I Owe Tracy Truppman an Apology. And So Does Mac Kennedy.

It's a weak excuse, I know: Mac and I are "not the only ones."  Maybe we're the most vocal, or maybe not.  I can name other people who say the same thing.  But I really do know.  It's no excuse.

Mac and I have incessantly accused Tracy of having no vision for the Village.  We've cited what we thought were examples of Tracy's lack of vision.  Tracy won't do this, or she won't do that.  She won't move the Village forward.  And Mac and I, and some others of us, concluded that this is proof that Tracy has no vision.  She refused to have the standard visioning conclave.  See, more proof.

I started complaining about what I thought was Tracy's lack of vision for the Village even before she got elected.  Even when we were running, I pointed out Tracy's refusal to specify any one thing she wanted for the Village.  She did say she was offering finally to "listen to residents," but that turned out not to be true.  And after she won, and commandeered complete personal domination over the Village, she wouldn't advance any agenda at all.  The only partial exception was her claim that policing needed to be improved.  But since that was already under way, it wasn't a real initiative.  So I thought, and Mac thought, and some others of us thought, Tracy had no vision.

But Mac and I were wrong.  Tracy does have a vision.  Her vision isn't to move the Village forward.  It is, if you can forgive the split infinitive, to not move the Village forward.  Tracy's vision is to hold the Village where it is.  Nothing is to be demanded of Village residents and property-owners, except that they shouldn't roll through stop signs, and nothing is to be done to improve, or change in any way, the Village.  If it has faults, or limitations, or failings, they should remain that way.

I'm saying this as if it was purely negative, but I suspect Tracy doesn't think of it that way.  I suspect Tracy thinks the Village is in some sense quaint, and that it is a laid back and homey oasis amid change, progress, and gentrification.  And I think Tracy would say she's protecting Village residents and property-owners who are satisfied with their situations, and the Village as it is, and don't want anything demanded of them.  Or they're not financially disposed to make or even capable of making improvements, or even doing normal maintenance.  Tracy's Biscayne Park is a haven for the unambitious, and the less endowed.

When Mac and I talk with each other about Village properties, we have visions that are different from each other.  My view of the Village is that it is changing, as I accept and expect that it would, and that some of those changes include contemporary looks, and two-story houses.  I like it like that.  To me, it's part of the Village's eclectic theme.  Mac doesn't agree with me.  He likes a more old style or old time Village look.  He thinks properties should be kept up well, as I do, too, and he and I agree that landscaping should be improved, but Mac would otherwise not want the Village and its properties to look more modern.

Tracy goes further than that.  She's satisfied if nothing at all changes.  She does not support stronger Codes, or more Code compliance.  If the Village looks like what someone else would call run down or poorly kept, Tracy has no problem with that.  But that's not the absence of vision.  That is Tracy's vision.

Every month, every property in the Village receives a copy of The  Egret, a publication of the Miami Shores Chamber of Commerce.  Our most recent former Mayor, David Coviello, and the Mayor before him, Roxy Ross, produced without fail a Biscayne Park column, which the Mayor in Biscayne Park is always invited (and desired) to do.  Tracy refuses to produce a column.  I've reminded her about it.  And again, I made the mistake of thinking Tracy was failing to do part of her job as the main spokesperson for Biscayne Park, because she refused to produce the BP column.  But my mistake was thinking the Mayor in Biscayne Park should provide connection to our neighboring municipalities.  Based on my theory, any Mayor who didn't do that was failing to do part of his or her job.  But connecting with neighboring municipalities is not Tracy's wish.  She's much more isolationist.  She doesn't care about Miami Shores, or El Portal, or North Bay Village.  She has no use for them.  Where I think her refusal to produce a column for The Egret is a failure, I suspect Tracy would call it a success.

So I now think I was wrong about Tracy and what I interpreted as lack of vision.  I think Mac was wrong, too.  I think Brad Piper was wrong.  I think any of us who saw stagnation, and thought it represented apathy or disinterest, was wrong.  It's just laissez-faire.  Stagnation and unaddressed decay are not evidence of Tracy's lack of agenda for the Village.  They are her agenda.  And she's been unwavering about executing that agenda.  So I apologize for having misunderstood.