Expect to hear about transit, jobs and public safety

To the victor go the spoils, don’t they? To the victor, also goes the spin.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez will do what he does best at this year’s State of the County address Wednesday: Pat his own back.

Sure, he’ll provide shout-outs to his apologists and allies — especially Chairman Esteban Bovo, who many say he is grooming as his chosen replacement for 2020 — and largely ignore or smugly chide his critics and naysayers. He’ll thank former Chairman Jean Monestime for his service the last two years. And he might have a person (read: prop) or two in the audience to serve as an example of something great he’s done. Probably a young person who is working thanks to the great efforts the mayor has made.

But be sure that Gimenez will be the star of the show. It will sound a lot like the last address, which sounded the same as the last and so on, and so on. He’s in love with himself.

Read related story: Carlos Gimenez gets a ‘C’ on State of the County speech

He will take credit for the smooth election in Miami-Dade as well as the economic turnaround and the successes at Miami International Airport and the seaport, which is woefully under achieving in cargo sales compared to even Port Everglades (that won’t be in the speech, though) because it is not open 24 hours a day. He will take credit for the new animal shelter, even though it was a mandate from the people and approved in a bond referendum more than a decade ago. He will talk about all the great things he’s done — Gimenez never misses a chance to repeat how he delivered the biggest tax break ever — and all the great things he’s going do do in the next four years. After all, he is sure to remind us, these are his last.

After reviewing past addresses, the things he said after his re-election and the speech he gave at Bovo’s swearing in earlier this month — and talking to several sources inside County Hall and insiders outside County Hall — Ladra has a pretty good guess of at least some of the issues or projects that are most likely to be in Wednesday’s speech. And it’s no surprise that it is the three main issues of the mayoral campaign which he also told reporters would be his priorities after he beat School Board Member Raquel Regalado in November: transit, economic development and public safety in the light of the gun violence plaguing some of our neigborhoods.

Transit will be center stage. Many longtime county observers and insiders say Gimenez will use this speech to lay out his transportation plans. That will likely take up a good part of the first half of his monologue. You know, after he acknowledges his family and talks about leaving the county better for his grandchildren blah blah blah. He hinted in November toward a major announcement soon. Maybe this is soon enough. He will talk about finally making some headway in finishing the six famous corridors that closely match what was promised to voters — except they won’t all be rail (some people will have to compromise for rapid busways). He won’t talk about how he has misspent some of the People’s Transportation Tax dollars so that he could give us that tax break he loves to remind us about, but he may announce which of the six corridors goes first. Spoiler alert: It’s either the South Dade corridor to Homestead or the 27th Avenue corridor to Miami Gardens. He won’t tell people that he increased the transit payroll by $1 million in 2015 with five other six-figure salaries for people to babysit new director Alice Bravo.

He may also talk about his recent trip to Las Vegas, where he attended the AT&T Smart Cities conference and how he himself was the one who made Miami one of the cities tapped for their initiative and get one of the first Smart Cities operation centers, which are supposed to help governments see community conditions — traffic flow, lighting and public safety operartions — in real time and present solutions immediately. Let’s hope he explains what that means exactly and let’s hope it’s not just another layer of beaurocracy that sounds good because it has the word smart in it. Let’s also hope he doesn’t make a lame joke about what happens in Vegas coming to Miami.

Wait a minute. Didn’t the Denver trip last year promise to bring us some transit solutions?

Economic development and jobs will also be highlighted. He will talk about the number of jobs he created, again without going into the details about the type of jobs (low paying and temporary) that most are. He may even say “a job is a job” again, which is easy to say when you are drawing from three pensions and you make $150,000 a year. But now he will talk more about diversification of the economy (almost like he learned from Regalado during the campaign). He will talk about the upcoming projects that are going to bring new jobs, like the megamall planned for Northwest Dade just north of Hialeah — which is coming before the commission next week — and the Miami Wilds theme park planned for the property next to the zoo, which has been broken up into two phases to make it more palatable and easy to get each piece through despite the objections of environmentalists (more on that later). He will talk about smaller projects brought through incentives and public private partnerships and, perhaps, moving forward with the privatization of Vizcaya (more on that later), though he won’t call it that. He will call it a pathway to preservation, or some such nonsense. No, he hasn’t given up on that plan. He just put it on the shelf until after the election. And he will talk about expanding his own legacy program, Employ Miami-Dade, which I suspect is just a feel-good program with a subsidy replacement check instead of a real job and someone ought to investigate how many of those people are still employed afterwards.

