"Great Day In the Morning!" Or Great Scott.

To paraphrase Richard Nixon, we won't have WastePro to kick around any more.  Nope, now it's going to be Great Waste and Recycling Service.  (It's still not clear what the "recycling" bit is about, but there's probably no point in going there.)

Mario Diaz was proud to announce that on June 10, the Commission approved his recommendation to switch solid waste contractors.  (New managers love to change things.  It's how they make their mark.  They view it as innovation and improvement, not disruption.  One thing they normally love to change is police chiefs, but since Mario and our police chief were already BFFs, Mario wasn't going to change that.)  This will involve new bins and other equipment, for which I assume we will be asked to pay, and it will result in garbage trucks on Village roads four days a week.  We started out with trucks on the roads five days a week when we ran the program ourselves, we got it down to three with WastePro, and now, we're up to four.

The flyer from Mario doesn't specify if the new equipment and containers means we now have automated service, which some Village residents very much didn't want, but if I had to guess, I'd say it does.  And I'm not complaining, because I don't really care how they get rid of the garbage, and how "quaint" is the process.

Here's your new schedule (you already know this, because you got the same flyer I did): if you live on 9th Avenue or west, you have garbage pickup on Monday and Thursday, yard waste on Monday, and recycling on Friday.  If you live east of 9th Avenue, you have garbage pickup on Tuesday and Friday, yard waste on Tuesday, and recycling on Friday.  Everyone's recycling day is Friday, and there will be no garbage trucks on Village roads on Wednesday.  For now.  So we're told.

The flyer did not say anything about cost, so I don't know if we'll now be paying less, the same, or more.

The other possible approach I could have used in choosing a title for this post was "Meet the new boss: same as the old boss."  Remains to be seen.

"Juneteenth"

Tomorrow is June 19.  This date is verbally contracted, in a cute little device, to "Juneteenth."  June 19 is the date in 1864 or 1865 when the last of the slaves were freed.  Black Americans -- African Americans -- informally celebrate it as what feels to them like the real marker of emancipation day, or independence day.  As of this year, the day will be made a federal holiday, now that it's about 150 years later.

And there's some resistance to the idea that Juneteenth should be dedicated this way.  For the purpose, and benefit, of this discussion, I'm going to set aside what group of people are moved to resist this dedication.

The fact is that we here in the United States already have an "Independence Day."  It's July 4.  "We" were all subjects of the British crown, until many of "us" no longer wanted to be, and we felt mistreated and unappreciated.  We suffered indignities like "taxation without representation."  We thought that was unfair, and it occurred to us that since we were here, doing all the "heavy lifting," we shouldn't have to take orders from, and diminish ourselves in fealty to, the British crown.  Even though we all started out as Britons ourselves, and all we wanted was a little more liberty.  Specifically, we didn't want the British crown imposing its religious approaches on us, since we didn't happen to share the crown's religious approach.  We wanted the liberty to choose our own religious approach, or maybe none.  So we chose, accepting all the risks, to come here.

Not all of us were dissatisfied with being subjects of the crown.  But most of us were.  So we fought for our independence, won it, cemented our victory in 1812, and have never looked back.  We're now very close allies with Great Britain, we've made whatever accomplishments we wanted to make, and we're much appreciated -- even adored, and very highly esteemed -- by our old masters.  Neither we nor they would have it any other way, and certainly not the way it was.  The fact is that if any Brits were here on July 4, they'd not only get it, and appreciate it, but they'd probably enjoy the celebration with us.

And after that, we as a country have invited other unhappy people to come here and be free with us.  It's true we've been a little selective, and sometimes grudging, about the invitation, but we mostly keep stirring the "melting pot."

In fact, everyone who's in this country came here looking for freedom and a better life.  Everyone, that is, except the people who were already here, and whom we have horribly manhandled, and except the Africans.  They didn't choose to come here, looking for a better life and freedom.  They already had a better life and freedom.  We just kidnapped them, forced them to come here, gave them a worse life, and took away their freedom.  We also took away their dignity, their sense of family, and generally any idea most of them had that there was any possibility for them here.  Their most glaring opportunity here was to be mistreated.  This opportunity was partially regionally accentuated, but parts of it were nationwide (like their opportunity to be subjected to laws, but not to be allowed to vote for the people who made the laws), until the biggest push to end the mistreatment of them, which was represented by the Civil War.  And they weren't mistreated by "us" the way "we" were mistreated by the British.  Oh, no, they were treated vastly worse than that.  In fact, "we" continued to mistreat them even after "Juneteenth," when they were "freed," and we continue generally to mistreat them today.  The way "we" were treated by the British, leading to the American War of Independence, was not nearly as bad as African Americans are treated even today, 150 years after "Juneteenth."  And when they complain about the continued mistreatment, with the civil rights movement, or "Black Lives Matter" movement, some of us punish them for being disruptive.  And ungrateful.  They are disadvantaged more or less at every turn, and we expect them to...know their place.  We don't whip them or lynch them with abandon, as some of us did in the past, but some of us still shoot them on sight, or otherwise execute them, when they have have often done little or nothing wrong.  (And certainly not enough to deserve summary assassination.)  They're given the message that they shouldn't complain about that, either, because the people who shoot them or otherwise execute them are designated as protectors.  Not their protectors, of course, but supposedly someone's protectors.

