More on bad transit and the bankrupt model of suburban sprawl and condos on the coastline … by gimleteye

In Politico, critic Jim Kunstler tees off on New Jersey and Mayor Chris Christie: his real target is suburban sprawl and automobile-centric development schemes. In other words, Miami.

Gov. Chris Christie’s problems with the phony “traffic study” on the George Washington Bridge, apparently intended to punish the mayor of Fort Lee for failure to offer an election endorsement, ought to be seen as a symptom of a much greater societal illness: the over-investment in a living arrangement with no future. That is the essence of the suburban matrix. It has no future because it was designed to run on cheap oil. Despite the hype broadcast during these past few years of extraordinary wishful thinking, America is not destined to become “energy independent,” “the next Saudi Arabia” or “the world’s leading oil exporter.” This is all pernicious bullshit. The raptures of shale oil arise out of the inhalations of Ponzi smoke and mirrors. America will soon learn the painful truth: Shale oil is a bubble among many financial bubbles. It will not fulfill America’s master wish: to be able to keep driving to WalMart forever.

We certainly do understand the "suburban matrix" at EOM. We call it the Growth Machine and its operators, the Great Destroyers. We also often highlight the fraud manifest in traffic studies all over the county that always turn up exactly what developers, land use lobbyists, and the unreformable majority of the county commission want to hear: that existing highways are adequate to the purpose of moving citizens and visitors from home to workplace or other destination, and where they are not adequate, simply adding lanes or driving more highways into farmland is the best choice. Their studies universally offer the best choice to those who profit from the bankrupt model of suburban sprawl in Everglades wetlands and more condos on the coast.

At the heart of America’s suburban sprawl predicament is that it has provoked a corrosive psychology of previous investment. Having poured all the treasure of the 20th century into the matrix of housing subdivisions, malls and strip malls, office parks, freeways, highways and numberless paved byways, we can’t imagine reforming it, letting go of it or getting over it. It’s our stuff and we appear to be stuck with it. The future, however, is going to compel us to live differently whether we like it or not, and we are doing absolutely nothing to prepare for that. To me, the danger of a President Christie is that he is about the last politician one might expect to recognize the nation’s tragic predicament and he is exactly the figure who will mount America’s deadly final campaign to sustain the unsustainable. He represents what amounts to a sort of national debt slavery: We will pay any price to stay where history has marooned us. One vivid example of this was Governor Christie’s decision in 2010 to cancel New Jersey’s participation in building a new commuter train tunnel under the Hudson River to relieve the unsustainable pressure on the existing 100-year-old train tunnels. He derided the project as “a tunnel to the basement of Macy’s.” Christie then diverted $4 billion from the tunnel project to New Jersey’s transportation trust fund in a bid to keep the state’s gas tax the second-lowest in the country. (New Jersey’s transit system, meanwhile, ranks among the country’s worst, and Christie has cut its funding.)

Kunstler's "Having poured all the treasure of the 20th century in the matrix of housing subdivisions…" is what we chronicle here in granular detail at EOM, focusing on financing (US Century Bank) and the web of relationships extending to local city government and the Miami-Dade county commission where spreading sprawl across buffer lands to the Everglades was viewed as a highest priority and remains so.

Today the construction mini-boomlet in downtown Miami proceeds at a furious pace. Construction crews are working around the clock to satisfy the nervousness of bankers and builders who want "in" and "out" of projects as quickly as possible. What the building boom lacks, entirely, is what downtown Miami has always lacked: a credible plan for transit to accommodate people instead of a reckless fast-forward ignoring all common sense.

"Museum Row" coupled with the Heat Arena on one side and the Genting slot machine emporium on the other is one simply fantastic example. Now there is a plan to add 750,000 square feet of retail on the other side of the Miami Heat arena. Construction will begin at the end of 2014 and will no doubt be financed by blue chip, experienced banks and builders.

Look where it is. How are people going to get there? Understand that this section of downtown Miami is served by transit that from the west and from the north boils down to one traffic lane at Biscayne Boulevard! So when Kunstler writes, "… we can’t imagine reforming it, letting go of it or getting over it. It’s our stuff and we appear to be stuck with it." he is describing Miami and Miami-Dade County to a "T".

US Century Bank deal goes bust … for the second time … will there be a third or is it time, finally, for the feds to step in? by gimleteye

The insider piggy-bank founded by Latin Builders Association chiefs Ramon Rasco -- also, of the Homestead Air Force Base fiasco -- and Sergio Pino -- of a cratered house building empire and abdicated king of suburban sprawl -- is desperately seeking new capital. Eye On Miami has tracked the fortunes of the bank and its connections to campaign cash and influence that propelled Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio to the forefront of right wing Florida politics. (Go to our archive, under "US Century Bank", for past posts.)

The Miami Herald did its level best to promote the bank. Its editors and publisher, organized through Linkd-In like connections through Greenberg Traurig, the insider land use and zoning black hats for decades, formed a virtual cartel in support of sprawl. It wasn't enough of a cartel, though, for Sergio Pino's tastes.

In the mid-2000's (the date maybe can be provided by a past or present reporter who was there at the time), the Herald entertained an extraordinary event in its newsroom. Pino and Armando Codina were granted, by the publisher, an opportunity to address the journalists along the line of "explaining" how the newspaper's coverage was too hostile to their industry. A pep talk for sprawl, and by extension, the fortunes of a local bank -- US Century -- that was straight-out stoned on the fumes of the housing boom.

Among many low points, it certainly ranked as perhaps the lowest point in the history of the newspaper. (The lowest point was former Miami Dade County Chairman Art Teele blowing his brains out in the lobby of the newspaper. For all the media's focus on the inexplicable and "erratic behavior" of Teele, the bright fact is that Teele's paranoia was built on a political career fighting against the various influences and schemes of the Latin Builders Association, including that privatization of the Homestead Air Force Base that he strongly opposed.)

US Century Bank lent an extraordinary amount of money to bank board directors to purchase land at speculative values at the edge of the Everglades, outside the Urban Development Boundary. The play was always for farmland, where zoning could be converted cheaply in comparison to the zero lot line housing that followed along in its place. To be fair to the Latin Builders, lead by Pino and Rasco, they were slip-streaming behind the profit model of massive sprawl developed by Lennar, Miami's only homegrown, Anglo-owned Fortune 500 homebuilder.)

EOM frequently reported on the bank's ridiculous metrics (Loan ratios to insiders) required by federal banking regulations -- not reported by the Herald, of course. Nor did the Herald ever report that many of the bank's branches were leased on real estate at highly inflated values that was also owned by board directors.

As objectors and leaders of the battle against more suburban sprawl in Miami-Dade, US Century Bank was the juggernaut that erased all possibility of civil exchange and compromise on the future of the county at the Miami-Dade County Commission. What we call "the unreformable majority" were squarely in the US Century Bank court. (The basketball stadium at FIU -- the most important sprawl anchor in West Dade) bears the bank's name.

For the pain and suffering of civic activists, there are no tears shed for the cratered fortunes of the bank. Most of the original founding directors have resigned. In December 2013, Ramon Rasco -- in anticipation of the year-end transaction with a new tranche of insiders heralded by the Herald -- thew in the towel as chairman of the board.

But the transaction did not close by December 31, as required by the prospective deal makers. The Herald is an unreliable source of news on reasons why, as it has been since the beginning. Who got cold feet? Why?

On the debit side of the ledger: a lawsuit by dissenting shareholders that is still in play, over-inflated values on remaining insider loans for that land at the edge of the county that fueled so much nonsense at county commission meetings over many years; with Natacha Seijas, Joe Martinez, and Pepe Diaz fronting for their "friends of family" at US Century. There is also a rumor of federal penalties for money laundering. And then there is the fact that US Century Bank has been kept afloat only thanks to the largesse of the taxpayer: that would be you and me.

US Century Bank, whose founding directors are Republican to the core and presumably in favor of markets free from government regulation, were saved by $50 million that the bank still owes the US Treasury. The amount of capital that the bank's new investors will be required to put up, depends on how successfully they can weasel out paying back you and me. The bank's founders want to make off with the money; that is to say, they want the TARP money to disappear as a debt obligation.

