An Open Letter Op Ed To Anyone Who Cares, Note: NOT the Mayor or Commissioners of Miami-Dade County, We Know YOU Don’t Care.
It rained constantly all day today, October 21st, 2020. It made me feel as if Mother Earth was crying over the decision yesterday by the Miami-Dade County Commissioners to Vote FOR Miami Wilds and the continued destruction of the Richmond Pine Rocklands.
One Mayor and 13 Commissioners and ONLY ONE, Commissioner Suarez, voted AGAINST Miami Wilds. I cannot say that I am not surprised by the County’s stupidity. The County often votes in favor of stupid things that do damage to our local environment, so the destruction of unique to only Dade County Pine Rocklands and the decimation to extinction of the Federally Endangered Species that ONLY live on the site for an EIGHTH Water Park in South Florida seems to make sense in Bizzarro World.
I AM surprised however by Commissioner and Mayoral Candidate, Daniella Levine Cava that voted FOR Miami Wilds. I thought SHE was different, NOT another corrupted South Florida politico like the others, I guess I was wrong. Daniella Levine Cava lost my vote for Mayor and lost my support for anything else. She used to be a beacon of hope, now she’s just like every other politician in this Banana Republic.
Commissioner Suarez is unique in that HE CALLED ME personally about this issue a few weeks ago. In the last SIX YEARS I’ve sent several e-mails, and spoken in person before the County Commission at least TWICE and don’t even get an “Auto Responder” e-mail back from most of the County Commissioner, let alone an e-mail reply or a call back. That shows me how little they care about the people of Miami-Dade County that they represent.
As if the debacle of Coral Reef Commons was not enough, the County decided to double down on yet another developer that lost both Sony and 20th Century Fox as major backers of Miami Wilds so they could build yet another mediocre water park and a hotel on County owned land, without public input, , without zoning change notices, without a conservation plan and without a review by the various County departments.
Southern Anchor is County OWNED Land that SHOULD have gone into the EEL (Environmental Endangered Lands) program that Miami-Dade has. NOT given outright to a developer for profit as they were / are for Miami Wilds. In FACT for the last four years there was a push to put “Southern Anchor”, the former U.S. Coast Guard housing site, into EEL and Miami-Dade fumbled and refused to add it to the EEL List, even though the County ALREADY OWNED IT, let that sink it as to how little the Miami-Dade County cares about our environment.
The Miami Herald, a shadow of its former self after selling its property to a developer for a new Casino that has yet to be built because the voters of South Florida vote AGAINST Casinos and gambling unless it is on Native American Indian land and then gambling is not only OK, except it is NOT taxed.
The main issue as I see it is that the Mayor and most of the Miami-Dade Commissioners DON’T CARE about the people of Miami-Dade County. With exceptions, they never have and they never will Remember how THEY voted when YOU Vote, I most certainly will as will others seeing this.
The full time jobs Miami Wilds will create is hardly significant employment, especially since most of them will be far below the $35k average the developer is touting. More dead-end entry-level jobs is not the answer. The “more jobs” promotion that Commissioner Moss keeps pushing is a misleading narrative at best. Moss was tasked with getting a “theme/water park next to MetroZoo (now ZooMiami) way back in 1997, he’s term limited and in his last term as Commissioner Moss wants one last hurrah before he leaves office.
Another favorite excuse for approving Miami Wilds is that it is being built on a Parking Lot. It is already paved over and won’t hurt any more Pine Rockland. Historically speaking, it is being built on the former landing pad for Naval Air Station Richmond, which became the MetroZoo parking lot in 1981. This is not entirely true, but the developers don’t want you to know this.
First: Pine Rocklands do not have to have Pine Trees on them to be considered Pine Rockland
Second: Some of the Richmond Pine Rocklands was paved over for the Navy Blimp base in 1941 and the land, the Pine Rockland beneath the concrete and asphalt is still intact and restorable. In fact, there are remains of two runways on the old base site. Both have pine trees pushing their way up through them. The old incinerator on the base had a tree growing out of the chimney.
Third: The plans for parking wipe out a part of The Gold Coast Railroad Musuem’s South Pad where the rail and “North Pole” for The Polar Express is. There is Pine Rockland with mostly Australian Pine Trees on it with a mix of other endangered flora and fauna that has already been documented and is a DERM concern.
--
Cully Waggoner
Note, Cully Waggoner also serves as a board member of the Miami Pine Rocklands Coalition.
This is a GREAT letter, and I am also shocked that our Commissioner voted in favor of the water park, since she is a staunch pro-environmentalist, and intelligent and aware of our sensitive rare habitats. Thank you for sharing this, Mr Flinn.
ReplyDelete