It's sad, and unfortunate, to say that we still have a very long way to go in this country.  A recent Executive initiative to make special loans available to black farmers was met with derision from some who proposed that caucasian farmers were thus disadvantaged, and who conveniently forgot, or simply didn't know, that loans made available to farmers a few decades ago were selectively withheld from black farmers.

The currently amplified suggestion that school students should learn about the systematic suppression and abuse of black people, who were critical to many of this country's accomplishments, is also getting a lot of resistance.  The Germans very clearly understand what they did wrong.  They have apologized.  They paid reparations.  They can't undo it, but they can not do it again.  What's wrong with us?

There are a lot of things black people in this country could very properly want, and demand.  They are very much owed.  If one thing that would make them feel very slightly better at the moment is their own independence day, we should declare the one they want, without question and without thought.  And with humility and our own embarrassment, for putting them in such a position in the first place.  Let that be a very tiny gesture, and a miniscule part of our effort to rebuild with them all that we have spent such a long time destroying.  We can't undo what we did any more than the Germans could.  But if we understand what we did wrong, apologize, and stop doing it, it's the best we can do.  For the sake of declaring a position, I, for one, am not in favor of paying reparations.  First, there's not enough we could pay anyone for the damage we did.  Second, if we chose some number, like $1B, or $100M, or $10M, or even just $1M per black person in this country, it would be too much to handle, and they would only lose it, like most people who get too much money they can't handle, like lottery winners, athletes and others.  The best we can do is re-provide what we took away, and finally get out of the way.  They can make their own way, if we let them.

Happy Juneteenth.

We're All In This Together.

I was re-reading a comment from Chuck Ross in the "Some People Are Takers, And Some People Are Givers" post, and it got me thinking a little more broadly about BP.

Chuck and I agree that Giuliano Carrafelli is a giver.  (Giuliano himself says he is.)  Chuck thinks I'm a giver.  (I agree with him.)  Chuck and Roxy are magnificent givers.  (I assume that Chuck and Roxy know this about themselves, and would agree.)

In the comment section of the "The Scarlett O'Hara Approach" post, I got into an argument with Dan Keys.  In that argument, I pointed out to Dan that any success he's had in the Village has been totally dependent on the giving nature of some of his neighbors, who never fail to respond to his proposals.  We're out there, picks and shovels in hand, letting him boss us around.  We do it in solidarity with Dan, and because we all want a better Village.  So if Dan hatches some scheme to landscape some corner or something, we help out.

And none of us is in this for glory.  Giuliano just likes being a giver, and he wants people to be happy, and to enjoy their meals.  Chuck and Roxy just like things to be as good as they can be, and they give of themselves to make that happen.  I'm like Chuck and Roxy.  And for whatever reasons, all four of us shy away from attention for what we do.  It's not about us.  It's about things being good, and our abilities to contribute to making them that way.

(And I'll tell you who else is a giver around here.  Linda Dillon works at Village Hall.  Do you know how much she gets paid?  Nothing.  She volunteers, but the quality of what she does is equal to anyone who gets paid to work for the Village.  And Rosemary Wais has always been a wonderful hostess for Village events.  She used to make coffee and provide desserts.  It was like pulling teeth to get her to accept $1-$2 from me, and to adopt the idea of a tip jar.  And the vast majority of Village residents who are on boards simply want to help out, and work cooperatively with their board colleagues and with the Village.  For no pay and no glory.  It's just dedication.)

And we're not the only ones in the Village who makes themselves available to help out.  I myself, in partnership with Chuck, spearheaded three campaigns to acquire public art for the Village.  Increasing numbers of our/your neighbors contributed their own money for these acquisitions.   The contributions were as little as $10-$20 in some cases to as high has hundreds of dollars in other cases.  For Chuck/Roxy and me, the contributions were over $1000.

