I'm very pleased to note, and to report, that the trees in the median in my block have been trimmed. I've thought for a long time how overgrown and profuse those oaks looked, and been frankly aggravated at seeing their lowest branches crowding the street, so that even small trucks couldn't get by without scraping them. I had wondered what was the best method of pruning trees like that, and I thought of doing it myself, if I knew how. Well now it's done, professionally, and the trees look just great. It was an expert job, the result being that the trees look strong and majestic, just as our future canopy should look. Thanks much, of course, to our Manager for getting around to this. The medians in the next couple of blocks west are also done, and the plan is Village-wide. It's just what we needed, and it will help our sense of enjoyment in the neighborhood, as well as the sense of value. Now all we need is definitive attention to the understory.
During my morning walk yesterday, I was listening to WLRN/NPR, as I always do. They're in the midst of their latest fund drive. You get a little bit of news, judiciously sprinkled into the seemingly endless drone of flogging listeners for contributions. One of the techniques, or tactics, used by the fund-raisers is to acknowledge some of the listeners who just contributed. So at about 7:40, I learned that "Joanne from Biscayne Park" contributed. About 15 minutes later, it was "Alberto from Biscayne Park" who gave. And we're talking about a fund drive that intensively covers three populous counties. Tiny Biscayne Park was cited twice in 15 minutes, out of the millions of people in those three counties? When I met up with my friend Chuck Ross later in the day, he told me he had become a "sustaining member," too, that same morning. If his name was announced, I was already done with my walk, and I didn't hear it.
We have a lot of potential here. And I don't think it takes so much to realize it. We're doing ourselves proud, as a "Tree City USA" for three years running. And we're arranging a suitable system of cared-for medians to mark the fact. With a little more attention and application, we're as good as the best. We have one piece of public art, owned by the Village, and there's no reason we can't have more. All it takes is resolve and a little bit of money. Public art says a great deal about a community and how it sees itself and values itself. We're even famous, in our modest way, as the home of dedicated listeners of the local public radio station. It's not only that it's true: it's that south Florida has been told so and knows it.
I donate to WLRN, too, like Chuck and Roxy Ross do. I also donate to WDNA, the community radio station down on Coral Way at about 30th Avenue. It's mostly jazz and ethnic or roots music. Once a month, on the third Friday of the month, they have a live jazz concert, in the lobby of the station building. It costs $15 a person to go to a concert, but if you're a "member," which you can be for $50 a year, you and a guest can go to all of the monthly concerts. But the concerts are "sponsored" by someone each month, too. I asked the station manager, or maybe she's just the organizer of the concert series, and she said the cost of sponsorship is about $1000 for a concert. It's not what you would call cheap, but it's doable. I was thinking whether a small group of people might like to pool $1000, and do a good deed for WDNA, or even whether it would sound good to say an evening was sponsored by the Village of Biscayne Park. It could be worth a thought.
We are, in our way, on the map. If we keep it modest and strictly local, with smart and pleasing medians, we've done ourselves a very good job, and something to be proud of. If we should happen to be known for something other than "Isn't Biscayne Park the place with the 'Don't Even Think About Speeding' signs," it's not a bad thing, either. We happen to have lots of creative people living here. There are many artists, musicians, way more architects than you would guess, and people who are simply artistic in the broad sense. We're modestly endowed, and the limit is far short of the sky, but there are things we can do to make ourselves not only happy, but prouder. Maybe we can even crow a bit. An interesting mural on the wall of the raquetball courts at the park might just be the next place for us to show what we can do. Perhaps we can go even a bit further than that in an effort to make ourselves a special place, the "better place to be."
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