Today was the 31st annual Baynanza bay clean-up. So announced Harvey Ruvin, who was on hand with Sally Heyman at the event on Haulover. Also on hand were Councilpeople from North Miami Beach and Aventura. In fact, a lot of people were on hand. There was a large volunteer contingent wearing FPL shirts, a Target contingent, and a group wearing Lan/Tam shirts. There were other groups, largely kids and other young people, whose affiliations were not clear to me.
There were so many people, volunteers to pick up refuse along the bay on the Haulover section, that it took a while of standing on line just to get the plastic bags. There were so many people, and so little trash, that most volunteers had little to do. There just wasn't much trash to pick up. Harvey Ruvin said the trash truck on site could hold 44 tons, or that the record had been 44 tons, and he wanted to break that record. Frankly, I'd be surprised if they collected 44 pounds.
I got there at 9:00, which was the advertised starting time, stayed for the preliminaries, got my plastic bags, and tried in vain to find much of anything to collect. I left at 10:00. The event was scheduled to go until 12:00. I can't imagine what all those volunteers found to do that long. Perhaps they did what I did.
I didn't see anyone I knew. Not the Commissioner who sent the e-mail yesterday encouraging participation. Not any of the other BP eco-freaks. Come to think of it, we have two Commissioners who talk a lot about preserving the general ecology. The other one never comes to anything anyway, so it's no big surprise he wasn't there. I was a little surprised not to have seen the first one, though. The one who sent the e-mail yesterday.
So the bad-appearing news is that it appears very little was accomplished at Baynanza today. Between that and the almost absent BP turnout, it appears the event was a bust. But the good news, perhaps only by inference, is that it appears people aren't throwing refuse in the bay much, so there was essentially none to collect today. That's good.
Hi Fred!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to hear about your Baynanza experience.
A friend of mine organizes a group each year; she's been doing this since the
beginning. We always meet at Pelican Harbor boat ramp. A lot of people!
Always very well organized! The members of the Miami Outboard Club, founded in
the '30s, arrive in their boats. They take people to the islands. The boats
from Pelican Harbor take care of the islands from 79th St to125th St, I think,
since over the years we've been on each one in this range. We have a little
under 2 hrs to work on the island, and the final trash pile is always
mountainous. Later a barge (?) arrives at each island to dispose of the trash.
It is always such a neat event and I wish it were twice a year. Personally, if
I had to list the #1 thing about Miami, I would say its islands!
I wanted you to know that it appears that it is handled differently at
Haulover. I've only been to the Pelican Harbor site, and it is always an
impressive operation.
Lynn Fischer