I share the anguish of Cuban American friends who lost loved ones in the violence under Castro. For some, personal tragedies will be genetically imprinted and echo through generations. One could say, Castro's passing marks a time of healing. Perhaps celebrations will help dissipate the pain he and his regime inflicted on families and friends. Perhaps. Miami has long projected an ethos -- hatred of Castro -- with mixed results. Castro projected his influence on Miami politics for generations and through Miami, the nation. His death will be not be a meaningful symbol unless we account for the architecture of personal and political catastrophe, here and across the Florida Straits.
Showing posts with label Castro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Castro. Show all posts
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Florida GOP presidential primary: Gingrich shows the wear and tear. Ron Paul seems more youthful by the day ... by gimleteye
Mitt Romney went on the attack last night at the presidential debate in Florida, excoriating Gingrich as a former top leader rejected by his own party in the 1990's and acting today as if that history never occurred.
Gingrich touts his relationship with the Clinton administration. He cites the balanced budgets and economic growth during years as Speaker of the House. Let's set those facts straight. Gingrich and Clinton mixed like oil and water. Gingrich opposed the Clintons at every turn. He vilified Clinton for immoral conduct while he was conducting his own extramarital affair. Moreover, his slash and burn leadership style modeled for what was to come: Tom DeLay and the K Street Gang including Jack Abramoff.
Gingrich, under the spotlights, is like a savant game show contestant. His strategy under withering attack is to riffle through the copious file drawers of his mind. Or lean on his history. For example when Adam Smith, political reporter for the St. Pete Times, asked Gingrich about the federal farm policy that protects and enriches sugar billionaires, Gingrich used the question to take a breather-- recalling how well the sugar industry protected itself from reform when he was Speaker.
There were bright moments last night. Three of the four contestants -- Romney, Gingrich and Paul-- affirmatively support eliminating the sugar subsidy in the Farm Bill. Big Sugar and its billionaire Fanjuls command politics in Florida by sprinkling campaign contributions on the political landscape like confectionary sugar on a pastry. You could almost see the Fanjul billionaires spitting into their cafecitos. (How will Republican US Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio, respond to the Big Sugar subsidy question, next, when his patron--Jeb Bush-- supported sugar at every turn including its ongoing illegal pollution of the Everglades. Big Sugar substantially paved Rubio's way to the Senate over his rival, Charlie Crist.)
The most solids of the debate went to Ron Paul on the question of US relations with Cuba. For the other candidates, the hard line against Castro was cued up like a sound track from the 1970's on a coin-operated jukebox. The kind where you flip the pages with the little silver lever only there's no other song but how much we hate Castro. Ginrich, Santorum and Romney all sang the same song, to which Paul replied: "The Cold War is over. We propped up Castro for decades. He used us as a scapegoat." Thank you, Ron Paul. "We talked to the Soviets and Chinese. We fought with the Vietnamese and now we are trading with them. We should tell the Cubans we want to talk and trade with you. We are living are in the dark ages… it is not 1962 and we don’t have to use force and intimidation any more."
Santorum delivered an especially paranoid fantasy of Cubans harboring Taliban and jihadists, sounding like McCarthy from the 1950's. If Santorum wants to police Muslim presence in the hemisphere, he'll have to advocate putting US traffic cops in every Latin American nation. Otherwise, Rick: drop it.
With the economy so awful in Miami, the majority of Cuban Americans with business acumen are itching to open business in a place where demand has been suppressed and supply choked for so long. Even as the Republicans rant against Castro, Cuban American Republicans are ramping up remittances to relatives back home, helping them start business above or under the table by the thousands. What time could not do, the terrible economy in Florida will: it is time to go back and make money.
If the Cuban Americans in Florida vote for Paul, the quixotic congressman from Texas will have made his greatest contribution to modern political history.
In other respects, Paul's vision of foreign policy-- bring the troops home-- is in line with the urgent need for fiscal sanity in defense budgets. Romney, Gingrich and Santorum all default to American exceptionalism and its resentments, linking up to rejection of any policy favored by Obama, no matter how well grounded in practical economic reality and the needs of a coherent national security. With the exception of Paul, they simply gloss over the fact that it was the Bush administration that cost taxpayers trillions and treasure engaging in the wrong wars. Speaking of which, the Bush name wasn't mentioned once in last night's debate, was it?
Gingrich touts his relationship with the Clinton administration. He cites the balanced budgets and economic growth during years as Speaker of the House. Let's set those facts straight. Gingrich and Clinton mixed like oil and water. Gingrich opposed the Clintons at every turn. He vilified Clinton for immoral conduct while he was conducting his own extramarital affair. Moreover, his slash and burn leadership style modeled for what was to come: Tom DeLay and the K Street Gang including Jack Abramoff.
