CrimeWatch Meeting, Thursday, May 23.

This was one of a series of such meetings.  They probably happen two or three times a year.  The arrangement is that Chuck Ross, our CrimeWatch chairman, is the host, Ray Atesiano, our Police Chief, is the special guest presenter, and sometimes, there's a slide show.  Parts A and B happened on Thursday.  No slide show this time.

There was nothing new about the content.  Ray and his department are doing startlingly well, which means we are, too.  Crime, which does happen from time to time, is simply very low here.  This is thanks to two main things.  The first is the remarkable astuteness and diligence of our police.  Ray says he comes from investigation more than reactive enforcement.  He wants to know what crime is about, its dynamics, its predictors, and how to prevent it.  So his guys respond extremely alertly, they are intent on investigating and solving, and solve they do.  Our current "clearance rate" (rate of solved crimes) is 75%.  A good clearance rate anywhere else, in the country, is maybe up to half of that.  Typical rates are up into the 20s.

The result of sure and prompt clearing of crimes is long term prevention of them.  Ray says criminals who can expect to get caught, or have actually been caught somewhere, do not go back to where they've already had trouble.  So Ray catches them once, and they don't come back.  Presumably, their friends don't come here, either.  If we're catching way more criminals than anyone else, then we're also preventing way more future crime than anyone else, which is why our crime rate is as low as it is.

The other factor which contributes to our low crime rate, and which Ray always stresses, and so does Chuck, is resident involvement.  An alert resident, who calls the police for something that just doesn't look completely right, even though it is the resident's competing instinct not to make trouble or be a bother to the police, is worth his or her weight in gold.  The tips and the leads often come from residents.  So Ray said yet again, that he wants people to call him.  He's pleading with us to call.  If he could, he would insist we call.  Just because something is curious, or simply doesn't look right.  Or is faintly annoying, like a car cruising too slow, or making stops and starts, or a vehicle that is most likely a work van, but doesn't have a sign on it.  Little stuff.  The stuff that's easy to overlook, or excuse, or the bother you don't want to be to someone who may very well not be doing anything wrong.  Do it.  Call.  If there's no trouble, no one will be bothered.  If there is, pat yourself on the back, deputy.

Ray says it's the job of the police to respond and patrol.  It's what we pay them for.  It's what they do, what they want to do, what they like to do.  Are you aware that the biggest budget item we have is our police?  True.  So go get us our money's worth.  Ray thanks you.  So does Chuck.  So do your neighbors.


PS: The turnout was definitely admirable.  If you weren't there, though, we missed you. Come next time.

About That Fork... And the Boat...

We don't maintain the highest style in the County, or the State.  And we're not a slum, either.  Geographically, we're north of Miami Shores and south of North Miami.  Design and condition-wise, it's the other way around.  And like any other community, we always have a choice.  Unlike most other communities, we can almost turn on a dime.

One thing I find myself often discussing with my Village friends, and thinking about on my own, is our style.  The questions are what is our style, what could it be, is there something it should be, and what would we like it to be?  How much latitude do we have?  How much, and how many resources, are involved in adjusting our style and our condition?  Who gets pinched if we improve ourselves?  Who gets pinched if we leave well enough alone?  And who gets pinched if we step ourselves down, or, perhaps to betray what I'm thinking, dumb ourselves down?

The cat's out of the bag now, if it wasn't before, so let me just put this out there: I think we could and should do better.  We should look sharp.  We should have pride, and we should demonstrate it.  We should be the place where people wish they could live.  And not because, as one of my friends says, we're a protected haven for slobs, or people who don't care how they live, or people who can't be bothered.

People in the Park sometimes reference Hialeah, to invoke a certain image.  Or Miami Shores, to invoke a different image.  Some reference Coconut Grove, out of some sense that we're like the Grove.  We're laid back, all right, but Coconut Grove would not agree to let people live like they live in a dump.  Some of us are apparently permissive of that.  And if it's not a dump outright, then it's stylelessly, classlessly, like a trailer park for residents of the most modest means.

