Steve Shiver's Rolling Thunder Revue Ghost Town in the Sky at Maggie Valley: it's stellar! ... by gimleteye

Stella Parton with Norwegian recording artist Aslak Gjennestad.

International recording artist and sensation Stella Parton will be bringing her infectious mix of country music and "world class" entertainment to Steve Shiver's Rolling Thunder Revue Ghost Town in the Sky at Maggie Valley, NC. Eyeonmiami's fund to keep the former Miami-Dade County Manager in Maggie Valley is one of the most popular destinations on the web. Ghost Town has knocked Tony's Tube World off the map. Now international and national visitors can expect surprises too, lured by an international hit maker who is not just stellar, she's Stella!

Today Maggie Valley is a boom town that could only be imagined a few years ago. With the theme park, Cataloochee Ski Area, and the normal tourists and second-home owners, more than half a million people will visit the town this year. Perhaps that is too conservative an estimate. Millions of dollars in construction will take place in the next few months. Hundreds of permanent and part-time workers will be needed.

People are ecstatic. Maggie Valley has turned a corner. It has been re-invented as an up-scale location for second-home owners. No longer just a tourist town, Maggie Valley is now a resort town. Cataloochee Ski Area brings in tourists, but it also makes the mountain town a great place for a second home. Maggie Valley Country Club’s improvements and its upscale condominiums are also a part of this transformation, along with today's big news.

Stella Parton is recently returned from a triumphant UK tour. "Stella, a stellar hitmaker who has parlayed her stardom into credible ventures including acting, musicals, gospel, pop, and mainstream country, returns to her country roots with her most vital collection in many a year—one that serves as a showcase for her irresistible voice and exquisite songwriting. As the title suggests, this collection evokes her gospel roots, but is not a solely religious album. The arrangements are diverse, keeping with the traditional Appalachian sound in some, relying solely on her strong a cappella performance for others, and modernising the sound with piano and horn renditions on others. All eleven songs are penned by Stella and each one is deep felt and written from her own personal life experiences. This comes through in the infectious Family Ties, a self-penned beauty inspired by her close relationship with her siblings. The melody of Tell It Sister, Tell It, as one might expect, is instantly gratifying, with a harmony-soaked hook that’s dedicated to memory after just a couple of listens." This just may be Stella Parton’s best ever album."

A vibrant Maggie Valley is finding a middle ground while it plays home to an ever-growing number of tourists. The news about Ghost Town is top drawer. It will get better if town and county leaders spend some time planning for what’s about to come. Here are two news articles proving the point: one from August, 2006 and a more recent version. See for yourself what great things are happening at Ghost Town.


Smoky Mountain News
week of 8/30/06

Maggie re-invents itself – again
By Scott McLeod


People are saying the new Ghost Town will be a shot in the arm for Maggie Valley. That’s probably an understatement, but the new development and its cash infusion into this tourist town will also provide an important opportunity to talk about the future of Western North Carolina, especially as it pertains to the number of visitors and the changing tourism industry.

A new destination

I never went to Ghost Town to partake in its Old West mayhem. My family almost never traveled when I was a kid, except to visit relatives. We never came to the mountains. As an adult, crowds and lines too easily try my patience. I did ride the chairlift up to Ghost Town a few years ago to do a story on its impact on Maggie Valley, even as it was wheezing its last gasps. On that summer day about six years ago, I was reminded of a beach town after Labor Day, the boardwalk nearly deserted as tired merchants hoped for one last burst of business. Only a small handful of people were at Ghost Town.

The news last week surprised me. I doubted that high-dollar business types would take such a gamble on the aged theme park. Apparently those who crunch numbers see the opportunity to make some big money by rejuvenating the park and perhaps developing a few acres for high-end second homes or condos. Taken together — a federal loan, the support of the business community in Maggie Valley, and the booming real estate market in the region — several factors probably helped sweeten the prospect of re-opening the theme park.

More importantly, though, is what this could mean for Maggie Valley, Haywood County and the region. I’m not an economist or a mathematician, but I like to play with numbers. When I heard that Ghost Town buyers wanted to invest somewhere around $5 million to make the 40-plus-year-old attraction sparkle again, in addition to the $5.1 million purchase price, it became clear this is probably going to become a quality establishment.

Investors hope the new Ghost Town will attract 300,000 people a year by 2011. If ticket prices average $15, that’s $4.5 million a year just in the gate receipts. There’s little doubt proprietors would expect to take about the same dollar figure from sales of souvenirs and food, perhaps more. Suddenly you have a $10 million business, and that’s for just half a year.

If the theme park is open from Memorial Day until, say, Nov. 1, it will have a 150-day season. That’s 2,000 people per day — on average — in Maggie Valley. Some of those will already have been there, some won’t. Any way you slice it, the dozens of restaurants, hotels, and other attractions dependent on travelers will benefit.

Sales tax money, some of which is returned to municipalities, will increase. That will help the town pay for increased police and other infrastructure needed to accommodate these new visitors.

With Ghost Town expected to open in 2007, Maggie Valley will have two large destination tourist attractions. Cataloochee Ski Resort and Tony’s Tube World have had a couple of great years and bring about 135,000 people to the valley every winter. This means that those who rely on tourists will have a destination attraction open from Memorial Day until — if the weather holds — April 1. That’s just two months of down time.

Places like Wheels Through Time have also been added to the mix in recent years. Many in Haywood County have a love-hate relationship with proprietor Dale Walksler, but his museum is a unique attraction. It is a must-see for the growing number of motorcycle tourists who are seeking destinations. It is also a wonderful visit for children and adults who won’t ever ride a motorcycle but like machines, American history and the coolness of vintage bikes.

Throw in places like Eaglenest Entertainment and Carolina Nights, and Maggie Valley is a weekend trip unto itself. And of course there is Harrah’s Casino just over the mountain.

Is there a downside?

So if Ghost Town lives up to its new owners’ dreams, Maggie Valley becomes a boom town. With the theme park, Cataloochee Ski Area, and the normal tourists and second-home owners, more than half a million people will probably visit the town every year. Perhaps that is too conservative an estimate. Millions of dollars in construction will take place in the next few months. Hundreds of permanent and part-time workers will be needed.

People are ecstatic. Maggie Valley has turned a corner, and few want to even consider what some are touting as the downside to the news of Ghost Town’s revival. But here it is, in a nutshell: Maggie Valley was re-inventing itself as a more up-scale location for second-home owners. It was changing from a tourist town to a resort town, and some of the same players were a part of that metamorphosis. Cataloochee Ski Area brings in tourists, but it also makes the mountain town a great place for a second home. Maggie Valley Country Club’s improvements and its upscale condominiums were also a part of this transformation, along with everything else the Great Smoky Mountains offer to seasonal residents.

In this scenario, the trade-off was fewer tourists and part-time residents, but those who came spent more money. In the tourist town model, weekend visitors by the thousands spend less money but come in greater numbers. More tourists mean more traffic, more pollution and more wear and tear on infrastructure. Motel owners who invest little in their property will manage to survive because price will be the most important factor when the desire is to draw the most travelers.

The middle ground

I don’t pretend to know what the future holds. I can predict that dealing with traffic, crowds, noise, trash, pollution, and the need for increased law enforcement is about to become important for Maggie Valley. Finding the mix between economic success and quality of life will become an even more pressing challenge, especially as leaders will be torn between representing the sometimes conflicting needs of business owners and seasonal residents.

In a best-case scenario, a vibrant Maggie Valley will find a middle ground while it plays home to an ever-growing number of tourists. The news about Ghost Town is good. It will get better if town and county leaders spend some time planning for what’s about to come.



week of 4/1/09
Smoky Mountain News
Debts mount at theme park
By Becky Johnson • Staff writer

Ghost Town in the Sky amusement park in Maggie Valley has left a wake of unpaid bills with local companies over the past year, putting some small businesses in a bind during already difficult economic times.

Ghost Town owes around $2.5 million to a wide spectrum of companies: electricians, plumbers, contractors, ride engineers, building supply stores, TV stations and newspapers — more than 220 companies in all. The park’s recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing has left many business owners worried they will never see their money.

Several local businesses say they are disappointed they’ve been left holding the bag on Ghost Town’s debt with no hope of getting paid back any time soon — or ever if the park can’t pull through reorganization and faces foreclosure.

“This was the last thing we needed right now,” said John Mudge, owner of Apple Creek Electric in Waynesville. Apple Creek did extensive work at Ghost Town, revamping nearly all the dated wiring at the park. The company is still owed $4,800, Mudge said.

“I know it doesn’t sound like a lot, but for a small company in a small town, that money they haven’t paid us has ended up coming out of my own pocket,” Mudge said.

Out of his 30 years in the electrical business, this is the worst time he could have been hit with an unpaid bill of this magnitude. As a small business owner, Mudge only makes a modest salary of between $30,000 and $40,000 a year. When Ghost Town fell short on its payment, he still had to cover the salary of the employee who did the work. That led to cash flow problems of his own. Plus, the time he wasted doing work he wasn’t getting paid for could have been spent drumming up real business.

“Partially due to this, it has cost some of our men their jobs,” Mudge said.

Steve Shiver, the president of Ghost Town, said the company was banking on a loan to help pay off the debts. But the recession and credit crunch has made finding a loan short of impossible. Every loan they sought fell through, finally landing the park in bankruptcy.

