Rep. Erik Fresen Is A Charter School Booster Because That is How He And Relatives Make Their Money. By Geniusofdespair

Will all of you in his district please support Daisy Baez. He was so conflicted  for 8 years it was just pathetic. All you stupid, stupid people who live in this district and left Erik in for 8 painful years, it is time to get smart and vote for Daisy. Fresen was  the driving force to kill Public Education and replace it with for profit charter schools. Even though he and his family members make their living off of Charter Schools, these are the Committees Florida Rep. Erik has been serving on (he should have had to recuse himself from Educational matters in my opinion):

Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chair
Appropriations Committee
Education Committee
Joint Legislative Budget Commission
K-12 Subcommittee

His District is 114. Do you know people in this district? Call them. He is term limited tell them about Daisy Baez, no more disgusting candidates in 114. This one was a disaster.

DARK SIDE OF CHARTER SCHOOLS in the Open Mic section of the Miami Herald about Erik Fresen: (sorry Herald couldn't find it on line)

Tap graphic to read the letter, it is a good one...and the Morin cartoon is priceless.

Wayne Rosen's Deposition for Former Homestead Mayor, Steve Bateman's Trial. By Geniusofdespair

This is Developer Wayne Rosen's deposition for the Bateman trial. It is certainly revealing and worth reading. I found it fascinating on how these guys make their deals and 'earn' money.  Oh man, this is pretty disgusting stuff. Have a barf bag handy and those of you in love with charter schools: Think twice. They are just a money maker for developers and charter school companies. There is an interesting part on Lennar.  I am surprised that Bateman did as well as he did at trial. This stuff didn't even warrant a conviction. I thought the Barrones stuff was pretty bad. As I said read it and make your own decision. Any civil action pending?

   Wayne Rosen Bateman

read on scrib

Too LAZY to read the whole thing?  Press read more as I have more snippets like these two. I took what I thought were the most interesting parts of the deposition and made copies for you:

What happens at the school board if Curbelo wins? By Geniusofdespair

If Curbelo wins the election against Joe Garcia (hardly likely since he is such a putz) the governor appoints someone to represent the school district from now to November 2016 which is the next election. 

Curbelo does not have to resign until January but obviously he will resign early if Charlie Crist wins so that Scott will name his replacement. 

The Academica people are pushing to have a charter school principal named so that there will be "charter representation" on the board. When there were vacancies on the Broward county school board Scott named pro-charter people but was never as blatant as to name a charter employee.

Should they name a pro-charter person that person would be a minority on the board. The biggest damage would be done in Tallahassee where this person would be by law allowed to lobby and contradict the rest of the School Board one legislator at a time. 

The fight in Tallahassee this year will include a charters school agenda for more funds and the further expansion of vouchers which is a priority for incoming leadership.

More on 157th Avenue LLC or should I say "SW" 157th Avenue. By Geniusofdespair

I reported on this on 10/21 because  a flurry of lobbyists signed on. Why? (Sometimes you have to read my link as background, I don't reexplain it.)

I just found this online. Apparently they left off the SW in the name on the lobbyist registration and I couldn't find anything of value in my research till I got a tip yesterday.

The property was owned by the ALCO Group, Sergio Concepcion and sold to SW 157th Avenue LLC in 2006. The mailing address is 2700 SW 8th Street which is the address of the Lincoln Marti School. That is Demetrio J. Perez.

My question is why on the lobbyist registration are they not calling it by its correct name:

When you leave out the SW it cannot be found correctly. Anyway here is the property.

That is a school on the property.

Here is a much more important view of the property.

Why? Why? are all these 10 lobbyists needed. What does Demetrio Perez want to do?

HUGO ARZA

MICHAEL FREIRE

JOSEPH G. GOLDSTEIN

BRIAN D KENYON

ALAN KRISCHER

INES MARRERO-PRIEGUES

JUAN MAYOL

RICHARD A PEREZ

TRACY R SLAVENS

ALBERTO J TORRES

Going Out of Business Ad? By Geniusofdespair

You would be wrong if that was your guess. This is a full page ad in the Miami Herald by big time political donors and charter school owners. Lincoln Marti schools are everywhere. By the ad you can see they want your vouchers badly. Wow, this is pretty disgusting in my view--it is written like a car ad. Luckily no one reads the Miami Herald anymore except older people without children in school...you know, library types. I guess the infomercials at 5am will get the insomniacs. I wonder if anyone has seen, former student, William Bustamante's video? It is sad when he says: " I could have been something."

