Hialeah Park: A Gem Worth Keeping for All of Miami-Dade County

Thank you for bringing to light the issue of Hialeah Park in this week’s issue [Wakefield, “The Hialeah Park Gamble,” published Feb. 8]. As a longtime Hialeah resident, I know the park was and has the potential to continue to be a gem in the heart of not only Hialeah but Miami-Dade County. We need the public to become aware and involved with its preservation and articles such as yours help us achieve that.

Janet Diaz
Citizens to Save Hialeah Park

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Hialeah Park: More Important to This Region Than Art Deco

Dear SunPost (Rebecca),

Thanks for your update on the developments at Hialeah Race Track [Wakefield, “The Hialeah Park Gamble,” published Feb. 8]. Having grown up in Hialeah, I always enjoyed the track for its beauty and class. As a senior at Hialeah High School, our school club photos were shot at the park. We were fortunate enough to have the park for concerts and races, too. And who could forget scenes from movies like The Champ that were filmed there?

What a shame it would be if the elected officials of Hialeah were to change the zoning of the Race Track to allow its owner to develop homes and big box development in Hialeah’s one destination place. We must fight to save the park. And I hope that people who don’t live in Hialeah understand that this is Hialeah’s “urban development boundary” war. It is that important to the community.

The Race Track put Hialeah on the map. People came here for the winter racing dates for decades. It is incumbent upon this track’s owner to figure out how to bring racing back to the park. The city leaders should help. And the civic leaders should help too and I think they will.

Nancy Liebman is right when she says that the park fight is as big as Miami Beach’s fight to save Art Deco buildings. The one big exception is that there is only one Hialeah Race Track.

I hope the track owners and city leaders decide that saving the park is essential for the City of Hialeah and its future.

Irene Secada, 30-year Hialeah resident

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Lazy Coal: An Unnecessary Threat to the Environment — FPL’s Got to Know That

Dear Editor,

Thank you for covering the citizen protest of the international coal industry conference held at the Ritz-Carlton [“A Mega Environmental Disaster in the Making?” published Feb. 1]. Several of my university student trainees traveled to Miami from LaBelle in Hendry County to observe and participate. While it is during my generation that society has created the problem of global warming, it’s the young who will be suffering the severest consequences of coal — the worst way to generate electricity from a greenhouse gas perspective.

I’m not against coal; it seems to be a necessary evil for the next 30 years until we get renewable energy systems fully developed and integrated into our economy. But I am against lazy coal. I’m against burning colossal amounts of coal at central power plants without a definite plan for capturing and sequestering the carbon dioxide.

FPL plans to build a huge, coal-fired power plant in Glades County on the western shore of Lake Okeechobee to serve South Florida. It will be big enough to power 650,000 homes.

Sure, we need the power. Yes, coal is a secure domestic supply that helps us avoid wars over imported oil and natural gas. And yes, modern “clean” coal is not nearly as bad as the old style coal plants. But please, FPL, go the extra mile and choose the most modern of technologies. Choose gasification technology rather than the outdated pulverized coal technology. The U.S. Department of Energy is very clear in its report stating that gasification is the best and cheapest technology to use if our nation decides to step up to the challenge of capturing and sequestering CO2 from coal power plants.

Tampa Electric Company (TECO) has operated a coal gasification power plant for almost a decade. I visited it last week. TECO thinks it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and plans to build another more than twice the size. They are also doing the geologic planning with USF in preparation to sequester the CO2 almost a mile underground. So, regardless of what FPL says about gasification being an “unproven technology,” TECO stands as incontrovertible evidence to the contrary.

Miami, there’s just a few of us seeking a better plan here in Glades County. Unless you folks on the coast (where sea level rise strikes first) step up and help, FPL will fly this one right under the radar into Tallahassee. Please, take the time to learn about the issue at www.CarbonCapture.us and make your opinions heard locally and in Tallahassee.