“I truly feel sorry for all of those who we owe money to,” said Shiver.

Another small business owner on the line is Jackie Shuler at Balsam Equipment Rental.

“It is just killing me,” said Shuler, who’s owed $6,600. “That is a lot of money for a small business like me.”

Shuler has had a steady stream of equipment on loan to Ghost Town: scissors lifts, floor buffers, a demolition hammer, heated pressure washers. Ghost Town would typically let a bill accumulate, then pay it down just enough to keep renting.

“Then it snowballed,” Shuler said.

Burton Edwards, a Maggie Valley contractor who specializes in rock work, says he is still owed $28,000 on a quarter million dollar job. While Ghost Town paid the lion’s share — just enough to cover salaries for his workers, gas for his machinery and materials — there was nothing left over to pay his own salary with.

“I basically did the job for nothing,” Edwards said. “I have three children and that’s hurt my family.”

Suddenly faced with a cash flow problem of his own, he relied on a line of credit to keep going through the winter.

Edwards actually filed a civil suit against Ghost Town last fall demanding payment. Ghost Town managers are disputing the lien, claiming the rock wall he built failed.

A very long line

The small businesses owed money are at the back of a very long line to be paid. Ghost Town owes more $9.5 million to BB&T, which takes precedence before anyone else. While most of that sum stems from the purchase of the property by new owners two years ago, at least $3 million was racked up repairing equipment, upgrading infrastructure and generally renovating the dated amusement park.

Also at the front of the queue is roughly $208,000 in unpaid state sales tax and local property tax.

If the current owners can’t pull out of Chapter 11, the park will be put up for sale, likely to the highest bidder at an auction. It would have to bring nearly $10 million before the small businesses see any of the money they are owed.

“Most of the people who are owed probably won’t get the money if it goes to the courthouse steps,” Edwards said.

Shiver agrees, and says that’s why the people he owes money to need to be supporting him right now.

“The alternative is to close the doors and sell it on the courthouse steps for pennies on the dollar. If we close, we all, including the creditors, lose,” Shiver said. “There two options — get behind it or close the door.”

If the park is liquidated — whether the owners voluntarily throw in the towel or are forced to by the bankruptcy judge — it’s anyone’s guess how much it might sell for in these times. But most likely it would only be enough to cover the big loans from the financial institutions at the front of the line, whose debts are backed by the collateral of the property.

“The small business owner does get caught in the cross fire. They get the short end of the stick,” said attorney Gavin Brown, chairman of the Haywood County Economic Development Commission and Waynesville’s mayor.

An even longer line

While not listed by name on the bankruptcy filing — but caught in the crossfire nonetheless — are several local sales reps for national suppliers and vendors. Take Dick Cabe, a sales rep for apparel companies that provided Ghost Town with everything from T-shirts to ball caps to resell in its gift shops. Cabe’s salary is 100 percent commission based, leaving him holding a great big bag if Ghost Town doesn’t pay for the merchandise it ordered.

“If they don’t get paid I don’t put food on my table,” Cabe said. “Anytime you lose money in this economy it hurts. You never like to lose money.”

Margie Woodward, a sales rep for souvenirs stiffed out of her commission as well, said she is generally very careful about who she sells to on credit.

“Who is going to expect a company like that to file bankruptcy?” said Woodward, who lives in Jackson County.

After seeing the long list of people owed in the bankruptcy filing, Woodward doesn’t hold out much hope for getting paid.

“I have pretty much written it off,” Woodward said.

Ghost Town has similar debts across the country, from $45,000 to a company that makes cap guns in Tennessee to a company owed more than $300,000 for rebuilding the incline railway.

“It’s affected us drastically, extremely,” said Brannon Deal, the owner of Industrial Service Group of Georgia, the company that has been working on the incline railway. “When somebody hits your business for $300,000 and that’s the total amount of money you do in a year, it hit us hard. It’s got us in a financial bind like you can’t imagine.”

Ghost Town is contesting that payment, too, which is the subject of a civil lien filed last fall.

Good faith

Local businesses say they wanted Ghost Town to succeed. Tourist traffic pulled in by the theme park has historically been an economic driver in Maggie Valley.

“Everybody here in Haywood County wanted it to be a go. It would be a fantastic thing,” said Shuler. “The whole community welcomed them with open arms.”

When Shuler is traveling and people ask where she’s from, they typically haven’t heard of Haywood County. But if she says Maggie Valley, it triggers the line people from here know well: “Oh, yeah, Ghost Town!”

“When I was a kid, we had season passes and would go there two and three times a week,” Shuler said. She remembers her uncle being scared to death riding the incline railway up the mountain, and still has pictures of her with the gunfighters.

Cabe, the sales rep for apparel merchandise, lives in Maggie and knows how much it means to the community.

“More than anything I’d love to see them succeed,” Cabe said.

That feeling led several business owners to give Ghost Town the benefit of the doubt as long as they could.

“We continued to work up there under promise of being paid, just because we were sure those guys would come through,” Mudge said. “After a certain point when money wasn’t forthcoming we just quit going.”

Businesses owed money saw Ghost Town start to fall behind on payments last summer, some as early as June, others not until August. When business owners broached the problem with Ghost Town management, they were all told the same thing.

“We’ve been told for months that they were going to pay our bill in a couple weeks. That’s been the story all along,” Mudge said. “Whoever we talk to up there, we get the same story. The bankruptcy came as a surprise in a way, because they kept assuring that wasn’t going to happen.”

At Balsam Rental Equipment, Shuler had a large lift valued at $100,000 on loan to the park that she wasn’t getting payments for.

“They kept saying ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’ll get it, you’ll get it,’” Shuler said.

But finally, Shuler went up to the park to take back the equipment.

“We had to get the men down off our big lift and tell them ‘Sorry, no pay, no rent,’” Shuler said.

That was in June. Shuler called every two weeks since then. She said she tried to be nice, hoping that would move her bill to the top of the stack. But it seems it didn’t work.

Edwards believes the Ghost Town management had to see the writing on the wall.

“At a certain point they had to know,” Edwards said. “I don’t hire people I can’t pay.”

Check out Columnist Fred Grimm on Crist's Bad Bill Signing. By Geniusofdespair

Grimm says, "It was a fine time to sabotage the state's growth-management policies". Said Grimm about Crist signing the SB 360 Growth Bill:

"With 300,000 unsold homes languishing on the market, with another half-million in various stages of foreclosure, with God knows how many stalled projects moldering amid rusting rebar, bare cinder-block walls, concrete slabs and fading ''no trespassing'' signs, growth management lately seemed more about nostalgia than policy.

Floridians, living amid the rubble of a real estate collapse, hardly noticed SB 360 as it was slipped through the Legislature. Who was paying any attention to growth issues? Housing prices were down 31 percent from a year ago." County Commissioner Katy Sorenson said in the column:
''No doubt about it, the recession gave them cover to pass this bill. Calling SB 360 a "growth-management bill, was a downright Orwellian touch."

Looking for Developer blood money in your Senatorial campaign Charlie? This move by Crist is more about financing an upcoming election than promoting good government policy.

Miami Beach's Fontainebleau Hotel Suffers Interior Flooding. By Genius of Despair

Yesterday’s deluge of about 7 inches of rain, brought interior flooding at the newly renovated (A cost reported at between $500 Million to $1 Billion) Fontainebleau Hotel according to the Miami Herald. They said:

“...Rainwater ankle deep filled the ground-floor nightclub of the posh resort.” and:
The hotel is left with "...An 8 foot hole in its lobby ceiling."

I previously reported on a complex owned by Marriott but it also has ties to the same family that did the Fontainebleau Hotel renovations. This two building complex had major construction problems and I speculated that a yet unexplored downside of the building frenzy would be shoddy workmanship. Again I ask: Are these two examples isolated or the tip of the iceberg?

Tew Cardenas: Money in Politics ... by gimleteye

Researching trailer parks in the Florida Keys, I came across this chart from the website OpenSecrets.org. I was curious about the Miami lobbying and law firm, Tew Cardenas, involved in the effort to re-zone a trailer park in Key Largo. Al Cardenas is one of the top South Florida soldiers in Republican campaigns and fundraising, for W., for Jeb Bush and, in 2008, for Republican presidential candidates. In 2004, Cardenas was a Bush Pioneer, raising at least $100,000. In 2005 and 2006 the firm's lobbying income skyrocketed. Its trajectory resembles the housing market bubble. It is interesting to note the heavy percentage of the firm's lobbying income from Miami-Dade County.

Palm Beach County Commissioner taken away in handcuffs ... by gimleteye

Once a powerful county commissioner who specialized in pushing through zoning changes and development permits, Mary McCarty was not lead away in handcuffs yesterday. But she is going to be doing plenty of time to think about her crime. Tony Doris, formerly of Miami Daily Business Review, reports from Palm Beach. Doris was a distinguished journalist who reported out the Idiocy of the Homestead Air Force Base fiasco whose true costs have never been reported to Miami-Dade taxpayers. I've joked that a quorum of the recent Palm Beach County Commission could be conducted from federal prison. Today, it is true. (A nod, here, to the commenter who notes that McCarty joins the "rouge gallery" of former public officials trying to make-up to their reputations from a prison cell.)