He may also talk about soccer. He sorta has to. Everybody wants to know what is going on with that.

Read related story: Miami-Dade Police cuts by Carlos Gimenez cause concern

And even though he doesn’t want to, Gimenez will have to talk about the gun violence that has claimed the lives of so many children and young people all over the county, from Miami Gardens to Homestead. The speech was probably edited this week to include a mention of the people injured when shots were fired at the Martin Luther King Jr. Festival Monday. But Ladra hopes he talks about more than just us policing ourselves. And I hope he doesn’t talk about expanding his living room cops again. Taking officers off the street and putting them into the homes of at-risk kids — his brilliant idea last year — is not just a band-aid, it’s a cheap generic band-aid from the dollar store that doesn’t really stick and is falling off five minutes after you put it on. Unless Gimenez restores some of the specialized units he dismantled in 2014 — because he would rather make cuts than fill vacancies — hoods with guns will play across our county. It was reported yesterday that the shooting was perpetrated by rival gangs. And it is time Gimenez wake up to the fact that gang activity has increased since he dismantled the very specialized unit that investigated them and stopped these shootings before they happened.

But that will be one of the many things he doesn’t say.

Like the fact that after the speech Wednesday, the mayor and his lobbyist son are flying to D.C. for the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump, who he tried so desperately to distance himself from during the election.

Is it too much to hope that Regalado — or someone — will have a response to his address again this year?

The Village of Bal Harbour is set Tuesday to retake a vote taken last Spring on the proposed sale of its City Hall property — now that there are two new council members who were put on the dais by the people who want to buy it.

Councilmen David Albaum and Jeffrey Freimark, both elected in November, were practically funded by the Bal Harbour Shops and the Whitman family that owns it through their respective campaigns ($37,000 for Albaum and $54,500 for Freimark) and two political action committees that collected close to $350,000 between them.

Now, the Shops have the votes they need Tuesday to get the sale of City Hall on a referendum, preferably on a special election day when nobody will show up. Next, they will fund a slick PR campaign to urge voters to sell the building to them for $15 million and they will drum up absentee ballots from their friends and family.

There’s only one thing in their way: A fiesty Colombian abuelita named Patricia Cohen who is a councilwoman in the Village of Bal Harbour and who is adamantly against the sale, which she voted against in April in a tie vote. She may lose on the dais Tuesday. But she will campaign hard for a no vote on any referendum to sell the city’s oldest building. And she is a person with some influence in the tiny, posh town.

“It’s 62 years old and it’s our history. It’s all we have,” Cohen told Ladra.“We don’t have 500 year old buildings.”

Cohen is also concerned about the mall’s proposed $400 million expansion. She says the trend is against more brick and mortar and doesn’t believe more retail is in the best interest of the village residents.

Her opposition, claim the mall owners and their attorney, is based in her friendship with the families that own competing retail centers — Aventura Mall and the Design District, specifically. Or that’s what they want us to think anyway. That’s why they slapped Cohen with not one but two lawsuits in an effort to get her to recuse herself.

The first came a couple of weeks after the February 2016 public records request for all of Cohen’s emails and text messages about the Bal Harbour Shops and the Church by the Sea and the Suntrust building — dating back to 2010. Also requested were any emails that were related to or associated with Aventura Mall and the Design District and some specific people, like Beth Berkowitz and Craig Robins and members of the Soffer family (who own and operate Aventura Mall). Guess they thought that 23,000 or so emails that were caught in the search terms could be collected and reviewed and redacted in two weeks.

An early rendition of the proposed Bal Harbour Shops expansion

The second came in the summer, and accuses Cohen of violating ethics ordinances and the Sunshine law because of something she whispered in the mayor’s ear at the time of the vote. He ended up voting against the sale also.

The idea is to claim Cohen has a conflict of interest because, as a landscape artist, she has worked for the Soffer family and because she sold her house 15 years ago to the younger sister of Jackie Soffer, who is married to Craig Robins, who is credited with developing the Design District.

One email was provided to another website by Whitman attorney John Shubin (Ladra could not reach him over the MLK weekend), who told the Real Deal that it indicates she was happy about the competition’s impact on the Shops. “Can u imagine a world class  public green space with  possibly gorgeous works of art right smack in the middle of  Collins instead of that hideous suntrust bank,” Cohen asked with three question marks in a letter to a real estate broker hired by Bal Harbour to inquire about the SunTrust building site. “WE need to

There’s more. Please press this “continue reading” button to “turn the page.”

