Coral Gables Environment, Politics and Government
October 25, 2010 Leave a comment
…by comments from a real estate expert on CNBC today (sorry I missed his name). He stated that 20 percent of all house owners/mortgages are under water and another 33 percent are no more than 10 percentage points away from being under water. He also stated that this will take “many years” to overcome.
Does the city of Coral Gables imagine that rising property values and new construction will save its property tax budget in the next five years?
October 25, 2010 Leave a comment
This report provides a fundamentally accurate analyses of the failures of private and public international assistance in Haiti. The recovery of this sad country will take years, if not decades, and external help is missing many of the fundamental keys to effective help.
There is a lot to see in this appraisal and many lessons that have not be learned by those who have tried to help in Haiti over decades.
Read this, but don’t expect to find a pretty picture.
Today, the hospital stands empty, its consulting and operating rooms abandoned, its beds unused, its scanners gathering dust, its two brand new ambulances sitting under tarpaulins in the yard. On April 1, owner Reynold Savain was forced to close CDTI because neither the Haitian nor U.S. governments, nor the United Nations, would agree to help pay his bills.
via Special report: Is aid doing Haiti more harm than good? | Reuters.
October 25, 2010 Leave a comment
An outsider’s description of our political system (from top to bottom) may be hard to swallow and this description also applies to local and state governments. Take our Miami-Dade government and Coral Gables government as examples of non-functional or partially functioning governments with deep financial and management problems.
A winner-takes-all voting system where both main parties are sustained by corporate financing, the congressional districts are openly gerrymandered and 40% of the upper chamber can block anything, is never going to be a benign vehicle for radical reform. Virtually every enduring progressive development in US politics since the war has been sparked either by massive mobilisations outside of electoral politics that have forced politicians to respond, or through the courts.
October 24, 2010 Leave a comment
It is entertaining to compare the headlines of the Miami Herald and the Nuevo Herald for exactly the same article in English and Spanish.
Here is a case in point.
The Miami Herald says VICTORY FOR SCOTT, SINK IS UP TO SWING VOTE, while the El Nuevo Herald headlines the same article as ENCUESTA OTORGA VENTAJA A SCOTT SOBRE LA DEMOCRATA ALEX SINK, giving the completely erroneous impression that Scott is actually ahead of Sink. In the survey Scott is ahead with a margin of 3 points, 44-41, but the margin of error in the survey is 4.1. The two are effectively tied or Sink could be slightly ahead.
The El Nuevo Herald focuses on the lead of the Republican and the Miami Herald gives the impression of a toss up.
Coral Gables Watch 