Tearful McCarty gets 3.5 years, begins sentence immediately; may get drug treatment in Texas

By TONY DORIS

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, June 04, 2009

WEST PALM BEACH — Having gone from power broker to supplicant, former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty rose before U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks and, sobbing, begged forgiveness.

"I apologize to this court and to the victims of my conduct," she said. "My carelessness and irresponsible behavior have humbled me."


McCarty's jail mug

The judge's words

Excerpts from the sentencing order by U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks:
Ms. McCarty's crime is less blatant and more subtle than that of others who have been before the Court. While sophistication is not necessarily a virtue, her crime has been less premeditated than the out and out thievery practiced by some. She participated in a system not entirely of her own making, which has proven to be a recipe for corruption.

There is not a need to protect the public from future crimes by this defendant. Ms. McCarty is unlikely to regain political power, and if she did, unlikely to repeat this crime.

A sentence must be a strong statement that this behavior is intolerable, and should not be repeated. ... But it should not be greater than necessary to accomplish these purposes.

McCarty today at court

McCarty scandal
PB County commissioner is the fifth local political leader in the past three years to head to prison for abusing public office.

McCarty added: "I never thought of myself as a criminal, but I am one."

Not enough, the judge said Thursday, ruling that her actions required that a message be sent to deter others. His message: 31/2 years behind bars, plus a $100,000 fine payable immediately.

Then he had marshals take her into custody on the spot.

The judge stomped on defense intimations that her deeds amounted to ethics trifles beyond the purview of federal court. "Ms. McCarty," he said, "has committed a serious federal crime."

She took off her pearl necklace, bunched it into the hands of her teary mother and disappeared into federal custody.

Her mother, Jeanne Ray, called it a "tragedy." McCarty's brother, lobbyist Brian Ballard, and sister, Julie Ballard-Lebe, also were in the courtroom.

The fallen ex-commissioner became the third in three years to be imprisoned on federal corruption charges, following Tony Masilotti and Warren Newell. More may be on the way: Prosecutors said Newell, in earning a sentence reduction last week, had divulged information not just on McCarty but on others yet to be publicly identified.

"Our work in this area is not yet done," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Sloman said.

McCarty, 54, served 18 years on the commission and was a Delray Beach commissioner before that. She pleaded guilty in March to taking free resort stays from a company she helped win a contract to build a convention center hotel, and to steering bond awards that profited herself and her underwriter husband, Kevin.

Kevin McCarty began an eight-month term last month for failing to report her crime.

Mary McCarty's sentencing began precisely at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, despite an underground cable failure at 9:02 that shut off courthouse power for nearly an hour.

Outside the courthouse, McCarty's impending fate mixed supporters' anguish and antagonists' outrage with levity about the power outage.

"Does that mean they won't be able to use the electric chair?" a government worker quipped.

"I just don't feel she should be going to prison at all," said Wanda Robinson of Jupiter, a 20-year friend. "It's an ethics problem and definitely not a federal case. It's shocking and it's scary."

But others said McCarty deserved the max, that she had bullied residents to favor developers for 20 years. "It's them versus the people. That's how I see Mary McCarty - she's a 'them,' " said John Earley, a conservative activist who had clashed with her on internal GOP politics.

He and friend John Parsons came to the courthouse to hand out yellow lapel tags with the numeral "5," to urge the five-year maximum spelled out in her plea bargain.

McCarty's attorney, David Bogenschutz, urged the judge to sentence her to no more than a year and a day. Even so, the 31/2-year sentence Middlebrooks meted out represented "a substantial break," Bogenschutz said afterward.

It was 18 months less than the maximum, and 18 months less than what Masilotti and Newell received in their corruption cases. Newell's penalty was cut to three years last week for providing evidence against McCarty.

"Eighteen months means a lot more when you're 54 than when you're 24," Bogenschutz said. The sentence reflected the judge's recognition of McCarty's history of public service, he added.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Carlton said the sentence recognized the importance of deterring corruption. "It will garner the attention of any public official," he said.

McCarty's $100,000 fine is in addition to the $272,000 in ill-gotten gains she and her husband have forfeited. The fine was far higher than the $25,000 levied against Masilotti. Newell forfeited $135,000 but received no fine.

McCarty also got harsher treatment than her peers when Middlebrooks sent her to jail immediately. Masilotti and Newell each had at least a month before reporting to prison.

McCarty's preparations for Thursday including extensive talks about prison life, Bogenschutz said.

"She's prepared for what she can expect, more than any defendant I've ever seen," he said.

He asked that McCarty serve her sentence in Texas, which has a minimum-security federal prison that offers substance-abuse treatment. Bogenschutz would not elaborate on what treatment McCarty may require. The judge made no guarantees.

The judge weighed McCarty's service to the community, said she was unlikely to repeat her crimes and opined that her actions were "less premeditated than the out-and-out thievery" of other officials.

He placed her crimes in the context of a county awash in corruption, citing state grand jury reports - one released May 27 - urging sterner treatment of dishonest officials.

"She participated in a system not entirely of her own making, which has proven to be a recipe for corruption," the judge said. He added: "The pay-to-play culture created a sense of entitlement to gifts and benefits."

But that doesn't minimize what she did, he concluded. And he strongly disagreed with defense arguments that the federal corruption law she violated, prohibiting "honest services fraud," is on shaky legal grounds.

"The honest services law has been on the books for 20 years," he wrote. "It was enacted in recognition of the reality that more sophisticated forms of political corruption rarely involve the delivery of a bag of cash in exchange for an identified vote."

Rise up and sing! by gimleteye

I've tried cajoling, collaborating, satire, and cynicism. I've tried reporting. I've tried fund raising for groups and causes. I've invented campaigns and I've followed others'. I've spent my own money and time and raised money from others. I've organized groups and coalitions and political campaigns, I've strategized, argued and nodded in agreement and opposition. I've attended public hearings, recruited citizens, businessmen, and the clergy. I've signed petitions and given speeches. I've attended meetings. I've tried being reasonable, excessive, calm and over-the-top. I've hired lawyers and consultants and lobbyists. In twenty years trying to change Florida's status quo hell-bent on wrecking Florida's quality of life and environment, I've tried everything. Maybe not everything. Here's something I haven't tried.

from Libby Hunter, Ann Arbor, MI

Bad Translation of Great Article About The County Commission. By Geniusofdespair

Monday, June 01, 2009 - The Princes of Miami-Dade
"Once again, the Miami-Dade commissioners are in the limelight, reminding us that the system of county government should be restructured to amend the flaws in our municipal democracy."

By DANIEL SHOER ROTH - El Nuevo Herald
Miami-Dade County is governed by 13 commissioners. However, sometimes it seems that instead of being public servants, they are members of an absolutist monarchy.

It doesn’t matter how hungry the people are,  in the royal house - the Commission – there is an unending flow of wealth to waste. (hit read more)

There is money to charity in order to get into the favor of interest groups, and to compensate overtime with armed sergeants to serve as drivers to the group of 13. All this at the expense of my sweat and yours.

Once again, the Miami-Dade commissioners are in the limelight, reminding us that the system of county government should be restructured to amend the flaws in our municipal democracy.

A few days ago, it came to light the way in which commissioners split a pie of $9.5 million for their philanthropic activities in the community, without conditions and with scant inspection.

I have no doubt that many of the organizations that benefit perform altruistic work. The problem is that these groups, located in the districts of the commissioners, are indebted to their benefactors.  And what better way to pay with the vote.

With reason some are overwhelmingly re-elected, creating forces so powerful that they do not allow the advance of other applicants. Since 1994, no county commissioner was defeated at the polls.

For ethical reasons, these officials should not interfere in the business of charities.

The salary of $6,000 that a commissioner earns per year is a euphemism to disguise the torrent of money that enters on other fronts. Each of their offices operates with a $1 million annually. In addition, they have a plethora of budgets for discretionary spending, including a stipend of $9,600 for transportation.

If you want to have the pleasure of getting around the city with a chauffeur, why not hire someone with that money?

We have too many security problems to assign an officer as a personal chauffeur. That luxury costs us thousands of dollars that could be invested in improving the lives of 2,382 abandoned children in the county, for example.

The Miami-Dade Commission believes itself to be untouchable and all-powerful.  Recently they rejected two proposals that would have reinvigorated the CITT, an independent panel that supposedly looks after the interests of taxpayers in the People's Transportation Plan, that of the “half cent sales tax”, but that hasn’t had a voice or vote in this failed project in this county in which the people cry out for an efficient transport system.

Nor have they listened to advice of state experts in zoning and environmental issues when they have approved, several times, the extension of the Urban Development Boundary.

The next time is coming soon, because a group of powerful businessmen and civic leaders plans to build a community for nearly 19,000 residents almost at the foot of the Everglades, and you already know which side the commissioners will take.

The housing crisis is linked, in a way, to the model of suburban growth toward agricultural land and swampy areas. For this reason, nobody wants to live so far away. Last week the Miami Herald published a report on deserted neighborhoods in southwest Miami-Dade, where the four cats that moved there are surrounded by garbage, weeds and stones.  Further development is not missing, but there were promises of villas and castles.

What is needed is that the commissioners get down from these clouds and leave the glamour for better times.

