Miami can’t be trusted to run their own show.
Just as the city of Miami grapples with the issue of giant LED billboards on public land in the downtown, Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins wants to take away the municipality’s ability to opt out of the county’s sign regulations.
But some signs that are already approved may stay
Opponents claim the signs going up are illegal
After his arrest on public corruption charges in the giveaway of a public park to a private school for more than $300,000 in campaigns contributions and gifts — vacations, accommodations, food, booze — disgraced Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla was suspended from office.
Then, officials found even more graft.
The battle cry is “Joe must go.” The aim is to remove Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo from the Bayfront Park Trust, where he is chair, because of what downtown residents say is an abuse of his power and mismanagement of Maurice Ferre Park, which is also under the trust’s purview.
In the same 24 hours as U.S. Marshalls posted seizure papers on the door at his Coconut Grove home — in connection with the $63.5 million judgement against him for violating the first amendment rights of two Little Havana businessmen (more on that later) — there’s a petition for Carollo’s removal from the Trust, begun by Downtown Neighbors Alliance President James Torres, who ran for commissioner in District 2 but lost. Torres and many other downtown residents — and anybody with a brain and a conscience — think that the new D2 commissioner, Damian Pardo, should chair these important boards that govern public parks in the heart of the district.
After several hours of discussion and passionate public comment, the city of Miami Commission deferred making a decision on the repeal of the ordinances that allow LED billboards on city parks and a moratorium on approving any such signage for 30 days while new rules are adopted.
Basically, they passed the buck to the state, which still has to approve the large sign being erected at the Perez Art Museum Miami in Maurice Ferre Park. Why it is being erected without clearing this hurdle is interesting. Perhaps the sign companies that contributed funds to certain city commissioners’ campaigns also touched state legislators and they’re not worried.