If people want the disregard of Hialeah or North Miami, or if they like life in a trailer park, they should live there, with neighbors who want no more from their environment than they themselves want.  Decay should not be infectious.  It wasn't long ago that some BP residents (oddly, some of the same residents who favor stepping down our style) agitated against the City of North Miami's allowing building and development on the City's southern border, our northern border, in such a way as to place a high density, and presumably low standard, of living so close to us.  They don't want us to live like we live in a slum, but they don't mind if we look like we do?

Of course I realize that I myself am proposing to change something, in the direction of improvement.  If I think it's wrong to allow and even legislate the seeds of deterioration in the Village, isn't it equally wrong to propose to impose improvement on residents?  Is one change as disruptive as another?  So OK, fair enough, for purpose of discussion.  I would agree to keep the same Codes we've used in the past, and to enforce them properly.  I think we can do better, and maybe over time, when we begin to rediscover the sense of style and pride we used to have, there will be more support for the concept of codifying more exalted and maybe even sophisticated standards.  But at least for the moment, we should stop the decay.  And it is decay.  You can see it for yourself, and if you ask the old-timers, those who have lived here for decades, they'll describe for you the difference between what was and what is.

The decay is not only the personal decay of individual homeowners' properties.  It's also the decay of the public spaces, most prominently the medians.  This all needs to change, and to improve.  I'm harping, I know, but it needs to start with a positive and strong stand from our Boards, mostly Parks and Parkways and now the ad hoc Code Review, and it ends with the full support and backing of the Commission and the Manager.  Nobody is allowed to flinch.  If anyone feels like being dead weight, or a lone cowboy, they're excused.  We can replace them with someone who wants something, and that something has to be the betterment, or at the very least adequate maintenance, of Biscayne Park.

That was a little more than two cents, wasn't it?

It Isn't Easy Being Green? Well, It's Not Exactly Difficult.

Today, I went to the "Hello, Again" event down in Wynwood.  The idea is to welcome back, or say "Hello, Again" to, The Lincoln Motor Company.  They had their pretty boys and pretty girls to greet you and take you on a little driving tour of Wynwood.  Their car (the new Lincoln), you drive.  They intended a bit of a caravan, but the only ones who showed up were Chuck Ross and I.

Chuck and I drove the newest Lincoln, which is a hybrid.  It's a wonderful car, if you like luxury and automatic transmission.  Not my personal style, but undeniably pleasing.  The car was extremely comfortable, though you have to get used to the controls for things, it had a great feel to the ride, and it was admirably powerful.  And it gets 45 mpg, highway or city.  And it has a base sticker price of about $37K, which is stripped down to almost every luxury feature you can think of.  If you wanted what they didn't put in the base price, it would cost you about $3K more.  The only feature that wasn't included and which actually costs something, is the semi-retracting roof, which gives much more exposure than a regular sunroof.  We saw one: terrific.

They're very eager for company down at the Lincoln event, and very happy to see you.  You get introductory coffee or bottled water, the test drive, a driving tour of outdoor art/murals (they drive in their own Lincoln ahead of you, and communicate with you by walkie-talkie), a stop at the Wynwood Cigar Factory, and a going away favor.  You get your choice of which present you want: a bag of coffee beans, a cigar from the Wynwood factory, or a free admission for two to any event at RAW, which is some sort of art exposition.  The Lincoln event started on May 16, and the last day is June 2.  If you're interested, you can call them at 800-374-7568.  I recommend it.

In today's e-mail, I got an offer from a company called Pear Energy.  I'll tell you right now, it's a weird offer. Pear Energy doesn't do anything itself.  It is strictly a middleman.  What these people do is funnel money to wind farms in the midwest of the US, so those wind farms can be stable and expand their operations.  All electricity in the country goes into the same grid, so it doesn't matter who puts it there or who uses is.  It's all the same electricity.  So here's what Pear Energy "offers" to do.  If you sign up with them, they will become your electric company.  They will send you an electric bill every month.  That bill will cover your electric usage for the month, billed at the same rate you're paying now, and Pear Energy will add on 2 cents per kilowatt hour.  Those two cents go to pay Pear, and to pay the wind farmers.  So the lines are the same, and the electricity is the same. The only things that are different are that you agree to pay more for the same electricity you're already getting, and you get to feel good knowing there is increasing support for wind farms in the midwest.  In case you're interested, my electric bill would increase by about $11 for my last bill, which was $62, and as much as about $22, for my highest bill in the last year, which was last August and was about $120.