Speed Trapping in Homestead. Guest Blog By Youbetcha'

(Hit on image to enlarge it)

Not to be outdone by Florida Highway Patrol's little money making machine on US1 in Key Largo, the City of Homestead now is instituting their own version of a speed trap on US1. In fact, the city is so proud of their trap, that they had a press release and photo op for the city council just for the occasion:

This particular intersection at Campbell Drive and the highway is dangerous. It is a very wide intersection with multiple lanes. It needs some work and adjusting. It needs sane drivers passing through it. It needs accidents to stop.

However, what I can see happening with intersection cameras as people panic stop to avoid a ticket and their tailgater rams into them is that accidents now will occur at the stop bar and end up in the middle of the intersection. Nice. This new idea the city council has may make the Busway accidents seem trite.

The stoplight cameras are a terrific economy booster for the city. If you get nailed for not stopping, the city makes a profit. If you ignore the ticket and your driver’s license is pulled, you can go to jail, lose your job and the state of Florida eventually makes money, too.

However, then on the other hand, if you stop too quickly and are hit by the vehicle behind you, the car repair shops, auto dealers, doctors and hospitals make money. If you are lucky, the funeral home won’t.

Seriously, other than the press release reads like a commercial for the company selling the cameras, there are some questions to be answered:

One has to wonder what the total cost of the equipment, maintence, and the cost of police officers to review the tapes and issue tickets will be.

What will one good lightening strike do to the equipment? (Not to mention a hurricane.)

What is the city’s liability if someone is killed trying to stop to avoid the camera’s piercing eye?

And, how exactly does a person know what to do if the light is going yellow to red just as they are approaching the stop bar but they can’t stop because of momentum? Do the camera’s know the drivers ability and reaction time? I would guess not.

This sure looks like another opportunity to roll the dice on US1, except this time the drivers are rolling the dice on their life every time they approach a Homestead intersection. Driver pay attention: Homestead has upped the ante.

The Miami Pretzel Tree. By Geniusofdespair

Look familiar? I walked by and got the urge for a salty snack.

What's up with Miami Dade County Commissioner Pepe Diaz and Tew Cardenas in the Florida Keys ... by gimleteye

It's almost better than watching American Idol, -- the May 20th meeting of the Monroe County Commission (BOCC 5/20/2009, #2) where Pepe Diaz, Miami-Dade County Commissioner and Santiago Echemendia, of the Miami-based political and legal shop, Tew Cardenas, pleaded and were on the losing side of approval of a development agreement regarding Calusa Campground, a 367 unit trailer park where Diaz owns a lot. The issue will come again, at the mid-June meeting of the local county commissioners.

There has been an enduring, multi-year controversy surrounding the campground. There are issues of code violations, numbering the high hundreds, of calls to the Monroe County Sheriff's department-- in the past two years, more than 400, overcrowding of adjacent canals in violation of US Army Corps of Engineer rules, and most importantly a question of legal access from US 1 to the campground on Florida Bay, through property separately owned.

I recently wrote about the Calusa Campground. There is more to come. Why is a big law firm, best known for its close association to Jeb Bush through the name partner's role as campaign finance chair, Al Cardenas, wrapped up in a zoning issue with a RV park in Key Largo? It's costing Tew Cardenas' clients a lot of money to keep the powerhouse law firm commuting back and forth from Miami to Marathon and Key Largo. Why is the former mayor of Monroe County, now county commissioner, Mario DeGennaro running point for Diaz? Why did Tew Cardenas recruit state representative Ron Saunders to its cause? Roman Gastesi, a former Miami-Dade County water official and lobbyist for Tew Cardenas, is now county manager for Monroe County. What is Tew Cardenas' role in Monroe County? These mysteries tie, one way or another, back to money.

Diaz bought his unit as the housing bubble was reaching its top, in 2004. One aspect of the videotaped meeting that is particular delicious: Pepe Diaz blowing through the clock / buzzer at the speakers podium and alloted time for him to speak "as a private citizen" in the losing cause before the Monroe County Commission on May 20th. When Pepe, Miami Dade County Commissioner, commandeered the dais on behalf of Lowe's Corporation and its application to move the Urban Development Boundary in Miami-Dade, he often used the clock to cut critics short.

I'm going to expand on components of this story related to Calusa Campground. (Pepe Diaz didn't like our last post very much, telling whoever would listen that "no one reads this blog". Hmmm. Whoever would listen is also reading this blog.)

Home building and construction is to Florida as opium production is to Afghanistan ... by gimleteye

Opium production is 60 percent of the economy of Afghanistan. It is not far from the same percentage as home building and construction contributes to Florida. We're quick to condemn opium production but loathe to level the same dependencies caused by the muscular supply chain that is responsible for the housing market bubble and collapse.

In The Palm Beach Post today, "Crist signs bill loosening controls on growth", Palm Beach County Commissioner Karen Marcus is quoted, ""I don't think the legislature has any idea what they have just done to the people of Florida." I disagree. The legislature, lead by the real estate development lobby, knew exactly what it was doing in passing "The Growth Anywhere Act".

It used the economic crisis to secure a free pass from regulation that it blames for the worst housing market collapse since the Depression. Its creator, Republican State Senator Michael Bennett is a real estate developer. But it takes many hands to gather opium, and so it did too for the legislation he promoted and that Gov. Crist signed into law.

Democrats deserve their share of blame for pushing Florida into the dreamy reverie that insta-grow suburbs would be self-sustaining under any conditions. From Lawton Chiles to Bob Graham, land development was mother's milk of political power.

That said, it was no accident that the perfection of the supply chain and scalable model of unsustainable growth in Florida occurred under the watch of Florida's Republican-led state government. Miami-based builder trade associations pushed Jeb Bush forward in 1998 using the fig leaf of limited government and a paternalistic trust in corporate responsibility that neatly meshed the aspirations of family-owned builders to the needs of large corporations that required scalability of insta-grow suburbs to maintain quarterly profits for Wall Street and shareholders.

It never occurs to them, that the suburban model is over. Done. Finished.

The Florida legislature that passed this bill and Gov. Charlie Crist know perfectly well what they did: they took out an important middle man who they had tried to eliminate for years: the Florida Department of Community Affairs and its authority to review Developments of Regional Impact.

In recent years, as a result of selective discrimination by real-estate dominated legislators, the agency has been cut to a bare bones staff of professional planners. DCA is charged with managing growth although one would be hard pressed to say what growth in Florida has been managed. From time to time DCA gets its day in court-- as in recent votes from Miami-Dade County Commissioners to move the Urban Development Boundary. But when local governments send, or "transmit"-- development applications to Tallahassee for DCA review, lobbyists and legislators (often, its just a revolving door) take turns whacking the heads off DCA when its senior staff pop up to object.

Gov. Crist signed the ridiculously named "Community Investment Act" into law earlier this week; a political calculation to avoid being boxed in, by the more conservative and developer-friendly former Speaker of the House, Jeb Bush stand-in Marco Rubio.

In 2010, Florida voters may have a chance to express their opinion of state leadership. It is called Florida Hometown Democracy; a citizen's initiative to change the Florida Constitution by referendum requiring that changes to local comprehensive growth plans be subject to popular vote.



Crist signs bill loosening controls on growth

By PAUL QUINLAN

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, June 01, 2009

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Charlie Crist bucked environmental groups and local governments Monday by signing a bill that development interests say will discourage urban sprawl and jump-start Florida's stalled building industry.

Opponents said the new law will accomplish the opposite - encouraging sprawl and sticking taxpayers with the costs of easing traffic created by a new development.

"I think that it's going to backfire," said Joanne Davis, community planner with the growth-watchdog group 1000 Friends of Florida, which twice e-mailed supporters Monday to call Crist's office and urge his veto.

"In order to help the developers help themselves, the taxpayers are going to have to bear the burden of the cost, which - well, I can't afford it," she said. "I don't know who else can."

Palm Beach County Commissioner Karen Marcus said, "I don't think the legislature has any idea what they have just done to the people of Florida."

Existing growth laws required developers to pay for the roads needed to handle the traffic their projects would generate. But the new law eliminates that requirement, known as "concurrency," in the state's urban areas, including Palm Beach and seven other counties.

Supporters said it will revive the idled housing industry and steer building toward urban areas.

"Not only will this bill help jump-start our economy, it actually provides for greater protections for our state's most sensitive areas and will help to limit sprawl," said Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce. "This is the type of legislation our state needs if we are going to prepare for the 7 million additional residents expected in this state by 2030."

Opponents such as Audubon of Florida lobbied against language inserted at the last minute that eased the hurdles for creating and extending "urban service areas" into rural counties. That allowed traffic rules and the review process for large developments to be circumvented.

The bill also extends the expiration date of existing development permits by two years. Business groups say this will allow developers to wait out the recession.

"We need to put people back to work," said Brian Paul, CEO of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches.

Paul and others have said the bill ensures local governments could not abuse their power to block projects.

But Florida Association of Counties President Rodney Long said his group feared the bill would strip local governments of the one tool that lets them regulate growth and maintain quality standards.

"With limited funds for transportation improvements, concurrency has been the one tool a community can use to ensure that growth and transportation are in sync," Long said. "By taking this away in such large areas, the people of our state will inevitably suffer."