In all its press releases, US Century Bank is unrelenting in its conviction that the bank is an upstanding member of the community. Well, they do have a (declining) deposit base of nearly $1 billion. We guess US Century Bank's depositors read Eye On Miami in inverse proportion to the percentage of bank directors who do.

US Century Bank continues to lose money, and who will put more money into a money-losing bank? Probably a bank that needs the branches to expand its footprint in Miami-Dade; one that is agnostic to our non-financial concerns. That would be all banks. Non-financial, except that not one shareholder associated with the bank should be allowed to walk away with a deal until every last cent of taxpayer money is repaid.

Here is one way of interpreting US Century Bank's record, if you are a Republican banker or supporter like US Senator Marco Rubio (whose mortgage was issued by US Century), you get to pound the table daily about the failure of federal regulations and federal government, but you don't also get to steal taxpayer money via an industry bailout that chose winners and losers like US Century.

We wish the city's daily newspaper had done its job, reporting the real story of the 2000's building boom and bust and the role that insiders played in distorting public policies and government to speed our way to economic and financial wreckage. It puts EOM and our readers in the position as observers of the dust rising from its broken walls and busted foundation.

Rapidly escalating flood insurance, real estate values, and other Miami mysteries … by gimleteye

The other day, my friends said at dinner, the bar at the River Oyster House was filled with Chinese celebrating New Year in Miami. I had noted on the blog a few days earlier a similar phenomenon at the water line. The day before Christmas I was surprised by the number of Asians, Indians, and Malaysians on Miami Beach: recent additions to the flocks of winter visitors from South and Latin America, not to mention Russians, French, Italians and Germans.

If you want to see "how" Miami has turned into a global destination, take in what is happening on Miami Beach. If you want to see what we will "become", join me on another kind of stroll.

Friends assure me that this building boom in downtown Miami is different from before: this one is being built with hard money even as the cement is being poured. In the early 2000's, I had a grip on the economic, financial and political influences at play in Florida's building boom. This time, I'm at a loss.

What we do know is this: US banks recapitalized (on the backs of taxpayers thanks to the Fed), but the prosperity of the financial sector has had relatively little impact on the broader economy and middle class. The building and construction boomlet in downtown Miami seems a different affair. Are loose fiscal policies in China, not to mention plain old corruption in Asia, fueling Miami's boomlet?

This week George Soros expressed fears about China's economy, dependent as it is on easy money to fuel -- primarily -- construction and development schemes for which a legitimate market disappeared in the major urban areas years ago. When it comes to gambling, China is the gold standard. Even though Genting hasn't secured Florida as a base for casinos yet, it is a sure bet that someone's house money is at play in downtown Miami today.

So far as I am aware, there is no clearinghouse for data on sources of finance for construction in Miami. There ought to be, not that anyone in position of power or influence would do anything with the data. It didn't happen with flight capital or drug money, or, when R. Allen Stanford did a reverse migration of dollars to Antigua in the early 2000's with the blessing of the state of Florida, Jeb!, and sped by duffel bags full of cash and private jets totaling a mere $5 billion.

In contrast, the ordinary homeowner knows exactly what is happening with flood insurance. Rates are rising faster than tides, because insurers are in business to survive catastrophic storm events, including the catastrophe of sea level rise due to climate change. I doubt any of the new buyers or builders in downtown Miami are paying more than a passing glance at storm clouds on the horizon. It always rains in Miami in December, right? If the sea levels rise, someone will build sea walls. Just like they do in Denmark.

Down in the Florida Keys, on the other hand, the natives are getting restless. FIRM, "Fair Insurance Rates in Monroe County", is agitating against the current effort by the Florida congressional delegation to delay the implementation of Biggert-Waters Act whose impact could deal a swift karate kick to the heart of Keys real estate. Not to mention, Miami.

Florida homeowners "will see their flood insurance bill potentially quadruple in the coming months because of Biggert-Walters." FIRM wants to kick the insurance rate issue down the road for four more years instead of the 15 month compromise now under discussion in the House that is "essentially useless as a relief measure for a vast majority of Floridians."

What will we know in four years, that we don't know now?

The Second Building Boom in Miami: how, where, why? … by gimleteye

You have to pinch yourself.  Less than four years after the worst collapse of real estate since the Great Depression, Miami is in the midst of a second construction boom. It was only two years ago I wrote an essay for the blog, "The Twelve Days of Christmas"; detailing the players and hubris of the massive boom in the early 2000's. It's a trip down memory lane …

How is it possible that so soon after the crash another boom -- and likely another speculative bubble -- has taken off in downtown Miami? 

Last night, before dark, I walked with a friend around the area of lower South Miami Avenue near Mary Brickell Village. The place was sparsely attended. Locals have taken flights home for the holidays while new buyers from the Americas and Europe are spending Christmas and New Year's at home before getting on airplanes and flying to Miami for vacation.

Millions of square feet of housing and commercial space are sprouting up. If I close my eyes, it seems just yesterday that the only restaurants were Perricones and Rosinellas. 

Is this growth real or not? Last time around, the Fed's money purse (ie. taxpayers) was wide open, and before the crash, rogue banks like US Century were handing out mortgages like paper flyers on election day. The Fed rate remains super low, but unless I'm missing something, the banks have tightened hard on mortgage requirements.

I've heard and read that construction financing has also tightened, but many of this bubble's downtown Miami projects are mostly subscribed before the construction begins. Can excess liquidity swamp the equation of supply and demand? It happened in 2002-2006. I can't say if the same is happening now.

Increasingly I ask the question of the whole of downtown, but especially of the Brickell area. To be sure, the frightful traffic and diminished quality of life in the suburbs -- thanks to horrendous zoning decisions pushed by insider lobbyists and their cohorts on the county commission -- are pushing people toward the urban center. But there are no parks, and day by day the traffic becomes more congested.

Are there enough locals -- people who live and work downtown -- to sustain the massive construction boom? And how will buyers who only a few years ago bought condominiums with Biscayne Bay views feel about their property values, now that they realize they live in a condo canyon?

Remove the investment from the Americas, and Miami's economy would be flat on its back. But as my friend said, you can't change the fact. Miami -- a center of flight capital for the Americas since the cocaine cowboy days -- never stopped taking flight itself thanks to the exodus of billions of dollars from around the world. Today European economies are in a slump. Western capitols are comparatively expensive. Miami looks like a deal from the outside, but from the inside there are signs to the contrary.

And Miami has always sold itself cheap. Not just Miami, although we perfected the formula as a way to combine personal wealth of the Great Destroyers with political power. "Affordable" sprawl was the gold dagger in the heart of the state's natural attributes; willfully and deliberately mis-priced to make the formula work. But that is not exactly what is happening in downtown Miami.

I'm really not sure how many of the thousands of units that were built in the first boom and now in the second will ever be lived in, by their foreign owners. The shuck and jive detailed in the 2011 "Twelve Days of Christmas" is still happening, with many of the same players back in charge. 

Last night, I was really sure of only one observation. The workers busy on three shift details and there for one reason. The equity owners are racing the time clock because they know what follows a Miami construction boom. They want to take some if not all of their chips off the table before the next bust. 

That's why 24/7 construction. It's all hands on deck so long as buyers flood in, or as my father used to say, you have to make hay while the sun is shining. Shining it is, in Miami.

Florida game of real estate musical chairs: good until sea levels surge … by gimleteye

Today, Climate Central launched its Surging Seas Risk Finder for the state of Florida at the 5th Annual Southeast Florida Regional Climate Leadership Summit. It is a timely release, with the most expensive Florida real estate going through a mini-boom.

The public web tool was developed in order to provide local regions and policy makers with tailored local information that can be used to assess and respond to the risks of sea level rise and coastal flooding.

The fact that underlines the economy: what will happen to flood insurance rates? Apparently, especially at the high end of the markets, few are concerned so long as the real estate musical chair game goes on.



According to the Risk Finder web tool analysis, in Florida:

2,120 sq. miles of land lie less than 3 feet above the high tide line in Florida.

$156 billion in property value and 300,000 homes sit on land less than 3 feet above the high tide line in Florida.