So if it wouldn't make you feel good to know you're contributing to the growth of the green electric industry, you have no reason to do this.  If it would, go for it.  Pear Energy doesn't compete with FPL, and it pays their full bill, just as you would.  The only imaginable advantage is that if enough people joined this scheme, and demonstrated that green sources of electricity are important to them and worth paying extra for, maybe FPL, for example, would build windmills, instead of burning stuff.  It's a pretty weak argument, I know, but it's all there is.  Pear Energy's number is 877-969-7327.  They only have three offices: DC, Massachusetts, and just off Lincoln Road on Miami Beach.

Twenty-five Heads Are Better Than Five

For most of the life of our Village, decisions were made by the Commission.  The details and considerations behind those decisions were the responsibility of those Commissions.  Commissioners were expected to make themselves knowledgeable about a range of issues: municipal finance, public works, management of a police force, the running of a parks and recreation department, and other things about which the average person knows nothing.  But that was their job, and they had to do it.  If they didn't know the first thing about it, which must have been true for the vast majority of Commissioners over the decades, then they would either stumble onto a decision that worked, or they would make decisions that didn't work.

Dan Keys says it was actually his idea at first.  He was a Commissioner himself for 10 years, and he saw the difficulty, or perhaps folly, of having our Commissions function as they were functioning.  And Dan has long worked for a large, successful, and upscale municipality himself, so he knows what real management looks like.  He thought we really needed a professional manager to do the job right.  After some years of what he seems to portray as behind-the-scenes maneuvering, and letting the process happen, a Charter Review Committee finalized its work in 2005, and presented for the approval of the then Commission, and the public at large, a scheme whereby daily decision-making, and even a certain amount of overarching planning, would be transferred from the Commission to a professional manager.  To this day, Commissioners have not been able to agree as to how much of what kind of decision-making is the responsibility of the manager, and how much should be up to Commissioners.  Or how much they can bring themselves to surrender.

There's a missing link, however.  Whether the statutory decision-makers were Commissioners or a professional manager, there have always been advisors.  These advisors have been local residents who are particularly devoted to the neighborhood, and many of whom have either special interest or actual expertise in the areas in question.  These advisors comprise the Boards of the Village.  There are five such Boards, not counting the Foundation, and each has five appointed members.  Two of the Boards are "quasi-judicial," and they issue formal rulings that have legal weight.  If Planning and Zoning says you can't do something, you can't do it.  And there's no one to whom you can turn to overrule them.  If Code Compliance says you're out of compliance, and you owe a fine for it, your only appeal is to the Circuit Court.  No one in the Village can help you.  The other Boards are less formally imposing, and Commissions have also taken the opportunity to give them less weight in dictating policy.  So meetings of Parks and Parkways, Ecology, and Recreation Advisory are less formalized.  They're also less well-attended, even by their members.  Their agendas and mandates are less urgent and specific.  To put it somewhat bluntly, we don't take them fully seriously, so they don't take themselves fully seriously.

It doesn't have to be that way.  It appears that by now, most Village residents see the folly in having Commissioners try to be experts about things in which they have little specific interest and even less knowledge. So we were right to change the system.  If this were a large municipality, it would make sense to leave essentially all decision-making to a professional manager.  But since we're small, and compact, and we happen to have a collection of residents who are both deeply devoted to the neighborhood and in many cases expert in the areas under consideration, it doesn't make much sense essentially to ignore them and their counsel.  For the Commission to set aside the determinations of these Boards and Ad Hoc groups, in favor of either their own impulses and leanings, or the pleas of one or two of their friends, is rude and foolish.  It is not in the spirit or the service of this unique neighborhood.