I read an article (I do not know the date maybe things are different now) about Charter Schools and it said about Lincoln Marti:

Many of the highest rents are charged by landlords with ties to the management companies running the schools, The Miami Herald found. At least 56 charter schools in Miami-Dade and Broward counties sit on land whose owners are tied to management companies, property records show.

For example, the Lincoln-Martí Charter School in Hialeah paid $744,000 in rent last year — about 25 percent of the school’s $3 million budget, even after the landlord reduced the rent by $153,000. The previous year, the school spent one-third of its income on rent, audit records show.

Records show the landlord, D.P. Real Estate Holdings, and the management company are run by the same man: former Miami-Dade School Board member Demetrio Perez Jr. Perez’s son, Demetrio J. Perez, works at the management company, which operates three Lincoln-Martí charter schools.

Real estate holders who acquire charter management firms in Florida and elsewhere are circulating money directly back into their own pockets.

Parents, all I ask is you do your homework, don't choose a school based on an ad.

Watchdog Report on Charter Schools ... by gimleteye

Dan Ricker of the Watchdog Report has bird-dogged the Coconut Grove fiasco called the "Arts and Minds Charter School". I have mixed feelings about the charter school movement, triggered by conservative leaders like Jeb Bush who have gone to great lengths to innovate around the failures of public education and the teachers union that protecta bad educators. While there are some charter schools that perform admirably in places where students and families have been victimized by the worst of the public education nightmares, as a whole the charter school movement depends on the conservative conviction that for-profit enterprise in education can better serve the public -- through self-interest -- than taxpayer subsidies to inefficiencies.

The problem for conservatives is that human nature regresses toward greed and abuse; such as documented by Dan Ricker in the history of the Academy of Arts and Minds in Coconut Grove. A follow-up by Ricker might detail for readers exactly who among the Miami-Dade GOP elected leaders are involved, either as shareholders or through family members or as lobbyists, for charter schools. Eye On Miami readers won't be surprised by the list, or, by the personal financial and political gain at stake.

Watchdog concludes, "... now the authorities will get to sort out how this matter finally plays out in the future." No, they won't sort it out because it is damn near impossible to take money out of someone's pocket once regulations have put it there. Conservatives have created special interest constituencies through privatization of public services -- like the school system or the military or prisons -- that are far, far more powerful and pernicious than unions. Who, among the conservative leadership, will admit that?

PAST WDR JUNE 2012 >>> Arts and Minds Charter School governance & oversight slammed by Board audit, round II is discussion at audit committee Tuesday

With the release last week of the 364 page forensic audit of the Academy of the Arts and Minds Charter School (A&M) in Coconut Grove (here is the audit link to the District’s 364 page document that includes a rebuttal from A&M management to the findings)http://mca.dadeschools.net/AuditCommittee/AC_june_26_2012/item8.pdf my investigative saga of A&M is ending since the school was first created in 2004, and was flagged by the Watchdog Report back then because it involved a “related transaction,” ...

State Rep. Erik Fresen: Charter School Connections. By Geniusofdespair

Erik Fresens connections are so blurred, who knows what he is doing. Head of the Pubs in Miami, lobbyist for charter school interests in Coral Gables, relative of owner of multiple charter schools, land use consultant (for a firm that builds charter schools),  legislator voting on charter school oversight...read today's report in the Miami Herald...Also read the 3 part series, this is part 2:

I-TEAM EXCLUSIVE ON CHARTER SCHOOLS

Academica: Florida’s richest charter school management firm

Parties at Charter School? Owner: "Not That I Am Aware Of" by Geniusofdespair

The Miami Herald detailed some more dirt on the South Miami Charter school's late night parties that Gimleteye reported on yesterday. According to the Herald, the founder of the school, Rocka Malik, has ties to the party promoter - through her husband. The school has other problems, like children were taught in a storage shed. Is her husband the same Clifton Smith that was once with the Miami Dolphins?

In 2006 41% of students at Belere tested below grade level in math. In 2007 51% of students were below grade level in reading and 49% were below grade level in Math. In 2008 31% were below grade level in reading and 37% in math.

So, Erik Fresen, remind me - Why are you such a promoter of Charter Schools (besides your family owning some of them)?