Has Miami Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas inadvertently done something GOOD? By Geniusofdespair

She gets her favorite photo when she behaves!
The Vile one sponsored legislation, that passed, which requires lenders to maintain foreclosed properties once they become vacant. “Maintenance includes controlling the overgrowth of grass, weeds, or other plant life; storage or managing any junk, trash, abandoned property, or solid waste on the lot; and upkeep of the swale area which is next to the property if the lot is adjacent to a County right-of-way.”

ONC (formerly Team Metro) is responsible for enforcement. Good luck with that part. It passed in December 2008, but it is still awaiting an implementation order. Why? I think this a good ordinance, because, as Gimleteye pointed out earlier in the week, we don’t want debris flying around from these properties during hurricanes.

One has to wonder, what was her motive for this one? In her press release she forgot to mention that Carlos Gimenez ALSO sponsored this ordinance. Wonder who thought it up? Anyway, looks like a new business opportunity is at hand: Managing exteriors of foreclosed homes for lenders.

TV Commentator Michael Putney on County Commissioner Discrectionary Funds. By Geniusofdespair

I hate to toot my own horn but I have been complaining about these funds since Nov. 18, 2006 and in multiple posts thereafter! Putney wrote about it today in an op ed (Get rid of officials' slush funds) almost 3 years later. And, I did call the Inspector General's office Michael Putney. They said they NEVER did an audit on any of these Discretionary Fund recipients. And, you miss one point: Why can't we give to most of the charities ourselves? Why do we need Commissioners to give OUR MONEY and get all the accolades? I am glad to see that Gimenez has softened his position and that Sorenson is open to change. According to Putney:

Katy Sorenson, who says she'd be willing to forgo the current discretionary spending arrangement in favor of a regular budget process in which the commission collectively allocated the money.

Gimenez says that he would consider it, too. They're on the right track.

Putney says:

Altogether, Miami-Dade commissioners give away almost $9.5 million annually, according to Miami Herald reporters Matt Haggman and Jack Dolan. The money comes from a variety of sources -- the majority from federal Community Development Block Grants -- but in the end it all comes from taxpayers. Most winds up in the pockets of small business people who need a little financial boost or with nonprofit, charitable and community-based organizations that provide generally worthwhile programs and services.

But some unknown part of the money winds up in the hands of people whose principal qualification is simply knowing their county commissioner. Or perhaps it's the commissioner who wants to get to know his constituents and throws a little party for them, courtesy of his District Discretionary Fund. For example, ''Pepe's Summer Blast,'' thrown by Commissioner Jose ''Pepe'' Diaz at the bargain price of $10,850.

Former State Senate President Ken Pruitt to become a lobbyist ... by gimleteye

The Palm Beach Post blog reports: "State Sen. Ken Pruitt has joined a law firm specializing in land use...

Pruitt, who is not a lawyer, is working for Weiss, Handler, Angelos and Cornwell, a law firm with offices in Boca Raton and Port St. Lucie. The firm’s specialties include land use, commercial real estate and zoning, according to its web site. Pruitt resigned from his District 28 seat on the last day of the legislative session for financial and family reasons. The Port St. Lucie Republican served as Senate President from 2006-2008. Pruitt was a well-driller who became involved in real estate during his tenure as a lawmaker. He was first elected to the House in 1990 and joined the Senate in 2002."

I hadn't known much about Pruitt until 10 years ago, or so, when I was researching Florida's dirty secret: the widespread use of underground aquifers to dispose of scarcely treated municipal waste. During the Jeb Bush years, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection held data related to program as a state secret. I tried to pry the secret open, through Sunshine Act requests exactly how much dirty water was being "injected" into Florida's aquifers. I never did get the information until years later, when FDEP grudgingly acknowledged that more than a billion gallons per day of municipal wastewater is injected into Florida deep aquifers. The program, allowed with minimal supervision by federal agencies, was an integral piece of the housing boom. Why?

All those suburban developments needed a cheap place to put their waste water. Municipalities and counties were forced by developers to offer cheap alternatives in order to provide low cost housing to buyers and speculators: that's why Miami-Dade county has been pumping nearly 100 million gallons per day, for decades, deep under Mount Trashmore. What does this have to do with Pruitt?

As a former well driller, Pruitt has been a strong supporter in state government of drilling as a way to "solve" Everglades restoration problems, through aquifer storage and recovery well technology, and underground injection wells. They haven't solved anything. A more moderate, less radical approach to growth might have saved Florida from the considerable pain the state and municipalities are going through. It was the marriage of politics and bad economics that lead to the worst crisis since the Great Depression. Politicians like Ken Pruitt were right in the middle of it.

Not only is Port St. Lucie one of the hardest hit areas in Florida with ghost town suburbs, it is an area hit by enormous pollution problems related to the St. Lucie estuary. It's no surprise that Pruitt will try to capitalize on his relationships by becoming a land use lobbyist. He has lots of company.

North Miami Election Results: Andre Pierre is Mayor. By Geniusofdespair

(FOR 2011 RESULTS HIT OUR MASTHEAD)

Immigration Lawyer Andre D. Pierre (pictured) is the new Mayor with 2,870 votes, or 53.2%. Frank Wolland got 2,525 votes or 46.8%. Michael Blynn narrowly retained his seat on the Council, he won by 14 votes.

Didn't like Frank's campaign manager Mike Caputo but I like Frank. I think in some ways the Biscayne Landing Development interests influenced the election against Frank with funding to other candidates. However, it is sort of "developer" payback as Mike Caputo has been a shill for the development industry, attacking Hometown Democracy. Karma return, watch your friends Frank. I hope Pierre does a good job. Don't know him or anything about him.

While Gov. Crist and Marco Rubio lock in battle for the US Senate, Florida is the victim ... by gimleteye

Fanatic: A person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm, as for a cause.

If there was any question whether Florida's economy is being choked by growth fanatics, the question was put to rest yesterday when Gov. Charlie Crist, who built a solid environmental record for his Senate run, signed the worst legislation to come down the Florida pike in a long time. Republicans run Florida, despite the growing lead by Democrats in registering new voters for state-wide elections. But before Charlie Crist gets a chance to persuade the new more moderate Florida in the general election, he has to run past the old Republican guard, representing the radical Jeb Bush wing of the party, packaged in the form of the former House Speaker from Miami, Marco Rubio.

Yesterday, Crist signed into law the "Growth Whenever Act". To understand why he signed into law this horrendous piece of legislation, you have to track back to Marco Rubio's hometown political base in Miami.

Poor Miami. It is a place like Chinatown, the famous Jack Nicholson movie whose character Jake Gittes is tragically drawn back, despite his best efforts, to the alluring, exotic, corruption of the place. Rubio did not accomplish much as the first Cuban-American House Speaker in Florida history. He is not well-known throughout the state because voters are so turned off by state government that they try to put it out of mind. That’s also part of the Chinatown story: there are some things you can never forget no matter how hard you try. What Rubio is, is well-connected to the Growth Machine that turned Miami-Dade farmland into examples of the worst excesses of overdevelopment, sprawl, and traffic congestion in the nation.

Rubio was anointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush as his proxy, when Crist supplanted him in the Governor’s Mansion. From the very first, Crist sought-- in his most amiable way-- to distance himself from the dark side of Jeb Bush: eight years of radical polarization in the state capitol marked by winners, who hewed to the Bush line, and losers who had the temerity to offer diverse points of view. The short-tempered Bush commanded through loyalty and micro-management and was driven by a conservative ideology that was not successful in itself so much as it was the lucky beneficiary of Florida's housing boom.

The hallmarks of that ideology were the conviction that markets and industries could police themselves better than regulation; exactly the framework of the legislation that Gov. Crist signed into law yesterday.

The ridiculously-named “Community Renewal Act” represents anything but “renewal”. It is more aptly called “The Bailout Bill for Land Speculators”, aimed to appease developers down in the dump who need a piece of good news, any news, to make it easier to swallow the massive hits to their net worth through property market decline and their ill-advised purchases of raw land at speculative values whose monthly holding costs are burning cash at an alarming rate.

The bill does two things principally: it eliminates the need for “traffic concurrency” in urban areas. That state planning requirement is meant to address taxpayer and voter frustration with mind-numbing traffic congestion. But the fanatical elements of the Growth Machine slipped in a poison pill; redefining urban as areas “with an average of at least 1,000 people per square mile or in counties with populations of at least 1 million.” In other words, a significant barrier to suburban sprawl has just been eliminated for the rural areas and wetlands critical to the environment and the Everglades.

The sole statement in the Governor’s press release is downright wistful, “"It's probably one of those bills where no one's going to be overly happy on either side of the argument. So hopefully, it's right down the middle and will be able to stimulate our economy and not do harm to our beautiful state." It is not right down the middle by a long shot, unless you are in love with median strips and swales in highways that the state and federal government count as "functional wetlands”.

In the St. Pete Times, 1000 Friends president Charles Pattison said, "The areas being exempted are not the ones that are urban and dense," Pattison said. "This is clearly meant to benefit development interests." Those interests certainly are happy with the new law "Our economy needs the shot in the arm that this legislation will provide," said John Sebree, the Florida Association of Realtors vice president for public policy. Associated Industries of Florida president and CEO Barney Bishop said the state's prosperity hinges on its ability to grow and the new law will provide a spark by "easing the regulatory burdens that have been stifling economic growth.” Florida Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Mark Wilson also praised the legislation while criticizing "special interests and others" for making "a last-minute push to politicize" the issue.”

