The Miami Circle: a useless symbol of civic engagement? by gimleteye

By boat, the Miami Circle looks even more forlorn today than it did five years ago, when its discovery -- an ancient Tequesta Indian site-- and vulnerability to a condo developer's plans made national headlines. Then it was just the Sheraton Brickell, a mid-rise mistake on the Bay, that overshadowed the historic remains of native Americans who once thrived at the mouth of the Miami River. Today a massive high rise condominium complex turns the plot of land into an outlying parcel of the development bust: a monument in its own way to the rampaging armies of lawyers, lobbyists, engineering and construction firms, and to the politicians--many still in office in Miami-Dade and City Hall--who aided and abetted the building boom.

In Miami Today, publisher Michael Lewis does a workman-like job painting a picture of the Miami Circle controversy, and asks the question, what was it all about? "The Miami Circle comes full circle, hidden perhaps forever." But Mr Lewis omits a key reference point for the controversy.


Like other mainstream media, Miami Today never credited the depth of public anger, in 2003, against the building boom and its incursions against common sense for fiscal moderation.

Most citizens had a visceral reaction to the discovery of the Miami Circle. The mystery of what native Americans made of their celebrations of life connected, instantly, to making sense from the puzzle of contemporary life in South Florida. We read in the anonymous post holes of the Miami Circle our own past, present and future.

In 2003, what Miamians wanted to do was to protect something, anything, against the laying of concrete, rebar, and the power of lobbyists. What evolved was predictable in its own right: a politically connected developer got what he wanted: a three-fold return on his investment, made less than a decade earlier, at the point of litigation.

Today, that part of the controversy is forgotten even though it happened only a few years ago.

The speed of the housing crash and implosion of credit markets has hit Miami and the rest of the nation with the force of a slow-motion hurricane. The preservation of the Miami Circle in 2003 was like a comma, in a long sentence that ended in 2005 when the markets began to reverse.

What we see on the Miami skyline, within its cranes and legions of workers who stream into the city in morning and leave at evening, is the emptying of the pipeline, now spitting fitfully. What we see in the Miami Circle, as Michael Lewis notes, is a forlorn patch of empty space, signifying the little value we assign to history and its discontents.

Photo by Harry Emilio Gottlieb

Hialeah Park's Proposed Development has a Protest Song! By Geniusofdespair

Hit on the audio at this Herald link to hear the “Save Hialeah Park” song. Also check out the You Tube entry featuring Alex Fuentes. According to the Miami Herald:

Alex Fuentes, founder of Citizens to Save Hialeah Park, asked Los Primeros to come up with a song that would draw attention to Hialeah Park:

"I knew how hard it would be to lyricize something like Hialeah Park, but they pulled it off," Fuentes said. "It was very emotional for me to hear it but they also managed to make it fun and also do it in a way where you can dance to it. I was overwhelmed."

A development of regional impact is being pedaled at the State level for historic Hialeah Park. I think the protest song is an important addition to the effort to "Save Hialeah Park." Alex: I like it. The tune is catchy...and it has a great dance beat!

Rev. Joseph Lowery Speaks at Virginia Key Park Opening Ceremony. By Geniusofdespair

Check out Civil Rights Leader, Rev. Joseph Lowery's speech at Virginia Key yesterday. Hit on the audio on the Herald page. It is a very funny speech and also touching. He starts his speech with a reference to his good friend Arthur Teele. He also talks about the significance of Virginia Key Beach Park in the civil rights movement.

From The History Makers:

"Lowery began his work with civil rights in the early 1950s in Mobile, Alabama, where he headed the Alabama Civic Affairs Association, an organization devoted to the desegregation of buses and public places. During this time, the state of Alabama sued Lowery, along with several other prominent ministers, on charges of libel, seizing his property. The Supreme Court sided with the ministers, and Lowery's seized property was returned. In 1957, Lowery and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and Lowery was named vice president. In 1965, he was named chairman of the delegation to take demands of the Selma to Montgomery March to Alabama's governor at the time, George Wallace."

He calls himself a Northerner, from "Northern Alabama". In one instance Lowery talked about asking for a hamburger and Coke at a lunch counter. The waitress said: "We don't serve Negroes. He said: "I didn't order a Negro." Much more to the speech, check it out.

New baseball stadium: a change is going to come?, by gimleteye

It is an interesting view, expressed in The Miami Herald today, why the new stadium for professional baseball in Miami got done on Thursday:

The simplest reason is that, just like the sports teams the politicians are choosing to support, these politicians didn't want to lose. They didn't want to be the group responsible for the final strike that officially sent the Marlins moving to a new city. A sense of pride actually kicked in, and it had less to do with the love of baseball and more to do with the hatred of being considered a community that couldn't support a professional baseball franchise.

I think the approval of the Marlin's stadium has more to do with desperation, sitting astride an economic Titanic--represented by the collapse of housing and construction and credit markets. When in doubt, spend.

Building is a much more optimistic activity that scrutinizing municipal budgets that will require soon enough, big layoffs all around.

A very strong argument could be made (and has been made by Michael Lewis, Miami Today, among others) that the last thing we need in Miami is more infrastructure that we can't afford.