Gingrich, under the spotlights, is like a savant game show contestant. His strategy under withering attack is to riffle through the copious file drawers of his mind. Or lean on his history. For example when Adam Smith, political reporter for the St. Pete Times, asked Gingrich about the federal farm policy that protects and enriches sugar billionaires, Gingrich used the question to take a breather-- recalling how well the sugar industry protected itself from reform when he was Speaker.There were bright moments last night. Three of the four contestants -- Romney, Gingrich and Paul-- affirmatively support eliminating the sugar subsidy in the Farm Bill. Big Sugar and its billionaire Fanjuls command politics in Florida by sprinkling campaign contributions on the political landscape like confectionary sugar on a pastry. You could almost see the Fanjul billionaires spitting into their cafecitos. (How will Republican US Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio, respond to the Big Sugar subsidy question, next, when his patron--Jeb Bush-- supported sugar at every turn including its ongoing illegal pollution of the Everglades. Big Sugar substantially paved Rubio's way to the Senate over his rival, Charlie Crist.)
The most solids of the debate went to Ron Paul on the question of US relations with Cuba. For the other candidates, the hard line against Castro was cued up like a sound track from the 1970's on a coin-operated jukebox. The kind where you flip the pages with the little silver lever only there's no other song but how much we hate Castro. Ginrich, Santorum and Romney all sang the same song, to which Paul replied: "The Cold War is over. We propped up Castro for decades. He used us as a scapegoat." Thank you, Ron Paul. "We talked to the Soviets and Chinese. We fought with the Vietnamese and now we are trading with them. We should tell the Cubans we want to talk and trade with you. We are living are in the dark ages… it is not 1962 and we don’t have to use force and intimidation any more."
Santorum delivered an especially paranoid fantasy of Cubans harboring Taliban and jihadists, sounding like McCarthy from the 1950's. If Santorum wants to police Muslim presence in the hemisphere, he'll have to advocate putting US traffic cops in every Latin American nation. Otherwise, Rick: drop it.
With the economy so awful in Miami, the majority of Cuban Americans with business acumen are itching to open business in a place where demand has been suppressed and supply choked for so long. Even as the Republicans rant against Castro, Cuban American Republicans are ramping up remittances to relatives back home, helping them start business above or under the table by the thousands. What time could not do, the terrible economy in Florida will: it is time to go back and make money.
If the Cuban Americans in Florida vote for Paul, the quixotic congressman from Texas will have made his greatest contribution to modern political history.
In other respects, Paul's vision of foreign policy-- bring the troops home-- is in line with the urgent need for fiscal sanity in defense budgets. Romney, Gingrich and Santorum all default to American exceptionalism and its resentments, linking up to rejection of any policy favored by Obama, no matter how well grounded in practical economic reality and the needs of a coherent national security. With the exception of Paul, they simply gloss over the fact that it was the Bush administration that cost taxpayers trillions and treasure engaging in the wrong wars. Speaking of which, the Bush name wasn't mentioned once in last night's debate, was it?
Thursday, April 23, 2009
More, on the Castro brothers ... by gimleteye
Barack Obama's overture to Cuba has already put points on the board in Obama's favor in an unexpected way: eliciting the editorial from Fidel Castro contradicting statements made by Raul in favor of wide discussion of bilateral relations. The Herald, this morning, takes the position that Fidel is fully in charge, citing a source familiar with the situation on the island that the brothers fight "all the time." Maybe. But I don't believe that the next generation of Cuba's leaders will support the soap opera of dueling octogenarians for long. The intractable relationship between Cuba and the US has served political elites in both countries very well, but these days there is too much reason for change; a ruined economy.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Stop the Olympic Games! No Cuba, Si China ... by gimleteye
Congressman Lincoln Diaz Balart is big-time upset that a Little League team is being allowed to visit Cuba.
To be consistent, Congressman Diaz Balart should stand at the head of protesters of the Olympic Games, about to open in Beijing.
Talk about the need for regime change: China promised that it would halt air pollution so that athletes could play for a couple of weeks. China's leaders believe they can engineer the climate!
It believes so strongly in mind-control that it supplies massive amounts of consumer goods to great cities like Miami, so our own people can live in the illusion of prosperity. It is China whose repression we support in exchange for cheap goods, not Cuba that supplies us with great music and enthusiasm for life. I hope this makes you as dizzy as this is making me.
This is a nation that will stop at nothing to pervert the natural order of mankind's domination. No Fidel, si Dalai Lama!
Diaz Balart and his comrades-in-arms stand astride the Florida Straits separating the US from Cuba. So it is fitting that these Hercules should lead the protest against the Olympic Games.
Cubans run around Havana in late model American cars held together by chewing gum and baling wire while the Chinese add 25,000 fuel efficient cars a day to their congested roadways, destroying the planet in Asia at the expense of General Motors in Detroit. Cubans are getting as blase about rafters setting off from the Malecon as airplanes taking off from LAX to Beijing: this is unacceptable conduct!
That firebrand from Vermont, US Senator Patrick Leahy, called on Diaz Balart to "pick on someone his own size". I agree. My advice to Diaz Balart: go west, not-so-young-man. Stop the Olympic Games!
