Miami-Dade County is muzzling the public’s voice on issues that will affect them
There is a disturbing trend in Miami, as elected officials stifle public participation on important issues facing our community, as “special deals for special people” are finalized behind closed doors.
From Miami-Dade County commissioners limiting public comment to one minute as they jammed through approval of the Calusa golf club development despite unaddressed procedural and environmental concerns, a long overdue meeting on the closure of West Matheson Park that was promised nine months ago; the
hated Plan-Z privatization of the Rickenbacker; the bridge at 87th Avenue in the Village of Palmetto Bay, to the WAWA across the street G.W. Carver Elementary in Coral Gables, residents have been excluded from weighing in on issues that affect them by the very politicians they elected.
And even when the public is permitted to take part, that participation is meaningless when elected officials aren’t listening. Look at what happened at the recent Coconut Grove Playhouse community meeting. After a reported 500-plus concerned citizens answered the county’s call to “submit any questions to graham.wi nick@miamidade.gov, not a single question or comment was posed — or answered.
Instead, the updated plan, with minor modifications, was rehashed from a similar meeting two years ago, with the primary presenters being Cultural Affairs Director Michael Spring, the chosen architectural firm Arquitectonica and that firm’s historical consultant, Architect Jorge Hernandez. Also presenting were Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and County District 7 Commissioner Raquel Regalado.
To hear all these folks proclaim how great their plan is for demolishing 83% of the century-old playhouse, which is on the
National Historic Register, you would think that the theater-going public would be allowed at least to cheer in the background. But not one member of the public was permitted to utter a comment or question, even though
all the submitted comments were previewed for content by none other than Spring. He must not have liked what he saw.
At a loss for how to get their message across to the people they elected, scorned Grovites put up a “Stop the Demolition” billboard on U.S. 1 at 37th Avenue, paid for out of their own pockets, just to be heard. As born-andraised-in-the-Grove surgeon John Nordt has said: “The county uses our tax dollars to fight what we’ve told them over and over we want to see, and that is our Playhouse restored and re-opened to the public for theatrical productions like the many worldrenowned ones we had here for decades.
“We don’t want a minitheater for what the county calls ‘intimate’ shows with bars and stores and restaurants on a ‘campus’ where once we premiered ‘Waiting for Godot ‘.”
How long will the county keep fighting its own residents to push the interests of developers? When is enough, enough?