Wednesday, July 17, 2013

On Vacation...be back soon maybe. By Geniusofdespair



On vacation.

I am tired of connecting dots for all you guys. You have got to start thinking for yourselves. You keep electing toxic people and frankly it makes me want to puke. I am tired of this feeling.  I will present information but you guys have to make the change happen.  I try to warn you all, but you don't go out there and put an ounce of effort into making things right. Do you even talk to your neighbors or put out an email to friends in the district or do a facebook post? Do you do a campaign contribution? Do you call anyone at election time? What do you except read this stupid blog?

You let charlatans win and this crushes my spirit.

Fix Homestead! All of you, don't give up on this crappy city. Give me hope that the electorate has half a brain.  

Note to Katherine Fernandez Rundle: If you are going to arrest Bateman DO IT NOW before the cutoff for candidates to register.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enjoy your vacation. Get away from here. It turns out - as I learned recently when I left the state- that there are communities out there where public officials care about the community's welfare and improvements and investments are based on the public good and not done for the benefit of the lobbyists and their clients. It turns out amassing political contributions and hobnobbing with business elite and sports tycoons isn't what motivates these public officials. There, public parks are public and not parceled out to private groups. The libraries aren't closed to save money to subsidize developers and stadiums. The schools are not private enterprises for millionaire charter school operators. This is not a fantasy. Though no place is perfect, it turns out many places are just operating on a normal basis. And the average person doesn't have to spend all their time fighting bad things happening so occasionally they can offer their time civically on something positive, like volunteering at their kids school or planting flowers in a public park. And, oh yeah, the local newspaper also supports the common interest and welfare and not the interest of the special interests. Come to think of it that place sounds pretty good, so why should I stay here any longer?

Anonymous said...

It is amazing Miami-Dade County and City of Miami elected officials will vote to divert over $3 BILLION, including debt service, from the taxpayers to benefit the foreign owned Marlins baseball team YET these same elected officials (County, so far...) will vote to close libraries in the Inner City. Close public libraries? In the Inner City? Is Gimenez insane?

Anonymous said...

We try to inform and educate others, but others either just don't care, or are too busy just trying to survive. There are bright spots however; like seeing the civic activism that quickly mushroomed in response to a not quite kosher waiver of plat application that went before our city commission meeting last evening - that gives me hope.

Anonymous said...

No. Gimenez is not insane. He is out of touch, arrogant and beholden to special interests, mislead by rabid Republican tea-party enthusiasts. But that doesn't mean we have to put up with that.
Contact his office and let him know there is a world out there that disagrees. He represents the community and it is our tax dollars and our library system.
Below is an excellent commentary in WLRN with contact info for Gimenez (office: (305) 375-5071.
Remember, his salary and pension is paid from tax dollars. This library closure isn't about temporary budget shortfalls - as the Miami Herald would have you believe - it's about dismantling the system and closing these facilities permanently. Let's not let that happen.

http://wlrn.org/post/why-closing-half-miami-dades-libraries-dumb

“Who says that we get to kill all the books,” asked District 10 City Commissioner Javier Soto.
Miami, apparently, does.
The decision yesterday was made to theoretically close 22 libraries (10 storefronts and 12 branches) as well as lay off 251 employees. This number is presented as the worst-case scenario. While it could be less, the closings are nearly half of the libraries in Miami-Dade.
It’s a common sentiment, with the Internet having overrun our daily lives, that libraries have become increasingly irrelevant. People don't mind the idea of "killing all the books," and that the debate about the fate of libraries came to the city commissioners of the county. They didn't kill all the books, but they definitely leveled a major blow.
I think we often underestimate the importance of libraries. ...
The budget cuts hitting libraries, fire departments and animal shelters have one thing in common: They are an assault on the foundation of a civilized society.
....
....
“I think the age of the book is waning,” said Mayor Gimenez.
It’s funny how everyone becomes a speculative book futurist when we’re talking about closing libraries and because there’s money on the table. They think the Internet will make everything cheaper.
You’re fooling yourself, Mr. Mayor, if you think all of the information in libraries across the city and planet is or will be available online in the near future. The overarching logic seems to be that it’s ok to dismantle libraries in the hope that all of that information one day ends up in a digital form. This seems hopeful at best.
Who is going to pay for the digitizing of books? Private enterprise? We are then talking about corporations controlling information, as well as our access to it. It’s not going to get cheaper for you and I, the end user. You’ve got to pay to download a book; you don’t have to pay to check one out.
These are our last public buildings and we are letting them go. Where else can you sit for free and comb through the world’s (or even the Internet’s) literary treasures. Public money now goes to fund a billionaire’s sports arena, which you have to pay to enter each time. We bought a new home for a baseball team we now hate, yet we are letting nearly half of our public libraries slip away.
“It takes a lot of things to build a community,” says Victoria Galan, marketing and media relations liason for Miami-Dade public libraries, “and libraries are an important part of that.” Yes. I believe they are.
When speaking of the decisions in front of him to not raise taxes to save these vital resources that the city provides its constituents, Mayor Gimenez said, “This is not a fun thing for me.” Us either Bub. Us either.

Anonymous said...

There are a lot of good people, over the decades, who left Miami after trying to participate and to promote change. The fact that goes along with being a Banana Republic is that in Banana Republic's, ordinary people stay out of the way. Maybe what defines Miami best as a Banana Republic is that ordinary people and voters don't believe there is any alternative or any use to participation. Elected officials like Lynda Bell rise up, because the insiders fund them to be interchangeable with whoever went before (in this case, Natacha Seijas).