It may be that we didn't fully commit in 2005.  We used to have five jobs to do and five Commissioners to do them.  The jobs of four of the Commissioners are now entrusted to the Manager.  Maybe we should have reduced the number of Commissioners from five to three, since they no longer had to do the detail part of the heavy lifting.  But whatever we do, or whatever they do, they should elevate the Boards instead of ignoring them.  This Village should really be Board-driven.  We are unique in our ability to afford to function that way.


Errata:  It seems to me I was potentially a bit harsh in characterizing Commissioners as being essentially ignorant of a range of matters.  What I meant was that they're not expert, because these are not their fields.  There's the occasional exception, like Richard Ederr, who knows a lot about finance, because he's an accountant.  Mostly, that's not the case.
Second, it seems to me I come across as exclusively indicting the Commissions for ignoring the Boards.  My error.  It's also the Manager who ignores them and their counsel.  The one exception of which I'm aware is when the Village acquired a piece of outdoor public art, the Manager asked a joint sitting of three Boards where to install it, and she did what they recommended.
Third, one reader suggested I was wrong to say there is no recourse once P&Z have ruled.  I believe that to be true, but I'm rechecking.  A resident's request for a variance is not a maneuver to go over the heads of P&Z.  It is an effort to have an improvement not permitted by the Codes: an improvement P&Z would not have been allowed to approve anyway, even if they liked it.  Sometimes, P&Z will recommend the homeowner pursue a variance, and P&Z will endorse it, because the homeowner wants something P&Z agrees is a good idea but which it is not allowed to approve according to the Code.
Finally, I was referring to the standing Boards.  It's certainly true that the ad hoc committees, currently including the Code Review Committee, are not given any more respect than the standing Boards.  My complaint about their mistreatment, which is really a mistreatment of our neighbors who serve on these committees, is the same as my complaint related to the standing Boards.

Out on a Limb

Preservation can sometimes be a tricky business.  Some people just have a reflex to preserve whatever is.  Take the Miami Herald building, for example.  It's a bizarre building, it looks odd, and it takes up very valuable bay frontage.  The Herald is abandoning the building, as the paper itself is shrinking, and there's energy about replacing it with something else.  There are lots of great uses for prime property like that.  But there's a group of people, always that group of people, who declare the Herald building "historic," for the simple and concrete reason that it's already there, it's been there, and it houses, or housed, the main local newspaper.  They don't want that building torn down.  And my impulses are the same as those conservationists': I don't like waste, and I don't like destroying or discarding things that can still be useful.  As much as I think the Herald building looks terrible, and is a criminal waste of great property, I, too, have a nagging feeling to find a use for the structure.  I try to combat that urge.

Some of us in Biscayne Park are struggling with a reflex to preserve, too.  There are two things we talk about preserving.  (Well, three, if you count the church.)  One of them is our trademark log cabin, our main municipal building.  Some of us don't want to spend the money, but apart from that, there isn't much disagreement about the preference to have our log cabin to use and to symbolize us.

The other thing some of us want to preserve is trees.  Specifically, Casuarina equisetifolia, or the Australian Pine.  This tree, of which there are a good number in the Park, and two other common local trees, Schinus terebinthifolius, or Brazilian pepper, and Melaleuca alternifolia, or Melaleuca or tea tree, have something in common. All three trees are non-native to Florida, they are all poisonous in one way or another, and they were all brought to south Florida for their capacity to suck the water out of the ground, converting swamps into solid and buildable land.  (We may have reached a time when it is more important to protect ground water and the aquifer than it is to produce more buildable land.)  In south Florida, these trees are all listed as invasive species.  They come from southeast Asia, South America, and Australia, respectively.

But the issue for us is that we have them, mostly the Australian pines, and some of us want to keep them.  They are considered menace trees by the County, and there is a competing campaign to get rid of them.  Sadly, the issue has become divisive in Biscayne Park.  Some Park residents are tenacious to the point of embattlement over keeping these trees, and others have reacted by becoming rigid about wanting them removed and replaced by something native, non-invasive, and non-toxic.

