLE-PALM BAY,FL 10.92% 6.67%
20 WEST PALM BEACH-BOCA RATON, FL 10.71% 5.48%
23 MIAMI, FL 10.52% 5.10%
27 JACKSONVILLE, FL 10.28% 7.69%
29 FORT PIERCE-PORT ST.LUCIE, FL 10.04% 6.20%
30 LAKELAND-WINTER HAVEN, FL 9.95% 7.39%
33 DAYTONA 9.84% 6.55%
44 TAMPA-ST.PETERSBURG-CLEARWATER, FL 9.46% 6.44%
All Sum of above 10.65% 6.62%
What is most disturbing about these numbers is that a large portion of the loans in the FHA’s book in these areas represent loans originated last year, suggesting that defaults are occurring very early in the life of the loans. The number of FHA-insured homes was more than 25% higher in December 2008 than in December 2007, and in some areas ( Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Naples, Fort Pierce-St. Lucie) it was up by over 40%. Defaults are defined by the FHA as loans that are 90 days or more delinquent.
The question: why should anyone believe Lennar, the Latin Builders, the South Florida Builders or anyone half a mile within those spheres of influence? Florida's landscape-- bruised and battered by the growth Ponzi scheme-- tells the whole story.
OrlandoSentinel.com
By Jerry W. Jackson
Sentinel Staff Writer
10:32 AM EDT, March 31, 2009
Florida can no longer afford to rely on an economic model built on adding more homes and attracting more people, a Ponzi growth scheme that is "collapsing all around us," University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith said today in his latest forecast for the state and 12 metro areas.
Snaith, ranked as one of the nation's leading economic forecasters in recent years, said Florida needs to grab all the federal stimulus money it can to help prop up an economy that clearly relied too much for too long on strong population growth.
"Any Ponzi scheme can be sustained as long as new investors continue to be added to the pyramid," Snaith said in his report this morning. "But we're seeing a breakdown in the financing of government across Florida. This steady influx of population that provided the additional revenues need to prop up the system has evaporated, and the pyramid is collapsing all around us."
Snaith said he expects the state's housing construction sector will finally bottom out in the second quarter this year, ending June 30, at a low point "deeper than many expected." Construction likely will fall to annual rate of 38,250 housing starts, a level that would be only 13 percent of the peak during the boom that crested in the fourth quarter of 2004.
Unemployment statewide will continue to rise, he predicted, and likely will remain above 10 percent for most of 2010 "before beginning a very slow decline from its peak."
Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel
Not to Be Missed: 37 Mile Hike Through the Urban Wilderness - Key Biscayne to John Lloyd Park. By Geniusofdespair
The photos alone are dazzling but you must read the story too! Kevon Andersen's epic hike. Two more photos but go to the link there are dozens more. He captures the flavor of our wacky town in words and pictures. His commentary is funny, informative and at times poignant: "So maybe this was the lesson learned on the hike: That we've got to stay vigilant. And without regulation, we're at the mercy of people who would pave our paradise -- even theirs -- if it would put one more dollar in their pocket."
Send the link to relatives.Miami Dade County District 9’s Crime Watch Bounty Program. By Geniusofdespair
Commission Chair Moss, gave $25,000 of his 2007 discretionary funds (our tax dollars) to the District 9 Crime Watch Bounty Program. Why only District 9? I guessed it was a gun buy-back. Most of the other commissioner’s direct-to-district contributions are for a couple of thousand dollars. This is the only one that was substantial, that is why I was curious.
I called the City of Miami Gardens to find out what they spend on their Gun Bounty Program and have decided that Moss's expenditure is to a good program, not just a buy-back, and here is why:
Miami Gardens told me in the buy-back gun program, where a person gets about $100 for a gun, the police get broken down guns and some that have been stored in an attic, in other words, doing no harm. The Gun Bounty Program is different. After a crime, the Miami Gardens Police force (the county's newest police force - about a year) gives out cards saying if you report an illegal gun (it will be kept confidential) you get a $1,000 reward when the police arrest the gun owner. They said no one standing around a crime scene is ever a witness (scared?). Since they started the program, about 5 months old, they already snagged about half dozen guns.
This is getting guns that are actually used in crimes off the streets. Miami Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez launched the County Gun Bounty Program in May of 2007. I called Moss's two offices to see why he targeted his discretionary funds for this program to one district (as opposed to the entire county). The women I spoke to at the district office and the downtown office didn't know his motives and they said Moss is out of town. Are there not enough funds in the county budget or is this how the program is funded, by district? I called the Mayor's office to see how successful the program is in the county, asked for statistics and budget, they said they would get back to me. So I will report again on this...if anyone ever gets back to me.
Yes, it is probably splitting hairs but this sort of thing, when you can't get a straight answer at the County, annoys me. Miami Gardens was easy in comparison. The info was at their fingertips.
I called the City of Miami Gardens to find out what they spend on their Gun Bounty Program and have decided that Moss's expenditure is to a good program, not just a buy-back, and here is why:
Miami Gardens told me in the buy-back gun program, where a person gets about $100 for a gun, the police get broken down guns and some that have been stored in an attic, in other words, doing no harm. The Gun Bounty Program is different. After a crime, the Miami Gardens Police force (the county's newest police force - about a year) gives out cards saying if you report an illegal gun (it will be kept confidential) you get a $1,000 reward when the police arrest the gun owner. They said no one standing around a crime scene is ever a witness (scared?). Since they started the program, about 5 months old, they already snagged about half dozen guns.
This is getting guns that are actually used in crimes off the streets. Miami Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez launched the County Gun Bounty Program in May of 2007. I called Moss's two offices to see why he targeted his discretionary funds for this program to one district (as opposed to the entire county). The women I spoke to at the district office and the downtown office didn't know his motives and they said Moss is out of town. Are there not enough funds in the county budget or is this how the program is funded, by district? I called the Mayor's office to see how successful the program is in the county, asked for statistics and budget, they said they would get back to me. So I will report again on this...if anyone ever gets back to me.
Yes, it is probably splitting hairs but this sort of thing, when you can't get a straight answer at the County, annoys me. Miami Gardens was easy in comparison. The info was at their fingertips.
The Curse of Inspirational Emails by Geniusofdespair
I don't know how it happened but somehow I am getting inspirational email from employees from the Department of State. Maybe it is all those public records requests. The interesting thing is, they are using their official emails and I might add, spending our tax dollars exchanging stuff like:
"Remember to make a wish before you read the prayer. That's all you have to do."
I usually ask to be removed but this is getting too good. I just got an email celebrating women who are a bit heavy.
"Remember to make a wish before you read the prayer. That's all you have to do."
I usually ask to be removed but this is getting too good. I just got an email celebrating women who are a bit heavy.
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