You are needed in Beijing, Senator Diaz Balart or Congressman, stop the Bird's Nest Stadium: No Cuba, No China! No Fidel, No Walmart!
At least, if Senator or Congressman Diaz Balart would stop the Olympic Games, he would give Miami voters a chance to reflect on what actually is in the drinking water here to make us support the wasting of a great nation.
To be consistent, Congressman Diaz Balart should stand at the head of protesters of the Olympic Games, about to open in Beijing.
Talk about the need for regime change: China promised that it would halt air pollution so that athletes could play for a couple of weeks. China's leaders believe they can engineer the climate!
It believes so strongly in mind-control that it supplies massive amounts of consumer goods to great cities like Miami, so our own people can live in the illusion of prosperity. It is China whose repression we support in exchange for cheap goods, not Cuba that supplies us with great music and enthusiasm for life. I hope this makes you as dizzy as this is making me.
This is a nation that will stop at nothing to pervert the natural order of mankind's domination. No Fidel, si Dalai Lama!
Diaz Balart and his comrades-in-arms stand astride the Florida Straits separating the US from Cuba. So it is fitting that these Hercules should lead the protest against the Olympic Games.
Cubans run around Havana in late model American cars held together by chewing gum and baling wire while the Chinese add 25,000 fuel efficient cars a day to their congested roadways, destroying the planet in Asia at the expense of General Motors in Detroit. Cubans are getting as blase about rafters setting off from the Malecon as airplanes taking off from LAX to Beijing: this is unacceptable conduct!
That firebrand from Vermont, US Senator Patrick Leahy, called on Diaz Balart to "pick on someone his own size". I agree. My advice to Diaz Balart: go west, not-so-young-man. Stop the Olympic Games!
You are needed in Beijing, Senator Diaz Balart or Congressman, stop the Bird's Nest Stadium: No Cuba, No China! No Fidel, No Walmart!
At least, if Senator or Congressman Diaz Balart would stop the Olympic Games, he would give Miami voters a chance to reflect on what actually is in the drinking water here to make us support the wasting of a great nation.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Cuba is all about Miami, by gimleteye
Ana Menendez gets it right in The Miami Herald, "CANF leader at odds with former self". But I want to elaborate on the point that begins her editorial, from which she moves away too quickly: "... the latest report finds that more than 80 percent of the money earmarked for Cuban democracy stays here."
People who live far from Miami often ask, what drives Miami Cubans who have stubbornly refused to engage the Cuban dictatorship over long decades, turning foreign policy failure into a point of abject disappointment. There are two parts to the answer, that an honest reckoning by CANF leadership would agree with-- if such candid admissions ever reached newsprint.
First of all, there is the real anger, hatred, and desire for revenge by ordinary people harmed by a murderous regime. But let's leave this aside. US policy to Cuba, the effort to economically starve a nation whose people are proud irrespective of the conduct of its leaders, cannot have been meant to change Cuba. From China to Libya to the Soviet Union, US foreign policy often veers to the pragmatic.
What then accounts for the immoveable policy against Cuba? The CANF report more or less says it, in noting that 80 percent of the funds stay here: it has always been about Miami, first capturing then maintaining power here.
Anti-Castro fervor serves political orthodoxy for candidates who would do the bidding in office of the power elite: the Javier Souto's and Natacha Seijas and Raul Martinez and Diaz Balarts among others.
The center of power sought by the money behind the vitriol of Spanish language radio was never in Havana: it was in road contracts, airport contracts, and water pipes and pumps in Miami. The counterpoint to the screeching against Castro was the incessant drum of zoning applications to build sprawl in Miami Dade farmland.
Perhaps Menendez is right, that the least bad thing one can say, is that the CANF is pointing the way out of the immoveable US policy to Cuba that has changed nothing for decades.
But the cold, hard truth is the Miami landscape has been picked clean by development interests and the entire region is in the midst of the worst housing crash since the Great Depression-- formed from an enormous glut of housing inventory and an asset bubble Florida developers helped to inflate with policies and politics that dominate Tallahassee and Washington.
In the meantime, companies from Canada, Spain, Italy, France and Germany-- to name a few-- are securing advantage in Havana. In the past decade they have slowly moved to exploit the pent-up demand for economic development that is likely to burst in a flood of profits for saavy investors in the not-too-distant future.
These are the realities that are moving the Cuban American power elite today.
The Hialeah beachhead for Cuban American politics, funded mostly by developers who live in gated communities in South Miami and Coral Gables, doesn't matter quite so much, now that moving the UDB and other zoning changes in Miami-Dade are mostly points of pride for large corporations whose US profits matter less and less compared to what they can earn in emerging economies like Cuba's.
You won't read this point of view in The Miami Herald, but is no less apparent than the smoke filtering in from fires in the Everglades this morning.
Posted on Sun, May. 18, 2008
CANF leader at odds with former self
By ANA MENENDEZ
If all of these aid-to-Cuba groups were a charity, no sane person would give them a dime. Even the biggest donor -- the United States -- has questioned the spending.