966 EPA-listed sites such as hazardous waste dumps and sewage plants lie on land 3 feet above the high tide line.

The web tool utilizes high-accuracy lidar elevation data from NOAA and provides ability to assess exposure of over 100 infrastructure, populations, and property variables from 1-10 feet above the high tide line provides ability to tabulate vulnerability by state, county, city, town, zip code, and congressional districts provides projections of sea level rise and flood risk by decade.

Climate Central will launch the web tool for all U.S. coastal states on a state-by-state basis, with remaining states scheduled for 2014.

Access the web tool: Look at the socioeconomy view for the web tool that for a tile for Property Value. Click on this tile to see the source of data:

Climate Central uses a blockgroup level dataset (based mainly on appraised parcel values 2008-9), using simple exposure analysis, showing how much value at different elevations. It is the same coastal value dataset as used by the EPA. Also in the Florida report, there is a section on people and property at risk, and methodology is described in appendix.

Is there a real estate boom in South Florida? ... by gimleteye

One of the driving motivations for our blog, Eye On Miami: shining light on the fraudulent (political, social, and economic) underpinning of the housing boom in Florida that ended in the greatest financial calamity since the Great Depression.

We hoped for accountability after 2007, from the Federal Reserve to the small cogs of the Growth Machine like US Century Bank, the worst performing bank in the state -- measured by TARP funding -- that nevertheless continued to promote itself as though nothing had happened.

We hoped for accountability, to re-arrange our economic priorities. We were right to hope for change, we were wrong to expect it.

This week, Weekly Condo Vultures Market Intelligence Report features "Boom Time: 139th New Condo Tower Proposed For South Florida Coast Since Crash".

Judging from the rising confidence of homebuilders, the spring is back in the step of the Great Destroyers. How is that possible?

For one, Ben Bernanke at the helm of the Federal Reserve prevailed in maintaining the lowest benchmark interest rate -- available only to the banks -- in US history. The banks, in turn, used the last five years to repair their balance sheets by lending to qualified consumers at many times the cost of their funds. (If you were unqualified, good luck.)

The flood of money in the economic system created momentum to halt the slide and reverse housing prices in some of the hardest hit, formerly fast-growing parts of the nation.

But obtaining home owner insurance, at least in Florida, is a nightmare. Altogether, quite a fix we are in, notwithstanding the glimmer of a boom.

Big, bad sprawl is back! Hold The Line! ... by gimleteye

You may think that the penalties of sprawl only apply to people chasing the most affordable dream, homeownership in the suburbs. In Miami-Dade, that means the places where companies like Lennar find farmland or open space that can be rezoned to platted subdivisions. The entire industry was mothballed after the rampant glut in 2006 and 2007. Who can forget the former director of the Latin Builders Association, Willy Bermello, boasting in the Miami Herald of the housing boom, " … real estate continues to still be a safe harbor for investors, whether it be equity or the purchase of a condo in South Florida, where doubling of your investment in less than two years is commonplace... this bubble is not latex, it is stainless steel.” (Miami Herald, May 21, 2005)

The housing bust – the greatest collapse of real estate in Florida since the Great Depression – put Miami-Dade’s significant sprawl creators – I call them, the Great Destroyers – on hold. Eye On Miami chronicled the players and investments, and raised questions whether the biggest of lawn owners and partnerships – like those associated with US Century Bank – were allowed to mothball mortgage and principal payments while ordinary homeowners in south Florida were foreclosed by the thousands.

Although it is far too soon to call this a recovery, some of the biggest housing investors – like Lennar – have reaped windfall profits buying distressed mortgage debt for pennies on the dollar and are now cycling into cash through the same financing techniques with large banking institutions that, since the 2007 debacle, refloated their own balance sheets thanks to zero interest money from the Federal Reserve.

There is one development in particular we have paid attention to, called Parkland. Our archive feature, type in “Parkland” shows a history stretching back nearly half a dozen years. This area of Southwest Miami Dade had been primed as the next gold rush in sprawl development. In fact, one partnership even was bore the optimistic name, “Krome Gold”. The investor groups represent the top suburban sprawl lobbyists and champions. Their business models closely tracked the Papa Bear of the sprawl builders: Lennar.

http://www.miamidade.gov/business/cdmp/Parkland/Parkland_Init_Recs.pdf
http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/2008/05/lennar-is-starting-process-to-move.html
(Please click 'read more' for the full post ...)

America's economic woes tie directly to suburban sprawl ... by gimleteye

A former mayor of Ventura, California takes the same whack as EOM, at the costs of suburban sprawl and the damage it inflicted on the US economy. Yes our views are going mainstream. The following commentary is straight from the middle of CNN.

The writer, William Fulton, is the former mayor of Ventura, California. It bears noting that Ventura land use and zoning restrictions requiring popular vote on major land use changes -- were the foundation of Florida Hometown Democracy, the incipient citizen revolt against the unallocated, unabsorbed, and undisclosed costs of suburban sprawl. The Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida, and the Florida legislature plus candidates for Florida governor at the time, all united to defeat Florida Hometown Democracy in 2010.

On this blog we not only argued in favor of FHD, we also argued that the advocates of sprawl organized their political strategies in Florida during the 1980's and 1990's and the leadership of Jeb! Bush, two term former governor.

These ties -- between the national economic crisis, budget emergencies at all levels of government, and mainly (but not exclusively) GOP politics-- are extraordinarily deep. Our criticism regularly generates responses from anonymous readers who believe we overstate the case against sprawl.

Mr. Fulton writes, "Balanced budgets don’t just happen. They happen because someone took the time upfront to check the costs and to evaluate what we can afford and what will add the most value."

Florida's development community, its lobbyists, lawyers and trade associations long ago gave up on evaluating what would have added the most value to Florida. None of the Tea Party rhetoric or GOP canards could stand up to rigorous analysis. What stands in its place is glossing over the costs, dodging accountability, eroding laws nominally intended to protect public health and welfare, and engaging in a full throated roar for American exceptionalism which is really (USA! USA!) a race to the bottom. The economic crisis allowed politicians to get away with saying that "jobs" are the highest priority, when the true cause of this "soft depression" is the Growth Machine itself.

We have noted, on Eye On Miami, how the economic crisis has opened the way -- through the rabid endorsement of deregulation of land use planning from the state to the local levels -- to more sprawl, not less. In other words, we have learned nothing.

Part of the reason that American politics are so hardened today is that the phenomenon of suburban sprawl-chased-into-a-bankrupt-banking and mortgage system has stiffened the resistance of those who would otherwise be held accountable for the massive damage to the US consumer and middle class. They don't want their names revealed. They hide behind corporate prerogatives.

Ask any of them, and they will tell you that today's economic problems were decades in the making. The notion that somehow President Obama should be blamed and voted out of office because he could not re-direct the national economy that still turns on a dime for sprawl is ridiculous. Click 'read more' for the Fulton editorial.

Wayne Rosen and Homestead City Councilman Jimmie Williams ... by gimleteye

Wayne Rosen

The investigation by the Miami-Dade Ethics and Public Trust Commission took an entire year: to decide whether Homestead City Commissioner Jimmie Williams was unduly influenced and "engaged in conflicted or exploitative behavior relating to his business partnership with Wayne Rosen, a real estate developer with extensive land holdings and other economic interests in the Homestead area."

The conclusion (K# 11-090) was, no.

Rosen has a long history of business before the local city government in Homestead and also Miami-Dade County. With various partners, including major developers, he is/was a large land owner of property outside the Urban Development Boundary, including wetlands.

It is curious that Rosen tried to set up Williams in a fast food franchise far from Homestead.

The ethics commission does not explore the notion that a wealthy, savvy business investor like Wayne Rosen would need to diversify his real estate empire by investing in a low-end restaurant serving urban tastes.

Nor did the commission inquire how a sophisticated investor would be "misled" by a third partner, the so-called operator with experience. Rosen, in his deposition to the ethics commission, offered his recollection that the third partner said he owned 17 restaurants but the chain's website only claims to operate 10 restaurants. So this sophisticated investor, Wayne Rosen, was a victim of fraud or simply failed to due diligence? If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

The ethics commission was not inquiring after Rosen's business practices. It is well known that land speculators in the suburbs are "on the same team". It is all part and parcel of what EOM calls the Growth Machine. After all the mortgage fraud and foreclosures ripping through Homestead -- turning the area into the poster child for ghost suburbs -- one would think that political practices and skating in the gray areas of the law would have taken a breather.

