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| Miami's Courthouse |
One Building is an icon, visited by tourists from all over the world. The other building, in Miami, they want to demolish it and have us foot the bill for a new building. One way or another, it is going to cost us big-time. They tried a Bond vote but the public rejected that.
First, why was this building not kept up over the years? It is a travesty. Why can New York maintain an older building and we can't maintain ours? Are New Yorker's smarter?
So now that we have let the courthouse run down into ruin, I have a new question. The County Government knew for years that they have not kept up the building so why didn't they put aside money to rebuild it? Let's face it, Gimenez has been at the County for 12 years. We could have $360 million stashed away by now (what they claim in needed to replace it) with a sum of $10 million a year (a paltry sum in a $7 billion dollar budget).
Why should we pay for their neglect? Or worse, why should we have to give the land to a developer to get a new building? Wouldn't it have been cheaper to just do upkeep every year?
Condo owners call it reserves. Where are the reserves of Miami Dade County for projects such as this?
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| Here is an example of dumb upkeep: Look at the beautiful historic floor in the the courthouse bathroom. What did they do? They covered it with a shit floor. Why didn't they just fix up the original, beautiful floor? |
The Miami Herald article
5 comments:
1. Tragedy of the Commons. A courthouse serves no specific district and thus has no champion.
2. Voters and developers reward officials for new bacon, not ropa viejo.
Think of the history that has occurred in this building. The cases and personalities adjudicated in this building defined and carved the city. Jose Canseco and Able Holtz get streets, George Merrick gets a statue for going bust as a developer, but an iconic location and building likes gets caca. This is prototypical nouveau riche thinking in the frontier that is sometimes Miami.
This is a prime example why we must hold elected leaders and our government accountable. Why on earth would a public building be exempt from building inspections? Do not let the current elected officials skirt by ... They need to act now. Currently, the game is to dance like idiots until they are out of office. No one wants to be held accountable. Don't try to hold them accountable for the past - they will just deny responsibility. Hold them accountable to act today - in the present moment.
Write down their promises and keep them to it...
the more promises they make, probably the least likely they are interested in keeping most or any of them... Government should not be exempt from the same laws we are all subjected to.... I would never be able to keep tenants in a building like this, and neither should the county... it's a public health hazard...
It's a contagion and happening county-wide in many municipalities. In South Miami, Mayor Stoddard wants to give the city hall property to one of his trustee pals at FIU in a sweetheart deal to build a new city hall. Stoddard didn't want to continue to spend $50,000 per year to maintain the existing city hall.
Anything located in the City in downtown will never get the attention it needs. So many who walk the streets don't speak English let alone appreciate Miami's rich history. If Dan Paul were alive today maybe there would be an effort. However, homelessness is a big problem in the area and across the street is the government center for which is a hangout for bums and cheap cafecitos. Correct me if I am wrong but the old federal courthouse across the street on the south side moved to a shiny new location so the old federal courthouse was never the same. That end of town became conducive for homeless bums to live on the streets after being made to leave the Camillus House to spend the day pan handling, peeing, littering and being a nuisance until it was time to go back to the Camillus to sleep if there were available beds. There was no incentive to rehab these bums, they were just wasting time and taking over and they had more rights than you or I. It became a third world and has shot straight downward over the years. Even the County government center was not owned by the County. Some crazy bond deal allowed the county to rent the building since it was built in the l980's just to save a few tawdry million. There is no sense of pride of ownership on the west end of Flagler and I am afraid our Courthouse has been swept into the mix. We have become a society of high towered condo mega millionaires from other countries investing stolen wealth or catering to it.
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