John Dorschner is the resident expert at The Herald on public corruption. The Sunday's paper features the proliferation of corruption on both the front page and editorial sections. We also, at Eyeonmiami, specialize in this area; sometimes holding the Herald to account for failing to pick up regular daily coverage of the issues.
Although the reports dig at sources of corruption: "The Roots of Corruption" and "Who's most corrupt?", the paper oddly fails to acknowledge that the lack of diversity in the economy is mostly responsible. Land speculators, rock miners, developers and big industrial farming interests have turned Florida into a chop shop. The limits of law, outlined by regulations, are constantly pushed and while there is nothing wrong in principle with going right up to the edge of the law, it has become routine-- in the pursuit of growth at any cost-- to widen and expand those grey areas; allowing ethics and personal responsibility to become house jokes. (Bright lines of the law? Any number of federal environmental permitting cases, like the Lake Belt, stretching for nearly a decade make mockery of that notion. In fact, the Lake Belt serves as the great example of a "grey area" that would never be tolerated in other parts of the nation, where protecting water sheds and water quality is a higher public purpose than paving for warehouses or digging pits that are conduits for pollution.)
There is an interesting difference with other states and cities where wealth is generated by nurturing human capital. A snatch and grab economy is inadequate to self-police the impulses of snatching and grabbing. A reasonable people would apply much tougher prohibitions against letting the grabbers run government and the public commons. But we are not a reasonable people. In the Age of Stupid, rapid sea level rise may be the best way to flush out corruption in Florida.
8 comments:
Only in South Florida would the residents be so disdainful of the local environment and ecosystem as to allow large scale rock mining. The lake belt is sandwiched above the aquifer, between the Everglades and metropolitan Miami-Dade. From the air, it looks like a horrible scar and insult to the land.
We remain ignorant and uncaring about the sources of our drinking water and the environmental health of where we live. Another strip mall, more mini villas, and widened roads suit us just fine. Let the developers develop as they always have, as long as our air-conditioning works!
lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits are the only solution. name names and hold individuals accountable - including Eric Hughes.
Think of what we could do if we didn't have to spend all our civic energies fighting bad development.
Think of what we could do if we didn't have to fight to stave off environmental collapse.
Think of the money we'd have available for parks and renewable energy if we didn't waste our money fixing shoddy public works projects and building nuclear reactors.
I decided to stop complaining about corruption and do something constructive.
I'm running for Mayor of South Miami.
Someone had to.
Congratulations to Philip Stoddard. I hope he wins.
The challenge Mayor-candidate Stoddard is defining what is "bad development." Be assured that EOM's answer will be greatly different from those who own and invest in land. And remember this: cities require revenue to run; revenue is derived from increasing land values; your city, like all cities, needs development to thrive. Be forewarned.
Large residential developments cost more in services than they generate in tax revenues. For South Miami to thrive (as my neighbors define "thrive"), new development should fit the scale of the existing urban fabric. Hope that's clear.
Book to read: Corrupt Cities: A Practical Guide to Cure and Prevention
"...fit the scale of the existing urban fabric..." South Miami is kind of a hodge podge of development and doesn't really have much land available for large scale development. Where do you see a neeed to restrict large scale development?
In South Miami, our budget has increased from 10 million to 20 million over the last 10 years with the same services such as: trash pick up, police, etc. This increase occurred with the increase in development. As you can see an increase in development does not produce a lowering of taxes. It only increases opportunities for corruption.
This all occurred while Mayor Feliu was in office. Where did the money go? Mayor Feliu verbally did not want to lower the mileage rate and aggressively fought against it this year until he saw that he did not have the votes to keep our taxes high. He actually voted to increase the mileage rate in 2008 again after seeing a downturn in our economy.
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