If you watch big infrastructure projects unfold in the United States, it becomes clear that the public hearing process is a game played by developers, bankers, engineering firms and insider-driven government agencies to vet decisions that were already been made; how to plow more people into more suburbs.This model, broke and cooked in the economic crisis, still has energy. It is all they know how to do. Take Florida Power and Light, for example. The electric utility is already charging customers for the $100 million planning effort to put new nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, despite the fact of significant uncertainties: where the cooling water will come from (60-90 million gallons per day) has not been disclosed or permitted nor the pesky matter of providing lime rock fill to raise the height of the reactors' base 20 feet above sea level.
In a fair public process, these details would have been fully disclosed by multi-billion dollar FPL before putting the project on rail tracks to permitting. Instead, and in the particular case of the rock mining issue, the utility prevailed on Miami Dade County Commissioners to allow the project to move forward with a special use permit. The public hearing process was a complete charade. And if you really want to dig deeper, you will find FPL in the process of changing more codes to allow it to rock mine in places the county already decided was a bad idea.
From FPL's point of view, despite the worst economy since the Depression, the corporate growth model is planned on decadal time lines. People come and go, but ultimately the corporate interest is the only enduring fact of life. Besides, a whole set of engineers and planners and lobbyists have very little to do if they can't be employed priming the pump for future profits. And since there is no business model other than jacking up units of consumption-- and since there is no plan to impose real limits through regulations or rules to mandate profit based on conservation-- the legions are not only at work, they are working through the process of using the trillion dollar fiscal stimulus, the centerpiece of the Obama economic rescue effort, to their advantage.
An even better place to view this phenomenon is the fast growing suburb of West Kendall near Tamiami Airport and SW 137th Avenue. The Miami Herald featured this area. (The Herald could have but didn't link the growth of this area in the past few years to the same political/ business interests we describe at length on this blog (see our archive, "production homebuilders", "Parkland", "UDB"). Despite the fact this area is littered with foreclosures, the decadal leap to the next ring suburb is well underway: it is called Parkland and its edge is Krome Avenue and the Urban Development Boundary.
One of the key obstacles to further suburban expansion is overwhelming traffic, a phenomenon that the Herald continues to portray as an inevitable consequence of needed growth. County Commissioner Joe Martinez, whose relationships on behalf of homebuilders is well documented, has made a virtual jihad to use the CSX rail right-of-way to make the traffic concerns "go away". The Parkland developers are prominent campaign contributors to GOP causes and campaigns. One of Jeb Bush's final acts as governor was to initiate a deal with CSX for public access to its rail lines, and although most of its property under scrutiny is in the Orlando area, there is the pesky matter of CSX access benefiting his political base in western Miami-Dade.
If this is how the world continues to work, there is every reason to believe the trillion dollar fiscal stimulus plan will be abused and that the taxpayer will be used to benefit the same interests who fomented the housing bubble and its catastrophic decline. In the first place, they manipulated risk analyses and printed financial derivatives to mint billions in private profit. Today, all they need are government printing presses.
January 25, 2009
KENDALL
Miami-Dade to host traffic project meetings
BY YUDY PINEIRO
YPINEIRO@MIAMIHERALD.COM
The Metropolitan Planning Organization, Miami-Dade County's transportation planning arm, will host a series of meetings this week where road planners will discuss upcoming projects intended to ease road congestion.
On Tuesday, the public is invited to a meeting that revisits the controversial portion of a 2007 study where planners analyzed rapid transit options for the Kendall area. It examines the transportation options along the existing CSX rail corridor from Miami International Airport through Kendall and other parts of Southwest Miami-Dade.
The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Kendall Branch Library, 9101 SW 97th Ave.
If you can't make it, the MPO plans to host more meetings as the study gets underway.
The estimated completion date for the study is sometime in June.
Also this week, Southwest Miami-Dade residents are invited to a meeting that will discuss a draft of the long-range transportation plan, which considers necessary improvements to the county's transportation system through the year 2035.
The goals of the long-term plan are to incorporate highway, transit, bicycle and pedestrian improvements in an effort to increase mobility. The final draft of the plan is due before the governing board of the MPO by the end of the year.
The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the West Kendall Regional Library, 10201 Hammocks Blvd.
There are other meetings scheduled across the county.
For more information on the meetings or a copy of the long-range transportation plan, call 305-375-4507 or go to the MPO website at www.miamidade.gov/mpo.
PALM BEACH POST
Home > Q: The Florida Politics Blog > Archives > 2009 > February > 03 > Entry
DOCKERY PLEADS WITH CRIST TO REDO CSX DEAL
By Dara Kam | Tuesday, February 3, 2009, 10:43 PM
Sen. Paula Dockery is (again) calling on Gov. Charlie Crist to put the brakes on a Central Florida commuter rail deal the day before he is scheduled to hold a press conference touting the project, recently dubbed "Sunrail."
Dockery, a Lakeland Republican, sent Crist a letter this evening critiquing the deal in which the state would pay transportation giant CSX Transportation $640 million for 61.5 miles of track while continuing to allow the railroad giant to operate freight trains on the line. The agreement also gives CSX $400 million for improvements on its other rail lines.
Dockery opposes the deal, in part, because the agreement hatched between CSX and state transportation officials could more than triple the number of freight trains that run each day through downtown Lakeland from 16 to 54.
"Did you know that at $10.5 million per mile, Florida would pay the highest rail-sale price in U.S. history? And that taxpayers would pay for CSX's mistakes on our tracks, even if the freight railroad is grossly negligent? And that the CSX route would only take 3,600 cars off Interstate 4?" Dockery wrote, likening the deal to "the giveaways and corporate welfare that government readily hands out."
Lawmakers failed to approve a bill including the commuter rail project last session but supporters - including House Speaker Designate Dean Cannon of Orlando - are hoping to pass it before this legislative session ends in May.
Crist will be joined by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, a former state senator, a major proponent of the commuter rail project.
3 comments:
I have to disagree with you, Gimleteye. It's not just the GOP that these corporations contribute to, they also give money to the Democrats. Lobbyists and corporations run the show in Washington and elsewhere. What about Daschle who got $500,000 from the same companies he was supposed to regulate once appointed? Reid, Pelosi, et al attend parties sponsored by the same people who later lobby them i/f/o the companies they represent. Reading your pieces, you seem to believe Republicans are the "big bad wolf", while Democrats are "Little Red Riding Hood".
Gimleteye writes:
No, not "Little Red Riding Hood". The post on Chris Korge is the most recent example. But if you check our archive, you'll see we give the Democrats when credit is due.
The bright fact is that the Republicans have controlled the Florida legislature for a very long time. Although many local municipal and county elected positions are non-partisan, in fact these officials have allied themselves overtly and covertly with the party in charge of state politics. The results in terms of challenged ethics and corruption are obvious not just in Miami Dade, but from one end of the state to the other.
Mario Garcia-Serra represents GT with the government agencies because he WORKS for GT. Would you expect him to do anything differently?
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