Mac Kennedy Doesn't Understand That the "Problem" is the Solution. And Then, There's All That Song and Dance.

Last night, Mac sent out an e-mail.  I'm sure his circulation is more extensive than mine is, so I have no doubt you've seen it.  He calls his e-mail "BP Election: Mac's Endorsements."

Mac has no trouble explaining why the incumbents should not be re-elected, and I completely agree with him.  He says more than once that he's "pulling no punches."

Mac wants "three fresh voices" to join him and Art Gonzalez.  Mac is diplomatic here, and he doesn't bother to mention that Art has no more meaning on the Commission than do the one Commissioner who isn't running for re-election, or the two incumbents for whom he hopes we don't vote.  And Mac is stuck with Art for two more years, so what's the point in complaining?  He can't do anything about the seat Art keeps somewhat warm.

Mac says he's "tired of pulling [his] own weight and that of three [it's four] other Commissioners  who either can't or won't contribute."

He wants "young, strong backs on the team," because although Mac at 61 is one of the youngest of the current Commissioners, if he gets his way, he'll be the oldest (most senior, if you will).

Mac goes on to say "we now have a highly competent manager who cares but who needs to be held accountable, and we have many projects in the works."

I'm not publishing this post simply to republish what Mac sent, and what you've probably already seen.  I want us to pay attention to what Mac is saying, and what we should take it to mean.  And I won't pull punches, either.  Oh, wait a minute.  I never pull punches.  Well, I still won't.

As far as I know, Mac recruited all of the current candidates, except maybe Jonathan Groth.  Or maybe Mac recruited him, too.  So it could be imagined that Mac isn't looking for "fresh voices" at all.  He's looking for people he can more effectively lead.  I have said before, and I will say again, Mac is doing a wonderful job for the Village, and on the Commission.  Without him, we would continue to flounder.  But Mac doesn't truck other voices.  I like Mac.  I consider him my friend.  I've lived here considerably longer than Mac has, and I, like Mac, was a Commissioner for three years.  Do you want to know if Mac listens to what I tell him?  He's sure there's a right way, and he knows what it is, and he has little patience for people who see things differently.

And if Mac thinks the manager needs to be "held accountable," why doesn't he hold him accountable?

But that's not what I mostly wanted to address about Mac's e-blast.  Mac thinks BP is in line for a "much-needed kick in the ass," and he particularly notes that our "Oasis in the Heart of Miami," as Mac likes to call us, is dominated or overwhelmed by much larger and better-endowed municipalities: "NoMi, the Shores, and elsewhere."  And that's just the point.  We're not NoMi, the Shores, or elsewhere.  We never will be.  We don't have to be.  We all moved here because we're not NoMi, the Shores, or elsewhere.  We're BP.  That's not a problem.  It's an asset.  That's why we all chose it.  Sure, we have to do something about drainage and the streets, and if the current manager really is working on that, then good.  That's what he should be doing.  But in the meantime, we're a quiet little burg, with one main street, and too much speeding and too many accidents, and a history of "Don't Even Think About Speeding" signs, which we thought maybe we didn't need any more, and we have to celebrate and protect what we have.  Nobody has medians the way we do.  And we leave them fallow and awful-looking.  We're our own worst enemy.  We tried for a short time to class ourselves up with public art (three Village-owned sculptures, and a mural), and we could do more of that.

Do you know the broken window theory of municipal management, and crime reduction?  I think this came from Detroit.  Someone realized that while buildings and other functions were deteriorating, it was the eventual appearance of broken windows here and there that opened the floodgates for crime.  Once people saw that level of disregard, and lack of self-respect and maintenance, they came to feel that the city was in open season.  Likewise, we can talk all we want about the Codes we (and our manager) don't enforce, and even 6th Avenue that we don't patrol, but when people see how little we care about ourselves, as evidenced by our medians, they get the message.  Speed limits?  Yeah, so?  Look what kind of a dump these people are content to live in.  Once we get more serious about our greatest asset (and apply for grants to redirect water, and improve drainage, and fix the streets), people with more ambition for their living spaces will want to live here, and the whole tenor of the place will improve.

As for Mac's "Endorsements," he sort of didn't make any.  He hopes you won't vote for the incumbents -- people of rock solid proven disinterest and inability -- but there are four other candidates, and he likes them all.  He placed one at the top (and I agree with him about Jonathan Groth), but he left all three of the others sounding like equal recommendations.  But we're only going to get three Commissioners on November 8 -- three new ones, I hope -- so we can't agree to elect four.  There's no such thing as an alternate.  If it's true, as I think it is, that Mac recruited all of these people, then maybe he thinks he can't have recruited someone, then direct us away from voting for them.  But that has to be Mac's problem, not our problem.  Do you want to know if I told Mac many times to recruit or promote only three people, and not four or more?

So Mac's e-blast is a little unhelpful, or at least incomplete.  He said he wasn't going to pull any punches, and then, he pulled punches.  He thinks the manager needs to be held to account, but he won't hold him to account.  He's promoted more candidates than we're allowed to elect, and his "Endorsement" doesn't narrow the field.  You've got your own work cut out for you.  You yourselves can't hold the manager to account, and you have a Commission that won't do it, either.  You're going to have to figure out for which three candidates to vote.  Even if you take Mac's and my advice, and don't vote for the incumbents, you're going to have to set aside one of the other four people.  As of today, October 17, 15 days after I got back to town, I have still not had a visit from even one of these candidates, nor found even so much as a door tag flyer from any of them.  So they're not campaigning.  Even the candidates aren't helping us.