There is a broader context to this disturbing report that exonerates Wiliams. Florida Hometown Democracy -- the state-wide referendum effort by citizens to take land use decisions away from local corruption -- was slapped down by Florida land speculators. As the Miami-Dade ethics investigation shows, any assumption that cooler heads would prevail in its aftermath, and the aftermath of the destruction of the Florida Department of Community Affairs, the state's growth management authority killed off by Gov. Rick Scott in early 2012, would be wrong, wrong, wrong.

It is always about testing the edges, by the Growth Machine, and the edges always can change depending on the political weather. It was a big change in weather when the Growth Machine destroyed the chance of accountability with Florida Hometown Democracy. It was an even bigger change of weather when Florida DCA went the way of the dodo bird, leaving the Growth Machine to have direct access to major changes through local elected officials to land use at the municipal and county level. Wayne Rosen was testing the edges. That's all.

$1 billion water bill is the least of it ... by gimleteye

Miami Dade County government has been sitting on its billions of infrastructure deficits for years, hidden from the public. County commissioners -- most recently the faded, discredited Natacha Seijas -- kept the crisis away from the sight of voters. Why?

The purpose of the concealment was to make the region attractive to cheap development. A billion dollar infrastructure bill is the tip of the iceberg, and it is only emerging because a federal agency, the US EPA, had the guts to insist that Miami-Dade do something.

Maintaining the illusion that tax base increase covers infrastructure needs is institutionalized fraud.

The fraud is perpetrated under the guise of fiscal conservatism. Here is what the fraudsters say: private enterprise does a better job of protecting the public than government. What they do is different: they hobble, neuter and eviscerate government so that it cannot protect people, neighbors, or the environment.

Whatever you want to call the outcome, it involves partisan politics ripping apart government capacity to protect. Those claiming to be "fiscal conservatives" perpetrate massive fraud against the very principles of conservatism. They are liars, and the public is as susceptible to those lies as they are to mercury in the Florida environment that government agencies are too timid to regulate.

The real culprits are the builders and developers, their lobbyists and trade associations that staked the future of Florida on the growth-at-any-cost model that is dead and busted. They called their product, "what the market wants", and it couldn't exist but for fraud.

The growth model depended on burying billions of infrastructure deficits -- like sewerage plunged down "safe" holes thousands of feet underground. It never served to protect quality of life or neighborhoods or the environment: it was meant to chew up and spit them out. The St. Pete Times put a neat bow around this stinky business of crippling government capacity to protect people, through an editorial board statement on Saturday, summarizing a week of investigations:

"Even as Florida was leading the nation in mortgage fraud, Tom Grady thought it wise to close half the state's regional offices charged with investigating the mortgage business. As head of the Office of Financial Regulation, Grady, a millionaire securities lawyer, took a bulldozer to the place, slashing office resources and personnel, including fraud investigators, and ousting a veteran administrator to put a crony of the governor's in his place. He also spent lavishly on his own travel. Though he's out of office now, Grady's poor management affected the state's ability to police wrongdoing in the financial sector, which may have been the point all along. Grady was handpicked by Gov. Rick Scott, a neighbor in Naples, to takeover as commissioner of OFR, the state agency that oversees and investigates mortgage brokers, banks and securities firms. He shares Scott's government-cutting, anti regulation ethos, and during his short tenure moved aggressively to pare back the office's physical presence throughout the state. Florida is known as a hotbed of mortgage and financial fraud. Fort Lauderdale is home to so many scammers it's known as "Fraud Lauderdale." But Grady, a former conservative Republican legislator, led the effort to chop more $3.5 million from the agency by eliminating 81 positions including investigators and closing regional offices in Fort Myers, Jacksonville, Pensacola and Fort Lauderdale."

In Miami-Dade, a billion dollars is needed immediately to replace just the most deteriorated and vulnerable sections of the wastewater system, according to a five month internal study. Eye on Miami is not surprised.

Don't expect reality to intrude any time soon on the county commission mind-set (we call it, the unreformable majority).

Then there is the issue of water supply and the irrational willingness of Miami-Dade to commit to 300 million gallons per day of re-use water for the new nuclear plants planned at Turkey Point. What is the cost of supplying that water under conditions of sea level rise, through which most if not all of Miami-Dade's wastewater infrastructure will need to be replaced? You won't get an answer until you have to pay for it.

Fraud fits South Florida like a second skin.

Not your usual, broker stabs broker with broken stem of margarita glass ... by gimleteye

The investors were buying into a Fort Lauderdale condo by the bunko artist, Donald Trump, through a broker who had committed some serious fraud. So maybe the feds failed to notify the Trump condo investors that the salesman for the project, Felix Sater, had already been prosecuted for swindling millions from investors in an earlier stock scheme but was protected from further disclosure because he helped put some of his Mafiosi investors in prison.

Born in the former Soviet Union and raised in New York, Sater began his rise in financial circles as a young stock broker in the 1990s. "But his career took a wrong turn when he was arrested after getting into a bar fight where he stabbed another broker in the face with the stem of a shattered margarita glass." 

I'm guessing for the putative GOP presidential candidate, The Donald, can't be put out knowing every swindler attached to his brand, can he? When would he have time for haircuts?

In the annals of the housing crash, this story nearly matches up to the one about the barber and friends in Opalacka who fraudulently accumulated tens of millions of dollars of pricey real estate in Wellington. Then there is R. Allen Stanford, hauling cash by the billion dollar duffel bag from downtown Miami to private jets flying to Antigua, with photos of Jeb Bush and George W. Bush gazing down from his office walls.

All I can say: some days it does pay to be a newspaper reporter.

The Most Shameful Meeting of the Board of County Commissioners In Miami Dade History: Part 2 ... by gimleteye

 Continued from Part 1:

A catalog of offenses committed by the county commission on Feb. 21st:

Offense #1) Alice Pena sits on a county wetlands advisory task force as co-chair. The committee is appointed by all the county commissioners and mayor. Its intent is to review county regulations for wetlands. Ms. Pena is well known for decades service to property owners and farmers anxious to farm and build homes on an area deemed by government to be critical to restoration of Everglades wetlands: the 8.5 Square Mile Area. On Feb 21st, Ms. Pena went over the top of the county committee which she co-chairs and was given the opportunity to make "a special presentation" to the full county commission. There was no advertisement and no opportunity for rebuttal by environmental groups who have spent decades, also, on issues of protecting Everglades wetlands including wetlands and environmentally sensitive lands inside county boundaries. What is astounding is that the wetlands advisory task force is stacked with a solid pro-growth majority: not a single environmentalist was appointed to that committee.

Ms. Pena is a special interest: the 8.5 Square Mile Area has been the focus of one of the longest mediated settlements and biggest taxpayer investments in US history, involving many state and federal agencies. As the Feb 21 rolled on, the "five minute presentation" (Chair Martinez' words) turned into an ugly, uninformed-- barely literate-- political attack on environmental rules. Linda Bell, who succeeded the lone pro-environmental voice on the county commission -- Katy Sorenson-- has made it her personal mission to kill DERM.

Offense #2) How could the county commission entertain a "special presentation" by one person -- with no opportunity, none, for rebuttal-- , a person who sits on a county appointed board, without opening every other county board to interference by the commission? Pena should have been asked by the county commission to get in line, to make a professional presentation accompanied by facts, like every member of every task force in Miami-Dade County and submit her positions to the county commission either through the committee she serves on or through a minority report. What she did on Feb 21, pulling rank on her committee and appearing alone before the county commission, is a disgrace. It is profoundly demoralizing, which may be Joe Martinez' point; he will run to the right of Gimenez as the special tool of the Great Destroyers.

Offense #3) Pena trotted out a list of grievances without substantiation and without challenge by a single county commissioner. No one asked her for the facts or data to support her claims that DERM is "the gestapo". She held up a map to the county commissioners, but offered not a single specific about either her neighbors' complaints, their location, or specific cases of abuse. County commissioners, who took her at her word, then spent an entire hour in a shameful parade of non-sequitors organized around the abuse of environmental regulations. The entire diatribe was without a single-- not one-- piece of evidence or science. (In comparison, science-based studies costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars involving environmental rules have been brought before the commission and summarily sent to the dustbin. The Ag Retention Study, the South Dade Watershed Study, the EPA study of the Urban Development Boundary).

