It’s nice to be back in Miami, albeit for just a couple of days. I’ve kept my opinions on the recent elections as quiet as possible but hope that all my readers took it upon themselves to vote on Tuesday, I did. I’m fairly pleased with most of the results except for a particular Florida amendment which passed; number three. You know the one which will allegedly “protect” our state constitution by making amendments pass by a 60% margin rather than the typical majority. What exactly are we protecting the constitution from? The opinion of a clear majority? Floridians have yet to realize the serious implications which come with the passing of this law. It’s a huge win for big businesses in Florida and huge loss for the rest of us. With 58% of the people voting in favor of it, I wish its own rules had been applied to the amendment.
While I’m at it, we also fumbled in voting in favor of wasting millions of dollars on tobacco education. It’s been proven that some of the anti-smoking efforts of this new campaign are a completely ineffective. Now, I’m in favor of educating people on the health risks of smoking, but, there’s only so much intervening we’ll be able to achieve successfully with this new program.
Nationally, it’s interesting to see that Americans have voted for a whopping 50+ Billion dollars of bond initiatives to improve our floundering and neglected infrastructure. Across the nation, people are looking to improve public spaces and facilities, just so long as the improvements didn’t come in the form of an additional tax. Meanwhile, Broward residents rightfully rejected a proposed transit tax which would have effectively done little to address the county’s transit infrastructure. With such terrible planning and little vision of what BCT hoped to accomplish, it’s no wonder the additional tax was rejected.
There is something fishy (Pun Intended) going on between developer Sergio Pino and the County Commission. Pino has nearly secured the ability to build 500 homes on land bordering the Tamiami Executive Airport and has even been able to get lawmakers to reduce the airport “buffer zone,” effectively placing homes closer to the runways. Planes will now be able to fly as low as 148 ft over some of the proposed houses.
What a terrible project. Talk about an effective way of curbing future airport and airport related growth. I wonder how long it will take after residents move in, to complain about excessive airport noise. It reminds me of the people living behind railroad tracks which never expected to see trains running along them. But, don’t worry about planes crashing on houses:
“The Century Gardens project includes 24 town houses and a strip mall at the end of a runway. In the middle is a small park requested by county officials — where they said pilots could aim in the event of a crash.”
You know, because that is why we create park space in the County to begin with, for planes to crash land.
Here are some notable parts of the Herald article:
Pino’s group has also convinced the airport that a buffer zone surrounding the airport — where new homes are banned — should shrink. Almost all of the 68-acre Century Gardens project falls within this buffer zone, now zoned for industrial or business use.
Mayol, Pino’s lawyer, successfully argued that the buffer zone was designed to limit neighborhood complaints about noise, and had nothing to do with public safety.
Pino is no stranger to the commission. This year, he and his companies donated $29,000 to the reelection campaigns of five commissioners, records show.
Pino’s companies also donated $25,000 to a political committee challenging a recall effort against Commissioner Natacha Seijas.
In 2004, Pino took Commissioner Jose ”Pepe” Diaz on his private jet for a fishing vacation in Cancún, Mexico. Diaz never listed the trip as a gift in financial disclosure forms he is required to file.
Though the County Commission vote won’t take place until Thursday, bulldozers already have been spotted at work on the land.
We’ve got issues folks. Big ones. We have to find a way of lowering our ranking on this list, while raising our ranking on this list. That’s right Miamians are apparently a very uneducated breed of individuals when compared to other major cities across the country. As I like to refer to it, lack of education is the big elephant sitting tucked away in some nondescript part of the city. Nobody likes to bring up the subject although we all know it’s there and it’s the likely source of many of our regional problems. Perhaps things like this (or this) wouldn’t be so commonplace in our city if our literacy rate, graduation rate, or higher education percentages were all higher.
The recent education rankings don’t even mention Miami. In fact I had to search here, to find our measly 16% of adults aged 25 and older with Bachelors Degrees. 16%? That’s half what NYC has and more than three times less thank Seattle, the highest ranked city. It’s also no coincidence that the cities with higher levels of educated citizens also have more major companies headquartered in their respective regions and higher median household incomes than Miami. It’s a catch 22; should we be concentrating on educating our citizens to attract better and bigger industry to our region or should we entice and provide incentives for companies to move to our region and hope that the better educated masses follow? Either way, things have got to change or else we’ll continue to see the city’s middle and lower classes continue to be priced out of the area.
With regards to the crime: I’m glad our ranking has fallen in recent years, but, if you look at all 371 cities, way too many greater Miami area cities are also ranking fairly high on this list. I assume if our educated population base was higher, our rank on this list would decrease substantially.
Florida cities as a whole are at a grave disadvantage in attracting large corporate headquarters to our region. Our entire state education system also ranks somewhere near the bottom, alongside Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. Gov. Jeb Bush has done little to nothing throughout his tenure to improve our national education rankings and thus improve our state’s appeal to major employers. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t attribute Miami’s education woes to the state’s education deficiencies, but, it is definitely a contributing factor.
According to national figures, Florida’s graduation rate was 55.7 percent in 2002, putting it at No. 48 nationally, ahead of only Georgia and South Carolina.