Now the latest report finds that more than 80 percent of the money earmarked for Cuban democracy stays here. But the most surprising thing about the study is its sponsors: The Cuban American National Foundation.
Someone who left Miami in the 1990s and returned today would be flabbergasted. But CANF has been slowly adapting since the death of its founder, Jorge Mas Canosa in 1997. Friday, the group of former Republican party loyalists hosts a lunch for Barack Obama.
Many factors have contributed to the once-hardline organization's evolution. But no single person more embodies its philosophical shift than its president, Francisco ''Pepe'' Hernandez.
''Before, we thought we could go to Cuba and invade and establish democracy by force and the U.S. would help us,'' Hernandez told me. ``Those times are over. A man like me who has struggled and dreamt has to reach the conclusion that the future does not belong to my generation. Change in Cuba has to come from inside.''
BRAVE ADMISSION
It's a brave and stunning admission for a man who sat with U.S. presidents, cultivated confrontation, and lobbied for the unsparing laws that helped shape this country's failed Cuba policies.
The political divide among Cuban Americans in Miami is often seen as a generational one. But at 71, Hernandez proves that members of what is often called the ''historic exile'' are often at odds with their contemporaries, many of whom spent the better part of last week bashing CANF.
In Hernandez's case, his new willingness to engage Cuba puts him at odds with an even more intimate figure: his former self.
''I'm speaking as someone who had a lot to do with the policies, or at least someone whom people want to blame for them,'' he said, a smile in his voice. ``But Cuba has bought some $900 million from the U.S., including the paper used to print Granma. That's something people don't understand. Embargo? What embargo?''
Almost 50 years into his fight, Hernandez -- the Bay of Pigs veteran who was implicated in a plot to kill Castro, a CANF heavy who publicly berated journalists -- has become the voice of calm reason.
CONCESSION TO REALITY
His goals have not changed (''Nothing about how I view Cuba's rulers has changed'') but his methods have -- a concession, he says, to reality.
His shift also reflects a more general souring on empty American promises. For decades, administration after administration courted the Cuban-American vote on the cheap: flattering with hope while changing nothing.
Today, Hernandez refers to the 2004 restrictions on exile travel to Cuba as the ``Bush absurdity.''
''Who's ever heard of an exile group begging the U.S. government to stop them from visiting their homeland?'' he asks. 'What other group says to the U.S., `Please don't let me help my family.' It's absurd.''
Hernandez played one of the most important roles in creating the conditions for the absurdity that became exile politics. Now, near the end of his struggle, he's pointing the way out of the politics of self-destruction.
''The worst thing for me,'' he said about the travel ban, ``is that there are people in my generation who asked for this.''
It's too late to recover the millions squandered over the years. But we may yet recover our sanity. Few could have predicted that CANF would lead the way.
© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com
People who live far from Miami often ask, what drives Miami Cubans who have stubbornly refused to engage the Cuban dictatorship over long decades, turning foreign policy failure into a point of abject disappointment. There are two parts to the answer, that an honest reckoning by CANF leadership would agree with-- if such candid admissions ever reached newsprint.
First of all, there is the real anger, hatred, and desire for revenge by ordinary people harmed by a murderous regime. But let's leave this aside. US policy to Cuba, the effort to economically starve a nation whose people are proud irrespective of the conduct of its leaders, cannot have been meant to change Cuba. From China to Libya to the Soviet Union, US foreign policy often veers to the pragmatic.
What then accounts for the immoveable policy against Cuba? The CANF report more or less says it, in noting that 80 percent of the funds stay here: it has always been about Miami, first capturing then maintaining power here.
Anti-Castro fervor serves political orthodoxy for candidates who would do the bidding in office of the power elite: the Javier Souto's and Natacha Seijas and Raul Martinez and Diaz Balarts among others.
The center of power sought by the money behind the vitriol of Spanish language radio was never in Havana: it was in road contracts, airport contracts, and water pipes and pumps in Miami. The counterpoint to the screeching against Castro was the incessant drum of zoning applications to build sprawl in Miami Dade farmland.
Perhaps Menendez is right, that the least bad thing one can say, is that the CANF is pointing the way out of the immoveable US policy to Cuba that has changed nothing for decades.
But the cold, hard truth is the Miami landscape has been picked clean by development interests and the entire region is in the midst of the worst housing crash since the Great Depression-- formed from an enormous glut of housing inventory and an asset bubble Florida developers helped to inflate with policies and politics that dominate Tallahassee and Washington.
In the meantime, companies from Canada, Spain, Italy, France and Germany-- to name a few-- are securing advantage in Havana. In the past decade they have slowly moved to exploit the pent-up demand for economic development that is likely to burst in a flood of profits for saavy investors in the not-too-distant future.
These are the realities that are moving the Cuban American power elite today.
The Hialeah beachhead for Cuban American politics, funded mostly by developers who live in gated communities in South Miami and Coral Gables, doesn't matter quite so much, now that moving the UDB and other zoning changes in Miami-Dade are mostly points of pride for large corporations whose US profits matter less and less compared to what they can earn in emerging economies like Cuba's.