Offense #4) Any commissioner on the dais (including Xavier Suarez who noted that he once "represented the 8.5 Square Mile Area residents") knows that a deal made between all levels of government allowed part of the 8.5 Square Mile Area to be protected when the federal government raises canal stages to restore the Everglades. (Former county commissioners like Pedro Reboredo and Gwen Margolis were also silent partners for land ownership in the 8.5 Square Mile Area.)  Yet not a single commissioner asked to see proof, evidence, or any science-based data supporting whatever Ms. Pena was trying to accomplish. Pena's real goal -- and the smirkers -- is apparently to undo the entire plan for rewatering the East Everglades and acts of Congress. (What is next for environmentalists in Miami-Dade: Crystal Nacht?) Certainly, by the end of the hour it was clear that Chairman Martinez and the rest of the Unreformable Majority would have widened the scope of the wetlands advisory task force to include massive changes to the entire Miami Dade County Code.

Offense #5) The county attorney practically set a historical record for weak-kneed obfuscation: no one, not Lee Hefty for PERA/DERM, raised a single question of Pena or the rambling, disjunctive discourse. At times, watching the tape, the commissioners seemed to be high on some kind of drug. Only Sally Heyman and Barbara Jordan had the guts to wonder aloud, about  the absence of protocol in what Martinez, Diaz, and Linda Bell were  proposing: using the wetlands advisory task force as a wedge to attack  all environmental rules in Miami-Dade county.

Offense #6) Mayor Carlos Gimenez: you make the bed you sleep in. Gimenez surely knew what a can of worms was being opened on one of the biggest issues imaginable. Wetlands are just the wedge. Read the partial transcript, below. If Gimenez has the courage of his convictions, he would have called the commissioners to task for undertaking such a massively important discussion without any public notice. It wasn't a hearing: it was Alice Pena. Does Gimenez believe no one is paying attention? It is also telling that the most informed member of the county commission on environmental regulations and the Urban Development Boundary, Commissioner Dennis Moss was absent on Feb. 21st and also absent last week. 

Offense #7) Logic. The discussion from the dais is marked by an absence, on the part of the county commission, to speak about technical legal issues. On Feb. 21st, the absence of discourse that was intelligible was shocking. At times it seemed like commissioners who know better, Commissioners Sosa and Heyman come to mind, consciously decided against saying anything that made sense, finding refuge in illogic. For example, any one of the commissioners could have asked Pena to specifically detail her allegations against DERM. Any one of the commissioners could have ventured to educate the audience on the history and background of wetlands regulation in Miami-Dade. Any one of the commissioners could have asked-- and ought to ask-- where is the data that environmental regulations kill jobs?

Offense #8) "A fair balance between the environment and farming and developers." This canard: "balancing the environment and the economy" is such a lie. There is no balance in Florida, today. The state legislature refuses to acknowledge either federal law or federal court decisions on water pollution by farmers who are, according to the county commission, "the best stewards of the environment." The state and county refuse to impose either best farming management practices or technical standards to reduce the pollution of Florida waters, not to mention the Everglades, a World Heritage site. When you hear a county commissioner talking about "balancing the environment and the economy" know that what they mean is this: the balance is whatever ag interests and developers want it to be. Politics trump science. Take that to the bank.

Offense #9) Florida International University. Joe Martinez made a big deal -- it was the first I had heard any mention of this-- that FIU law students were being tasked with reviewing the county code "under the supervision" of the county attorney. If I were in the county attorney's office, I would resign on the spot. What an embarrassment.  I suspect there are laws being broken along the way in this underhanded, devious plan by Chairman Martinez and the Unreformable Majority. I wonder if members of the board of directors of zero-rated US Century Bank, whose name is on the FIU stadium, are supervising the law school students and faculty. What a disgrace.

Offense #10) Alice Pena and the UDB "working group", brainchild of Joe Martinez and Pepe Diaz, have a clear aim: to erase any and all protections for the environment that conflict with private property rights as construed by the big ag and the developer lobby, including a wholesale revision of the Urban Development Boundary. The special interests who are pulling the strings are the same as they have always been. I call them, the Great Destroyers.

The imminent jeopardy to environmental protections in Miami-Dade County is the direct result of Governor Rick Scott, who bought his way to the CEO's office in Florida with no understanding how eliminating state regulatory authority for land use planning and drastically reducing state regulatory oversight of environmental issues would play out. The result: the wolves have breached the barriers in Miami-Dade. The lunatics are running the asylum.

Please go to part 3, the Transcript.

The Most Shameful Meeting of the Board of County Commissioners In Miami Dade History: Part 3 ... by gimleteye

Here is the partial transcript.

(Link to video of the Feb. 21st Commission Meeting if you would rather watch it.  - scroll below the video to Non Agenda Item - Citizen Presentation Re: Derm. If you hit on it, you will be at this presentation).

Feb 21 BCC /Alice Pena - Citizens Presentation

5 minute presentation:

Hope and expectation that the nightmare that the DERM nightmare that this community has endured will now end with a resolution. March 3, 2011 town hall meeting in Homestead. At this meeting serious concerns were raised about activities formed by DERM. As a result, a task force advisory committee to streamline application process on wetlands to provide enhanced property owners and to provide advice to bcc regarding revisions to wetlands regulations and ch 24. (MY NOTE: this was also the meeting that provoked the resignation of DERM's director, Carlos Espinosa; a career bureaucrat who had done everything the Great Destroyers wanted yet resigned rather than surrendered his dignity to Linda Bell.)

I am a member of that task force committee and concerned that the recommendations offering relief offer no remedies. No mention of regulation 33B; a 33 page document that renders DERM’s … Las Palmas community and designates community and totally egregious and fallacious and has been used to give free reign to DERM and unjust they are. People are not allowed to farm or do anything on their properties. DERM inspectors jump over fences unbeknown to owners. They intimidate harass property owners. Forcing them to lose their properties through court action. Illegal action to owners. Is this America or are we going to legitimize Gestapo tactics?

Happening all over county. I have submitted 1989 law by Congress that gave rise to expansion of environmental concerns. Won’t read 8.5 square mile , refers to residents of area and agricultural area, not wetlands.

Tell us some of the experiences.

People are jumping fences (DERM) unannounced. The area has been flooded. These were experiments again something that should be against the law. The lady with hunger strike? Lost the property or about to lose property.

You can’t mow property. These are farmlands. These people are cited if they don’t mow or clean their properties. Taken to court, fines that are unrepayable.

Martinez: This seems like an abuse. They have transgressed into just making money. (Moss not here.) I have fought this a lot with Moss.

Pena thanks Martinez. We have been able to fight every agency that is involved. The canal project … DERM has been out there and making people lose their property. People under the extreme wrath of DERM. Instead of being compensated, they are being confiscated.

Javier Souto: Alice is so right in what she is saying. Back in 80’s when I was senator in that part and I went to many gathering in different places. It is an old, old situation that keeps going on and on. When those in Washington decided to convert large parts of Miami Dade into “wetlands” only they know… These wetlands things were beginning and the environmental stuff, btw for those you don’t know about ag… I’m from an old farming family in Cuba… farmers are all environmentalists. The best farmers are good environmentalists too. People who play with words and there is so many of them creating spinoffs and phrases and sound bites, they have confused a lot of people with what is being an environmentalists and what is being an agricultural person. They have created a lot of harm. There are huge parts of Holland that are reclaimed from the sea and from which they produce tremendous farming and animal husbandry. Do these so called environmetnalists know more than the European guys who created all this stuff. I have had many fights with super environmentalists because they don’t know what they are talking about. People get confused because they get worked up by the media and others, and people get worked up into a frenzy. These things have created a frenzy in Miami because there is no reason that the area in South Dade should be producing agriculture. And producing cattle without causing any damage. There is all kinds of ways to avoid that. In today’s world with all the equipment and tools, there is no reason to pollute. But there are people in our midst in Miami Dade county and that is why I am constantly talking about corruption … there is corruption in different places. And every day, some comes out of that. It is easy to go in that direction and easy to be abusive and that brings all the other stuff. Alice I understand very well what you are saying and congratulate you and always backed your position. I know what I am talking about. The state of Florida is an agricultureal state. Dade County is an agricultural county. And 3 billion in produce. The sky is the limit. This county produces fruits no one in America can produce. Nobody can produce in the country. We have a microclimate that no one has in America. Do we want to use it, or, do we want to just scrap and just flood it and forget about everything? I think there should be more concern about predators with the boa constrictors than hitting the farmers that are producing more food stuffs for the nation.