(data from: FLORIDA DIFFERENTIATED ACCOUNTABILITY PROGRAM 2008 – 2009 SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN)

Report Card on School Reform ... by gimleteye

Although I haven't read the new book by Stephen Brill, the Sunday Times Review by Sara Mosle is worth reading itself, for its relevance to the charter school movement in Miami and connected entrepreneurs seeking to profit from the woes of publicly funded education. (New York Times August 18, 2011 Steve Brill’s Report Card on School Reform By SARA MOSLE, "CLASS WARFARE: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools By Steven Brill", 478 pp. Simon & Schuster. (please click 'read more')

Pity the Fool Pushing the Virtual School: Renier Diaz de la Portilla. By Geniusofdespair

What is the new hot way to make money? Buy a school and there is a website and a broker ready to help you. No problem from some members of the School Board, they too are supporting the new trend. School Board Member Renier Diaz de la Portilla wrote an Op Ed piece on May 15th. He said:

Sadly, some critics, including teachers’ unions, have been reluctant to embrace all forms of educational reform including charter schools, merit pay, school choice and virtual education.

Similarly, some want to deny parents choice when it comes to virtual education. Thankfully, there are more who disagree; like the countless parents of virtual-school students who this year rallied in Oregon’s state Capitol to advocate for their children’s right to have virtual-school options.

To that end, the Florida Legislature just passed a bill that highlights the need to expand virtual school choice. And it is school choice that sets Miami-Dade County Public Schools apart from countless school districts, not only across the state, but across the nation.

It is because of this that we must not allow critics of virtual education to limit or deny choice for students and parents across our state.

Expanding the use of virtual education in our school district would allow us to focus more on remediation strategies for students who have fallen behind in bricks and mortar classrooms, while those who are more academically advanced can participate in virtual classes.

Look at the language in the last paragraph. Stupid kids go to old fashioned schools (bricks and mortar) and smart kids get virtual (manipulating parents a bit there aren't we Renier?). He neglected to mention that legislative members are starting to invest in charter and virtual schools. It is big business at the expense of your kids. I am getting in on the bandwagon as Rick Scott will 'get to work' on it, hell, he probably is heavily invested in virtual schools by now.

Florida GOP aims to wreck public education by any means possible ... by gimleteye

In 2002 Florida voters passed the state-wide "Class Size Amendment", infuriating then Gov. Jeb Bush. Now, the GOP legislature is taking aim at accountability for imposing the class size amendment. The latest manoever; to excuse school districts from any penalties when the class size amendment is violated. Guess whose idea, this is? Miami-Dade legislator, Miguel Diaz de la Portilla.

In Miami-Dade, charter schools have emerged as a potent source of political campaign money. The for-profit institutions enlist legislators to help stack the deck against public education. Parents understand that when children are warehoused in classrooms with too many students, the results can be awful. Public school districts should be held accountable to the class size amendment. The cynical bid to free public schools from fines, for failing to follow the law, is just another attempt to kick public education off a cliff.

Sunshine State News reports, "Florida classrooms are required to have 18 or less students in prekindergarten through third grade, 22 or less students in fourth through eighth grade, and 25 or less students in high school classes... As many as 35 districts faced $40.7 million in initial fines before many of them appealed, resulting in a total deduction of $9.4 million, with nine districts having their entire penalty wiped away. For the 44 charter schools that received nearly $2.3 million in initial fines, 41 appealed and 38 had their total fine eliminated, resulting in merely $355,000 in fines for six charter schools."

School Board Member Gus Barrera has Something Right. By Geniusofdespair

In Fred Grimm's column today in the shitty Miami Herald:

Gus Barrera wondered, as the Miami-Dade School Board voted 7-0 Wednesday to ask Gov. Charlie Crist to veto the bill, whether the real intent of SB 6, coming in the wake of so many school budget cuts, was "to destroy public education. Make them all charter schools. Or privatize them."

Gus, I agree with you, I think that is exactly what is going on. The question is why? I researched charter school demographics in Miami-Dade County a few years ago and found something interesting which might account for their popularity in Florida. Almost all the charter schools were made of students from one race. They were either predominately White, Black or Hispanic. Are charter schools a return to segregated schools?

Charter Schools get poor marks ... by gimleteye

The St. Pete Times reports, "Florida is a leading state in the charter movement, with 389 charter schools and 117,000 students enrolled in them". A new report offers evidence that charter schools are performing, in aggregate, very poorly in Florida. In response to a national study by a group "many education experts regard as procharter," T. Willard Fair, chairman of the Florida Board of Education, said literally, "So what?"
Fair is a Jeb Bush appointee and proponent of Miami's charter schools which have not only taken hold as competition to public schools, but are routinely used as a wedge to leverage county commission approval for zoning changes and development applications in areas where the public school administrators do not believe new schools are required. This happened in the case of the application to move the UDB for Lowe's, rejected by a state court, and Florida City Commons, a proposal for a small city in Biscayne Bay wetlands that died in the crush of the housing market implosion. Both used charter schools as bait for approval by the unreformable majority of county commissioners.