The big news this week is on Hump Day, when the county mayor gives his annual State of the County address (more on that later). Expect it to be a full house with every elected under the sun — not just the county ones but the municipal council or commission members and Ladra will even throw in a congress member and a state rep or two.

After all, this is Carlitos’ first big public to do since he beat former Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado in November, solidly winning another four years — people will want to gain favor.

All the lobbyists will be there, too, jostling to kiss the ring. Look and listen for the cheering and applause on cue.

The rest of the week will be ho hum in comparison.

But, hey, help me keep the Cortadito Calendar populated if not entirely always relevant. Please send any news about meetings, campaign rallies, powwows and other events to edevalle@gmail.com.

MONDAY — Jan. 16

8 a.m. — There are no public meetings because it’s Martin Luther King Day. But there is the 34th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 5K Run Walk, which starts at the MLK Plaza Metrorail station, 6205 NW 7th Ave., and the annual MLK Day parade in Liberty City (along NW 54th Street, from 10th to 32nd avenues. You can bet that Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado with his kids, especially Raquel and Tommy Regalado, who many say is dead serious about running for commissioner. All the Miami commissioners will be there, but so will all the candidates. Or all the serious candidates, anyway. If you can’t be there, stalk the Regalados and Commissioner Francis Suarez on twitter.

6 p.m. — Newly elected State Rep. Daisy Baez (D-Coral Gables) will open her district office Monday night at 5542 SW 8th Street. Baez beat Republican John Couriel 51 to 49% (a difference of 1,336 votes) to replace former Rep. Eric Fresen who was termed out and could be running for state senate in two years against newly elected Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez. Why didn’t she just keep the same district office Fresen used on 62nd Avenue and Bird Road? Ladra doesn’t know but will ask tonight.

6 p.m. — The future of Little Haiti will be the topic of discussion at a roundtable townhall-like meeting that begins at 6 p.m. Two proposed developments will be discussed. One is a mega development that would rise where moderate housing is now. Another is an “innovation center” proposed for the abandoned trailer park on the north side of the neighborhood. Activist Grant Stern is moderating the panel. Newly elected Miami-Dade Democratic Party Treasurer Francesca Menes, policy and advocacy coordinator for the Florida Immigrant Coalition — and a Little Haiti native, born and bred — will be there as will several community activists. Stern will produce a podcast for those of us who found out about it late. Ladra will post a link later.

TUESDAY — Jan.  17

7 p.m. — South Miami City Commissioners will meet to discuss an amendment to the land use code that would permit medical marijuana facilities in the industial and residential/office districts and only with a special use permit. They’ll also talk about a contract for consulting services with Redevelopment Management Associates (RMA) for Phase I of a business improvement district plan. The most curious item on the agenda, however, is the resolution consenting to a potential conflict by hiring Brett Schneider as their outside counsel for labor matters, even though his firm, Weiss Serota, represents developers and other clients that may or want to do business in the city. Basically, they’re saying that they know there’s a potential conflict and they’re not concerned, so long as Mr. Schneider doesn’t directely represent anyone else. Really? The meeting is at City Hall, 6130 Sunset Drive.

7 p.m. — State Sen. Jeremy Ring (D-Margate) will be the speaker Tuesday at the South Dade Democrats meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Miami, 7701 S.W. 76th Ave. What? Were all the local Democrats busy or just too embarassed? The club meets for social time until 7:30, then does business until 8 when Ring speaks.

WEDNESDAY — Jan. 18

10 a.m. — The much anticipated State of the County address comes Wednesday when Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez gets to pound on his chest about how great a job he’s done and tell us about what he wants to leave as his legacy. After all, to the victor go the spoils! The speech, if you want to watch it in person, is open to the public for free at the South Dade Cultural Center, 10950 SW 211th St. Or you can watch it online here. Or you can follow county spokesman and chief Gimenez cheerleader Mike Hernandez on twitter and get the gist. But it’s a fun place to people watch — if you like watching lobbyists and insiders rubbing elbows with electeds from all over. There’s no other reason to go, really. His pat-on-his-own-back speech will be published and analyzed (sorta) in the news media. If you go, it’s because you like the dog and pony show. Admit it.

