Friday, December 27, 2019
My Mistake. And Rafael Is Good For His Word.
Rafael told me in an e-mail which I included in this blog two posts ago that he hoped for what he called a "random act of kindness" from me on "1/4/20." He made further mention of his reference to this on Nextdoor. I told him I'm not on Nextdoor. I didn't hear back from him about this. I then wrote a post yesterday, and I referenced two assumptions I made regarding his hope for a "random act of kindness" from me on "1/4/20." I was wrong about both assumptions.
I got curious about Rafael's mention of something on Nextdoor, and I looked for it. I can view Nextdoor. I just don't have an active account there, and I can't comment. So I never look. Except this time, because I wanted to know whatever Rafael wasn't specifying.
In fact, Rafael did mean Saturday, January 4, 2020, and he was referring to what he presented as a day of service in which he hoped Village residents would participate. His proposal had nothing to do with voting for him, which is what I thought he meant when I also thought he meant Tuesday, January 7, 2020.
Rafael promised us two things. One was that he is unfamiliar with many things going on in the Village, and the other is that he would learn fast. He was right about both.
One thing Rafael learned very quickly has to do with the Village's problem about communication. The current Commission has talked about this problem many times. It seems the Village government and administration feel too much communication has been happening, and the goal is to stop it. Ways of accomplishing this goal have included refusing to communicate at all (not announcing things, not responding to outreaches, and not answering questions), and communicating in such a minimal way, and with such unreliable offerings, as to be ineffective. And Rafael has been mentored well already. He offers as little substance as possible, and when there is ambiguity and lack of understanding, Rafael does not elucidate. And Rafael has streamlined the process of learning about the Village and its functioning by relying on very few people to inform him.
As for the content Rafael intended regarding his proposed 1/4/20 day of service, because Rafael never told me what he meant, I don't know how Rafael understands this proposal. For example, does Rafael think he came up with this idea himself, or does he think there was ever in the past a Village day of service, let's say in January? If the former, I wonder how Rafael got this idea. It sounds like a good and friendly and community-spirited idea. We have Griffing Boulevard, named for Arthur Griffing, and Ed Burke Park, named for Ed Burke. I wonder if we should memorialize Rafael's idea for a day of Village service in January by calling it the Rafael Ciordia Day of Service.
Or, does Rafael think anyone else ever thought of a Village day of service, in January? Does Rafael think such a thing ever happened here? If so, I wonder who Rafael thinks came up with this idea, when, and when and why it stopped happening. Rafael says he moved to the Village in 2012. I wonder if there was ever a Village day of service, in January, any time after 2012. If there was, I wonder if Rafael ever participated in it.
I'm asking a lot of questions, I know, and I guess I'm unlikely to get the answers to them, now that Rafael has learned how to deal with the Village's communication problem. But I'm still curious.
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Thanks for the clarification of Rafael's initiative Fred.
ReplyDeleteSorry, to answer your questions with yet another, but have you figured out why Rafael selected 1/4/2020 as Biscayne Park Day of Service to do random acts of kindness?
There is a Random Acts of Kindness Day, celebrated February 17 every year. It originated in New Zealand, gained momentum and has become a global movement. More at https://www.awarenessdays.com/awareness-days-calendar/random-acts-of-kindness-day-2020/, and https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-random-acts-of-kindness-day-february-17/.
I like the concept, and hope that Rafael persists in bringing attention to the event, that he garners the support of 3+ Commissioners to formalize Village support for February 17 - Random Acts of Kindness Day with a resolution, and, of course, that actual acts of kindness ensue.
The Village has commemorated Earth Day and Earth Hour as community events, off and on. The national holiday most regularly celebrated in the Village in January (formalized by Commission resolution since 2011) is the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service (which coincides with my birthday). I was happy to have the unanimous support of the Commission, to pool donations and accomplish several projects:
- Reso 2011-3 declared the day to be 1/15/2011, when donations were collected and several neighbors (including P&P board members) worked to beautify 6 Ave, between 113 and 114 St.
- Reso 2011-54 declared the day to be 1/21/2012, when we partnered with North Miami to improve the 121 St median, between Griffing and 6 Ave.
- Reso 2012-61 declared the day to be 1/26/2013, when we returned to 121 St. with North Miami’s help to apply the same success to the stretch between 6 and 10 Ave.