What happens is that public school administrators, reluctant to antagonize county commissioners, sit quietly while outlandish claims are made by developers and charter school operators-- who by virtue of their privatized status become major campaign contributors to commissioners' campaigns--in support of development applications. This was exactly the case in the Lowe's application where a charter school operator popped up and was fawned over by Pepe Diaz and Joe Martinez for helping to "solve" a school problem that public school administrators said did not exist but local citizens, paid for by Lowe's lobbyists to be at county hall in the zoning hearing, all shouted down in enthusiasm for a new charter school.

For instance, in the case of the Urban Development Boundary, the public school system once had a policy called "the McAliley Line", through which schools would not be built within a mile of the Urban Development Boundary. Why? Because schools are magnets for growth and, at the time, the school board recognized its responsibility to steer development way from the UDB. This conflicted sharply with the ambition of land speculators, who used charter schools and their profit motive to link up in opposition to public school goals.

According to the report, "Black students, bottom-tier students and top-tier students in Florida charter schools all perform "significantly worse" in reading and math than their peers in other public schools, says the study by Stanford University's Center for Research on Education Outcomes." (reprinted in full, below) This important story-- and the role of charter schools as bait in zoning applications to move the UDB-- has never seen the light of day in The Miami Herald.


Charter schools get poor marks

By Ron Matus, Times Staff Writer

Published Monday, June 15, 2009

On average, students in charter schools lag behind their peers in traditional public schools, and the black and Hispanic students among them perform even worse, says a high-profile national report released Monday.

The findings were even less flattering for Florida, a leading state in charter school enrollment.

Black students, bottom-tier students and top-tier students in Florida charter schools all perform "significantly worse" in reading and math than their peers in other public schools, says the study by Stanford University's Center for Research on Education Outcomes, an outfit many education experts regard as procharter.

"Despite promising results in a number of states and within certain subgroups, the overall findings of this report indicate a disturbing — and far-reaching — subset of poorly performing charter schools," the report says.

Florida is a leading state in the charter movement, with 389 charter schools and 117,000 students enrolled in them. But the response from T. Willard Fair, chairman of the Florida Board of Education, was literally, "So what?"

"We're doing (charter schools) because parents have the right to have a choice, the same kind of choice of educational options that other parents do," said Fair, who co-founded Florida's first charter school in 1996 with former Gov. Jeb Bush. "If they enroll their students in a charter school that's underperforming, they have the right to transfer them to another school."

Charter schools are publicly funded schools run by educators, businesses, community groups or nonprofits. In return for greater accountability, they're given flexibility from many regulations. The hope is they'll spur innovation and competition — and ultimately bring better results for kids.

The Stanford report comes just as charter schools are gaining a bigger spotlight. Some charters, most notably the KIPP chain, have won glowing publicity for unprecedented success with struggling students. President Barack Obama has praised them.

But there is little evidence about the performance of charters overall. And there remains widespread concern that states are not doing enough to filter out marginal charter applicants before they start or to shut them down quickly when they flounder.

The Stanford study, based on standardized test results from 2,400 charter schools in 15 states and the District of Columbia, is the most in-depth look at charters to date. To compare, the researchers matched every charter student in the study with another student in surrounding public schools with the same race, income and test scores.

The result: Forty-six percent of charter schools offered a comparable education to similar public schools, 17 percent offered a superior education and 37 percent offered an inferior one.

"We find that a pretty sobering finding," said Margaret Raymond, the study's lead author.

It shows "charter schools are not the panacea they often are made out to be," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, in a written statement.

But at the same time, it "creates a national imperative to scale up as many of those successful (charters) as we can," said Bryan Hassel, a Harvard-trained education consultant who has studied and criticized Florida's let-1,000-flowers-bloom approach.

The Stanford study wasn't all negative.

It also found that high-poverty students and students who speak English as a second language perform better in charters; students in elementary and middle charters are making bigger gains than their traditional public school peers; and by their third year, students in charters are doing better than their peers who remain in traditional public schools. The study did not attempt to answer why.

In Florida, many charter schools are humming. The Learning Gate Community School in Lutz, which offers an environmentally based curriculum, earned its sixth A in a row last year. The arts-centered Academie Da Vinci in Dunedin annually ranks among the top schools in Pinellas.

But other charters skirt the edge. Between 1996 and 2007, 100 charter schools in Florida closed, including 11 around the Tampa Bay area.

In Hillsborough, Metropolitan Ministries Academy, a charter school for homeless students, gave up its license last week. And the district has told four other charters that they're on the brink of being shut down.

