Friday, November 16, 2012

Manny Diaz: Busy rewriting history ... by gimleteye

Manny Diaz has a new book heralding his "vision" during two terms as mayor of the city of Miami: a time when growth-on-steroids, fueled by funny money, made nearly every politician in Florida act as though they had scored a touchdown from their own end zone. Certainly the Growth Machine and all its components were on their feet cheering all the way. And why not? They were billing hours and taking commissions like there was no tomorrow.

The former mayor resembles the Miami Marlins, the professional baseball team that can find a silk purse in any sow's ear. Both Manny Diaz and the Miami Marlins are like the 19th century entrepreneurs who put lamps on the Florida coral reef, steering sailors in the dark to promise of safe passage, then when the ships wrecked claimed the ship's contents as their own.

On a cheerier note this Friday, take a look at the best football goal of the year in Europe. During a recent friendly match, Zlatan Ibrahimovich playing for Switzerland Sweden single-handedly beat England with four goals; the first time a player against England had ever scored so many goals in one game. Zlatan is surely the most entertaining giant to ever play professional football who behaves like a Greek god and plays like one often enough to be credible. Maybe on retirement he should move to Miami and run for mayor. This was the last of the four:


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not to nitpick but he plays for Sweden.

Gimleteye said...

My editor missed that one!

Unknown said...

Diaz is looking forward not backward. He wants the city to regain it's glory by stimulating new business. This the exact opposite of what the Dade Heritage Trust is trying to pull at the Herald Building. The effort to preserve the building is a transparent maneuver to delay the construction of the Genting hotel complex that "threatens" certain established empires in Florida. We need the jobs, we need the commerce and we need to lose the eyesore building who's property is only historic for accomodating face-eating trolls.

Anonymous said...

The thing about books is that they are entities within themselves. The book I would like to see of Miami is Maurice Ferre's book. He was a visionary six-term Mayor who led Miami through a very volatile period of transformation. Lots of stories there. I hope he gets to do it before he leaves. While historians can pull something together, there is noting like his own words, emotions, and feelings.

Anonymous said...

Manny Diaz was Miami's bubonic plague and once a plague has been conquered it WILL NEVER RETURN! He belongs in obscurity and that's exactly where we want to see him stay. Goodbye, jerk, you're not wanted here.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but see how his face popped up everywhere w Obama. He's angling into the limelight. It was fun being powerful!!

Anonymous said...

Disgraced ex-Mayor Manny Diaz caused a mess and he left a disaster. Manny was the brains behind the scam that created the Marlins deal. Recalled ex-Mayor Carlos Alvarez helped get votes and he got recalled by 80% of the voters.

Anonymous said...

Manny Diaz might have attracted a Recall campaign to oust him if he hadn't been termed out. Now Mayor Regalado is stuck trying to fix all the problems caused by Manny Diaz. Kmart is selling Diaz's book for $2.99.