The Foundation has done some projects over the years.  It put on the "Food and Tunes" evenings, bought some pathway lights for the recreation center, and arranged other events.  And do you know whose money it used?  Yours.  The Foundation functions on donations.  Many of you made them.  You should continue to do that.  You know whose Village the Foundation enhances, right?  And even so, you never made a charitable donation to some organization that doesn't directly serve you?

Let me put it to you this way.  Let's say that you personally believe that there's such a thing as "god."  And let's say that as part of your belief that there's such a thing as "god," you imagine that after you die (which I promise you will), you or your soul or however anyone imagines this works will be presented to "heaven."  So "god," or "St Peter," or whoever is on duty, greets you at the pearly gates.  What conversation do you imagine you're going to have?  Do you think that whoever is on duty is going to ask you if you followed the rules?  Which rules?  The OT rules, the NT rules, the Qur'an rules, or some other rules?  (Spoiler alert: no one follows all the rules.  No one can, and no one wants to.)  No, they're not going to care about that.  What they want to know is if you're a good person.  (Second spoiler alert: they don't need you to be good to them.  They're in complete charge, they've got the power market cornered, and there's nothing you can do for them that they can't do for themselves.)  No, they want to know if you were good to everyone, and everything, else.  (I'm revealing some critically important trade secrets here, and you can't ask me how I know.  I'm not allowed to say.)

Do you know that old saw about leaving things better than you found them?  Do that here.  Do it everywhere.

Go eat at Ricky Thai.  Give your business to someone else, if you like other food, too.  If Dan Keys hatches some new scheme to landscape something or other, help him out.  If I show you a photograph of some sculpture I'd like us to buy for the Village, donate toward it, even if you don't personally think it's the greatest sculpture you've ever seen.  Give the Foundation some money.  $20 will be great.  It's best if you do that every year.  Join a board.  Pick out charities that mean something special to you, and slide them a little something.  Do you listen to WLRN or WDNA?  They need you.  And not that much of you.

We're all in this together.

"We're Just Haggling Over the Price."

I think you know this joke, but on the off chance you don't, I'm going to tell it to you.  A well-dressed and distinguished-looking man walks into a bar, and he sees a gorgeous woman at the drinks counter.  He approaches her, takes a good look ("up and down"), and asks her if she'd be willing to have sex with him for $1M.  She takes the same look back at him, and says she would.  He then asks her if she'd be willing to have sex with him for $20.  She's taken aback, and glares at him, asking self-righteously "what kind of woman do you think I am?!"  He replies, "oh, we've already established that.  We're just haggling over the price."

There's frankly a population of people in this country who resist getting vaccinated against the coronavirus.  And they have all kinds of excuses, sometimes reducing to the frankly psychotic, like that the vaccine is a government plot to inject into them liquified "chips" by which they can be tracked.  Or some nonsense.

The coronavirus has been a huge and disruptive, not to mention destructive, worldwide problem, and most of the world is doing what it can to contain this pandemic.  We've relied on isolation, social distancing, and wearing even nothing more complicated than cloth masks.  But finally, there was the development of vaccines.  To date, there are about four of them.  And they're mostly very effective, except for the people who tell themselves they can construct reasons not to take these vaccines.  These people represent some danger to everyone else, and they represent a considerable danger to themselves.

In this country, focused as we are on what interests us, various jurisdictions have devised incentives for people who resisted getting vaccinated, so that they'll go forward with it.  The big prize that's come to my attention is $1M, given out on a lottery basis to the "winner" of a population of people who agreed to get themselves vaccinated.  Smaller prizes include things as mundane and unimpressive as beer.  (Do you remember when you were a kid, and your prize for visiting the dentist was a small plastic toy?  Yeah, kind of like that.  But apparently, that does it for some people.)

So the question is, if you would get vaccinated for a chance at $1M, or for some beer, why wouldn't you just get vaccinated?  Do you think you're not that kind of woman?

Getting vaccinated against the coronavirus is a really good idea.  Even if you don't care about anyone else, you should care enough about yourself to take advantage of this protection.

"Some People are Takers, and Some People are Givers."

I hope you all know who Giuliano is.  As long as I've known him, I actually don't know his last name.  He and his wife own Ricky Thai Bistro on 123rd St, less than a block west of Biscayne Boulevard.  Ricky is their son.  Their daughter is Ya-ya (sp?).  I occasionally remember Giuliano's wife's name, but I'm not sure I ever met her for real, and I usually forget what it is.  Giuliano is Italian, and his wife is Thai.  She's the head chef.  The food at Ricky Thai is magnificent Thai food.  I've had lots of Thai food in lots of (American) Thai restaurants, and this is the best.