You won't read this point of view in The Miami Herald, but is no less apparent than the smoke filtering in from fires in the Everglades this morning.
Posted on Sun, May. 18, 2008
CANF leader at odds with former self
By ANA MENENDEZ
If all of these aid-to-Cuba groups were a charity, no sane person would give them a dime. Even the biggest donor -- the United States -- has questioned the spending.
Now the latest report finds that more than 80 percent of the money earmarked for Cuban democracy stays here. But the most surprising thing about the study is its sponsors: The Cuban American National Foundation.
Someone who left Miami in the 1990s and returned today would be flabbergasted. But CANF has been slowly adapting since the death of its founder, Jorge Mas Canosa in 1997. Friday, the group of former Republican party loyalists hosts a lunch for Barack Obama.
Many factors have contributed to the once-hardline organization's evolution. But no single person more embodies its philosophical shift than its president, Francisco ''Pepe'' Hernandez.
''Before, we thought we could go to Cuba and invade and establish democracy by force and the U.S. would help us,'' Hernandez told me. ``Those times are over. A man like me who has struggled and dreamt has to reach the conclusion that the future does not belong to my generation. Change in Cuba has to come from inside.''
BRAVE ADMISSION
It's a brave and stunning admission for a man who sat with U.S. presidents, cultivated confrontation, and lobbied for the unsparing laws that helped shape this country's failed Cuba policies.
The political divide among Cuban Americans in Miami is often seen as a generational one. But at 71, Hernandez proves that members of what is often called the ''historic exile'' are often at odds with their contemporaries, many of whom spent the better part of last week bashing CANF.
In Hernandez's case, his new willingness to engage Cuba puts him at odds with an even more intimate figure: his former self.
''I'm speaking as someone who had a lot to do with the policies, or at least someone whom people want to blame for them,'' he said, a smile in his voice. ``But Cuba has bought some $900 million from the U.S., including the paper used to print Granma. That's something people don't understand. Embargo? What embargo?''
Almost 50 years into his fight, Hernandez -- the Bay of Pigs veteran who was implicated in a plot to kill Castro, a CANF heavy who publicly berated journalists -- has become the voice of calm reason.
CONCESSION TO REALITY
His goals have not changed (''Nothing about how I view Cuba's rulers has changed'') but his methods have -- a concession, he says, to reality.
His shift also reflects a more general souring on empty American promises. For decades, administration after administration courted the Cuban-American vote on the cheap: flattering with hope while changing nothing.
Today, Hernandez refers to the 2004 restrictions on exile travel to Cuba as the ``Bush absurdity.''
''Who's ever heard of an exile group begging the U.S. government to stop them from visiting their homeland?'' he asks. 'What other group says to the U.S., `Please don't let me help my family.' It's absurd.''
Hernandez played one of the most important roles in creating the conditions for the absurdity that became exile politics. Now, near the end of his struggle, he's pointing the way out of the politics of self-destruction.
''The worst thing for me,'' he said about the travel ban, ``is that there are people in my generation who asked for this.''
It's too late to recover the millions squandered over the years. But we may yet recover our sanity. Few could have predicted that CANF would lead the way.
© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
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.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Sarnoff's real estate bailout, NO WAY: by gimleteye
"The commissioner says if prices dip as low as $175 per square foot, government should purchase condo units and partially subsidize them for teachers, police officers and the like."
Why? Why shouldn't condo towers be ordered to fail, that should never have been zoned and permitted in the first place?
Why pile the sins of socialization on top of the greed of the "free" market? I can't wait to hear all the Castro-baiting Miami developers take a firm stand against government bail outs for failed buildings.
"Nobody wants to see buildings fail," chimed in Miami state representative Carlos Lopez-Cantera. Really?
Why?
Taxpayers have been victimized. First, victimized by local legislatures and lobbyists who piled ill-advised development in the city and county, far in excess of historic norms with little to no planning for infrastructure costs.
Now, taxpayers are to victimized by the development lobby, again, to pay for its terrible investment decisions?
No way. It's called the free market, LBA.
Let the market determine where the bottom is for condos whose ownership fees and maintenance costs will continue to be a massive thorn in the side of owners.
If you want to help poor people, that's another thing: help them in the communities where they live, not in condos converted to be warehouses for bad zoning decisions.
If you want to help underpaid government workers, a hand-out would be better than bailing out the developers who have caused so much pain in our communities.
It's THEIR bed. They made it, and they should sleep in the bed they made, just like anyone else.
Why? Why shouldn't condo towers be ordered to fail, that should never have been zoned and permitted in the first place?
Why pile the sins of socialization on top of the greed of the "free" market? I can't wait to hear all the Castro-baiting Miami developers take a firm stand against government bail outs for failed buildings.
"Nobody wants to see buildings fail," chimed in Miami state representative Carlos Lopez-Cantera. Really?
Why?
