Henry Lowenstein

Fed up with what they perceive as the city of Miami Beach government putting the needs of special interests — namely developers — before the needs and wants of Miami Beach residents, many leaders of the city’s 30 neighborhood associations met on June 21 to determine whether joining together under a single umbrella organization would be in their collective best interests.

The overwhelming finding was yes.

Whether or not to openly back candidates for November’s mayoral and commission election and other details are still being hammered out.

“I think we’re a big tent, and there will be room for everyone,” activist Gabrielle Redfern told the SunPost a few days after the meeting. “I think the tide has shifted and we have a really well-educated populace who want to work to make the city better for everybody.”

The gist of how the network of neighborhood associations might work, as gleaned from the June 21 meeting, is similar to the old Fabergé shampoo commercial. You tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on and so on.

With the goal of joining the entire community together to fight or support neighborhood-specific issues, all residents need to know what’s going on around town, meeting attendees decided. As it stands now, the city only notifies people living within little more than a block of a development or other issue coming before a city board. It also puts a notice in the Miami Herald. What that means, reasoned activists, is that people generally only hear about issues happening in their backyards, and not in other areas of the city.

By creating a network, organizers hope to involve every neighborhood in every issue. Say an item affecting a particular Miami Beach neighborhood is scheduled to come before the City Commission. Someone from that neighborhood’s homeowners association could e-mail the heads of the other neighborhood associations, who in turn could e-mail their individual members. With a few presses of the send button, the news could be spread throughout the entire city. And if everyone knows, maybe more people will voice their opinions in City Hall, said meeting attendees.

Invited by Redfern and John Corey, president of the Bayshore Homeowners Association, about 25 people gathered in the first-floor community meeting room of the Miami-Dade Public Library at 227 22nd St. Besides members of neighborhood associations, there were also political figures present. Commissioner Matti Bower, a mayoral candidate, was the only current member of the commission to attend. Commission hopefuls Frank Kruszewski, of the Sunset Harbour Neighborhood Association, and Deede Weithorn were also present and spoke at the meeting. They are two of the five candidates running for Bower’s Seat 6.

Redfern, who’s registered to run for Saul Gross’ Seat 2 when he terms-out in 2009, said she wants the network to be educational in nature and politically neutral.

“What John [Corey] and I really envisioned was a network of concerned citizens, citywide,” Redfern said.

Activists Frank Del Vecchio, of the South Pointe Residents Association, and Daniel Veitia, president of the Normandy Shores Homeowners Association, agreed that politics should be left alone.

Henry Lowenstein, on the other hand, wants people to join in backing candidates he feels will only support what he considers to be smart, sustainable development.

“If it’s not political, where are the teeth?” asked Lowenstein.

An immigration attorney, Lowenstein is also president-elect of the Orchard Park Neighborhood Association. He and other Mid-Beach residents fought unsuccessfully to stop the Cabi Project, a future development that is slated to consist of 35 condominium units and seven townhouses at 301 41st St.

Those battling the Cabi project were mostly residents of the immediate neighborhood. It was suggested in the meeting that if all the neighborhood associations had joined behind the Cabi protest, the outcome might have been different.

“It definitely makes sense that everybody works together to help each other out because you never know what the future may bring,” said Randi Gordon.

Lowenstein’s next battle is to limit the type and size of redevelopment that will be allowed on the site of the Miami Heart Institute medical campus, if it is sold by Mount Sinai Medical Center. He is part of yet another group of concerned residents, the Middle Beach Homeowners Association Coalition. Founded by Rosemary Hansford and Nautilus Area Homeowners Association President Paul Kress, the group plans to work closely with the city and representatives of Mount Sinai to come up with a plan that will be beneficial to all parties involved.

After the Miami Herald first reported in a May 4 article that Mount Sinai had hired a firm to explore the possibility of selling Miami Heart, neighbors began e-mailing and calling the City Commission with their concerns — namely that another Blue or Green Diamond-like high-rise project or an Aqua at Allison Island community could be built right in the middle of a predominately single-family-zoned area.