6 p.m. — The Homestead City Council will get a visit from Miami-Dade Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava Wednesday. She will be at the next meeting to provide a summary of the last two years of what she’s done and tell council members what her priorities will be for the second half of her first term, (which still has not yielded all it promised). Homestead will also be the next city to consider a moratorium on medical  marijuana facilities. It’s the city where any cannibusiness makes the most sense, right? Agriculturally? The city council will discuss a 12-month moratorium at its meeting Wednesday at the Taj Majal of City Halls, 100 NE Civic Ct. Other items on the agenda include hiring Greenberg Traurig to do the city’s special tax credit counseling and several board appointments (congrats to Ladra’s pal and good guy Stephen McDuffie , who has worked for both Republicans (Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen) and Democrats (Rep. Kionne McGhee) for getting named to the city’s Community Affairs Board).

THURSDAY — Jan. 19

6:30 p.m. — The Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works is having a community meeting on the roadway improvements scheduled for Southwest 142nd Avenue, from Coral Way to 8th Street. The event is to provide area residents and businesses with information about the constrution phase of the project, which includes roundabouts, sidewalks, curbe and gutter, signatliation and pavement markings, signage and improved storm drainage. Funds for the project come from road impact fees. Plans will be available for review during the first half hour of the meeting at Joe Hall Elementary School, 1901 SW 134th Ave. Staff presentation begins at 7 p.m. with a question and answer period promised afterwards, but the meeting is expected to end about 8 p.m.

FRIDAY — Jan. 20

9:30 a.m. — It’s the first meeting for the Miami-Dade County Unincorporated Municipal Services Area Committee with Commissioner Javier Souto as chairman. Among the items on the agenda is a resolution directing the mayor to find funding sources for a $3 million community center to be built next to the county’s Ronald Reagan Equestrian Center at Souto’s beloved Tropical Park (also the site of a kick-off rally last year for Sen. Marco Rubio‘s failed presidential bid). He also wants the mayor to provide a summary of all Building Better Communities GOB funds provided by district and by municipality. The committee will also talk about amending the county rules for annexation, requiring municipalities to provide a comparison of county and municipal land use regulations before any annexation. The meeting is in commission chambers at County Hall, 111 NW 1st St.

Commissioner Michael Grieco was the first to file paperwork last week to run for the top dog seat after Mayor Philip Levine said he would not be seeking re-election. But you can bet he won’t be the last now that there’s no millionaire incumbent.

Already there have been reports that former State Rep. and Senator Dan Gelber, who ran for Attorney General and lost to Trumpette Pam Bondi in 2010, may be interested in the job. Gelber, who is the son of two-time mayor Seymore Gelber, has gotten a bunch of calls urging him to consider it and he is doing just that, said his political consultant Chrisitan Ulvert, who also happens to be Levine’s political consultant.

Does this mean that Gelber is Levine’s hand-picked successor instead of Commissioner Ricky Arriola?

Many on the’s beach have speculated that Levine would run and fund an Arriola bid for mayor. And Arriola was reportedly pit against Grieco in a telephone poll done weeks ago in which voters were asked who they would choose in a head to head if the election were today.

Read related story: Philip Levine ‘parks’ his train after poll — but only for now

This is the same poll in which they were asked multiple questions about the train to nowhere — Levine’s “loopy loop” innercity light rail — which was suspended shortly after, most likely because it bombed.

Did Arriola bomb too?

Sure, there’s plenty of time to think about it. Qualifying isn’t until the first week of September. And Arriola can work on his profile between now and then. But he will likely stay put. Because this being an open seat now opens it up to a lot of more truly viable candidates, including former commissioners Michael Gongora, who lost to Levine in 2013, and Deede Weithorn, who didn’t dare run against him and his money but lost a bid for state rep last year. And Ladra is sure there is a political consultant or campaign guru looking for a young Latina or hombre to run. Because that’s all Arriola has got going for him. 

Grieco has reportedly been considering this mayoral run since last year, when Levine invited Raul and Fidel Castro to open a Cuban governmnt consular office in Miami Beach. Grieco was aghast and blasted Levine for it. He has also been openly against the train. And he believes he can do more to guide the city as mayor.

Levine had sold him out even earlier, when he lashed out at Grieco for voting against an 84% increase in storm water fees in 2014.