Commissioner Diaz: this has been an ongoing problem for several of us… but it never seems to persist on a permanent basis. I remember when I was put on a task force by the Governor, the Everglades task force. (MY NOTE: Pepe Diaz was on the Everglades Task Force: ask Diaz to produce his attendance records. What percentage of meetings did Diaz actually attend?) And there was a lot of abuses. The parks department caused a lot of problems with the flooding they put forth. Back then, we had to testify in Congress and when we got sued because of a little bird. We cannot hinder public safety by huring the citizens who pay the taxes that these organizations live from. This cannot be doing the runaround. This has been going on too long… it’s bad enough for the financial state we are living in, and now you mandate a department that is holier than thou, but there are mandates that are put upon you that might create more damage than good. DERM, somewhere along the line grew massive fangs and wanted to do more than it was their ability to do. My concern when a department goes a little too far. I’ve been dealing with these problems for 20 years with Alice Pena. A lot of people got paid who wanted to leave the 8.5 square mile area. The reason: the mandate of the parks and the levels they want to keep, and water filtration. Those are the results as to why. So now you add this other problem it only adds insult to injury to it. I though we agreed to find solutions, not put us on the spot again. Are we going to say, let’s wipe out DERM? What level do we have to take things too, so we get the citizens who put us in office to do the right thing. I take offense to getting trashed. I don’t want this coming all the time. I’ve been dealing with this problem for close to 20 years. We were able to solve them in Sweetwater with the pump systems: working with everybody. But the first and foremost thing, is thou shall not flood. If you are going to create damage to human and livestock. Wetlands Advisory Task for  (Lee Hefty, PERA) formed by board to look into exactly what you are talking about. There has been a lot of interesting discussions in the task force. How to provide relief to agricultural community. I can assure you we don’t mean to be overbearing in any way. There have been cases Ms. Pena has been concerned about, and we went through the legal system. No liquidations, because we would like these issues to be resolved. 

Commissioner Sosa. Ridiculous to go over the same issue over and over again. Let us remember those residents were allowed to be there by the county. To avoid the necessity to go over and over and over in front of this commission. At the same time, this govt cannot continue to be so inflexible. The bureaucracy sometimes needs to work together to respond together with those residents. 8.5 over and over again.

Commissioner Bell.  Here we are again. Sometimes I don’t know what to say. I have had a lot of conversations with Mr. Hefty and I think these issues are bigger than we even know. Task Force members asked to revisit Chapter 33, but attorney said you couldn’t. The scope of it right now is to review wetlands issue under Chapter 24. Attorney: an amendment could be done. Ms. Bell. Take a look at everything. We have to have a delicate balance between respecting and caring for environment and respecting and caring for people. We hear that there is still penalized, punitive against farming community yet we want to promote farming. Some of the best environmentalists I know are farmers. I want to be careful about protecting the environment, but we have to protect the environment. Can we make a motion that we look at Chapter 33 as well.  I didn’t even know this (Alice Pena) was happening to today. Task Force members feel frustrated.

Martinez. Needs to be subject to four day rule. Make a motion.

Barreiro. What I have heard of frustrations and incredible amount of regulation. What a great idea has morphed into a monster. Unfortunately we have added layers on top of that. I would rather get my permits from anywhere else but DERM. That is unfortunate. We don’t realize it is piling and piling and piling. I share the frustration with Alice and not only in farmland. Generally regulations have stopped job growth in this county. I wouldn’t even limit to Chapter 33. Any regulations that pertain to the environment that has some little area that might be important to look at. I’d leave it open to review anything.

 I started this four months ago. What we are doing is going through the county code and clear out all unnecessary and unneeded code. So we have a law school, FIU law students are going to go through all regulations under supervision of county attorney. Truly Burton was involved. There is a lot of unnecessary “pit stops” to getting a permit. Our bureaucracy has tried to screw up permitting. It is ridiculous. People justifying their jobs.

Mayor Gimenez. We need to review the code. When I got here I told DERM and deputy mayor that I wanted a review of our code. Eliminate things so we don’t have this kind of situation. We are working on a second meeting with mayors of South Dade, or, allow cities themselves to become “deputies” of DERM so they don’t have to come to the county. We agree with commission wanting to look how we are enforcing our laws, and we have to look at getting rid of laws that don’t make sense any more. We are hearing about heavy handed enforcement activites. A lot of these complaints come from some time back, and we are here to change our model. We are not here to take anyone’s property away, but we need to look. We have been working with South Floriida building community and we are working with them, to review things that give us a bad reputation with building community.

Heyman. I appreciate you (Pena) coming forward. Hard hand really needs a review. There must be a balance, common sense and what the legitimate use is. Sometimes it does require a revisit of the law. I appreciate. My concern was narrowing it so small; this is an open window. Also identify whose jurisdiction it is: some things are Florida statute. Use of farmlands should not negate the environment. Everybody who owns the land has great respect for it. I hope you will broaden it.

Barreiro. Staff and attitudes have changed, but I believe things were so, so bad but there is a lot longer to go. We need a matrix showing our regulations with state and feds up to what point do they want to regulate and where are we. (Martinez: that is part of what we are all doing. That is part of what they are reviewing: duplicity. (He actually used that word!)

Suarez. I basically agree what is stated. Many years ago I did represent folks in the 8.5 square mile. Mr. Chairman seems to know everything I did 20 years ago. We ought to protect lifestyle in 8.5 and we ought to do something about contradictory laws and enforcement. If we have to clarify anything so we can avoid difference.

Bell. Everyone is on the same page here and that is really good. Everyone wants to achieve balance of protecting the environment and the farmers. I move we look at all DERM rules and regulations, extend the task force, for one day less than a year, and work with Chairman Martinez’ already existing FIU law school students, then come back here with real fix-its. People are going to the state legislature to fix things.

Bovo. I would like to also include in this review, conduct of inspectors. We have instances in Hialeah where they have been paralyzed to do business and literally have to shut down everything they are doing. I’ve gotten back reports of investigators going beyond the role and responsibility and literally being the enforcer or judge at that moment. I’d like include that, too.

Bell. My motion is on the floor.

County Attorney. It was a “wetlands” advisory task force.

Pena. I want to refer back to 33B, legislative “intent”. I don’t think this is necessary. This document is used to describe our area as “sensitive’ which it is not. They are basing themselves on plans they have found in the area. All of these determinations of “wetlands” are inappropriate. This is being used to deprive people of properties.

Heyman. As much as we have grown in what we are looking at, we also include “submerged lands” and also where DERM is involved with sewer lines. If we are finally going to take a look at it. I hope it will not just be “wetlands”. Coast, lake, acquifer, Biscayne Landing, septic tanks for years. Sewer line hook-ups are cost prohibitive. Should not be limited to wetlands.

Martinez. Just include “everything”. On the next meeting I am planning to have the FIU people here.

Jordan. I don’t like shooting from the hip. We are now looking at everything? I fully support looking, but I really think if we are going to be adding everything, we need to wait for a meeting to discuss everything. I am hearing so much, and deviating from significantly to original item. Now we have moved from Florida to Maine in three seconds, so I am kind of concerned. I’d rather support the expansion of what was originally … or need to four day rule.

Martinez. Let’s just do 33 B.

Bell. It went “broad” on purpose. Let’s make a motion just to open up Chapter 33.

Pena. (Allows Pena to speak after motion passes without dissent.) Put a hold on all court cases and all fines.

Martinez. If anyone would like to make a motion. Some of them are very onerous. Is there anyway that can be done properly.

County attorney. You do not have a factual record of discriminatory behavior. You have a law in effect right now, you are proposing of carving out a section of the county to exclude from that law, unless you have a factual record to warrant a selection moratorium that you have a legal concern for selective enforcement.