The last minute push the Growth Machine refers to was the massive public outpouring of opposition to the “Growth Anywhere Act”. Gov. Crist had intended to publicly sign the bill last week but an avalanche of calls, emails, and faxes pushed the issue off his daily schedule. Citizens who have been fighting bad growth in Florida for decades—well before the current economic crisis disclosed its rotted core—had reason to hope that Crist would veto the bill.

It didn’t happen, and not because Crist somehow came to his Chamber of Commerce senses and resisted the attempts by “special interests and others” to politicize the issue. Crist allowed this terrible bill to become law for approximately 254, 491 reasons. That is the amount of money recorded as campaign contributions in Marco Rubio’s quarterly campaign finance report, filed on April 9, 2009 at exactly 4:50PM.

If Crist needed more time in the past week to think about signing the “Growth Whenever Act”, it was likely to give his advisors more time to game play the harsh reality of raising money in Florida, as a moderate running against Marco Rubio and the remnants of the Jeb Bush machine. What you can see in the Marco Rubio Senate Exploratory Committee, Inc. report is enough tell-tale signs of trouble from the Miami branch of the Growth Machine that propelled Jeb Bush to office in 1998.

Here are a few of the highlights. Caesar Alvarez, CEO of Greenberg, Traurig the Miami-based law firm whose origins are tied to Miami land use law for zoning and permitting sprawl in farmland and wetlands, $2400, Alan Becker, Becker and Poliakoff, a Miami-based law firm with an extensive zoning and land use permitting practice with close ties to Rubio, $2300, Ronald Book, ubiquitous lobbyist, $2400, Silvio Cardoso, former president of the Latin Builders Association and sprawl builder, $2400, Santiago Echemendia, Tew and Cardenas, the law firm mostly closely associated with Jeb Bush, $1000, Herman Echevarria, a political consultant close to former Miami Dade mayor Alex Penelas and an array of Latin Builders, $2400, Ann Herberger, Bush family fundraiser, $1400, Miami-Dade lobbyist Jorge Luis Lopez, $1000, Miami-Dade political consultants Marin and Son, total of $7200, Mestre family interests in Redland garbage and land development, total $12,200, Milton family interests, Miami’s major developer campaign contributors, total $4800, Miami sprawl developer Stanley Tate and family, $4800.

The Woods Herberger Group received $30,000 as campaign finance consultants during this period.

Also of note, along the lines of no good deed goes unpunished: Crist’s massive effort to put US Sugar lands into public ownership that garnered so much good press and goodwill with Floridians, significantly antagonized Fanjul family interests, sugar barons who are powerfully connected to the Miami-based Growth Machine by employing legions of downtown lawyers over decades to cement their interests on top of wetlands. The “Growth Anywhere Act” clearly accrues to their interests.
Contributions to Rubio from the Fanjuls interests total $11,200: (Cantens, $1000, Dominicis, $2400, Oscar Hernandez, $1000, Albert Recio, $1000, Armando Tabernilla, $1000, Jose ‘Pepe’ Fanjul Sr., $2400, Jose Fanjul Jr., $2400)

Understand that these contributions, while they may seem “big money”, are just telltale signs of the millions that will be required to wage a primary battle by Rubio, who is running as the true conservative, against Crist whose popularity will have more traction in the general election if he is resourceful enough to survive a primary where the putative claims of a resurgent Republican will be on full display, with the protective shielf of Jeb Bush. Recently, Jeb Bush Jr. “endorsed” Marco Rubio.

The growth fanatics are struggling through the worst climate for development since the Great Depression. They banked a lot of wealth during the housing market asset bubble—from cement and rock mining, to highway construction and engineering infrastructure, to building sprawling suburbs. The state of Florida is wracked by the economic crisis and is cutting services to alarming levels. But most Floridians are clueless how Republicans who run Florida are itching for their shot to use economic stimulus in whatever form it arrives and whoever gives it to them to rebuild their net worth through rapacious development.

Florida is not only swamped with foreclosures, since 2007 more than 600,000 permits have been issued for new home construction: a number greater than all the housing starts anticipated in the entire US for 2009. Within the economic hurricane that has enveloped Florida is another isolated hurricane whipping through the Republican Party. If the Democrats, as evidenced by their annual event at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner, are behaving as though the economic crisis has no origins, no address, and no way out but platitudes—deserving only a side note by keynote speaker DNC Chair Tim Kaine—the Republicans clearly know what they want: giving free passes to the same Growth Machine that wrecked Floridians’ quality of life and put the economy in such jeopardy in the first place. That is what Charlie Crist did yesterday, pushing back optimistically at the grim legacy of fanatics who control Florida.

Want to Recognize Some of The Miami Herald Reporters Who Won the Sunshine State Awards. By Geniusofdespair

Thanks all of you for your excellent reporting:

The James Batten Award for Public Service and the Gene Miller Award for Investigative Reporting were awarded to Jack Dolan, Matt Haggman and Rob Barry for their series, ''Borrowers Betrayed,'' showing the state's failure to keep criminals out of the mortgage industry. Breaking News Photography, Patrick Farrell, for his photos of the destruction and deaths in Haiti caused by last year's storms. International Reporting, Jacqueline Charles, for her stories of the same storms and the human tragedy that followed.

Local Political Government Reporting, Larry Lebowitz, for his series, ''Taken for a Ride,'' highlighting widespread waste in Miami-Dade's transit tax program. (more)

Medical /Health Care/Science Reporting, Jay Weaver, for his series, ''South Florida's Medicare Racket,'' showing massive fraud among recipients of Medicare dollars.

Serious Column Writing, Fred Grimm, for his street columns on a wide range of topics, including the homeless beating trial, the Miami underpass camp for sex offenders and the impact of the Everglades land deal on Clewiston.

SB 360 No Veto Metamorphous of Charlie Crist by Geniusofdespair

Gov. Crist panders to radical speculators and land developers who crashed economy: signs SB 360 Bad Developers Bill ... by gimleteye

The Buzz, the St. Pete Times political blog, reports that Gov. Crist signed SB 360 behind closed doors, the same way this destructive bill was hatched. Check our archive for more detail..

June 01, 2009
Crist signs growth management bill

"As expected, Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday signed the bill that makes changes to Florida's growth laws. The bill (SB 360) loosens development rules in a number of areas with the intent of promoting economic development. It's a highly controversial piece of legislation, which explains Crist's decision to forgo any bill-signing ceremony in favor of a 5 p.m. statement by his press office."

More, from our blog on this, tomorrow.

Learning to Live With Climate Change Will Not Be Enough ... by gimleteye

David Orr, in the online publication of Yale's School of Environment and Forestry, writes an excellent summation of why "adaptation" to global warming will not be enough, by far, and why sharply reducing greenhouse gases now, also called mitigation, is the only chance to prevent widespread economic and social trauma. Here's one quote-worthy part: "Nicholas Stern, for one, estimates “that if we don’t act [soon], the overall costs and risks of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5 percent of global GDP each year, now and forever.” Who is Nicholas Stern? Click the link or 'read more' for the full text.

Learning to Live With Climate Change Will Not Be Enough
A leading environmentalist explains why drastically reducing carbon dioxide emissions now will be easier, cheaper, and more ethical than dealing with runaway climate destabilization later.
by David w. Orr

The awareness that humans could alter the climate of Earth has dawned slowly on our consciousness. In 1896, Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius deflected his anguish over a failed marriage into remarkably tedious and, as it turned out, accurate calculations about the effect of CO2 emissions on climate. It was an oddly therapeutic thing to do, but it had no more effect on public attention than the smallest cloud on a distant horizon.

Another 69 years would pass before scientists warned a U.S. president of the potential for serious climate disruption, and still another 30 years before the first report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Now, facing climate destabilization, our choices for action are said to be adapting to a warmer world or mitigating the severity of climate change by sharply reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Of course, neither adaptation nor mitigation alone will be sufficient, and sometimes they may overlap. But in a world of limited resources, money, and time we will be forced often to choose between the two. In making such choices, the major issues in dispute have to do with estimates of the pace, scale, and duration of climatic disruption. And here the scientific evidence tilts the balance strongly toward mitigation.

The argument for adaptation to the effects of climate change rests on a chain of logic that goes something like this: Climate change is real, but will be slow and moderate enough to permit orderly adaptation to changes that we can foresee and comprehend. Those changes will, in a few decades, plateau around a new, manageable stable state, leaving the gains of the modern world mostly intact — albeit powered by wind, solar, and as-yet-undreamed advanced technologies.

In other words, the developed world can adapt to climatic changes without sacrificing much. The targets for adaptation include developing heat- and drought-tolerant crops for agriculture, changing architectural standards to withstand greater heat and larger storms, and modifying infrastructure to accommodate larger storm events and rising sea levels, as well as prolonged heat and drought. These are eminently sensible and obvious measures that we must take.

But at some point there are limits to what can be done and the places in which such measures can be effective. With predicted changes in Arguments for mitigation are rather like those for tuning the water off in an overflowing tub before mopping. temperature, rainfall, and sea level rise, it is unlikely that we can “promote ecosystem resiliency” or adapt to such changes with “no regrets,” as some have suggested. On the contrary, ecological resilience and biological diversity will almost surely decline as climatic changes now underway accelerate, and going forward we will surely have a great many regrets — chiefly of the “why did we not do more to stop it earlier” sort.

