When Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Commissioner Audrey Edmonson made themselves members of the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority early last year — convincing colleagues to appoint them rather than citizens, as they had traditionally done — there was talk about making MDX toll funds available to build rail for the SMART plan.
That was the whole idea, wasn’t it? That’s what Gimenez campaigned on in 2016.
Instead, all he’s done is get his daughter-in-law work and promote the construction of 14 new miles of highway.
That’s not what we were expecting.
Read related: MDX spent $400K on PR, including $60K for mayor’s daughter-in-law
“Miami-Dade mayor takes a seat on MDX toll board and eyes money for rail projects,” read the Feb. 7, 2017 headline in the Miami Herald.
“County preparing to spend $3.6B on rapid transit,” reads another headline, Feb. 16, 2017, in The Next Miami. “Mayor Carlos Gimenez and another county commissioner recently appointed themselves to the MDX board with the intention of taking MDX funds for rail,” the story said.
The mayor himself, at his first MDX meeting, said they agency had to be about more than highways.
“What the commission did in putting myself in and the vice chair is a clear indication that we consider MDX to be part of the solution and that we need to work together because its about mobility, its about getting around” Gimenez told the board at his introduction meeting.
“MDX is about maybe expressways. Maybe it should be more than that,” he said. “How we get around in the very near future is going to be quite different than how we get around today.”
What happened to all the promises?
Read related: Kendall Parkway to nowhere is an intentional slippery slope for UDB
By July of last year, after he was made chairman of the board at MDX, Gimenez was already saying rail wasn’t going to happen. He called it old fashioned. “So 19th century,” he told the Miami Herald’s editorial board. And, instead, he proposes the modern, 21st century solution: More buses.
Now his role on MDX is to promote the Kendall Parkway, a highway to nowhere over endangered wetlands and across the Urban Boundary Development line that everybody in the world knows will just become gridlocked as soon as it opens and that most Miami-Dade residents — and all environmentalists — don’t want.
Gimenez has become the lead advocate for the proposed $1 billion extension of the 836 expressway. Last month, before the county commission voted to approve the highway to nowhere, he actually said that 5,000 postcards received from residents in favor of the Parkway — which is perfectly named because it will become a parking lot — proved support for the project.
What he didn’t say was that there were really 150,000 cards sent out by MDX before the first vote in June — at a cost of $125,000 (which seems inflated) — and that they did not have an option to mark if you were against the new 14 miles of highway. Ladra can’t help but wonder if Gimenez, who was made chairman of the MDX board this past summer, approved that.
Read related: No-brainer Miami-Dade Commission approves Kendall Parkway despite so much
He also forgot to mention that MDX spent at least $400,000 on PR for the Kendall Parkway vote, including $60,000 that went to the company the mayor’s daughter-in-law works for.
On Monday, the Herald’s Doug Hanks wrote that two environmental groups filed separate lawsuits to block the construction of the Kendall Parkway, saying that the public was misled about the details and that what the commission approved was different than what was advertised.
Today, Tuesday, Gimenez will hold court at MDX, 3790 NW 21st St., where the board meets at 4 p.m. On the agenda: an update on the Kendall Parkway and a $2.6 million contract for “Construction Engineering and Inspection (CE&I) Services” on a number of projects, including the addition of a continuous westbound lane and interchange improvements at 57th and 17th avenues, the addition of a continuous eastbound lane from west of the LeJeune exit to 27th Avenue with interchange improvements, and replacing some tolling location points.
Not on the agenda: Rail.
 

