The Bigger Picture

It's a little bit shameful that this blog focuses only on our tiny community of 18,000 when it comes to its discussion of incorporation and annexation.  But what do you expect from a blog titled "West of Aventura"?

Well, just for today, let's zoom out and get the bigger picture.  In fact it's such a big picture that I would crash the site by putting it on full size. So how about "a small picture of the big picture"?  Here it is:

This is a map that was considered by the County "Annexation and Incorporation Task Force" in 2013/14.  You can find a link to it here (it's the last item under the heading "resources" on the right side of the page).

Our area ("West of Aventura" or "WoA") is the dark blue shape way up on the top right.  You can see that shape on a larger scale in the first post in this blog (here).

Whenever the County government holds a meeting to consider the issue of new city incorporations, the chamber is usually packed with residents from WoA.  It's a little remarkable that only WoA people show up.  After all, there are lots of other colored blotches on the above map (green ones are "dissolved MACs," purple are "Inactive MACs" and blue are, like us, "completed MACs").

The salmon-pink colored patch in the above map shows areas that are currently cities (incorporated).  Those areas include 56% of the population of the county.

The remaining unincorporated area (the grey, blue, green, etc. areas on the map) hold 44% of the population.  And according to Jennifer Moon (the Director of Office of Management and Budget), the unincorporated area (also referred to as "UMSA") contributes about 27% of the county's revenues.  So 44% of the people pay just 27% of the taxes - not much to complain about for those in UMSA.

Later this month there will be public meetings held by a consultant hired by the County to consider what to do with the ENTIRE UMSA, not just our tiny piece of it (see the March 5 blog post).

As you can see in the map above, that it a pretty big assignment for the consultant (PMG Associates).  We can barely figure out to do with our tiny piece, after all.

In the bottom-left corner of the map, you can see some dissolved MACs that are sizable: West Kendall, East Kendall, Redlands, etc.  For those areas, the geographical size and population likely support formation of a city.

What about the small blotches in the top right corner, including ours?  I've never heard it proposed publicly, and I don't know if it would be popular, but it makes sense visually for Aventura to absorb not only WoA, but also the unincorporated area "west of west of Aventura" too!

In the 1990s, Aventura was allowed to 'cherry-pick' itself a small geographical parcel with so much tax revenue, it doesn't even know what to do with it - other than becoming a massive target for lawsuits, including this 2015 one from a developer, and this one where the former charter school principal was awarded $155M by a jury (last reported to be tied up in the Appeals court).

In short, the "haves" should be forced by the county to take some of the "have nots" in order to produce larger, healthier cities that possess "economies of scale" that will lead to better management and policing.  Aventura should even include Miami Gardens - putting the area's largest police force to work in the nation's 5th most dangerous suburb [source].

Given all the corruption we see in all the tiny cities in Miami Dade county, I wonder if the consultant would ever conceive of the ultimate solution: amalgamation (where the county annexes ALL the existing cities).  I suppose not: something that obvious will take a few more decades of study.

NE MAC is renewed

A March 10 meeting of the "Miami Dade Unincorporated Municipal Service Area Committee" offered a fresh opportunity for our area's residents to butt heads over the issue of incorporation.  There is a link to the March 10 webcast at http://miamidade.gov/wps/portal/Main/webcasting.  You can see all the local celebrities in the "public comment" portion of the webcast.

Appearing to appeal to the Committee to renew the NE MAC were MAC members Kenneth Friedman and Jonathan Morton, along with MAC finance committee member Alan Hecht.  Their position was basically "let the people vote" (which is only possible after the MAC first decides there is something to vote ON).

Appearing to torpedo the MAC were Brian and Alica Rook, and the usual gang of people who put those "no to incorporation" signs on their lawns.  Their position was generally "we like things the way they are, so we don't want a MAC to even put the issue to a vote."  They kind of need to address the anti-democratic aspect of their platform.

Although everyone in attendance was focused on the merits for or against incorporating, their points were largely off-topic.  The resolution being considered was not a referendum on the issue of incorporation, but rather a decision on allowing a MAC to continue its study.

Rook did have a valid point that the MAC was not representative of the full geographic spectrum of the NE study area, and that it seemed to be stacked with "pro-city" members.  But later in the meeting Commissioner Sally Heyman directly responded to that accusation by noting that she had invited Rook herself to sit on the MAC.  This was a bit of a bombshell, because taking the top "just say no" agitator, and making her a member of the MAC could be an interesting development.

Another interesting point made was "why wasn't the MAC formed after petition by 20% of the area residents?"  It seems like much of the acrimony would evaporate if the "Committee to Incorporate Northeast Dade" or "CIND" would just go out and get a petition signed.  This would give legitimacy to the MAC, albeit retroactively.

After discussion, a vote was held which appeared unanimous: allowing the MAC to continue its deliberations, but without the need to conclude its process without first reviewing the study conducted by PMG discussed earlier in this blog.  Hyman indicated this report would be delivered in JULY (so that's also news).

WoA is "For the Birds"

"West Aventura" has some things the City of Excellence doesn't.  For example, this time of year we have vultures, and not just the kind that want cheap properties.  Here are 3 bird varieties, all with approximate 6-foot wingspans, actually sighted in the past week:

This appears to be a leucistic Turkey Vulture. The typical Turkey Vulture is an all-black bird. This one (clearly a vulture given it's bald head) probably lacks the normal level of melanin, causing this very unusual color pattern.

Ospreys are pretty common in our area.  Their high-pitched calls (like "peeps") make you think it's coming from a much smaller bird, but if you search for the source, you may find one of these massive birds near the area's lakes and streams.  It is said to be the only bird able to take off vertically from water.  This one was photographed with a large bluegill fish.

Finally, a truly rare sight, hidden among all the turkey vultures circling the area was this American Bald Eagle.  Seen only once before in 15 years, this is the first successful photographing.

So it's not all raccoons and possums.  There are many varieties of herons, we have Egrets, Ibis, Kingfishers, Moorhens and Coots, Muscovy and Mallard Ducks and (very noisy) Egyptian Geese.  Still waiting to see a flamingo though.

Save the Date: County Consultant Holds Public Meetings this month

In 2013 the County formed a Task Force (the "Annexation and Incorporation Task Force" or "AITF").  Don't be ashamed to admit that you don't remember, and to refresh your memory, here is a link with all the details: http://www.miamidade.gov/incorporationandannexation/2013-task-force.asp

They held lots of meetings on the subject of "what to do with the parts of Miami-Dade County that are currently unincorporated" and delivered a well-reasoned and comprehensive final report that you can find at the above link.

What did the County do with the report?  Well, you can read the post on this blog from March 2014 (yes, it's anniversary time) here.  The short answer is that the County did nothing with the AITF recommendations.  It might have had something to do with the fact that the chairperson and one other member of the AITF had been arrested (unrelated to the AITF, but these developments rendered the AITF report "politically toxic"). 

So the County Commission kicked the can down the road by directing the Mayor to hire a university or other consultant to examine the issues, again, and deliver a report.  To me this seems like it would have been an excellent project for a University "Urban Planning" department or program, but I guess there was no interest.  In the end there were only 2 applications for the job, both private consulting companies.  The winner got a $200,000 contract to re-invent the wheel, as described in the last post.

Like the AITF, the consultant will be holding public meetings soliciting input from the community, and the public notice (for those of us that don't read the Miami Herald ... i.e. "all of us") follows.