It also used to be disturbingly inexpensive.  Chuck Ross and I used to lean on Giuliano to raise his prices, and he eventually did, a little.  It's still inexpensive, but the pricing is better than it was.  And I very recently learned, very much to my surprise, that the beef and pork in the meat dishes come from what I would classify as humanely and properly raised and fed animals.  They're pasture-raised, and that kind of thing.  But it doesn't say that anywhere on the menu.  I leaned on Giuliano again to advertise the fact.  For some people, like me, it's important to know that.  I eat food from Ricky Thai anyway, because it's terrific, and because I like Giuliano and want to be supportive, but I feel a lot better about it now.  Other people might preferentially eat from Ricky Thai, because the animals were humanely raised.  And the meat from humanely raised animals costs more than factory-farmed meat.  Giuliano should think about that when he decides about the prices of dishes he sells.

As an aside, and to add what for us is a personal touch, Giuliano and his family used to live in Broward.  But a few years ago, they moved, and they now live in BP.  Giuliano told me several of the herbs his wife uses are grown in their own home garden.  Today, they have papaya trees in the front yard, and it's my guess that it's from those papaya trees that they get the green papayas for the green papaya salad.  (Which is spectacular.  If you can handle heat, ask for it medium or hotter.  It will make you very happy.)

Anyway, Ricky Thai had trouble last year the same way everyone had trouble last year.  But they've re-opened for take-out only.  Unfortunately, Giuliano was just on the verge of expanding into the space next door, so he could have more seating, when the coronavirus hit.  And DERM got on him about some unclear nonsense that appears likely to cost him three parking spaces.  And a certain amount of money.  It's a mess.

But once I realized Ricky Thai was open, I decided to get dinner from them once a week, to contribute to their welfare.  And of course, the fact that I love the food cannot be overlooked.  But I never used to go there, or anywhere, once a week.  This was for Ricky Thai: for Giuliano and his family.

Giuliano has been running an ongoing promotion.  He has four bottles of wine, and one bottle of Thai beer, in the window, and patrons can buy two for the price of one.  This is a little nuts, because the price of one of the bottles of wine is already a good deal, and getting two for the same price feels like theft.  But I do like wine, and if this works for Giuliano, then it's OK with me.  I just leave a bigger tip in the tip jar when I get wine.

I was at Ricky Thai last night.  I had had the Pinot Grigio (excellent), and I was curious about the Sauvignon Blanc.  For example, was it dry?  I prefer dry wine.  Well, Giuliano said it's fruity and not terribly dry, but...  Giuliano told me to take a bottle to try out.  It was a gift.  Giuliano does this.  He's done the same thing to Chuck.  He just gives away things like bottles of wine.  And when I protested (I'll pay for it!), he also threw in a bottle of Pinot Grigio, even though I told him I already have two in my refrigerator.  So I went in for food, asked a question about a bottle of wine, and wound up with two bottles of wine, too.  On the house.  And Giuliano tried (unsuccessfully) to block me from leaving $20 in the tip jar.  You know, like it wasn't necessary.  (By the way, my choice last night at dinner was the Sauvignon Blanc, since I was curious about it.  I agree it's not as wonderful as the Pinot Grigio, but it's definitely very good.  And if two of those for $25 total doesn't make you feel self-conscious, nothing will.  I have the same problem with my car.  I found out they have superchargers at Aventura mall, and I don't have to pay.  Ever.  That was the deal when I bought my car.  So in 30 minutes, I get a full charge for "free."  Well...it was an inducement to buy the car when I did, in 2016.  And this is what I do about twice a week.  I go "shopping," which I call shoplifting, at the mall.  And I still feel weird about it.)

Anyway, Giuliano and I were sort of saying goodbye for the evening, and talking about this little extra "transaction," when Giuliano explained that "some people are takers, and some people are givers," and he's a giver.  I suppose it's a good arrangement.  So am I.  And it makes both of us feel good about ourselves and about our place in the world.

The Scarlett O'Hara Approach

You know what I mean, right?  "I'll think about it tomorrow?"  (If then.)

We live in a place that's nicer than some places, but not as nice as it could and should be.  And it appears we wouldn't have it any other way.

We can't practicably have sidewalks or wide streets, but there are things we could do.  We could insist upon adherence to the Codes, like the ones controlling outward appearance of properties, and we could strengthen those Codes.  We could.  But we don't.