About two years ago, the County was doing some median improvements in Griffing Boulevard, and it removed several Australian pines it said were dead or near dead.  The lack of greenery at the top, and the presence of gaping syrinxes starting at the bottom suggested the diagnosis was accurate, though some of the removed trees were not fully deteriorated, leaving some residents with a sense that trees had been "murdered."  Yes, I'm sorry to say that was one of the words used.  The County replaced them with southern live oaks.  Some Village residents, especially some who live on Griffing Boulevard, were up in arms over the removal of the Australian pines.  They worked to portray deep personal injury.  They expressed even deeper resentment about, even hatred of, the new oaks, which they said were literally making people sick.  Something about pollen.

References to the Australian pines, the ones some Park residents want to preserve, continue to be made. The crusade is evidently not over.  I haven't yet heard anyone propose to plant new Australian pines, which I imagine is either discouraged or prohibited, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to hear of such an ambition.

I don't know whether the bigger tragedy is the attachment to nothing more than some trees which are problematic in our area, or the fact that this issue is so divisive.  Personally, I agree with the people who like the look of these trees, and I also agree with the people who say they are invasive menaces, and they should be gotten rid of.  They poison the ground while they're alive, and there's a reputed danger that we'll know when they're fully dead, because they will fall over.  On someone, or some car, or some house.  And most certainly on power lines, phone lines and cable lines.

So as much as I have the same reflex to preserve, whether it's the Herald building or the Australian pines, I think it's sensible to see them for the mistakes they were, and replace them.  Perhaps at best, they had reasonable usefulness at an earlier time, but in the clearer light of a newer day, we should be able to recognize that the current detriments outweigh the current benefits.

Yes, It Was Too Good to be True.

This is a follow-up to the "Even Less Power to You..." post (4/8/13).  The fact is, I went ahead with two parts of the plan.  I got the NASA insulation, and I contracted for the solar hot water heater.  The insulation was installed a few weeks ago, and I was trying to move the solar hot water heater ahead.  I'm getting a new roof, and it's better for the roofer, and the roof, if the supports for the panel are in place before the roof is finished.

I received confirmation from FPL about the available incentive: $1000.  They're just waiting to know the job is complete.  But I was starting to wonder about the incentives for the insulation.  I called and spoke with Todd Thomas.  He might be the bad cop.  It's not clear.  But he's presented as in charge of installations, while Paul Buzzella is in charge of sales.  I asked Todd where my incentives are for the insulation.

Todd has a different understanding of this arrangement than Paul does.  Todd says there are no incentives per se, but the incentive is that the electric bill is lower.  I explained that this is starkly contrary to what Paul uses as a selling point, and I even read him Paul's comment on the contract, that "All incentives must be sent in."  Then Todd changed course, and he said the federal government incentives, those incentives he had just told me don't exist, amount to 30% of the job.  And then there's the FPL incentive that was confirmed.  So I'd be left with only a partial bill...  And I stopped listening when he launched into something about a balance that I would pay off at 1%.  One percent interest?  Who knows.  Who cares.

Todd had called to tell me he was going to be late for the meeting he scheduled with me today, to iron out our misunderstanding, but at this point he said he wasn't coming at all.  He was cancelling the solar hot water heater for me.  Besides, he asked me what my electric bills are, as Paul had, and my answer convinced him that I use so little electricity that there was little to save.  This program isn't intended for people like me.

What about paying for the NASA insulation, and the "incentives" it appears I'm not really getting, I asked.  "Happy Birthday," replied Todd.

So I can't really recommend this program.  Do the energy improvements work?  I have no idea.  Maybe for some.  But the pitch is not straightforward.  I can't prove it's honest.  It is not free of charge, as the salesman advertises.  The come-on was absolutely too good to be true.  If you're a bigger electricity user than I am, and it's worth something to you to consider it anyway, just realize you will pay something, maybe up to about 60% of the cost.  And Sun Star Energy will tell you you'll be glad you did, because your electricity bills will go down.