As MVB also points out, our local government agencies and organizations in charge of recruiting and enticing companies to relocate to our area is ineffective to say the least. The inter-county/municipality competition alone is terrible.
Anyone have any education reform/business generation/crime reducing solutions?
Good luck if you are trying to get anywhere from west Kendall this morning. At 3:15 this morning a car collided with a train on Bird Rd. and 72nd Avenue. It isn’t certain what occurred that would cause this car to go careening into the locomotive of the 9 car train, causing the train to derail. I can safely assume however, that this is another instance of a Miami driver not knowing how railroad crossings work…
Image from Miami Herald
Video Link…
I’m elated and equally stunned to announce that I have been named one of Miami’s 50 Savviest Singles by the Miami New Times. I feel incredibly honored to have been nominated by a peer of mine for this award and hope that I can continue to contribute to my community. I live for this city, as many of you might already know, and genuinely always have my community’s best interests in mind. It’s motivating to see my name appear alongside doctors, lawyers, and other established individuals in the Miami business community, considering that I have yet to graduate from the University of Florida.
I’d like to personally thank Maria A.K.A. Manola Blablablahnik of Sex and the Beach fame, who nominated me for the award. Having met Maria only once, she determined that my dedication to my site and my community involvement merited a nomination. Thank You.
To see the article/photograph and other 49 Savviest Singles, please pick up today’s edition of the Miami New Times. There will also be a celebration of sorts next Thursday at Bricks in Miami from 7-10 pm which I likely will be attending. Tickets, I believe, are $60 and proceeds go to the Hope Center in Miami. I also uploaded the article here and reprinted the bio below for those curious readers who live outside the state. It’s the first time I mention anything so personal on the site, enjoy.
Gabriel J. Lopez-Bernal, 21, was born and raised in Miami, Florida. He is currently studying Transportation Engineering at The University of Florida, but, still manages to remain active in the Greater Miami region. He is the creator and author of TransitMiami.com, a local website dedicated to discussing the transportation and urban planning problems that face our region. He uses the site to inform fellow citizens about the developments happening in their area, while offering his professional suggestions in an open forum discussion. He is also an active member in the United Citizens for South Link, a political action committee dedicated to educating citizens about the advantages of public transportation in the South Dade region. In his spare time, Gabriel attends public seminars to address the upcoming public transit projects of the people’s transportation plan and is working with researchers to create a new method for analyzing congestion along Florida’s highways.
I just came across an old article in the Miami New Times, which discusses one of my most despised developments in Miami; the Ryder Systems Headquarters off of the turnpike expressway, on the edge of the everglades and civilization. I despise this project not only because of its location but because of what it is home to. The fact that one of the largest companies in the area and the nation would choose this site as its corporate headquarters is sickening. Its shows how little Ryder systems is concerned about Miami and how fickle its intentions to contribute positively to the urban fabric of our city really are.
It appears, much to my suspicions, that some sort of fishy land deal occurred, which allowed Ryder to sell their Doral digs and move west. The involved parties include no other than our own racial slurring state representative Ralphy Arza, as well as Shoma Homes Employees. The original plan was to develop the Ryder 45 acre parcel into, well, what would you know; a “Town Center” styled development. On top of being a complete load of BS, the development was slated to be “pedestrian friendly.” I guess these guys planned on attracting many of the pedestrians which walk from parking lot to parking lot in Doral.
Even more sickening is the way Masoud Shojaee, president of Shoma Development Corp., was able to pay off Ralph Arza $20,000 up front and an additional $30,000 once the zoning change was complete. So, now not only is Arza a racial slurring, voice mail leaving dirty politician, but, apparently his services can be purchased to influence the way our city is redeveloped. I propose we overturn the zoning changes and tear down the buildings which continue to push the development boundary westwards…
Bye, Bye, Ralph…
Ever wonder what the thousands of flights which take place daily over the American skies look like digitally? Aaron Koblin, of UCLA, using some digital media and statistics from the FAA, was able to recreate a time-lapse sort of digital video of all the flights which take place in the United States daily. Combined with some nifty music and color coded flight paths, it makes one of the most interesting studies to watch…
Click Here for Video…
Via An Affair with Urban Policy…
I’ve come across another site dedicated to the reurbanization of Miami;
Boom or Bust: Miami. Here is the website’s description, taken straight from their page:
Here you can find all sorts of information relating to Miami’s historic urban transformation. When the word “historic” is used here, it is done so with utmost care and concern for what is factual. Miami’s developers, projects, architects, and neighboorhoods are all spotlighted, and issues such as transportation, culture, and the local economy are addressed in full. The goal is to seperate speculation from fact so that the big picture of Miami’s growth can unravel. Maps and illustrations provide a big picture analysis. Select the “Articles” option in the Categories listing for all BOB: Miami articles. The “Pieces to the Puzzle” category showcases Miami’s transforming urban neighborhoods. The rest of the categories are self explanatory. Uncover the truth behind Miami’s urban transformation, here. Enjoy!
Welcome to the Blog Community BOB:Miami, the reshaping of our city is a momentous and often arduous subject to follow. Another voice on some of the most important happenings in our community is definitely welcomed by Transit Miami…
Recent Comments