Taxpayers have been victimized. First, victimized by local legislatures and lobbyists who piled ill-advised development in the city and county, far in excess of historic norms with little to no planning for infrastructure costs.
Now, taxpayers are to victimized by the development lobby, again, to pay for its terrible investment decisions?
No way. It's called the free market, LBA.
Let the market determine where the bottom is for condos whose ownership fees and maintenance costs will continue to be a massive thorn in the side of owners.
If you want to help poor people, that's another thing: help them in the communities where they live, not in condos converted to be warehouses for bad zoning decisions.
If you want to help underpaid government workers, a hand-out would be better than bailing out the developers who have caused so much pain in our communities.
It's THEIR bed. They made it, and they should sleep in the bed they made, just like anyone else.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Bail out bankers, condo developers, and builders? NO! by gimeleteye
I was taking out the trash this morning and thinking about Max Rameau’s public letter—condemning the idea of selling off excess condo units for “affordable” housing (read the entire letter in the post section of the post, below, "Opportunity for political change in US housing market crash")—and it suddenly occurred to me why county commissioner Joe A. Martinez is considering a run at Miami-Dade county mayor.
In The Miami Herald on Sunday, Martinez said that he might run if certain roadway and parks projects were completed. Well, he sure has his priorities for public consumption down, I thought to myself taking out the trash.
In fact, were Martinez to run—he would run as the candidate designated by the builders and developers to bail-out their industry in Miami-Dade—collapsing under the worst market conditions in Miami since binder boys flipped land titles on downtown street corners. That would have been, around 1911.
Isn’t it interesting how the free-market Cuban American elite from the building industry, who hate Castro, would now be for socializing the costs of the housing crash?
Here is how it works with South Florida builders and developers: you couldn't get a word in, edge-wise, about the terrible zoning decisions that have scarred the South Florida landscape in order to enrich builders and developers, but now that their businesses are losing hundreds of millions, they want a bail out.
Here is what I say: no bail outs. Period.
Martinez has been shopping around the idea, for a long time, that vacant condos and houses might be good purchases by a public entity in order to resolve the affordable housing crisis.
Many months ago when the Miami Dade House Agency imploded Eyeonmiami speculated that a federal takeover—under the supervision of former Latin Builder member and now Assistant Secretary of HUD, Orlando Cabrera—would take the form of rescuing the same builders and developers who pushed suburban sprawl into wetlands and continue to dominate city and county commissions.
I agree with Rameau, an African American civic activist who has distinguished himself by his independence from old line leadership in the African American community: the last thing in the world Miami should agree to, is bailing out the banks, the developers and builders who created the housing crisis in the first place.
Subsidized housing in the downtown corridor would be an unmitigated disaster. It is already a mish-mash of commercial retail and residential landscapes, built without reason or common sense.
Instead of fostering incremental change and slowly building downtown audiences for residential living, it did what any coke addict would do when confronted with the choice of just a single line or taking the whole baggie stuffed with white powder. That's the Miami way.
So now you have tens of thousands of residential units coming on line, with no tenants or owners other than the banks buying titles from busted sales at a furious clip, and the best idea is to bail-out the builders by piling thousands of “affordable” tenants there?
Rameau is right, again, when he suggests (I don’t think entirely seriously) that it would be better to just buy out people’s homes where they live now, and re-sell them to people at half price. What’s the difference? None, except that in Rameau’s hypothetical example—no bankers or builders benefit.
As a final comment (I won’t speculate on the rumor that Cabrera recently resigned from HUD and where he might pop up next, if that is the case) I want to point out that we are about to see, in downtown Miami, exactly how pitiful the argument is, that growth pays its own way.
All the costs for fire, police protection, waste and water infrastructure necessary to accommodate those tens of thousands of empty condo units are going to be paid for by existing taxpayers in the Roads, Shenandoah, Little Havana, Coconut Grove, Morningside—you name it. And how much more will those services cost, and who will pay, if suddenly those tens of thousands of condos become “affordable”?
I don’t know the answer to that question. But as to the question, whether Joe Martinez is a qualified candidate to be county mayor: are you kidding?
In The Miami Herald on Sunday, Martinez said that he might run if certain roadway and parks projects were completed. Well, he sure has his priorities for public consumption down, I thought to myself taking out the trash.
In fact, were Martinez to run—he would run as the candidate designated by the builders and developers to bail-out their industry in Miami-Dade—collapsing under the worst market conditions in Miami since binder boys flipped land titles on downtown street corners. That would have been, around 1911.
Isn’t it interesting how the free-market Cuban American elite from the building industry, who hate Castro, would now be for socializing the costs of the housing crash?
Here is how it works with South Florida builders and developers: you couldn't get a word in, edge-wise, about the terrible zoning decisions that have scarred the South Florida landscape in order to enrich builders and developers, but now that their businesses are losing hundreds of millions, they want a bail out.
Here is what I say: no bail outs. Period.
Martinez has been shopping around the idea, for a long time, that vacant condos and houses might be good purchases by a public entity in order to resolve the affordable housing crisis.