Martinez. Can’t we take two weeks to put a moratorium on all wetlands enforcement?

County attorney. This board has the authority to have a moratorium.

Bell. Can we ask staff to provide hydrology study for Ms. Pena.

Pena. Final recommendations are coming in, giving DERM more authority. You can close down the county. Agriculture will be dead.

Martinez. Is there a reason she does not have the hydrology?

Lee Hefty. County is bound by state law to look at definition of jurisdictional wetland. That discussion has been throughout task force meetings. Regarding the fines, we are not in the business of collecting fines. What happens is when you have an enforcement case, we end up going through civil court system and penalties for wetlands fill violations a judge makes the decision.

Barreiro. Prepare report, matrix style between local and state and fed regulations to take a look at everything.

Part 1
Part 2

The Tiger Woods Economy and Presidential Politics... by gimleteye

Barack Obama will win re-election in November as president of the United States. He will have the GOP to thank for that, but not necessarily for the reasons of a clown-show Republican presidential primary that spares no opportunity in wasting independent voters. Along this line, in the HBO movie "Game Change" that aired this weekend, John McCain's campaign manager dismisses Palin's awful first television interview with the observation that in 48 hours there will be a new news cycle and no one will remember Palin's performance.

Our election system continually underperforms the hardships of an economy that cannot find its footing. What is chiefly to blame is not the attenuated news cycle, but the capacity of politics to invent reality without serious challenge. This was the point of Karl Rove in 2003 in his interview with Ron Suskind of the New York Times when Rove admonished, "... when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out."

It turns out that Karl Rove was not wrong. But that sword cuts both ways.  The GOP is praying the American public will rally around whatever candidate survives the primary and party convention, obeying the short news cycle.

Today's news that the economy has stabilized and slowly improving capitalizes on the same dynamics that Karl Rove employed to such enormous benefit to the GOP. Barack Obama did inherit an economic catastrophe from George W. Bush and Rove's reality-based thieves. Barack Obama did inherit a set of economic advisors who came from the same set of Goldman Sachs experts who made billions playing all sides of the bet on financial practices that did not insulate the economy but insured, instead, that insiders only would understand how to game the system to their advantages.

In the NY Times on Saturday, there was a better view of the results, "Deficits Push NY Cities and Counties to Desperation". But this is the Republican legacy. Not Barack Obama's. Whatever happened in the past-- those failures of policy to protect sustainable economic growth-- infected our present circumstances.

The GOP and its instant Sarah Palin's can lean on "shining city on the hill" imagery. Barack Obama will ultimately benefit from the way the GOP exploited reality-based politics forged in its own crucibles of extremist nonsense. Through this lens, Sarah Palin was not an historical mistake any more than Tiger Woods, a psycho-tragedy in wait of a miracle to come, or the US economy, improving. 

The Florida GOP Presidential Primary, "Thank you all for coming by": The Latin Builders Association, Jeb and George W. Bush... by gimleteye

In light of the economic crisis and the collapse of dreams for millions of Americans, it is worth looking back at the "Ownership Society" that helped trigger the housing boom, then bust. This is along the same lines as President Obama's State of the Union speech, last night (through which House Speaker John Boehner looked like he had eaten a frog. Note to Boehner: do you really think that helps your cause). Obama began with a recitation of the mistakes made by powerful Washington officials and Wall Street financiers who are now trying to make hay with the "politics of envy".

President Obama did not linger on the history, but voters might. In the spirit of accuracy, here is a speech delivered on "The Ownership Society" by President Bush on June 18, 2002 and still available on the HUD website. Reading it today, reminds of the barb by Groucho Marx who was a comedian not a pundit, "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies."

The applause lines in the speech are clear. The Bush administration responded to 9/11 by stimulating housing markets and wealthy homebuilders who had propelled both Bushes, respectively to the Governor's Mansion and White House. You will have to read the whole of it to get to the part where he talks about our response to "evil" and connect the dots to lowered interest rates and thresholds to building and construction. That's where the Latin Builders Association directors and lobbyists came in, swinging at the piñata.

When Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich lunch with the LBA today (called "mighty" by this morning's Miami Herald but more on the order of "fallen".) an question for enterprising reporters: what was the role of the LBA and its and bankers like the US Century Bank board of directors including Ramon Rasco and Sergio Pino, and Jeb Bush for that matter; lobbying then HUD Secretary Bob Martinez for housing policies that ran the economy into the deepest ditch since the Great Depression?

(Miami New Times should make its life mission, to uncover the details.) So here is the grand plan from the Bush speech:

"... The problem is we have what we call a homeownership gap in America. Three-quarters of Anglos own their homes, and yet less than 50 percent of African Americans and Hispanics own homes. That ownership gap signals that something might be wrong in the land of plenty. And we need to do something about it.

We are here in Washington, D.C. to address problems. So I've set this goal for the country. We want 5.5 million more homeowners by 2010 -- million more minority homeowners by 2010. (Applause.) Five-and-a-half million families by 2010 will own a home. That is our goal. It is a realistic goal. But it's going to mean we're going to have to work hard to achieve the goal, all of us. And by all of us, I mean not only the federal government, but the private sector, as well.

And so I want to, one, encourage you to do everything you can to work in a realistic, smart way to get this done. I repeat, we're here for a reason. And part of the reason is to make this dream extend everywhere. I'm going to do my part by setting the goal, by reminding people of the goal, by heralding the goal, and by calling people into action, both the federal level, state level, local level, and in the private sector. (Applause.)

And so what are the barriers that we can deal with here in Washington? Well, probably the single barrier to first-time homeownership is high down payments. People take a look at the down payment, they say that's too high, I'm not buying. They may have the desire to buy, but they don't have the wherewithal to handle the down payment. We can deal with that. And so I've asked Congress to fully fund an American Dream down payment fund which will help a low-income family to qualify to buy, to buy. (Applause.)

Miami is at the Bottom of the Barrel in Yet Another Report. By Geniusofdespair

I am sure you already heard but in case you haven't Miami is number one as the worst run city according to 24/7 Wall St:

1. Miami, Fla.

• Violent crime per 1,000 people: 11.08 (13th highest)
• Poverty rate: 32.4 percent (5th highest)
• Adult population graduated from high school: 68.2 percent (4th lowest)
• Credit rating: A2 (stable outlook)
• Population: 400,892

According to a 2011 UBS study, Miami is the richest city in the country and the fourth richest city in the world by domestic purchasing power. However, a 2011 study by the Census Bureau found the Miami metropolitan area also had the second-highest income inequality rate in the nation — probably due to the incredibly high percentage of households living below the poverty line. Despite the city’s wealth, Miami’s median household income of $27,291 is the third smallest among the 100 biggest cities. Its poverty rate of 32.4 percent is the fifth highest. The city faces a handful of other problems. Only 68.2 percent of adults have a high school diploma or more — the fourth lowest rate.

A 2011 Brookings Institute report put Miami among the 20 weakest-performing metropolitan statistical areas in the country with regards to recovering from the recession, due in large part to the crash of its housing market.

Fanjuls and U.S. Century Bank: connections that rarely surface ... by gimleteye

Pepe Fanjul

Florida's billionaire sugar barons, the Fanjuls, are in the news despite best efforts to stay off any but the social pages of Vanity Fair or Women's Wear Daily. The Palm Beach Post has a couple of blistering stories this week that lay bare the bruising politics that keep policies intact to enrich Big Sugar at the expense of consumers-- not to mention the environment (Everglades) and public health. The Post story is based on information disclosed by Wikileaks.
The Post notes: "Pepe Fanjul, 67, was one of a handful of donors who raised more than $100,000 for Bush's second presidential campaign." The Fanjul connections are legendary on the Democratic side, too: Alfie, Pepe's brother, was famously on the phone with President Clinton when his aide, Monica Lewinsky, was paying attention to the president. 

But the Fanjuls have other close associations that are nearly as frictionless. Another of the $100,000 Bush Rangers in Florida: Sergio Pino in Miami, founder of the cratered empire surrounding housing in platted subdivisions and U.S. Century Bank. Although Pino's fortunes have hit a rough patch, he and fellow directors of US Century represent the hubris of the housing bubble and the mad rush to put more suburban sprawl in farmland and Everglades wetlands. Pino is also one of the long-time inside players in Miami-Dade County politics.