Commissioner Saul Gross put the future zoning of the Miami Heart item up for discussion at the May 16 commission meeting. Michael Adler, vice chairman of the board of Mount Sinai, complained that debating zoning was premature since no decision had yet been made as to whether to sell Miami Heart or not. Nonetheless, residents strongly supported Gross’ down-zoning initiative, and talks continued at a heavily attended May 30 homeowners meeting in the fifth-floor auditorium at Miami Heart. Campaign finance records show Mount Sinai clearly supporting Commissioner Simon Cruz’s mayoral run and newcomer Luis Salom’s bid for commission Seat 4.

Kruszewski talked about his Sunset Harbour neighborhood’s success in keeping Home Depot out. Part of their success came when Venetian Isles resident and former Miami Beach Commissioner Nancy Liebman encouraged other neighborhoods to jump into the fight against big box stores in Sunset Harbour.

“If not for Victor Diaz, they’d be driving pilings now on Alton Road for two large retail organizations,” Kruszewski said. Diaz is the immediate past chairman of the city’s Planning Board. Board members are appointed by commissioners.

Lowenstein said the upcoming election is the most important one in recent Miami Beach history and will determine what the city looks like for the next 25 years.

“If money is going to govern it [the election], then we’re paradise lost,” Lowenstein said.

Lowenstein and Diaz have come up with a plan they think will help give power back to the people. In April, Lowenstein incorporated The Beach 500, Inc., a political action committee with the goal of getting signatures from 1,000 residents who pledge to vote only for candidates the group supports. One of the group’s objectives is to hold candidate debates. Lowenstein believes that because of Miami Beach’s historically low voter turnout, 1,000 votes can win an election. His theory is supported by the last two City Commission elections.

In November 2005, Commissioner Jerry Libbin won by 213 votes against Alex Annunziato. Only 4,007 people voted in that election. The margin was only slightly greater in the Nov. 21, 2006, run-off election. Michael Gongora beat Deede Weithorn by 374 out of 4,080 votes cast.

According to Miami-Dade County elections officials, there are 38,815 registered voters in Miami Beach, meaning that barely more than 10 percent participated in those two elections.

However, in those two previous elections, one seat was being contested. In the upcoming Nov. 6 election, four seats, including the mayor’s, are up for grabs.

Weithorn took a more middle-of-the-road stance. She said the organization of neighborhood associations can be educational while also having a political agenda. If voters are educated on the realities of the rhetoric, they will make the right choice.

“What I think you need to concentrate on is educational,” Weithorn said. “I’m an accountant and can make numbers say anything you pay me to.”

Though much of the talk took on an anti-development flavor, Redfern clarified her stance.

“I am not anti-development, but I agree that development unchecked doesn’t help anyone but the developers,” Redfern said. She said one need simply read developer R. Donahue Peebles’ recent book, The Peebles Principles, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at the political chess game that resulted in Peebles walking away with more than $100 million from his Royal Palm Hotel and Bath Club deals. Redfern quipped that people should take the book out of the library rather than buy it, as Peebles had already earned enough money in Miami Beach.

Redfern said an another important function she’d like the network to serve is as a tool to help resolve internal conflicts between neighbors so fights don’t have to play out in front of the commission and other city boards. She cited a recent conflict between the Flamingo Park Neighborhood Association and her group, Bicycle Activists for a Safe Integrated City, over bike lanes on 16th Street as an example of a dispute that could have been solved before it went to the Miami Beach Finance and Citywide Projects Committee.

“We need to come up with a way to communicate our needs and how they fit into the greater city,” Redfern said.

For now Redfern and Corey are putting together a steering committee that will meet soon to determine how to proceed.

Comments? E-mail ben@miamisunpost.com.