Waste of Tax Dollars

 Ah, Pinecrest, where we live. When the founding parents led the drive to incorporate in 1996, they did so to have local control over issues, as opposed to the ponderous Miami Dade County. Still, the local government can be just as tone deaf as the County.

I know the mayor and one of the council members well. The mayor is our neighbor. We recently learned that the Commission met with a Dutch traffic engineer who suggested adding a 2 way bike lane along Ludlam Road, which runs behind our house. They've nearly completed one along Kendall Drive -- the theory is to make it easier for folks to bike to Metrorail and the Underline trail, to diminish traffic in Pinecrest. Ha. As if! Pinecrest will NEVER become more of a bicycle city -- it's too damned hot most of the year.

Apparently the Commission sort of tried to rush this through, before much opposition could be mounted. I just recently got notice about hearings taking place this week. If only I had the patience to spend hours listening to people who love the sound of their own voice, I would attend. But the patience for that is long gone.

This am on my morning constitutional, I ran into Will, whose family has  owned Book Horizons for years. He was livid about the proposal, which would removed trees that have finally given back the canopy taken away in 1992 by Hurricane Andrew. The proposal promises to "replace the canopy with native trees -- unlike ficus which aren't." Yeah -- that would mean the canopy would come back around the time our grandsons would be ready to move into our house -- after Wifey and I are long gone.

I then saw Gloria on her bike, and asked her about it. She is VERY pro bike, and said she took the time to speak with the commissioner who is pushing the proposal. I asked if she didn't think this was just another way to funnel millions to the Mas family, who get all the juicy local construction jobs. No, Gloria said, she thought it was a needed addition.

But, I asked her, what about the fact that roads that already have dedicated bike lanes, like Old Cutler, rarely have the bikers using them -- they prefer to be on the regular roadway -- in weekends, in large packs? Well, she said, this is for the more casual biker, who might be inclined to take her bike on a safe lane.

Not buying it. I think this is an absurd proposal, which will bump up our already very healthy taxes. Ours would probably go from $25K to $27K -- for something we will never use.

Wifey's asked me to craft a nice set of emails to the mayor and commissioners. I think the one we know best, Shannon, is against the proposal. I'll see -- I tend to think you can only really fight City Hall if you're willing to bankroll candidates to replace the ones who vote against the stuff you want, or for the stuff you DON'T want.

I admitted to Gloria I'm old, and really want ZERO change. We endured over a year of construction in our 'hood (by Mas Family contractors) who undergrounded our FPL lines. I approved of that -- hopefully our frequent outages will be diminished. 

Also, a traffic circle, and an adjacent one, took years to build. We're still awaiting the completion of the small bridge over the canal on SW 136 Street , which has already taken 1.5 years, for mysterious reasons.

So my preference is: leave stuff alone. Keep up our police, and near zero crime. Keep our nice parks, including the former Parrot Jungle, clean and nice.

But bike lanes for millions of dollars that will only kill decades old beautiful trees? Where's the Lorax when we need him?