Read Full Story

Now we know why Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez suddenly started collecting money again for his political action committee: Miami Dade Residents First — which has raised almost $70,000 all of a sudden after two years of no activity — is sending mail and text messages to Miami voters urging a no vote on the strong mayor referendum.
One of those takes aim at Mayor Francis Suarez‘s new house, purchased in July for $1.4 million in one of his less brilliant moments. Really, he should have waited until after Nov. 6.
“A strong mayor that goes way too far,” says the piece, which even some hard-bitten political observers say goes too far with photos of the Suarez home. The mailer also says a future strong mayor could earn $300,000 for a part time job and “choose his successor, even if he is sent to jail.”
Read related: Carlos Gimenez is raising funds for his PAC again — but for who or what?
But the really bizarre thing here — unprecedented, in fact — is that Gimenez is doing this at all. Why raise money from his donors to fight a separate government’s initiative? Is he doing it to muddy Suarez for a mayoral challenge in 2021? Is he helping his new BFF, Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, whose lawsuit challenging the ballot question was dismissed in a flurry of insults about the lack of legal merits?
In other words, what is it that compelled Gimenez to dust his PAC off after two years and raise $67,000 to oppose something he has for himself?
And what, maybe more importantly, has the mayor promised these contributors in exchange for their donation to his PAC? After all, he is not raising this money as a private citizen. This isn’t a gofundme account. It’s his political action committee. Do the donors know they are financing the opposition of the strong mayor referendum?
Read related: Hypocrite Carlos Gimenez knocks Miami strong mayor, petition pay
If so, they may have an interest at stake. If not, they may be expecting something back from Gimenez. So let’s follow the money:
The biggest contribution in recent weeks to Miami Dade Residents First is $15,000 from Urban-X Development, a Coral Gables firm that wants to build the $425-million River Landing Shops and Residences on 8.14 acres in the 1400 block of NW North River Drive, with anywhere between 475 and 530 apartments, 345,000 or so square feet of retail and restaurants, 2,200 parking spaces and a riverfront park and promenade.
Critics say that it is one of the best examples of gentrification in the city. Do they have any more asks? How about from the county?
The smallest contribution was $2,500 from Felix Lasarte, a lobbyist working for the American Dream Mall developers, who we know still have a lot to negotiate at the county.
Another $10,000 a piece came from Coral Gables attorney Rodolfo Nuñez and Chicago-based Trilogy Real Estate, which is one of the partners in the $220 million Concours Club, a members-only race course, clubhouse and restaurant with flight simulators and aviation services such as plane chartering, sales and management on 80 acres at Opa-Locka Airport, on land leased from the Miami-Dade Aviation Department.
Read related: Carlos Gimenez has new role as rainmaker — soliciting for 10 PACs
Another $5,000 a piece came from the Fisher Island developers who we first wrote about last month, the very first contribution since November 2016 — and from Dermar Management, owned by Dale and Mary Ann Robinson, and two other political action committees — Alliance for a Better Community, which has supported Commissioner Jean Monestime in the past, and We The People, which belongs to Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz.
So does that mean that Diaz and Monestime are also opposed to the strong mayor initiative in the city of Miami?
Another $4,000 came from Javier Viso, who is the IT director at Airport Concessions Group.
Another $3,000 a piece came from Airport Concessions Group’s Director Antonio Robles and Esquire Properties, a company owned by Christopher Descalzo, a partner in the group that runs the Versailles and La Carreta concessions at the airport.
Wait. Does anybody else see a pattern developing here? Is there an airport concession vote coming up soon?
These are only the campaign donations through October 19. And if Gimenez keeps at it at the same pace, he could raise more than $100,000 from airport concession interests to fight Suarez and his strong mayor move.
What is Gimenez giving them in return?

Read Full Story

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has come up with a genius solution to the county’s massive traffic gridlock and mass transit problems: Cars that fly.
Ladra is not kidding. Gimenez wants to be George Jetson.
We don’t have money to expand rail, which is what was promised to the people with the half-penny tax increase in 2002. Not even for one extension south or north up to Broward. Not even for a light rail across the bay to Miami Beach.
But we apparently can find the money to entertain thoughts of a public private partnership with Lilium, a German engineering startup that raised $90 million to build air taxis just last year and whose five-seat jets could be crossing our skies in as little as two years, according to the mayor’s vision.
Read related: Rumors persist of a new recall effort to oust Carlos Gimenez
You know, like those Amazon drone planes only bigger and carrying people. Don’t worry. They have parachutes! These electric-powered jets are safe because they have parachutes that discharge if there is any “in-flight failure” or collision.
“So you can just float down,” Gimenez told Miami Today. And, apparently, they took him seriously.
Gimenez has met twice already with representatives from Lilium, the last meeting taking place with executives Tuesday afternoon.
“It’s definitely cutting edge, so I’m interested,” the mayor told Miami Today after the first meeting earlier this month, because you know how he loves shiny new stuff. “We have an interesting place to try out the new concept. We want to be the city of the future.”
Is that why you are buying so many buses?
Read related: Termed out Mayor Carlos Gimenez gives self undeserved 70% pay raise
Not that this isn’t something that Ladra is happy to welcome into our world, like jetpacks and hologram TV. It’s kinda awesome. It’s just not a transit solution.
The five-seat jet can go 186 miles in an hour. Except there doesn’t need to be five people for a trip that, for now, would start and end at one of the county’s four airports — MIA, Opa-Locka, Miami Executive (formerly known as Kendall-Tamiami) and Homestead. Eventually, there will be ports built elsewhere. The developer of Paramount WorldCenter Miami designed a skyport atop the 60-story building for future air taxis.
And certainly it won’t come cheap. Think Uber Super X.
How does this do anything to take care of the massive gridlock most of us face daily? Answer: It doesn’t. But Gimenez isn’t concerned with that. This air taxi idea seems like a quicker turnaround and he is all about immediate gratification.
And shiny things.
Read related: Add another son to Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s lobbying clan
And immediate graft? Ladra tried to find out who the lobbyist was for Lilium and couldn’t find anyone in the county lobbyist registrations going back to the beginning of the year. But maybe it’s early. Maybe that’s next as they meet with commissioners.
It’s too bad that Gimenez can’t get excited about finding ways to make a public private partnership for rail happen because that is what the people were promised and that is what the people want.
Nothing, not even flying cars, will be an acceptable alternative.