We could resolve to make something that's not embarrassing out of our medians.  We could.  But we don't.  No Parks and Parkways Board and no Commission ever wanted to address our embarrassing and dysfunctional median problem.

We could address our considerable, and worsening, drainage problem.  We even hired a consultant to tell us how bad it is, and what we should do about it.  And that consultation was the end of that project.  The consultation wasn't free, either.  But we treated it as if it was valueless.

We finally passed an Ordinance doing something simple, that everyone else does: we require all dogs outside to be on leashes.  Yay for us.

Several years ago, we outsourced sanitation, to save ourselves money, and keep trucks off the roads more of the time.  That was a good thing, especially considering how narrow are our roads.  And within a very short space of time then, we also managed a major renovation of the log cabin (double yay), and we constructed for ourselves a proper work environment, which is the administration building.  Yeah, we did that.  Amidst lots of complaint.

When I drive through the Village, it's nerve-wrackingly common that there are pedestrians, sometimes with young children in strollers, walking with their backs to me in the same side of the street where I'm driving.  They do drive, right?  They know the rules of the road?  They know that walking against traffic, so you can see cars coming, is both safe and legal, and doing what they're doing is neither?  They know that, right?  Don't they care, either about themselves or about the drivers?

And never mind the people who apparently simply refuse to lock their car doors, then complain when someone opens the door and takes something.

And then, there are the past five years.  The Foundation had a plan.  They were going to have the walkway to the newly and very expensively renovated log cabin classed up.  They were going to "sell" bricks, which would be inscribed, and make a nice walkway.  Not the dead-leaves-and-dirt walkway that's there now.  A nice one.  But Tracy Truppman put an abrupt end to that project for as long as she hung desperately onto her office.  (I'm setting aside all the other damage she and her stooges did to the Village over about three years.)  And once she was gone, no one else -- no other Commission -- moved forward, either.  We (the Foundation) had sold a few bricks by then.  $1700 worth of them.  You pave that walkway with bricks, and display some of them with inscriptions for which people paid, and you'll see many more people who want their names in brick, too.  But no.  Nothing.  And there was a series of excuses why not.  Now that I'm back on the Foundation -- I'm the alternate -- I was tasked with working this out with our new manager, Mario Diaz.  I don't think he's slow as molasses, so maybe he's busy.  But I kept getting put off.  The fact of the matter is that one purchaser of a brick was the Camaras.  They moved away a few years ago.  I was the big purchaser, and I bought $900 worth (four large ones) of them.  Each one was inscribed differently.  One was inscribed in gratitude to the Rosses.  They, too, have moved away.  So I told Mario that I wanted this project substantially under way that particular week, which was about two weeks ago, or I was taking back my $900.  (Well, $800 of it.  I'd leave $100 on the table for a small paver.) I offered to help.  I said I'd work with the PW guys, and I'd even show up with a pick axe and shovel.  He started in with some song and dance about "ADA concerns," and that was the end of it for me.  Who knows when or if this improvement will take place.  If it depends on who cares enough, then the most likely answer seems to be never.

It's a sad thing to be so resolute about squandering our assets and possibilities.  Like it's all going to be made better if we sing Kumbaya on Earth Day, and remind ourselves that we're a "tree city," "bird sanctuary," and "oasis in the heart of Miami."  More like a mirage than an oasis.

The Stuff They Really Do Recycle

Not the "recycling."  Not the stuff we put in those recycling bins that are green, but are supposed to be blue, and tell ourselves gets recycled after WastePro drops it off somewhere or other.

I'm talking about stuff that really will get recycled.  I think.

This coming Saturday and Sunday, April 24 and 25, the BP Foundation is sponsoring a recycling event.  It will be at the recreation center, and the focus will be "electronics."  You can pack up your old computer tower/CPU, printers, laptops and tablets, your collection of old mobile phones from companies and contracts you haven't had in years, batteries, VCRs and DVD players (if you don't actually watch those old video cassettes, give them to Goodwill, and recycle the players, and I'm talking about the DVD player you replaced, because it doesn't work, not the one that does work: keep that one), cords that go to something or other you can't remember, and you don't have that appliance any more, even if you could remember, the hard drive from your old CPU, but you kept it, so you could transfer the contents to your new CPU, which you did, but now you have the old hard drive lying around, and any other stuff like that that's lying around, looking unsightly, and clogging up your living space.

You think you're still hanging on to that stuff for what reason?  Come on, it's over.  You've moved on.