And yet... and yet... besides from laying off city and county workers, what are our "deciders" going to do? Is it possible that they will look at their schedules, empty of lobbyists seeking zoning changes because the bait and switch in farmland is over and banks are scurrying for cover--any cover--before the regulators come beating down their doors, is it possible that our 'deciders' will look at their schedules and decide to focus on the needs of the poor, of the homeless, or of the environment, and tighten the very screws down that they have spent decades loosening in Miami and Miami-Dade county?

Be it as it may--a picture painted with broad brushstrokes--if you stand far enough away from the deal struck by county commissioners on Thursday, what you see is not a baseball stadium at all, or only in small enough part to make a good newspaper story.

So I agree in part with The Herald opinion writer, that there was more at work in the decision to move forward now than love of baseball. It was a fear of impotence amid signs that Miami is the epicenter of a housing bust that is stripping the gears from the economy not just here, but throughout the nation. Surely, at some level of awareness, Miami and Miami-Dade elected officials must know that their actions hastened an economic crisis of unprecedented depth?

What you see in a new baseball stadium that fans will greet indifferently because the costs of attendance are so high-- what you see are decisions makers who could constructively spend their time serving the public interest, now that the need to support development in farmland and downtown condos that can't be financed has shriveled like an apricot left in the back of the refrigerator.

Here is one constructive suggestion that costs a lot less than building a baseball stadium: give elected officials a homework assignment to read about what happened to Japan, real estate and its economy over the last twenty five years. Is it too much to ask that decision-makers should be conversant with reality?

Friday: You will “Laugh Out Loud” at this one! by Geniusofdespair

Check out this very funny song on YouTube that is in competition for the new Official Florida State Tune. It is by Grant Peeples. This should definitely be our Official Florida State Song - he really skewers everything and everyone that makes Florida the weird place we all love to hate!

County Commissioner Katy Sorenson is Home after Surgery by Geniusofdespair

According to the Miami Herald, County Commissioner Katy Sorenson underwent a hysterectomy Wednesday to combat stage one endometrial cancer.

''I am so grateful for early screening and detection,'' Sorenson said in a news release. ``This is a reminder for all women to get regular gynecological checkups and Pap smears. This is also a reminder to policymakers how important it is for everyone to have available, affordable healthcare. It saves lives.''

Listening to the County Commission Meeting on The Marlins Stadium Deal. by geniusofdespair

All of these really financially challenged people are speaking right now about how the new stadium is the best thing that could happen since sliced bread or rice and beans.

It makes me sick to hear them because they don't realize it is coming out of the meager money in their pockets, could they be that stupid? They are saying they want a stadium so their children and grandchildren can watch baseball. The people talking don't have the money for the tickets, who are they kidding? And, who goes to baseball games anyway? I will tell you: People from Broward. The Marlin's must have dredged up these booster people, promising them a perk.

Chair Bruno Barreiro and most of the rest of them: This stadium will be an economic engine. We all know the Orange Bowl wasn't. What has changed? I say: In your dreams - it is an economic engine for the team and raiding funds earmarked for the poor.

It is almost 8 P.M. now and the Commission still hasn't voted. This is excruciating. They are trying to get union stuff and small business concessions in the contract. They focus on minutia.

Our Miami Dade Cities: Where is the Miami Herald? By Geniusofdespair

North Miami is experiencing a crime wave and there is fighting over the mega-development, Biscayne Landing. There are charges by the Mayor that affordable housing has been mishandled. And now the Mayor recants?? Why?

In Palmetto Bay there is a giant addition to a school that is creating a controversy. Surfside residents are rebelling against the Mayor and his redevelopment plans for their city hall, he has a challenger now. In South Miami there was one firing and three resignations...so far. In Miami Lakes the Vice Mayor has been accused of practicing Real Estate without a license. In West Kendall there is a development of regional impact being pushed by owner Lennar (on the wrong side of the UDB line) and the Herald reported it ONLY to the local neighborhood.

Our Cities are in turmoil. You wouldn’t know it if you read the Miami Herald. We don’t need sterile reports in “Neighbors.” We need some answers not descriptions of the facts. We need some research on "why." We need reporters to dig deeper, not the "Just the Facts" reports we are seeing. We need to see the issues brought to the front and dissected. It is meaningless for the Herald to report of the four vacancies in South Miami. That is just a symptom of a much larger problem. I want to know the WHOLE story: the larger story. While we are at it Miami Herald: Where is the story of the Charter Review Report that Lou Ortiz of Miami Today reported?

What has happened at the Miami Herald? Too busy with the ballpark boondoggle? Your local reporting sucks Miami Herald.

Lobbyist Fees: We are all in the wrong business. by Geniusofdespair

According to the February 19th issue of the Orlando Sentinel:

"All told, corporations, unions, local governments and industry groups spent at least $97.6 million in fees on professional lobbyists to represent their interests in Tallahassee last year. The actual number is likely far more, since the state requires only that lobbying firms report the range of their fees for each client, such as between $1 and $9,999. Lobbyists were paid at least $93 million in 2006, the first year the lobbying corps was required to disclose compensation."

This is such a colossal waste of money unless, of course, some of it were going in my pocket.

Nuclear Workers: Are they damaged goods? By Geniusofdespair

If nuclear is so safe why is the government paying out all this money to former workers at the plants?