The Fanjuls have a natural affinity for a vertically integrated lobbying machine that preserves, protects, and maintains their rights to build cities or rock mines or whatever they want in the Everglades Agricultural Area, an enormous block of land south of Lake Okeechobee. Joe Klock, the longtime attorney for Fanjul related sugar interests, jumps to the billionaire's defense in the Post series. Klock is a name partner in the law firm founded by Ramon Rasco, who is also chairman of U.S. Century Bank. Both Pino and Rasco were heavily involved in the leadership of the Latin Builders Association. Klock joined the firm three years ago. Rasco is a major background player in such fiascos as the Homestead Air Force Base conversion by HABDI; a project that he guided and cost Miami-Dade taxpayers tens of millions of dollars through the dedication of county staff resources. 

The Post notes that the Fanjuls, "Helped kill former Gov. Charlie Crist’s push to buy nearly 200,000 acres owned by rival U.S. Sugar for Everglades restoration. Proposed a 14,000-acre new town west of Wellington in 2004 to attract The Scripps Research Institute. Co-owners of a proposed reservoir west of Wellington, now part of Palm Beach Aggregates rock pits." A related story in the Palm Beach Post details how the Fanjul's manipulation of US farm policy has made the family vastly wealthy. 

Having Klock, an attorney so closely connected to the Fanjuls and Big Sugar, is a countervailing force to the cratered fortunes of U.S. Century Bank; a bank that in EOM's view ought to have been shuttered by the FDIC long ago. ProPublica recently wrote an extensive investigative story on the bank. ("Florida Bank, Used as ATM by Insiders, Won TARP Loan But Now Teeters, Oct. 19, 2011) 


U.S. Century, the Fanjuls, and the ongoing efforts by Big Sugar to foist the costs of pollution onto the backs of taxpayers: it's quite a story. Use our search button to find more.

An Essay: The Twelve Days of Christmas

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" didn't begin as an ode to the holiday season. In 2004 the Christmas issue of the now defunct Sunpost, "Power Developers of Real Estate", caught my attention. As a long-time environmental activist and writer focusing on policy issues and problems of suburban sprawl--through skirmishes from the Homestead Air Force Base fiasco, to the incursions against the Urban Development Boundary like the failed Florida City Commons project, the gushing prose of the 2004 edition certainly felt like a market top. I saved it and waited to see how things turned out.

It would take another three years for the real estate markets to tumble, and a year beyond for Lehman Brothers to fall triggering a world-wide crisis in financial markets. There are significant works written about the role of the banking and insurance industries in the economic turmoil that persists. The top dogs have all been disclosed. But my view, frequently expressed on this blog, lags public acceptance: how local politics involving land use regulations, zoning and building permits, are an essential feature of growth cartel. Never mind the billions in Wall Street compensation: the economic crash was driven by local greed and hubris as well. The cartel would not have worked without the full-throated support of local actors. Every city in the fast growing regions of the nation have their own versions. What I know is Miami, South Florida, and how the politics here mesh with Tallahassee and national ambitions and offices.

Those who played an important role in the supply chain; ensuring that "speed in execution" provided for the easy, quick and cheap conversion of farmland to platted subdivisions, or, condos on the coastline, and destruction of the Everglades: they are all known. We write about the mechanics, here, at Eyeonmiami.

During the boom, the public interest in safe and affordable drinking water, in a thriving economy based on protected and restored environmental resources like the Everglades, all was burned to a crisp notwithstanding laws and regulations. Florida is the manifest example, and Miami is the epicenter of the boom and bust for the neat, tidy coincidence of political ambition--mostly Republican--and greed expressed as virtue to compliant and easily manipulated voters.

In 2009, as the real estate crash accelerated and press accounts emerged, I began taking note of the comparison between the effusive even ecstatic prose of the Sunpost in its 2004 Christmas paean and the published record of a massive real estate crash in motion. 

Along with many others, I had hoped that the 2008 election of President Obama meant change. The historic damage of industries related to finance and housing-- committing taxpayers to trillions in bailouts of the "too big to fail"-- ignited a cry for reform. It never happened. For a plethora of reasons-- well documented by now-- the change that materialized was the change that was politically affordable given stiff, resolute opposition in Congress that continues to this day.

We can do more, much more, to fix the crisis of the U.S. economy, but it will not happen so long as the goal is to revive a failed economic model that is based on leverage tied to housing and commercial mortgage markets. In failing to deeply reason and account for changes that are necessary-- some of which I address on Christmas Day--Democrats are as culpable as Republicans.

Lastly, to address the criticism that I am against all bankers and all developers and all elected officials who need, for campaign finance reasons, to cozy up to the money trough. As a citizen activist I have plenty of first-hand experience at the bullying of local operators of the Growth Machine. Anyone who participates in the forum develops thick skin. "Elitist". "Anti-property rights". "Liberal". "Noblesse oblige". Even, "environmental terrorist". I've heard it all.

But I have also spent much of my adult life following the performance of financial markets as a personal and professional responsibility; I was employed by Smith Barney as a registered investment advisor. I have worked for bond traders and equity traders and some of my friends are as successful as it is possible to be in the varied fields of finance. Other friends are developers who successfully managed businesses related to building and construction. I also ran a payroll of a private business involving hundreds of employees: I understand perfectly well how the wheels of commerce work and the benefits of capitalism. 

But I have also paid very close attention as a friend to hard working individuals and the organizations they work for-- many of them in non-profits dedicated to protecting the public commons (I am currently president of Friends of the Everglades, a non-profit dedicated to restoring the fabled River of Grass) -- and I have watched the skirmishes and battles in Florida and across the nation sap the vitality of a generation.

How this happened is more than a chronicle of financial and economic malfeasance, stretching from lowly city and county elected officials to Congress and the White House. It is a story that must be told. 

The twelfth day of Christmas

The eleventh day of Christmas

The tenth day of Christmas

The ninth day of Christmas

The eighth day of Christmas

The seventh day of Christmas

The sixth day of Christmas
The fifth day of Christmas
The fourth day of Christmas
The third day of Christmas
The second day of Christmas
The first day of Christmas

As a coda: this long essay, more than 20,000 words, is on the order of a draft and mid-way through its evolution. I welcome the addition and advice of readers, especially those with inside information that could add to and strengthen the record. I can be reached at:  gimleteyemiami@yahoo.com

An Essay: On the First Day of Christmas ... by gimleteye

(Part 12. With this installment, The Twelve Days of Christmas comes to an end though the manuscript may have a further life. Thanks to readers who are paying attention, if somewhat quietly. For new readers, scroll down for the earlier twelve installments. Thanks to my co-blogger, Genius Of Despair. This essay is based on twenty years experience and observation of the Growth Machine, its relation to the public, and the outcome: the worst economic crisis-- and despair and trauma for millions of Americans and families--since the Great Depression. My New Year's resolution? Embrace brevity.) The massive failure of the economic model tying suburban sprawl and condo canyons, from the smallest cogs in the machine to the biggest—the drive for Wall Street billions—have fundamentally deformed democracy. We can never legislate or regulate either hubris or greed, the fatal flaws that masquerade as virtue.

But there is a key to unlock for reformers; the perception of power is power.

Where power does not grow from the barrel of a gun, it will grow from the perception of who has the means to wield influence. From Jack Abramoff to Scott Rothstein to R. Allen Stanford, just a few of the Ponzi schemers who famously tied their fortunes to Florida, or in the case of Alan Greenspan—former chairman of the Federal Reserve—his reputation, there are clear outcomes that delineate exactly why and where reform needs to be imposed by public choice.

We just have to elect to public office candidates who are smart enough to reject the Karl Rove effect; no small consideration in age where education has been relentlessly devalued. Neither of the two important movements of our time—The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street—seem to have found the right targets. The Tea Party is wed to the notion of limited government, without understanding how it has been coopted by the same strain of virulent corporatism represented by the Rove wing of the Republican Party. Occupy Wall Street—that spanned a much wider cultural and societal demographic—has yet to coalesce around a program or to support political candidates.