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?
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