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.