According to the article, linked above, from the February 20th Tampa Bay News:

"The Department of Labor has paid out more than $1.5 billion under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Program to nuclear workers in various parts of the United States. Since 2001 more than 75,000 claims by workers or their survivors have been filed under the program. About 51,000 claims have been approved for lump sum awards with another $104 million to cover medical care." Further, the article states:

"To get compensation, Ann Gleason of the Florida Nuclear Workers said, a person must have suffered a 50 percent exposure to contaminants. One woman who worked at the plant between 1979 and 1993 suffers from an eye cancer. She was rejected for benefits because her exposure rate was determined to be only 45 percent. Then doctors determined she had breast cancer."

South Miami Imploding? By Geniusofdespair

The new commission in South Miami fired the City Manager: 3 to 2 vote. I am told that as a follow up -- the Finance Director, Chief of Police, Planning Director and Public Information Officer all resigned today. Watch for others to follow suit. Could this all be true?

Natacha Seijas: Get out the barf bag. By Geniusofdespair

According to the Miami Herald, at the State of the County address by Mayor Carlos Alvarez today:

"County Commissioner Natacha Seijas, recently among Alvarez's most bitter political opponents, was among those introducing him on stage."

Ick.

BTW, I was told there was a Natacha temper tantrum at the County Commission Meeting yesterday, when Victor Diaz presented the County Commission with the Charter Review Task Force's final report. I was told she was upset because she didn't get the proper respect out of the group. Anyone have the scoop? (It has since been reported by Miami Today - see comments - and Thank you Harry Emilio Gottlieb for the photo illustration)

Have you seen Jim DeFede lately? By Geniusofdespair

Since his hospital stay, Jim has dropped mega weight. Looking good Jim!

Here he is in a clip talking about the Marlins' Stadium deal. Snooze. DeFede is forecasting a future boondoggle for the Orange Bowl location and he is not so keen on the proposed new name either: Miami Marlins.

The City of Miami Commission will be discussing the stadium deal at 9:00 A.M. tomorrow.
12:27 on 2/21: Just heard Regalado against, all the rest voted in favor. Goes to the County today at 1 P.M.

North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns' Angry Letter to Biscayne Landing Brass. by Geniusofdespair

If I could invest with one developer it would be with the controversial Michael Swerdlow. He KNOWS when to bail out on a deal. He has done it over and over again, sometimes leaving angry government officials holding the bag while he holds the bucks. Getting out of Biscayne Landing just before the crash of Real Estate values was brilliant on his part. I like his instinct for profit. Yep, he is my choice for "shrewd guy."

Meanwhile, the boondoggle is just beginning to gel at the former super-fund site, Biscayne Landing. The City of North Miami retains ownership of the land and has partnered with Biscayne Landing for the development on the land. Condo owners are not happy with the development company, feeling short-changed on promised amenities not delivered. Apparently Burns is also upset: believing the City is getting a bait and switch from the developer.

I wish I could take you on an easier route to the revealing letter written by North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns. You would suppose there would be a Miami Herald article but you would be wrong. Jim Mullin's "Biscayne Times" has the scoop: Hit on January 2008 and go to page 27. Some angry quotes from the Mayor Burns letter:

“And please don’t try to cajole or threaten the city with any statements that if increased commercial development is not granted, the land will lie fallow for years. If the project is going to fail, then the city will simply have the land available to offer to another developer.” And, Burns said, on the developer's promise of affordable housing:

“Over the past five years, not one unit of affordable housing has been built or renovated, and this has turned the city’s efforts to being a leading community and model of affordable housing into a laughingstock in the county.”

Sorry Burns, the county's affordable housing is by far tops on the laughingstock totem pole.

This whole deal was put together by the developer's attorney, Clifford Schulman. Another smart move by Swerdlow - hiring the most adept attorney at drawing up an iron-clad contract. I don't think the City has even begun to feel the brunt of the contract's intricacies and loopholes -- all benefiting the developer. You don't have a chance Kevin Burns!

Dear Commissioner Joe, from Jorge... by gimleteye

Jorge Mursuli's letter to County Commissioner Joe Martinez is a good read. With the writer's permission, it is reprinted below.

The ordinance, in its first reading today, is supported by local political powerhouse, Save Dade.

Five County Commissioners (Chairman Bruno A. Barreiro, Commissioner Katy Sorenson, Commissioner Sally A. Heyman, Commissioner Audrey M. Edmonson and Commissioner Carlos A. Gimenez) sponsored the landmark ordinance that would allow for the registration and recognition of Domestic Partnerships in Miami Dade and provide health insurance eligibility and other benefits to the domestic partners of Miami Dade County employees. To read Jorge's "Dear Joe" letter, click on read more:


Commissioner Martinez:

It's been a while since we have spoken. I trust all is well on your end. I think the last time we saw each other was at the Univison Republican Presidential Debate. Both Univision presidential debates were truly historic for our communities, and I enjoyed being there both times.

I write regarding the Domestic Partner Ordinance currently up for your vote. In particular, I am reaching out to you in response to the quote attributed to you in the Miami Herald ("Partners' Rights Fight Looms", 02/13/08), where you explained your opposition to the ordinance by simply stating, "I just don't believe in it". This brief statement along with a subsequent decline to elaborate left me confused. My previous communications with you regarding equal rights and fairness in Miami-Dade don't provide me with any insight as to your meaning.

