The Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce -- that not so long ago didn't even have the business acumen to keep its bank account safe from its own employees-- endorsed big-time casinos downtown recently. What else would you expect from an organization whose mission disappeared long ago in the urban and suburban mess it substantially helped create.
This week data cruncher Sperling's Best Places rated America's Most Stressful Cities, 2012: of the top five, three are in Florida. Why? Because no fast-growing state in the nation allowed itself to be chopped into bits and pieces to favor developers and land speculators like Florida. We sold ourselves-- and keep selling ourselves-- to the lowest bidder. The result is a predictable mess: TRAFFIC, DEGRADED QUALITY OF LIFE, POOR SCHOOLS AND FAILING INFRASTRUCTURE. But gee: wasn't "growth" supposed to pay its own way? When civic activists and environmentalists complained at public zoning hearings or against building permits, that's what they were told for a hundred years: we need to expand our tax base as quickly as possible to provide the "great" services that government provides its taxpayers. If the muttering of the people grew too loud? Never mind: build sports stadiums and Performing Arsht Centers to please the people.
The game in Florida-- long supported by the Chamber-- has always been to artificially depress the costs of development. Water supply and water quality, for example, instead of being protected at its source was fobbed off to future generations to worry about. What the housing market crash proves is that all the speculators, sprawl developers and their bankers (US Century Bank, anyone?) were dead wrong. There are hundreds of thousands of families in Miami-Dade hurting right now and wondering who is to blame.
Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall ranks as the 3rd most stressful city in America. Thank you, Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce!
4 comments:
Blaming the Chamber of Commerce for these assorted ills only makes sense if you toss in a host of others, starting with elected officials who actually make the rules by which these destructive activities and processes are regulated (or not). The Chamber is relatively weak: for a while the so-called Non-Group was a bigger player. Besides, it's a statewide problem, not just a local phenomenon.
Having seen the impact of gambling on Atlantic City firsthand (unlike just about everybody, pro and con, who has weighed in on the subject), I think it has great economic and cultural potential IF HANDLED PROPERLY, something AC majestically failed at. At one point, there were 40,000 jobs created -- in a city of 40,000.
Gimleteye is so right. I can not believe the first comment. I spent many, many years in Atlantic City. I saw the first casinos and watched them ruin the City. The only people who do well with casinos are the owners themself.
Come on Squathole- you think anyone in Florida will/can handle ANYTHING properly? Name me on thing. It will turn into a boondoggle for us living with it and a good thing for the parasites in the rest of the State benefitting from our stupidity.
Casinos do nothing for any community. I find it disgusting that the Genting people hired people to work the streets during a recent event in Little Havana.
Why isn't anyone talking about the employment rates in the Casino Communities of Vegas and Atlantic City? Casinos certainly didn't help the Nevada employment numbers.
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