I think we need a mission statement. My suggestion, just off the top of my head, is that it should have something to do with the success and welfare of Biscayne Park, Florida. I know Biscayne Park, Florida, is only a tiny and seemingly inconsequential neighborhood, barely appropriate to be called a municipality, but it's a nice place, and we especially might feel a fondness for it.
Biscayne Park is small, only about 1300 homes and a population of only about 3000, and it's purely residential. The populace is representative of the broad area of the County: Anglos and Hipanics, some Haitians, the occasional European immigrant, blacks and caucasians, average or low average income, last calculated at about $67K. Politics range from the very liberal to the very conservative, with all maintaining a nice friendship. There are retirees, lawyers, doctors, (no Indian Chiefs), teachers, secretaries, artists, musicians, builders and architects, policemen, other professionals, entrepreneurs, students, and kids. The streets are narrow and quiet. There is one non-residential and non-administrative building, which is a church that has been in "The Park" since soon after its incorporation. The big attraction, at the center of "town," is a recreation center, with a meeting house, a ball field, a basketball court, and some climbing toys. This little burg holds events of one sort or another a few times or so a year. They're just modest get-togethers for "Park" residents and residents of surrounding areas, and they include a couple of holiday events and other seasonal fetes, and the occasional movie night or music soiree. It's nothing much, but the residents seem to like it. They even hold contests, for the best decorated house around Christmas time, and the best Easter costume. And "The Park" does love its Halloween bash.
An important distinguishing feature of "The Park" is its low key and "natural" ambiance. It fashions itself a kind of bird sanctuary, and it has earned the distinction of "Tree City USA" for three years running. Unlike some other nieghborhoods, it has a concentration of medians in a number of the streets and avenues. Some of these are thin and poorly developed, and do little more than sport some mixed trees, while they separate single traffic lanes providing travel in opposite directions. Others are much more spacious, almost the size of small parks themselves, and rimmed with trees. A number of these larger medians are particularly charming, in that they are situated in their own tiny sectors, often contained within culs-de-sac. They, too, are undeveloped.
"The Park" governs itself with a Commission of five people elected at large. Much of the work of the neighborhood is done by employees, under the direction of a professional manager, and a number of managerial and advisory groups of residents who volunteer their time. There are perhaps five or so of these groups, and each one is manned by about five residents. Although only about 30 devoted residents could do all the non-professional work needed to be done to manage "The Park," it seems devoted residents are not easy to find. The Commission might at times have its hands full just trying to keep the few groups of volunteers adequately filled. Keeping the signature medians well-planted and cared for might also occupy much of the neighborhood's attention. And planning and executing the occasional Village event requires cooperation and work. To complicate matters, because "The Park" has no commerce, and generally modest homes, with tax revenues that are likewise modest, the Village has to depend on the extra efforts, and often the extra contributions, of its residents.
But not only are some "Park" residents not necessarily interested in making their neighborhood the best it could be, and are frankly not generous about supporting it, but at times, the governing Commission loses sight of what the neighborhood is, and what it's about. In that Biscayne Park is situated in Greater Miami, some get caught up in the dynamics of the larger environment, and they forget to cultivate their own garden, so to speak. Some Commissioners find themselves more interested in neighboring municipalities, or even non-neighboring municipalities, than they are in Biscayne Park. They imagine that their interests are in Coral Gables, or South Miami, or the Port of Miami. They are concerned with the ecology of these other jurisdictions, and they forget that the medians right in Biscayne Park are often inadequately kept. While they claim to prefer the look and ecology of native Florida plants elsewhere, they object to the removal of dead trees, and they move to protect invasive and destructive species, in Biscayne Park.
They forget that Biscayne Park is their responsibility, and should be their primary interest. The Mayor, whose name is not Mr Smith, does not attend local County meetings, claiming he doesn't have time, but instead, he made a trip to Washington DC, where he seemed to imagine he was somehow representing Biscayne Park. As far as I know, he did not address the Congress, and he did not meet with the President, but he says he had some reason to go to Washington DC on behalf of the Village. One would think that with that level of ambition, he would attend local seminars on the administration of government. One would be wrong if one thought so. This same Mayor also decided that he should tell the government of the State of Florida how he thinks they should regulate firearms. But when it came to turning in some vouchers to get Thanksgiving turkeys for lesser financially endowed residents of "The Park," he either forgot, or he lost the vouchers. The Mayor also recently moved to handicap one of the two most important volunteer resident groups by removing a dedicated member, and replacing him with a completely disinterested resident who refuses to attend group meetings.
And while all this highfalutin showboating and grandstanding is going on, the medians are without adequate development, and the volunteer work groups are not adequately manned. Some Commissioners not only don't bother to meet this minimum responsibility, but some don't contribute anything at all to the neighborhood, and some don't attend neighborhood events. And maintenance and preservation of the neighborhood, through commitment to the Codes, is neglected by some Commissioners, who seem too uninterested or too lacking in devotion to remind residents that this is the foundation of their neighborhood.
Either some Commissioners have lost sight completely of the scope of their mission, or they have invented a mission "The Park" doesn't know about, or their interests and ambitions are elsewhere than "The Park." Although the residents of Biscayne Park might regret that they are not in a fiscal position to pay their Commissioners more than nominally, it might be just as likely that they're glad they're not wasting more money than they are, since the people they pay seem to be trying to represent almost anyone except the residents of Biscayne Park.
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