State Rep. John Legg, R-Port Richey, said Florida's efforts to beef up oversight of charter schools in recent years has made an impact. He pointed to a recent Florida Department of Education analysis that shows Florida charters now have a higher percentage of students reading at grade level than other public schools. (The DOE did not analyze test data in the same way as the Stanford study did.) "It was not a policy of quantity over quality," said Legg, who co-founded the Daysprings Academy charter in Pasco. "But (years ago) there was no criteria to judge quality charter schools when they opened up. Now there is."

Gayle Neithamer hasn't looked at the Stanford report, but he's not surprised.

Last year, the St. Petersburg resident chose Imagine charter school over a neighborhood school for his 8-year-old son, who struggles with reading. He and his wife heard only good things about charter schools. They didn't hear anything good about the neighborhood school.

But their son has continued to struggle. And now they're looking to put him in the neighborhood school after all.

"We thought he'd get a better education at a charter school," Neithamer said. But they're not sure he did.

Times staff writer Tom Marshall contributed to this report. Ron Matus can be reached at matus@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8873.


By the numbers

389 Number of charter schools in Florida this year.

117,602 Number of students enrolled in Florida charter schools.

41 Number of charter schools in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties.

8,534 Number of charter school students in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties.

100 Number of charter schools that closed in Florida between 1996 and 2007.

4,700 Rough number of charter schools nationwide in 2009.

1.4 million Rough number of charter school students nationally in 2009.

Daily Business Review on Lowe's Store bribe: A School by Geniusofdespair

School Board member Evelyn Langlieb Greer said she does not recall the board considering the site for a new school. The main reason: school district rules prohibit building a school close to the urban development boundary...Daily Business Review

Paola Iuspa-Abbot of the Daily Business Review reported today:

"Hoping to sweeten the deal, Lowe’s proposed selling a portion of the land to a charter school operator."

Note the reporter said SELL. NOT GIVE. Iuspa-Abbot continued:

"For the third time in five years, Lowe’s asked to move the line to bring 52 acres inside the UDB to build a store at the corner of Southwest 138th Avenue and Eighth Street.

The retailer owns an adjacent 16.5-acre parcel that’s inside the line and wants to use the abutting acreage for parking and drainage. Its plan last time failed by one vote.

Lowe’s is negotiating to sell 29 acres outside the boundary to Miami-based charter school operator Academica, said Holland & Knight attorney Juan Mayol, who represents the store chain.

If the sale fails, Lowe’s will try to sell the land to the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The eventual buyer would need to spend about $1.35 million on wetlands mitigation.

School Board member Evelyn Langlieb Greer said she does not recall the board considering the site for a new school. The main reason: school district rules prohibit building a school close to the urban development boundary, said Greer, who opposed moving the line.

Boundary change opponents say Lowe’s is using the school to secure approval."

I find what Evelyn Langlieb Greer said very interesting (above). The school board could not use the site.

There has to be a better site for a school and cheaper. The wetland cleanup alone would seem to prohibit this site from being viable. And Lowe's overpaid for the land -- unless the County moves the urban development boundary (that would make the value increase). With the downturn in the market, developers like Levitt are walking away from land. I am sure there are better deals now inside the line. The school board should do some research for Pepe Diaz or maybe the Mayor should veto and present some other parcels for Pepe to shut down his argument.

Developers or Realtors: Do you have any land around there for sale?

Miami Dade Urban Development Boundary: a low day at the County Commission: regionalism takes a nose dive, by gimleteye

Yesterday's vote to "transmit" Lowe's and other applications was an important step, but not a victory--since there are higher thresholds the proposed developments must cross. Unfortunately common sense isn't one of them.

It is really the utter disregard and absence of substantive dialogue at the county commission that brings to mind "Night of the Living Dead" and the classic quote by Commissioner Katy Sorenson that the applicants to move the Urban Development Boundary have come back again "like zombies".

There was Joe Martinez leaning over a paper map proffered by the developer on the dais like Captain Queeg, scrutinizing the all important "school" that has attached flimsily to the proposed zoning change. It was a staged act in anticipation of other staged acts, all in service of putting more suburban sprawl into wetlands and open space buffering the Everglades.

It is too bad, really a shame, that the Miami Herald has given up on analysis-- sort of shrugged and walked away from the story. So Eyeonmiami will fill the gap for you.

What the application by Lowe’s represents, beyond the matter of shopping for light bulbs conveniently, is the pulverization of regional consideration as a determining factor in zoning decisions by local government.

Miami is a place where universities sponsor regional think tanks, land use innovators, and some of the brightest minds in community planning anywhere on the planet: but that doesn’t make a dent among the majority of county commissioners.

