Your Cortadito Calendar for Coral Gables election week

The Coral Gables election Tuesday is the most important event this week. But it’s not the only thing happening.

The Cortadito Calendar for the second week of April has a protest, a council meeting, horses and trees. And, of course, something or two about transportation. Don’t we always have something on transportation?

It would have been heavier, but every single one of the county committee meetings scheduled for this week were cancelled. All of them. Ladra will try to find out why.

And sorry about Monday getting away from us. I don’t like Mondays so if you want your shindig to be on this list for sure, don’t risk it. There are six other days to choose from.

As always, please keep sending information about your government meetings, candidate forums and political powwows to edevalle@gmail.com and they’ll keep — or start — appearing in the Cortadito Calendar. Unless it’s on a Monday. Then it’s 50-50.

TUESDAY — April 11

7 a.m. – 7 p.m. — The Coral Gables election is finally upon us. Voters will elect a new mayor and could elect two new commissioners — although one of them won’t be all that new. The mayoral race is the one being watched the most, with Commissioner Jeannett Slesnick facing off against former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli in a contest that has turned ugly — and ethnic. Look for Ladra’s recommendations coming soon to Fresh Colada.

8:30 a.m. –The Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club is back to a weekly gig. And it looks like there’s only going to be one. Longtime moderator David Kelsey, the president of the South Beach Hotel and Restaurant Association who had planned a dueling Tuesday Morning club featuring one of the hated developers of Miami Beach, has given up. In an email he said he didn’t have the stamina to fight the activists, who in his words, took over the meetings like in a coup. So, there will only be one breakfast meeting in Miami Beach on Tuesdays. Today, the guest speaker is another Group 2 candidate, Rafael Velasquez (two other Group 2 candidates have already been guests). Former Mayor Matti Bower is moderating again at Puerto Sagua Restaurant, 700 Collins Ave.

7 p.m. — District 3 residents in Palmetto Bay can see the first presentation of traffic data about their specific neighborhoods at a public meeting Tuesday night at Village Hall, 9705 East Hibiscus Street. The results of a citywide traffic calming study have been piece-mealed into district specific power point presentations. The one for District 1, for example, was already given last week and can be seen here online. The gist of this study is to find location for traffic calming devices and identify what devices will be used. Speak now or forever hold your peace when, not if, they put a circle or speed bumps on your street.

WEDNESDAY — April 12

10 a.m. — The Doral City Council meets Wednesday morning and will spend too much time talking about accounts receivables software and the credit card processing contract (going to Wells Fargo) and the building and funding of two informational/police kiosks in the city. But they also may have to refund $55,000 in development fees to Doral Preparatory Charter School and will consider the approval of a $1 million contract to replace the artificial turf fields at Doral Meadow Park. They may also award a $2.1 million contract for canal stabilization to Enco Engineering Construction and a $570,000 contract for street sweeping to SFM Services. There are some smaller contracts also and the ratification of the city’s agreement with the police union. The whole agenda is published online here. The council meets at City Hall, 8401 NW 53 Ter.

5 p.m. — There’s actually a tree advisory board in Palmetto Bay and it meets Wednesday evening. Ladra couldn’t get an agenda online but Councilwoman Karyn Cunningham invited people to participate via an email blast, so they are seeking some input. What do you think about the canopy in the village. Where could the municipality plant more trees and foliage in the public right of way? This seems like the best place to opine on that. The meeting is at Village Hall, 9705 East Hibiscus.

THURSDAY — April 13

6 p.m. — The newest member of the Citizens Independent Transportation Trust, Melissa Dynan, will be sworn in at their next meeting Thursday evening. In addition to the regular progress reports from the Miami-Dade Department of Transit and Pubic Works and the regular financial and strategic committee reviews, the CITT will be discussing resolutions that urge the count to (1) acquire the easement of land along Southwest 137th Avenue, (2) apply for a federal grant for $960,000 from a pilot program for transit oriented development, (3) enter into a multi-year agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation to build a $1.8 million bus depot park and ride lot called Tamiami Station (the state would fund half), and (4) approve a contract extension with Southern Gas Companies (dba Florida City Gas) for compressed natural gas for the department of transit and public works.

FRIDAY — April 14

5:30 p.m. — This is no ordinary dog and pony show. The 2017 International Agriculture Horse and Cattle Show, the highlight of Miami-Dade Commissioner Javier Souto‘s social calendar, is having it’s 10th year. Souto, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and a slew of other electeds, most likely including Commissioners Esteban Bovo Jr., Jose “Pepe” Diaz and Rebeca Sosa — who can count on Souto to vote their way 99% of the time — are having a reception Friday afternoon at, where else?, Tropical Park, where Souto’s beloved Ronald Reagan Equestrian Center, 7800 Bird Road, was built with taxpayer dollars and opened in 2013 (and is pictured to the right here). Ladra thinks its by invitation, but if we got one, that means it can’t be too selective. Just RSVP with Aldo Gonzalez or John Montes at 305-222-2116.

SATURDAY — April 15

10 a.m. — Shouldn’t Donald Trump release his tax returns? A lot of people think so. Some of them will gather downtown Saturday at Miami’s “Show Us Your Taxes March” in front of our federal building at 51 SW First Avenue. Ladra isn’t sure a protest in front of a federal building on a Saturday when nobody will notice is going to sway President Donald Trump as much as, say, a protest in front of his golf course property in Doral. But I’m not organizing this. The march is expected to end at noon, also. So I guess two hours is about as pissed off as some activists can get on a Saturday in April.