Let's Take Some Examples, Just for Fun. (Part II)

At the top of our list of priorities should be the Boards.  It's not that they themselves are more important than anything else, like the medians, or the Codes, or the range of activities and features that define our Village.  It's that the Boards take the leading and defining roles in shaping all these other considerations.  Or they should.  So those Boards need to be full, often with available Alternates, and they need to be full of dedicated, knowledgeable (or at least experienced), and generally personable members.  Board members need to deal effectively with each other, and in many cases, they need to deal with their neighbors, the "public."  It is the job of the Commission to find, or cultivate, or simply accommodate appropriate BP residents.  Experience shows that these discoveries and accommodations are not always easy, and they are what make it important that Commissioners are well-connected, and have their fingers on the pulses in BP.  Most of our most dedicated neighbors are already on Boards, but not all available ones are.  There are one-time Commissioners out there, and they need to be tapped.  Some people, like me in 2006, would never have thought of it, or never knew Boards existed, but a Commissioner with a hunch makes a call...  People with known expertise in related areas need to be leaned on, for the good of the neighborhood.  And just people known to be decent, caring people who are pleased to be Park residents.  But the bottom line is that those Boards need to be full, and they need to operate reliably and well.  Setting the stage for that is the job of our Commissioners.  Whether they do it or not is up to them.  Whether it's their job or not is not.

Our medians are our treasure.  They are the central distinguishing feature of our neighborhood, and they are our consolation for Arthur Griffing's not having cared about sidewalks.  Considering the space required, he gave us medians instead.  I will confess to having an ongoing disagreement with some of my friends about the medians.  Not to mention names or inflame the disagreement, but some of these friends are in decision-making positions about these medians.  The disagreement is this: I think the medians look generally crummy or terrible.  My friends, who are no doubt feeling defensive, say they don't look bad.  Whether they look bad or they don't, I don't think there could be any disagreement that they are spare, poorly developed, and the ground cover, or "understory," is largely lacking.  Many of the medians feature thin grass, lots of weeds, and expanses of dry dirt as an "understory."  There are three things that could be done to improve them.  If all we want is mismatched trees, and a modest and nominal understory, we can keep what we have, and fill in the ground cover with a nice-looking carpet of grass.  It takes money, labor, and resources to keep it looking as nice as it could, but it's the minimal improvement.  The next level of improvement is to exchange what's there for a more proper and deliberate understory.  This would include various low shrubs, and then a finish, like low grass.  Not the kind you have to mow every week, but the kind that's like low monkey grass.  Trimmed properly, this begins to create a respectable median design.  Finally, since the trees that are there are mismatched anyway, we could scrap the whole plan, and replace it all with something classy, measured, manicured, and purposeful.  We're talking about more formal medians, like the few in Miami Shores, Miami Beach, and the plantings done on State and County roads.  I see these in several places, and one that I encounter frequently is at the place where 826 turns into the Shula Expressway south of Bird Road.

There are other ideas that create improved medians.  One idea is to convert a larger one into a dog park.  This idea didn't get traction when it was actively considered, but it was a thought.  Another idea is to install bits of exercise equipment in some of the medians, to make a "vita course."  There's a course like this in a patch of public land on Indian Creek Drive, just north of 63rd Street on Miami Beach.  Similarly not a bad idea, and worthy of someone's consideration.  Medians are also a good place to feature modest examples of public art.

One approach to the expense that would be involved is to dedicate Village funds to a project. Another is to have interested BP neighbors provide the funding themselves.  I mentioned this in a previous post, and my thought was that neighbors who share a median might like to pitch in to improve it.  Neighbors of other medians might do the same.  I even envisioned a friendly competition, to see who has the best median.  This approach would have to be controlled, however, so that a theme of sort would be kept.  In the interest of that goal, I thought Parks and Parkways should set out a theme for all the medians in the Village, so ambitious residents would know how to proceed.  The fact is, this would be a perfect effort for a combined P&P and Ecology, and depending on what anyone wanted to do, might even include input from the Recreation Advisory Board.  But any of this requires direction, yes, from the Commission.  The Commission would have to recognize that the medians are a weakness for the Village, that they should be its greatest strength, and that activism from them is required.  What we need is the dynamic called leadership.

We talk admiringly about Miami Shores, or Coral Gables.  We refer with some disdain to Hialeah, or parts of North Miami.  The difference between the municipalities we like and the ones we don't is their Codes.  We have Codes, too, as does every municipality.  There may be some question as to whether ours, at best, set out the style of neighborhood we want.  And clearly, this preferred style is not the same for each of our residents, and it may change over time.  This is why there is periodic, if infrequent, review of the Codes.  The other question is whether the Codes as we agree to them are being enforced.  The former matter is a fair issue for opinion.  The latter matter is not.  If we have Codes, that were crafted by a Code Review Committee and codified by a Commission, they must be enforced.  They represent what the neighborhood has stated it wants.  There is no room for autocratic ignoring of a Code, because a Mayor or Commissioner feels like doing a friend a favor.  Our Codes do not permit front yard fences, and they never have.  There are many front yard fences in BP.  Each one got there because a past Mayor or someone, likely Ed Burke, took it upon himself personally to override the Code and give someone something he wanted, but wasn't supposed to have.  Frankly, I like front yard fences, and I think prior Code determiners were wrong to exclude them.  But rules are rules.  It's OK to change them.  It's not OK to ignore them.  The same goes for metal roofs.  They're great, and they look just fine.  To me.  But they're excluded by the Codes.  At last count, we have about four houses with metal roofs.  And Code Enforcers have to enforce the Codes, on everyone.  The purpose is to establish a standard and a style.  These have been agreed to by a Code Review Board and a Commission.  We can move to tighten the Codes, or loosen them.  We cannot decide to disregard them, or even argue defensively that they are illegitimate.

The other special Code-related feature of BP is that the Codes are a product of a dedicated and experienced group of our own neighbors.  Because this is a very small community, because these neighbors are property-owners and real stakeholders in this Village, and because there is a level both of devotion and actual expertise among these Code Review Board members, their suggestions should be given controlling weight in any consideration of what Codes should be codified.  These people have worked extremely hard, for nothing but devotion to the neighborhood, and there should be no room simply to write them and their advice off, especially if the reason is that someone is offended.  Someone will always be offended, no matter what Code is accepted.  And as usual, it falls to the Commission to take a role of responsibility and leadership in affirming the legitimacy and importance of the Codes, and to insist they be honored.

The foregoing describes some ways the neighborhood needs and can experience improvement, and what the mechanisms of improvement should be.  They all depend on a responsible Commission, which should want and demand the best for and from this Village.  And because the neighborhood is small and uses the input of Boards to direct policy-making, or it should, it is all but imperative that Commissioners attend various Board meetings, at least from time to time, both to learn what the Boards are thinking and doing and to provide input of their own.  Obviously, I am presenting only my own opinion.  I welcome, as always, any other opinion, even if, or perhaps especially if, it differs from mine.  Leave a comment, or if you have more to say, ask me for a guest post.  It's all yours.