I've Said it Before, and I'll Say it Again

Of course Commission meetings aren't really the way I describe them.  How could they be?  Who would ever behave in public the way I describe some Commissioners?  I was going to say who, in their right mind..., but that brings us to a different discussion.

No, it's all quite unbelievable.  It's impossible.  Not only are my descriptions contrived, but I make up the quotes to go with them.  You know that's true.  You don't even have to come to a Commission meeting to know how absurd are the things I say.  For example, suppose I said I was making a public comment at the last meeting, and Noah Jacobs told me public comments, "Good and Welfare," have to be upbeat and positive, and there's a rule that I'm not allowed to criticize anything.  Now you know I'd be lying if I said such a thing.  Noah would never say anything like that.  He doesn't just sit there and make stuff up.  Or suppose I said Noah, after a year and a half on the Commission, as Mayor, didn't know that in Biscayne Park, people are allowed to park on the swale, and they do it legally all the time.  Suppose I said he claimed he was recently told by some unnamed person that we're not allowed to park on the swale, and he simply assumed this was true, blindly and mindlessly accepted it as true, not even needing to check it out for himself by reading the Code, or asking the Manager, or the Code Enforcement Officer, or the police.  Wouldn't it be obvious to you that I was inventing terrible assertions about Noah, and that such foolish ideas and approaches were inconceivable in him?  Of course it would.

So do yourself and your neighbors a favor: come to some of these meetings.  I'll still make up the nonsense I do, and you can write comments exposing how off base I am.  You can tell it the way it really, really is.

Come on, show me up.  And have fun with it.  I'm all yours.  I deserve to be taken to task for the untrue things I persistently say.  Bryan Cooper repeatedly says I'm a liar.  And his friend Steve Bernard said it before that.  They wouldn't say that about me if it weren't true.


Addendum:  Chuck Ross has corrected me.  He sent me a recording of the Good and Welfare section of the meeting, and he demonstrated that my language above was not precise.  When I think my language is precise, either because I commit something to memory or write it down, I put it in quotes.  I did not do that above, because I relied on the impression I took from the experience.  What Noah actually said when he interrupted me was that Good and Welfare should be confined to topics that "benefit the Village."  This appears to be his own idiosyncratic assumption, and it appears that he does not consider a suggestion to recover $5500 to Village coffers to be of benefit to the Village.  Again, that's his opinion.  He backed down, however, when I suggested that Good and Welfare is traditionally used for audience members to comment on agenda items, and he conceded that the minutes of the 2/5/13 Commission meeting were in fact an agenda item.

Touche': Murder of the First (Amendment)

I would be remiss if I did not report another event from the 5/7/13 Commission meeting.  A majority of the Commission has applied itself to preventing me from placing an ad in the newsletter, to say that this blog exists, how to access it, and how to participate in it.  Two Commissioners, Anderson and Ross, introduced agenda items intended to address that resistance.  Anderson got cold feet, and he withdrew his item.  Ross persisted.

The item, which was phrased as a reconfirmation of the already established policy that Village residents can post non-commercial messages for free in the newsletter, was pressed by Ross, despite vigorous attempts to deflect or confront from Cooper and Jacobs.  Watts was a silent co-conspirator with those two.

The matter itself was not interesting.  I fully expected a personal vendetta from Cooper and Jacobs, and I had my suspicions that Watts would go along.  Sure, it's a gross misuse of office, but I know them well enough not to have expected anything more.  These are small people with no material of their own.  And they want an opportunity to punish me for speaking ill of them.

What was interesting was the gross hypocrisy, especially from Cooper.  Cooper actually recalled his alleged dedication to civil rights, specifically free speech, and he had spoken earlier in the meeting about his disdain for the intrusion of government.  So it was perversely fun, even though it was at my own expense, to watch him make a fool of himself.  Of course he typically does, as does Jacobs, so it was nothing new.  It was just so blatant, and pathetic.  He remembered his efforts to confront the one-time "Decorum" Ordinance, which he correctly viewed as intended to suppress his bad behavior, and he remembered his similar confrontation of the suppression of his vile rants in the newsletter column.  But he has vastly more tolerance for his flailing attacks on others than he does for any reference, even without content, to this blog.