Accordingly, more extreme adaptive measures called “geoengineering” are being discussed. These include proposals to fertilize oceans with iron to increase carbon uptake, or injecting sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere to increase the reflective albedo and thereby provide temporary cooling. But since the effects of geoengineering are largely unstudied and its risks largely unknown, it is a “true option of last resort” in the words of one analysis. Accordingly, “the best and safest strategy for reversing climate change is to halt the buildup of greenhouse gases,” as a recent article in Foreign Affairs suggests.

Proponents of mitigation, on the other hand, give priority to limiting the emission of heat trapping-gases as quickly as possible to reduce the eventual severity of climatic disruption. The essence of the case for mitigation is that:

Growing scientific evidence indicates that the effects of climate change will be greater and will occur faster than previously thought.

The duration of climate effects will last for thousands of years, not decades.

We are in a very tight race to avoid causing irreversible changes that would seriously damage or destroy civilization.

The effects of climate destabilization can be contained perhaps only by emergency action to stabilize and then reduce CO2 levels.

Practically, climate mitigation means reversing the addition of carbon to the atmosphere by making a rapid transition to energy efficiency and renewable energy. Arguments for mitigation, in other words, are rather like those for turning the water off in an overflowing tub before mopping. Those advocating mitigation believe that we are in a race to reduce the forcing effects of heat-trapping gases before we cross various thresholds — some known, some unknown — tipping us into irretrievable disaster beyond the ameliorative effects of any conceivable adaptation.

There are five reasons why focusing on mitigation is a far-better choice than emphasizing adaptation. First, the record shows that climate change is occurring much faster than previously thought, will affect virtually every aspect of life in every corner of Earth, and will last far longer than we’d once believed. The small cloud that Arrhenius saw on the distant horizon in 1896 is growing into a massive storm, dead ahead.

The effects of climatic destabilization, in other words, will be global, pervasive, permanent, and steadily — or rapidly — worsening. Given the roughly 30-year lag between what comes out of our tail pipes and Adaptation targets will often move faster than we can anticipate as climate disruption becomes manifest. smokestacks, the climate change-driven weather effects we now see are being caused by emissions that occurred in the late 1970s. What is in store 30 years ahead when the forcing effects of our present 387 parts per million of CO2 are manifest? Or further out when, say, the warming and acidifying effects of 450 parts per million of CO2 — or higher — on the oceans have significantly diminished their capacities to absorb carbon? No one knows for certain, but trends in predictive climate science suggest that they will be much worse than once thought.

The implications for climate response strategies are striking. For example, it is now obvious that impacts will change as atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases rise, meaning adaptation targets will often move faster than we can anticipate as climate disruption becomes manifest in surprising ways. To what climatic conditions do we adapt? What happens when previous adaptive measures become obsolete, as they will?

Similarly, at every level of climate, forcing the changes will be difficult to anticipate, which raises questions of where and when to intervene effectively in complex ecological and social systems. Are there places in which no amount of adaptation will work for long? Given what is now known about the pace of sea-level rise, for example, what adaptive strategies can possibly work in New Orleans or South Florida, or much of the U.S. East Coast, or in those regions that will likely become progressively much hotter and dryer — and perhaps one day mostly inhabitable — under drastically worsened conditions?

Second, the implications of the choice between adaptation and mitigation do not fall just on those able, perhaps, to temporarily adapt to climatic destabilization, but rather on those who lack the resources to adapt, and to future generations who will have to live with the effects of whatever atmospheric chemistry we leave behind. The choice between mitigation and adaptation, in other words, is one about ethics and justice in the starkest form. A few wealthy communities in the developed world may be able to avoid the worst for a time, but unless the emission of heat-trapping gases is soon reduced everywhere, worsening conditions will hit hardest those least able to adapt. The same can be said far more emphatically about future generations.

There is, third, a “stitch in time saves nine” economic argument for giving priority to mitigation. Stabilizing climate now will be expensive and fraught with difficulties, but it will be much cheaper and easier to do it sooner rather than later under much more economically difficult and ecologically harrowing conditions. Nicholas Stern, for one, estimates “that if we don’t act [soon], the overall costs and risks of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5 percent of global GDP each year, now and forever.”

Fourth, efforts to adapt to climate change will run into institutional barriers, established regulations, building codes, and a human tendency to react to — rather than anticipate — events. There are, in economist Robert Repetto’s words, “many reasons to doubt whether adaptive measures will be timely and efficient, even in the U.S. where the capabilities exist.”

In the best of all possible worlds, effective adaptation to the changes to which we are already committed would be complicated and difficult. In the real world of procrastination, denial, politics, and paradox, however, In the real world of procrastination, denial, and politics, anything like thorough adaptation is unlikely. anything like thorough adaptation is unlikely. Rather, it will be piecemeal, partial, sometimes counterproductive, wasteful, temporary, and — ultimately — largely ineffective. In contrast, measures pressing energy efficiency and renewable energy, as complicated as they are, will be much more straightforward, measurable, and achievable. And they have the advantage of resolving the causes of the problem, which has to do with anthropogenic changes to the carbon cycle.

Finally, beyond some fairly obvious and prudent measures, federal, state, and foundation support for climate adaptation gives the appearance that we are doing something serious about the looming climatic catastrophe. The political and media reality, however, is that efforts toward climatic adaptation will be used by those who wish to do as little as possible to block doing what is necessary to avert catastrophe.

The conclusion is inescapable: Adaptation must be a second priority to effective and rapid mitigation that limits the scale and scope of climatic destabilization. The priority must be given to efforts toward a rapid transition to energy efficiency and deployment of renewable energy. Until we get our priorities right, the emission of greenhouse gases will continue to rise beyond the point at which humans could ever adapt. In ecologist George Woodwell’s words, “The only adaptation is mitigation.”

We were first warned of global warming over a century ago and have lingered in increasingly dangerous territory in the belief that we can continue to burn massive amounts of fossil fuels without risking serious The emission of greenhouse gases will continue to rise beyond the point at which humans could ever adapt. climate destabilization. That fantasy is rapidly coming to an end. According to NASA’s James Hansen, we must move decisively to return CO2 levels to 300 or 350 parts per million. If we wait too long to prevent climate change, we will — perhaps sooner than later — create conditions beyond the reach of any conceivable adaptive measures. With sea level rise now said to be on the order of one to two meters by 2100, for example, we cannot save many low-lying places and species we would otherwise prefer to save. And sea levels and temperatures will not stabilize until long after the year 2100.

There will be unavoidable and tragic losses in the decades ahead, but far fewer if we act to contain the scope and scale of climate change now. No matter what we do to adapt, we cannot save some coastal cities, we will lose many species, and ecosystems will be dramatically altered by changes in temperature and rainfall. Our best course is to reduce the scale and scope of the problem with a sense of wartime urgency. And we better move quickly and smartly, while the moving’s good.

POSTED ON 01 JUN 2009 IN

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College. He is the author of five books, including Design on the Edge: The Making of a High Performance Building. His next book, Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse, will be published this summer.

© 2008 Yale Environment 360

Has County Commissioner Joe Martinez Learned Anything from The Jose Canseco Road Naming Fiasco?

Joe Martinez sponsored a resolution (which passed) to name a road after a young girl involved in a tragic accident. Yes, it is so sad that this girl died. It should be noted she was driving illegally with a restricted license at 11 pm, without an adult in the car. There is also a man involved in this accident. He had retrograde amnesia, was in a coma for at least a month, will never be able to use his right arm, he lost his good job and can never work again. He has over $1,000,000 in medical bills.

The police report says it is unclear who was at fault as there were no witnesses. They do know he was going straight but she might have been making a left or going straight. The homicide report might determine who is at fault. We don’t have that information.

What is the Miami Dade County criteria for street naming? If someone is driving illegally and might be at fault (we do not know) in a major, tragic accident, is it proper to name a street after them? Couldn’t Joe Martinez have waited till the dust settled on this one? Remember Joe with much fanfare recently, had to remove a street name, Jose Canseco, when drug use came into the picture.

In Florida, what if a real hurricane hits our ghost suburbs? by gimleteye

Miami-based AP reporter Tamara Lush, who wrote the AP story on foreclosures in Homestead, just printed another related story, "Foreclosed homes a problem during hurricane season". "Lehigh Acres and other communities at the epicenter of the nation's housing crisis are coming to realize that this year's hurricane season, beginning June 1, represents yet another pitfall. Hurricanes could make hazards of thousands of foreclosed-upon houses, and their diminished value could decrease even more." According to Zillow.com, there are 48917 residential properties for sale in Miami-Dade County. Of these 41494, or 85%, are in process of foreclosure. What happens and who pays if a moderately powerful hurricane strikes Miami-Dade? Let's do some more arithmetic.

Of course, if even a moderate hurricane hits South Florida, foreclosed homes are likely to be no one's immediate priority. That is a big problem.

Any home that is not properly secured could have all kinds of debris scattered around neighborhoods. Who will pay for that clean up? And how demoralizing will it be, after the storm, for neighborhoods to be surrounded by destroyed foreclosures? Once a hurricane passes, it will be imperative to make sure that minimal repairs are done to foreclosed properties to make them weather tight. Otherwise, water damage and mold could rapidly destroy remnant value and further depress neighborhood values. Another issue to consider: what happens to foreclosed condominiums breached by a hurricane, where water damage could extend directly into adjacent properties.