Read related story: Miami Beach break-up — Philip Levine and Michael Grieco

He has been fundraising as a commission candidate, for his re-election, and has almost all his $234,000 that he’ll be able to transfer to a mayoral account because we’re sure his donors won’t mind. Grieco also has at least two more fundraisers in the near future. Jay Parker, Steve Temes, Jordan Levy, Stephen Worth, Evan and Rustin Kluge, Brian Sidman and Keith Marks are hosting what Ladra believes is his first fundraiser for the mayor’s run this Thursday at South Pointe Tavern. There will be another fundraiser Jan. 28 at the home of Eduardo Hepp and Randy Bullard.

Candidate Grieco will also have a press breakfast and resident Q&A next Tuesday, Jan. 24, at Cafe Avanti on 41st Street.

UPDATED: For at least 20 years, the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club has provided a safe place in Miami Beach for civil political discourse on everything from city government projects and issues to county issues to developments of regional impact to state policies and legislation as well as an independent public forum for candidate debates in local elections.

But perhaps no more.

An email last week told us that Tuesday’s meeting would be the last because Manolo’s Restaurant, in which it is currently being held, will be partially demolished to make space for a new hotel addition at the rear of the property along the east side. Demolition along the south end of the 600 block is already taking place in the rear, according to an email from breakfast club creator David Kelsey.

“The development idea is that the very deep stores can give up their rear portions to accommodate a five story hotel or condo structure and still have ground floor retail along the front,” he wrote.

Read related story: Get breakfast and up to date on Miami Marine Stadium

And the breakfast club is just a casualty? This is one of the few equal opportunity, bipartisan, open and free public forums there are left. It has hosted not only politicians like Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, but activists like Peter Ehrlich and candidates for city, state and congressional office as well as city leaders like the police chief and city manager. Okay, so maybe it has served more as a bullhorn than a hot seat, but that’s it’s role. It would still be a shame to let it go.

Packed house at a Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club meeting at David’s Cafe for Levine’s first campaign in 2013

Ladra sent Kelsey a couple of emails to find out if there was any chance they could continue at another venue. After all, it used to be at David’s Cafe before it moved to Abuela’s Cuban Kitchen before it moved to Manolo’s. I mean, it couldn’t come at a worse time — as this year’s election of a new mayor (Levine announced already that he wasn’t running — for that seat, anyway) and three commissioners.

Kelsey, president of the South Beach Hotel and Restaurant Association, got back to me Monday morning, after this post was published. He said that the meetings have been moved six or seven times but that it’s not easy to find a new place. He looked at six other eateries that didn’t work before finding Manolo’s two years ago.

“If a restaurant already has any breakfast business, they don’t want it to be disrupted,” Kelsey said. “If they don’t have any breakfast business, and are open for lunch, they don’t want to bring in staff and pay them just for this group.”

Kelsey also said he would be open to continuing the meetings, but that more people need to show up.

“It’s very discouraging. We have not had good turnout in the last few weeks even though we have had good guests,” Kelsey told Ladra. “Let’s see what happens Tuesday. If there’s a lot of interest in keeping it, I’ll look for a new place.”

Read related story: Bruno Barreiro to speak at Beach Tuesday Breakfast Club

There are other fans who also want to keep the club it going.

“The Tuesday Morning BreakfastClub has always been a place for residents to voice their concerns and demand that government listen,” said former Commissioner Michael Gongora, who hopes they can find another new home. “It would be a shame not to have this group of activists listening and monitoring to what happens,” Gongora said, “especially now with an open Mayoral seat and Commission seats likely to follow.

“It’s time for the residents to have a voice at City Hall again,” he said, adding that he is reaching out to other restaurant owners to see if the club can be moved to another venue.

Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez noted how the club unified the community, even as others tried to divide it. “Whether you were rich or poor, Hispanic or Jewish, black, white or other, Dave Kelsey’s Breakfast Club welcomed everyone, and we must all be grateful to Dave Kelsey for that,” Rosen said.

“This is a loss for us all and represents the winding down of a certain generation of South Beach activists,” Rosen said. “Miami Beach is losing one of its critical political forums, and it breaks my heart to see it end.

“Someone needs to continue the tradition. It shouldn’t have to close.”

“Miami Beach United will continue its community efforts to keep the Breakfast Club spirit alive,” said Mark Samuelian, a former commission candidate and member of the MBU executive board who called the Tuesday morning meetings an “amazing and valuable Miami Beach institution.”

Ladra suspects that finding an alternate space to save the civic club and its meetings from oblivion will be the main topic of conversation at the last meeting this Tuesday at Manolo’s, 685 Washington Ave. Read: I sure hope so.