It would help if the press kicked and screamed about this attitude, but it's a foregone conclusion that you can't change Miami in their eyes. Schools like Belen or Ransom Everglades are just feeders into the system.

Yes Miamians contribute, with corporate races for cancer or walkathons, and the rich make this their winter home. If you can afford to be here a few months of the year when it is cold up north or in Europe, Miami isn't a bad place to live. Just don't take it seriously.

Mensa said...

My library is always loaded with children after school. Where do the political thieves expect the children to go? And yet when I speak to my neighbors they are uninterested in polatics

Al Crespo said...

I know a good beach where we can hang out, and have a nice cold drink when we need it :-)))))))

Anonymous said...

Al, if that good beach is Virginia Key forget about it. That island is being parceled up and given to developers starting with the sweetheart deal for the Friends of Miami Marine Stadium/Miami Heat/Bongos Cafe. In the excitement about restoring the Marine Stadium, they gave away the island.

Anonymous said...

Miami needs a version of 'The Punisher' to deal with all it's corrupt a**holes. I'm not sure they'd listen to anything else.

100panthers said...

In a democracy, people elect and get what they deserve. The citizens who keep electing corrupt liars deserve to be fleeced. It is the ones to who did not vote for these clowns, the minority, who pull their hair out. I commiserate with your frustrations, Geniusofdespair and thanks for your great work! The fight towards good government is a marathon, so we all need to pace ourselves and not burn out.

But as Obama quoted Martin Luther King Jr. - "The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice"

It will bend towards the way of the informed here in Miami some day...we just may need a scuba tank and mask to see it, while seated at an outdoor cafe on Biscayne Blvd. to view the arc!

Anonymous said...

Outofsight said...

Dear anonymous,

1. U are an ass
2. U are an uneducated ass
3. U need to take ur uneducated ass for a long walk on a short dock, preferably upstate with our beloved governor

If you do not like, enjoy or care about the content on Eye On Miami THEN keep yourself off the website ... We will not miss your attitude.

Best regards,
Outofsight

Geniusofdespair said...

Outofsight, I already dumped their stupid comment.

Anonymous said...

Enjoy your vacation Genius, but hurry back, we will miss you!

Anonymous said...

Who do we vote for mayor in Miami? There is no good choice, none, there is too much money and greed fuling the system. Why don't you run for office or get some decent people to?

Outofsight said...

Ah geeee. I was slow on the typing, Genius.

I just never understand why if a person doesn't like something and if they can control their exposure to it, why they simply don't flip the channel? That is the grown-up choice.

If you don't like CNN, then watch FOX... If you don't like the Miami Herald, then read the Sun Sentinel... If you don't like Eye on Miami, then read something else.

What is so hard understand about that?

I wish these individuals could make a decision and leave us out of it. Why must the snakes spew venom rather than slithering away?

Anonymous said...

I was too late to read the dumped comment but...

Voicing opinions and criticism is essential to our ideals of the American way of life.

If we only read and see things that have the same point of view as we do then how do we know how to engage the 'other side' in order to promote our point of view?

I would rather have people express their ideas (especially if I think they're wrong) so that I know what I'm up against.

I would hope everyone here reads things they don't like and watches opposing points of view so that we can comment and start dialogue.

It's easy to live in a bubble comfort zone with people who think and talk the same way I do. It's hard to listen to people with opposing points of view.

Unless of course the comment was a nasty personal attack that had nothing to do with the subject of the post. Then, dump their sorry a**.

Geniusofdespair said...

The comment violated the rules on comments: "do not attack the blogger". It was an attack.

No Respect said...

I got an Idea how about opening Oriental Massage Parlors where Libraries use to be?
Might be more entertaining for my Longfellow.

Anonymous said...

As the first poster said, you can't imagine how bad So. Fla is until you leave. Other states, counties and cities don't have lobbyists and candidate election funds that exceed $50,000 are rare. People treat each other with respect and act with civility and they have never heard of election fraud. Everyone votes by placing your ballot in a box by the courthouse and no knows who Zimmerman and Trayvon are. I am so happy to have left after working for MDC for many years. I still read the paper and blogs from a continued sense of disbelief. It's impossible to change the mindset of voters here... residents are polarized by race, ethnic or nationality lines. Everyone speaks their own language in an attempt not to become part of the overall community. The politicians are simply thieves and corrupt. No where else do people raise over $1M for a $6,000 job or increase their net worth 3x while in office. The distrust of the system is like a cancer and has simply persuaded the public to give up. Genius you may want to think about relocation to the many communities in the USA where life is truly the American dream.

Anonymous said...

County Commissioners (and City Commissioners including Marc Sarnoff) vote to divert over $3 BILLION in tax money to the Marlins Stadium. Three years later, lead by Carlos Gimenez, County Commissioners vote to close libraries and fire fire union members.

Anonymous said...

To last Anon: please, tell us where you live. We want to move there, too.

Woke up this morning to learn that:
1) Miami Dade is closing half its libraries and the Mayor says libraries are not needed anymore.

2) FPL is pushing through a $25 billion nuclear expansion in an area that is sure to be swallowed by the sea within a few decades,leaving behind nuclear waste and ripped off rate payers.

And worse of all, our local politicians, don't care.