And do you know what Thursday, April 22, 2021, is?  Earth Day!  Get in the spirit.  If you're pretty sure they don't really recycle the stuff you put in the green bin that's supposed to be blue, and you're faintly skeptical about what will happen to the electronics you put in the containers at the recreation center, just superimpose your best optimism.  And be glad that crap will be out of your house.  You have enough other stuff, and you actually use some of it.

The containers will be dropped off some time on Friday, and they'll be retrieved some time on Monday.  You don't need an attendant, or someone to sort this stuff for you.  You can come any time of the day Saturday or Sunday, and just dump it off yourself.  You'll feel better after you clear it out.

(If you were going to auction it on eBay for a lot of money, you would have done that a long time ago.  Really, it's just clutter.  I promise.)

TIME-SENSITIVE BP UPDATE

Hello, neighbors, as you jump into a new week in our “Oasis in the Heart of Miami.” I’m writing to make sure you’re aware of a critically important virtual resident workshop this Thursday, April 22, 6p. The outcome of this workshop will impact our village for generations, and this week is your LAST CHANCE to share your opinions. Engage now or forever hold your peace on this topic, because the door will be shut permanently in the coming weeks.

 

I’m talking about the proposed major development of 6^th Ave. for the eight blocks where it passes through BP, from 121 St. southward to 113^th St. (No other street is part of this project, so please don’t share opinions now about what you think should happen on Griffing Blvd., a county road, or our interior village-owned streets, none of which have anything to do with this topic.) The Florida Dept. of Transportation (FDOT) is proposing a major redesign of that stretch of 6^thAve. using its own money, but not to include replacing the road itself or changing it in any way (to add lanes, new bike lanes, etc.). FDOT wants to install 6ft.-wide sidewalks down both sides that extend fully 10ft. from the edge of the road into the green spaces when accounting for 4ft. of grass between the road and sidewalk. That will require the removal of a significant amount of existing landscaping and adding about 20,000 square feet of concrete in our bird sanctuary. (That’s my rough calculation, as FDOT doesn’t provide that number.) No additional trees or landscaping are included, and no barrier is planned to protect pedestrians on that sidewalk, which will be adjacent to our busiest road with the highest speed limit before you consider our ongoing speeding issue.

 

Additionally, FDOT wants to add more drains on 6^thAve., which we need, and also change out our current quaint street lights with commercial-grade lights like you see in other communities. If you aren’t clear what “regular” street lights look like, drive over the bridge towards Miami Shores and look at the street lights in front of the funeral home. That’s the light fixture (style, height, brightness) that FDOT is promising to install down the entire length of our 6^thAve. in front of the 50 homes there—more of those lights, actually—unless BP coughs up $384,000 for a more attractive option. (I don’t make unilateral decisions about how we spend our money, but I can’t imagine the day that this village will be in the position to spend that kind of cash on lights with our roads and drains in their present condition and no plan to convert this village from septic to sewers.)

 

If you haven’t been following this topic for the past year, it pretty much snuck up and bit us on the butt.The prior administration and select elected officials had been working with FDOT without notifying the rest of the commission or the community, and FDOT had been actively working with them on the project without having been given official direction by the commission. In our form of government, the commission speaks as a group in writing on such matters, not through select commissioners and staff behind the backs of the rest of us. The commission in which I served last fall pressed “pause” on the project until we could fully understand the implications and include residents in the conversation. We conducted one public workshop several months ago to see the project for the first time, and since then our outside planners have been consulting with FDOT and staff about what’s best for the village. The “pause” has now ended, and that’s why this Thursday is so important.

 

This Thursday, April 22, at 6p, our planners will update the community on the project, and the commission will listen to resident input. This is YOUR workshop, not the commission’s. We will be in listen mode as you tell us what you think. Then, at an upcoming commission meeting (possibly as early as May 4), the commission will make its final decision and deliver it to FDOT. Based on what the commission decides, the project will move forward with a two-year completion window. At that point, there’s no turning back and any changes to our village will be permanent.

 

Clearly, this is big stuff. Hence, this post on Fred’s blog today and an email I sent last night on a Sunday evening.

 

To be clear, BP does have the option of declining the project altogether, but FDOT has previously reported that we can pick and choose elements of the project that suit us and we could also request that money for one element be diverted to others (for example: sidewalk money to lighting upgrades).  This Thursday, our planners will tell us the final options from which the village must select and if FDOT’s offer has changed. (I suspect it has.) The commission needs to hear from you if you care about this project and how it will impact the village—good, bad or indifferent. If you don’t care, then you can ignore this message and the workshop. But given the implications, I hope to hear from many of you prior and to see you at the virtual meeting.