John Capece, LaBelle, FL

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We Are Willing To Talk With Our Voices and Money on the Dangers of Secondhand Smoke

To the Editor:

The American Medical Association is pleased that the SunPost shed light on the AMA’s new policy on smoke-free meetings [“Put Out: Secondhand Smoke in Sunshine State Bars Wards Off AMA Conventions,” published Jan. 25]. As the article noted, we will hold our future meetings and conferences only in cities or states covered by legislation that bans smoking in all public places and worksites, including restaurants and bars.

We are encouraging other health organizations to adopt similar policies. A growing number of health organizations are following suit, as shown in a list on the Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights’ Web site (http://www.no-smoke.org/document.php?id=348).

Our policy is based on the well-documented health hazards of exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS), which contains more than 4,000 chemicals, more than 50 of which are known to cause cancer. Last year, the U.S. Surgeon General released a comprehensive report on the dangers of SHS, concluding that exposure to SHS has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and causes heart disease and lung cancer, and that there is no risk-free level of exposure. Another detailed report on the subject, released in 2005 by the California Environmental Protection Agency, estimated that SHS is responsible for 50,000 deaths each year in the United States.

We were disappointed to see the statement in your article that “AMA representatives denied a request to interview [AMA President-elect Ron] Davis and remained tight-lipped about the possible implications specific to Florida.” I am a strong and vocal advocate for all AMA policies, including those related to tobacco. We are happy to comment on the implications of our policy on smoke-free meetings for Florida or any other venue. Simply put, any attractive convention location — such as Florida — that lacks comprehensive smoke-free legislation will be at risk of losing a growing proportion of business from the health sector as more health organizations adopt a policy similar to ours. We urge state and local legislators in Florida to extend the state’s smoking restrictions to include “stand-alone” bars so as to avoid the loss of that business. Such “win-win” action will preserve or increase business for the region while providing better health protection to its residents.

Your article ended with a lengthy quote from a spokesperson for the South Beach Hotel and Restaurant Association, who objected to the AMA’s policy because people can avoid smoky bars and because bars are one of the few public places in Florida where smoking is still permitted. He misses the point that the greatest beneficiaries of legislation requiring bars to be smoke-free are the thousands of bar employees who are forced to breathe secondhand smoke for eight or more hours a day. 

Ronald M. Davis, M.D., President-elect
American Medical Association, Chicago, IL

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Long Live Yiddish Humor

Jewish humor is alive and well in Miami. The Yiddish theater was saluted last month (Jan. 12-14) in Miami Beach by Michael Tilson Thomas. A Jewish Humor Weekend (Feb. 2-4), with standup comedy and Borscht Belt dinners, was celebrated at Temple Israel in Miami.

Michel Tilson Thomas provided music and memories of his grandparents, Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, who managed a Yiddish theater on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Miamians are more likely to remember the Jewish comedians who performed in English at the summer resorts in the Catskill Mountains near New York City. The area, called the Borscht Belt, included Grossinger’s, The Concord, Raleigh, Nevele and other hotels that served borscht (beet soup) and other Jewish cuisine. Of course, borscht was on the menu at Temple Israel, along with chopped liver and matzoh ball soup.

Yiddish vaudeville and movie theaters once were popular in Miami Beach. Comedians at the Borscht Belt hotels included Woody Allen, Milton Berle, Mel Brooks, George Burns, Red Buttons, Sid Caesar, Rodney Dangerfield, Buddy Hackett, Danny Kaye, Alan King, Jerry Lewis (a regular at Brown’s Hotel), Jackie Mason (he performed last month in Miami Beach), Carl Reiner, Don Rickles, Joan Rivers and Henny Youngman. Many of these comedians performed at The Fontainebleau and elsewhere in Miami.

Rabbi Moshe Walkoks, co-editor of The Big Book of Jewish Humor, discussed the origin and nuances of Jewish humor at the Temple Israel events. An example: Rodney Dangerfield said about bad luck, “When I was a kid, I was breast-fed by my father.”

Good luck is the recent treat by Michael Tilson Thomas and the possibility that Temple Israel will make the Jewish Humor Weekend an annual event. I am proud of my books about media jargon but my dream is to be a standup comic.

Richard Weiner, Miami Beach