Miami Beach and North Bay Village

Last night I had the opportunity to be at the Miami Beach Commission meeting.  I attended because they were considering a discussion about annexing North Bay Village.  (It was on their public agenda.  Anyone could have attended.)  

The Miami Beach Commission decided to refer the matter to their Finance Committee to study and report on the impact.  

During the discussion, the attorney made it clear that this was a long process, one that would involve the Miami Beach Commission deciding if they want to propose an annexation.  If they do, then it would have to be voted on by the North Bay Village Commission, the residents of North Bay Village, and approved by the Miami Dade Commission.   It's not the hostile takeover that our mayor characterized this as but a considered discussion at to whether or not North Bay Village and North Beach should be a mutually beneficial entity.  

We have bigger problems than a less than square mile village can handle.   Sea level rise is real and a regional approach is needed.  We have nowhere for recreation.  We are split in our school feeder patterns.  And that doesn't even consider our shambles of a government.  

They may not even want us.  We face huge infrastructure and legal issues.  North Bay Village has historically prided itself on not being Miami Beach.   And we risk being lost in the behemoth of Miami Beach.   

So I said last night that I hope this discussion goes forward regardless of where it leads.   It needs to be had and we need to figure out what's best for all of us.  

What pleased me was the curiosity of the dais and civility of the discussion.  

This is big and unlike our knee jerk reactions, is being considered in a logical and dispassionate way.  No screaming about "hostile takeovers", no doomsday predictions, no insults, just an often contentious commission discussing the value of a thought.   That was pretty cool.  

Kevin Vericker

September 14, 2018