End of the year giveaway
By Alvaro F. Fernandez
End of the year is upon us. I would like my last column of 2003 to be of high spirits and of all the good things we can expect in 2004. Even with a glass of Spanish Rioja by my side as I write, it is difficult to end with a note of cheer. But I will try…
Miami’s baseball stadium
Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas insists on giving away hard earned tax dollars on another stadium so that another billionaire sports team owners can get richer.
He wants us, one of the poorest areas in the country, to finance a stadium for the Florida Marlins. Another palace that excludes the majority of our residents.
For any doubters, check out the financial return to cities who have invested on new stadiums around the country. It’s a losing proposition. It’s like Overtown (a poor neighborhood in Miami) residents financing and paying a multi-million dollar home for a very rich person. And then not even being allowed to enter it. Unless he or she pays (again) to enter his own home. It’s double taxation.
The good news: we may get to vote down public financing of the stadium. That is, of course, if the county commissioners demonstrate less conflict of interest (something many are quite well known for) then the Mayor and vote down the idea. This may be difficult, especially after hearing one of our brightest political light bulbs, Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, tell The Miami Herald that he understood that the majority of the people in Miami were in favor of the stadium.
Brunito forgot to include that if the stadium is built, it would fall in his county district. So, in other words, Barreiro and Penelas would reap benefits from a half billion dollar project.
Now, knowing how things work in Miami, ask yourself: Would the economic trickle down theory espoused by former President Ronald Reagan shower these two politicians (and the special interests that surround them) with any rainy day money?
Speaking of giveaways…
After a successful FTAA meeting here in Miami during this past November… well, that’s what part of a divided community is saying.
Successful, yes, if you believe in police states and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz’ now nationally coined “Miami model” for national security. A model that re-writes our Constitution and allows out of control police personnel to clobber, bang over the head, tear gas, and shoot with very painful rubber bullets, any person walking on the street that they (the cops) consider a possible extremist, anarchist, troublemaker, or out-of-towner for that matter. Determining factor is the policeman’s interpretation: In other words, any young man with a pony tail… clobber the SOB, he’s probably an anarchist. A Black man or woman… you can’t trust ‘these people.’ So, might as well shoot them with a rubber bullet.
The sad part is that even the elderly, many who were simply protesting the realities of the FTAA, ended up arrested and thrown in jail.
Well, at least they were not shot with real bullets…
But true to the Miami spirit, I recently read that Jorge Arrizurieta, executive director of the group that brought us the FTAA, is negotiating with the City of Miami to get land and a brand new building (free of charge) were the Secretariat would be housed. Again, the possibility exists that the poorest city in the country will build a structure for free, worth millions of dollars, for brokers of multi-billion dollar, exploitative, transnational corporations. Throw in no taxes to sweeten the deal.
Have I missed something, or does Miami have a secret slush fund that will build you buildings for free?
But seriously, the positive in all of this is national organizations like the AFL-CIO, the largest coalition of unions in the country, and whose big toes were stepped on during the FTAA demonstrations, are taking a stand. They’ve proposed to fight against Mayor Manny’s “Miami Model.”
As tough and scary as some of these Miami cops may appear, I’d love to see them square off against some Pittsburgh steel worker or New York construction laborer in a street fight, minus the rubber bullets and the Nazi gear donned by our finest during the FTAA fiasco.
My money is on the guys with the beer bellies; not the ones in tight-fitting blue and brown uniforms filled by steroid-enhanced muscles.
But like I said, I wanted my last column for the year to be a positive one. So, I wish you all a great holiday season with family and friends. And a happy New Year.
We will be back January 8th.