Read Full Story

Ya que se las cago with the Cuban-American vote, former University of Miami President and congressional candidate Donna Shalala may be going after the Colombian vote in District 27 with a new gimmick Saturday aimed at endearing her with the Hispanic community: A chiva tour.
Ladra said long ago that Kristen Rosen Gonzalez was the only Democrat candidate who could beat Republican nominee Maria Elvira Salazar — who the most recent polls show head-to-head with or ahead of Shalala — because both are young attractive women who speak Spanish. But Democrat insiders insisted on Shalala and bulldozed everyone else out of the way.
Now, they’re not only losing a race they had in the bag a year ago, they should be downright embarrassed about how clueless Shalala is pandering to Hispanics — who make up more than 70 percent of the voters in the district — in a last ditch and plainly oblivious effort to stop the bleeding.
Read related: Donna Shalala is snubbed; missing on Obama’s FL endorsement list
First, she pretends to sing the Guantanamera on Enrique Santos radio show, but Santos really does the singing while Shalala shakes her head back and forth and utters a few syllables. I mean, who doesn’t know la Guantanamera?
Then, last week, the Shalala campaign launched a new Spanish-language ad reminding voters of Salazar’s interview with Fidel Castro and the words she used to complement him. They call it “Sinverguenza.”
“El Comandante… the man who captured our social imagination in the 60’s,” Salazar calls Castro in that interview, a clip of which is shown in the ad.
Salazar is also shown talking about it, explaining that all journalists called Castro comandante, which isn’t true, as evidenced by a series of clips where journalists refer to Castro as a dictator, instead. We held our breath and used the word president at the Miami Herald.
But while its true that Salazar was practically drooling in that exchange, it seems disingenuous for Shalala — who invited Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Lee to campaign with her in Coral Gables — to judge.
Read related: Dumb Dems invite pro-Cuba pols to stump for them in Miami-Dade
It’s like family. We can say Maria Elvira es una comemierda. Shalala — whose party embraces giving more opportunities to a government that continues to repress its people, jail dissidents and deny basic human rights — can’t.
The latest gimmick: A chiva — the traditional, colorful, folkloric two-tiered bus used in rural Colombia and Ecuador — will take the candidate to early voting locations in Shenandoah and Little Havana, as well as area parks, leaving from Coconut Grove Park, 3628 Grand Ave., at 3 p.m.
Ladra kids you not! Photo op!
Will there be yerba mate? Pastelitos? Tamales? Cigars? What’s next? Canvassing with mariachis?
All this is to substitute for the fact that Shalala does not speak Spanish and that’s not the only reason she doesn’t understand a majority of the constituency she seeks to represent — but it sure is part of it.
Y le van a pasar la cuenta.
In Spanish, that means that they’re going to hand her the bill, make her pay. In Cuban Miami politics, it means she’s toast.
So maybe that’s why she’s going after the Colombian vote now? Someone ought to tell her that voter bloc is in District 26.

Read Full Story

It’s good to be the king.
We’re used to the mayor coming in late some mornings or taking off early to play nine holes of golf at The Biltmore Hotel. But on Friday, while the rest of us were trying to finish our work week, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez ducked out early to stump for Ron DeSantis in Hialeah.
Guess all that talk about switching parties and supporting Hillary Clinton two years ago was pandering for his own Democrat votes.
Gimenez was one of several mayors at a “mayors endorsement” event Friday for the Republican gubernatorial candidate and his running mate, that State Rep. Jeanette Nunez tweeted about that morning: “Join Miami Mayors, @RonDeSantisFL and I at Chico’s Restaurant at 3:00pm. We look forward to sharing exciting news!”
But the only other mayor with him at Chico’s was Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez.
Oh, there were plenty of other electeds: County commissioners Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Esteban “Stevie” Bovo, a one-time Hialeah city councilman, along with current council members Lourdes Lozano, Katherine Cue and Pablo “Pablitiquito” Hernandez as well as Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, State Rep. Manny Diaz Jr., who is running for senate, and former Miami Lakes councilman Frank Mingo, who is running for state rep. Diaz and Mingo are the two with the similar facial landscape.
The event started at 3 p.m. On a Friday. In Hialeah. On 12th Avenue in Hialeah. Knowing Miami-Dade’s traffic and the trouble one can have finding a space in Chico’s parking lot, Gimenez must have left County Hall by 2 p.m. at the latest.
Mayoral mouthpiece Myriam Marquez said it wasn’t on his daily calendar because it was not an official county event.
“Our communications office does not handle political campaign events or scheduling,” Marquez replied when asked why the event was not on the mayor’s official calendar. “He handles personal outings — that do not have public duties involving the county — independently.”
Too bad he has to do it on our dime and can’t do it on his own time independently.

Read Full Story