Interesting discussion tonight about the affordability of living in Miami (for any of you who don’t know, it isn’t). I left a long comment in the Facebook event page, which is pending approval, so I am going to post it here, publicly, as well. http://ift.tt/27ftiNK So. I would like to very much thank all of the panelists. I know you are all very busy and we appreciate you taking time out of your schedule. And a big thank you the organizers, again, I know everyone is busy and we appreciate your time. But. That was a lot of talk to tell us what we already know, that it is difficult to afford to live in Miami. There was about 90 minutes of telling us how unaffordable Miami is. We know that, WE are all living it. What I find to be very frustrating is that there are really many people in Miami who know how to fix this. I know many people working themselves to death to try to make Miami a better place to love, work and love. But, then, we turn around there is a a new luxury condo going up on top of a working class community or another stadium being dropped on the heads of a lower-income neighborhood without any consideration for how all the traffic, noise and pollution will impact those residents. When asked how to fix it, all we hear is “vote vote vote.” Well, people have been voting in Miami for 100+ years and look at what we have gotten, greed, stupidity and money politics. It’s not enough. And even if people do not vote, that does not excuse corruption and money politics. The government is there to serve the people, ALL the people. Even people who do not vote pay taxes, and they still count. Voting should not be a requirement for decent government. So nowadays, all we get is discussion after discussion after discussion. Talk, talk, talk. For the past few years, this is what we’ve seen. It’s enough. Everybody knows what the problem is. And there are plenty of people who know and are working on the solution. City planning is not a new concept, right? It has been around for literally thousands of years. And, yet, we have never had any decent planning from our City or County. Areas need to be designated and zoned for decent housing, and quality of life other services (you know, like art). Development needs to be managed in a sustainable manner, not this whenever wherever method of just letting anyone with the money trample over everyone else. That leads to my last point. All of these big luxury condos, the sports stadiums, the shopping malls, all of these developments are touted as big generators of tax revenue. That is how they are sold to the public, oh they are awesome because think of all the taxes they generate. Well, WHERE ARE ALL THOSE TAX DOLLARS??? Better roads? Nope, more toll-roads. Better transit? Oh HELL no. Better services? HAH, we now have FEWER beds for the homeless than a few years ago. Libraries are struggling. Schools are underfunded. We have had tens of thousands square feet of luxury condos developed in the last 10-15 years and where has all this tax money that they were supposed to generate gone? So, I would love to see the next one of these to include more of the grassroots #changemakers. The people out there who are already working in the trenches to make the changes happen. The ones who are continually thwarted by the greed and stupidity of the government. I would love to see it held in a place where real change can start to be made, perhaps the City Commission chambers. Maybe in the zoning offices. Yes, we do have some VERY new elected officials, Like Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava and Ken Russell Miami who are part of this #changemaker community, but they are very much in the minority, and they need our support. The folks on the panel were awesome, but they are not the problem. They know the solutions just as much as anyone there. The discussion needs to be taken to those who ARE the problem. Those who are allowing the developers to run roughshod over everyone. The ones who are blocking proper zoning, city planning and legislation that allow the tax-paying residents to live a decent life in Miami. So, again, thank you all for organizing it and taking time out of your busy schedules to participate, but for future events, let us look at something that really has an impact, instead of just discussing the same problem over and over that we all already know. Thank you. May 11, 2016 at 11:29PM