In February of 2013 and 2015, I asked the Commission to support Reso 2013-5 and 2015-4, emulating County Commissioner Pepe Diaz’s initiative “15 Days of Neighborly Love” a Valentine’s Day of Goodwill; we also used this initiative to thank all Village board members with a Volunteers’ Breakfast.
- With Reso 2015-__ we returned to the MLK Day of Service, proclaiming 1/10/2016 as the day (noted in 12/1/2015 meetin minutes, Item 12b.), with a focus on Log Cabin landscaping.
- Unfortunately, on 12/6/2016 (Tracy’s first meeting as Mayor), we lost the vote for Reso 2016-42 a statement affirming Village Commission commitment to cultural diversity, hospitality and civility: Coviello and Ross for / Johnson-Sardella, Tudor and Truppman against.
- The next month, the new majority could not reject our most recent MLK initiative, so Reso 2017-03 was approved proclaiming the day to be 1/16/2017, when we collected funds for a Peace Pole project and in the Summer of 2018 the installation was “planted” at the entrance of the Ed Burke Recreation Center.
Not one of these community service recognitions, initiatives or events occurred during an election cycle.
So…. Why is Rafael calling 1/4/2020 Random Acts of Kindness Day – 3 days before the Village special election, when the rest of the world celebrates 2/17? It strikes me as an act of self-interest, and not so much a random act of kindness ……
Rox,
DeleteYour recapitulation speaks for itself.
It would have been as nice and as decent for Rafael to say he would like to resurrect the MLK Day of Service you began as it would have been if Betsy Wise had said she wanted to elevate the efforts of some of our neighbors to identify a "brand" for the Village. But neither of them works that way, and neither does their puppet mistress. We would have had to rely on a sense of respect and proportion, and none of these people has that. It's the same thing as watching a bare skeleton Commission try to push through very significant structural changes to the way the Village operates, over strong and overwhelming objection from all of us.
As to the answer to your question about the date Rafael chose, I doubt the date he chose matters. I doubt it matters whether or not Rafael or anyone else performs a "random act of kindness." I think the whole purpose was for Rafael to post on Nextdoor when he did, to show his positive spirits. According to the rules of Nextdoor, politicking is not permitted, but I think that's precisely what Rafael did. Rafael's mentors have no use for rules or propriety, and as I said, Rafael seems to be learning as fast as he said he would.
As it turns out, I was incomplete regarding my description of the Village's communication problem. One thing I forgot to mention is that the current and immediately preceding Commissions have not applied only a one way approach to dealing with our problem. As true as it is that the current/recent Commissions and Village government/management have limited as much as possible communication from themselves to non-Commissioner Village residents, our government has been just as vigilant about doing what it can to limit and make impotent communication from non-Commissioner Village residents to the Regime itself. Ignoring communications and parts of communications that get through (that are sent by e-mail, or that occur within a tightly monitored three minute public comment opportunity) is one approach the Regime has used, but it also works to block and/or neutralize communications that are attempted. Fair is fair. The Regime doesn't want to hear from us, and we shouldn't expect to hear from it.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, it appears there has been an explosion of unusual communication in the Village, and especially within Village government. There has consistently been every indication that Commissioners communicate freely among themselves, even in ways that are prohibited by the state of Florida. And at least one Commissioner, Tracy Truppman, seems to spend a noteworthy proportion of her waking hours communicating superfluously with the Village attorney, whom Tracy pays with our money to listen to her and figure out ways to excuse her.
It seems to be famine or feast when it comes to communication in Biscayne Park.
Rafael Ciordia has been perfecting the approach of ignoring all Village residents except Tracy Truppman. He even "campaigns" without giving any obvious evidence of communicating with anyone. And his reliance on Tracy suggests he's also getting very good at learning to value communications that don't run the risk of exposure to the "Sun[shine]."
I just had a funny thought. Some posts ago, I challenged Rafael to tell us what he thought of three things that would come up for a vote. He responded about one of them. It was the magistrate Ordinance, and he said, in a comment in this blog, that based on what he now knows, he would vote against it (and Tracy Truppman and Will Tudor) when it gets back on the agenda. I wonder if some little bird will whisper in Rafael's ear, to let him know some things he didn't know about this matter, when he said that based on what he knew a couple of weeks ago, he'd vote against it. Even the birds can be part of BP communicating.