Bunch of Hot Air/Keeping It Real

 So yesterday saw two events that even an armchair sociologist like me noticed tells the sad tale of our two cities.

The humorous one, here in Pinecrest, involves a local law that was just passed outlawing gas powered leaf blowers. In our quiet Village, apparently the sound of those machines was enough to cause political action, and a majority of the Commission decided to ban them beginning in 2023.

Of course, all of the posters on the Village social media pages agreed it was a good idea and welcomed the quiet as well as the green cred that comes with going electric. Ha. As if. The posts were ABLAZE with residents decrying another serious loss of personal freedoms. Today we ban gas leaf blowers in Pinecrest; tomorrow we're Cuba and Venezuela. It's a slippery slope, apparently.

I personally find the damn loud things annoying on my daily walks, but wouldn't have banned them. They're used by hard working immigrant guys trying to make a living doing yard work in Miami -- in brutal weather conditions much of the year.

Typically when I walk by, the blower men turn them down, and I always motion or tell them to go right ahead -- they have jobs to do, and I'm just chatting on the phone. Now, I guess, the lawn services will have to buy new electric machines, which apparently don't work as well.

If I had to guess, litigation will ensue. Coral Gables used to ban pickup trucks parked in driveways, even when they were private vehicles and not used by contractors. The Gables lost that fight. It'll be time to get some popcorn when the one group of rich folks take on the other group.

The tragic side of our city was the shooting of Wavy Navy Pooh just west of ZooMiami. I had never heard of the young hip hop performer, but apparently he was an up and comer -- singing about guns and drugs and hos and bitches. He was stopped at a light on SW 152 Street and a Lexus pulled up next to him, and unloaded a bunch of caps. His one year old, five year old, and a baby mama were in the car, too, but fortunately unharmed.

In the keepin' it real Department, apparently Mr. Pooh was involved in several shootings himself last year - most near Liberty City where he grew up -- and this was a targeted hit over some beef with a rival hip hop group.

Oy. What a life. Here's a performer who was making real money, as hip hop is huge, and his business disagreement got settled out of court. It's a waste of a young life.

Miami Dade Police are said to be "bracing" for more to come from this -- likely during Monday, which is MLK Day. Wow. What a way to honor the great leader -- busting caps into fellow young Blacks over stupid stuff.

I was actually curious about young Mr. Pooh, and so watched an interview with him on a program called "Off the Porch" which comes from Atlanta. He was asked about his childhood in Liberty City -- and he answered that all ghetto childhoods are the same -- too much killing and selling of drugs.

The gestalt news is that murders were actually down quite a bit in Miami Dade last year -- and the ones that did occur were either domestic, or the type of thing that took down Wavy Navy Pooh. Miami hasn't been a murder capital for decades now -- I think the rate is much higher in West Palm and Tampa, and those rates are dwarfed by Chicago and Philadelphia.

So we're lucky here in Pinecrest. Our beefs are about lawn and garden care - and tend to be settled in Commission meetings and probably the Courts. That's plenty real for me.