GREEN BUFFER DESTROYED FOR NOW? DOCTORS HOSPITAL

April 20, 2024 Leave a comment

DOCTORS HOSPITAL bought its valet parking lot from the City of Coral Gable for was a very good price given the inflation of real estate prices in Coral Gables. It has now eliminated most of the green barrier between the parking lot and local residents road to apparent newly designed lot. The local residents will wait many months and year for a renovated equivalent green area in the back and side of their houses.

We all thinking about future generations, public lands should not be sold except in exceptional cases. One might imagine that In the case of Doctors Hospital they would have paid any large sum to keep and use the valet parking lot indefinitely, to the benefit of the city’s general budget.

The Brazilian Pepper plant which had overgrown the canal made up a big share of the green barrier is considered a weed by Miami-Dade, while the Australian pines in the area are considered equally bad plants but were not eliminated.

The lot was sold against the protests of local residents who stated that the sale and subsequent renovation of the lot will not benefit the residents, and will cause significant costs in reducing property values, significant local environmental impacts, including increased light pollution, loss of wildlife dependent on the green barrier, the increase in noise from the hospital, among others

The many community benefits of the green area, now lost, included:

  • Provide wildlife habitat (birds, fish, reptiles, manatees…) diversity
  • Traffic calming and noise mitigation
  • Impeding views of car traffic, valet parking, buses and ambulances
  • Impeding view of Doctors Hospital buildings
  • Mitigate Doctors Hospital lighting
  • Wind and temperature mitigation in storms and hurricanes
  • CO2 capture
  • Favor canal users’ recreational boating and fishing
  • Bolster local property values

The BEFORE and AFTER pictures are, as follows:

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The City of Coral Gables, So Much Gained and So Much Now Lost

April 11, 2014 1 Comment

In last few years the City of Coral Gables, under the leadership of a new mayor and city manager, reversed a course of incompetent administration, failed political leadership, questionable morality and ethics, and total financial mismanagement, all inherited from the Slesnick Era.  The city was left by Slesnick with no reserves, overpaid public security staff, and a huge pension debt (still not resolved after a huge effort).

A new period of transparency, cautious tax and income management, careful staffing and directed priorities has led the community to feel that the city has begun to overcome its main problems.  Smart investments have been made in the city streets because of long postponed maintenance.  Plans were made to create a new central city culture, to compete with the best in the Miami-Dade region. But there is still much to do.

Three days ago, a cabal of three city commissioners dramatically pushed the city down an uncertain road, an uncertain future, of gerry rigged budgets, surely guided by a renewed culture of personal and commercial interests and arrogance.  Nothing will be gained by the resignation of the city manager, Mr. Salerno.  He has been a tough, competent and experienced manager–just what the city needed and will need until the goals of the city can be fully achieved.

Rest assured that the profile of a new city manager that will be sought by the Cabal of Three will be one of compliance, not leadership, while the three likely push through a new budget with more spending, higher taxes, guided by priorities with quiet support of private interests.

There is only one recourse:

  • The city commissioner should immediately reject the resignation of Mr. Salerno.
  • The three city commissioners, Keon, Lago and Quesada, should resign immediately and a new election should be called to test their support among voters. 

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Accountability and Transparency in Coral Gables

March 21, 2009 Leave a comment

Even though the State of Florida has the strongest of government sunshine laws, there is a culture in the government of Coral Gables of holding back essential information from local citizens. Namely, the Federal Government is in the process of introducing a special website to follow the programs and expenditures of the multi-billion dollar Recovery Program. Why can’t the City of Coral Gables with its much smaller budget provide information on a website of investment and operating outlays and income. So far we have been getting stale information of already executed budgets or projected budgets, but not current outlays and revenues.  This would be a great contribution to citizen participation in government.

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