Better Government Association

Megaplan debate

July 17, 2008

There is no doubt that we need a new stadium if the Florida Marlins are to be viable for the next 20 years. But it's ridiculous to put the stadium in Little Havana. There is no direct public transportation to the area other than a few buses.

Leaders had a beautiful opportunity to put the new stadium in the Bayfront Park/Bayside area near AmericanAirlines and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. There is ample public transportation that would drop people near the stadium, which could have been part of a grand showcase for the new downtown Miami.

But no, the powers-that-be stick it in a rundown neighborhood where no one wants to go. Will folks in North Miami-Dade and Broward County travel to Little Havana? I doubt it.

Norman Braman has it right. If public funds are to finance the venture, then the public should be allowed to vote on it. We all have had enough of wayward government spending. We'll have but one shot to do this right. Let us not waste it.

PAUL BOURJAILY, Palmetto Bay

Norman Braman is right to question the use of tax-increment dollars to build enormously expensive projects without a referendum. He is raising questions average voters cannot. The only alternative that our governments have given us, beside elections, is court, which is costly.

I hope that after this episode of secret dealings is behind us, Braman and other pillars of the community will join with community groups to establish a permanent watchdog group that can put legal pressure on elected leaders if they try similar actions in the future.

Chicago has the Better Government Association, www.bettergov.org. A similar organization is long overdue in Miami and Miami-Dade County.

STEVE HAGEN, Miami

I can see both sides of the Miami megaplan issue fairly. The situation is a double-edged sword: On one side we need something to elevate Miami into a world-class city. That will cost a lot of time and money.

On the other side, based on track records, we cannot trust government to oversee this project because of backroom deals, crooked politicians and greedy developers. Does anyone else find this situation really sad?

MIMI M. MILLER, Miami

Chaos on I-95

The first phase of the toll lanes on I-95 have only one entrance and exit. Therefore, any driver who wants to exit in between can't use them; neither can drivers entering I-95 in between. How does this relieve congestion if only a select few can use the special lanes?

I was unfortunate enough to be driving north on I-95 recently and just happened to be in the ''local'' lanes. Several drivers cut me off as they entered I-95 trying to get all the way over to the HOV lane, which no longer exists. There has to be a better way than this.

LAURA LEVI, North Miami Beach

Anyone doubting government's ineptitude in dealing with even the most rudimentary problem need look no further than the ridiculous HOT-lane project on I-95. So far, it has endangered the public it was supposed to serve and, when completed, the Byzantine toll will confound even the most astute motorists.

Is this the progress that government promises?

DAVE CARLSON, Miami Beach

School Board antics

I watched Tuesday's Miami-Dade County School Board meeting. I was amazed and quite entertained by some of these elected officials. Two women on the School Board reminded me of little schoolgirls bent on digging up negative information on a classmate.

Both seemed to crave the spotlight, no matter how trivial the issue. In light of their divisive actions, no wonder the board can't come to a reasonable and timely resolution of the district's budget issues.

YVETTE GRAHAM, Miami

Pay teachers fairly

Re the July 12 Other Views article The high price of breaking a contract by Karen Aronowitz, president of the United Teachers of Dade: Unions came into being because employers exploit workers. Historically, teachers have been expected to subsidize school systems with long hours and no overtime, teaching a large number of classes and students, doing extracurricular duties and paying for supplies out of their pockets.

That is why labor unions came to the school systems. A school system could not afford the cost of paying teachers their true value. But that is no excuse for Miami-Dade County Public Schools to continue to try to balance its budget on the backs of teachers and break the contract they signed three years ago. Teachers who have to balance their own budgets already need a second job. What kind of chaos would ensue if teachers walked out of classrooms at the exact time their current pay covers to go to their second jobs? It might become necessary for those in the ivory tower making six-figure incomes to experience what it's like in the trenches. I wonder how many of those employees have been asked to give up a few dollars of their pay to help balance the budget?

JULIA DURGO, Hialeah

VP Obama?

Now that Barack Obama turned so much to the right, woudn't it be smart of John Mc Cain to make him his running mate? This way he could get all the conservatives back.

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