Please allow me to understand what exactly it is that you don't believe.

Do you not believe that people can be in a committed long-term relationship without being married?

Do you not believe we should figure out ways for everyone to be insured one way or another?

Do you not believe your consituents would support this measure for themselves, their family and their friends?

Do you not believe there is enough political muscle behind this effort?

Conversely, do you believe that hospitals should deny unmarried long-term partners access to their loved one's death bed?

Personally, you should know that if someone should ever attempt to stop me from seeing Jimmy (who I have shared my life with for 20 years) in a critical hospital situation, I'm most confident that my reaction would be strong and aggressive. AND, I am most confident that my reaction would be common and appreciated by most people who would be denied similar access, gay or straight. I think that kind of human reaction from a family member is certanily easy to believe.

Commissioner, you know that what makes a "family" is the investment that one makes in loved ones throughout the years in spite of the ups and downs. These bonds are understandably unquestionable no matter whose family it is. Having said that, I respectfully ask you not to question the authenticity of my family and those of others by implying you don't "believe" they exist. Whether intentional or not, this type of disrespect towards the family of others gets nobody anywhere.

Simply put, your public quote on this issue is not helpful , especially to your constituents who look to you for guidance on how to understand local issues and local government in general. I should know. My organization, Democracia USA, spends a considerable amount of time canvassing and working in your district. With all due respect, I believe they deserve better.

I regret having to write this letter. I would have never guessed your position on this issue, but in spite of my dissapointment, I remain available to talk anytime you feel you want to futher explore the issue. In the past, talking these things through has, I hope, been helpful to you.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I would have liked the opportunity to speak to you in person, but my attempts with your staff to secure an appointment were unsuccessful. I guess both our schedules are tough.

Be well. I wish you and your family the very best.

Jorge Mursuli

Fidel Castro Yesterday and Today by Geniusofdespair

As a young child I remember the name Castro. They had a convertible bedding company and the TV ad had a little girl pulling open a sofa bed. I could never figure out how Fidel had this company with commercials on U.S. TV.

Almost 50 years have gone by between these two photos of Fidel Castro.

As a South Florida blogger I believe I should acknowledge Castro's decision today, not to run (Praise the Lord!) but I think I am more at home talking about the the demise of the Castro Convertible Company. Others can do the Fidel Castro analysis much better.

Palm Beach activists act up, why not Miami Dade and Broward? by gimleteye

Why are citizens acting up in Palm Beach, but not in Miami-Dade? Is it a matter of geography, or, of leadership?

In part, it's the landscape. In Broward, successive county commissions made sure that communities would be separated by terrible transit infrastructure, making it impossible for people to get from one side of the county to the other. It's not much different in Miami-Dade. If you can't move, you can't meet.

Also, the urbanization of South Florida has removed most people from the environment. In past generations, people who used the environment--hunters and fishermen and bird watchers, too--defended it. Today, who protects the environment?

Surfers, for one. The Surfrider Foundation and 200 activists recently lined the causeway at Haulover Inlet to protest the lack of beach access on the southeast side at Harbor House and the collusion of bankrupt developers and corrupt public officials to close down parking.

But where is everyone else?

In South Dade, Homestead and Florida City, people value a more rural and calm pace of life with access to open areas the rest of the county lacks. The few blogs in the area are mostly indifferent, though, to the need for local activism that protests the chokehold of bankers and developers who are succeeding in turning their communities into suburbs of Kendall.

Why? Did the bankers do well, by Homestead? As far as I can tell, it is mostly the Latin Builders who benefited. Now, many are on the ropes, yet the landscape is filled with the permanent features of excess and greed.

Why aren't people willing to stand up for what they value?

At the Miami Dade zoning hearing to consider applications to move the Urban Development Boundary, how many people showed up who weren't paid to be there by Lowe's? Of course, the county commission is expert in manipulating hearing agendas, time of meetings, and general indifference to the public (ie. Natacha Seijas, Joe Martinez, Bruno Barreiro, Barbara Jordan et al), making it a profoundly dispiriting affair for citizens.

Certainly, the Chamber and city councils in those parts of the county have been unabashedly "pro" everything, like two new nuclear power plants at Turkey Point. And Florida Power and Light has been exceedingly careful in managing its exposure to the public, of the costs and facts of its plan that will impose tens of billions in costs on future rate payers (who will live to witness sea-level rise blow the cost of living in South Florida to smithereens).

What about leadership?

Perhaps the Earthfirst members from other rural parts of the state can get to Palm Beach County easier than the fifty miles south. I can guarantee that those fifty miles, past Fort Lauderdale and the Golden Glades interchange, are such a fearsome commute that the state of Florida should put a graphic of skull and bones on the interstate direction signs heading south.

Where are the young activists in Miami and Miami-Dade? Who, among them, is putting up websites like The River of Gas or The Palm Beach Environmental Coalition blog?