Many months ago when the Miami Dade House Agency imploded Eyeonmiami speculated that a federal takeover—under the supervision of former Latin Builder member and now Assistant Secretary of HUD, Orlando Cabrera—would take the form of rescuing the same builders and developers who pushed suburban sprawl into wetlands and continue to dominate city and county commissions.
I agree with Rameau, an African American civic activist who has distinguished himself by his independence from old line leadership in the African American community: the last thing in the world Miami should agree to, is bailing out the banks, the developers and builders who created the housing crisis in the first place.
Subsidized housing in the downtown corridor would be an unmitigated disaster. It is already a mish-mash of commercial retail and residential landscapes, built without reason or common sense.
Instead of fostering incremental change and slowly building downtown audiences for residential living, it did what any coke addict would do when confronted with the choice of just a single line or taking the whole baggie stuffed with white powder. That's the Miami way.
So now you have tens of thousands of residential units coming on line, with no tenants or owners other than the banks buying titles from busted sales at a furious clip, and the best idea is to bail-out the builders by piling thousands of “affordable” tenants there?
Rameau is right, again, when he suggests (I don’t think entirely seriously) that it would be better to just buy out people’s homes where they live now, and re-sell them to people at half price. What’s the difference? None, except that in Rameau’s hypothetical example—no bankers or builders benefit.
As a final comment (I won’t speculate on the rumor that Cabrera recently resigned from HUD and where he might pop up next, if that is the case) I want to point out that we are about to see, in downtown Miami, exactly how pitiful the argument is, that growth pays its own way.
All the costs for fire, police protection, waste and water infrastructure necessary to accommodate those tens of thousands of empty condo units are going to be paid for by existing taxpayers in the Roads, Shenandoah, Little Havana, Coconut Grove, Morningside—you name it. And how much more will those services cost, and who will pay, if suddenly those tens of thousands of condos become “affordable”?
I don’t know the answer to that question. But as to the question, whether Joe Martinez is a qualified candidate to be county mayor: are you kidding?
Thursday, October 25, 2007
A Castro behind every bush, by gimleteye
People won’t get as many colds, is how White House spokesperson Dana Perino put it yesterday when asked about global warming and criticism that the Senate testimony of one of the nation’s top scientists, CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, had been “eviscerated.”
While Perino was giving blondes a bad name, elsewhere President Bush was attacking Castro, in “what aides called a defining speech for his U.S. position on post-Fidel Castro Cuba”.
According to The Miami Herald, President Bush was applauded by Cuban Americans in the audience 20 times while invited foreign diplomats “mostly held their applause until the end.”
Get the picture? Who is listening any more, except the people already in the echo chamber?
According to The Miami Herald, “Bush used the occasion to draw a line: There will be no concessions to Cuba’s communist government.” That’s a “defining speech”? It's white noise for everyone else.
The invited diplomats were bored. Said one, “It was really nothing.” As the world understands, it's always been more about Florida than Cuba.
Back in Miami, one spokesperson of the Cuban American community that supports President Bush said: “I think the president’s speech could be a catalyst to open the door in Cuba… for the people to lose their fear.”
Wait. This is the president who helps people lose their fear? I don't think so.
This is a president for whom the fear card is every other card in the deck.
Pray, next November, for a new arrangement.
In the meantime, there is an end-of-the-world exhaustion to this administration-- no matter how many times it tries to plant the flag of democracy in Cuba.
While Perino was giving blondes a bad name, elsewhere President Bush was attacking Castro, in “what aides called a defining speech for his U.S. position on post-Fidel Castro Cuba”.
According to The Miami Herald, President Bush was applauded by Cuban Americans in the audience 20 times while invited foreign diplomats “mostly held their applause until the end.”
Get the picture? Who is listening any more, except the people already in the echo chamber?
According to The Miami Herald, “Bush used the occasion to draw a line: There will be no concessions to Cuba’s communist government.” That’s a “defining speech”? It's white noise for everyone else.
The invited diplomats were bored. Said one, “It was really nothing.” As the world understands, it's always been more about Florida than Cuba.
Back in Miami, one spokesperson of the Cuban American community that supports President Bush said: “I think the president’s speech could be a catalyst to open the door in Cuba… for the people to lose their fear.”
Wait. This is the president who helps people lose their fear? I don't think so.
This is a president for whom the fear card is every other card in the deck.
Pray, next November, for a new arrangement.
In the meantime, there is an end-of-the-world exhaustion to this administration-- no matter how many times it tries to plant the flag of democracy in Cuba.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
You and I are NOT Smart (well maybe NOT crafty)! By Geniusofdespair
Let’s say you are the Miami Heat and you want a parking garage on land owned by the county (Parcel B). That is a very hard sell.
If I were the Heat: I would call in the lobbyists and hatch a hair-brained scheme that will work.
The scheme must be totally impenetrable. For that to happen, you must add a racial or ethnic component to it. This will energize a really vocal group that like Commissioners will pander to and other Commissioners will be afraid not to.