 

To be blunt, if you don’t speak out now, your opinions later won’t mean anything.

 

Feel free to reply to this email with your opinions, to share them with your other four elected commissioners, and to request that your email be read into public record if you can’t attend the virtual meeting this Thursday. Your best option of engaging is to attend, which is as simple as a click on your laptop, tablet or phone. I’ve included some important links below that make this all easy.

 

Thanks for hearing my plea that you engage in this critically important project. I want to hear all sides and all angles before I become one of the five people who will make choices that will impact our “oasis” for generations. I care enormously about this project, and I hope you do, too.

 

Link to Thursday’s workshop agenda, which includes instructions to attend by Zoom and to speak during public comment:

https://www.biscayneparkfl.gov/index.asp?SEC=A482E78D-C7CA-4E86-BD0D-AA20BD7CDAEB&DE=05CCA2DF-0113-4726-B25B-911680EB295E&Type=B_EV

 

Link to the FDOT video of the first workshop, which includes the presentation (jump to the start at 5:00):

https://youtu.be/4w2Srn-jRz8

 

Link to the static FDOT presentation without having to watch the video:

https://www.biscayneparkfl.gov/vertical/sites/%7BD1E17BCD-1E01-4F7D-84CD-7CACF5F8DDEE%7D/uploads/Public_Meeting_Presentation_443986_SR_915_NE_6_Avenue_from_NE_113_Street_to_NE_121_Street_Final.pdf

 

Link to email addresses for all five elected officials of BP: NEVER CROSS-COMMUNICATE BETWEEN ELECTED OFFICIALS, PLEASE.

https://www.biscayneparkfl.gov/index.asp?SEC=4516B002-1F29-4888-ADCE-C9AF6D27752C&Type=B_LIST

 

Stay positive. Test negative. Cheers to BP2021!

 

Mac

MacDonald Kennedy

Commissioner, Village of Biscayne Park

Cell 305.213.5139

 

Last Night: How Low Things Go, and Have Gotten, in a Different Way

Last night, there was a meeting of the BP Foundation.  We have two new members, neither of whom could be present on site, and I am now the alternate.  But since it was our first meeting with new members, I participated.

We sort of reviewed some things, and used our time to establish connections among us, and begin to develop a rhythm for future functioning.  One of the particular projects we discussed is a brick walkway to our newly and very expensively renovated log cabin.

As that renovation was under way, the Foundation (of which I was not then a part) decided to "sell" bricks which would be placed as the walkway/entrance to the building.  This proposal was presented to the then Commission (of which I was a part), and the then Commission gratefully approved it.  The bricks would of course be violently overpriced, considering what brick pavers actually cost, like if you get them from The Home Depot, and the overage would be the fundraising part of the project.  It would allow the Foundation to make money to use on some other project.  The project was established, the Commission agreed to it, and some bricks were soon enough sold.  All lights were green.  Until Tracy Truppman, et al, took office, at which point the whole project crashed.

Two excuses were given for the suspension of this project.  One was that someone had the idea that a brick path might not be historical enough for a building that had gotten a tremendous amount of state funding based on its designation as a historical site (built in the '30s, as one of very many WPA projects), and the other was that the Parks and Parkways Board suddenly decided that this was not the look they favored.  (If the entrance walkway that's there now, which is made of something like straw, dead leaves, and dirt, is their idea of preferable, then they need their heads examined.)  But none of that mattered, because the Commission already approved the Foundation's proposal of the brick path.

But in my opinion, none of that was what torpedoed this project.  It was the dominatrix, who must have seen the list of people who paid for bricks, and how much they paid, and who must have noticed that I, the antichrist, paid half of what was collected.  As of today, there are eight brick purchasers.  Six of them paid $100 each for one inscribed regular size brick paver.  (Sally Heyman, who is our County Commissioner, and who doesn't live in BP, was one of those people.)  One person paid for two $100 pavers.  I paid $900 for four of the large pavers (they're $225 each).  And that, I feel completely sure, is what got that project canceled, or perhaps suspended.  The Foundation has reminded Big Mama's boy about this project, and they have reminded the managers since then about it.  But Big Mama was nothing but vengeful and destructive, and her successors (the majority of them) are completely disinterested in...anything.  And so have been the managers since Sharon Ragoonan.  Until... maybe... we'll see... now.  I am now tasked with reminding our new manager about this project, to get it moving.  And I have a strategy.  I'm going to tell him the idea for the project was hatched, the then Commission agreed, bricks have been sold, and we want this brick placement to begin NOW.  And if it doesn't begin now, then I want my money back.  The fact is that one couple who spent $100 for an inscribed paver don't even live in BP any more.  They moved.  And of the four pavers I bought, one was inscribed with some language about gratitude to the Rosses.  They don't live here any more, either.  There's some old saying about getting off a pot, but I don't remember what it is.  There's another one about closing a barn door, but I don't remember that one, either.