Come to think of it, in the same meeting he called me a liar for reminding him that an investigation three years ago found him culpable (He must have thought Ross was a liar, too, since she told him the same thing, and Bob Anderson and Barbara Kuhl remembered it the same way I did.  All liars, I guess.), and he further accused me of lying when I told him what the Codes said about management of the rights of way.  But since I read the Code to him, it seems he thinks the Codes lie, too.

Well, what can I say?  When you lose, you lose.  And I lost.  I was beaten.

A Boat With a Slow Leak.

There weren't many meaningful issues to discuss in tonight's Commission meeting, but one issue grabbed all the attention.  On the surface, for as long as we remain on the surface, the issue was about how and where boats and RVs are kept in the Village.  On the surface, we had to consider how much of whose rights to impact.  The boat/RV owners didn't want their opportunity for fun infringed at all.  (It wasn't always clear what fun owners were having with their vehicles.  Some of these vehicles, by admission of their owners, did nothing but sit on the properties.)  Some who don't own boats/RVs wanted a neighborhood that did not seem cluttered with these vehicles.  They wanted boats and RVs to be hidden away behind fences or in back yards.  If that wasn't possible, they wanted owners to have special permits that would expire if the boats or RVs weren't registered, or not replaced, and when ownership of the houses was eventually transferred.

Bryan Cooper, Noah Jacobs, and to some extent Barbara Watts adopted the posture of wanting to provide the most uninfringed rights possible for Village residents.  At least for the ones who owned boats and RVs.  There was little consideration, perhaps none, for those who didn't own them and didn't like the intrusion.

And this is where the slow leak began to manifest itself.  What was really at issue, or parallel and close to the fun-and-property-rights issues, was what kind of neighborhood we want.  Ron Coyle put it most clearly, though with considerable inconsistency.  Ron says he likes boats.  He considers them "art."  He has one in his own front yard, though he says you can't see it, because it's partially buried and now full of vegetation.  So Ron's view was that Biscayne Park is a "working class" neighborhood where people should be free to pursue working class interests.  Like having boats and RVs in their front yards.  And Ron wouldn't limit those vehicles, either.  If you want one, have one.  If you want two, have two.  Presumably, Ron would approve having two of each.  And judging from his own property, he wouldn't be bothered if they didn't work, or were in a state of disuse or even decay.  That's just Ron's idea of "art."  So he says.

And part of Ron's argument was that if the Village starts to intrude on people's ownership and display of boats and RVs, with heavy-handed Codes and heavy-handed code enforcers, we'll wind up being like Miami Shores.  Which we, or Ron, doesn't want.  Ron says if anyone wants to live the way they do in Miami Shores, all neatened up and tidy, they should move to Miami Shores.  It's high class over in Miami Shores, and we're not high class in Biscayne Park.  So concludes Ron Coyle.  (But then, Ron suggested we petition Miami Shores to annex us.  He wants to start a petition so stating.  So Ron is willing after all to have a higher style in the neighborhood, but apparently only if we can call ourselves Miami Shores.)

Except Ron also doesn't think we should annex the "dump" east of the tracks.  I don't know if Ron has seen the area he doesn't want us to annex, but it's about the same level of dump as parts of Biscayne Park are.  Especially the parts with boats and RVs.

Ron's got himself in a bind.  And he had Bryan Cooper, Noah Jacobs, and to an extent, Barbara Watts to legitimize that bind for him.  The sad fact of the matter is this:  Cooper, Jacobs, and Watts are so busy with what they tell themselves is looking out for the little guy, or simply being contrary and battling authority figures, that they have lost sight completely of what this neighborhood is, what it could be, and what it should be.  They live in their own little dumps, and they don't mind one bit.  In fact, they'd like us all to live in a dump.