What the Miami Dade County Commission has presided over, mainly, is the triumph of parochialism: the Balkanization of South Florida’s most politically influential county.

At a recent County Charter Review Commission meeting, land use attorney Miguel De Grandy articulated the principle. He defended single member districts against the call for greater sensitivity to regional considerations by the county commission. He practically blessed parochial districts as a tenet of the US Constitution and the manifest desire of the Founding Fathers.

Parochialism rules.

The Growth Machine cannot embrace a regional perspective, if by embracing it means releasing the chokehold that land speculators, land use lawyers, and developers have over zoning and permitting decisions.

What the Growth Machine needs is control of those decisions, and keeping 13 county commissioners marching in step is easy work when parochial politics define the boundaries of acceptable behavior.

The pipeline must always be filled, even when it is filled with the dregs of mortgage fraud, liar loans, worthless securitization of underlying debt and glue gun housing.

Need a new highway interchange? Let developers pay for it, in exchange for moving just a little closer to the Everglades. "It's what my constituents want." And the more constituents closer to the Urban Development Boundary, the more pressure to move it the next time, and the time after that.

You could almost hear advice to Pepe Diaz, the district county commissioner, from the developers, bankers, and lobbyists: explaining how to gain fellow commissioners' support.

Say that you “know your district”. Emphasize that you are in favor of quality of life, “for your district”. We’ll take care of the rest.

“The rest” would be the steps necessary to put pressure at the right places in Tallahassee for state approval of zoning changes in farmland, open space or wetlands.

The rest would be, the glaring fact that water resources don’t and will not exist to support moving the UDB for many years, notwithstanding the much-heralded water use permit from the state.

The rest, would be what Pepe Diaz and many others on the county commission aspire to: to be near the centers of power and wealth, whether in Washington, DC, Baja Mexico, Puerto Rico, or the Bahamas.

The rest would be delivered far from public view in Miami. The rest would have to do with different order of influence and horse-trading, like the shoving between an ambitious House Speaker from Miami and Governor Charlie Crist.

Pepe plays his role: advocate for his district. It’s not hard because it’s true: he’s served as a councilman and mayor in Sweetwater, and as county commissioner.

He built support advocating for much tougher flood control—never mind that the Everglades were there before his district was and flooded most of the time.

He claims to be a “supporter” of Everglades restoration. But that would only be true if restoration is defined as primarily serving the needs of cities.

Parochialism is a flexible servant. (And yesterday, the interests of parochial harmony kept Natacha Seijas quiet in her seat, despite the appeals to her sympathy--apparently--for the cause of adapting to climate change.)

The application by Lowe’s, a major public corporation, is not about a hardware store “within a three mile radius of retail opportunity”. In two previous attempts, the company had failed to persuade the county commissioners to move the Urban Development Boundary beyond the 16 acres it already owns inside the UDB to an adjacent 30 plus acres it owns outside the UDB.

This particular application has come before the county commission twice before and was turned down each time. In 2005, the denial was during a hyperventilating boom in construction, employing traffic planners, engineers, and legions of lobbyists. So what changed?

Now is a "better" time to move the UDB?

No. The best reason to hold the line on the Urban Development Boundary scarcely crossed the lips of the county commissioners. Silencio: today's S&P/Casey Shiller housing index shows Miami very nearly number one in the nation in housing price declines, quarter over yearly-quarter. Not a word.

The decline in Miami housing prices is more than twice the national average. Commercial construction is not far behind. But none of economic reality mattered a bit.

Florida may be in the midst of its own historic drought, but common sense is far away as Australia or India or South Africa.

The application to move the UDB by Lowe’s is about a large, well-funded corporation tasked with building a constituency for more of products by mobilizing residents for further incursions against the Urban Development Boundary in the future.

If it was really about another Lowe’s, then long ago the corporation would have started to build a store on its 16 acres of adjacent land WITHIN the Urban Development Boundary. That's right: Lowe's owns 16 acres--more than enough to put a new store--immediately next to its property outside the UDB.

Lowe's and the Growth Machine it represents seek to move the UDB line on PRINCIPLE.

In 2005 it was Lennar, in Florida City outside the UDB, trying to zone a small city into wetlands critical for restoration of Biscayne Bay. But that was then. In the meantime, Lennar’s stock value has disappeared in a puff.

It’s Lowe’s turn. (And Parkland, the proposed major development way out west surrounded by politically connected land speculators.)

There are several phenomena worth note in the outcome of the vote to adopt and transmit (a technical term that means to conditionally approve moving the UDB, pending an evaluation by the state of Florida) the Lowe’s application.