So we now have the hair-brained scheme to get the parking garage: The Bay of Pigs Museum and Library atop of all things (Surprise, surprise) a parking garage. And, the museum people played their part well: When it was suggested the museum could be inland, Bay of Pigs Museum supporters said it has to be on the waterfront because there is so much water involved (??) in the historical event. According to Commissioner Rebecca Sosa: ''It's going to be very close to the water, and the history of Cuba is so close to the water,'' ...Well that makes sense???
I am trying to track down the Lobbyists that hatched this — Brilliant!! I did find one, don't know if she hatched it: Diana M. Gonzalez, registered August 24th for "Development of a Cuban Museum." In the past she lobbied for Richard Zinn, the Rouse company, Pinnacle Housing Group and Peerless. Just was told that Lobbyists Herman Echevarria and Dusty Melton were trolling around during the vote. Dusty was one of the masterminds behind the art museum in Bicentennial Park. Does this one sound similar? For my money, I would bet Dusty's creative mind might be behind the Bay of Pigs/Parking lot deal. He is a lobbyist that out thinks people -- he is always a few moves ahead in a chess match of wits.
If I were the Heat: I would call in the lobbyists and hatch a hair-brained scheme that will work.
The scheme must be totally impenetrable. For that to happen, you must add a racial or ethnic component to it. This will energize a really vocal group that like Commissioners will pander to and other Commissioners will be afraid not to.
So we now have the hair-brained scheme to get the parking garage: The Bay of Pigs Museum and Library atop of all things (Surprise, surprise) a parking garage. And, the museum people played their part well: When it was suggested the museum could be inland, Bay of Pigs Museum supporters said it has to be on the waterfront because there is so much water involved (??) in the historical event. According to Commissioner Rebecca Sosa: ''It's going to be very close to the water, and the history of Cuba is so close to the water,'' ...Well that makes sense???
I am trying to track down the Lobbyists that hatched this — Brilliant!! I did find one, don't know if she hatched it: Diana M. Gonzalez, registered August 24th for "Development of a Cuban Museum." In the past she lobbied for Richard Zinn, the Rouse company, Pinnacle Housing Group and Peerless. Just was told that Lobbyists Herman Echevarria and Dusty Melton were trolling around during the vote. Dusty was one of the masterminds behind the art museum in Bicentennial Park. Does this one sound similar? For my money, I would bet Dusty's creative mind might be behind the Bay of Pigs/Parking lot deal. He is a lobbyist that out thinks people -- he is always a few moves ahead in a chess match of wits.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Bay of Pigs Museum at American Airlines Arena is on Sept. 4th County Agenda by Geniusofdespair
Playing shamelessly to their power base, this resolution now is sponsored by two stupid Commissioners instead of one and is on the County Commission Agenda for September 4th. Both dim Bruno Barreiro and the ever cocky Joe Martinez are moving forward File No. 072049 which they are calling "Develop Bay of Pigs Museum & Library at Parcel B of FEC Property." This resolution directs the County Manager to prepare a conceptual study analyzing development of the Bay of Pigs Museum and Library for what we all fondly call Parcel B. The Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee has already forwarded it 7/16 with a favorable recommendation. It was moved by Edmonson, seconded by Moss and Sorenson, Rolle and Souto voted to move it along.The legislative text goes on to say:
"The County Manager shall include as part of the conceptual study a section which addresses the following: the feasibility of underground parking, the provision of public open space, the development of a baywalk and options to mitigate any material impact to operation of the Arena arising from development of Parcel B. The County Manager shall present the conceptual study to this Board within ninety (90) days from the effective date of this resolution."
Maybe we can incorporate a statue or building celebrating Castro's death as well at the site. It could be like the Mystic Seaport Gallery where you have a different exhibit building/area for each thing. Or, an even better idea, why couldn't this museum/library be incorporated into the Freedom Tower's ample exhibit space? It would make more sense there.
Park Activist Steve Hagen has threatened to stand in front of the bulldozer. You had better get ready Steve, this train is on the track and it is gaining steam! Steve and others are not against the museum and library. They are against the location. People are angry enough because of the two museums slated for Bicentennial Park, this one is just one too many. Think about another location Commissioners, Parcel B is not the right one.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The Woman with the Decapitated Head by Geniusofdespair
Woman Survives Internal Decapitation, and, yes the Miami Herald has a video on her on their website. It is one of those instances where I just had to look. Be forewarned: you watch a commercial first. Come on, you wouldn’t be curious?Also the Herald Cuba series is getting good. I liked today’s entry - wasn't thrilled with the Sunday column. They have video shot from inside Cuba as well on their website. Those are worth checking out – they are on the left side of the page. The Cuba Puzzle.
Looks like the Herald is after another Pulitzer Prize (for the Cuba story, not the decapitated head).
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Will Someone Please Sic the Fashion Police on Fidel by Geniusofdespair
The Herald is running photos of Castro saying: He is looking stronger. I just wish someone would tell the dictator to ditch the nylon warm-up suits. I am so tired of seeing them...and him.
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