As the meeting ended, someone said something about "seeing you tomorrow."  That's today.  Today?  What's going on today?  So when I got home, I checked the Village calendar, and there is, in fact, a special Commission meeting today.  It's about one thing: a variance request.  I'm busy tonight, and I'm not tuning in to any Village meeting, but I read through the documentation about this meeting.  I'll spare you the details, but for me, the variance request is slightly infuriating.  So I decided to give my opinion, and the reasons for it, to the Commission.  But the only way it made any sense to address the e-mail I sent was to Mac Kennedy and Art Gonzalez.  The other three, who are the majority, couldn't care less about anything, certainly including the opinion and reasoning of someone like me, and it wasn't worth it even to pretend to try to communicate with them.

I'm not sure if we can work our way out of what we did to ourselves at the end of 2016.  Even efforts we think we have reason to think will be successful (the continued presence of Dan Samaria, and electing Ginny O'Halpin) backfire.  But we should want to try.  We live here, and it does, or should, make a difference to us whether this is a nice place or a dump.

How Dumb Does Dumbing Down Go?

I don't know what Mr Diraimondo's first name is.  He uses Luigi, Louis, and Louie.  I don't know the correct spelling of his last name.  Having learned some Italian years ago, I would have thought Di Raimondo, or at least DiRaimondo.  But he spells it Diraimondo.  I already know he can't read and he can't write, so maybe he can't spell, either.  Even his own name.

Whatever his name is has had a very bad effect on discourse around here.  I'm told he's been thrown off Nextdoor.  I can guess what for, because he's been horribly badly behaved in comments to this blog, and I thought I had an agreement with him that he would leave the blog alone, too.  I agreed not to mention him (that's what he wanted), and he agreed not to make any comments (that's what I wanted).  But he didn't keep his end of the agreement.  Maybe he's not honest, either.

Anyway, I wrote a short post that was sort of about this week's Commission meeting, and I said that Mac Kennedy reads this blog, and he would add or correct, if he was so inclined.  Well, I just got a text message from Mac this morning saying that he would indeed have commented, but he doesn't want the blowback from Mr Diraimondo.  And Mac specified that that blowback would consist of "a never-ending firestorm of inane replies and e-mails," including "five to 10 e-mails to every employee and elected official in the Village as soon as [Mac posts] something."

And I know for a fact that Mac is exactly right.  Not only do the posts I publish stimulate from Mr Diraimondo an uncontrolled succession of comments that usually have nothing at all to do with the topic of the post ("inane," just as Mac said), but I, too, also get private rants and ramblings from Mr Diraimondo, and there is commonly an additional and unexplained extension of the circulation to the kinds of people Mac referenced.

What makes all of this a bit more bizarre than it already is (it couldn't get much more bizarre) is that Mr Diraimondo is at this point more or less the only person who comments to blog posts.  Either everyone else has coincidentally lost interest, or they're all as disgusted, and given up, as is Mac.  And I don't even know Mr Diraimondo.  I remember his name from when I was campaigning last fall, so I know I was at his house, but I don't remember him personally.  I think he lives with one of his daughters, so maybe it was she who answered the door.  And he's not on my new post announcement circulation.  So I don't even know how he knows when there's a new post.  (I never knew how David Hernandez knew there was a new post, either -- and he knew instantly -- so maybe there's some other mechanism of alerting to new posts to this blog, and I just don't know about it.)

Anyway, it's gotten about as dumb as it's going to get.  The next thing that will happen, once I conclude that I'm only talking to myself (and Mr Diraimondo), is that I'll just end the blog.  If this isn't stimulating, and maybe fun, for all of us, then it has no purpose.

PS: There's no mechanism to block people from commenting here.  Normally, I would say I wouldn't block anyone, even if I could.  But at this point, it's very possible, and maybe likely, that I'd block Mr Diraimondo.  He's sort of a disease.  I got vaccinated against the coronavirus, and I might well make us all immune, or insensitive, to Mr Diraimondo.