The PB Environmental Coalition is fighting the "environmental industrial complex". Why not, Miami Dade and Broward? Click on read more:


Welcome to Infoshop News
Tuesday, February 19 2008 @ 04:36 AM PST

Earth First! Blockades Power Plant Construction Site, 27 Arrested


Monday, February 18 2008 @ 12:10 PM PST
Contributed by: Anonymous

Palm Beach County - Early Monday morning dozens of concerned community members from Palm Beach County and all over the nation put their bodies on the line to halt construction of FPL’s West County Energy Center (WCEC), demanding energy efficiency, truly clean, renewable energy and a moratorium on development in south Florida. Everglades Earth First! blocked the main entrance to the WCEC site, a proposed massive 3800 MW gas-fired power plant that would emit 12 million tons of CO2, a leading greenhouse gas, every year. The plant is currently under construction despite ongoing legal challenges to the plant’s needed permits and certification, which have been spearheaded by the local Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition.

For Immediate Release: 2/18/08
Contact: Everglades Earth First! (561) 588 - 9666
Photos available at www.risingtidenorthamerica.org by Tuesday 2/19/08

Earth First! Blockades Power Plant Construction Site, 27 Arrested

Palm Beach County - Early Monday morning dozens of concerned community members from Palm Beach County and all over the nation put their bodies on the line to halt construction of FPL’s West County Energy Center (WCEC), demanding energy efficiency, truly clean, renewable energy and a moratorium on development in south Florida. Everglades Earth First! blocked the main entrance to the WCEC site, a proposed massive 3800 MW gas-fired power plant that would emit 12 million tons of CO2, a leading greenhouse gas, every year. The plant is currently under construction despite ongoing legal challenges to the plant’s needed permits and certification, which have been spearheaded by the local Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition.

A dozen activists locked themselves together through metal pipes as 200 supporters rallied around them. The blockade stopped work on the construction site for six hours before a total of 27 people were arrested.

This confrontational action was taken to protect the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge which sits 1000 ft from the power plant site and to protect the larger Everglades system. Restoration would be undermined by new development that the power plant is expected to encourage in the area. The civil disobedience action also aims to protect the entire planet from the destructive effects of climate change caused by power plant emissions.

“We just don’t need this plant,” said Lynne Purvis, an activist with Everglades Earth First! who was born and raised in the Loxahatchee area. “I’m not willing to threaten the integrity of the Loxahatchee, one of the last large, intact pieces of northern Everglades, so that people can fuel their greedy energy desires.”

Purvis says that the Everglades Earth First! group intends to continue a sustained campaign of direct action against this power plant and its adjacent gas pipeline.

The protest was also attended by grassroots activists and group across the United States who have been participating in the annual Earth First! Winter Rendezvous. One such group, Rising Tide North America, is part of an international movement for climate justice, which connects the social and environmental issues related to the growing climate crisis and calls for urgent and bold responses to the global human-caused dilemma.

Brian Sloan, an organizer with Rising Tide North America and participant in Monday morning’s protest, said “FPL is doing what we call ‘green-washing’. Gas-fired power is not a clean or sustainable energy. It is a dirty and dwindling fossil fuel.” Sloan also states that Rising Tide does not trust energy companies to solve the climate crisis. “The solutions to climate change will never come from the people who created the problem.”

Earth First! and the Rising Tide movements recognize that the fight against fossil fuel power is being used by the energy industry to push a new wave of nuclear energy. These grassroots groups are committed to extending their fight against the dangers of nuclear power with an eye on other FPL proposals, such as Turkey Point and St. Lucie.

For info on local Earth First! efforts, visit: www.earthfirst2008oc.info

Environmentalists act up, TV news gives FPL free advertisement, in Palm Beach County, by Gimleteye

Activists shut down a rock mine--Palm Beach Aggregates--the company associated with public corruption of local PB county commissioners and which eyeonmiami has noted (see archive: rock mining).

What is really interesting about the local CBS affiliate TV news report is that "the very tense situation" has NO clips or close-up footage or interviews of the protesters. The only person given a feature spot in the clip is the FPL spokesperson, a former Miami Dade communications director who worked for Mayor Alex Penelas.

So I have a question: is the "alarming" and "tense" story about FPL "providing for the needs of future growth" in the midst of the biggest housing slump and market contraction in a century, or, is it about the complaints of environmentalists? Go to the link, and watch for yourself.

Whose side is the media on, do ya think? (To be fair, The Palm Beach Post does a fair job of reporting the various sides, but here too economic interests get the last word. The protesters demonstrate with "glee". The truck drivers need to make money. Ba-da-bing.)


Traffic moving again as arrests clear FPL protesters from truck site

By ROBERT P. KING

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, February 18, 2008

Trucks began leaving Palm Beach Aggregates about 1:30 p.m. after sheriff's deputies finished arresting 27 protesters who had blocked the entrance to the rock-mining company since 8:30 a.m., according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

The action by protesters, who oppose new FPL power plants near 20-Mile Bend, had left dozens of dump trucks idling by the side of the road and snarled traffic on Southern Boulevard west of Wellington.

In addition to about 80 Sheriff's Office personnel, about 30 Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue paramedics were at the scene, and at least one representative of the FBI, along two police dogs. Among the 27 arrested, was one person arrested earlier for wearing a mask on public property, which is illegal. Two of those arrested were treated for dehydration.

The arrests began about 10 minutes after police issued a dispersal order, calling on the protesters to leave the road, where about 10 had linked themselves together with duct tape and tubing.

