Well, The Miami Herald only missed the story by a few decades: "Where's the calvary? Where's the general? South Florida's record unemployment, a stagnant real estate market, and the financial menace plaguing Miami-Dade County's public health system all seem to need immediate attention." I suppose, better late than never. Unfortunately when the Herald looks at all, the Herald looks in the wrong direction. The symptoms cited by the Herald, record unemployment and stagnant growth and unfunded deficits, are exactly the result of the recent past generations of leadership in Florida. The great idea underlying Florida's dismal present: that any way business expands the tax base is the only way to pay for increased services.
We are here, because this is where our past leaders pointed us. There is nothing cyclical or coincidental; no act of God put us in this box. Just take a car ride to the Urban Development Boundary; the line that fixes our current obligations as taxpayers with our future vision of growth. Better yet, commute to downtown Miami from the Urban Development Boundary at morning or afternoon rush hour. Imagine, in your car, what quality of leadership thought that this landscape represented a public good. What leaders "did a good job" making sure that there are no parks where people live, that there is literally no walkable space except for isolated pockets, no logic or order to public access to Biscayne Bay or integration with the Everglades?
Do you think that relying on the same old voices who share space in The Herald talking back and forth to each other about what a great job the business community has done, the Chamber of Commerce, the Latin Builders, allows for a breadth of conversation about substantive change that Florida needs? No. Sea levels will have us all walking on boardwalks to our cars to commute on elevated roadways to other boardwalks, first.
2 comments:
I think that this piece and the accompanying story about moving the U.D.B. are the most serious and important issues that you cover, as well as being the ones whose details are the least known by local residents.
When you make the effort to turn over a rock, it's astounding how many roaches go scuttling away.
Thank you for your good work.
This Herald piece should have centered around young COMMUNITY leaders that are working to change the problems that business 'leaders' created.
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