In a recent Miami Herald report, "... nearly nine out of every 10 sales in Homestead are distressed -- either banks selling foreclosed properties at rock-bottom prices or short sales, in which the lender allows the home to be sold for less than is owed on the mortgage. For South Florida as a whole, the number is 60 percent. To some housing experts, the numbers indicate a shift. ''We are seeing the limits of sprawl,'' said real estate analyst Michael Cannon." (Real estate bust turns South Dade suburbs into modern ghost towns, May 23, 2009)

And if a hurricane hits, we will really see the limits of sprawl.

The AP report notes that preparing foreclosed homes and securing them after the storm appears to be no one's priority. Or, at least, no one is thinking about it. Say a strong hurricane hit Miami-Dade, or even a moderate hurricane with heavy rainfall, breaching 20 percent of foreclosed homes with significant water damage. At an average price of $200,000, the losses would be $1.9 billion. Will the banks pay for the clean-up, or, will taxpayers be required to step up to help Florida?

If the county were required to "button up" foreclosed properties, how much would that cost? You can't secure a roof, shutter a house, and leave damaged drywall and furnishings inside. If the clean up cost were $20,000 per foreclosed house, the cost to Miami-Dade if a fifth of foreclosed houses were damaged enough to require work, would be $192 million.

I am not sure that anyone in local or state government has taken a close look at the issue, raised by the AP report. But with the state budget and local municipalities fighting serious deficits and scrounging for revenue, (and building a new professional baseball stadium in the case of Miami), it would be nice to know what contingency planning is in place. And if you live in a condominium, guess who will be paying a special assessment to close up foreclosed condos in your building, damaged by the storm? Foreclosures in Florida have already triggered tens of thousands of lawsuits in Florida (I couldn't find an exact number, but that would be an interesting story to report): imagine what will blow into county courts after a hurricane.

Pray that global warming will reduce subtropical hurricane activity in the Atlantic, not intensify it.


Foreclosed homes a problem during hurricane season
By TAMARA LUSH
The Associated Press
Sunday, May 31, 2009 11:17 AM

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. -- Mike Manikchand points toward his neighbors _ a half-dozen empty, foreclosed-upon homes, sitting on weed-strewn yards _ and he wonders: What will happen if a hurricane slams into southwest Florida this year?

His simple answer: "A lot of these places will get destroyed."

Unoccupied, these homes would be defenseless in a storm; there will be no one to put up shutters, batten down garage doors and otherwise secure homes. But that's not all. Nearby homes and their residents would also be at risk from wind-propelled debris.

Lehigh Acres and other communities at the epicenter of the nation's housing crisis are coming to realize that this year's hurricane season, beginning June 1, represents yet another pitfall. Hurricanes could make hazards of thousands of foreclosed-upon houses, and their diminished value could decrease even more.

"Here's your choice," said Julie Rochman, president of the Tampa-based Institute for Business and Home Safety. "Spend a little bit of time and money to secure the properties to withstand wind and water or not do the right thing and have the homes become damaged and are valued less."

The Associated Press Economic Stress Index _ a month-by-month analysis of foreclosure, bankruptcy and unemployment rates in more than 3,000 U.S. counties _ confirms that some of the areas most likely to be stuck by a hurricane are suffering the most in this recession.

In March, there were 281,691 homes in foreclosure in Florida and coastal counties in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Lee County, where Manikchand lives, is among the hardest-hit counties in the country. A 22-year-old pharmacy student, he took advantage of a dismal housing market and bought a foreclosed duplex for $36,000.

In coming months, he and millions of others along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts will dutifully track tropical weather forecasts and stockpile batteries, flashlights and tins of tuna, hoping that hurricanes blow harmlessly out to sea.

But who will secure all the foreclosed homes if a storm does approach? No one really knows.

In some cases, a property management company hired by the bank could do the work. Or it could be a real estate agent, a homeowners' association or even resourceful neighbors who clear debris from yards and board windows. Yet no state laws mandate who prepares buildings before a hurricane; even officials from the Florida Division of Emergency Management say that securing foreclosures isn't a concern.

"It's not an aspect that we really deal with," said John Cherry, the agency's external affairs director. "Our No. 1 concern is life safety."

Quick evacuation will be the priority, not securing vacant homes, if a major storm looms, others say. But shutterless homes can be a major safety hazard in a hurricane. And a region full of destroyed or heavily damaged homes would depress real estate values even further.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters have projected a near normal year for hurricanes. They predicted nine to 14 named tropical storms, including four to seven hurricanes. One to three of the hurricanes are expected to be major.

Randall Webster, director of the Horry County Emergency Management Department in South Carolina, said if a storm does hit, properties in foreclosure could slow recovery if the county can't immediately find the owner, "especially if it were in a neighborhood where others around it were taking care of business and this one gets in rough shape," he said.

The issue of who cares for vacant homes during a time of crisis seems simple: The legal owner is responsible for securing the property. But communities are already struggling to get banks to mow lawns, much less put up hurricane shutters _ if they weren't swiped from the foreclosed home, along with appliances, copper wiring and air conditioners.

If the bank hasn't yet taken the title of a home, the property is in a kind of limbo, and local officials or homeowners associations may have no legal right to trespass and secure it. And many hard-hit counties don't have the money or manpower to do it.

"Simple logistics tells me (the banks) don't have the staff to follow up," said Kenneth Wilkinson, property appraiser for Lee County, which in March had the third-highest foreclosure rate in the United States, after California's Merced County and Nevada's Clark County.

There are some places that are trying to board up windows and batten down garage doors, although largely to stave off crime. Wellington, in Palm Beach County, has gone to court to receive the legal OK to board up homes. And in Cape Coral, city officials have passed an ordinance that requires the owner of a foreclosed home to pay $150 to register the address and provide a contact number for the person who will maintain the property.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aaronson has asked county attorneys to research whether it is legal to board up empty homes.

"If we board them up, we're protecting them," Aaronson said. "Hopefully we will be able to keep some of the value up."

Aaronson contends that the banks don't always maintain the homes and doesn't expect that they will in the days before a storm _ and if the county takes over that responsibility, then he wants the banks to pay.

"We want to use the full power we have as a government to levy the greatest fines that we can to penalize banks for not taking care of the properties," he said.

Horry County's Webster says there might be another way for public officials to take matters into their own hands.

"If it became deemed a public health issue or public safety hazard, the county would have some legal recourse to secure it in terms of making it off limits or safer," said Webster, whose county includes Myrtle Beach and has seen foreclosures rise over the past year.

Some banks say that they have a plan for hurricanes; JP Morgan Chase says it will use property management companies and bank field employees to make sure properties are storm-ready. And if the homes are damaged or destroyed during a storm, said Michael Fusco, a spokesman for JP Morgan Chase, the bank "acts just like a homeowner" and will file an insurance claim.

Debora Blume, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo Bank, said her company hires local real estate agents who have been assigned to market bank-owned properties to secure homes against hurricane damage.

But one real estate agent in the Fort Myers area said the process of putting the maintenance work out to bid and then getting approval from the bank that owns the property might not be workable as a storm bears down.

"During a hurricane, we need to get out of town, not wait for approval for funding to secure a building," said Suzanne Sherer, president of the Realtors Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beaches. "I won't have time to get a bid from a handyman."

In Lee County, metal hurricane shutters cover a few new, unsold homes. Many empty homes have swing sets in the yard, garbage cans strewn in the driveway and loose roof tiles, all of which could become projectiles during a storm.

Sherer said it would be "devastating" if a powerful storm similar to Hurricane Charley, which hit nearby Charlotte County in 2004, struck Lee County.

In Galveston, Texas, where more than 17,000 home were damaged by Hurricane Ike last year, there are still many empty homes _ but not because of foreclosures. The properties were damaged during the storm and owners don't have the money to rebuild.

"These homeowners have the biggest hurdles as far as getting back into their homes," City spokeswoman Alicia Cahill said. "A lot of the homes that were affected were lower income to moderate income families who didn't have a huge insurance policy or a lot of extra cash lying around to make repairs."

Tybee, Ga., mayor Jason Buelterman says officials there haven't considered potential problems with foreclosures during storm season. Their first priority, he said, is assuring the safety of island residents and tourists if a hurricane heads their way. Dealing with foreclosed homes will be an afterthought.

Yet residents throughout the hurricane zone are worried, especially those who live in foreclosure-dotted neighborhoods. Armando Gonzalez, 72, retired from Miami to Lehigh Acres five years ago.

He and his wife moved to a small home a few blocks from the city center, in a quiet yet thriving neighborhood. But in the last two years, his neighbors left, either because of foreclosure or job loss. Now he's the only one on his block; the home next to him has a broken window and the one across the street is only half-built.

When asked what would happen to all the nearby, dilapidated homes if a hurricane hit, Gonzalez shrugged and grinned.

"I can't do anything," he said. "Maybe I'll pray. God will save me."

___

Associated Press writers Kelli Kennedy in Miami, Michael Schneider in Orlando, Russ Bynum in Tybee Island, Ga., Juan A. Lozano in Galveston and Bruce Smith in Myrtle Beach, S.C. contributed to this report.

© 2009 The Associated Press
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