Column Readers Respond XXXIX

A.C. Weinstein
Columnist 

Having many years of experience in law enforcement, I thought your (12/26) column titled “Police Report” was extremely enlightening and the comments from the chairman of the Police-Citizen Relations Committee, Michael Finesilver, right on point.

The Miami Beach government has a number of issues to overcome, but its two major public safety agencies, police and fire, stand second to none in Miami-Dade County.

What’s happening with that Anchor Garage mess?

It’s a mess that’s growing, and the Miami Beach Redevelopment Agency, (RDA) has no one to blame but itself. In what clearly appears to be an orchestrated attempt to remove one parking company from the Anchor to favor another for political reasons ONLY, the RDA has stumbled back from its commendable gains made over the past two years.

Several months ago, before the Anchor RFP process was on anyone’s radar, this column saw what was coming and urged the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, with its power of subpoena to find out why and where the motivation of this blatantly flawed process began and, even more troubling, why the city manager continues to move it forward. 

Whether this costly charade originated from the commission or administration, the city manager and executive director of the RDA, Jorge Gonzalez, should immediately put a halt to a process that’s unquestionably flawed and will face a legal challenge. It also may be time for a comprehensive review of the city’s parking department, including its collection of meter revenues.

What was that controversy with the Miami Beach Housing Authority during its selection of a new executive director?

Similar to the Anchor RFP, a little bit of the old and tired political shenanigans of recent years began to wiggle its slimy little tail. There was just enough scrutiny by a few public officials and the press to avoid what has befallen upon the Anchor, which allowed the Housing Authority to snip the tail and move itself forward with a new and qualified executive director.

Will Sunny Isles Beach ever move into a more control-development environment?

Controlling development is a much-used term from Aventura to South Beach. Controlling development is really all about allowing residents and small businesses the time and opportunity to catch up to the natural order of gentrification when too much high-density construction occurs within too short of a period of time.

In South Beach for example, where residents and small businesses recently lived and prospered within an affordable lifestyle, a rash of uncontrolled development in less than a decade forced too many to relocate to other areas. That rapid surge in development did not allow many residents and small businesses the time to transition and adjust to the rising cost of staying in South Beach.

A push for rapid development in Sunny Isles Beach, North Bay Village, Bay Harbor Islands and other attractive places in Miami-Dade will inevitably posture those residents and small businesses into a similar catch-up, where only the wealthy will survive. The only cure is at the ballot box, but that’s a difficult hill to climb because certain development interests will always find a way to finance the candidates they can depend on. To answer your question, only the voters in Sunny Isles Beach have the ability to do that. 

Whose lining up to replace the termed out Alex Penelas in 2004?

Several candidates will be challenging for that executive mayor post, but as the lay of the land begins to rise over the next horizon, it’s Miami-Dade County Commissioner Jimmy Morales and Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez who are showing the top of their heads.

What’s your take on the proposed Bay Link?

The concept of connecting Miami to South Beach with a light rail train system has been floundering around for many years. During the past six months the consultants, lobbyists and community (ahem) activists have ratcheted up a scheme to find the least offensive route to tear up the streets to install train or trolley tracks. First it was Washington Avenue, but that route was quickly nixed when a number of influential property and business owners told the proponents of the Bay Link to take it somewhere else.

The Miami Beach Transportation and Parking Committee then reviewed the Bay Link and overwhelmingly voted to turn it down. With hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, that rejection by the city’s transportation advisory board did little to deter the Bay Link’s host of consultants and lobbyists from searching out another route, one that would offer less public resistance.

With such notable train proponents and lobbyists as former mayor Neisen O. Kadin and the chamber’s Michael Milberg, the Bay Link consultants now believe the one route they may have the best chance to lay down the tracks with the least opposition is Alton Road. Unlike Washington Avenue, where a greater public awareness forced the Bay Link to seek another train route, there’s little or no community organization on Alton Road to mount a similar campaign of resistance.

No one this writer has interviewed within the city administration believes the Bay Link is a good idea for Miami Beach. They all agree with their Parking and Transportation Committee’s negative recommendation and vote to turn it down.

To try and hurry the Bay Link through the city commission, the proponents will sing the old “closing window of opportunity to secure public dollars” song. With all of the dollars and pressure, it will be very interesting and telling to hear what the administration recommends to the city commission when the Bay Link shows up on the meeting’s agenda.   

Is the electric shuttle going to be shut down?