On April 28 the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners will consider three applications to move the Urban Development Boundary. Please check out archive, under UDB or type in the search bar, "Neighborhood Planning".
For seasoned readers of our blog, there is every reason to be exhausted by the charade of representative democracy involving votes to move the Urban Development Boundary. Back in the building boom, civic activists, environmentalists and citizens concerned about rationale growth in Miami-Dade endured repetitive attacks by the development lobby, the engineering cartel, and even county commissioners. We said that the model of growth in Miami-Dade was broken and that our democracy was being deformed by intense lobbyist pressure on these UDB zoning issues.
The organized assault follows a sickeningly familiar scenario: those in favor of a UDB application pay people to sit in the audience while stacks of attorneys, paid from $500 to $800 an hour run through their scripts. People with no idea why they are being bused in to County Hall file into the Chamber and take up space in rows of chairs, impassive and slack-faced, while some of them trot out the points they have been hired to make. They wear T-shirts for Lowe's or some other applicant. They give "cover" to public officials (like Joe Martinez or Natacha Seijas who wink and nod at their lobbyist friends from the dais) and time after time invent excuses to by-pass rationale planning in favor of land speculators. It doesn't matter if they know, in advance, that the Florida Dept. of Community Affairs will reject their application: it is all part of the land development scheme as it plays out year after year.
Still it is a worthwhile exercise in civic engagement to show that people are watching and have very strongly held views that moving the UDB only serves to further entrench a failed model of growth and development. Please, type in "Neighborhood Planning", or UDB in our search engine. Please plan on attending the meeting at 9:30 a.m. at the Stephen P. Clark Center (111 NW 1 St.) to speak up. Three commissioners plan to run for mayor, and a raft of candidates hope to become county commissioners. For the entire county, this is an important moment to show your support for Hold the Line.
11 comments:
Thank you for mentioning the 3rd one involving the NW wellfield. It seemed so benign at first, but it's not. So, we have a trio of applications outside the UDB, where does your current commissioner stand and where are the candidates for commissioner?
Of the candidates, only one of the Dist. 8 candidates, Pamela Gray, has been clearly against moving the UDB for a very long time and went further to vote against all three of these at the PAB in March of this year.
Please, show up and speak out. The Commission are not mind readers! If you can't show up, call your Commissioners office and fax them. Email are not effective because they can hit a delete key!
Correction: Pam Gray has been a strong voice on Holding The Line, but she has not been alone among the District 8 candidates.
Mr. Alvarez, who are the other current County candidates, individually, that have attended hearings involving the UDB and speaking out against it? I'm not asking for people or groups who support Hold the Line, I'm asking for who has actually gotten out there, involved with the issue, and have spoken against it?
Anonymous, who are you? If we are to start to have a real discussion, it seems only fair that you identify yourself.
The original anonymous poster simply had it wrong. I've been working on UDB issues for 12 years, and I know for a fact that at least one other candidate in this race has spoken out against moving the line as well. Political contributors have told me straight out that they will not donate to me because of my long support for Holding the Line. Of course, those contributors WILL have other candidates they can support in this race.
Anonymous did get this right: it's one thing to become a "Fan" of a Facebook page called Hold the Line and another to actually put blood, sweat and tears into the effort. In the past twelve years I have written letters, picketed, spoken before the county commission and community council, developed web content, headed ad hoc citizen's groups, walked door-to-door, met with elected officials, city and county staff and developers, joined citizen's task forces, created photo essays and public presentations and even built a house in order to advance intelligent land use in Miami-Dade.
My family has spent blood, sweat, tears AND money like no family I know, for the betterment of our community. I'm proud of our efforts, from my mother Jean Harum, who drew the original plans for our green house, to my wonderful wife Enid and our three hardworking and PATIENT children who actually built the house with me.
A word to the readers of this blog: taking the step of running for office is VERY different from posting anonymously on a blog. When you run, you put yourself and your family name on the line. Oh, and speaking of our family name, it's Harum-Alvarez. Mr. Alvarez is my father-in-law. My friends call me Albert. Anonymous posters can call me Mr. Harum-Alvarez. ;-)
Come see more about our house in Pinecrest Gardens this afternoon. "Shades of Green," a film that features our home, will be shown starting at 2:30 pm. And afterwards, we can have an actual face-to-face conversation!
wow, mr. harum-alvarez, if i am allowed to call you that. you sure sound like one pompous, self-important blow hard.
lighten up, bro.
I tell ya, that Annette Taddeo has everybody all "riled up" now that her election is all but a done deal.
Hell, even "Homestead likes her" - that should tell you something about the nature of this election.
Last anon, and so does the Vile one (like her). Go figure.
I don't think she's going to be elected. You do under estimate the Dist. 8 voters. We've had Katy for a long time, with her open door and we know her.
Annette is not "known" no matter how much she spends. It's not going to happen.
In this District, someone needs to back up exactly what they've done, at least in the circles I'm in, and I represent the average voter.
Talking points and rhetoric won't work in South Dade. We're too battle worn and can tell the difference.
I hope so cause I was alarmed when Genius "wished her well."
I don't understimate anyone, particularly being a well-informed active voter who prides himself in the fact that I have never missed one single election since I became eligible to vote in 1985 and have no intention in missing this one.
However, now that Governor Crist's change in Party affiliation is all but certain, the energy or "gas" behind the August 24th election will be gone and folks will go back to their La-Z-Boys, meaning a low turnout, allowing a "minority" to select out next commissioner.
By the way, who's the 'vile' one? I'm intrigued.
The "Vile one" = Natasha Seijas. The Homestead connections are the Farm Bureau. When there was a recall attempt against her, the Farm Bureau donated money to her, and in kind, she donated back to them after she got elected - again. She's (the Vile one)been spotted in Redland numerous times, probably marking where they can pave over to the Everglades with a bus load of senior citizens from her district.
And, I get the complacency thing regarding the Aug 24th election. We'll just have to wait and see how this plays out, because we're still not sure who's really in or out of the Dist. 8 race until after June 1st.
I have been to almost every CDMP and EAR hearing for 20 years. I have seen Gray there but not the rest of the crew, including Albert. Actions speak louder than words. All of a sudden evey candidate is a zoning activists, but where in the heck have you been?
if the "Vile One" is supporting Taddeo, that's one very strong reason to oppose her in August.
We don't need that woman's fangs messing with our district. Doesn't she have enough to do with her own district?
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