Another 40 to 60 cheered the civil disobedience from a legal free-speech zone at the side of the road, and were not subject to arrest.

At one point, traffic heading west had been blocked at Southern Boulevard and Seminole Pratt-Whitney Road, with cars backed up at least a mile.

Among the protesters were children as young as six or seven. People banged drums, many with hand—painted signs on sheets bearing messages such as, "FPL: Don't Destroy Our Everglades."

Alex Larson of the Acreage, a longtime critic of the power plant, noted with some glee that they had not only managed to shut down Southern Boulevard, but also shut down Palm Beach Aggregates, the rock mining company that sold the plant site to FPL. Palm Beach Aggregates also is a major supplier of rock and gravel to the road and housing construction industry.

"This is shutting down construction, too," Larson said.

Many lay on the ground with arms locked together, as others marched with banners reading, "Don't Let FPL Poison the Everglades" and "FPL Stop Poisoning Us."

FPL has approval to build two 1,250-megawatt units of the West County Energy Center near 20-Mile Bend. Both are under construction and scheduled to open in 2009 and 2010. The company is seeking regulatory approval to build a third 1,250-megawatt unit, which would open in 2011.

Critics have questioned the effects of the plant, expressing environmental concerns. FPL says the West County Energy Center would be the cleanest power plant in the state and one of the cleanest of its kind in the nation.

Today's protest was called by the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition and Earth First, a radical environmental movement. Cara Jennings, a Lake Worth city commissioner who joined the protest, acted as intermediary between protesters and police.

Leonardo Garcia, one of the idled truckers waiting in line this morning to pick up rock, complained, "I'm not making any money today."

FPL has 692,000 customers in Palm Beach County. It expects to have 758,000 customers by 2012.




Find this article at:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2008/02/18/0218protest.html

Just the facts, not: by gimleteye

Because of budget constraints, the federal government will stop producing the website that accumulates economic statistics in a single place, that provides easy access for citizens, journalists, and the merely curious. It's true: economicindicators.gov is going out of business.

Shame on the Bush White House and whoever is killing this website, for whatever reason.

One website you might be interested to check out: John Williams' Shadow Government Statistics, answering the question: "Have you ever wondered why the CPI, GDP, and employment numbers run counter to your business and personal experiences?"

Perhaps it is because we are too busy, in Florida, debating the merits of evolution in school curriculum.

Type the rest of the post here

Just what we need: Sky-High Twin Towers in Miami. Geniusofdespair

I'm spooked, anyone else?

Empire World Towers, LLC (Mgr. Leon Cohen, Miami Beach) dual towers are heading towards development in downtown Miami on Biscayne between NE 3rd and 4th Street. No parking problem there (joke), oh wait, they have 1,321 parking spaces planned. The towers are to be 93 stories each, 1,022 tall (The height of the Empire State Building in New York is 1250 feet at the 102 floor). There will be 1,557 residential units. Kobi Karp is the Architect and expected completion is 2010. The two acre site was purchased by Maclee Development for 31.7 million (again: Mgr. Leon Cohen).

According to Emporis.com:
“The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will perform studies on the project's heights and longitude and latitude to determine the building's potential interference with air traffic in and out of Miami International Airport.”

The project's Lobbyist, Lucia, will be asking for a major use special permit from the City Commission at meeting scheduled February 28th.

Can print journalism be saved? Should it? by gimleteye

"Can journalism live without ads?" is the topic of Ed Wasserman's editorial in The Miami Herald.

It is a concern that absorbs eyeonmiami, too.

There is no question that the mainstream news media, especially print, is very ill: as ill as the Everglades and perhaps for the same reason. Neither can survive the distortions of moral obligation to certain principle. Credit The Miami Herald, at the very least, for entertaining to discuss the topic (not the Eveglades) on its editorial page.

"... new technologies are churning out better ways to reach customers who are shopping for cars, jobs or homes. The result is a calamity for the news business." Agree.

Wasserman is more diplomatic than I have been about the corrupting influence of ad revenues from--say for instance--production homebuilders and the Growth lobby in Florida that navigated our national economy onto the rocks.

Newspapers, like The Miami Herald, flinched--as a matter of revenues and profits--from looking straight into the nature of the credit bubble that germinated in the hands of some of its biggest advertisers. Nearly every week, we complain: like last week's placement of a massive development proposal by Lennar and powerful lobbyists for far West Kendall called Parkland 2012 in only one section of "neighbors".

Wasserman considers then swerves away from two alternatives that are increasingly discussed as solutions--private philanthropy (ie. newspapers owned by charitable foundations) or public financing, like license fees that British viewers pay to support their BBC. Where Wasserman finds most promise, is the idea of unleashing the power of data mining to calibrate advertising revenues to clicks.

It is the same kind of thorny issue that kept TV writers on strike for months: how to make a collective bargaining agreement with program producers on a business model that doesn't exist.

I would like to see the nation's leading thinkers on ethics and business set to the issue. Newspapers are a national treasure, an irreplaceable resource: their decline is a threat to democracy and accounts, to no small degree, for the difficult straits in which we find ourselves.

Surely there is some combination of charitable ownership and public funding through regulation of air wave auctions that could restore print journalism.

