Here is what the race to the bottom looks like: read the nonsense, below.
I don't know whoever wrote this open letter distributed at a public meeting recently. Jose Fernandez comes from the Alice Pena School of Communication. Pena has represented the 8 1/2 Square Mile residents who hate government and agencies charged with protecting the Everglades. For more than 20 years she has obstructed, vilified, and impugned the integrity of public officials, conservationists, and by extension tax payers who are carrying the costs of protecting an area that should never have been built out, because it is so close to wetlands and prone to flooding.
Now, Pena is at the head of a county "committee" to rewrite environmental regulations. Put there by County Commissioner Lynda Bell who has also elevated speculators and large land owners who can't wait to turn their green fields into strip malls and crappy subdivisions. Pena is their mouthpiece. Bell is her protector. The unreformable majority of the county commission and Mayor Carlos Gimenez -- who sat by idly while common sense was ground to dust -- are to blame.
The Fernandez jeremiad is filled with hatred and vitriol against government. It is complete paranoid nonsense but it is nonsense that has gained traction because elected officials refuse to call it out, for what it is.
Pena and supporters like James Humble have been stoking irrational fears against government for decades in far West Dade (Humble made millions in profit from the federal government by speculating on The Frog Pond adjacent to the Everglades with fellow big farmer investors), where nothing is a "compromise" with government so long as there is one more government bureaucrat alive to skin.
This idea of a "land grab" by DERM -- an environmental agency of the county that has been hacked to pieces the way the Hutu set upon the Tutsi in the Congo -- is ludicrous. And yet. And yet. And yet these views have been advanced by the silence of the unreformable majority of the county commission.
The destruction of public respect for government has happened right under the noses of county commissioners who not only refuse to condemn this nonsense: they actually endorse it. Alice Pena was granted the right to personally address the county commission -- outside the scheduled agenda and going around the due process to ensure that government would be fair and equitable to all points of view and perspectives -- when Joe Martinez and Pepe Diaz called her to the dais to verbally knife what remains of environmental authority and regulation in the county. It was pathetic. It was highly damaging to already damaged morale in county government. (Click the link to read the three-part essay we published on the Pena debacle.)
No one, and I mean no one stood up to condemn the Alice Pena vitriol. If you pull that thread all the way to the end, you get the kind of anti-government zealots and Tea Party crazies and elected officials -- even the highest -- who have implicitly fostered public hysteria, ignorance, and the race to the bottom.
19 comments:
They always insist they are not in wetlands. They are protected by a levee.
This is scary stuff. Where was this distributed? It sounds pretty threatening and I hope that we don't read about attacks on code enforcement officers fueled by this type of thing. There are some pretty crazy people out there. You are right that elected officials need to begin to stand up to this kind of rhetoric.
Until a group of mature citizens comes together to ask for responsible government, the Braman-fueled crazies will control the agenda.
A man driven by vengeance, and deep pockets to satisfy his want for destruction, is a dangerous combination. I don't expect Alvah Chapman to come back from the dead to save us, but a group of serious citizens is desperately needed to halt the erosion of our civic infrastructure.
My optimism is waning every day. I admit to losing hope for this community.
Braman is not off-base, he is just poorly informed. His heart is in the right place, but he needs to have a deeper understanding of where he is putting his money. I mean, he doesn't invest in his businesses without knowing the details and facts. He should apply the same principle to his civic work.
Agree with the comment above. I think he hasn't vetted this candidate...so we are doing it for him.
Just a reminder, today could be the day City of Miami could pave the way for billboard advertising in our parks!!!! Help stop it.
City of Miami ordinance (SR1) coming up for second and final reading on Thursday, May 24. The ordinance authorizes illegal LED outdoor advertising signs on The Children's Museum, the Olympia/Gusman Theatre, the Knight Center and in City parks larger than 20 acres with no indication of the number of faces or the directions or the locations of the signs, and no notice to the community or neighborhoods of the decisions on these issues by the Planning Director. There is no appeal of the decisions. The ordinance strikes the Miami 21 outdoor advertising regulations. It is illegal under the County Code.
Now that they are in charge-- humble, bell, and pina -- everyone can see what a disaster they are.
Why is the mainstream media not reporting this....?
They reap what they sow. Remember how the one time the county commission (and Dennis Moss!) took a stand, it was to spend money on their own PR / newsletter to "combat" communities and groups that wanted to protect the Urban Development Boundary. Sad, sad, sad.
Every effort needs to be made that alice pena does not succed in becoming commisioner also genius we need MEDIA COVERAGE ON THIS ASSAULT ON THE ENVIRONMENT
It appears to me every "sick puppy" has taken residence in Miami Dade County. We the grownups are dealing with some dangerous people and extreme radical thinkers. Its quite frightening.
I am sure the citizens of Miami Dade will be responding in mass numbers against these fools.. We will expose them for their mean spirited and vindictive ways. Commissioners I can understand why you have so many challenging you.
Stand up against these fools your constinuency will stand with you.
Yes all 11% that vote. Nobody cares and that is the problem.
For those who live in Palmetto Bay and support environmental protections that have served us well - or at least better than nothing - for the past 30+ years, have a look at your candidate for Vice Mayor, John Dubois position on DERM.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGptTtwkTy0
Brought to you by none other than the same person that penned the open letter posted here.
for those of you that voted for this evil witch in district 8 should be ashamed, but there is an opportunity to vote her out soon ,as for district 9 if ALICE PENA IS A CANDIDATE DO NOT VOTE FOR HER SHE IS WORSE and anti environment PERIOD !!!, if she becomes commisioner the fate of the remaining agriculture and environmentally sensitive land left will be gone
Yep, every single elected representative in Miami mirrors Jose. Who said democracy is over?
They own property in the middle of the Everglades but they say they are surprised to learn that their property is on wetlands. They are idiots.
Just venal and greedy. And probably think of themselves as upright and moral guardians of the truth.
Environment and wetlands are too big of subjects for most people to get their heads around. But talk about destroying the fresh water supply they drink and you get a lot more attention.
Private and public property rights go both ways. In fact, regulations meant to protect the public interest need to be strengthened when it comes to Big Business.
I am not a “greeny” but messing with my drinking water will bring out the fight in me.
The people that live in the 8.5 area are not idiots. It is their home they are defending no different than you or I would do if the government wanted to take our home for this cause or that. It is human nature to protect what is yours.
The government takes our property every day with the taxes they take from our labors. Yet we all know that we need some level of government or else what do we have?
If that area is so needed to protect the Everglades and thus our water supply then the State or Feds should pay them off with some huge amount of money to get them to move. And after making them a more than generous offer and they still refuse to move than limit the time they can live on the property - your lifetime. After that it converts to "wetlands". It will be cheap compared to the cost of producing fresh water from salt water.
Genius, you can vet this candidate all you want and it will not matter. Dennis Moss voted for the Marlins Stadium.
Braman is a one-issue crusader, using and manipulating people to exact revenge on those who dared to vote against his wishes...and he did not want another billionaire to get what he could not: public money for a stadium.
Philadelphia refused Braman's request, and he could not bear to see Loria succeed where he failed. Braman is not interested in reform, he just wants to punish those who granted Loria his wish.
Attacking Moss with a woman named Pena (pain in English) is a perfect fit with Braman's purposes.
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