The first, how the African American county commissioners representing inner city, poor neighborhoods all fell into line behind Diaz, in favor of adopt and transmit (they could have voted only to transmit, without recommendation) except for Dennis Moss.

Parochialism works especially well in the inner city districts of incumbent county commissioners—who are not elected so much as anointed by a political status quo.

Diaz’ message, delivered with sincerity, is one heartily embraced by the majority of others: that if you leave my district alone, I’ll support whatever you do in yours.

Another phenomenon, is how the county commissioners representing poor districts will always support zoning measures at the fringe: expansions of required services that actually hurt their own constituents because existing department budgets are stretched and eventually require increased taxes.

Another amazement: that at a time of extreme budget crises, because of falling revenues from housing and construction—after two previous, failed attempts to pass it through —that this time the county commission approved adoption and transmittal to Tallahassee (by a 7-6 vote).

The key, apparently, admitted by Commissioner Diaz, is that the application is not “about” Lowe’s at all: it is really about a new school promised by the corporation on part of property it owns outside the UDB.

In other words, a regional issue—the integrity of the Urban Development Boundary (for a host of reasons—the Everglades, climate change, transportation, consistency with state comprehensive land use planning) is sacrificed for a parochial one, a “charter school”: a pattern that reinforces in exact shape, form and content the intent of the Growth Machine, where risk is always socialized and profit is always private.

If, at a time of economic budget crisis—as we are now experiencing in municipal and county governments across the state-- a regional perspective cannot prevail at the County Commission—then it never will.

Since the mainstream media doesn’t deal with substantive matters, it is hard to see how anything will change in Miami-Dade County: perhaps paying county commissioners a living wage will help. But it might not.

Parochialism was on fully display during the public hearings on four applications to move the Urban Development Boundary. How the state of Florida responds will be interesting.

The final public hearing for the applications to move the Urban Development Boundary will be held in April, 2008.

I am so tired of schools being used by Developers -- and Lowe's -- as bribes and bargaining chips! Just fund the f--king schools By Geniusofdespair

If it isn’t the gambling lobby it is Lowes Big Box Home Store trying to bribe the neighborhood and the commissioners to get zoning perks: in the name of schools. Bullshit.

And Commissioner Gimenez you had it wrong in the article the “Sky’s the limit for county freebies.” Gimenez said about funding charities:

“If it’s a bona fide, true charity, we do that all the time.”

First because you do it all the time doesn’t make it right. Let us do the giving ourselves Commish. And the newspaper reporter Charles Rabin brought up a good point that you should consider all you County Commissioners:

“Which brings up another interesting ethical question: Should taxpayer money be given away to charity without the approval of the Voters?”

I say HELL NO! If you want to use my taxpayer money for something, use it for schools so we don’t face the bribery time and time again from every single developer. Earnestly they always say “We will build a school.” They don’t fund it, they don’t staff it. They offer to build it. The rest of the cost just takes money away from existing schools.

The merits of Lowe’s Store is not going to be decided tomorrow on whether or not the Urban Development Boundary should be moved. It won’t be decided on the recommendations against it by a score of professional planners on County Staff. No way. Lowe’s is not going to be decided on whether or not it is in wetlands and it is not going to be decided upon the fact that it is too close to our wellfields. The Commission won’t take into consideration that Lowe’s ALREADY HAS ENOUGH LAND INSIDE THE BOUNDARY (but it isn’t square enough lamented Lowe's lobbyist/mouth-piece Juan Mayol).

No, the Lowe’s store will offer perks instead. The Commission will spend more time negotiating the perks than looking at the actual dysfunctional plan.

Here is how it will be decided:

On the merits of a school Lowe’s isn’t even going to pay for. The merits of Lowe’s selling land at their cost, the over-inflated price they paid for it (you are getting robbed county and the whole deal involves wetlands that will have be filled in at over $1,000,000).

Former County Chairwoman Gwen Margolis had balls. When Home Depot said to her we can’t build a store like the one you want in North Miami — we need A, B and C. She said you are going to have to build it this way, end of subject. And they did. They were cut off at the knees.


If this County Commission had Gwen’s balls, the Lowe’s store would have been built on the acreage they already have inside the line 2 or 3 years ago. But the Commission’s waffling gave the stupid chain hope that they can get what they want if they beg:

We will give you a school (almost), we will build a cistern, we will even wipe your asses but don’t make us build a rectangular store.

I guess I am too mad to write. Do I seem angry? Tomorrow is the meeting where 4 properties are trying to move the UDB line. Come on down, tune it in...it will be pontification central!

