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| Conceptual View |
Want to know what we need in North Bay Village?
Green space and green money.
Want to know what we're getting?
Green space and green money.
Let's Start With The Green Space
You look at any aerial view of North Bay Village and you see that the largest green space is the yard behind Treasure Island Elementary School. Now hanging around school yards is creepy and you shouldn't do it but this land is used about 180 days per year for school purposes.
The mayor, Brent Latham, approached our school board member, Dr. Marvin Karp, and they have agreed a deal in principle (not principal but that would be funny) to open the school yard for use by the residents when not in use for the school. This means we can have access to the fields, the track, a place to walk out of traffic.
I want to tell you that it was very complicated, and executing this will be work, but the fact is that the school board has done this throughout the county and the previous mayor refused to just ask. Not only that, but she joined forces with one of the least competent bureaucrats I have come across in a long career to shut down the informal access that had been in place for decades.
Watch this space and the village group on Facebook for details as this comes together.
The Other Green - Dollars
Last year in March, State Senator Daphne Campbell came to our commission meeting to joyously announce that she had gotten $0 for North Bay Village in the state projects and remind us that "there is always next year." and "God is good."
Our then mayor, she who will not be named here, was effusive in her thanks for this information and then both insisted on applause.
I'm not making that up.
Well God may be good but She is pretty insistent that you have to get off your ass and make your own money.
Our new commission, all of them, went to Tallahassee and along with our newly elected State Rep, Michael Grieco, and our newly elected State Senator, Jason Pizzo, they got some serious money for serious projects in the state budget and today it was announced that the governor signed them into the budget.
The two projects are:
- ADA Compliance on our sidewalks.
- Water and Flood Management.
It's not a lot by project standards, about $427,000, but it addresses the sad lack of accessibility on our streets and is great first step. You will hear me talking about "beyond ADA" in the future but we have to get to the baseline before we can truly be an inclusive community. This is a good day.
The Takeaway
We have to elect people who are, you know, not bat guano crazy. Daphne Campbell and our previous mayor were both punchlines to jokes not yet written. Neither had the vision or the skills to bring simple projects to fruition.
Our new team does. It's hard but it's not complicated. It takes focus and sometimes taking "Yes" for an answer as in the case of the school yard where all we had to do was ask and have a concept.
This bodes well.
Kevin Vericker
June 21, 2019
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