Wasserman notes the concern that "some philanthropies may even be obligated to ensure their money advances certain policy goals". Well, it couldn't be much worse, could it?

One area that is ripe for reform is the licensing of airwaves for telecommunications and wireless signal transmission. it is startling that no public benefit is derived from the auctioning of spectrum--a multi-billion dollar industry.

And what about the internet, where more and more people are choosing to get their news?

Under threat of new business models that have pushed the gathering of news and opinion into the same hopper that competes with Craig's List, print journalism can't survive. I don't think there is any way to harness the power of the internet to save print journalism; by the time a revenue model is established to parcel out clicks and revenue, I'm afraid that the only remaining newspapers will be gone.

Just read today's news, for a glimpse of how fast it is happening:

February 18, 2008
MEDIA TALK
The New Boss’s Salty Language Raises Eyebrows at His Papers

By JOANNE KAUFMAN
Samuel Zell, the new head of the Tribune Company, is known for colorful language — the sort that cannot be printed in his newspapers.

For instance, in a videotaped meeting last month with employees of The Orlando Sentinel, Mr. Zell swore at a photographer who asked about his “viewpoints on journalism and the role it plays in the community.” The question came up in the context of Mr. Zell’s desire to raise revenue.

According to L.A. Observed, a blog about the Los Angeles media world, Mr. Zell spoke favorably at another gathering about reinstating ads for “gentlemen’s clubs” in The Los Angeles Times, another Tribune property, then added some crude slang about female anatomy.

It was also reported that in a discussion of newsroom decorum at The Times, he told reporters that he saw no problem with their watching pornography at work as long as it did not get in the way of productivity. “Let me know if you find any good sites,” he said, according to MediaBistro, a journalism Web site.

The Times has been in flux; its top editor, James E. O’Shea, lost his job last month after refusing to cut more newsroom jobs, and on Thursday a successor, Russ Stanton, was named. But even during the interregnum, the back and forth over Mr. Zell’s comments continued.

Last Monday in a mea culpa memo to the paper’s staff, Mr. Zell characterized his language as “deliberately outrageous. My goal was to shock you, to shake you out of complacency.”

A follow-up memo issued the same day by the paper’s management said that “Sam is a force of nature,” but that “we still have the same expectations at The Times of what is correct in the workplace.”

An author of the memo, Susan Denley, The Times’s editor for hiring and staff development, said that the second note was meant as “more reassurance than anything. We’d heard a lot about people’s concerns. We wanted to be on record that people were to continue to treat each other appropriately.”

One reporter said that she and her colleagues “just laughed it off,” adding, “People have bigger things on their minds here. They’re more concerned about the new round of layoffs.”

JOANNE KAUFMAN

Guest Blog: A Storm is Brewing in Palmetto Bay by Miamigal. (Do we care?) Geniusofdespair

I am printing this because I am curious about readers reactions. To me, this is a nimby issue, I say that by my lack of interest. The writer begs to differ. She calls it: "A community gone wild." NOPE-- I STAND CORRECTED SHE SAID: "This is NOT about a community gone wild. This is a community that is fighting to preserve the integrity of a residential area." Your view? Am I narrow minded, (I guess so, I couldn't even quote it right)? Tell me why I should care. Warning: If you tell me in more than 4 sentences that is too long - I won't read it. Following is her unedited guest blog:

It’s All About Quality of Life…
Our Quality of Life is definitely related to our life circumstances and expectations. It is a tangible notion that reflects the situation in which one lives; including those things that come along to threaten your perception of well-being. The funny thing about Quality of Life, one man’s feast may certainly be another man’s famine. Just when you think it is safe to assume you are living just fine, along comes the zoning notices, land-use attorneys and of course, the stress.

Deep in the happy little village of Palmetto Bay a storm is brewing:

The zoning notices are out. That tiny white post card is sending neighbors scurrying to defeat the seemingly innocuous request to expand a church sponsored private school. Those horrible selfish neighbors…those NIMBY maniacs! Equally as frantic are the hundreds of outsiders from the school bent on imposing their glorious plans on the unfriendly neighbors. All the elements of a great television pilot are right there; rich folks, angry folks, greed, passion, deception, carpet baggers, lobbyists, politicians in an election year and the usual array of shenanigans such as yard signs being stolen and phone calls being made.

If Palmer Trinity Private School manages to win the zoning hearing on February 25, 2008, this will be the future: The school will go from a reported 600 students and 58 teachers to an astonishing size of 1400 students and 240 staff members. It will add 33 acres of buildings, playing fields, and what every residential neighborhood needs, a football stadium. Forget about the impact on the lucky homeowners located on four sides of the project. Forget about the 15 years of construction dust in the houses. Forget about the noise pollution and sleeping-in as the school comes alive with 1700 people. Forget about all of this and look at the big picture.

This is not about a community gone wild. This is a community that is fighting to preserve the integrity of a residential area. This is a community that is seeking to prevent grid-lock that will impact South Dade traffic for years to come. It will impact traffic from Coral Gables south all the way to Naranja near the Homestead Air Reserve Base. Whatever Gulliver School has not managed to entirely do to Old Cutler Road during the morning and evening traffic rush, Palmer Trinity will finish.