P.S. It sounded like Robert Meyers found his balls, read Nov. 26th Miami Herald: "Sky's the Limit For County Freebies."

The Miami Herald just released an article online by Chuck Rabin, you will now see I am almost always right:

"Attorney Juan Mayol represents Lowe's, now making its fourth attempt to build in far West Miami-Dade. If approved, the home improvement store promises to bring a new charter school to the neighborhood that will accommodate up to 2,000 students.

Mayol said the company's plan will address key area issues: ``Namely, the lack of retail services and the lack of a high school.''

The argument has swayed County Commissioner Jose ''Pepe'' Diaz, who said the area where Lowe's wants to build is infected with nonnative melaleuca. Residents, Diaz said, are ''overwhelmingly'' in favor of it."

I say to Pepe: HOW ABOUT THE RECOMMENDATION OF YOUR PLANNING STAFF YOU BIG OAF! WHAT ABOUT THEIR ARUGMENTS AGAINST THIS LOWES?

Ohio goes after failing charter schools: is Florida next? by gimleteye

The New York Times reports this morning, “Ohio became a test tube for the nation’s charter school movement during a decade of Republican rule here, when a wide-open authorization system and plenty of government seed money led to the schools’ explosive proliferation. But their record has been spotty. This year, the state’s school report card gave more than half of Ohio’s 328 charter schools a D or an F.”

The story struck my attention because an enduring irritation about the repeat application by Lowe’s to move the Urban Development Boundary in far west Dade is the promise by the corporation to sell at cost adjacent land for a new school: an offer snapped up by a local charter school operator but not the public schools.

Not too long ago in Miami-Dade County, a school board policy rejected new schools within a mile of the Urban Development Boundary. That rule was called the McAliley Line and it remained school board policy until Janet McAliley retired.

The reason for the rule was simple: new schools attract new houses attract new businesses attract more land speculators attract more pressure for zoning changes to build in wetlands near the Everglades.

The reason for the Growth Machine objecting to the rule was even more simple: more schools attract lots of business for engineers, lobbyists, and campaign contributions that accompany zoning requests by land speculators.

Even though Lowe's has enough land inside the UDB adjacent to the parcel outside the UDB to build a store, the point is this: no matter what the professional planning staff for the county say, the Growth Machine wants to move the Urban Development Boundary somewhere, every two years at least. For the Growth Machine--even in the worst housing crash in a century!--exerting control over local legislatures is a matter of principle: it is like beating a dog to show who is boss.

At a recent Planning Advisory Board meeting (in advance of the upcoming November meeting--Thanksgiving Week--for the County Commission to decide on the applications) Lowe's paid a bus load of people to come down to County Hall and "show" their support for a new Lowe's outside the UDB.

Lowe’s offer for a new school is the carrot so that the stick can puncture the Urban Development Boundary. It is meant, like an icebreaker, to open new territory to its business lines-- never mind that it edges ever closer to the Everglades.

It is always this way with major corporations like Lowe’s or Lennar or Walmart with massive budgets and needs to consume more land.

Here is the kicker: at the recent Planning Advisory Board meeting—the lobbyists for Lowe’s were asked by one of the PAB members: why didn’t Lowe’s offer the land to the public school system?

It so happens that a public school official was in attendance, and he hemmed and he hawed. It is public knowledge that school enrollments are declining throughout Miami-Dade County. That’s one manifestation of the race to the bottom promoted by production home builders as a public good.

But the private charter operator was more than willing to pick up the land, at Lowe’s “cost”. For this, the public is to be thankful?

When asked, would the charter operator agree to surrender the land if his operation did not work out, well to that question the Lowe's lobbyist, Juan Mayol said, this charter school operator is highly successful (and, we wonder, does he also contribute to local political campaigns?)

In 2004, then Planning Advisory Board member Gonzolo Sanabria and LBA member chastised citizens concerned about the impacts of new schools and new Lowe’s and new housing closer and closer to the Everglades, “That’s what we have environmental regulations for,” Sanabria solemnly said.

Of course he didn’t disclose, at the time, that his real estate business had related financial interests in moving the Urban Development Boundary. Sanabria was not alone: the biggest game in town for lobbyists was moving the Urban Development Boundary.

Then county commission chairman Joe A. Martinez, buoyed by Natacha Seijas and the rest of the Growth Machine, toyed with opponents like a cat playing with a mouse. He clearly relished his role, supported as it was by favorable deals on land and a home he was building--by the same interests promoting the movement of the UDB.

This, and the charter school movement, is what laissez faire orthodoxy has given us: it’s called the “free” market, or otherwise, the best democracy money can buy.