So tonight, they began the process of leading Biscayne Park on a path of deterioration.  Where many of us talk about wanting to improve the neighborhood, strengthen the Codes, and promote pride in Biscayne Park, these three want a look that could include things like decaying boats and RVs, maybe rusted cars, and any debris at all.  Hey, "property rights," you know?  I'm not sure how much more damage they can do between now and December, but two of them have to answer to the voters then.  I really hope the voters' answer to them will be no.

"That's So Miami"

Last night, I went to an Arsht Center event which called itself a "piano slam."  Apparently, it was related to the Dranoff 2 Pianos series of events held this time of year here, and it's the fifth year they've done the "piano slam."

I have no idea why they call it a piano slam, unless it's because it was slammin' good, but here's the set-up.  They had two pianists, playing the extended composition of one of them, a DJ, of the hip-hop, street ilk, a percussionist, and 17 middle school and high school kids reciting, or performing, poems they had written for a competition for this event.  The event organizer says that 1300 poems had been submitted by kids throughout the County, and these were the 17 best.  There were some other performers as well, most centrally including a middle aged woman who was a recurring poet.  Her name is Shamele Jenkins, and she was described in the program as "an internationally recognized touring poet, spoken word artist, storyteller, and author."  The pianists, Marcel and Elizabeth Bergmann, were wonderful.  The DJ, Seth "Brimstone 127" Schere, "uses his skills and experience to motivate others by performing and lecturing on Hip Hop History, Hip Hop in the Classroom, Critical Media Literacy, Jewish Contributions to Hip Hop, and Sound Production & Engineering."  I'm quoting from the program.  There's no way I could make this stuff up.  You don't often see female percussionists, but Elizabeth Galvan is a U of Miami graduate who won a "Universal Marimba Competition" in Belgium in 2011, and she was excellent.

This was a well put together and well-choreographed production.  Some of the kids were shy, and some were not, but they had written sensitive, intelligent, and provocative poems.  Some performed their poems, and others simply recited them.  It was clearly the kids who were the focus of the production, with the music providing support and depth.

Carlene Sawyer, the Executive Director of Dranoff, wrote in the program as follows: "Piano Slam started with the idea to take Classical Music out of the conservatories and into Miami's neighborhoods from Homestead to Carol City and from Doral to the Beaches.  This happens by connecting teenagers' love of music to professional performance artists across creative boundaries-- all within their public schools."

Boy, did this program ever succeed.  You could not have asked for a more interesting evening, demonstrating precisely what Ms Sawyer intended.  And she thanked her important partners: the Arsht Center, the County Public Schools, her "creative partner, Teo Castellanos, for bringing his award-winning theater experience to Piano Slam and raising the project to the highest level of expectation for all involved, especially the students" (yup, yup, yup), the Miami Heat, and the Dranoff Foundation.

I kept the program, and it contains each of the 17 poems, including the names and schools of the authors.  If you want to read them, let me know.  None is more than a page, and some are considerably shorter.

Ms Sawyer wants us there next year, for Piano Slam 6.  My advice to you: Be There, or Be Square.  I imagine tickets cost something, but mine was complimentary.  My guess is the price could not have been more than $10-15.  The seating was general admission (open seating), and the place was packed, apparently significantly with friends and family members of the kids/performers.  So it was friendly and casual.

This was a terrific program.  It was expertly done, was a real community service, and served to raise the level of artistic appreciation for participants and audience.  It did exactly what Ms Sawyer hoped it would.  See ya next year.


Addendum: Chuck Ross alluded to this fact in his comment, though he didn't realize how deliberate it was, and Ms Sawyer was clear about it when I spoke to her: there is in fact no charge to anyone to attend "Piano Slam."  All tickets are complimentary.  I don't know how interested people can get them, though I'm sure you could call Dranoff or the Arsht.  They give out four times as many as the crowd they can accommodate, apparently knowing most people take tickets, but don't come.  So if you can snag tickets next year, do.  And come.  You will be very pleased.