As many of you know, this county is very limited in north-south traffic routes. The roads just are not there. Other than US1, Old Cutler Road is the only north-south artery that goes from deep South Dade through Cutler Bay, Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest, South Miami and further into the Grove. It is grid- locked in early morning and late evening. Over the years, as build-out occurred in the potato fields of South Dade, the line of cars idling in traffic has crept further and further south. Now, you drive north at 10 miles per hour from as far south as Eureka Drive all the way into the urban areas. More importantly, this current state of affairs on Old Cutler Road and Eureka Drive doesn’t include future traffic from The Palmetto Bay Village Center (Old Burger King Headquarters), which is 88 acres of business zoning on growth hormones. Nor does it include the Palmetto Bay library under construction next to it, or the Palmer Trinity proposal.

Palmer Trinity is a very wealthy school (tuition and fees start at over $21,000 a year). The unfortunate reality is that the new students will come from areas north of Palmetto Bay. The additional 900 cars (no rattle-trap yellow school buses here) will be coming and going back to Coral Gables, Pinecrest, and the very northern edge of Palmetto Bay. The only direct route to the school is by driving down Old Cutler or down though the heart of Palmetto Bay and doubling back to Old Cutler Road.

Traffic counts along the Old Cutler corridor have gone from C’s to F’s over the years. A “C” grade being "a bit congested" and “F” meaning "standing gridlock". What will 3000+ new car trips a day (plus the service and construction vehicles) do to South Dade’s traffic pattern? It forces Eureka Drive to be widened to four lanes encroaching on the residential area. It will back-up the east-west arteries that empty onto Old Cutler Road and cause those intersections to be redesigned. Residential areas will be denied easy egress onto the crowded roadway. The accident rate will go up as drivers take insane chances at making left and right hand turns on both Old Cutler Road and Eureka Drive. South Dade County will see no relief by widening Old Cutler Road. It is a state designated Historic Highway and cannot be widened.

To quote Norman Mineta, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation:

“Congestion is one of the single largest threats to our economic prosperity. Each year, Americans lose 3.7 billion hours and 2.3 billion gallons of fuel sitting in traffic jams. Worse, congestion is affecting the quality of American’s lives by robbing them of the time that could be spent with families and friends. Congestion is not a fact of life. It is not a scientific mystery, nor is it an uncontrollable force. Congestion results from poor policy choices and a failure to separate solutions that are effective from those that are not."

Secretary Mineta’s quote illustrates Miami-Dade County’s situation. Every community must find strength and resources from its own people to improve livability and quality of life.

Conversely, the Palmer Trinity Board of Directors, in their mad rush to grow and enhance their standing in the private school sector, will deny their part time next door neighbors the right to have a tranquil, livable community without the added burden of grid-lock. Their self-indulgence will let them star in the development handbook for private schools everywhere. They will wrap their mission in the goodness of their non-profit status; they will irresponsibly change the urban landscape and then go home to their neighborhoods leaving behind the traffic congestion and changed lives. I never thought I would see the day that I would prefer 66 houses on 33 acres to a school. But, times have changed. Traffic has changed. We can’t continue to pave our way out of congestion caused by bad planning.

Urban sprawl is bad. Urban congestion is equally as bad. Good urban planning comes with solutions. Despite the prevailing assumption in Miami-Dade County, owning a piece of land doesn’t mean one is entitled to a greater zoning use than what sits on it. Urban planning does not necessarily mean widening every roadway to accommodate every property owner’s desire to up-zone the value of his or her land. Good urban design may require saying NO. It means government leaders need to step up to the plate and make their review of proposed projects truly cognizant of a community’s health, safety and general welfare.

Palmer Trinity’s project is a test for the Palmetto Bay Village Council. The proposed project is a test of their abilities and skills as urban planners. The hearing is not just about a Palmetto Bay neighborhood. This hearing is also about the people in Cutler Bay living across the street from the proposed project (who have had no formal notice from Palmetto Bay since they don’t live there). At a minimum, it is about the deciding future for South Dade citizens far beyond the Council’s legislative boundaries. However, in the very end, the hearing is about you, me and our Quality of Life as we sit fuming in traffic wondering what went wrong with county and local governmental planning oversight. For our sake, I sure hope the Village Council doesn’t flunk their final exam.

The hearing is February 25, 2008, at 6:30 pm, on the Southwood Middle School Campus, 16301 south west 80th Avenue, Palmetto Bay, Florida. More information

ABC World News: WTF?, by gimleteye

I almost fell out of my chair. In a segment on Barack Obama ("Obama echoes Deval Patrick, again"), the weekend news anchor questioned who is writing Obama's sound bites, citing the similarity between "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" with sound bites used exactly by another politician, Deval Patrick, whose campaign was also managed by Obama consultant, David Axelrod.

That sound bite is one of the most often quoted lines ever delivered by a US President: FDR's inaugural address seeking to calm a jittery nation. But that's not what the news anchor's script reported. What it said was that the phrase was an example of plagiarism by Obama.

Type the rest of the post here

Miami-Dade Home Sale Data. Geniusofdespair

Home sales (from City-data.com) by selected neighborhoods. Hurricane Wilma hit early in the 4th quarter of '05 which I believe was the turning point. Sometimes there is a lag time on new home/condo sales closings as they have to be built. More charts below, hit on charts to increase their size: