Miamista: The State of Miami and Other News

2007-10-04T21:07:00.000-07:00

PAGE ONE

Is Florida Over?

By CONOR DOUGHERTY
September 29, 2007; Page A1

Tampa, Fla.

"Own Your Own Home in Florida for $350 down. Total Price $4,950 includes house and lot. It's Pompano Beach Highlands on the famed Florida east coast!"

--Advertisement in Life magazine, 1955

"It's just not the place I originally moved to. You've got overcrowded roads. The utilities are higher now. Taxes are unreasonable. Everything in Florida is more expensive."

--John Cypherd, retiree, who left Florida last month for North Carolina

For almost a century, Florida has been a magnet for mobile Americans. The state's plentiful sunshine and open space has attracted "snowbirds" fleeing winter, retirees living out the last chapter of their lives and down-on-their-luck workers in search of jobs. A steady flow of newcomers has kept the state's population growing faster than the nation's, often much faster, since the 1920s.

But for Americans on the move, Florida has become a less-appealing destination. Moving company Atlas Van Lines brought 6,700 families into Florida last year and took 8,000 out, the first time it has moved more out than in. The number of people from other states who switch to a Florida driver's license is down more than 8% from last year. And the state's crowded schools actually lost students last year, prompting many counties to cut back on their construction schedule and, in some cases, look to close schools. While foreigners continue to arrive at a rate of about 100,000 year, migration from inside the country is slowing.

Florida's pull has been weakened mostly by rising costs. Though real-estate prices are now falling, the median price for an existing single family home, at $231,900 remains 64% more than five years ago. That kind of price appreciation has increased property taxes, especially for newcomers and for snowbirds, whose primary residence is out of state. Florida is also recovering from a spate of hurricanes that have pushed up already high property-insurance rates. A two-tier tax system hits newcomers and part-time residents harder than long time homeowners.

Florida is also dealing with new competition. Looking to tap the economic boost seniors can give, many of the South's less-expensive, relatively warm states have been reaching out to seniors and fiddling with their tax laws in the hope of grabbing more retirees. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is pushing to exempt all retirement income from taxation as a way to attract and retain retirees.

"Instead of everyone making the assumption that they're going to move to Florida, now it's more of an open playing field," says Dave Schreiner, national vice president at Pulte Homes' Del Webb communities.

Florida has been soaking up migrating Americans since the 1920s and has had one of the fastest-growing populations ever since. The most prominent group, retirees, started pouring in after World War II. Just as Americans started living longer lives, with shorter work weeks and fat union pensions, developers responded with trailer lots and tract houses sold with slogans like "We Give Years to Your Life and Life to Your Years." Some Americans came to stay year-round, but about one million live in Florida just part of the year and return North to avoid the steamy summer.

Long before Disney World opened in 1971, tourists drove down to see aquatic theme parks with dolphin shows and roadside alligator pits. Last year, about 85 million people visited the state. Many of those tourists have later made Florida their permanent home.

"Growth is what Florida is known for," says Carl Hiaasen, the novelist and Miami Herald columnist. "Florida is in the business of cramming people into real estate for absurd prices."

Florida's reality has always been seamier than its sun-kissed image. In the 1950s, flim-flam men peddled mail-order real-estate schemes. In 1980s, the drug trade was celebrated in "Miami Vice." The state's lenient bankruptcy laws have long made the state a destination for debtors on the run. Florida's unrestrained growth has destroyed mangrove swamps and drained large swaths of the Everglades.

But growth has transformed Florida from an agricultural backwater to a key player on the national stage. Florida had just 10 electoral votes when John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960; he didn't carry the state, but won anyway. In 2000, Florida delivered the presidency to George W. Bush with 25 electoral votes.

A few months ago, Randy Quinones, a retired plumber in New Hampshire, was gearing up to leave the chilly Northeast and live out his days in Florida -- just like millions of retirees before him. He got ready to put his home on the market and told his buddies that he'd be in Florida soon. But Florida housing prices caused him to look elsewhere. "It didn't fit our budget, so we didn't do it," he says: Instead of Gainesville or Ocala where prices were $250,000 to $300,000, Mr. Quinones moved in May into a home outside Knoxville, Tenn., that cost $207,000.

Then there are the so-called "half-backs," northeasterners who move to Florida and then move halfway back home.

Faith Cohan moved to Florida from Rhode Island in 1982, with dreams of living on the beach and opening her own business. With the proceeds of their house sale, Ms. Cohan and her then husband moved to Florida and opened a store near Naples.

Two years ago, Ms. Cohan and her husband divorced. Ms. Cohan had planned on staying in their condominium, but after Hurricane Wilma, condo fees jumped to $3,200 from $1,220, reflecting higher insurance costs for the building. The couple sold their condo for $280,000 and split the proceeds. But instead of looking in Florida, Ms. Cohan paid $140,000 for a townhouse in Simpsonville, Ky. "I just couldn't stay another year and pay those kinds of fees by myself," she says.

After years of nonstop growth, many Florida cities have been caught off guard by slowing growth.

Between 2000 and 2005, the Tampa Bay region, with its 2.7 million residents on Florida's west coast, grew 10%, adding about 242,000 residents. The number of single-family-home permits doubled, as new residents flooded in, buoyed by subprime and no-down-payment mortgages. Tract homes on the outskirts of the county, in a town called Ruskin, have blossomed on land that was once set aside for oranges and tomatoes. The supply of new housing had everyone from the school district to local churches gearing up for years of booming growth.

But all this has slowed. Two years ago, Father Tracy Wilder, rector at Ruskin's St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, envisioned his parish growing 10% a year for the foreseeable future. He asked a church volunteer to do a feasibility study for an elementary school. That's now been shelved. Father Wilder says the number of new members has declined precipitously. When he first arrived in 2001, the church was signing up 70 new members a year. This past year there were 15. "We had to scale back some of our plans," he says.

Few organizations have been as rattled as the local public-school system. In recent years, the schools have added an average of about 5,400 new students a year, and have put overflow classes in portable trailers. This year, through the 20th day of school, Hillsborough County schools have between 400 and 500 fewer students than last year. Last year, the school district opened a new high school in the Ruskin area, one of five new schools built to relieve the crammed classrooms and address projected growth. But on the first day of school, Lennard High School had about 1,028 students, half of capacity. Every teacher in the school has a dedicated classroom plus an unused classroom where they've put copy machines and are storing computers and extra chairs. "We're not seeing the growth we anticipated," says Principal Denny Oest.

The school district now projects flat attendance for at least three years and has shelved plans for yet another high school as well as two elementary schools.

A decline in migration trends could spell broader trouble for Florida's economy. In addition to tourism, the influx of retirement savings and Social Security checks are a big driver of the state's economy. This, in turn, creates a huge stock of service-oriented jobs -- one reason why some of Florida's best-known businesses include homebuilding companies and restaurants like Outback Steakhouse and the Olive Garden.

Florida is always in need of doctors and nurses as well as civic employees like teachers. Over the past five years Florida has created 846,000 jobs, more than any U.S. state, and about as many as California and Arizona combined. The growth has helped out communities even beyond Florida: The state's demand for new workers has acted as a sort of a pressure release valve for many rust belt states that have seen unemployed workers leave for better opportunities in the South.

Michigan, Ohio and Illinois have long been among the biggest contributors to Florida's population growth. Yvette Thomas moved to Tampa from Dayton, Ohio, in 2002. In Ohio, Ms. Thomas had been working as a full-time substitute teacher in an elementary school, but had to move to a charter school after the teacher she was subbing for came back from maternity leave.

Then came a spring break vacation to Tampa. It was cold in Ohio; balmy in Tampa. Ms. Thomas and her future husband hung out on the beach, saw dolphins from a boat and ate fresh grouper. On a whim, they stopped by the school district's recruiting office. A recruiter called them the next day, and a few months later they were looking for a new apartment. "It was very easy for us to come in the system," she says.

Five years later, Ms. Thomas has her mind set on going back north. With the aid of a no-money-down mortgage, Ms. Thomas and her husband bought a $168,000 house. The mortgage, with property taxes and homeowner's fees, comes to about $1,500 a month -- more than half a month's pay. To supplement her income as a middle-school teacher, Ms. Thomas teaches night school two days a week. "There is no way I could raise a family here," she says. Next year, she plans to sell her home and move north, perhaps back to Ohio. "I thought it would be like a vacation," she says. "It turned out to be a hurricane."

Florida has been through this before. In the early 1990s, economic weakness and failures in the savings-and-loan industry pushed the state's unemployment rate to among the highest in the nation. Immigration slowed and some metropolitan areas had a net outflow of residents. The state recovered and the next boom came along.

Many economists believe that this lull, too, will be temporary. Despite a 41% drop in home sales in the past year, Florida's economy has so far skirted recession, and unemployment remains a low 4%, though joblessness has been rising. While domestic migration from other states to Florida has slowed, it hasn't turned negative. Last year, domestic immigration contributed 166,000 people to Florida's population, down 19% from the five-year average of 206,000, according to the census bureau. Those figures don't reflect the most recent trends.

But there are some signs of trouble in the economy. In July, retail sales declined 2.5% statewide from the same period a year earlier, compared with a 0.5% gain nationally. Car retailer AutoNation Inc. reported a dip in second-quarter revenue because of "a decline in new-vehicle retail sales especially in California and Florida." Over the past few months, retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and Lowe's Cos. Inc. have all reported sluggish sales in Florida.

A Florida rebound would likely require housing prices to fall further than they already have. With the help of subprime and no-money-down mortgages, the state became a place for rampant speculation that more than doubled prices in a four-year period. The price appreciation fueled a refinancing boom that gave consumers access to billions in home equity, and they spent it. Research firm Moody's Economy.com estimates the real-estate sector has been responsible for one in three new jobs over the past few years, everything from mortgage brokers to Home Depot Inc. stockboys. But the rise in prices also locked out a lot of prospective migrants from other states. While home prices were doubling, the state's personal income rose just 31%. That made it tough for anyone living on Florida wages to crack the real-estate market and recent declines haven't offset that.

What's more, as Florida's population has swelled, the state has created a two-tiered tax system that hit newcomers and part-time residents harder than longer-term residents. For tax purposes, permanent residents receive a $25,000 "homestead" reduction in the assessed value of their home, which reduces their property taxes. A 1992 amendment to the state's constitution caps the annual increase in residents' assessed home value at 3% a year or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.

The effect is that over the past few years, as home values have soared, newcomers have paid higher tax bills. For instance, the owner of one North Tampa house assessed at $214,764 paid $1,992 in taxes last year, according to the Hillsborough County property appraiser's office. A new owner, who made it his primary residence, would pay about $3,820 in taxes next year, assuming the house doesn't decline in value.

Rising insurance rates prompted by hurricanes are also eroding Florida's appeal. The average premium for homeowner's insurance in Florida was $929 in 2004, the fourth-highest of any state in the country. In Hillsborough County, rates on a five-year-old $150,000 house range from $940 to $2,313 a year.

Florida is now scrambling to reduce property taxes and the cost of homeowner's insurance. Over the summer, Gov. Charlie Crist signed a bill to roll back property taxes to last year's level. Next year, Floridians could vote on a constitutional amendment that would lower property taxes by increasing the tax exemption given to permanent residents. New legislation also requires the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to freeze rates in 2007. The idea is to keep other insurers from raising their prices.

But none of that makes a difference to Mel Graves. He sold his New Hampshire software and advertising systems support company and moved to Florida in 2002. He spent $275,000 on a house near Sarasota on the Gulf Coast. In 2004, when Hurricane Charley bore down on their home, Mr. Graves and his wife left for their son's place in Tennessee. When the hurricane was past, Mr. Graves returned to Florida and sold the house for almost double what he paid for it.

"My wife said 'No way am I staying here,'" he says.

The Graves have decided to settle in Tennessee.

2007-08-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

Argentina unilaterally cancels debt. Cuba becomes a member of Mercosur. Brazil opposes U.S. subsidies to its domestic agriculture. Venezuela invests in large scale private and semi private Latin American petrochemical projects. Cuba opens its commercial ports, airspace and to semi-capitalist nation while opposing ultra left guerilla movements in Colombia.

The Capitalist Communist binary is over in Latin America. Pan Latin American market socialism is taking its place. A supra-nationalist minded policies supported by a domestic elite, labor and reformed socialists has replaced it.

We will offer our take on the shape of things but first we offer this essay by disgruntled leftist Dr. James Petras.

Latin America - Four Competing Blocs of Power

In reality there are four competing blocs of nations in Latin America, contrary to the highly simplistic dualism portrayed by the White House and most of the Left.

. 04.17.2007

Introduction

Each of these four blocs represents different degrees of accommodation or opposition to US policies and interests. Moreover much depends on how the US defines or re-defines its interests under the new realities.

The radical left includes the FARC guerrillas in Colombia, sectors of the trade unions and peasant and barrio movements in Venezuela; the labor confederation CONLUTAS and sectors of the Rural Landless Movement in Brazil; sectors of the Bolivian Labor Confederation (COB), the Andean peasant movements and barrio organizations in El Alto; sectors of the peasant-indigenous movement CONAIE in Ecuador; sectors of the teachers and peasant-indigenous movements in Oaxaca, Guerrero and Chiapas in Mexico; sectors of the nationalist-peasant-left in Peru; sectors of the trade union and unemployed workers in Argentina. In addition, there are numerous other social movements in Central and South America and a plethora of small Marxist groups in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and elsewhere. Together these organizations form a heterodox, dispersed political bloc, which is staunchly anti-imperialist, rejects any concessions to neo-liberal socio-economic policies, opposes debt payments and generally supports a socialist or radical nationalist program.

The pragmatic left includes President Chavez in Venezuela, Morales in Bolivia and Castro in Cuba as well as a multiplicity of large electoral parties and major peasant and trade unions in Central and South America. Included here are the left electoral parties, the PRD in Mexico, the FMLN in El Salvador, the left electoral bloc and the labor confederation (CUT) in Colombia, the Chilean Communist Party, the majority in Peruvian nationalist Humala’s parliamentary party, leadership sectors of the MST, in Brazil, the MAS, the governing party in Bolivia, the CTA, the second largest labor confederation in Argentina, and a minority of the Broad Front and the labor confederation (PIT-CNT) in Uruguay. The great majority of left Latin American intellectuals are found among this political bloc.

It is worthwhile to examine why this bloc is referred to as the ‘pragmatic’ left. First of all Venezuela, Bolivia and the entire spectrum of above-mentioned social movements, trade union confederations, parties and fractions of parties do not call for or practice the expropriation of capitalism, the repudiation of the debt, the complete expropriation of US or EEC banks or multinational corporation, or any rupture in relations with the US.

For example, in Venezuela, private national and foreign banks earned over 30% rate of return in 2005-2007. Foreign-owned oil companies reaped record profits between 2004-2007. Less than 1% of the biggest landed estates were fully expropriated and titles turned over to landless peasants. Capital-labor relations still operate in a framework heavily weighted on behalf of business and labor contractors who rely on subcontractors who continue to dominate hiring and firing in more than one half of the large enterprises. The Venezuelan military and police continue to arrest suspected Colombian guerrillas and activists and turn them over to the Colombian police. Venezuela and US-client President Uribe of Colombia have signed several high-level security and economic co-operation agreements. While promoting Latin American integration (excluding the US) Chavez has looked toward greater ‘integration’ with neo-liberal Brazil and Argentina, whose oil production and distribution is controlled by European MNCs and US investors. While Chavez attacks US attempts to subvert the democratic process in Venezuela, it still provides 12% of total US petroleum imports, owns 12,000 CITGO gasoline stations in the US and several refineries.

Finally the Venezuela’s political system is wide open to influence by the private mass media, which are overwhelmingly hostile to the democratically elected President and Congress. US-funded NGO’s continue to act on behalf of US policymakers, as do a dozen pro-US political parties and a trade union confederation. The majority of pro-Chavez congressional members and officials are of very dubious nationalist credentials, having jumped on his political bandwagon more for personal advancement than from any populist loyalties. Many emigrated from defunct pro-US right wing political parties. In a word, Venezuela’s pragmatism spells out a very lucrative field for US investors, a reliable supplier of energy and alliances with the US’s major client (Colombia) in Latin America. The essence of the matter is that Chavez’s radical rhetoric and discourse on 21st century socialism does not now or in the proximate future correspond to the political realities. If it were not for Washington’s intransigent hostility and continued confrontation and destabilization tactics, even Chavez’s discourse would likely be moderated. That sectors of big business complain about increased royalty payments, profit sharing and taxes is to be expected, but hardly the basis for Washington to engage in arms boycotts, cheap rhetorical shots and undercover subversion.

US-Venezuela relations embody what is wrong and has failed in Latin America. By comparing Chavez’ policy with that of the previous Venezuelan client regimes during the 1990’s, Washington is painting Chavez as a ‘dangerous radical’. Taking into account the changed international environment of the 2000-2007 period and the limited social welfare, and tax and other reforms, and taking Chavez’ foreign policy pronouncements with a grain of salt, the US is in fact dealing with a pragmatic radical who can be accommodated. But that presumes that Washington rejects the 1990’s as a standard for measuring friends and enemies. It presumes that Washington realizes that the favorable international conjuncture of the 1990’s is gone and it must accommodate moderate reforms and foreign policy differences to avoid a social revolution.

The same is true regarding US policy toward Cuba and Bolivia. Cuba has established diplomatic ties with almost all US clients and allies in Latin America. It has explicitly extended a friendly diplomatic hand to US-backed Colombian President Uribe, rejects the revolutionary left (FARC) in Colombia, gives public support to neo-liberals like Lula of Brazil, Kirchner of Argentina and Vazquez in Uruguay and has signed a wide range of purchasing agreements with big US food exporters amounting to over $500 million dollars a year despite onerous terms. Cuba has provided free health services to a large number of US client regimes ranging from Honduras and Haiti to Pakistan. It is training thousands of doctors and educators from the poorest of US client states and has opened the door to foreign investors from four continents in all its major growth sectors.

Paradoxically as Cuba has deepened its integration into the world capitalist market leading to the emergence of a new class of market-oriented elites, Washington has increased its ideological hostility. By issuing military threats and exercising diplomatic pressure and provocations, the White House has strengthened radical tendencies in Cuban society. Washington has adopted a similar extremist posture toward the pragmatic-leftist Morales regime in Bolivia, whose ‘nationalization’ has not and will not expropriate any foreign-owned enterprise. One of Morales main purposes is to stimulate trade agreements between Bolivia’s agro-business elite and the US.

The third and most numerous political bloc in Latin America are the pragmatic neo-liberals which includes Brazil under Lula, Kirchner’s Argentina and the major trade union confederations in Brazil and Argentina, sectors of the big business and financial elites and the principal provincial political bosses handing out subsistence unemployment doles and food baskets. There are numerous imitators of these regimes among left-liberal opposition groups in Ecuador, Nicaragua (the Sandinistas and their split-offs), Paraguay and elsewhere. Both Kirchner and Lula have defended the entire gamut of legal, semi-legal and illegal privatizations, which took place in the 1990’s. Both have prepaid on their official debt obligations (though Argentina imposed a 60% discount on private debt holders).

Both have pursued agro-mineral export growth strategies. Both have vastly increased financial and business profits while restraining wages and salaries. There are also differences between the two. Kirchner’s pro-industry strategy has led to a growth rate over twice that of Lula and he has reduced unemployment by 50% (from a high base figure) compared to Lula’s failed employment policies. In other words, the investment environment for US business-people and bankers in Argentina and Brazil is as favorable to profit making (or even more so for US bankers in Brazil) as it was during the ‘Golden Years’ of the 1990’s.

The major changes in relations between the pragmatic neo-liberals and Washington are in the negotiations over a free trade agreement. The vast increase in global trade opportunities and the stronger market position of elite export producers and manufacturers within Latin America gives them a stronger negotiating position. Both Lula and Kirchner will have nothing to do with extremist-militarist US efforts to overthrow or boycott Chavez because they have growing and lucrative market investments and joint oil/gas projects in the works. They recognize the basically capitalist nature of the Chavez regime even as they reject most of his radical anti-imperialist discourse. Likewise both Presidents are diversifying trading partners and pursuing markets with US competitors in China and Asia because it is lucrative, revenue generating and part of their neo-liberal practice.

There is a clear difference between the market-oriented and free trade-driven policy of Argentina and Brazil and the militarist, ideologically driven US policy toward Venezuela, Cuba, the Middle East and elsewhere.

While Washington is not hostile to Argentina and has a friendly working relation with Brazil, it has failed to fully exploit the possibilities of extending influence because of its refusal to recognize the emergence of a kind of ‘nationalist’ free trade regime. Measuring Argentina against the 1990’s ‘Golden Age of Pillage’ under President Carlos Menem, Kirchner’s pursuit of negotiated agreements, regulated investments, tax collection and debt re-negotiations is seen as ‘nationalist’, ‘leftist’ and barely tolerable. Likewise Washington, accustomed to Cardoso’s role as a Washington client, is disturbed by the fact that Lula’s free market policies include a demand that the US end agricultural subsidies and quotas as well as Brazil. Once again Washington’s extremism sacrifices large-scale, long-term US entry into Brazil’s industrial and service sector in order to defend uncompetitive US farm enterprises. Washington’s attitude is more akin to a 19th century colonial (or mercantile) power than a 21st century market-based empire-builder, especially faced with pragmatic rulers looking to build their own regional power bases.

The fourth political bloc is the doctrinaire neo-liberal regimes, parties and elite associations, which closely follow Washington’s dictates. This includes the Calderon regime in Mexico, preparing to privatize the lucrative public petroleum and electrical firms, the Bachelet regime in Chile - the perennial agro-mineral-exporter, Central America – the tropical fruit and assembly plant exporters (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala). The latter were brought into the US orbit subsequent to the killing of over 300,000 people between the late 1970’s and early 1990’s.

Colombia, another member of the hard-line neo-liberal bloc, is recipient of $5 billion dollars in US military aid since the late 1990’s. Peru, which over the past 20 years has privatized almost all of its mineral wealth is governed by US client President Alan Garcia who continues the same policies. Paraguay has become the biggest military base for Washington. In Uruguay, a regime of ex-leftists has signed onto a new free trade agreement with the US and agreed to a military training base. In the Caribbean, the US occupies Haiti via the UN after overthrowing and abducting the elected President Bertram Aristide and has a loyal ally in the Dominican Republic (President Leonel Fernandez). In other words, Washington dominates a ‘Pacific Arc’ of loyal clients extending from Mexico, through Central America down the Southern Pacific coast, including Colombia, Peru and Chile. While the political labels, rhetoric and degree of stability vary, these regimes all embrace US-backed doctrines of free market, mostly follow the US lead in regional and international forums and in one degree or another openly or surreptitiously oppose Venezuela and Cuba. Powerful pragmatic leftist movements challenge these client regimes, especially in Mexico, El Salvador, Peru and Colombia (including the radical left in the latter). Nevertheless for the immediate future, Washington has a loyal bloc of follower regimes, even as, over the middle course this could change abruptly.

Conclusion

Claims by Washington and right-wing ideologues that ‘radical populism’ is sweeping the region are self-serving and gross simplifications of a complex reality. Instead there is a ‘quadrangle of competing and conflicting forces’ within Latin America. There are also new and changing international scenarios, which complicate any attempt to ‘pigeonhole’ policies with ‘either/or’ choices. Washington has emphasized the subversive influence of Venezuela and Cuba in weakening US dominance in Latin America. A far more important factor is the across the board rise in commodity prices of goods which are major export earners for Latin America. This means that the Latin American countries have less need to rely on IMF ‘conditions’ for securing loans, thus severely limiting US political leverage. Secondly the greater liquidity means that commercial loans can be secured without resorting to the World Bank, another instrument of US influence in Latin American political and economic policy making. Thirdly the rapidly expanding markets in Asia and particularly the growth of Asian investment in Latin America’s extractive industries has further eroded US ‘market leverage’ in Latin America over and above what Washington possessed in the 1990’s. Fourthly with the slowdown of the US economy in 2007, the US is expected to lessen its investments and trade with Latin America. In other words, Washington has less market leverage over pragmatic leftists and neo-liberals than it possessed during the 1990’s. To continue to act in the late-2000s as if Washington’s relative loss of influence reflects the ebb and flow of political forces (radical populism) within the region is to pursue failed policies. Mislabeling regimes and exaggerating the degree and kind of opposition leads to the exacerbation of conflicts. Furthermore for Washington to persist in believing that it can secure continent-wide free trade agreements based on non-reciprocal concessions (particularly in agriculture) is to lose out on opportunities for trade deals.

Washington’s over-politicization and ideological labeling of changes in US-Latin American relations is a result of the ultra-conservative configuration of policymakers and their principal advisers in Washington.

If Washington has grossly misrepresented Latin American political reality and misreads the current regional and international context, the Left is hardly more prescient. Leftist intellectuals exaggerate the radicalism or revolutionary reality of Cuba and Venezuela. They overlook the contradictory realities and their pragmatic accommodations with neo-liberal regimes. The Left, with little historical perspicacity, continues to categorize pragmatic neo-liberals like Lula, Kirchner and Vazquez as ‘progressives’, lumping them together with pragmatic leftists like Chavez, Castro and Morales. In many cases they characterize parties and regimes based on their past leftist political identities rather than their current free market, pro-agro-mineral elite policies. The Left confuses the pragmatic neo-liberal regimes’ efforts to negotiate symmetrical free market trade agreements with the US as some sort of ‘anti-globalization’ policy or as a ‘counter-weight’ to US power.

The Left has to face up to the fact that while US power has declined relative to the ‘Golden Age of Pillage’ during the 1990’s, it has recovered and advanced since the mass rebellions and overthrow of client regimes of 2000-2002. The hopes that the Left had that the presidential victories of former center-left electoral parties in Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, would augur a reversion of the neo-liberal policies of their predecessors have been demonstrably dashed. The attempt to redefine the conversion of the ex-leftist-turned-pragmatic neo-liberals into something progressive or as a ‘counter-weight’ to US power is ingenuous at best and at worst compounds the initial error. The Left’s lack of political clarity regarding political changes has led it into a blind alley as damaging to its future growth as Washington’s failed efforts to recognize the new realities.

While US power over Latin America has declined since the 1990’s it has not been a linear process, a sharp fall has been followed by a partial recovery. The decline of the US has not been matched by a sustained rise in the power of the radical left. The real ‘gainers’ have been the pragmatic leftists and neo-liberals who rode to power with the demise of the doctrinaire neo-liberals and the favorable expansive conjuncture in world market conditions. There are neither inherent long-term ‘laws of imperial decline’ as some Leftist historians claim, nor ‘an end of the revolutionary left’ as their neo-liberal counterparts claim. Rather a realistic analysis demonstrates that political interventions, class conflict and international markets play a major role in shaping US-Latin American relations and more particularly the ascent and decline of US imperial power, social revolutionary forces and the other political variants in between.

March 2007

2007-08-21T15:03:00.001-07:00

2007-08-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

Tax cuts hurt South Florida home sales, real estate agents say

Potential buyers fear reduced services, increased fees, real estate agents say

By R. Benedick

The scramble is on by cities to cut property taxes, but instead of luring home buyers, real estate agents say it may be discouraging some of them.

"A big question on people's minds is what will happen in terms of public services and does this mean schools will have less money, and what about public hospitals?" said Barry Rothman, sales associate with Lang Realty in Boca Raton. "Are we going to get even less service for our tax dollars?"

That's not what state legislators had hoped would happen when they ordered cities and counties for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 to freeze tax collections at current levels and then make an additional cut, ranging from 3 percent to 9 percent.

"People see the tax issue as a bunch of bull, so to speak, because insurance rates haven't gone down, home prices are still high and now interest rates are rising so people who were barely able to get in when prices were down can't afford to buy now," said broker Jeff Kahn, manager consultant with Century 21 Hansen Realty in Fort Lauderdale.

To make up some of the lost property tax revenues, some municipalities are hiking fees for fire protection, garbage collection, water, building permits and parks.

"It's like they're robbing Peter to pay Paul," said Lisa Mays, president of West Park's Miami Gardens homeowners association. "It's becoming a nightmare because you've got fee hikes now and everything seems to be going up, not down."

West Park is considering a 50 percent hike in the fire fee and a 40 percent increase in the garbage fee. Other cities also are weighing drastic actions to cover shortfalls. (Pic left, will school busing cutbacks lead to this?)

Tamarac is laying off 26 employees and may reduce the community bus service for seniors. Pembroke Pines is considering pulling the plug on some preschool programs, senior bus service and the mounted patrol while doubling its fire-rescue fee.

Boynton Beach is eyeing a water tax and Delray Beach may leave five police officer positions vacant and increase business taxes to raise revenue.

Broward County is looking to increase the cost of going to parks on weekends, returning overdue library books and licensing pets. Palm Beach County plans to raise bus fares.

The property tax relief signed into law in June is projected to save the average homeowner only $174 in taxes this year. The biggest savings would come next year if voters approve part two of the tax plan: They can choose to keep their Save our Homes tax cap or a "super" exemption.

Save Our Homes lets homeowners exempt $25,000 off the home's value and caps yearly tax increases at 3 percent. The "super" exemption allows them to shave off 75 percent of the first $200,000 of their home's taxable value and an additional 15 percent off the next $300,000.

If the "super exemption" constitutional amendment passes in January, cities and counties stand to lose millions more in tax revenue, officials said, meaning more cuts in services. (Pic right, neglected roads in South Florida.)

Because of the uncertainty, "a lot of people are waiting to see what happens with the taxes and prices," said Mark Heller, a Realtor and broker-associate at Century 21 Realty in Coral Springs.

His clients, Rivka and Dan Bushel, plan to rent for a year in Coral Springs before making any decisions.

2007-08-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Sunburned Economy Must Look North (2005 article)

The US economy is based on innovation and creativity. The tie to top research universities and urban economic growth is important. Those college rankings are a lot more important than many realize since they are based largely on the criteria of research money, quality of research professors and perceived quality of students.

Charlotte has become what it is because of Duke and UNC as well as Davidson. Atlanta relies heavily upon Georgia Tech and Emory. New York City has Columbia and NYU with Yale and Princeton less than an hour away. Los Angeles has UCLA, Cal Tech and USC. Chicago’s research centers are Northwestern and University of Chicago. Boston has MIT and Harvard. Nashville may be known for music but it is Vanderbilt and its ties to Oakridge National Laboratories that has fueled its economic growth. It is no surprise that Austin and Houston have developed a tech corridor when one of the largest premier research universities, University of Texas /Texas Tech (They share endowments and research funding) are leaders in public and private research dollars and Rice is the largest recipient of federal research grants in the deep South. Washington, DC has Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and UVa. I could offer numerous other examples but there is one example that states the case definitively. The Bay Area and its research universities, Stanford and Berkeley; no two schools have surpassed them as technology incubators and birth place to tech start-ups.

Miami has something that some of these cities do not. The city and the university share weather and beaches that enable it to attract talent for less pay than other regions.

UM, thanks to a failure of leadership has proven mind bogglingly adept in recent years at frittering away this advantage. A young university, for years Miami struggled to increase its name recognition and to shed the negative implications that came with its image as “Suntan U”. Early university leaders hoped to follow in the aggressive strategy that allowed some West Coast universities to vault their East Coast counterparts.

Miami also tried to convince Fortune 500 hundred companies’ Southern operations that Miami was a viable option for regional headquarters. Miami has long been said to be Los Angeles twenty years ago. Miami mimicked that city's attempts to encourage families to relocate through a network of development and business councils (GMCC and the Beacon Council). The Orange Bowl Parade, like the Rose Bowl Parade was identified as a method to advertise glorious weather and a prosperous city to workers and potential students. It integrated Blacks into leadership (albeit grudgingly) and ended segregation rather than risk the image of racial strife. (This attracted a significant amount of black professionals from throughout the region.)

The "Non-Group" led the way. This organization of business and civic leaders fashioned after "LA’s Committee of 25" and Charlotte’s simply monikered "The Group" and Boston’s "The Vault". Not surprisingly these leadership groups from each of their respective cities often met and shared ideas, visions and advanced trade.

As a result, Miami had one of the fastest growing economies in the nation. And each decade Miami roughly doubled in population, from it’s inception until 1980. Almost half of American GI’s from World War II trained in Miami and many moved to the city with their families following the war. They were said to have had “sand in their shoes”.

When Miami’s power landscape shifted, and Miami experienced crisis after crisis the Anglo elite left, taking their businesses and networks with them. It was a sign of the times when the huge media conglomerate Knight Ridder, publisher of the Herald decided to move to San Jose.

Today, well educated, ambitious and creative people, like the GI’s from years earlier still get “sand in their shoes”. What vacationer does not envision a life in America’s only large tropical city? (Sorry, LA you are a paved desert with a cold, dirty ocean.) The problem is that Miami has developed an attitude of insularity, distancing itself from domestic trade and talent.

This has a multiplying effect. The Anglo or African American Harvard grad who applies to a City of Miami job is turned down, perhaps because of ethnicity perhaps because of being an “outsider”. She does not move here with her MIT educated husband that is active with a start up utilizing nanotechnology or the like. A chain of talented people are turned away with each act of insularity and discrimination in hiring practices.

Again, even though Western Europeans and Canadians continue to be the largest foreign investors in Florida and US residents (not a few of them Black) are the largest source of tourism, local leadership has decided that as the self appointed Capital of Latin America its priorities lie elsewhere.

Effects: Miami’s banking sector has went from the headquarters to a number of flourishing regional banks to a bilingual forward sales force for banks headquartered in other cities. Light manufacturing has all but been replaced by freight forwarding for American items made in other places.

So, the Miami-Dade government and business community, ever looking southward, gives the cold shoulder to Scripps, claiming that it cannot do anything about the lack of available real estate for a research campus, while pushing the Urban Development Boundary back to make way for urban sprawl. Palm Beach, instead of Miami, cashes in on nearly a half billion dollars of incentive funding offered by Governor Bush to jump start Florida’s lagging tech sector.

How bad can it be? The Amazons, Genentecs, Googles, Microsofts, Facebooks, Yahoos, eBays, Def Jams, Tasers, AOL, Ciscos, Dells, Suns, Oracles, etc., formed by college students and recent graduates from elite universities continue to create a new economy based on information technology, communications and entertainment. Billions of dollars in research money go to universities that attract the finest students and professors regardless of background. As research spawns new technology and products industry is created that serves their surrounding economies.

This is not just an issue of shutting out the “new” economy. The older industrial based economy already has shored up its relationships with research universities and new tech companies. Non-tech professional, marketers, advertisers and designers continue to do business where they have the access to broadest and most qualified source of human capital.

Manufacturers and retailers, formerly the less technology dependent players in the economy now are dependent upon highly technical distribution systems. Product design is also technically driven in an economy where product shelf life is shortened and manufacturing is global. America is not a manufacturing economy but a design and innovation economy. Technology has allowed large talent pools in metropolitan areas to exchange ideas. These talent pools are dependent upon the educational and research infrastructure for their training, support and regeneration.

Miami is at the bottom of large cities for the percentage of adults with high school diplomas, bachelor degrees, and has the highest percentage of those for who English is a secondary language. (Florida has the lowest graduation rate in the nation.) This is a particularly worrisome state of affairs in a world that has made post graduate degrees the necessary professional qualification and English the world’s lingua franca. Miami now leads the nation in poverty, and disparity of income and housing prices. This is no secret as the Manhattan Institute, The International Journal for Economic Development and the Brookings Institute have all made exhaustive studies focusing on the poverty, crime and drug use tied to the lack of a well educated populace. Can you imagine Fortune 500 execs lining up to move their headquarters to Miami?

Here is another illustration of the need to look beyond Latin America northward. FIU's Graduate School of Engineering created a recruiting program including full scholarships and housing, in an attempt to recruit from Latin America and the Caribbean. This was to make up for a shrinking pool of Asian and African graduate students who would rather attend colleges with more research opportunities and a welcoming local economy post graduation. FIU found it nearly impossible to find qualified graduates from any part of Latin America or the Caribbean save Jamaica and Trinidad (Most of these students had been planning to go to England or the Northeastern U.S.)

The upshot is that until Miami welcomes the most qualified people in public and private sector hiring and lures national businesses to compete for our public contracts, it will continue to be the poorest city in America. Outside talent is, however only part of the solution. We must strengthen our educational infrastucture. This will take lots of dollars. It will also take the de-politicization of educational leadership.

The other side of this coin is that we must broaden our focus in trade. Miami must not value our trade ties with desperately poor Caribbean and Central American nations where there are five of the hemispheres poorest countries (Haiti, Nicaragua, Jamaica, El Salvador and Guatemala). We must also recognize that South America is looking inward, investing in its own economies. Even if this were not the case, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires and Caracas hardly look to Miami as the capital of Latin America.

Miami must open its eyes to the largest market in the World. The death of the FTAA should have been a clarion call to General Jeb and his Dade junta who have continued this blind march into the Caribbean.

2007-08-13T22:43:00.000-07:00

Miami Condo Glut Pushes Florida's Economy to Brink of Recession

By Bob Ivry

Construction cranes dot the skyline of Miami

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- In the middle of the biggest glut of condominiums in more than 30 years, Miami developers keep on building.

The oversupply will force prices down as much as 30 percent, the worst decline since the 1970s, and help push Florida's economy into recession as early as October, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at West Chester, Pennsylvania-based Moody's Economy.com, who owns a home in Vero Beach, Florida.

``Florida is the epicenter for all the problems that exist in the housing industry,'' said Lewis Goodkin, president of Goodkin Consulting Corp. and a property adviser in Miami for the past 30 years, who also foresees a recession. ``The problems we have now are unprecedented and a lot of people will get burnt.''

Thirty-seven new high-rise condos and 20,000 new units are being built in Miami's 1,040-acre downtown, where sales fell almost 50 percent in May, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. The new units will join the 22,924 existing condos in Miami-Dade County that were for sale in April, according to Jack McCabe, chief executive officer of McCabe Research & Consulting LLC in Deerfield Beach, Florida. That's the most unsold units since McCabe began tracking sales in 2002.

``Have you been to Miami lately?'' Florida Governor Charlie Crist said at a homebuilders' conference last week in Orlando. ``It's like we have a new state bird: the building crane.''

Construction Jobs

While the housing industry is responsible for 10.6 percent of the nation's jobs, in Florida it accounts for 20 percent, Zandi said. Florida construction jobs fell 2.9 percent in May to 626,200 from the peak in June 2006, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The national housing industry's weakness prompted Federal Reserve policy makers this week to cut their forecasts for U.S. economic growth for the next two years.

The economy will grow by 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 from a year before, compared with a range of 2.5 percent to 3 percent the Fed predicted in February, the board said in a report to Congress.

Florida's robust economy of 2001 to 2005 was driven by the thousands of well-paying jobs related to the real estate market and homeowners who used home-equity loans to pay for items such as boats and big-screen TVs, McCabe said.

``All those jobs are going away now, and we're seeing the trickle-down effect in declining sales in big-box retailers and home-furnishing manufacturers,'' McCabe said. ``Florida is headed to a recession.''

Influx of Retirees

A Florida recession could be averted and the state housing industry's ``serious problems'' solved by an influx of American retirees and foreign buyers, said David Denslow, a University of Florida economist in Gainesville.

``The wave of baby boomer retirees is gathering momentum, and the weaker dollar makes Florida seem like a bargain to Europeans,'' Denslow said. ``With any luck at all that will sustain us.''

Downtown Miami developers already are offering incentives for brokers who connect them to buyers. John Rosser, president of the Key Biscayne, Florida-based John Paul Rosser & Associates Inc. estate brokerage, said he is usually paid a commission of as much as 5 percent when a sale is completed. For the Capital at Brickell, a block off Miami's Brickell Avenue, he was offered what he called ``an unheard of'' deal to steer buyers to one of the 832 units proposed. A salesman said Rosser would be paid 5 percent -- payable when buyers put down a deposit. The project has just broken ground and won't open until 2011.

Puig Bankruptcy

Puig Development Group, a closely held company that converted rental apartments to condos, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 29. The Hialeah, Florida-based Puig and its subsidiaries controlled 2,900 units in Florida, including 980 condos, worth about $210 million, said Ronald Glass of Atlanta-based GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group LLC, chief restructuring officer for the Puig properties.

``Puig got a little overzealous and a little overly optimistic, and was caught when the market slowed,'' Glass said.

Florida banks have already quit making loans to Miami condo developers, said Kenneth H. Thomas, a Miami bank consultant and a lecturer at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

``South Florida lenders were the first to put money into the condo market, they were the first to see the oversupply and they were the first to get out,'' Thomas said.

Because of the lag time between making construction loans and closing sales on completed condos, loan problems showed up for Florida lenders in first-quarter bank statistics from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in Washington, Thomas said.

Overdue Bills

Florida banks posted a 43 percent jump in the first quarter in loans no longer paying interest compared with the last three months of 2006, while the number for banks nationwide rose 13 percent, according to the FDIC.

Loan payments that were one to three months overdue to Florida banks increased 30 percent in the first three months of 2007 from the fourth quarter of last year. The same number for banks nationwide fell 1.8 percent, the FDIC said.

Angel Medina Jr., who runs the Southeast Florida operations of Regions Bank, a division of Birmingham, Alabama-based Regions Financial Corp., said Regions has financed projects by two of Miami's biggest condo developers: Related Group of Florida, headed by billionaire Jorge Perez, and Ugo Colombo's CMC Group.

The bank hasn't financed any Miami condos in the past 18 months because development is ``too aggressive,'' Medina said.

Chicago Lender

That leaves the business to lenders such as Corus Bank, a division of Chicago-based Corus Bankshares Inc. Corus has lent a total of $1.07 billion to eight condo developments in downtown Miami, according to the company's Web site.

Corus's net income in the first three months of 2007 was $26.4 million, a 39 percent drop from a year earlier, according to a company regulatory filing.

``It would not surprise us to see an even greater impact on earnings over the next several quarters, or even years, depending on when'' the national housing market improves, Chief Executive Officer Robert Glickman said in a statement.

Miami condo sales fell to 599 in May, a drop of 46 percent from a year earlier, according to the state realtors association. Condo sales in Orlando, home of Walt Disney World, have plummeted 80 percent, said Zandi of Moody's Economy.com.

``The statistics are scary,'' said Michael Wohl, a partner in the Pinnacle Housing Group, a Miami developer that has stayed out of the condo market. ``There's going to be a lot of blood in the water in the next 18 months.''

Hedge Funds

With prices falling, international investors, hedge funds, private equity firms and Wall Street banks are beginning to shop for deals, said Peter Zalewski of Condo Vultures Realty LLC, a consulting firm in Bal Harbour, Florida. Miami lags only New York in the number of foreign visitors to U.S. cities, attracting 5.3 million in 2006 from Europe, Canada and Latin America, according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.

``Bigger and bigger funds are coming to me wanting to buy,'' Zalewski said. ``Prices have yet to hit bottom because the bulk of Miami properties won't come on the market for another six months.''

Cement dust swirls at 10 high-rise condo construction sites on Biscayne Boulevard, with its prime locations overlooking the waterfront; at six sites on Brickell Avenue, home to the glass and steel offices of Banco De La Nacion Argentina, Banco Industrial De Venezuela and Banco Santander Brazil International; and at eight locations on the Miami River, which splits the city into north and south. That's according to data collected by the Miami Downtown Development Authority.

Covering Costs

Since it can take up to four years for a condo project to travel from conception to completion, many of the towers rising from the coral rock of Miami were planned and financed during the Florida housing boom, which lasted from 2001 to 2005.

Lenders typically require enough advance sales to cover the cost of a construction loan. Customers' deposits, however, don't always mean the sales will close, said Ian Bruce Eichner, a developer whose latest Miami Beach condo tower is scheduled to open in November.

``The market is as close to a depression as Miami has seen in 30 years,'' Eichner said. ``There's a gargantuan supply of homes and the overwhelming preponderance were built for speculators, not for people who are living there.''

As much as half of those putting down deposits for Miami condos are speculators looking to flip units, or sell them quickly for a profit without living in them, said McCabe of McCabe Research.

Buyers Walking Away

With sale prices falling, McCabe said he expects up to 50 percent of them to walk away from their deposits in the next 18 months rather than complete the sales.

``What's going to happen to all those units?'' Eichner asked. ``God only knows. You couldn't give me a piece of property in Miami for nothing. I like sleeping at night.''

Condo developers encouraged short-term investors, whose deposits helped them secure funding, Goodkin said.

``The developers didn't get to start building until they had a certain number of contracts signed, so anyone putting down money was good for them,'' Goodkin said.

Many ``flippers'' closed on their units and now can't sell them, said Michael Cannon of Integra Realty Resources-Miami Inc., leaving completed condo towers with floors of dark windows and empty balconies.

The Jade Residences at Brickell is an example, Cannon said. The 338-unit, 48-story waterfront tower, a block from the Brickell Avenue financial district, opened in August 2004 with buyers willing to pay as much as $5 million snapping up all the units. Now, the new owners have listed 112 condos for sale and 17 units totaling $15 million are in foreclosure.

Trade Center

Jade Residences developer Edgardo Defortuna, president of Fortune International Realty, didn't return calls seeking comment.

The desire to strengthen Miami's position as a center of international trade is spurring the growth, said Dana Nottingham, executive director of the Miami Downtown Development Authority.

``We want to be a premiere urban center, not just nationally but globally, and downtown residential development is part of the formula for a great city,'' Nottingham said.

Mayor Manny Diaz said he's happy about what he calls ``the unprecedented flurry'' of residential development because it reduces sprawl and brings more people and money into Miami.

``We will continue to build because I see more and more interest from foreign investors coming into Miami,'' Diaz said in an interview. ``I don't think we're done.''

Island Skyscrapers

For Rosser, a former Air Force and airline pilot who's been working in the South Florida real estate industry for 19 years, a puzzling transformation is taking place on Brickell Key, a 44- acre island made of dredged bay sand connected to the rest of Miami by a 1,000-foot four-lane bridge.

On Brickell Key, 10 high-rises loom over the island's two tree-lined streets. The development is the product of a ``building frenzy,'' Rosser said.

The island's master builder is Swire Properties Inc., a Hong Kong-based developer that's a subsidiary of Swire Pacific Ltd. Swire is building a $140 million tower on Brickell Key called Asia, which is slated to open in December, according to Stephen Owens, president of Swire Properties Inc.

``Anyone who says they're not concerned about the oversupply of condos is practicing the ostrich theory,'' said Owens, who lives and works on Brickell Key.

All of Asia's 123 units are sold, with the average size of the units, 2,800 square feet, and the top sale price of $6 million discouraging speculators, Owens said.

Prices Fell

In the 1970s, when condos were a new product, Florida developers built 500,000 units and prices fell 50 percent, said Brad Hunter of MetroStudy, a research firm in West Palm Beach.

``The difference is, back then they were two-story condo buildings that had $50,000 units,'' Hunter said. ``Nowadays they are $700,000 units in 20-story buildings. Instead of building too much stuff that people could afford like we did then, this time we built too much stuff that people can't afford.''

A lot of the inventory 30 years ago was sold off and converted to rental apartments, Goodkin said. That solution won't work now because prices have soared and properties coming on the market will compete with existing condos whose prices have plummeted, he said.

Goodkin said opportunistic investors will buy construction loans from banks at a discount of 30 percent or more.

``The vultures are in the trees,'' Goodkin said. ``Reality has become the new pessimism.''

2007-08-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

A simple (if partial/non-specific) explanation why the excesses of the Real Estate Industry will effect the economy for a long time. A local story of greed gone wrong thrown in.

Beyond that, the local cuts in spending on education, capital improvements, infrastructure, etc. will have long lasting and devastating effects on the economy. Because government employment dominates the Miami job market- MDPS, FIU, MDC, MD County, Cities, etc. Real Estate jobs (especially on the financial side) have vanished and construction jobs have become catch is as catch can. Half finished projects are dotting the downtown landscape like Baghdad. Businesses in the Gables, the Grove and throughout the city have shuttered at a remarkable rate. (A recent walk through the Grove was like touring the land of commercial death.) Even media is affected as the advertising dollar (which was often spent and mispent with abandon during the hieght of the RE boom) have now dwindled and advertising people are cutting rates to barely above the price of ink. Miami is in it for a long time. Too bad there isn't something like the upsurge in cocaine popularity as in the 80's.

The real estate crowd keeps asking for tax relief when what they really want is to stay the bleeding by screwing Floridians. If the average man wants tax relief he would do much better in asking for a reduction in sales tax.

A better idea is to continue to root out corruption, increase the quality of education and life, make the area attractive for external capital and skilled workers (God know's there are enough vacant condos to rent). By ending the Banana Republic, Miami can come out of this downturn all the better for it.

2007-07-30T03:29:00.001-07:00

The New Politics of Political Aid in Venezuela

Five years after U.S.-funded groups were associated with a failed coup against Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, the U.S. government's political aid programs continue to meddle in Venezuelan domestic politics. A new focus of the "democracy builders" in Venezuela and around the world is support for nonviolent resistance by civil society organizations.

In the name of promoting democracy and freedom, Washington is currently funding scores of U.S. and Venezuelan organizations as part of its global strategy—including at least one that publicly supported the April 2002 coup that briefly removed Chávez from power.

When he first heard the news of the coup, the president of the International Republican Institute (IRI) praised those "who rose up to defend democracy," ignoring the fact that Chávez was the twice-elected president of Venezuela. Despite this declared support for a coup against a democratically elected president and for the opposition's blatant disregard for the rule of law, IRI still runs democratization programs in Venezuela that are underwritten by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The IRI, a supposedly nonpartisan institute established to direct U.S. democratization aid for which Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is chairman, is one of five U.S. nongovernmental organizations that channels funding from USAID to Venezuelan organizations and political programs. USAID also funds the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDIIA) and three U.S. nongovernmental organizations: Freedom House, Development Alternatives Inc., and Pan-American Development Foundation.

The United States has supported political groups in Venezuela since at least the early 1990s, but funding for "democracy-building" soared after Chávez was elected president in 1998. Both USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which funds IRI and NDIIA, sharply increased their funding to Venezuela's business associations, its official labor confederation, human rights organizations, and political party coalitions.

USAID's Transition Initiative

Several months after the unsuccessful April 2002 coup in Venezuela, the U.S. State Department established an Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) in Caracas, using money from USAID. Operating out of the U.S. Embassy, OTI has two stated objectives, according to the agency: to "strengthen democratic institutions and promote space for democratic dialogue," and "encourage citizen participation in the democratic process."

USAID established OTI with the explicit intention of aiding efforts to oust President Chávez. According to USAID, the new office would "provide fast, flexible, short-term assistance targeted at key transition needs."

Although it did not spell out what would be the desired "transition," in its 2001 job description for the new OTI director in Caracas, USAID stated that the director's responsibilities would include "formulating strategy and initiating the new OTI program in close coordination with U.S. political interests" and "developing an exit strategy and operational closeout plan."

Rather than directly funding Venezuelan organizations and political parties, OTI channels USAID funding through U.S. nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that in turn fund scores of Venezuelan NGOs and political party projects. In its January-March 2007 report, USAID reported 139 subgrants to Venezuelan entities working in 19 of the country's 23 states.

OTI, which has directed an estimated $30 million and an undisclosed private budget for its programs to Venezuela, is not the only source of U.S. political aid. The office describes itself as part of a "comprehensive assistance program to shore up the democratic voices and institutions in Venezuela," such as the NED and other State Department initiatives, including trips to the United States for selected members of the Venezuelan media. As U.S. economic aid decreases, OTI is seeking local funding to complement its own programs, noting in its January-March 2007 report that it succeeded in leveraging $3.5 million in local contributions in the year's first quarter.

In its January-March appraisal of its "transition initiatives," OTI boasts: "The partnerships that have formed between NGOs and citizens eager to participate directly in their own governance attest to the success of the program ... that is filling an important need that is laying the groundwork for a sustainable democratic future."

Although the NGOs funded by the U.S. government insist they are independent, they closely coordinate their programs among themselves and with U.S. officials. In February 2007, OTI's "team leader" visited Venezuela to participate in "a strategic planning" session with the "five implementing partner organizations," according to USAID.

OTI has also been organizing a meeting with two dozen Venezuelan NGOs "that promote citizen participation in local democratic spaces." In its January-March evaluation of ongoing operations, OTI says that "given the political parties' growing appreciation of the importance of democratic spaces, the meeting will provide opportunities to discuss the synergistic overlap between civil society and political parties."

With OTI support, IRI and NDIIA offer "technical assistance for political parties," working directly "with political parties to improve their capabilities in constituency outreach and institutional development," according to USAID. Both institutes say they offer their services to both government and opposition parties—although apparently only the opposition parties avail themselves of this "democracy-building" aid.

Freedom House is best known for its widely cited Freedom in the World and Freedom of the Press reports. But it is not commonly known that Freedom House is a major recipient of U.S. government funding—directly from USAID or through the government-funded NED.

Relying almost exclusively on government funding for its overseas operations, Freedom House says it works "directly with democratic reformers on the front lines in their own countries" in Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, the former Soviet Union, and the Balkans. According to Freedom House, its overseas activity "acts as a catalyst for freedom by strengthening civil society, promoting open government, defending human rights, and facilitating the free flow of information."

With USAID funding, Freedom House sponsors a "Human Rights Defenders" program in Venezuela that it promotes as "facilitat[ing] the interaction of Venezuelan civil society with counterparts in Latin America to help them improve domestic human rights reporting and to expand protections for human rights." The "longer-term goal," says Freedom House, is "to assist groups who will strive to safeguard and improve the functioning of democratic institutions in Venezuela."

For its part, in early 2007 the Pan-American Development Fund provided funding to Venezuelan NGOs to "document the following activities: the constitutional reform process, discrimination based on political affiliation, and persecution of human rights practitioners." Meanwhile, Development Alternatives Inc. has focused on "training in democratic leadership and values, increasing citizen participation at the local level, and supporting NGO participation in international events."

"Destabilization Plan"—An "Action Agenda" for Democracy

In May 2007, Eva Golinger, Venezuelan-American author of The Chávez Code and a prominent critic of U.S. aid programs in Venezuela, accused Freedom House and other U.S. organizations receiving U.S. government funding of orchestrating a "destabilization plan" (see Venezuelanalysis.com, May 26, 2007). Golinger claimed Freedom House was designing a campaign of nonviolent resistance to the Chávez government.

Freedom House collaborates with the Belgrade-based Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (Canvas), which has singled out Venezuela along with Zimbabwe and Ukraine as principal targets for its training programs. Describing Canvas's approach to political transitions, the center's website says: "Mass political defiance has occurred in Burma, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Tibet in recent years. Although those struggles have not brought victory over dictators, they badly harmed the authority of those oppressive regimes both in the countries and in the international community."

At a May 2007 press conference in Caracas, Golinger noted that the clenched fist featured on the flyer for a protest against the closure of RCTV, the country's largest television station (accused by the government of having supported the attempted coup), is the same logo used in opposition campaigns in Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine—it is also the symbol featured on the Canvas website.
Comparison of logos used by opposition movements in countries where the opposition received funding from the NED.

USAID and NED funding of NGOs in Venezuela reflects the U.S. government's conviction that the democratic process is badly flawed and that such political aid will contribute to a "transition" to more democratic governance—or at least, to a leader more acceptable to Washington. The focus on NGOs shown by recent "democratization" aid is also a reflection of a new trend in aid that regards NGOs' participation in destabilization as the most effective instrument for moving dictatorships to democracies.

This new method of instigating regime change has been promoted by NED, Freedom House, Albert Einstein Institution, and the Council for a Community of Democracies. In recent years Freedom House prominently advocated orchestrating civil action to overturn dictatorial regimes. Its 2005 study, entitled "How Freedom is Won," concluded that 50 of the 67 "transitions to democracy over the previous third of a century" were driven in large part by "civil resistance, featuring strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, and mass protests."

Freedom House Board Chairman Peter Ackerman, who is also the founding chairman of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict and coauthor of Strategic Nonviolent Conflict, is a leading proponent for international funding of NGOs engaged in nonviolent organizing against non-democratic states. Freedom House, according to a March 2007 address given by Ackerman, is "making every effort to improve the substance and scalability of training tools".

Another prominent advocate of the U.S. government funding political allies in the Third World is Mark Palmer, a State Department official who played a key role in founding NED and who now serves as the vice-chairman of Freedom House. In his June 8, 2006 testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, entitled "Promotion of Democracy by Nongovernmental Organizations: An Action Agenda," Palmer called for the "radical strengthening of our primary frontline fighters for freedom"—namely, NGOs.

Palmer, who was instrumental in the creation of the Council for a Community of Democracies, lamented the fact that U.S. NGOs and "their governmental and private funders" have not made the funding of foreign NGOs involved in building "national movements" their primary objective. He advocated a major increase in government funding for "NGO programs focused on dictatorships."

Current U.S. funding of an array of NGOs and community groups in Venezuela, including training and consultation offered by organizations such as Canvas and the Albert Einstein Institution, raises concerns that the overriding objective may not be so much the advance of freedom, democracy, and human rights, but rather the furthering of U.S. strategic interests.

By including a democratic state such as Venezuela among the targets of national movement building, the independence and integrity of "democracy builders" in the United States can be called into question. Chávez supporter Golinger, for example, advised Venezuelans: "For the defense of the nation, it would be wise to end the actions of groups like Freedom House and the International Republican Institute, which serve as a front for the State Department and the CIA, and which operate openly in the country."

Democracy and Intervention

There is little doubt that democracy is being put to the test in Venezuela. With a history of democratic governance since 1958, Venezuela has been relatively stable, in Latin American terms. But a large part of that stability resulted from a pattern of elections in which well-established parties of the elite alternated in power. By breaking that pattern, Hugo Chávez disrupted that vaunted stability and at the same time made politics more inclusive. For the first time, the country's rural poor and urban workers had a voice in government. Winning several highly contested elections since 1998 by impressive majorities, Chávez has earned legitimacy as a democrat.

Questions about the integrity of U.S. democratization aid are now being used by the Venezuelan government to press its National Assembly to pass a new law that would subject all NGOs that receive foreign funding to governmental scrutiny and approval. If such a measure is instituted, at least part of the blame will lay with Washington and will constitute part of the antidemocratic legacy of U.S. democratization strategy.

It's past time for the U.S. "democratizers" to shut down their operations in Venezuela and make their exit. By intervening in Venezuela through NGOs, Washington lends credence to claims by Chávez and others who charge that the U.S. government is pursuing a policy of regime change in Venezuela.

The first step toward a more constructive foreign policy toward Venezuela should be an expression of support for the country's self-determination in its political and economic affairs. Concerns about the state of democracy, media freedom, or human rights in Venezuela could then be expressed through normal diplomatic channels without fueling suspicion that the United States and its shadow institutions are part of a campaign to undermine the elected Venezuelan government.

As things stand, however, Washington and its phalanx of democracy-building NGOs are not just raising concerns, but are also operating to influence internal politics inside Venezuela. Washington would not permit foreign countries and their agents to inject themselves into its own political process; it should assume no right to do unto others what it would not have done to itself.

2007-07-12T00:06:00.000-07:00

Chávez is no enemy of free speech.

Hugo Chávez let Radio Caracas Televisión continue to air for five years after the station supported a coup attempt.

By Bart Jones

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's refusal to renew the license of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV) might seem to justify fears that Mr. Chávez is crushing free speech and eliminating any voices critical of him. Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch; the Committee to Protect Journalists; and members of the European Parliament, the US Senate, and even Chile's Congress have denounced the closure of RCTV, Venezuela's oldest private television network. Chávez's detractors got more ammunition last week when the president included another opposition network, Globovisión, among the "enemies of the homeland."

But the case of RCTV – like most things involving Chávez – has been caught u

p in a web of misinformation. While one side of the story is getting headlines around the world, the other is barely heard. The demise of RCTV is indeed a sad event in some ways for Venezuelans. Founded in 1953, it was an institution in the country, having produced the long-running political satire program "Radio Rochela" and the blisteringly realistic nighttime soap opera "Por Estas Calles." It was RCTV that broadcast the first live-from-satellite images in Venezuela when it showed Neil Armstrong walking on the moon in 1969.

But after Chávez was elected president in 1998, RCTV shifted to another endeavor: ousting a democratically elected leader from office. Controlled by members of the country's fabulously wealthy oligarchy, incl

uding RCTV chief Marcel Granier, it saw Chávez and his "Bolivarian Revolution" on behalf of Venezuela's majority poor as a threat.

RCTV's most infamous effort to topple Chávez came during the April 11, 2002, coup attempt against him. For two days before the putsch, RCTV preempted regular programming and ran wall-to-wall coverage of a general strike aimed at ousting Chávez. A stream of commentators spewed vitriolic attacks against him – while permitting no response from the government.

Then RCTV ran ads encouraging people to attend a march on April 11 aimed at toppling Chávez

and broadcast blanket coverage of the event. When the march ended in violence, RCTV and Globovisión ran manipulated video blaming Chávez supporters for scores of deaths and injuries.

After military rebels overthrew Chávez and he disappeared from public view for two days, RCTV's biased coverage edged fully into sedition. Thousands of Chávez supporters took to the streets to demand his return, but none of that appeared on RCTV or other television stations. RCTV News Director Andrés Izarra later testified at National Assembly hearings on the coup attempt that he received an order from superiors at the station: "Zero pro-Chávez, nothing related to Chávez or his supporters…. The idea was to create a climate of tra

nsition and to start to promote the dawn of a new country." While the streets of Caracas burned with rage, RCTV ran cartoons, soap operas, and old movies. On April 13, 2002, Mr. Granier and other media moguls met in the Miraflores palace to pledge support to the country's coup-installed dictator, Pedro Carmona, who had eliminated the Supreme Court, the National Assembly, and the Constitution.

Would a network that aided and abetted a coup against the government be allowed to operate in the United States? The US government probably would have shut down RCTV within five minutes after a failed coup attempt – and thrown its owners in jail. Chávez's government allowed it to continue operating for five years and then declined to renew its 20-year license to use the public airwaves. It can still broadcast on cable or via satellite dish.

Granier and others should not be seen as free-speech martyrs. Radio, TV, and newspapers remain uncensored and unthreatened by the government. Most Venezuelan media are still controlled by the old oligarchy and are staunchly anti-Chávez. If Granier had not decided to try to oust the country's president, Venezuelans might still be able to look forward to more broadcasts of "Radio Rochela."

2007-07-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

(Editor's note: WHOOPS, Wrong Video Earlier.)

Great work Dr. Rudy Crew, but it is just a little too late. The coaches at the fifth rank high school football team in the nation (teams seldom if ever play nationwide so it is an unofficial ranking) were fired for covering for a rapist on their "team". Too late for the young woman who was raped by Easterling (who will still get to go to college) and too late for the Taurean Charles, star player in the video above. These Miami Northwestern coaches should have been fired a long time ago. Incidentally, Taurean seems like a very nice if heavily burdened young man.

He didn't want to injure the smaller teammate and showed remarkable restraint by not beating the shit out of his fucked up "coach". He got into trouble however at the University of Florida and perhaps was scapegoated to cover for a bunch of players having serious legal troubles. It would seem that after getting new recruits the young man was expendable.

In 2004 Taurean was kicked off the team and put on partial scholarship. He transferred, attended Bethune Cookman. What many college scouts ignored because of his stellar play on a championship team was that his speed and his size are eclipsed by lots of other players at his position. He is 6'1 235 and running a 4'8 which isn't going to wow NFL guys. Had he put up game film in top college action it might have helped people to ignore all of this and the rap sheet going around. His arrest record is worse than what really happened according to witnesses, but it is too damning.

2007-07-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

It will all be Miami soon, all Miami. Latinos taking over, the local newspapers and white folks hate 'em but there is nothing to be done but to move away. Tancredo said it- America will all be a Third World banana republic ruled by a clique of inept bongo-beaters on the take, just like Miami. Or maybe not.

The mayor of Los Angeles was deemed to be a very skilled technocrat with support from a variety of ethnic groups and constituencies. But the man couldn't keep his dick in trou (being a man is soooo difficult) and the star may have dimmed momentarily for Villaraigosa in Los Angeles after his hot papi antics were revealed. (If you're not up on things he was cheating on his wife with a high-profile reporter on Spanish language television.) The mayor of L.A. may have a former mayor of N.Y.C. to thank if he weathers this controversy-- presidential candidate Rudy "Caligula" Giuliani has given cheating-on-your-wife-mutiple-times-in-public-divorcees more, ahem, moral space. (Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa left)

Other rising stars include Los Angeles D.A. Rocky Delgadillo, Harvard and Columbia Law graduate and protege to a power broker. Said power broker hopes to groom the man into a presidential candidate (realistically long after Scowcroft is gone from this world of course). There are a host of other would be stars in L.A. Hispanic political firmament. None are much like the politicians here in Miami either. In most cases these are fully assimilated, hyper-educated politicos in an American world city. Their bases are broader and their power is tied as much to unions as it is development money and big and small business. These fellas, and a few ladies, are as good with street organizing as they are with patronage. And they see unions as a way of spreading wealth and opportunity among the (Hispanic) underclass. They also value assimilation to American civic life and education. This isn't suprising as most began as union organizers, and civil rights and student activists. And they are spreading the gospel of unions throughout the South.

In the flurry of union activity that is happening now, South Floridians should understand that a power shift may be brewing. This is radically different than the ethnic warring, patronage job flipping, and planning and administrative debacle that has characterized Miami. It is the attempt to create a fair waged, worker empowered economy that in the long run will increase consumer power and broaden the middle class. Rather than examine it here however I will share a comparative study of two other cities that show the night and day difference union influence can have on the make up of politics.

Los Angeles and Houston

By the middle of the 20th century, Los Angeles and Houston were the dominant cities in the dominant states of the just emerging Sun Belt. Politically, though, they were both still tight, white little towns. (Rocky Delgadillo, right)

Each city had a remarkably small informal governing committee -- all white, all Protestant, all CEO, all right-wing -- that held sway over matters large and small. In Los Angeles, the Committee of 25 met regularly in Asa Call's office at Pacific Mutual Insurance, tending to the selection of pro-business mayors. To persuade Norris Poulson, a conservative congressman, to run for mayor in 1953, committee members had to promise him that they'd personally shell out for a chauffeured limousine should he be elected. (He was and they did.)

In Houston, the city's real business was conducted in Suite 8F of the Lamar Hotel. In the 1950s, recalled Leon Jaworski, later the Watergate prosecutor but at that time a young Houston lawyer, "Jesse Jones [a right-wing Democrat who'd served in the Roosevelt administration], for instance, would meet Gus Worthman, Herman Brown [of Texas's mega-construction company Brown and Root], and maybe one or two others and pretty well determine what the course of events would be in Houston."

Half a century later, the cities have evolved along strikingly similar lines. Each saw its black electorate grow to roughly one-quarter of the citywide total, and each elected and re-elected an African American mayor. But the most dramatic change, surely, has come to each over the past 20 years, during which both cities have been substantially remade by the epochal migration of Mexicans and Central Americans to the United States.

The racial and economic recomposition of the two cities has been little short of astounding. In 1950, Los Angeles was the whitest major American city (78 percent in that year's census), with Houston not far behind (at 73 percent). In 2000, Los Angeles had become the least white of America's eight largest cities (just 29 percent) with Houston lagging by only a bit (at 31 percent white). In both cities, the percentage of blacks has also been in decline for the past two decades as the Latino populations have soared. In Los Angeles in 2000, 47 percent of the city was Hispanic, while in Houston, the figure stood at 37 percent. In both cities, the percentage of registered Latino voters lag behind those of whites and blacks, especially because many Latinos are not citizens.

(Houston, pictured left)

To walk through the Hispanic working-class communities in either city -- and the immigrant communities in particular -- is to see American urban poverty. In Los Angeles, hundreds of thousands of immigrants live in the converted garages and slowly decaying single-family homes. In Houston, Sylvia Garcia is the only Latino on the Harris County Board of Commissioners, half of whose district is within Houston city limits. She comments, "I have a colonia in my district -- 95 percent of the residents speak Spanish, and most have incomes beneath $15,000."

Most of Houston's poor don't live in colonia-like conditions, but a large number don't have any more income than those who do. Eighteen percent of all Houston households had annual incomes below $15,000 in 2000; another 15 percent had incomes between $15,000 and $25,000. (Note- strikingly, these income levels still best Miami).

In Los Angeles, things weren't a whole lot better. In 200, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, the city's living-wage coalition, found that 60 percent of the city's Latinos lived in households making less than $30,000 a year. What's more, the low-wage sector of the L.A. economy -- in restaurants, day labor, non-union janitors, off-the-books factories, and the like -- was booming: Overall employment increased in Los Angeles County by a scant 2 percent during the 1990s, but the number of working poor grew by 34 percent. Once the epicenter of the post-World War II middle-class miracle, L.A. had become a poverty-wage boomtown, overwhelmingly Latino and immigrant.

But in the last two decades there is one way in which Los Angeles' and Houston's Hispanics have fared very differently: political power. In Los Angeles, with a great assist from the labor movement, the Latino community has achieved considerable political representation and, as part of a dominant multiracial Democratic political culture, helped build a movement for progressive change that has begun to affect the lives of many of its members. In Houston, absent a sizable labor movement and hemmed in by right-wing Republican domination of every aspect of state politics, a vast Latino immigrant community remains largely unmobilized and markedly underrepresented.

Most striking is the disparity in congressional representation. Houston has no Hispanic member of Congress, making it by far the largest Latino community in the nation not to have a representative. Los Angeles County has five Hispanic members, and the Los Angeles metropolitan area seven. (The total Los Angeles County delegation consists of the five Latinos, five white Jews, and three African Americans.)

Slightly less than a quarter of the members in each house of the California and Texas legislatures are Hispanic, but there the similarities end. In Texas, most Latino legislators and congressional representatives come from the long-established Mexican American communities that constitute virtually the whole southern part of the state; the vast new immigrant populations of Houston and Dallas remain woefully underrepresented. In California and Los Angeles, by contrast, most Latino officeholders represent Latino districts. In Texas, both houses of the legislature are overwhelmingly Republican, as is every statewide officeholder. In California, both houses are heavily Democratic, as is every statewide officeholder except, of course, Governor Schwarzenegger. The mayor and two recent Assembly speakers (Antonio Villaraigosa and current Speaker Fabian Nunez, a former political director of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor) have been Latino. (Los Angeles, right)

At the level of city and county, the disparities don't seem quite so great. Harris County and Los Angeles County each have one Hispanic commissioner or supervisor out of five. L.A. has four Latino city-council members out of 15; Houston has two out of 14. In his 2001 race for mayor of Los Angeles, left-Democrat Villaraigosa lost with 46.5 percent of the vote, while in Houston's mayoral race that same year, pro-immigrant but conservative Cuban Republican Orlando Sanchez lost with 48.5 percent of the vote.

But these differences are actually far greater than the numbers suggest. To begin with, L.A.'s Latina supervisor, Gloria Molina, is one of three liberal Democrats who control the board, while Houston's Commissioner Garcia is the only Democrat on her board. The four Latino Democrats on the Los Angeles City Council have nine other Democratic colleagues; there are just two Republican members. Eight Republicans sit on Houston's council.

Not surprisingly, the difference between the largely liberal Democratic control of California and L.A. and the conservative Republican stranglehold of Texas and Harris County (with a kind of centrist hegemony in Houston proper) has meant a huge difference in terms of legislation affecting the Latino poor. California has a state minimum wage that's $2.60 higher than the federal wage; Texas does not. California has 32 cities and counties that have passed living-wage ordinances, led by Los Angeles in 1997; Texas has one (San Antonio, a city that has been heavily majority Hispanic since the time of the Alamo).

Two days before the election that recalled him, then-Governor Gray Davis signed landmark legislation (Senate Bill 2, or SB2) that required employers with at least 200 workers to offer family health insurance by 2006, and employers with more than 50 workers to offer individual health coverage by 2007 -- in both instances, with employers picking up 80 percent of the costs.

Texas has the highest rate of medically uninsured residents in the United States; California is in the middle of the pack. But in both states, and in Houston and Los Angeles especially, a clear majority of Latinos have no coverage. Calling SB2 a "job killer," the California Restaurant Association has qualified an initiative for the November ballot to nullify it, and the issue is shaping up as the major state ballot-measure brouhaha of the fall election. Should SB2 survive, it will provide health benefits to more than 1 million Californians, the majority of them Latinos, who currently go without.

Why this disparity between California and Texas, and Los Angeles and Houston more particularly? It's not the weight of Hispanic numbers, at least not at the state level. Latinos constitute 32 percent of each state's population; they represented 20 percent of the turnout in the 2002 election in Texas and 17 percent in California. The major difference is at the local level: Hispanics constitute nearly half of all Angelenos but just over one-third of all Houstonians. With more than 4 million Latinos living in Los Angeles County, most in overwhelmingly Latino communities, not even a Tom DeLay could block the formation of large numbers of Latino-dominated districts. (And, of course, the California districts were drawn by Latino-friendly Democrats.)

But the disparity in power and outcome between Hispanics in the two cities is as much a result of qualitative as of quantitative factors. Foremost among those is the different political and institutional cultures of Texas and California. In Los Angeles, certainly, large numbers of white voters have been willing to make common cause with Latinos. Antonio Villaraigosa came close to being elected mayor in 2001 in an election where Latinos constituted just 22 percent of voters; he received about as many votes from liberal whites, clustered chiefly on the city's Westside, as he did from his fellow Latinos.

In Texas, of course, white Democrats are an endangered species. With Republicans in control of both chambers of the state legislature, it matters little that Latinos' share of the legislative delegation is the same as in California: There are way too few white Democrats in the legislature for Hispanic Democrats to claim any power. In Houston, the level of Latino representation in city and state legislative seats has actually declined in the past couple of years: They suffer from a dearth of white Democratic voters. (In both cities, tensions between the Latino and African American political elites -- and voters -- wax and wane, but the key differential in level of Latino power is the one between the two cities' white electorates.)

One big factor in this disparity is organized labor. The key institution in the rise of Hispanic political power in both Los Angeles and California has been the city's Latino-led labor movement, which mobilizes more Latino voters, anoints more Latino candidates, and constructs more progressive coalitions than any force in the state. Under the leadership of Miguel Contreras, who assumed control of the County Federation of Labor (the local AFL-CIO) in 1996, L.A. labor has registered and mobilized hundreds of thousands of new immigrant voters, turning out thousands of activists at election time to walk precincts and work phone banks. In recent city-council and state-legislative elections, the union has been able to produce 400 to 600 volunteers in a single district on election day; when Villaraigosa was running for mayor, the union had 2,100 volunteers working on the day of the vote. (Around the Ista's old hood in L.A. left)

Houston, by contrast, is a corporate-dominated city in a right-to-work state. Its labor movement is capable of writing some checks to candidates and mobilizing its own members -- but there aren't many such members, and the movement is still shrinking. Councilwoman Garcia estimates that in her election as controller in 1998, only a fraction of her 200 to 300 election-day volunteers were from unions. One young union activist in Houston estimates that on a typical weekend shortly before election day, local labor is doing well to turn out 20 to 30 volunteers.

What this means is that Hispanic candidates in Houston often have to assemble their campaigns from scratch. Houston does have a network of Latino elected officials, often referred to as "the Tejano Democrats," who hail from long-settled, nonimmigrant Mexican American families. In Los Angeles, by contrast, both Villaraigosa and Nunez, the two Assembly speakers, come out of the immigrants'-rights movement and have worked closely with Contreras to highlight immigrant concerns. Moreover, the two local unions that constitute Contreras' shock troops at election time are the immigrant-dominated janitors and hotel workers. (The two locals turn out more volunteers than any of the County Federation of Labor's roughly 350 other affiliates.) That explains why when the janitors bargained with management during their successful 2000 strike, they always had a number of elected officials joining them.

Since the mid-'90s, three L.A.-area congressional seats have switched from Republican to Democratic, in large part due to the union's efforts in closely fought elections; a fourth new seat was created in the latest reapportionment. Democratic funding sources and international unions spent vast amounts of money in L.A. to produce those outcomes. As well, the unions have forked over additional millions to mobilize Latinos for gubernatorial campaigns and a series of significant ballot measures. These efforts continually draw in new Democratic voters, most significantly from the burgeoning immigrant neighborhoods around Los Angeles.

No such outside assistance comes to Houston. For now, at least, all statewide elections are effectively conceded to the Republicans. There are no progressive initiatives with any chance of enactment. The kind of ongoing registration that's a permanent part of the L.A. landscape is absent from Houston's. Indeed, national Democrats come to Houston to take money out of it. John Kerry recently raised $2 million at a fund-raiser there, with everyone's full understanding that it would be spent in a faraway battleground state. Democrats "drag the bag in Houston," says University of Houston political scientist Richard Murray, "to spend it in Ohio."

That said, at least one national institution doesn't think that labor or the Democrats can afford to ignore Houston, or Texas, for the indefinite future. Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina says that his union, in conjunction with other groups, will soon kick off a campaign to register 1 million new voters in the state, and that the SEIU will initiate a Justice for Janitors campaign in Houston later this year.

At least twice before, in 1938 and 1946, labor unions made a concerted effort to organize the South in the correct belief that a non-union South would be a huge impediment to progressive change at the national level. Now the SEIU is taking up that battle again, in fiercely anti-union terrain. But if Houston Hispanics are ever to achieve the clout of their Los Angeles counterparts, this is a battle they need to join. From their perspective, it should be the biggest game in town.

2007-06-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

We love Johnny Cuban's Blog Miami Corruption

Self Description:

"Miami is the only place where the director of the

Christmas program for the public schools stole the money. The director of the oldest and richest Homeless charity program stole $500,000. The director of the oldest AIDS program disappeared with the programs funds. A Chief of Police stole $78,000 from a charity. Another Chief's son was arrested for dealing 400 pounds of marijuana. This is Miami, worse than any Banana Republic."

Do the damn thing thing Johnny!!!

2007-05-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

Death of Meyer Lansky's driver unnoticed

The Associated Press

HAVANA --

The man who was Meyer Lansky's driver and bodyguard during the mob's heyday in prerevolutionary Cuba died earlier this year, a curious footnote in a communist-run country whose past as a gambling Mecca for vacationing Americans is all but forgotten.

There was no story in the Communist Party daily Granma about the Feb. 12 death of Armando Jaime Casielles, at age 75, from lung cancer. No mention on Cuban state television either, despite the decades he spent promoting Afro-Cuban dance and music in his post-mob years.

Casielles' close friend, Enrique Cirules, got the news through word of mouth.

''He liked his cigars, he liked his whiskey, never stopped working,'' Cirules told The Associated Press. ``He was a very respected man.''

A stout, reserved man who sported eyeglasses, a goatee and a pinky ring, Casielles was among the last people alive with firsthand knowledge of mob operations in the colorful, decadent Havana that thrived before a young rebel named Fidel Castro seized power.

Stoic and discreet, Casielles was there with Lansky during numerous meetings with Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, who protected gambling businesses on the island, and accompanied him when the mobster traveled around the Caribbean to talk with underworld figures such as Santos Trafficante Sr.

Casielles helped Lansky hide in the Cuban capital in late 1957 after the Sicilian Mafia families of New York tried to grab control of the mobster's Havana operation, and violence erupted in Manhattan.

And he was behind the wheel of Lansky's silver-gray 1957 Chevrolet Impala convertible on New Year's Eve 1958. As word spread that Batista had fled the island and Castro's bearded rebels were close to victory, he helped the gangster scoop up millions of dollars in profits from his Havana casinos.

The next day, Cuban mobs, euphoric over the revolutionary triumph, ransacked the gambling dens, exposing their deep resentment of mob control of the island. Bonfires of smashed slot machines and roulette tables raged in Havana's streets.

Soon thereafter, the revolutionary government outlawed gambling, prostitution and nonprescription drugs, and the mobsters gave up without a fight.

''The gigantic projects of gaming, drugs and sex; channels of heroin to the United States, and cocaine powder for the consumption of thousands of American tourists who visited the wildest spots in Havana . . . were condemned to disappear as soon as Batista's tyranny fell apart,'' Cirules wrote in The Secret Life of Meyer Lansky in Havana.

Available only in Cuba in Spanish, it sold out when it was published in 2004 and is now in its second edition.

The book also revealed the secret life Casielles led before undergoing what he described as a moral conversion, rejecting his mob past and becoming the public relations director of the Conjunto Folklorico Nacional dance troupe for more than three decades.

Born in Havana in 1931, Casielles left the island in 1948 to study public relations at Northwestern University, perfecting his English. He was a card dealer in a Las Vegas casino when Lansky persuaded him to be his assistant in Cuba.

As Cirules researched his book, the two men spent countless afternoons visiting Lansky's haunts: the former military base where Lansky and Batista met, the Marina Hemingway where Lansky took his mistress Carmen; the hotels where raucous Americans arriving on 80 daily flights from the United States once crowded around roulette wheels and blackjack tables.

The Capri, the Rivera, the Deauville and the Nacional hotels still stand today, destinations for beach-seeking Europeans on travel packages and the rare American congressmen on trade and fact-finding missions.

''I began to discover a Havana that I never knew existed,'' said the 68-year-old Cirules, who grew up in eastern Camaguey and didn't arrive in Havana until long after the revolution.

Casielles described how Lansky left Cuba for good with a fake passport in April 1959. Carmen accompanied him to the United States, where he died in 1983, 12 years after he was indicted for allegedly skimming millions of dollars from the Flamingo hotel-casino in Las Vegas. The charges were dismissed because of his poor health.

The millions of dollars they collected that New Year's Eve had already been spirited out.

''You're coming with me,'' Casielles recalled Lansky telling him.

``I told him no.''

''Well,'' replied Lansky, ``you know what you're doing.''

Casielles underwent a ''spiritual, ethical and moral crisis'' about the harm organized crime had caused Cuba, Cirules said.

''This was the reality of many Cubans at that time,'' agreed longtime friend Gregorio Hernandez, a musician and dancer. ``Jaime became a super revolutionary, an admirer of Fidel Castro and his work.''

Casielles later became interested in Cuba's African-influenced music, helping the dance troupe launch projects such as Havana's popular Sabados de la Rumba, which brings families together to enjoy traditional music each weekend. He also married twice, and had three children: a son and daughter now in Venezuela, and a daughter in Havana.

Casielles didn't hide his years with Lansky from others in Castro's Cuba, but ''his life after that was so different,'' said Hernandez. ``He left behind a life of wealth and shared all these difficult years with us.''

It was not the former mob driver Cubans mourned when Casilles died, but a revolutionary who delighted in promoting his country's traditional culture. That's the man Hernandez sang his farewell rumba to at the memorial service, fulfilling a last promise to a good friend: ``When one loses a brother, what sadness! What pain is left in the soul!''

2007-05-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

It's like a nightmare where nothing changes...

1. Oh yes, it’s election season coming up in Miami Beach, which promises to keep us filled to the gills with troubling but often hilarious news. The Beach will elect 4 of 7 of the City Commission this November. The Mayor slot is open because of term limits as are the seats of Commissioner/ Resident dental assistant/ Ethnic art critic Matti Herrera-Bower and Simon Cruz. Commissioner Michael Gongora, who filled a one year term must reclaim his seat this fall. So here are the candidates, and their status in the all important filling of jars of mother’s milk:

On the Mayoral side of things Simon Cruz is running far ahead of Herrera-Bower and Raphael Herman. Commission Seat 4: Jonah Wolfson and Luis Salom are running neck and neck with Linda Grosz trailing. Michael Gongora, the incumbent for Commission Seat 5 actually has a, ahem, challenger, Ivor Rose who has raised $0, which may not bode well for his candidacy. In one of the hottest commission seats, Commission Seat 6, has Elsa Urquiza with a slight lead over Frank Kuszewski, though Urquiza is entirely self financed at this point.

Simon Cruz, in his desire to finally get real estate developers, mortgage banker and other members of the housing industry involved in politics did some grass roots work in that community. Over eighty of these disenfranchised, hard working folks gave him baskets of leafy green cash from the fields they toil in, amounting to $27,500. Jonah Wolfson also decided to engage in community activism among his people- his people being high priced attorneys.

Much more forthcoming…

2. When the getting’s good… Sunny Isles Beach. Mayor Norman Edelcup, tells Comfort Homes that their site plan approval has expired and will not be renewed. The denial means the developer will now have to reapply under current zoning codes. Comfort Homes obtained their development rights from Triumph Development over a year ago. The cause of the delay is, surprise, a weak market. It underscores what may happen with a lot of projects that were brought for approval to lock into the more permissive codes but are in doubt in a soft market.

3. Some are looking for other defibrillators to bring a pulse back to Miami real estate-

Such as lower mortgage rates. Will lenders step in to deliver the zap of electric life? Maybe not, if the greater appreciation of risk premiums today influences them to require a greater spread from Treasuries, according to John Burford, senior vice president and investment portfolio manager at The International Bank of Miami. In simpler speak banks will tighten rather than relax access to money in this market climate.

4. It’s really my parents fault I have all these issues. So why not make them pay? South Florida’s young and upwardly mobile are looking for a way to shift taxes to established home owners.

5. The Related Group plans to level the late architect Morris Lapidus "Americana" in Bal Harbor. The 600 feet of private beachfront, on ten acres it didn’t stand a chance. Sheraton Bal Harbour Resort will be giving the pink slip to 648 of its employees come July.

Hotel operator Starwood Hotels & Resorts is partnering in a joint venture with builder-developer, the Related Group to build the St. Regis Resort & Residences, a 568 unit condo-hotel complex will replace it. In giving approval for the demo of this MiMo landmark, Bal Harbor officials may be hoping that Related will maintain their special version of commitment to affordable housing.

6. The poor will always be with us, even in Fisher Island. The working poor can at least get onto Jeb’s access restricted hideaway, which should be calculated into their benefits package. Let’s just hope they don’t unionize. Because that would be so… black. And that has to be bad right Café Porto Cervo?

2007-05-19T15:32:00.000-07:00

While the Editor 'Ista begs to differ on some points, we will still share with you this well reasoned piece by another Miamista.

Cities all over Florida have gouged the taxpayers this year. That's why the State wants to force tax rates down. Cities and counties and school boards are out of control, wasting huge amounts of money. (Editor's notes, true of Dade historically but Dade and Florida are still at the bottom of per pupil spending and at least now Dade has responsible leadership of its schools.) One example is Surfside, which used to be a model of prudent management, but is now an example of largess and waste due to political abuse. This year's budget is the largest and most bloated in the town's 70+ year history. Here's the HX:

Surfside 1935: Local residents obtain state approval and create an independent municipality, the Town of Surfside, based on their desire to maintain a community with independence from Miami Beach and to have a small, accountable, and efficient local government to reflect the priorities and well being of its own residents. Over the 7 decades to follow, Surfside has its ups and downs, but generally does a superb job at serving its residents, remaining debt free, and being a widely recognized example for cities and towns and villages all over the nation.

Surfside 1990 - 1992: Mayor Eli Tourgeman enacts foolish budget policies with a 3-2 vote of his Town Commission that put the Town into the red, ending his term with town deficits. Tourgeman supports a number of major zoning variances and tries to break down the zoning code to get approval for a 20 story condo despite a height limit in the code of 12 stories. The voters turned back Toureman's approval in a referendum that defeated and reversed the condo project's variance approval. In 1990 he was elected mayor, in 1992 he was voted off of the commission when voters saw his real priorities and he came in last from a field of 10 candidates.

Surfside 1992 - 2004: Mayor Paul Novack and a new Town Commission unanimously enact budget corrections and fiscally responsible policies and every year for 12 years the town operated under balanced, stable and efficient budgets, with production of increased levels of town services, and numerous capital projects undertaken and completed that upgraded the parks, playgrounds, streets, drainage system, business district, Veterans Park, Town Hall, and much more, all with no debt, no bonds, and with the building of significant town surplus funds to serve the town's present and future. The town attracted a new Publix and many new restaurants and shops for the business district and made improvements and expansions to town parking facilities. Plans are made for a new town library and hi-tech information center to go on newly acquired property on the west side of Collins Avenue. The town was internationally recognized as a model community, and in 2003 Novack was honored as the state-wide "Community Steward of the Year" in Tallahassee. Mayor Novack was elected by the voters six times to serve as mayor, not one variance for height or density or setbacks or uses were ever approved during his tenure, and he retired from office in 2004 with official tributes from the Florida House of Representatives, the United States Congressional Record, and many others.

Surfside 2004 - 2006: Mayor Tim Will and a new Town Commission operate the town carefully and responsibly with balanced budgets, continued expansion of town surplus funds, obtaining a grant to help pay for the new library project, and making plans for the renovation and upgrading of the Community Center. The project would have made vast improvements to the facilities and would not have involved any closure or reduction in use by residents. There was no debt, no bonds, and yet there were even further enhancements of many town services. The town was honored by statewide organizations for superb levels of municipal accounting and auditing and outstanding transparency and performance with public funds. After several productive terms on the Town Commission, and service on the Town's Planning and Zoning Board, and a term as Mayor, Mayor Will retired from public service.

Surfside 2006 - 2007: Mayor Charles Burkett and a new Town Commission spurs, devises, creates and presides over a new town budget that is the largest and by far the most expensive and bloated budget in the town's history, spending more on lawyers than ever, needlessly paying millions of dollars of town funds to "settle" dubious law suits that objective outside reviews found had no merit at all with payments made to the claimants (Burkett campaign supporters) just before Courts were set to rule in the Town's favor, spending over $300,000 on a town charette to document Burkett's plans to change zoning laws and other pre-conceived notions for the benefit of non-resident commercial interests, hired a large law firm for a minimum annual fee of $600,000, no town projects or improved service levels, serious draining of town surplus funds, hired many new consultants with large fees paid by the town, and initiated plans for a public relations campaign to approve putting the town into deep debt with bond issues for as much as $50 million to substantially raise tax burdens on residents for many years to come. The town newsletter is expanded to include political attacks and misinformation every month at a cost of approximately $100,000 in taxpayers' funds for the one year alone. No projects are undertaken, and the community center pool is closed on a ruse after a pool pump has a minor short that the town fails to repair or replace. During his first year in office many respected town employees leave Surfside including its Police Chief, Town Engineer, Town Comptroller, Tourist Director, Public Works Director, and others, all of whom are replaced with "old friends" and campaign workers of Mayor Burkett. Burkett refuses to release his financial disclosure documents from court cases and his membership on City of Miami Beach boards and committees. Information surfaces that indicates he is really a resident of Miami Beach despite owning a house (one of his many, many properties in Florida) in Surfside. Mayor Burkett seeks to contract out services such as fire service, sanitation services, police services, and administrative services to the City of Miami Beach and private companies. His first year in office ends with a disastrous record of misfeasance, a vastly inflated town budget, and negative results for the community.

Addendum

2007-04-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

Addendum, See previous post. "You better be home soon" is one of those songs too... Thanks South Florida Family and Friends, Miamista Readers and Crowded House too.

Never Leave You

2007-04-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

You know readers, this past fall I lost a relative in SoFla. It was the last straw. When something sad happens and you have a tenuous connection to an area (as I have since my temporary move), you may find that you really don't want to deal with that place anymore. I didn't even want to deal with anyone who made me think of Miami. If you are a friend of mine from Miami you may have felt that I was just "doing me" and knew my heart; if you were a good friend you would know why and feel a bit of sympathy. I am growing out of it however.

I have been talking to some people from Miami/SoFla and avoiding some of the aggravation of talking about some things about Miami/SoFla. Pretty soon I'll be in the mix again with that too.

So things change, much is loss and much renews. Nothing says renew like "one in the oven". And now a beautiful person who I know recently was telling me about her feelings about being enceinte; (since she heard me use the word she has forbidden me to use "pregnant" which I personally prefer.)

So to Miami family and friends-- "Now I'm walking again, to the beat of a drum and I'm counting the steps to the door of your heart". And to my home girl- "You know I told you now, I would never dream of leaving you". And I hope she enjoys the video! You are as sexy as ever. In fact, you're bringing sexy back all by yourself.

PS- If you are from So Fla and we are people I've been probably thinking about you so don't think "out of sight out of mind".

If she wins I'll move out of the country

2007-03-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

Perhaps to London, which I'm once again taking a shine to despite the fact Hillary Clinton is already Prime Minister. Seriously check out the resemblance but I refuse to make this blog shittier by giving you comparison shots. I am quite sure that Blair could not get away with the sort of racist, despicable pandering we see below nor could any other Republican. Dunno if I'm comfortable with that sort of partisan shot considering I'm not into that sort of thing... Anyway, play this over and over and see if you cannot wince or feel the blood dripping in your auditory canal-

The talk-
"Hillary didn't help herself with her over-the-top sermon at the First Baptist Church in Selma, Ala. Her aping of a black Southern accent from the pulpit was so inept and patronizing that it should get a Razzie Award for Worst Performance of the Year. At times, it approached the Southern Gothic burlesque of Bette Davis chewing up the scenery in "Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte." Does Hillary Clinton have a stable or coherent sense of self? Or is everything factitious, mimed and scripted (like her flipping butch and femme masks) for expediency?"

To keep it Southernplaylistic a la Hillary, I must say that "All I know is deh's a ho in that house!"

Stupid People in Large Groups

2007-02-19T20:15:00.000-08:00

Miami Condo Boom Goes Bust

Excerpts- Once Hot Real Estate Market Begins to Sag

By JEFF KOFMAN

Feb. 16, 2007 — - Two years ago, Miami's real estate market was hot -- red hot -- and the hype was contagious.

When ABC News shot a story about it in the fall of 2005, we called it "Boomtown Miami." Old buildings were falling to make way for new condo towers that were selling out in just a few days.

"It was very exciting. It was an adrenaline rush," Kari Fernandez, a condo sales agent, says. "We're talking almost 1,000 units sold in a week."

Investors, speculators, flippers, everyone seemed to be making staggering profits -- at least on paper -- in a matter of weeks.

Across the country, the real estate market has gone flat, but nowhere quite like here in Miami.

Not that Miami is suddenly at a standstill: In the skies, flocks of building cranes compete with birds. Look around, and you can see a skyline transformed, with more than 100 new condo buildings now under construction, representing about 25,000 condo units due to be completed and delivered in the next 18 months or so.

But developers are avoiding new projects, focusing instead on completing construction and sales for all those buildings already under way. It's a far cry from the adrenaline-fueled boom of just two years ago.

A Cautionary Tale

Back when this was Boomtown -- in 2005, when ABC News did that first story -- we met a young real estate lawyer and speculator named Richard DeNapoli. He'd bought four condos worth $1 million with a $200,000 down payment. DeNapoli was banking on a $400,000 profit for his four condos.

Today, those condos are nearing completion, and his expectations are more modest.

DeNapoli has flipped his four units to other buyers, but for less than he'd hoped. Because he bought in early enough he'll make a $275,000 profit -- maybe. The worst-case scenario, he said, would be to break even or have to buy and then rent the units he speculated on.

"It's a stalemate right now," DeNapoli said, "between buyers who have a lot of supply to look at and sellers who don't want to budge on their asking prices."

The Cassandra of Miami Real Estate

Back in 2005, Jack Winston, an analyst with Goodkin consulting, saw a boom based on shaky foundations.

"The equation is that you have speculators buying units, and they're trying to flip their contract to other speculators who in turn are trying to flip their contract to other speculators," he said at the time. "Somewhere along the line, you are going to run out of speculators."

Now, Winston is saying: I told you so.

"Basically, we predicted at that time it was pretty close to a Ponzi scheme," he says. "And the last person is the one who gets hurt. And that's basically what happened here."

Winston and others estimate that 70 percent of the Miami condo market was driven by those speculators in search of quick profits.

"Probably some time around September or November of 2005, it was as if someone turned off the spigot," he says. "Since that time, new sales at condominium projects have come to a halt, practically a stand still."

Whom To Blame?

Though there is an overabundance of supply, the eight hurricanes that battered this state in 2004 and 2005 can also take credit. Hurricane insurance rates have doubled, tripled. And with the inflation of property prices, so have property taxes.

But since so many of the projects that began under the boom are still under construction, judgment day has not yet arrived -- speculators may have made deals with potential buyers, but they can't close until the units actually exist.

"We haven't seen the actual result yet," Winston says. "They have to close first and then decide whether or not they're going to hold on to the unit, how long they're going to hold on to the unit, whether they're going to decide to try to resell the unit or rent the unit. And if they can't do either one of those two successfully, then their next choice is to walk away."

Exception That Proves the Rule

In 2005, ABC News was at the splashy, flashy launch party of the new W South Beach condos. Prices started at $1,400 a square foot -- steep even in notoriously pricey markets like New York. Developer David Edelstein radiated confidence.

"There's enormous demand and very little supply," he said at the time.

Today, despite the candid pessimism most people in the business express, Edelstein maintains that the market is "on fire."

Confidence is part of his sales pitch, of course, but Edelstein also argues that his property is in a location so prime, it is unaffected by the caprice of the market.

"There's been a huge amount of development in other areas where there's too much supply put on the market, and a speculator is not going to be able to take advantage of an opportunity and, in fact, may get burned," he says. "But in superprime locations, unique locations, in great places, in New York City, that hasn't happened."

A Less-Rosy Outlook

When we visited Havana Lofts, a development on the scruffy edge of downtown Miami, in 2005, prices were modest. But Kari Fernandez, the sales agent, was firmly in the grip of condo mania.

"I would say it's a very hot market right now," she said at the time.

Today, Havana Lofts is nearing completion. For the developer, the timing was fortunate: Sales began and went well just before the boom ended.

We found Fernandez selling and reselling condos at the Plaza on Brickell, a project first offered in 2003. As it nears completion, Fernandez is helping buyers flip the units. Always the saleswoman, she'll tell you this is a hot market...

MAYDAY in December!

2006-12-28T17:55:00.000-08:00

WHAT'S WHAT M.I.A.? THOUGHT I'D TURN IT AROUND AND TALK ABOUT MIAMI IN NEW YORK TO MIAMI... OK, I, DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS EITHER. ANYWAY.

MIAMI'S OWN EVER POPULAR HIP HOP GROUP! RAN INTO THEM IN NEW YORK A LITTLE WHILE BACK THROUGH A FRIEND AND GOTTA SAY THEY'RE REALLY ALRIGHT PEOPLE, THEY'RE THINKING IS ON-POINT AND THEIR MUSIC IS ON SOME OLD SCHOOL /NEXT LEVEL SHIT. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND COP THE ALBUM. OH, YEAH, TACKING ON SOME EXTRA FOR PEOPLE WHO SLEPT ON THAT INITIAL PIECE FROM LAST YEAR.

EASY,
m'

[Miamista Comments] 12/14/2006 01:03:49 PM

2006-12-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

I, too, have grave concerns over the plight of my hometown, Miami. I, too, have started a blog called Miami's Middle Class? at yahoogroups.com. I am new to this, but the more research I find the more inspired I am to continue to,at least attempt to inform, my fellow Miamians about the erosion of the middle class in my home town.

check out : Miami's Middle Class ? at yahoogroups.con

maybe we can cross reference articles and research as we fight to protect our standard of living in this community.

you can always reach me at:

sandush@hotmail.com

if you would like to work together in our shared passion... saving the middle class in Miami.

--
Posted by middleclassofmiami to Miamista Comments at 12/14/2006 01:03:49 PM

White Wing Conspiracy

2006-12-06T10:56:00.000-08:00

A SWARTHY, EVIL LATINO IS TRYING TO TURN AMERICA BROWN! IT'S HAPPENED IN MIAMI. DON'T LET IT HAPPEN TO AMERICA!

He may be swarthy but he's not evil. The scary thing is that statistics and realities say Tancredo just may be right. But there is much more to the story than immigrants allegedly being bad news. More later...

Andres Oppenheimer Loves Daniel Ortega

2006-12-01T06:47:00.000-08:00

(After only a week of cold and 70 degree temps in December it is only 48 today in NY. Woe unto you winter. Now onto our story)

Sandinista Leader Ortega to Win Nicaragua Presidential Election (Left US "Democractic" insitutions took hold. Under U.S. friendly gov't Nicas now have the second poorest country in hemisphere.)

Dedicated to Andres "I Have Become Death, Destroyer of Worlds" Oppenheimer of the Miami Hurled

Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega has won in Nicaragua's presidential election. With votes tallied Ortega had a nearly 10 point lead ahead of his conservative, Washington-backed rival Eduardo Montealegre who drew heavy financing (against Nicaraguan and international law) as well as a campaign of propaganda and disinformation. The race drew heavy attention from the Bush administration and U.S. officials have threatened economic sanctions and withdrawal of , and an end to remittances to Nicaragua if Ortega is elected. (Left, another day in post-Sandanista Nicaragua.)

The former president is trying to regain power for the first time since 1990. In recent weeks a number of current and former U.S. officials have warned about the consequences of an Ortega victory. Oliver North recently traveled to Nicaragua and said a victory by Ortega would be "the worst thing" for the country.

Roberto Vargas, veteran Nicaraguan diplomat from 1979 to 1991. Served as Charges de Affaires in Washington, D.C., Director of the North American Directorate at the Foreign Ministry in Managua, and finally Nicaraguan Ambassador to China under the U.S. supported Violeta Chomorro regime. Notice his positions regarding U.S. interference in Latin America and how he recasts (?) his participation...

Transcript of Interview with Democracy Now below:

AMY GOODMAN: Our next guest, Roberto Vargas, is a veteran Nicaraguan diplomat. He served as Charge d’Affaires in Washington, D.C., director of the North American Directorate at the Foreign Ministry in Managua, and finally Nicaraguan ambassador to China. He joins us on the phone from San Antonio, Texas. We welcome you to Democracy Now!

ROBERTO VARGAS: Thank you very much. Good morning.

AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. You were not always supporting Daniel Ortega in this race, is that right?

ROBERTO VARGAS: Yes, right. We've had differences in regards to what's happened to the party internally over the last years, so that consequently I just kind of dropped out. I was supporting an old friend, Herty Lewites, who frankly had a pretty good vision of what should happen now, currently in the Nicaraguan society, given, you know, the current politics of Latin America, so that, yes, we were looking forward to having a new face for, you know, the Sandinista Party. So, I was moving with Herty at the beginning of the year, until Herty died July 3rd this year.

AMY GOODMAN: Roberto Vargas, we're going to go to break and then come back to you. Again, Roberto Vargas is a veteran Nicaraguan diplomat, served with the Sandinistas from 1979 to 1991, now is in San Antonio, Texas, looking at the -- what looks like the victory of Daniel Ortega as the next president of Nicaragua.

AMY GOODMAN: Our guest in San Antonio, Texas, is Roberto Vargas, a veteran Nicaraguan diplomat from 1979 to 1991, Nicaragua's ambassador to China. When were you the ambassador to China, Roberto Vargas?

ROBERTO VARGAS: Frankly, that was during the Ms. Violeta Chamorro’s tenure. That was like the beginning of 1990. I spent several months there, you know, after we had the transition, the government transition after the elections, where, you know, Daniel lost, obviously, and Ms. Chamorro. And I was asked by my party at the time, the FSLN, to continue, you know, that we should -- if we were asked to continue the post, that we should look at it as professionals and, in the interest of Nicaragua, to stay, so I did. And, you know, Ms. Chamorro’s government, I guess they looked and saw that my expertise was the United States, so they sent me to China, which we called the “golden exile,” exilio de oro, but it was extremely important time, and again, that was during the -- right after the elections, 1990. (Right, Architecture that only American int'l policy planners could love.)

AMY GOODMAN: Well, let me ask you about the U.S. involvement in this election. You had Oliver North, who went down and was trying to convince people not to vote for Daniel Ortega. You had Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense. He insisted he wasn't getting involved in the politics of another country, as he said he doesn't get involved in the politics of our own country, but your response?

ROBERTO VARGAS: Well, okay, in terms of the overall entourage, the parade of U.S. diplomats, delegates, officials, etc., that went through Nicaragua in the last several months leading up to the race, we had, of course, Dan Burton of California, we had [inaudible], we’ve had -- again, you’ve pointed out Oliver North, who was the most obvious, and all of these different people -- Carlos Gutierrez. And all of them, in unison, were calling for, you know, people not to vote for Daniel Ortega, that they were going to go back to the ’80s, when, you know, we were faced with Reagan's war. And I think North's presence underlined all of that time, and I think it somehow had a boomerang effect on the people, those who were really not decided how they should vote, you know, I think that kind of pushed them over the edge, in particular last Wednesday and Thursday, Mr. -- what is his name? -- Rohrabacher, Dana Rohrabacher from California insisted on calling--

AMY GOODMAN: The Congressman.

ROBERTO VARGAS: Yeah, Congressman Rohrabacher insisted that Chertoff look into the Homeland Security in how to withhold the remittances, which by different estimates, you know, like provide millions, some people say up to $400 million, to the economy of the Nicaraguan people, right? Now, that's -- I was looking at that the other day and thinking about the larger issue -- right? -- the context of the larger issue right now, immigration and timely remittances, which in some estimates are like $40-something billion going to Latin America from the Latin American citizens, the Latinos living in this country, immigrants, right, so that that is part of that larger issue, where Tancredo from Colorado and recently Inhofe, all of these people are now signing on and calling for the withholding remittances.

And that's, I think, also a boomerang effect, similar to what happened with stopping the Cuban Americans from going to Cuba, right? They weren't really involved in the politics, but their presence, they had license to go at least once a year, and that really threw that whole equation off in Miami, with the younger Cubans particularly. So I think that this is a reminder that all of these people came aboard -- Tancredo, Royce, Rohrabacher -- that they're calling for further boycotts.

Nicaragua currently is one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, right? Next to Haiti. So to start threatening us with that kind of inhumanity, continued inhumanity, similar to the boycott, the embargo they've had on Cuba, I think that it finally underlined what we're faced with again. When you have a country such as Venezuela that is providing tons and tons of oil, you know, coming into the port quietly, diesel fuel, fertilizer, tons and tons of support and promises of further support, and on the other hand you have the U.S. threatening more warfare, more economic warfare, I think the vote this weekend, with 70% turnout, massive turnout, we can do the analysis on that, right? I mean, it's kind of obvious.

There was a big fear attempt, fear tactics similar to what they do here in this country, but the results are in, and I think Nicaragua is saying something very clearly to the U.S. government, to the U.S. officials who attempted to threaten us. And the vote is clear. We want change, and we think that Daniel Ortega is the one that’s going to lead that change.

AMY GOODMAN: Roberto Vargas, I wanted to ask you about the Bush administration threatening economic sanctions if Ortega wins. In an interview with the Nicaraguan newspaper, La Prensa, the U.S. embassy spokesperson Kristin Stewart said, quote, "If a foreign government has a relationship with terrorist organizations, like the Sandinistas did in the past, U.S. law permits us to apply sanctions. Again, it will be necessary to revise our policies if Ortega wins." That is Kristin Stewart. Your response?

ROBERTO VARGAS: Again, that's part of the fear tactics that were used, very blatant, very, very obvious fear tactics, and again, this is their response. The Nicaraguan people responded completely to the contrary. You know, they demonstrated that we've had enough. We were frightened off in the ’90 elections. People thought that by voting against Ortega that we might have a change, where the -- or respite, where the U.S. would stop their funding of the Contras, where we would probably have some kind of economic respite, where we would have development programs and etc., you know. And it's 16 years proof to the contrary. (Picture left, that U.S. planning in Central America. Victory of the Contras.)

We're still poorer than ever, and the rich got richer. You see some interesting development, new hotels, a lot of business coming in, but again, not trickled down to the masses who live on $2 a day, maybe, in Nicaragua. So, yes, to threaten us further with economic sanction like that, I mean, it was the end of it. It was like a death sentence. And Nicaragua doesn't need to depend on that kind of a system, an economic and political system that keeps threatening your very existence, all of the people, just like they've done to Cuba for all these decades, where they don't think of the people of the island. They’re thinking, because of Fidel Castro, as they say, they're going to starve off the people of Cuba. Well, they’ve been trying to do that with Nicaragua, as well, and the people here have responded in another way.

AMY GOODMAN: Roberto Vargas, we're coming up on the 20th anniversary of the Iran-Contra affair, Oliver North central to that during the Reagan-Bush years, illegally selling weapons to Iran, skimming off the profits, and giving them to the Nicaraguan Contras, who were responsible for the deaths of thousands of Nicaraguans, despite the congressional ban, the Boland Amendment that said the Contras could not be supported. The significance of this coming at the same time, and some of the same people today being in office in the United States, who were deeply involved with this, like Elliott Abrams, John Negroponte was involved. Your response? Yes?

ROBERTO VARGAS: Well, I think that it's interesting that this is the Reagan -- a continuation of the Reagan rollback, you know, of the popular resistance and popular movements in Latin America, but I think many of us have said that revolution -- evolution is a process, right? You don't do it overnight by decree. Even elections sometimes will change the course for a while, but if there's a true and deep-seated need for that transformation, that social transformation, that they will continue. And I believe this is an expression of that, where the revolutions and the transformations were held back, but, you know, we saw what's happening now.

We have another opportunity to come back, a different way, a different time, but the change is desperately needed in Nicaragua. We've got to -- just for our basic survival, we've got to change now, and the U.S. has demonstrated throughout the centuries that it's not providing for our survival or for our development for anything, rather than for what they did with the support of Somoza regime for 44 years -- right? -- and the current support that they've got in other areas for dictators in the name of national interest, so that, yes, we want to have peaceful and respectful and commercial relations with the United States, but we cannot accept the kind of hegemony that they exerted on us for decades.

AMY GOODMAN: Roberto Vargas, I want to thank you very much for being with us, veteran Nicaraguan diplomat under the Sandinistas, as well as the successive Chamorro government in Nicaragua, talking about the -- what looks like the imminent win of Daniel Ortega to be president again of Nicaragua.

Ecuadorian Pres Correa Wants Military Base in Miami

2006-11-29T14:16:00.000-08:00

By: S. Mather, Dedicated by Miamista to Nancy "Head Up Her Ass" San Martin of the Miami Hurled.

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro speaks approvingly of Ecuador's takeover of old Homestead AFB.

Caracas, November 28, 2006 Venezuelanalysis— Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro expressed his satisfaction yesterday and President Chavez congratulated, as Ecuador took a step to the left on Sunday when Rafael Correa became its new president. Correa is a friend of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and it is believed that Chávez was the first person to call and congratulate him.

Nicolas Maduro said that, “Correa means a step forward in the leftwing nationalist and progressive projects in the continent. The Ecuadorian people took a step forward and his victory is of the noblest coups against the anti-Chávez campaign conducted by the George W. Bush administration,” continued Maduro.

President Chavez also greeted Correa’s victory, saying, “I publicly congratulate, with solidarity and patriotic joy, the new president of the sister republic of Ecuador, Rafael Correa.” Referring to the other left victories in the past year, Chavez added, “Every time we are more accompanied.”

Maduro criticized those who try and use links with Chávez as a negative campaign tool. This has happened in several recent Latin American elections including in Mexico and Peru. “Sectors trying to turn ‘anti-Chavismo’ into a political emblem, into a cold war promoted in Washington to annihilate movements of change, have been seriously beaten in Nicaragua, Brazil and now in Ecuador,” he said.

Correa argued in his victory speech that, “The people have given us a clear mandate, with the second-largest margin in the last 30 years of democracy.” He went on to thank God for his triumph and said that it was a “clear message that the people want change.”

His victory follows those of President Lula Da Silva in Brazil and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, both left of center politicians who were not the preferred candidates of the US government.

Correa won with 57.9 percent of the vote, compared to the conservative banana tycoon Noboa's 42.1 per cent.

Correa ran on a platform that promised to rein in political elites, threatened to default on foreign debts and to renegotiate oil contracts. Ecuador is the second biggest oil exporter in South America after Venezuela.

He has also in the past criticized the presence of a US military base in his country and like Hugo Chávez is not afraid to stand up to the US government. The US military base contract ends in 2009. When asked whether he thought the contract should be renewed he said, “If they want we won't close the base in 2009, but the United States would have to allow us to have an Ecuadorian base in Miami in return.”

Also, asked to comment on Chávez’s description of President George W. Bush as the devil he said that, “Calling Bush the devil offends the devil. Bush is a tremendously dimwitted President who has done great damage to the World.”

I'm Every Chica, Stevie Ryan

2006-10-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

Another temp poach. I happen to casually know Stevie Ryan (of Youtube fame) and I have been sending around her Little Loca videos. After a back and forth I and some other people put up something on LA blogs explaining what I thought most people knew, that Lil' Loca was actually a twentysomething (every gal in LA is twentysomething) actress/artist-- and not Mexican. I will say that if you have even lived in L.A. you would never know she is a fake, and "fake" even seems like too strong a word. In fact Stevie got down a sort of Hispanic-girl-from-the-'hood that could work from Flagami to Venice. I'll let you read the excellently written article from one of my fave periodicals. (Wish there was a Miami based/focused publication like this...)

IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU

by BEN McGRATH

The anxieties of YouTube fame.

Issue of 2006-10-16
Posted 2006-10-09

Stevie Ryan received her first Oscar, after a fashion, this year, at the age of twenty-two, only eighteen months after moving to Los Angeles to become a movie star. She grew up in California’s high desert, a couple of hours to the east, in a town along the road to Las Vegas called Victorville. Her parents worked at calibrating truck scales for weigh stations on the interstate—a family business going back two generations on her mom’s side. Throughout her childhood and adolescence, Ryan harbored escape fantasies involving the Hollywood of her parents’ and grandparents’ generations—Lucille Ball, Audrey Hepburn, Buster Keaton, Clara Bow—but she never participated in high-school theatrical productions. She did attend her high-school prom dressed as Marilyn Monroe, down to the elbow-length gloves. (Her date wore a Mohawk and muttonchops.) After a brief stint in community college, she concluded that she was “too right-brain for school,” and followed an older brother to Huntington Beach—anything to get out of Victorville. “Then I thought, Screw these people—I’ll just go to L.A., see what happens,” she said recently.

The Oscar was delivered rather unceremoniously—not in March, at the Academy Awards, but in August, three and a half minutes into a sketch Ryan was filming, while she was still in character as Cynthia, an eighteen-year-old Latina from East L.A. who is better known as Little Loca, after the handle Ryan uses when she uploads some of her homemade sketches onto the video-sharing site YouTube. This was about the fortieth in a series of short Little Loca videos that had by then attracted over a million viewings, thanks to Loca’s “big old mouth” (both literally—her heavily outlined lips command attention—and figuratively) and her irreverent putdowns (“You better watch out, fool, because God’s gonna come around and strike you down with some lightning if you don’t be careful”). Loca was wearing a bandanna and hoop earrings, and sitting on a sofa, against a plain white wall, between two women who were known to regular viewers as Smiley (a friend of Ryan’s) and Silent Girl (Ryan’s cousin). Rap music was playing in the background.

“Damn, this shit is heavy,” Loca said, in a pronounced Hispanic accent, after accepting the gold statuette from Smiley and waving it around. “I could knock somebody out with this.” Then she launched into an earnest acceptance speech. “I want to thank YouTube,” she said. “You’re so important in my life right now. And without YouTube there’s no way in hell Loca could have, you know, got something like this.”

It seemed to be a genuine Oscar—stolen from a bar by a friend of Ryan’s—and the moment was rich with postmodern significance. Over the previous three months, Loca’s fans, many of them Hispanic, had warmed to her story: spunky ghetto kid—a chola—with an overprotective older brother, a 4.0 grade-point average, and her innocence proudly intact. (That gang sign that she seemed to flash at the end of each video was really a sideways V, for virgin.) They knew she’d been prom queen, and they had met her onetime boyfriend Raúl. They’d learned that Silent Girl went mute after the death of her brother, an innocent bystander in a botched robbery. And they’d grown accustomed to Loca’s distinctive, almost bewitching screen presence—the way her dark eyebrows and pursed lips slide effortlessly from a knowing smile to an outraged glare. At the same time, they’d begun noticing suspicious details that called into question the diary’s authenticity: the mole on Loca’s right cheek seemed to vary in size and placement; Raúl bore a striking resemblance to Drake Bell, the co-star of Nickelodeon’s “Drake and Josh,” a teen sitcom; and didn’t Loca resemble a young woman—a white woman—named Stevie Ryan, who’d been photographed with Drake Bell at the MTV Movie Awards, in June? Accepting the Oscar as Loca was Stevie Ryan’s tacit way of acknowledging the act while also congratulating herself on having legitimately achieved a kind of alternate-reality stardom. Smiley and Silent Girl wore black Little Loca T-shirts they’d bought on the Web from a total stranger.

Loca’s outing mirrored, in some ways, that of the season’s most famous Internet adolescent, LonelyGirl15, whose homespun, if sharply edited, tales of science projects, boy troubles, and religion captivated millions of YouTube viewers before she was exposed as the creation of filmmakers represented by the Creative Artists Agency on Wilshire Boulevard, instead of, say, a girl in her bedroom on some sleepy Midwestern Main Street. But whereas the people behind LonelyGirl15 were interested, from the outset, in exploring the possibilities of a “new art form,” as they called it, unfolding in two-minute episodes, Stevie Ryan came by her YouTube celebrity accidentally, while killing time between auditions and acting classes.

Ryan’s show-business career started when she landed a bit part in a Hilary Duff video (playing Marilyn Monroe) as a result of her first audition, while still living in Victorville. That was all the encouragement she needed, and before long she was dating Bell, whom she met in Huntington Beach. But steady work proved hard to come by, and her reel, after more than a year in L.A., was a typically mixed bag: another music gig (a Billy Idol video), a Japanese commercial, modelling for a fashion startup. She got a job working at a Levi’s store in Beverly Hills.

Six months ago, she borrowed Bell’s Sony Handycam and started making videos. They were mostly vintage-style silent films, with names like “Beyond the Sea . . .” and “Satin Doll,” which she edited, with no formal training, using Windows Movie Maker. She experimented with uploading a few of the films onto YouTube, and only then discovered the site’s ruthlessly populist ethos: what people seemed to like was not pretentious art films with obvious Hollywood aspirations but the confessional blogs of young girls in their bedrooms. Little Loca—a composite of the tough-talking, strong-willed cholas Ryan used to admire in Victorville—was born.

Within a few weeks, YouTube became a full-time pursuit for Ryan. “It’s basically all I do,” she told me. In addition to Loca, she began doing spoofs and impressions of established YouTube bloggers (a surefire way of getting attention), and kept up, sporadically, with the artsy silent films. The quest for stardom that had led her to Hollywood now pitted her against nonprofessionals in Toronto and Pittsburgh and Tasmania.

Three days after Little Loca’s Oscar speech, a seventy-nine-year-old widower named Peter turned on his Web-cam, in the English countryside, and announced, “I got addicted to YouTube. It’s a fascinating place to go to see all the wonderful videos that you young people have produced, so I thought I’d have a go at doing one myself.” (About half of all registered YouTube users are said to be under twenty.) He was wearing a beige V-neck sweater and glasses, and sat in front of nineteen-seventies-era wallpaper and a small painting of a motorcycle. “Oh, yes, and, incidentally, I really am as old as I look,” he said. “What I hope I’ll be able to do is just bitch and grumble about life in general from the perspective of an old person who’s been there and done that.”

Peter called himself geriatric1927, after the year of his birth, and uploaded the video, which was two minutes long, under the title “First Try.” It had been viewed scarcely more than three hundred times when it came to the attention of a staffer at YouTube headquarters, in San Mateo, California, who showed it to Maryrose Dunton, YouTube’s director of product management. She is one of the people in charge of selecting videos to feature on the YouTube home page, which serves as an informal recommendation list. Of the seventy thousand videos added to the site every day, fewer than a dozen receive this special treatment. Dunton, who says she is “totally fascinated by old people and tech,” put Peter’s video at the top of the featured list. The YouTube audience, bombarded by frenetic, attention-seeking teens, immediately warmed to Peter’s reserve. By the following week, geriatric1927, who had begun narrating his life story, from primary school through the Blitz and on into health-department work in Leicestershire, without ever leaving his chair, had more subscribers than any other user in YouTube’s history. “First Try” has now been seen nearly two million times.

One hesitates to cite these statistics, because the story of YouTube, since its launch, ten months ago, has been one of exponential growth, at times challenging the company’s abilities to cope with the demand on its servers. (Bandwidth costs are thought to exceed a million dollars a month.) Last week, according to Alexa, a Web-traffic monitor, it was the tenth-biggest site on the Internet, drawing more visits than eBay, Amazon, or Wikipedia. By late summer, there were approximately six million videos archived on the site, and daily viewings had crossed the hundred-million mark, a great many of them devoted not to original content, such as Peter’s or Stevie Ryan’s, but to preëxisting footage in a wide range of genres: weird home movies (an old woman punching another old woman in the face), sports (Zinedine Zidane’s infamous head butt), music (Hendrix playing “The Star-Spangled Banner”), and politics (Senator George Allen referring to a rival’s campaign worker as macaca; Bill Clinton attacking Fox News on Fox News).

YouTube was founded in February of 2005, in a Silicon Valley garage, by a couple of former PayPal employees, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley. Their background was technological, not visionary. They aimed to provide an easy interface for storing, sorting, and sharing the kinds of digital videos that, thanks to cell-phone cameras and Web-cams, have become more and more prevalent. When, in late August, I visited the YouTube offices, which sit above a pizza parlor on the main commercial strip in downtown San Mateo, several of the sixty or so employees had just finished watching clips of a dance number from the previous night’s Emmy Awards show, in which the host, Conan O’Brien, sang, “At this very moment your kids are on YouTube watching a cat on a toilet.” Julie Supan, YouTube’s senior director of marketing, handed me a copy of a recent People Hollywood Daily. Its cover read, “Television’s Brave New World: How the YouTube Revolution Is Changing Everything You Knew About the Industry.” She was unclear about what, specifically, the YouTube revolution is, however. “We don’t have time to stop and think a lot,” she said.

Hurley, the company’s C.E.O., told me that he wanted to “democratize the entertainment process,” but YouTube’s business model remains somewhat undefined. The found footage that generates the bulk of its traffic is, in many cases, subject to copyright restrictions, leaving YouTube vulnerable to lawsuits. (“The only reason it hasn’t been sued yet is because there is nobody with big money to sue,” Mark Cuban, the co-founder of HDNet, said recently.) Networks like NBC and Fox have intervened to request that particular clips—“Lazy Sunday,” from “Saturday Night Live,” or Clinton’s Fox appearance—be taken down. (Fox later relented, possibly because of complaints of censorship; NBC has begun uploading promotional spots, if not actual footage.)

YouTube’s long-term strength seems to lie in the devoted community of users and bloggers (or “broadcasters,” as the company likes to call them), some of whom turn out to have crossover potential. Brooke Brodack, a skinny, gap-toothed, twenty-year-old receptionist from western Massachusetts, became, in effect, the first real YouTube star, when she was hired in June by Carson Daly to develop content for his production company on the basis of her defiantly madcap skits and lip-synching.

“They want to be seen, and we’re providing the largest audience for that,” Hurley said. “But I think the stars on the site don’t necessarily translate to television.” His plan is to develop a new advertising model that’s “not forced on the user.” Yet the site’s popularity stems from its openness—anyone can upload a video—which makes much of the content difficult to monitor and target ads for. Hurley has therefore begun experimenting with “branded channels,” and he pointed to the recently launched Paris Hilton channel as an example. In a joint arrangement with Warner Bros., Hilton’s record label, and Fox, which sponsored her channel to promote one of its new shows, her videos—Paris waving at fans in Tokyo, Paris having her hair done—received front-page placement, just like the featured spots. YouTube has also agreed to provide the Warner Music Group with “fingerprinting” technology that will help locate its copyrighted material on the site, which it will be free to authorize or remove as it chooses. Warner will upload its own music-video library, and will share the revenues from advertising targeted at its content.

Perhaps the best case for YouTube as a “democratizer” is Peter the geriatric. “What’s interesting to me is he doesn’t really have a different story,” Maryrose Dunton said. “He wasn’t famous. He’s just this average old guy, like, telling his story. That’s so endearing.”

But geriatric1927 was not, in an important sense, a truly democratic star. Like an aspiring model who is spotted in a drugstore by a hot-shot agent, he’d been plucked from the crowd and thrust directly into the spotlight. Ernie Rogers, a twenty-three-year-old guitar player in San Bernardino, may represent the ultimate realization—and corruption—of YouTube’s democratic ideal. Although on his user profile he bills himself as a “typical guy,” Rogers, who goes by the name lamo1234, has watched more than nine hundred thousand videos on YouTube since May. That averages out to approximately two hundred and fifty per hour, not allowing for sleep. What he watches, primarily, is his own guitar solos (or the first few seconds of them), over and over, to boost his view counts to levels that will make others take notice. His strategy seems to have been successful: one of his solos, a medley of Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, and Beethoven licks, has been viewed two hundred thousand times—and only sixty thousand of those viewings were by him. Unfortunately, this strategy leaves little time for actually playing music. “Next year, the No. 1 spot on YouTube is going to be me, every day,” he told me. “I just need to make my band.”

Stevie Ryan has a pale, egg-shaped face and dark-red hair that she likes to run her hands through when she’s not waving them about—punctuation for the many occasions she finds to use the words “cool” and “awesome.” She shares an apartment just off Melrose Avenue with Kendal Sheppard, a young woman she met in an acting class. The apartment, which is just a few blocks from the country’s last silent-movie theatre, is decorated with memorabilia honoring Ryan’s real-world idols—posters of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, an “I Love Lucy” pillow—but when I visited, not long ago, she seemed most animated while discussing her Internet rivals, people with names like LisaNova (“Don’t mention her in this article, cause I don’t want her to get attention”) and Vvvvalentine (“Oh, I love this girl—and her videos are about absolutely nothing!”) and FilthyWhore (“She’s a fucking bitch”). LonelyGirl15 had not yet been outed, but Ryan was already certain that her YouTube blogs were the work of an actress. “Oh, my God, she’s the worst deliverer of lines ever,” Ryan said, cuing up a LonelyGirl episode on her laptop and fast-forwarding to a spot where Bree, as the protagonist is called, claps her hands over her ears and says, without blinking, “My parents are unable to see things from my point of view no matter how much I try and explain it to them.” Ryan shook her head. “That, to me, is just so fake,” she said. “I don’t understand it.”

Ryan’s Little Loca videos are also fake, of course, but a number of plot points have been drawn from Ryan’s own life. For instance, Kendal Sheppard has a Cairn terrier named Baxter, so, rather than risk having unexplained barking in the background, Ryan wrote Baxter into the script, as a stray that Loca found one day while jogging. In July, back in Victorville, which Ryan calls “the meth capital of the United States,” her car was broken into and vandalized. Her first thought was: It’s a very Loca situation. So she got into character, put on the accent, and shot an episode inside the car, amid the wreckage. In some cases, the distinction seems to have blurred almost to the point of identity confusion. At one moment in the car-theft video, Ryan/Loca, who is visibly upset, says to the camera, “And this is real, you guys. I’m not trying to play no stupid YouTube joke or nothing. . . . I feel so invaded, and I just feel like everybody’s watching me, you know?”

“Loca is single—or Stevie, whatever people call me,” Ryan said to me, explaining that she and Drake Bell had split up earlier in the summer. Bell’s disappearance from Ryan’s life necessitated a falling out between Loca and Raúl as well. Ryan was clearly having cathartic fun with the exercise, blaming Raúl for the car incident (he needed cash to buy drugs) and, in another episode, mentioning that he’d been beaten up. (“Homegirl was telling me that, you know, they were hitting him and kicking him up on the floor and stuff like that.”)

During a recent trip to San Francisco, Ryan told me, she had been accosted by a group of teens at a mall, wanting to know if she was “Little Loca from YouTube.” (She was upset that she’d been caught off guard and hadn’t looked her best for all the pictures they snapped.) She also, thanks to Loca, was now being represented by a Hollywood agency. “Seriously, if you Googled me, like, a couple months ago, you wouldn’t get crap,” she said, typing her name into the search engine. “I’m just a normal person. And now you actually get stuff. It’s, like, crazy. That’s more than I could ever ask for, just to be on Google.” The search led to a fan site for various celebrities; Stevie Ryan’s name and head shot were featured alongside Tom Cruise, Rachel McAdams, and Johnny Depp.

Along with the arrival of a Google track record had come some anxieties about her place in the Hollywood pecking order, where, the revolution notwithstanding, YouTube still doesn’t count for much. She’d been embarrassed at a recent party when she wondered whether other guests were being patronizing about her Little Loca pursuits. “As weird as it sounds, being in L.A., with all these actors, nobody wants to do it,” she said. “There’s this whole thing in L.A. where, if it’s not on a billboard, it’s not really acting.” She’d been trying to persuade Sheppard, who once starred in the MTV reality series “Road Rules,” another ghettoized genre, to make videos with her, to no avail.

Ryan flipped through her high-school yearbook and volunteered, “You can see I was a lot fatter than I am now.” (Her Google search bar had recognized the name Stevie Ryan and suggested two related searches that she had entered previously: “Stevie Ryan thin” and “Stevie Ryan skinny.”)

Another anxiety grew out of a suspicion that YouTube was screwing her over, artificially suppressing her page views and going out of its way not to “feature” her the way it had featured geriatric1927. “O.K., seriously? They do not like me on here,” she said. “They hate my guts. I’ve never been featured, so I don’t watch the featured videos now. I’m really angry at YouTube. I don’t care what anybody says, they’re doing it on purpose. I have written probably like, I don’t know, a million letters.”

The transformation from Stevie Ryan to Little Loca takes about fifteen minutes and requires both a minor makeover (drawing the mole, teasing her hair, applying brown lipstick) and a personality adjustment, giving a strident edge to Ryan’s blithe Valley Girl persona. (“Cool” and “awesome” become “scandalous” and “nasty.”) Stevie wears heels; Loca wears Nike Cortez sneakers, big hoop earrings, and a cross around her neck.

Ryan retrieved a marble composition book in which she’d jotted some notes for her next video, not so much a script as an outline. One item read, “Paris Hilton and her big old nasty feet”—a reminder to talk trash about YouTube’s latest interloper. Another said, “Dog shots!” (“I really did take him the other day to get him shots, and I wanted to talk about why that shit really did cost me a hundred and fifty dollars,” she said.) There was also a plot-moving device: “Silent Girl is mad because I’ve been talking to Raúl.”

Ryan said that she prefers to shoot Little Loca videos straight through, without editing, to create the genuine feel of a video blog. She tends to ramble, however, and her videos, which once averaged about three minutes, now run for six or seven. (“Loca has too much to say.”) Before starting, she read over the viewer-feedback comments posted below her latest video, like a kind of pep talk. “People are so mean on here,” she said, after reading one particularly stinging insult, by a fellow-broadcaster named Mojojojoe69. “I give this guy all these shout-outs all the time.”

She sat on a bright-red sofa and held the camera in her right hand, just in front of her face. “Hey, everybody, what up? It’s your homegirl, Loca, all up in the house,” she started, before tearing into her critics. “All I see is you fools over here, crying like a bunch of damn babies, including you, Mojojojoe69. What the hell is your problem? . . . Either you better respect or you better get the hell out of here, fool. Make your damn mind up, all right? You can’t talk shit to Loca one second and be her homey.” After a minute or so, Ryan stopped, concluding that she was talking too fast. Take two ran for four minutes before she stopped again. (“I don’t remember if I talked about Mojojojoe.”) The third try, despite faltering arm strength, stuck: six minutes and thirty-three seconds. She downloaded it onto her laptop, and then, opening Windows Movie Maker, selected “grayscale,” converting it to a highly saturated (for YouTube) black-and-white. Next, she searched her music library for an old-school rap track (“Loca’s really gangsta,” she said), ultimately selecting “Protect Ya Neck,” by the Wu-Tang Clan, which she set to play on a separate track underneath her voice. A series of selections—“fade,” “in and out,” “moving titles,” “layered”—created a template for the opening credits. She selected a graffiti font and gave the video a title: “The Locamotion Isn’t Happy with You Guys.”

“I seriously can’t sit through my videos,” she said, after uploading it onto the site. “They’re, like, so annoying.” She combed out her hair, removed her makeup, and then got in her car and drove to the actor Crispin Glover’s house, in Silver Lake, to discuss plans for possible joint projects: a YouTube star landing a feature-film role, and a Hollywood star joining the YouTube community.

Crispin Glover was wearing a black jacket, black pants, black shoes, and black socks. His front door was open, and in the yard were a number of antique cars covered with tarps. Reverberation from an indie-rock performance, part of a street festival on Sunset Boulevard, made its way up the hill. Ryan curled up in a chair in the living room and looked adoringly at Glover.

A few weeks earlier, Glover had sent her a fan letter through MySpace (its subject was “Genuine Crispin Glover writes Stevie Ryan”). It said that he was planning to make a “party film,” set at a castle he owned in the Czech Republic, and he was looking for talented (and inexpensive) actors to work with.

“I saw that she was doing these things that fooled people, and that she had these various characters,” Glover said, explaining his initial attraction to her YouTube work. “And I’ve had some experience with that as well—things that I’ve done people will think different things about what they actually are. I like that.”

A search for Glover’s name on YouTube will uncover, among other perplexing things, at least ten different uploads of a 1987 appearance on David Letterman’s show. Glover comes onstage wearing a wig, funny glasses, tight striped pants, and platform shoes. He behaves very strangely (one of the YouTube clips was uploaded with the title “Drugs Are Baaaad”); Letterman is not amused. Glover challenges Letterman to an arm-wrestling contest, and then karate-kicks in the direction of Letterman’s head. Letterman rises from his desk and walks offstage. YouTube users have watched the incident more than a quarter million times. “It’s interesting now that there’s this whole new life for it,” Glover said.

Glover spent much of the past decade writing, directing, and producing a film called “What Is It?,” using mostly actors with Down syndrome, which he plans to personally present at art theatres in selected cities this fall. (He himself plays a character called Dueling Demi-God Auteur.) He didn’t seem to have much interest in exploring YouTube’s potential as a new narrative format, to compete with television and feature films, and instead saw it as a forum for discovering new talent and for promoting preëxisting projects, like “What Is It?” In fact, as he talked, the two major issues facing YouTube—copyright and advertising—were brought into relief. While he didn’t mind the clips that had been posted from studio films he’d acted in (Glover played George McFly, Michael J. Fox’s father, in “Back to the Future”), he was concerned about the prospect of someone posting a bootleg of his own movie. “That’s something I would be very litigious about,” he said.

Turning to me, he asked, “What’s the right word for the conspiracy theories that Stevie has about viewership counts? Did she talk to you about that?”

“He’s, like, ‘Yeah, right,’ ” Ryan said.

“Who, me?” Glover asked. “No, no. I understand how those things happen, and it does have to do with corporate sensibilities. I don’t know what’s happening in her case—”

“Well, what do you think is happening?” Ryan interrupted.

“Well, if there would be things like that going on, the reason it would be happening is because they need to be figuring out how their sponsorship elements are going to be working, and corporate elements always get concerned about making audiences uncomfortable,” Glover said. He brought up the fact that she plays a Hispanic character. “Racism is a hot issue, and if there’s anything where people can be concerned about race issues, that’s a sponsorship issue,” he said. “In the seventies, there was that Frito-Lay character—he sang a song, ‘Ay, yii, yii, yiii, I am the Frito Bandito.’ And at a certain point they had to get rid of that character, because he was thought to be making fun of the Hispanic community.”

Glover was on a roll now, the wise forty-two-year-old actor-director schooling the naïve twenty-two-year-old on the ways of the world, and warning her against the inevitable corruption of her utopian Internet democracy. “My movie definitely goes into those areas that corporate entities would be concerned about,” he said. (Glover describes “What Is It?” as “the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are snails, salt, a pipe, and how to get home.”) “And you have to start questioning the basis of the culture itself, being a free-market democracy, which has to do with capitalism—and there are questions about capitalism.” Ryan’s eyes began to glaze over. “You know, you can question Communism, you can question capitalism, you can question fascism,” Glover went on. “They all have their innate evils, so to speak. And it’s the corporate entity that ends up getting power within a capitalistic culture.”

Ryan picked up on the doomsday narrative, if not the political theory. “Four months ago, when I was first on YouTube, it was not where it’s at right now,” she said. “I think Little Loca was, like, No. 5 most-subscribed, and now, like, I’m No. 15—because why? There’s all these other people they’re featuring on there. And it’s, like, bullshit.”

A few weeks later, Ryan posted a new Little Loca installment. It begins with Loca walking down the street (“My dad let me take out the camera,” she explains) and stumbling upon a vintage Bentley. “Damn, there’s a bad-ass car up right here,” she says. A man with long hair, funny glasses, platform shoes, and striped pants—Glover’s Letterman outfit—approaches. “This fool be lookin’ scandalous as hell,” Loca says. “Don’t tell me that’s his car. . . . Hey, wait a minute. You look like McFly, fool. Hey, are you Crispin Glover?”

“No,” the man says, acting nervous.

“You’re in a disguise,” she says.

“No, I’m not,” he says, now indignant. “People think that, and it’s not true.”

He drives off, but soon the scene cuts to Glover’s front yard, where the tarps have been removed from the cars. “Look at these cars and this house,” Loca says. “And you’re going to try to say that you ain’t Crispin Glover the movie star?”

“Movie star?” he asks. “That guy? That guy’s an idiot.”

At about the four-minute mark, the screen fades to a “To be continued . . .” Then there is a printed advertisement: “See Crispin Hellion Glover in a live dramatic performance along with his feature film ‘What Is It?’ ” The film’s trailer follows.

Less than forty-eight hours after Ryan uploaded the video she shot in front of me at her apartment, it was removed from the site, further fuelling Ryan’s suspicions. “They removed my video because YouTube always removes my videos,” she wrote me in an e-mail. “It’s O.K., I still love them.”

The real reason for her video’s removal had nothing to do with any personal antipathy toward her among the YouTube staffers. YouTube had received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act complaint from a third party. Apparently, Ryan’s mistake had been to edit her sketch too ambitiously, post-dubbing the Wu-Tang Clan soundtrack that was distinct from the video recording, and therefore digitally traceable. Had she merely played the song on her stereo while shooting the scene on the sofa, there would have been no way for anyone to detect it, short of watching every video on the site.

In September, Ryan found herself featured at last on the YouTube home page. But the video that YouTube had selected was one of the derivative silent films, a sentimental Chaplin tribute set to the piano music of Yann Tiersen. In just two weeks, it was viewed nearly three hundred thousand times—far more than any of the Loca videos. The response, judging from the seventeen hundred comments, was largely positive, although one viewer named Draftgon wrote, “Can anyone tell me why THIS video got on the front page? I don’t see anything interesting about it.” A girl named Morbidangel wrote, “WOW! Beautiful. . . . You made me cry.”

That comment drew a reply from Ryan herself: “Awww, please don’t cry. Art is beautiful, it reminds you that you’re really not alone.”

Checking in (STARRING UPDATED LINKS!!!)

2006-09-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

So the summer comes to a close, and my mind wanders south. (Anything to keep an audience.) I'll be writing again in October. I've received your many emails, and I want to thank you for sending them- especially the hostile ones . I haven't been keeping up with what is going on with journals and journalism in South Florida as I would like to. I have noticed that Rebecca is doing ****incredible work**** week after week (shout out to Rebecca), I hope that it isn't getting in the way of ****other ventures****. Chuck Strouse, has got the ball rolling again even if the edge is dulled considerably- just start dating again guys, for our sake. (Oh yeah, update on Jim Mullin here soon.) School chum, NYU alum has been doing good things, as has my man at Bunettiquette, but I won't link til I get to take issue with his most recent post. (The links on the side.) I also have kept up with Pulp and I just finished a copy of Florida Pulp. You beat me to it Bob and I am glad you did, excellent work. As regular readers know, I soured on Bob's support of a certain Maryland based, Herald columnist. Without divulging private convo's I will say that someone wrote me a further explanation on their position and I will say that I may have been misunderstanding someone's column. Don't get me wrong I still have my differences of opinion... Karma came 'round and gave me the input of a nasty little commenter on the last post, so everything evens out.

I won't touch on much else here. Below is something from the Sentinel dealing with some of the updated Census info (saved you the link jumping for once). 'Ista has cited this info in various articles on this blog, but I think the Jerome Burdi and company did a good enough job for me to give it a temporary re-run here. The only thing left out by Burdi and Co. which I think is worthy of note, is that Detroit and Cleveland had to get poorer to edge out Miami! The difference in income levels between the cities stand at less than $150 per anum, meaning that the areas are slumming it up together in the same shitty neighborhood. For whatever reason the actually disparity in Miami income is greater than its partners in grime too. Neither Cleveland nor Detroit have absentee condo owners using their addresses to avoid state income tax. I would have thought that this little feature of Miami demographics alone would assist us, not to mention that the last Census demo update (used for the article below) preceded the local housing market "dip" (I will refrain using the "C" word less I draw the ire of the broker community; they're suffering enough.) With election season and all I thought I'd just bring this up.

(South Florida Sun-Sentinel) Aug. 31--Almost 50,000 more South Floridians were living in poverty in 2005, despite state unemployment rates and job creation that are the envy of the rest of the country.

Even adjusting for population growth, the percentage of people living in poverty increased slightly in South Florida counties and the rest of the state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The reason for the disparity is unclear. One theory is that high-income residents may have been primary beneficiaries of the economic upturn, said Dick Ogburn, assistant to the director for research and budgets at the South Florida Regional Planning Council.

Palm Beach County had 11,891 more people living in poverty in 2005 than in 2004. In Broward County, the number was 17,563, while Miami-Dade County recorded 20,192. Statewide, the figure increased by 152,624.

The percentage of people living in poverty rose to 11.1 from 10.3 in Palm Beach and Broward counties. Among large U.S. cities, Miami had the third highest percentage of people in poverty, behind Detroit and Cleveland. In Miami, more than one of every four people lives below the federal poverty line.

Poverty is defined on a sliding scale. A family of four is considered in poverty if the household brings in less than $19,971 annually from any source.

But numbers on a chart don't reflect the growing caseload that social service agencies are struggling to meet, said George Matsoukas, president of American-Hellenic Education Progressive Association (AHEPA) Family Charities of the Palm Beaches west of West Palm Beach.

"We get constant phone calls from people that have needs, that have needs to pay rent, that have needs to not be homeless, a need to just get through the month," Matsoukas said.

The report also warned that the percentage of people with no health insurance grew in 2005. An estimated 20.7 percent of Floridians had no coverage, compared with 19.9 percent in 2004 and 18.2 percent in 2003.

For the average Floridian, the news was mixed. The median annual income in the state dipped $182 to $42,433. In Broward, the median income inched up $376 to $46,673. Palm Beach County recorded a major jump from $44,996 to $48,099.

The income jump didn't impress Scott Badesch, president and CEO of the United Way of Palm Beach County.

"The fact is that when you're poor, a median income doesn't mean anything, you're still poor. What else has gone up? Housing prices have gone up drastically, gas prices have gone up drastically -- in reality, your salary is not going up," Badesch said.

Staff Writer Jerome Burdi and staff researchers John Maines and Jeremy Milarsky contributed to this report.

P.S. Ista's apology about the weird ads someone managed to get onto this site in the middle of a post. Some ad company with unscrupulous code writers...

Hispanic Dade

2006-07-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

Shout out to White Dade. Inspirational. Now let's just jump into our topic shall we?

Water seeks its own level?
I strongly care about the entire Cuban-American community. The Cuban-Americans in desperately poor parts of Hialeah or Flagami are as important as Cuban Americans in Cocoplum. I've worked with Cuban*1 kids in Miami who attended "good" (parochial) schools but received poor education and didn’t aspire to much. (That was not a blanket indictment on parochial schools in Miami.) I think I can express how stifling the Miami mind set can be from sharing a true story.

From my work in college admissions and financial aid I have an arrangement with an Ivy League school for free, whereby I am basically allotted several spaces for students that othewise would probably not be admitted. This informal arrangement comes through my continued non-profit work. (Here is where I open myself to your charges of ethnocentrism and hypocrisy.) I made a point of recruiting Cuban American kids for these slots. I found it nearly impossible to get a kid. Even at this age, the kids and their families seemed to be afraid to exit it the clositered world of Cuban Miami. So why? Was life really better? Was the world outside Miami that hostile for Hispanics? This has led to numerous conversations. The latest was with an old freind that worked for a Cuban-American non-profit with offices in Miami.

He related to me some of the statistical info he had been working with recently in his grant writing. He also spoke of his frustration with dealing with grant writing in the Cuban American community in Miami because of a strong tendency among a certain element (whom I'll call the Heraldistas) to not want to reflect upon the persistent poverty among Cuban Americans or other Hispanics. This has been a topic for us for quite a while. I must admit he was more frustrated than me because, as my Mama always says, "water seeks its own level" (which for the metaphorically challenged, means that people aspire or settle to be what they are inside no matter the conditions.)

Why it's hard to address Cuban and Hispanic poverty in Miami
Are there too many forces working against a person who is trying to address the problem of poverty in the Cuban American community? Some on the right have a stake in promoting another example of the model minority myth. Many on the left (both in the U.S. and Cuba) use the myth to depict a monolithic community- racist, corrupt, cruel and powerful, fleeing a popular revolution only to dictate U.S. policy for their own mercenary ends. This has been fed all the more by certain (small) elements of the Cuban American community and a lazy MSM.

Sometime ago I had an interesting discussion with another esteemed blogger about what the some of the Cuban-American Census figures and their implications from an earlier posting. I must admit, I was somewhat dismissive, partially owning to my feeling that "their reality may suck but it ain't mine so why argue" principle, which is always is ugly and callous. It also ignores cruel and unfortunate vicissitudes that I have myself know too well.

But the facts are there
Revisting these statistics, it seems that some myths have a grain of accuracy and others do not. For example, the orignal entering, older group of Cuban immigrants were better educated, roughly at the level of their American contemporaries (of all backgrounds). Younger Cuban Americans are becoming less educated. It was also surprising to find that most Cuban Americans have been in the U.S. longer than other Hispanic groups.

Hialeah, the City of Progress
First let me share some statistics about Hialeah, the largest Cuban city outside of Havana and the most Cuban City in America: 49% adults (over 23) have a high school diploma; 29.6% of kids are in poverty (and three times as many under 150% of poverty level); 32% of kids proficient in reading in grade 4; 23% proficient in math grade 8; average home value $61,600.

Miami-Dade, County of Corruption
And here are some from Miami-Dade, county level.The median income for a household in the county was $33,900 (Beacon Council 2006). The per capita income for the county was $18,497. About 14.5% of families and 18.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.9% of those under age 18 and 18.9% of those age 65 or over. Hispanic Income levels in Miami are less than local White non-Hispanics but above Black non-Hispanics. Miami-Dade Hispanics are less prosperous than Hispanics nationwide.

Miami, City of Three Card Manny (Diaz)
As you all have heard by now, Miami is ine of the most Hispanic cities in America and has the largest percentage of foreign born Hispanics. Here is a report on Miami and what our government has wrought, from a well-known non-partisan policy group. What is interesting is that Miami's Hispanics have, almost across the board, the same statistical indicators of prosperity/poverty as average Miamians.

Notes about age, marriage status, citizenship, year of arrival to the U.S., Language preference.
Cubans are by far the oldest population, older than the overall population and older than the Anglo population. It has the highest proportion of married adults (and the second highest rate of divorced and widowed adults next to Dominicans.) Only Mexican Americans have more two parent households. Oddly enough 27.1% of Cubans are not citizens which is close to the Hispanic average of 29%. Also a striking oddity is that even though 46% of Cuban Americans have come to the U.S. after 1980, a greater percentage of Cuban Americans have been in the U.S. before 1970 (39%) which is at least three times greater than any other group, including Puerto Ricans. Cubans however tend to speak Spanish at home and not to speak English very well in comparison to Hispanics as a whole.

Below are statistics about Hispanics, in general, by country of origin, the average American and White non-Hispanics from the 2004 U.S. Census*2:
Adult of all Hispanic groups have a lower high school graduation rate (HSGR) and college graduation rate (CGR) than average Americans 84.4% and 24% and even more so than WNH (89.8% HSGR and 36.1% CGR). Cuban Americans adults graduate high school at 62.9%, trailing Puerto Ricans and South Americans in HSGR. Cuban Americans trail only South Americans among Hispanic groups in college graduation rates at 21%, but still considerably trail the overall and NWH averages. (Cubans 50 years old and over have a CGR of 24.1% while Cuban adults younger than 50 years old have 15.8% CGR.)

Cuban Americans have a strikingly low participation rate among both adult males at 62.4% and female 49.7%. This is the lowest rate of participation in the labor force among all adult Hispanics as well as the overall adult population and adult WNH at 79.6% male and 66.1% female. The Hispanic adult participation in the work force is roughly the same as the 72% male and 56% female overall rate.

Median family income among Cuban Americans is $42,600 is a close second among Hispanic groups (behind South Americans $42,800) but far fewer Cuban Americans work. The median among all American families is $49,600 and among WNH $56,900.

Median individual incomes among full time working Cuban Americans is highest among Hispanic groups at $31,500 for working males and $26,300 for working females. This is closely comparable to other Hispanic groups, exp, Puerto Ricans at $30,300 males and $25,600 females; and South Americans at $30,500 males and $24,200 females. The median American wage is $37,100 for males and $27,200 for females; the median WNH is $44,300 males and $35,300.

14.6% of Cuban Americans live in poverty (measured by income divided by individuals per household), less than other Hispanic groups, but roughly comparable to South Americans at 15%. Cuban Americans have fewer children per household, lowering rates of household poverty. However 19.9% of Cuban American elderly live in poverty that any other Hispanic groups except Puerto Rican elderly at 23.4%. 20% of Cuban Americans live in poverty compared with 12% of all Americans and 6% of WNH.

57% of Cuban Americans own their own home, highest among all Hispanic groups (followed by that mysterious Hispanic “other” group, at 50.8%). 45.7% of Hispanics own their own home. 66.2% of Americans and 73.8% of WNH own their own homes.

Footsies
*1 Please forgive me but I somtimes lapse out of the PCness, saying "Cuban-American" when in most of convo with fellow Cuban-Americans of all political persuasion use the term "Cuban(s)" or "Cubano(s)". If we are here we realize we are Americans and I don't see why we have to explain that to placate Cuban bashers.

*2"Census 2000, We the People: Hispanics" 2004 and "Census 2000, We the People: Demographic Report"2004 You may note that they were revised from an earlier report from Census 2000 and are much more flattering to Hispanics of all backgrounds. There was no explanation for the revision.

Happy to be back Part 3

2006-07-13T02:54:00.000-07:00

PART 3: Looking into Blogs and Other Dark Places (Part of a Series as Miamista the blog wends its way into Permanent Abeyance. I'm too big for my audience duckies!)

1. A number of South Florida blogs have died and soon this will be on the list. I am close to creating an in memoriam section. Don Jeffrey, Miamity, Kordor, Miami Muse, Fort Lauderdale, The Daily Sketch, immediately come to mind. Blogs are dying in Miami as fast as they are being replenished. What I found funny was that Don Jeffrey referenced this thread in one of the best all around blogs in Miami about why he is off into the sunset. The Herald also mentioned this blogger which has made me like the paper more. (In truth the Herald isn’t that-that bad of an AP outlet/"news"paper, relatively speaking.) I linked to the New Miamian post months ago and I still get comments sent to me about it, so I know Carolina is tired of them and tired of my compliments. Anyway, Don Jeffrey referenced two television shows from Brazil, "America" and "City of Men" (also see City of God) that I like and which I understand will be shown on Bravo or IFC. (I understand it is popular in Cuba, where I initially heard of it.) I suspect that Miami could one day look like Sao Paulo if our economy and population increased tenfold and our city leaders/city planners continued to be as inept. I take that back Paulistas (and my buddy Joabim now in Miami), Sao Paulo does have some park space and a pretty good subway system (better than New York’s).

2. Someone who works for a college in Miami is arguing with Bob Norman about Leonard Pitts. (I won't link to all of it, I'll leave it to you to go back a few links.) I know because the person used something that I wrote and then cleared it (with my editing) with me. It’s a great guy who I’ve know for a while, one of my best, best friends in Miami, who has contributed ideas, material and information for Miamista. We are in 90-98% agreement usually and we are in 80% agreement. Let me take this moment to say that he really should start a blog. Unfortunately I think he will be leaving Miami soon. I chipped my own response in (which won't appear until Bob approves comments on Monday) because Bob is becoming an asshole about the whole Hip Hop thing, which is heartbreaking. (Pitts' ignorance of music, as a former music writer, is just as startling as his inability to penetrate issues as a n opinion columnist.)

Then check the comments in the Daily Pulp for the Rev. "Black Community Pimpin' Republican" Dozier articles; here is the latest. Dozier is such bum-scrape. Sticky Dozier stridently believes that in these times of the Black community's woe and want, people are looking for answers and he knows the only book that's gottem. Okay, he doesn't know that book. But he knows that he should be able to do the deciding about holy books and religion, even though he apparently can't understand any of them himself. Dozier has spoken to Jesus and this is what Jesus wants him to be a Muslim hater and vocal lackey of the Chrisitan extremist. Who am I to argue with a super-ignorant, hate spewing, faith-dictating zealot who apparently has Jesus' blessings? I think my feelings about him are properly illustrated in the picture to the left.

3. So someone will explain why I find myself gloriously entertained and in alarming sympathy with White Dade who gets some guff sometimes, I think unfairly. The why’s don’t matter, he is a must read. And if you want a little more serious policy stuff with your sharp humor try another Miamista fave.

4. I'm sure some of you picked up my indirect reference to criminal violence and the rash of killings in Liberty City and Little Haiti in my last post. By referencing a larger history I wanted to put the violence in perspective. So often people speak about "those neighborhoods" with "those people". Again, there is history, continuation and conditions. Being victimized, btw doesn't make you a better person. Continued vitimization makes people self-loathing, frustrated, ignorant, and all other sorts of maladjusted. Why do you think Black kids without prospects and opportunity value their life and those like them so little? Why do you think they try to cover up their lack of self worth by valuing hyper consumerism? Why do you think kids are ready to kill because they have been disrespected by those that look like them? Why do you think kids would be so willing to risk life and freedom in a drug/street crime culture when they are more aware than anyone of the consequences and likelihoods?

What are your parents, with no education themselves going to do? Kids won't respect what parents say as they began to comprehend reality through their own eyes and that of the outside world's. I mean, their advice hasn't done them or their community much good. And there is a truth to what they see on the streets. Violence is, afterall, what ultimately controls society. Even Rawls and Nozick (or Patrick Henry and Alexander Hamilton) can/could agree on that. What these kids don't understand is how community, political and social organization can be manipulated through the implied control of violence/disorder. Neither do their parents.

I read Burnettiquette and Stuck on the Palmetto religiously. (Okay, you see the links at the right.) Rick seems to be having some genuine and righteously motivated difficulty in understanding why Black people in Miami might be afraid to trust police. James thinks that parents are a potential bulwark against community violence.Let me offer my highly esteemed and deeply respected bloggers a differing read.

Blacks have every reason to be distrustful of police and violent criminals. What if residents do cooperate? (Which I don't believe is always in the best interest of the community considering the rate of convictions, incarceration and lack of rehabilitation programs.) And after someone "snitches", where will the police be? (Picture of reunion of Miami residents displaced because of city demolition, still not compensated, or rehoused.)

The police are in a position to change this. Recruit from the neighborhood, hire Creole speaking officers, more importantly put them in situations where they interact positively (like PAL’s and youth centers as well as walking the beat). Develop youth courts, alternative sentencing and diversion programs that provide support for realistic and viable alternatives to street crime.

The Miami-Dade Association of Community Development Corporations say that though Blacks are a quarter of the county’s population, predominantly Black neighborhoods are receiving less than five percent of county spending. The same government that stole everything from funds for the development of an entire section of the city (Model City) and bulldozed most of the housing stock from owners without compensation and lets slumlords break every law in the book while having the police evict tenants regularly is not a recipe for trust.

I should pause for a moment here to note that Cuban Americans and other Hispanics in Miami actually are as bad off as Black youth. Hialeah would, after all, be the poorest large city in America, rather than Miami if it had enough people to qualify. Hialeah High School has a 95% family qualification for free or reduced lunch, which is among the highest in the state. Neverthe less, for reasons I won't pursue here, there are differing circumstances between the groups.

Honestly sometimes I wish a hurricane would hit the Northside of Dade and FEMA pays money willy nilly to any and everybody in an orgy of money grabbing and mass exodus (in the way that Andrew did in South Dade, allowing Whites to flee en masse.) Oh wait, Uncle Sam doesn’t do that anymore…

5. If we are looking to find our humanity while reading a well written, thought provoking blog there is only one place to go . If you are talking about writers and people I have immense respect for, there you are.

6. I also read Hidden City (which is like good West Coast Jazz- intelligent, cool with occasional sparks and sustained depth). Kevin is about to ban me for commenting too much. Steve Klotz has simply been doing some of the best blogging in Miami and possibly the entire Southeast, when not attacking soccer, the French and everyone’s sensibilities. Here is the proof .

7. I plug her and you say “she’s not a Miami blogger…” So what. Btw, Spoke in the Wheel's latest about Gay marriage proves that Albany is to Tallahassee as Miami is to New York. Hold on, Mayor Alvarez said Gay people have “sexual problems” and still won. Hmmm.

8. Speaking of, here is something I owe Manola, though she did pretty well herself. Sometimes I read Manola and I feel guilty because she is so bad but the blog is so good. If I was a girl I’d channel her.

9. Miaminights stays really cool and Miamist has stepped up their game, but still haven’t connected to Miami. Neither seem organic yet but I can’t put my finger on it. I’m really positive on Miamity’s efforts and promise but it seems like they need someone to blog that knows Miami from squat and has an opinion, preferably an informed one. (I’ll volunteer to write and you’ll have an uninformed one!) So we can't forget Critical Miami as the omniblog of Miami.

10. Look at the blog of hope and struggle for Miami, 6/21, 6/24, 6/27, 6/30 entries on why U.M. SUCKS. (It really doesn’t, it just seems to be losing it way, descending incrementally into suckitude.) I mean in fairness I have problems with NYU and Cornell fighting grad assistance attempts to unionize but that would be precedent setting. That sucks too.

11. In the battle of one upmanship in conservatism (though I reject the accuracy of this term as popularly applied) Crist who seems to be a rational sort of guy with some sense of morality is joining his campaign foe Gallahger in an implacable anti-abortion platform. I thing this is a good time to explore beyond our borders for comparative policy in modern times. And who better to look to but our Latin neighbors.

Latin American law enforcement shining light in dark places... Did you know that it is not only a felony to get or perform an abortion in El Salvador, but that the state actively investigates offenders.

There are other countries in the world that, like El Salvador, completely ban abortion, including Chile and Colombia. El Salvador, however, has not only a total ban on abortion but also an active law-enforcement apparatus -- the police, investigators, medical spies, forensic vagina inspectors and a special division of the prosecutor's office responsible for Crimes Against Minors and Women, a unit charged with capturing, trying and incarcerating an unusual kind of criminal.

For those who were wondering how a basal right to privacy becomes a derivitional right to abortion, "vagina inspector" pretty much serves as a logical bridge. I wonder, does a Salvadoran vagina inspector need a warrant? Or is a badge and probable cause enough? (The Picture to the upper left is my attempt to shoehorn picts from the WC in. I also know that she will kick a vagina-inspector's ass. Oh how I miss the Brazilian fans!)

Happy to be Back Part 2

2006-07-13T02:22:00.000-07:00

So what have I missed in Miami? (Not much; look to your left. They spell it with an "s"... BTW PLEASE READ PART 1&2 even though they're put up on the same day! These may be some of the last posts of old Miamista.)

1. First, what has Miami missed? Not a world championship. The bullshit New Times non-story last week I won’t bother to link to about a Heat minority owner from Israel when the majority owner from Israel, Micky Arison, owner of Carnival slave galleys, * Katrina gouger extraordinaire and partner to sister who is caught up in the family business of arms smuggling and money laundering, etc. I mean, I’m as afraid of him as anyone else but at least I hope the New Times reporter who bothered to write that piece is being paid off for not reporting information on things that are already known. There is a reputed connection between his family’s bank and an attempt by Margaret Thatcher’s ne’er do well son to become a new Cecil Rhodes (or I should say Mike Harari). "Executive Outcomes" and "Blackwater" should mean a lot to you today since they are operating on all seven continents on behalf of corporations and the government for regime support and change, sanctioned or otherwise. Don't front, you'd love to take over three or four resource rich dirtbag nations too if you could.

Tangential question: why are White people afraid of Black youth again? White folks have been more gangsta than anyone else, and it’s okay! Rhodes- a dozen White men, a continent, the odds are my side…drug pusher, pimp, diamond horder, germ warfare pioneer, user of weapons of mass destruction, promoter of internecine violence and unrivaled thief that took over half a continent and personally owned most of a country that he named after himself. Again, where is the honor of being a Rhodes scholar a Black person heard the phrase “Put your hands up n-gger, I’m stealing all your shit and this is my turf now” was from a White guy. And he really meant it. I often imagine he would be right at home in Overtown today running a drug ring. I take so many shots at corrupt local officials who HAPPEN to be Hispanic I feel I have to spread the love or get some more mail about being anti-Hispanic. I digress. (If making light of genocide, enslavement and racism here was too unPC you know how to issue me a caution: the comments section.)

2. Florida is always tricky when it comes to education. Jeb is such a scamp!

3. Down here in Miami we have our own little brouhaha among educators and pols. Seemingly the only high level Black official in Miami with self respect, MDPS Superintendent Rudy Crew, has decided he won’t just shuffle away. To have Arza, a race baiting, greedy, thieving party hack with a personal vendetta against the head of public schools leading the Miami legislative delegation on educational issues is a travesty! And Rudy, who COULD just cash his very large checks has decided that he’s going to fight the good fight. Local Black leaders are looking at him like he’s Nat Turner reincarnate, to their obvious Hattie McDaniels.

4. Hispanic leaders who are tired of screwing their constituents for Jeb and being bullied by Ralph “the Hedgehog” Arza decide to go public and support Crew and education (and nothing has come of it, yet.) Arza and few other Jeb lackeys have decided to punish these guys for having independence and a scruples. (Caputo is a better education reporter than the spotty Matty Pinzur who is remarkable in his ability to miss stories, color stories with a particular ignorance all his own and most embarrassingly, duplicate a single story ad infinitum. Okay, I’m being unfair or at least harsh but I give him his due when he deserves it.)

5. What is the best way to send the opening salvo? Stir the pot of community divisiveness by playing on the worst impulses of the populace; in other words a book banning. Overtown USA continues to be the blog of a million people and it is a reliable place to find a good take on this issue. What you have to love is that people are making the comparison of a preschooler’s book and President Wilson’s favorite White supremacist movie, "Birth Of A Nation." BOAN btw continues to be known because it is used in academic settings to students of a proper age to illustrate the thorough and pernicious state of racism in America at the time. Take a moment to look at another side.

6. More on Rudy Crew.Our intepid hero has determined that the school district needs t o stop letting two black fat-cat theives/pols and lackeys commit open theft of sorely needed funds from the people who they (never really) represent. I hear that commissioners at the county level are pressuring Crew and the board to keep their lackey at the public trough. They'll win this one.

Crew seems to be fairing a bit better than other highly competent professionals brought in to reform the unreformable pieces that make up the grand picture of public corruption and ineptitude that is Miami's public sector. Many thought that he would have had an Angela Gittens or Constance Kaplan or Adis Vila done on him by this time. Go Rudy!

7. Terrorism in Miami. While we are surrounded by terrorists, have streets named for them and they have open offices, one terrorists (Posada Carriles of course) may be set free because he is know being acknowledged as having been a CIA operative. (Does Posada’s lawyer work with Al Qaeda’s PR department in an effort to delegitimize America in the eyes of the world?). Oh yeah, a bunch of knuckleheads with dreams of scamming some money have been exalted to the position of grand terrorists, both trivializing serious terrorism even more and reminding Black people that they are still in the old shitbag of distrust by mainstream America. Priceless. Of course I’d rather the media just drop the singling out of race and religion when speaking of terrorism but it plays for a lot of reasons.

8. Miami chooses a new city manager to replace the Joe “The Evil Clown” Arriola. Here is was the selection criteria. For a more serious discussion look here. It’s like a baseball team needing a starting pitcher and signing a mascot. More on mascots...

9. Miami replaces the Winton, who will go on to serve time- as the Notre Dame mascot. Who did they choose? The most incompetent, ass-kissing person, politically unviable person they could find, i.e., Deputy City Manager/Chief Financial Officer Linda Haskins. Umhmm… She was the chief financial officer of the city so she’s already implicated in the cities budget problems including the fire fee deal, the missing $35 million in HUD money and questionable contracts; she has also already committed herself to be a Home Depot Hoe. The Grove resident has been mismanaging the city for six years so she has more baggage than any of our current officials. She is hoping perhaps that her Angloness is enough to overcome this. I think the Grovites have been cured from ethnic voting. (I would argue that Anglo voters in the Grove haven’t ever really been racist, they simply didn’t want the sort of Banana Republic government that everyone should hate.) The crazy thing is that she is not guaranteed to have her job back when she comes off of leave, meaning that her livelihood is being held over her head. Now of course that brings up the question about a conflict of interest as she is working with people who very well may be her boss. So what did she say to assuage fears that she is simply a Winton/Diaz shill? Haskins answered this in her own way during her swearing-in. She thanked her ''wonderful mentor, Mayor Diaz”, and said she “hoped to make the man she is replacing -- Winton -- proud.” I wonder who will be replacing her in the upcoming election. I’ll think about it but I’d appreciate some feedback from readers.

10. Audacity! (Turn your head if you're tired of U.S. government funded terrorists retiring in Miami.) Pinochet has used killed tens of thousands of people, made millions more live in horrible poverty and littered Chile with mass graves and mourning mothers, all with our support. He has ducked trials in six nations but he still is trying to protect some of the hundereds of millions he stole from the treasury and apparently made from drug trafficking. Again, why did we put him in and arm him to the teeth? Why did we actually assist his military and secret police that invented whole new methods of genital torture with the aid of our specialists at Ft. Benning’s SOA? Yet he has the audacity to be challenging charges because he has had some of his assets frozen!!! It is a Miami issue because most of his family are here in Miami, running money laundering banks. His son was recently indicted for some laundering activity but pled down and actually kept the money. As some of you know, Cuban American terrorist from Miami in a killing spree killed Letilier as well as an American and even threatened the lives of FBI officers who were trying to catch them. It marked a whole wave of terrorism emanating from Miami…

11. The best journalist in Miami decided to take a week off by claiming that it was a seasonally slow news cycle (tsk, tsk). It’s okay Rebecca because you have been writing your ass off and I doubt that it was appreciated as much as it should be.

*Great job for missing another local story Miami Herald!

Happy to be Back Part 1

2006-07-13T02:14:00.000-07:00

First happy to be back. I hope I left you hanging on my last words like an apostrophe! (Geddit?) I received some interesting feedback from a highly respected reader, Nic Fit, saying that Miamista was drifting and that the name Miamista was no longer appropriate for the blog. Read the discussion. I should add that the guest articles are coming down tomorrow so I'm only sorta back.

I feel obligated to report on my time in Europe but I’m not sure what to say. It’s not like when you’re spontaneously sharing stories with people next to you. In fact, this blog did me the non-favor of sharing my trip with people whom I might have asked to go but wasn’t really at liberty to because of a number of reasons. I was also too poor to buy everyone gifts that I would like to so here is my apology.

Do I start on some sociological musings, for instance, asking why travel abroad, and what it says about the constraints of economics, class, race, etc.? Do I go into racism in football which more than the theme for this year’s world cup, was a hot topic that played out on the pitch as well as in discussions in the media and the great people whom I met? What about the conversations and observations? I missed a short trip to Montreal that I failed to report on as well as a Moroccan and China trip.

I have been in a rush to travel these days because I assume that my days of freedom from responsibility are numbered. So much of my life is predicated on giving myself the maximum flexibility and maximum mobility. Can’t imagine it will be cool to hit up budget hotels and youth hostels forever. I was too old to get into one or two which was FRIGHTENING!!! I can’t let hard won opportunity and growth slip away so easily. You’d be surprised how many things get lost over time, how many things get placed in storage only for me later to sell and give away. I might also mention that I pulled a tendon in my heel while playing pick up soccer in Germany and that makes me fear that athleticism will start to fade. Hmmm. I hope we can take all of this and spread it out over the next few weeks without me getting on your nerves.

Here is me bemoaning that 80-85% of Americans will never own passport, even though twenty percent of just those Americans in the Census are first generation (including those born of immigrants and born abroad) and that passports tend to be issued to the same sectors of our population, immigrants and the wealthy. Two percent travel abroad outside of Canada (for God’s sake every college kid goes to Mexico I thought!) Mexico, Canada, England by far, then France as a way distant fourth… Well the rest of the world does suck.

Okay, football/football/futebol. Let me be clear, I am no fan. And by that I mean I enjoy the actual game, playing it and witnessing it rather than rooting for teams. That goes for sports in general.

Italy- Masterful performance. Very physical. Brutal defense. Superb gamesmanship (more on that later). Good set pieces of the English type, i.e., a tall striker who use their height for heading even if they can’t walk straight much less dribble. (There seems to be a shortage of tall AND coordinated people in soccer.) And no one dives like the Italians, whose performance throughout was worthy of La Scala. Those of you who know my last name will know that I’m only being fair, despite a very distant ancestral call.

Oh Brazil!- Fat Ronaldo (okay, he’s just big boned) was not good for Brazil as a single striker. I mean if he can beat your off sides trap the way he did against Ghana, you’re just a sucky team, or at least an undisciplined one. I’ve always thought he was skillful, no one get the ball off his feet with direction and speed quicker and he is great with headers, but he is also selfish. That not really a fault with a striker unless that striker can no longer move. Greatest collection of players and crappy team. Ronaldhino deserves better targets and Cafu should have retired before, not after this World Cup.

Holland, Germany, Sweden- the ugly game, concentrating on set pieces, hard tackles, intimidation (not really Germany) with attacking players having more pace than ball control. I think it is fair to say that there is much less diving among these teams.

England- Seemed to have it all. Brutal team tackling, dead on corners (isn’t that the only reason Beckham is allowed to walk a pitch), pace (Rooney), intimidation (Rooney again), ball control (Owen), a tall striker for heading (Couch). Penalty kicking was bad and their goalie was mediocre. We’ll probably never see a team of specialists like that again but they were way overrated as individuals. Now the English can do what they usually do and blame a newly minted villain for their ineffectualness, preferably a swarthy Latin with flair, (Cristiano Ronaldo plays the role of Maradonna) in these sad post-imperial days.

Portugal- the little country that couldn’t should have done better but compounded probable bias as a little country with the little country syndrome of whining and the finesse team habit of diving (too an extreme matched only by Italy.) Cristiano Ronaldo needs to get a new trick besides scissor kicks and diving but his pace, strength, flair and quickness coupled with the fact that girls LOVE dude, means he should be the next great thing- except in piss-pants England. (Sorry old buddy Geof in Cheltenham, good seeing you.)

Argentina- should have won but they blew it by trying to play defense. When you pass and move together like that, that IS your defense. Argentines are insufferable though right? So who wanted them to win? Me; purely on the grounds of soccer, Maradonna and Nestor Kirchner.

Ukraine- they’re God awful but deserve mention for an entirely different reason. Oleg Blokhin, their coach has inspired me to dislike his team; here’s what he said to do so: “The more Ukrainians there are playing in the national league, the more examples there are for the young generation. Let them learn from Shevchenko or Blokhin and not some zumba-bumba whom they took off a tree, gave two bananas and now he plays in the Ukrainian league.”

Spain- How does Spain always manage to be so repulsive? I mean there is the tennis player Nadal who I want to like but his mastery is of those sloppy, fuck-up-your-clothes, Third World-ish clay courts. (I mean, no half developed nation should play on clay except the French who continue to use them just to be different.) And why does that ass-ferret Nadal insist on wearing culottes. Oh, why do I hate Spain? Spain is the most notoriously racist football fans and team in the world. Spanish team coach and Ralph Arza hero Aragones manager told his players “to get (French star) Henry Thiery, to show that Black piece of shit you are better than him.” The Spanish Football federation all but cheered him on. Spain is where the monkey chants at Black players started and continues, unabated. A group of racist thugs viciously beat a man in a stadium after a game because they thought he was a South American immigrant (turns out he was Spanish native/national.) Teams have group of wannabe fascist fans, most despicably including the Ultra Surs, who several Spanish players go out of their way to support. And there are no mitigating achievements like football team success or national habits of good clothes, good food, good cars, etc.

France- should have won but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, right Zizou (aka Zidane Zinadine)? You better really consider if it’s worth it however as opposed to reacting. I mean, you can take the guy out of the hood by you can’t take the hood… Speaking of the ‘hood, why does virtually all of the French team come from it? I mean, it is like the Foreign Legion of soccer, with all but two of its starters coming from abroad (Africa and the Caribbean) or children of immigrants from the same. Is there a law that only Arabs and Blacks can play or in France can only Arabs and Blacks play?

Zizou- why we still love ya. Thiery Henry, team mate to Zinadine Zidane overheard Marco Materazzi call Zidane a "Screw his damn Arab mother" and asked him earlier "Why don't you play for your own country". Materazzi has a history of thuggish play and racism. He tried to end Aloisi's career with a knee tackle away from the play and his cynical and brutal two-footed challenge could have ended Marco Bresciano's career and almost did. Materazzi said Zoro (an African player in the Italian league) was just getting publicity when Zoro walked off with the ball in Sicily amidst thrown bananas and monkey chants. Materazzi, has also been involved with a number of other altercations on the pitch and has been suspended for it almost a dozen times. It is unclear whether that was the final insult before the headbutt or one of the comments up to that point. Materazzi for his part says that he insulted Zidane with whatever the inflammatory comment was because Zidane looked at him with “super arrogance”. Materazzi had self-admittedly “held him by his shirt for just a few seconds” during a corner kick and Zidane said “if you want my shirt that badly I’ll give it to you”. Materazzi refused to say what comments he used. When it was asserted that during the match he had called Zidane a terrorist Materazzi said he was “ignorant and doesn’t know what an Arab terrorist is.” Materazzi declined to say specifically what he called Zindane.

If this were a less important game I wish Zidane would have cocked him, but in this case he just played into his hands. Zidane should have learned already. When playing against Saudi Arabia there were bunches of chants with people calling him a sellout and accusing his father of being a collaborator in Algeria. A player called him a "harki" (Arabic epithet for colonial collaborator) and Zidane stomped him. Zidane was suspended for six games I think. Later he announced that his parents or family had never been collaborators. Perhaps he should use his mouth instead of violence.

Why is it that all the racism seems to come from the poor, backwards countries of Europe, the EU problem children? Italy (to an extent), Spain, the Ukraine… (In Northern European nations, including the U.K, France, Holland, Germany, Scandinavia, etc., players are suspended indefinitely and fans are banned for life for chanting or displaying racial epithets, and it’s not a real problem.)

Dade's bigger, wealthier brother named L.A.

2006-07-06T20:09:00.003-07:00

Excerpted from "We're Still Paying for Supe's Mail Bonding" by Steve Lopez 7/6/06 (Brought to you by Joshua M.)

Readers have been asking for an update on my report about Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike ("Conning Neocon") Antonovich and his frequent screwball mailings at taxpayer expense, and I thought now would be as good a time as any to fill you in on the latest.If you missed my June 11 column, Antonovich is fond of putting staffers and clerks to work sending phonebook-size collections of his favorite "news" items to a few hundred friends and colleagues.

Each time Uncle Mike gets the urge to regale pals with his ding-a-ling discoveries, it costs us several thousand dollars in printing and mailing costs, not to mention the much larger manpower tab.The material has included a report that the Russians removed Saddam's WMDs before the U.S. could locate them, a photo caption suggesting that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attended a "Marxist" law college, and my personal favorite — a story reporting that there's mathematical proof of God's existence.

Columnist Ann Coulter pops up regularly in the mailings, as do inspirational stories of spiritual healing.The packets also contain bona fide news reports and policy studies, but even so, you have to wonder why anyone would want Antonovich to waste time gathering and sending such items on the county dime when that stuff is available to anyone with a computer or nearby news rack.A reader named Steve Parker got worked into a lather when he read my column and e-mailed Antonovich to demand an explanation.

The supervisor responded in writing, calling my column "way off the wall" and defending his mailed articles as "pro-Israel, anti-terrorist, pro-legal immigration, anti-illegal immigration," saying they included "topics affecting Los Angeles County and the world.""Interesting that those who claim to advocate freedom of expression are really 'thought police' using their political correctness to suppress other points of view that support the State of Israel and the efforts against terrorism," Antonovich continued.

Hmmm, I guess I didn't absorb the import or timeliness of references to the sins of Bill Clinton, the "discovery" of Noah's Ark, how to cure a hiatal hernia, and second- and third-hand e-mailed references to Secret Service allegations that "Yes, Kennedy did have Marilyn Monroe flown in for secret 'dates.' And LBJ really was a typical Texas 'good ole boy' womanizer," but that "Nixon, Bush 41, and Carter never cheated on their wives."If Antonovich finds this sort of thing illuminating or relevant, good for him. But like I said the first time, he ought not be sticking the public with the cost of his collected wisdom.And, as noted previously, that exact cost is difficult to determine, given an executive accounting system that seems almost intentionally set up to obscure the expenses piled up by each supervisor.

In fact, county staffers are under orders to immediately report all requests for billing information, such as mine, to the supervisors. It's a nice little heads-up.As you might recall, I had a scheduled meeting with the supervisor following the first article. I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that Antonovich flack Tony Bell didn't respond when I asked if the meeting was still on.

But even so, you'd think we could simply reschedule, or that Antonovich could answer my questions by phone, right?Apparently not, as I found out after sending this e-mail to Bell:"I'd like to know if your boss … intends to stop the mailings and reimburse the county for the expense, and if not why not?"When I got no answer, I sent another e-mail complaining about the non-response and got this from Bell."No non-response, Steve. You're (sic) were the no-show at the meeting we had scheduled for Monday."The exchanges went on like that until I sent this note to Bell:"I feel like I'm back in sixth grade. You have not answered the two questions, so let me repeat them: Will he stop these mailings at taxpayer expense? And will he reimburse the county for those already sent?"Here was Bell's response:"Asked and answered. Have a nice weekend."

You'd think there'd be a more helpful attitude from an office so obsessed with spiritual deliverance, but such is the legendary arrogance of Supervisor Antonovich.He is the unofficial leader, or county mayor, of a board notorious for its lack of accountability in handling a nearly $20-billion budget, its fat bundles of discretionary funds, its private discussions of public matters, and its farcical photo-op public meetings that run for hours while problems fester in county jails, hospitals and youth services, all too often resulting in death.

For these and other reasons, including several good leads from readers, I'm just going to have to continue sniffing around the county offices in the months to come. Especially since so many irate taxpayers have asked me to keep it up."Is there any way to bring an audit?" asked a reader named Tom, who wisely recommended a proposal requiring each supervisor to keep an accurate account of individual mailings." "When you speak with Antonovich would you ask him to focus more on paving and fixing the roads in Altadena than on sending out the information you described?" asked Jackie. These are all excellent questions, but as noted, Antonovich doesn't seem to be taking my calls. I suggest readers go ahead and give him a try at (213) 974-5555, and don't forget to tell him I said hello.

Hallo, mein readers and friends!!!

2006-06-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

Wie geht's? Okay, I put this together as a series. Yes it's cheese. Yes there will be something with guys in it that is just pulled from elsewhere (cuz I wouldn't know how to properly). So no cries of sexism. This is ALL about soccer/football/futbol! Okay, it is a desperate attempt to keep readers while I'm on vacation. But what is more beautiful than the joga bonito? (Also, see this and this on the tube but block out the trance garbage on the latter.) Danke, Josh for arranging it while I'm away. It's up to Josh to give you part 2 of these photos and part 1 and 2 of the player pics as well as the next links for more of the beautiful game and pics I send from the WC. (BTW, don't miss my favorite Soca song below and here is the another Mas Que Nada with the best team on Earth!) Auf Wiederse'n!

Germany uber alles!

O Esplendor de Portugal!

Yo Quiero Mexico

Iran, but so did she!

Belo Angola Avante!

Japan, Ah Soooo!

Wait, there's no Puerto Rican team!

Swiss Miss!

USA! USA!

Don't Cry for Argentina!

Italia, do you lika da sauce? It'sa from both of us!

Iran, Sheatollah!

Oaria raio
Oba Oba Oba...
(I blame it on the Samba)

Ecuador, Sunshine!

New York baby, keepin' it real!

Brazil, Order and Progress...

Sweet, Sweet T&T, all dis suga can't be good for me! Socawarriors!

En-Guh-Lund Spice!

Not spicey enough for a Mexican, ugh!

Sweden, ya?

Dutch Treat!

Sporting Miamista

2006-06-13T20:10:00.001-07:00

So I am on vacation, designed to coincide with the World Cup. Thought I'd drop you a line.

Long time readers know that I'd rather play sports than watch them any day and that I am an ambivalent sports fan at best. But I do like a sports. I want to like the Heat but I can't. I used to, but not now. In fact I hate them now. Yep, I hate the home team. And in Miami it is a crime to hate the home team when it is winning (or to think about them when they are not.) But my feelings are not an effort to be contrary.

There is Shaq who doubles as a Human Bowling Ball when not slapping the shit out of other players- Ostertag, Bowen, Kobe twice and several other people on his own team as well as others. (Not to say I don't enjoy watching a pimp slap as well as the next guy, but this serial slapping seems to reflect a bully w/o self control.) I hate his game, which has all the skill of a battering ram with an iffy flat-footed hook shot from two feet.

There is the sulking hyper-entitlement of the near skilless Haslem and Payton's nastiness but that's nothing. The real 1-2 punch of annoyingness is the not-as-good-as-he-thinks-he-is and the marketers want him to be Dwyane Wade. Wade is another very athletic two guard with a bad medium range jumper; that is w/o the 400 pound double-team drawing Shaq in the center. Referees ignore Wade's traveling violations and send him to the free throw line like Jordan and Bird in their 12th season. A few months ago Wade indulged in an unecessary commentary and comparison of Bryant and Shaq which made me appreciate him all the less. Did he want Bryant's shoe marketing contract or something? (Wade was deemed as one of the most beautiful people by marketers while others are trying to figure out whether he kissed a hot iron or if that whole weird baboon ass for lips thing is natural. Can something be done?)

If that is not bad enough, Pat "the Geriatric Gordon Gekko" Riley decided that he could not let a winner go unclaimed by his ego. He seems to think that a championship will dispell any the naysaying about him winning only with an all star line-up, that is when he was younger... Instead a whole bunch of people are thinking all the less of him, now with valid reason (screwing Van Gundy).

The League and its officials play too big of a role in deciding Heat games. (I should just say games.) If Shaq is free to bulldoze (b/c he has been a lovable, fuzzy, ticket selling giant when not smacking people) then is half the game won. And THAT is what makes me dislike the Heat more than anything.

Ah, but there is the World Cup. I could talk about watching the close quarter improvisation of the Brazilian team or the the dancing midfield mastery of the Argentine team. And so much more. There is nothing that needs to be said to hype the World Cup. If you grew up loving soccer you have to love it. If you learn something of the game now you will love it. If you just love to be with people of many backgrounds celebrating the world and each other, with minimal marketing, Hell, you will still love the WC. IF you don't do any of these things b/c you cannot appreciate sporting events where the home team may lose or even not play, then just forget about it.

The World Cup is a refreshing departure from other international events such as the Olympics. The world doesn't need the Olympics to be interested in soccer as opposed to say, luging or the parallel bars. Poverty ridden nations of unrealized potential show the talents of their people in the WC. Dinky backwaters stand a chance. Every nation does. The game is too popular and too organic for two superpowers (U.S. and the USSR, now replaced by China) to spend money and influence the environment for petty propaganda purposes. And isn't that what the Olympics have become? (Yeah I heard about the Mafia and the Italian team, but that just makes the WC more colorful.)

So catch me in a week in Germany if all goes as planned. In the meanwhile catch me at the local bars with the people enjoying the World Cup. And then catch me in a neighborhood park, kicking the ball and taking jumpers.

Note: Blogger isn't uploading photos. Sorry.

Catch Up On Some Reading

2006-05-23T22:20:00.000-07:00

Picture to the Right: "Congrats for all the TOP TIER Students who worked hard to get into their great schools including a promising female writer who is off to Yale; and to Summer SAT and College Prep Students: This summer will be FUN, I swear!"->

I really didn't want to post a month after "immigration". Then I didn't want to post after Winton. Some topics should be at the top of the blog for at least a few weeks. So...

Miamista posts are never edited so ya gets what ya gets. I take posts from one blog or piece of writing and paste it to another.

And by the way- Thanks to all of you shopping on the Miamista Advertisements. This month I did pretty well! For the next month I'll be blogging much less but I will put up more sale items with specials and discounts you can only get through purchasing on Miamista! (Tell me what sort of items you're might be looking for and I'll put up the ads with the cheapest prices/biggest discount they'll give me.)

Check out the following comment exchanges I participated in recently:

Miami 21

Official English (102) (make sure to go to Official English 102)

Miami PAC over-run

Raise for Dade Commissioners

Miami Craziness

And to keep you reading Miamista check out "A Sunburned Economy must look North

And Someone Re-Opened the Freedom Tower? was re-edited

LetsGetRidOfThisClown.Blogspot.com

2006-05-18T01:15:00.000-07:00

Introducing "Johnny Winton Must Go", the New Blog for District 2 Residents Tired of Commissioner Johnny Winton. Please Comment Freely! Recommend Press Clippings. Contributors Needed!

Special Update, A Knock Out! See #5

2006-05-16T00:51:00.000-07:00

1. Mayor Diaz closes the door to his political future, while opening while opening doors to a future of unchecked development and Hell. Eight story height restrictions in healthy, established single family home areas. Hubs of virtually unlimited height where there is no transportation to speak of. Failure to outlaw the sort of building footprints that give us McMansions. And the bestis’ of ‘em all, Mayor Dickhead has left no room for community review and approval in the development process. *Duany and Plater-Zyberk (who scored the trifecta in the conflict of interests sweepstakes), not only worked with the mayor to repeatedly shush the community. They also made their constituency, developers, happy. After viewing the Miami 21 presentation, a smiling, misty-eyed Brickell area developer named Alan Ojeda said simply, “It’s good”.

I would like to believe that this was an attempt by these so-called New Urbanist bullshit artist to revive the recently passed “Mother of Modern Urban Planning” Jane Jacobs by having her roll over in her fresh grave. Or perhaps they hadn’t heard she was interred and tried to bury her.

2. In related news Cindy Dwyer at the county zoning commission secretly asks herself, "Why do I work for these fucks.” Despite the state’s recommendation that building be halted in the area, the local guvmint shows why they are the assholes we all know and hate. Take a trip to the old South Dade before it disappears!

3. Immigration. Local undocumented residents confirm sneaking suspicion that they the man is out to get'em. And da man is sendin’ 'em back with Dubya’s approval.

Oh, and here is another story on the local immigration crackdown. Anticipating my customary cry, “why don’t you actually do something worthwhile like go after criminals”, law enforcement does a two for on. I didn’t realize how cosmopolitan the local undocumented felon community is. It includes Argentines, Colombians, Cubans, British, Hondurans, Jamaicans, Romanians, and Trinidadians!

4. Public Health Trust and UM look forward to rationing care and Mayor Alvarez says, “Fuck it, nothin’ I can do. I tried to be Mayor but you chicken-shit voters didn’t have my back. Besides, no cameras at the meeting. "

5. And the reason you have this bonus coverage. Johnny Winton upstaged the late Mr. Teele by actually hitting police officers rather than making a veiled-hint-at-an-implied-threat-couched-in-an-actual-denial. Johnny kicked one officer and BROKE ANOTHER’S TOOTH! There is absolutely no way that he can remain on the city commission. If he isn’t I’m going to personally start a riot at City Hall by blocking the secret entrance that developers use. Will Winton make a trip to see Jim Defede? Is it horrible that I have mixed feelings about the possibility?

*Elizabeth Plater Zyberk, is a consultant who has worked with the city so much she is the de facto department head at City Planning, while she and husband Andres Duany work as the principal consultants to the city for "Miami 21" . The couple as owners of Architectonica (orignial architects to cocaine barons) are much sought after by local developers! And of course Liz Plater-Zyberg is Dean of the School of Architectue at UM and hubby Andres works as a lecturer, thus hushing any of that academic backlash.

Someone Re-Opened the Freedom Tower?

2006-05-12T23:43:00.000-07:00

---- Natacha Seijas got all people-of-color on us. She blamed the problems she has had with the recall efforts on Anglos “Fear of a Latin Planet”. When told that many of those working in the recall effort were Hispanic she replied that many Hispanics don’t even think of themselves as Hispanic, they see themselves as like just some White person. (Note how this quote from the 3/16/06 Herald was edited down by New Times writer F. Alvarado who must have seen her virtually coloring-up to minority status as unsettling.)

The recall effort that casts her as a willing and corrupt proponent of the powerful Latin Builders Association reminds us (Ms. Seijas contends) that Anglos/Whites are targeting Hispanics with the help of these self hating collaborators. Hmmph! Those sell outs. Because that’s what all this has to be about. Not her support of every development project that comes along. In fairness, Natacha has always been a tireless worker for the Latin developer and contractor. We all recall the fiasco where she supported the unqualified Cuban American contractor with a shady past in getting the lucrative contract for installing traffic lights. Shocking! (Geddit.) She also moonlights with non-Hispanics here and there.

Miamista has been fond of Ms. Seijas since she threatened an Anglo commissioner (known to be demeaning to Hispanics), telling her, “if you ever speak to me like that again you’ll leave this chamber in a body bag”. You could hear the applause from Havana to Union City. I still like Commissioner Seijas and generally refrain from taking shots at her b/c I believe she isn’t a crook per se. She is a relic of the time when Cuban Americans were compelled to use ethnic solidarity and patronage as a means to political participation. As a Cuban American I’d like to think I can always call on her. (I have to say, I met her once and she was warm and gracious, so hey...)

When presented with the recall petitions the County Attorney, Harvey Ruvin threw most of them out on a nebulous and highly questionable technicality. Mr. Ruvin happens to be Jewish (and I think sometimes we must make that specification rather than using the term Anglo considering Miami’s history of Anglo/Jewish enmity.) I guess they're not all out to get us.

------ No need for me to write about Frank Arza. Need more background? BTW, Shout out to Rebecca Wakefield on that one...

---- Commandante Robert Ferro! He sells guns, explosives and small artillery to drug dealers and gang members when he is not working with other Cuban American extremists training undocumented Mexicans to invade Cuba. (Talk about illegal aliens.) Former Miami resident Mr. Ferro received his Special Forces training in the early 70's at the notorious Ft. Benning School of the Americas at the same time a number of Alpha 66, Omega 7 etc., members. He served in the Army Special Forces for a numner of years in clandestine operations. The illegal stashes of weapons were found throughout Mr. Ferro's home including behind false libraries and trap doors. Upon Arrest Mr. Ferro claimed amnesty because of his membership in Alpha-66 (something that has worked for terrorists and drug runners before.) Alpha-66 could have simply claimed that he was not affiliated with the group, something that they have done with various known members when caught in illegal activity. Instead Alpha-66 claims that he is not only not a member but they never heard of him before. A decade ago Ferro's name was all over Spanish language papers and radio in Miami, with Alpha 66 members protesting to have his charges reduced for his 1992 C-4 explosives and artillery escapades.

The ever unreliable in house extremist spokesman at the Herald, Oscar Corral, stated that his sources say Mr. Ferro may be a Cuban agent sent here to make Alpha 66 look bad. (Note, I talk about Oscar but I think he's staunch...) Nonethless we are talking about maintaining the pretence of a newspaper... In-fucking-credible. Note that our death-merchant Mr. Ferro is asking to be spared imprisonment because of heart problems and diabetes.

---- Speaking of Alpha 66, group co-founder of said organization and leader of the non-existent Miami Mafia, Jose Miguel Battle was in the news briefly. Mr. Battle has pled guilty but will have to take some time before sentencing because of failing health- you know, liver, heart problems and diabetes... He and his cohorts are suspected to have earned $12 billion through their world wide enterprise of crime. The federal government can only trace $1.5 billion which seems to be all gone. Meanwhile the gambling, drug running, extortion, loan sharking, prostitution and arms peddling of the outfit may be going on without him.

An interesting case here for comparison. Jorge Mas Santos, whose father, Jorge Mas Canosa, was tied to this sort of corruption, money laundering for drug dealers, threats and bribes to elected officials, etc. gets to keep his wealth, now invested in international heavyweight construction and technology firm MasTec. (The company was literally stolen by Mr. Mas Canosa from two Miami businessmen and built on fraud and swindling. The company, formerly named Church and Tower, had been convicted of swindling the government repeatedly but still recieves contracts.) Furthermore, Mr. Canosa Sr.’s money and influence backed everyone from Ileana Ros Lehtinen (and her Alpha 66 affiliated father) and the Diaz-Balart brothers. When Jeb Bush, son of CIA director and Alpha 66 sponser came to town to be the new head of the county Republican Party, he threw his weight behind Ros-Letinen and the Diaz Balart brothers, getting them to change their party affiliation. (He also served as their campaign manager.) Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s father was associated with both Canosa's CANF and Alpha 66. A slew of other contemporary politicians had their origins as hand selected Mas Canosa candidates… In this little incestuous cesspool does a case against Mr. Battle smack of selective prosecution? I say this whole thing seems faintly Communist. FREE MIGUEL! FREE MIGUEL! T-shirts on Miamista soon? Oh, that's right, he isn't in jail.

Seriously though, since the pilgrims, people have done whatever they could to get by when they arrived in this country. I'm not condoning it but I will not selectively condemn it. I find a bit of hypocrisy when one group is singled out. Is there anything that these folk have done, that wasn’t done before them? (Allowed, it has been more colorful due to Latin nature .) So, ease up on the smugness my Anglo compadres…

---- The Miami New Times wakes up from its slumber to offer news stories worthy of mention. There was a challenge to county board set-asides for agricultural preservation, a story on police corruption, another on Manny Diaz’s national public relations efforts (which included serious misrepresentation of his achivements). Actually MNT appears to be on a roll. Did someone stick a pin in editor Chuck Strouse or did Chuck stick a pin in his writers? Oh yeah, sing with me-"Hi, Ho the Bitch is dead"... or at least demoted. (Jean Carey, who compiles "The Bitch" column and was managing editor will now be music editor/Bitch columnist.) 'Bout time!

---- The most recent article of note in the New Times was about the condo and McMansion explosion in Key Biscayne. Edgardo Defortuna, one of a few dozen of Argentine big money developers in our fair city is profitably destroying old Key Biscayne. Forgive me if I don't care about that. Here is something more interesting. A simple search of many of these Argentine developers, including Mr. Defortuna, BAP Development, The Sky Group, BSG Development, G&D Developers, The Lowenstein Family, Shefaor Development, et al reveals some folks with very shady backgrounds back in Tango Land. (That’s not to impugn the entire lot. Once again out of fear of personal safety and hope for future advertising on this blog, Miamista will slink away and let others do the research. (Fat chance.)

A significant number of Argentines have left for home. But Jewish Argentines have revived some near-moribund Jewish enclaves and institutions. (Maybe they're thinking, "Hmm, that name 'Kirchner'... Swiss my ass!") Combined with the earlier influx of Israelis, it has made the local Jewish community more cosmopolitan, educated and prosperous than the city itself. Go on Hebrews!

---- Speaking of various parts of Latin America and immigration, get ready for more Puerto Ricans. At this point the two largest Hispanic groups in Florida, of roughly equal size, are Puerto Ricans and Cubans. One third of Puerto Ricans in the state live in South Florida. While the U.S. is limiting Cuban immigration, (the drown a Cuban/dry foot policy), and cracking down on other Latin American immigrants, Puerto Ricans, citizens since 1917 can come and go as they please. The two groups (Cubans and Puerto Ricans) have been politically cooperative in the past, even though they often entertain widely divergent veins on foreign policy issues. Puerto Rico is an island with a strange set of realities.

So let's get to know our new neighbors. Puerto Rico has absolutely no say over trade policy and many aspects of domestic development. The island is spared some taxes but receives little benefit from local taxation because of strong industrial lobbying. And of course islanders can't vote for president and have no federal congressional representation. Puerto Ricans on the island have voter participation above 80% in local elections. All sorts of irregular electioneering takes place in the politically charged climate. Radical syndicalism and socialism have been popular on the island, perhaps due to poverty and lack of political self determination. There are three parties. A pro statehood party (the PNP); their platform may be the most pragmatic and also the most humiliating. They argue that "statehood is for the poor". Puerto Rico's residents have an average income of less than half the poorest state in the Union, Mississippi. (Despite a dollarized economy it ranks somewhere below Chile in terms of income and per capita GDP.) As 2/3 of the island is eligible for some sort of federal assistance, the PNP argues such a desperately poor island would get more federal money if it was funded as states are. (Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican residents have a special formula whereby government assistance is given at a fraction of the rate that the mainland receives.) Social ills plauge the island as a result of deep poverty. Ironically statehood supporters are among the most vociferous opponents of U.S. policy towards the island, calling it barely guised colonialism.

The Commonwealth Party (PPD) has hard realities working in its favor. Few islanders want to lose their identity and at least limited pretense of independence. (And in fairness the PPD does call for increased autonomy though islanders have no say in the matter.) Moreover, there are twice as many people of at least partial Puerto Rican descent on the mainland as on the island. Third, fourth and fifth generation mainland Puerto Ricans maintain ties to the island. Citizenship and the attendant freedom of travel allow this level of connectedness. Only the most radical of folks can ignore this reality. Both the PNP and PPD are rife with corruption even in comparison to other parts of the Caribbean. I'm taking the opportunity to give this Puerto Rican a hello/btw kill that dog!->

Then there are the Independentistas. They have a political party (the PIP). Some of the more staunch Independentistas refuse to participate in politics “under colonial occupation”. After several massacres on the island by U.S. government agents the Independentistas have some cause for distrust. An element of sympathizers have been in a back and forth battle with the U.S. government and, oddly enough, some Alpha 66 and related groups have taken part in extremely violent anti-Independentista activities. (The federal government contracted out suppression work to such groups in the past.) There have been politically motivated bombings and killings of men, women, children and elderly. A number of Puerto Rican individuals and organizations have been subject to severe repression. A network of informants have been maintained throughout the island and local police have taken on the cooperative role in these affairs. Many active in the Independentista movement struggle on after imprisonment, assasination attempts and even the murder of their children. Below are the late Don Filberto Ojeda Rios murdered this year and PIP leader Don Ruben Berrios.

On a personal note: Several of my family members, active in Independentista politics have been victims of government repression in its ugliest form. They have died at the hands of Miami based terrorist lackeys, who by their claims and our history should be the last people who commit such heinous acts... Miamista has a deep and abiding hatred towards these folk and will ask these terrorists and their supporters politely TO NOT EVEN FUCKING DARE TO PUT THEIR COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG. I’ve lived through this bullshit personally. If I could I would kill you bloody murderers and I don't want read your drivel… OMG, where did that come from-- that wasn't good, that I would go there...

Puerto Rico's economy, as it exists, is dominated by mainland-based corporations, which is a sore point for many island residents. U.S. mineral companies have depleted the island's formerly considerable natural resources. Agriculture has become uncompetitive and unprofitable. Only tourism, pharmaceutical companies and sweatshops remain. (The island is also a major drug transhipment point and money laundering center.) These all flourished at one point because of corruption, lax environmental and labor regulations and low taxes. None are surviving increased Third World competition well. So here come the residents of Puerto Rico, looking for opportunity in the great state of Florida.

Of course there are politicians keep an eye out when such demographic shifts are occurring. There has been a lot of Jeb Bush bebe-kissing at Puerto Rican community institutions and brought brother Dubya to speak at the Puerto Rican Club of Central Florida yesterday. Jeb is scheduled to speak to the South Florida Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce in a few days. Is Jeb Bush flaunting his Spanish and inexplicable chumminess with Hispanic leaders for a national 2008 run? God I hope not...

Whassup/Miamista Is Back! But for a limited time.

2006-04-28T05:57:00.000-07:00

Note: The last post w blogging advice is down. If you want it back up inform.-J

1. The Hedgehog of Education is in the news. You know I’m getting at him. If you’re new to Miami, you’ll want to get the history behind this crook, bully, coward, bigot that dictates education policy.

2. South Miami’s Horace “the Christian, Jew Hating Crook” Feliu tried to win support from minority communities, which was in this case Adrian Ellis of the ill fitting suit ethnic grouping (scroll down for pic, temp link). The group and their suits come in all colors. South Miami is falling apart, see the story on the same page. Commentary on this upcoming.

3. Other Upcoming Stories:
It is Defede narrowing in on Commissioner Joe Martinez without any new information, because (as Miamista readers know) what is already there is bad. /The Miami Herald’s shoddy, outright fallacious reporting is in my sights. / I will be sharing a project to assist the community. /Bank Atlantic is money laundering their asses off. /Expect So. Florida illegal immigrant crackdown/Miami Monthly is committing suicide.

4. Some blog updates. I’m behind on some really great developments and some great blogging. I will miss a few but here goes.
· Let’s all wish our dear "Sex on the Beach’s” Manola/Maria a happy trip.
· “Miami Nights” is such a cool blog. Superficially so?Yeah (so what), but sarcastic, cynical and humorous. I just hate those sort of long send-your-password-in-an-email sort of deals. I always get occupied with something else when I go to my email.
· Sometimes I’m “enhh”, at sometimes I’m, “this is good shit” with "A Grand Illusion". AGI contributor Phoebe Flowers took aim at the Herald on her Sun-Sentinel blog (someone tell the Herald that SS blog layouts are soooo much more professional). Unfortunately she took it down. Go to The Daily Pulp to get a tidbit if you missed it, and I’m sure you did.
· After forwarding “The New Miami Girl” to people they tell me how interesting and cool her blog is. As if I didn’t know. But her blog is much more than cool. If we were playing football I’d give her the nickname Total Package. (Send comments to her not me, peeps on my group list!)
· “Overtown USA” is the blog of 1.5 million people. Call it Overtown U. because it is schooling people.
· “Coral Gables” blogger Tere (inside joke: I know who you are and get away from my seat Tere) is in danger of her life in the posh but scary part of town. I’m not kidding. I love the blog so I’m scared too, in selfish way. She’s a gifted writer, not simply by style but a winning wittiness.
· I can’t do a run down but I think that “En Vivo y En Directo” while sparse has promise.
· “Move Miami” aka Miami Transit has a big job on his hands- reforming urban design and transit. Couldn’t be doing a better job. He is whetting his knife before he completely cuts back the purple, bloated skin of the putrid MTA and its MIC appendage. Now I don’t have to rail about the need for a train along the FEC corridor.
· “JHop” just did something interesting on education but the old codger isn’t interested in what I have to say, screening my comments. It was basically that the LA article he referred to (dealing with schools) has a lot to do with the battle for control of LA across ethnic lines in a way that we would be very familiar with. Joel Kotkin points out that there is a Hispanic , Jewish and Anglo divide. What makes it local news? Part time Miami resident Rick Meruelo and Sergio Pino. A comparative study of Miami and Los Angeles in history and policy and public affairs is screaming to be done.
· “Greener Miami” can’t be called new anymore but she is drawing people together in her tree hugging and that’s so cool. Personally I have never been big on environmentalism without it dealing with problems such as urban planning, poverty and economic development and the policies and politics behind environmental problems. Emily Witt, writes a short piece to show how it’s done and undoes the hard work done by Mayor Manny’s PR folk. Mailing something like that as a letter to Vanity Fair, NALEO and the Conference of Mayors and other national press might help.

5. Media Updates- I’m behind here too. Fortunately there is little reporting going on of importance.
· The Miami New Times may be trying to crawl out but they dug a whole too deep. Francisco Alvarado, whose myopia and ambition sometimes stands in the way of his ability, delivered a piece of journalism last week. I mean MNT under Jim Mullin (pictured left) journalism, with a piece about some police corruption that no one else picked up on. (This week with the Grove playhouse the ball was handed to Francisco next to the basket and he dribbled it off his foot.) Caring, letter writing MNT readers have disappeared.
· The Miami Sun Post deigned to mention bloggers. Small treat coming from the source. (The Sun Post is short of a dyspeptic, kick ass journalist who won’t phone it in two times a month*.) There was a sort of an “I’m watching you watching me” thing that made me feel queasy. Because, rather than despite of, the mention I felt that it was presumptuous to "inform" their readers of blogs but not more presumptuous than their blog awards. It was like hearing the Herald say, “Have you heard about that quaint little tabloid, the Miami Sun Post? Let me tell you what they’re about”. It would have been more respectful to put up a blog-roll. Speaking of, the Miami Herald instructed that I be taken off a reporter’s blogroll. Feel GREAT about that!
· I have two words: Bob Norman. If you were stuck with reading a single blog by a Florida journalist (which in practical terms you are) it would be Bob. Media critic extraordinaire. Wish his beat was more focused on Miami but that would be too perfect.
· Radio Progreso, which at one point allowed comments in the form of letters and had a daily commentary from Francisco Aruca in English that was the closest thing English speakers would hear to an old style Cuban political commentator. Still RP is the voice of exiles in exile and they’ve got the scars to prove it. They are unabashed intelligent, liberal, leftist Cuban Americans (with a few American contributors) who have been through the fires. Several have been victims of bombings and assassination attempts. Others have been fired from academic positions for ideological reasons, such as Lisandro Perez, former head of FIU’s Cuban Studies Program and Max Castro, former head of University of Miami’s North-South Center and former Herald columnist. They are issue oriented and deal a lot with domestic affairs so they pass my no-party affiliation rule for Miamista mentioned blogs. They put to the lie that all or most Cuban Americans are of a single ideological bent.

6. Shout Outs and High Praises go to Sergio Pino and Rich Meruelo. Both guys have proven that developers are not necessarily assholes for life (note Pino's support for keeping the UDB and school reform and Meruelo's support of immigrant rights. Meruelo is primarily an LA resident these days.)

*I'm speaking of a shortage, not an entire lack thereof. REBECCA WAKEFIELD definitely stands as a "dyspeptic, kick ass journalist who won’t phone it in two times a month"! ;)

Give A Man A Fish, Teach A Man To Blog

2006-04-26T04:03:00.000-07:00

Here is the second part of my article (temp posts) on Commercial Blogging. What I am trying to bring about here can be seen in my pieces about the local economy. What we are really talking about is micro economics regional integration of markets using new media. Of course I should have written that last line on toilet paper. I wish I had used that for my undergrad honors thesis. Damn I’m old; don’t think blogs existed then. You know two little grad school fuckers at 'SC and UCLA created My Space? That's Miamista's segue into thanking his good friend at USC Annenberg for the information used in this article. (Fight On!)

Anyway, I wish you all riches and (mental health). I really believe that some of you guys should be seen and bought by the world! The GMVCB members sorely need local bloggers to assist them in advertising and promoting Miami. Ditto with realtors and property managers. I believe Miami is five years overdue for a Curbed.com sort of website. (Don't be surprised if Miamista starts one. Miamista has been thinking that his next two projects will be in community education and a commercial Miami focused blog. That could make him a semi permanent Miami resident.)

I’ve done enough in trying to convince you all that you can use blogging to sell services and content to the rest of the country. Anyway, hope it helps!

How to Make Money With Your Blog-

Advertising Programs: 1. Commissions, 2. PPC Advertising, 3. Paid Content 4.Grants

1. Commissions

Affiliate programs, such as Amazon.com's Associates Program, provided the first ways for early solo and small Web publishers to make a few bucks on their websites. In these programs, an online retailer will pay you, the publisher, a percentage on sales made after customers click through from your website to the retailer's site. Links can include traditional banner ads, search forms and links to individual products. (You can also make a big commission on referring others to commision or PPC programs, something Miamista doesn't do.)

Because you only earn money when sales are made, affiliate programs will work best for you if your site's readers are consistently looking to make high-priced purchases -- for example, if you run a product review site. If you're interested in affiliate program, browse through merchant directories like Commission Junction to find retailers that offer products that fit your site's topic and audience.

*1Once registered with a merchant's program, you can create an ad or product link on your site using a snippet of Web code downloaded from the retailer. Some merchants go further and allow you to create virtual storefronts that match the design of your site, but where the retailer still handles all the inventory and commerce. Be careful setting up such arrangements -- unless you want customers coming to you for return and refund questions instead of to the retailer.

You'll want to note what percentage of a sale the retailer pays back to you, as well as the length of time after a sale that you get credit for the purchase. Some retailers limit credit to sales made on the initial click-through, but others will give credit for any sales made within a day or so. Also, some retailers will pay a commission on purchases you personally make after clicking your own links; others may kick you out of the program for doing that. Check a retailer's affiliate agreement and shop around for what you consider the best deal before putting links on your site.

· Commission Junction (www.cj.com) They have around 1300 companies from which you may choose to promote. Most merchants offer pay-per-sale or pay-per-lead, many merchants offer performance bonuses. You also have the option of direct deposit for your payments. They tell you which companies are earning the most money for affiliates. Commissions are different for each company, some go as high as 50%.

· Linkshare (www.linkshare.com) is one of the oldest affiliate programs on the web. Linkshare's Statistics and reporting are very comprehensive. Top brand merchants make this program worth your while. It has a large number of Fortune 500 companies that provide the affiliate marketer with well known products to promote.

· Shareasale Shareasale (www.shareasale.com) is another popular program. It has around 1,700 Merchants to choose from.

· ClickBank (www.clickbank.com) is a little different in that it deals mainly in digital download products. The commissions from ClickBank are much higher, usually around 40% to 50% or even higher. You have stiff competition from the best Internet Marketers who have large contact lists. Top marketers will often offer a whole array of their own bonuses when marketing a high ticket item. Niche products through ClickBank sell better.

· Same principle holds true for all these programs, little known niches will offer quicker returns for the beginning marketer. It has many nicknames for the different products but you can buy software programs to solve this problem.

· Amazon (www.amazon.com) Amazon is another online company that also handles some third party orders. ToysRus is one of their merchants. Very good stats and easy links to place on your sites. For instance, an average priced laptop will bring in around $25 in commissions. A commission from Independent affiliate programs like Alienware or Rockdirect would be double or triple that amount. They are known for a high conversion rate at Amazon. Consumers feel comfortable ordering from Amazon.

Advice for Using Commission Affiliates
-Keep your eyes open and watch carefully to see which companies are doing a lot of advertising (tv, radio, newspapers) in the real world! Pick those same products or companies from any of the affiliate programs listed here and place the affiliate links on your sites.-Pick companies that do a lot of advertising, are household names and very familiar to your website visitors. The Internet is still a very scary place in most people's minds.

-Many publishers have found that links to individual products return more commissions than banner ads going to a retailer's home page. But the additional money those links earn might not be enough to justify the extra time that selecting and maintaining them requires.

-Many commission affiliates will not allow you to either use a free Blogger site

-Many don't allow "excessive" foul language ( you can explain to their sales folk)

2. PPC Advertising

Most news websites earn the bulk of their money through CPC often just referred to as advertising. But you don't need a sales staff to attract advertisers to your site. Ad networks can handle the sale and display of ads on your site. All you need do is drop a few lines of code into your Web pages where you want the ads to appear.

The most popular ad network for independent publishers is Google's AdSense program. AdSense is a "pay per click" (PPC) program, where you earn money each time one of your readers clicks on a Google-served ad. Since you earn money on clicks, rather than completed sales, PPC ad networks can provide a more reliable source of income for sites whose readers are not looking to make a purchase right away. Other notable PPC ad networks include the Yahoo! Publisher Network, Casale Media, BClick, Adsensor.

Traditional ad networks such as BlogAds provide an alternative to the PPC networks. BlogAds sells its ads on a more traditional site-targeted model. Advertisers do not bid on keywords or phrases, but instead pay for their ads to be displayed a certain number of times on selected websites or groups of websites. BlogAds has become especially popular on political blogs, where advertisers can buy across a group of liberal or conservative weblogs.

Most PPC ads are text, but some PPC networks also sell image and Flash ads. Ads are sold and displayed based on an auction system, where advertisers bid on selected keywords and phrases that appear on network websites. The ad network looks for webpages displaying its ad code, then matches what it determines the content of a webpage to be with the most appropriate keywords and phrases that advertisers have bid upon. The network then automatically weighs several factors in determining which ads to serve on the page, including the value of those bids; advertisers' remaining budgets for those bids; what percentage of readers have clicked on those ads in the past; and, in Google's case, the percentage of those readers who have made a purchase or read a designated number of pages on the advertiser's site.

Since PPC ad networks target their ads primarily by topic, rather than geography or demographics, that makes these networks work better with niche topic websites than with sites that target their readers by geography or other demographics, such as gender, education, income or political affiliation.

For the system to work well for you, the PPC network's spiders must be able to determine a topic for each of your webpages and then must match keywords or phrases that advertisers have bid upon. That means the advantage goes to websites where each page covers a distinct and easily identifiable subject. So if you have a blog that covers a mishmash of topics on a single URL, you won't elicit the targeted ads that lead to high-paying clicks. Think about making separate blogs linked as a magazine blog if your blogs are wildly different in subject matter (imagine for example Miamistanews.blogspot.com, Miamistarestaurants.blogspot.com).

Advice for using PPC advertising:
-Organize your content to limit individual URLs to a specific topic.
-Break long blogs into individual entries. Archive old posts and stories by subject matter, not just by date and author.
-Stay active on discussion boards, keeping threads on topic and directing folks to more relevant pages should they stray toward other subjects.
-Use keywords in headlines, decks and URLs whenever possible.
-Spell out keywords, phrases and proper names on first reference, rather than using acronyms throughout the piece.
-Well-organized pages on individual topics also show up better in search engine results, attracting Web surfers curious about a specific keyword, who are more likely to click on a targeted ad.
-Create evergreen articles that are likely to attract a high number of links and clicks over time will do best in attracting search engine traffic to their ad-supported webpages. If you publish time-sensitive articles, which are not likely to have a long-enough shelf life to attract significant search engine traffic, consider swapping out or archiving articles on the same topic to a single URL, so that URL can get linked to and picked up in search results.
-Do not even think about excessively clicking the ads on your site, or encouraging your readers to do the same. All PPC ad networks prohibit click fraud, and will boot from their program any publisher found to be inflating their number of clicks.
-According to recent Google research, top performing ad formats include:
Large box ads placed in the middle of your main content column;
Skyscraper ads placed in a left-side column;
Leaderboard ads placed at the top and the bottom of the main content column.
-Customize the ads' colors to match the background, type and navigational colors of your site, too, to eliminate "banner blindness" and maximize their visibility to your readers.
-To a reader, ads -- like anything else on your pages -- are part of the content of your website. If an ad network fails to deliver consistently relevant ads, dump it and try something else. Respect your readers by not bombarding them with irrelevant advertising and they will respect you by continuing to read your site.
-Reader-contributed content can also help you meet your page view goals. Well-managed, thoughtfully organized discussion boards and wikis can add dozens of new content pages a day to your site, with much less effort on your part than writing that many original articles.
- If your site naturally deals with “perishable” news content, at least publish each day's new news to the same URL, overwriting or pushing down the old content, so that URL can build the in-bound links and search engine traffic that will help you attract new readers you need each day.
-Think twice before installing pop-up, pop-under and screen "take-over" ads, too. Many readers steer clear of sites that block their access to the content they're looking for with aggressive advertising. Build the sort of loyal following that will deal with the more aggressive sort of ads. I find that joking about these ads help people get beyond their annoyance. Avoid key word ads altogether.

3. Paid content

Given the variety and depth of information available on the Web, you have to provide truly unique content of high value to specific readers to get those readers to pay for it. The fact that a paid journalist wrote an article for you does not mean it's worth paying for to a reader. Detail-oriented publications such as Consumer Reports and Cook's Illustrated have had success selling the results of their independent testing online. It is often easier to sell some sort of interactive service in walled off content area too. An example would be access to a forum with information and moderator input from an expert.

If you are certain that your content is unique and valuable enough that readers would be willing to pay for it, you'll need to select a way to handle payments from your readers. The system could be as easy as asking readers mail you a check in exchange for your putting them on e-mail content distribution list -- a method which offers the advantage of not requiring any advanced Web server security set-up. Or you could restrict access to certain folders on your website to readers whom you assign log-ins after they buy a subscription. Such restrictions are relatively easy to set up on Apache webservers. Payment can be handled manually via postal mail or phone, or automatically through an e-commerce storefront. (Many Web hosting packages include e-commerce storefronts.)

4. Sponsorships/Grants

Supporting a website through sponsorship or grants requires the least technical skill of these options, but the most interpersonal skills. You'll need to play the role of a salesperson, in addition to journalist and editor, in convincing a individual or organization to give you money to put up your site.

In either case, you'll need to identify individuals, or individuals within organizations, who might be willing to commit their money, or their organization's money, to your site. You'll need to make a written proposal, and often, an in-person pitch, and follow through until you secure your funding. Grants typically require a more structured application process than sponsorships, which can be sold through a formal solicitation or over drinks at the dinner table, depending upon whom you are working with.

The University of Iowa provides some guidance and a collection of links on grant writing in general, including links to many organizations which grant funds to researchers and publishers. And don’t forget, Miamista is a grant writer!

*1 There are also options to sell your own branded merchandise not discussed here.

Thoughts and Advice for Selling Out

2006-04-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

(This post will be temporary. I will find some place to store it, perhaps on another site.)

I won’t bore you with layout and blog advertising rings. I will do a follow up on syndicated ads, ad rings and commission arrangements. But for now let's talk about how your blog can generate income.

What do you sell? You may be selling space on your blog for others to advertise. You may advertise your own services or goods. There are e-merchandisers that will let you design a logo and place it on t-shirts, hats, bags, backpacks and cups without ever having to buy inventory or ship items. You may create a new set of services as the time honored middle man of other people’s services and goods. And many bloggers just flat out ask for donations (including yours truly on one of his blogs).

I have a business that places students into top colleges and grad schools with favorable financial aid packages. I have also work as a consultant with a marketing business and I do grant writing for community development.

· A single blog and forum on each issue brings me clients. I also sell books and software at a mark up on the reduced prices I get. (For example, a person can purchase a book about getting into top colleges I co-authored on my site.) So the idea would be to sell whatever it is that you do or produce. There is no advertising that will yield more money than your advertising your own goods and services.
· Advertise on your own site to let people know that space is available. There isn’t the middle man of Adsense and Overture. Join a direct affiliate. They offer higher rates on your per click advertisements. Most will let you be selective in what you want to sell, i.e. something in relation to your site topic. Some advertisers give you discounts on products.
· Advertise local products for free in exchange for offering your readers a discount coupon. It may not immediately seem worth the trouble to have someone create a pop up for a coupon. If you have the right target you may generate leads for a service or small business that the seller eventually comes to appreciate. When the free trial is up the business may want to continue to the relationship on a fee basis.
· Join other people to help you with your blog work. I tend to be autocratic and opinionated about certain things (surprise). I don’t want information on my blog linked to my college prep site that I disagree with. However my employees and I are contributors to other people’s websites and journals.
· Help other people you do business with. I have a friend who is a coach of Olympic caliber athletes and a personal trainer. We have worked with getting students into top colleges with athletic scholarships and used marginal students’ athletic ability to help get them into competitive schools. He has a good rapport with a number of coaches and athletic directors. I offer referrals when appropriate and I usually get a referral fee. I also offer referrals to a financial planner that I trust. I have an MBA and a background in finance and accounting and I am a master at securing students financial aid. Sometimes however extra expertise would be helpful. These days however, I place prominent ads on my site with a write up that says I endorse them. I feel more comfortable explaining that they are trusted referrals that advertise on my site with my endorsement. It is a much better segue than saying, “hey, I know a fella…”
· Advertise. Yeah, you advertise. When I wanted to increase the rankings of my college prep site I had my website designed to be rankings friendly and I advertised. I learned not to just use Adsense and Overture. I advertised on blogs, which is much cheaper and brings better results.

Miami is perfect. There are real estate folks with advertising budgets as big as their greed. Soon there will be property managers trying to rent apartments for condos that aren’t moving. There are restaurants, hotels, clubs, taxis, rental cars, beach scooter rentals, boat rentals; in short everything that is needed to make tourists happy. There are always new suckers wanting to relocate and all that entails. Why isn’t there a bunch of local bloggers advertising to the punters?

The other thing Miami has going for it is a number of surprisingly good writers! What we lack in depth of talent we make for in quality. There are also a number of excellent photographers, both amateur and professional. I crashed a swank “new media” shindig with a friend who was actually invited. The big bloggers were there. In New York they had to get together venture capitalists and the mayor’s office to get people together to lure bloggers. In Miami we actually get along cooperatively in our little world without all of that. Will this actually get people to put together some cooperative platforms? Here’s some more advice.

· Go for the gusto. Ads may annoy us all but we are also use to them. Those intro screens, pop-ups, pop-unders, fly-overs, as well as the side bar ads all bring money. If people like your blog and have grown accustom to it they will close them or wait them out.
· As I pointed out, the key thing is to design your blogs to appeal to the largest audience possible while making your blog reliably on topic.
· Niches that target high-spending, well-educated readers—such as gossip, sex, and politics. Hit the sweet spot not hoi polloi. Gawker even claims to turn away advertisers that are too low-rent; no Ford or Chevy ads because they “hate American cars” and no pharmaceutical ads because their “readers are healthy and beautiful.”
· Getting an A-lister puts you on his “blogroll”, (but please do it with sincerity).
· Get lists of potential customers. If they came by your blog and commented on that subject then a single “hello from yourblogname did I mention I am offering” shouldn’t be seen as spam. Go easy there though! Err on the side of not annoying anyone.
· When Nick Denton of Gawker said you can’t make money at blogging everyone believed him. Denton and partners, veterans of the dot-com boom, sold their last company for $50 million. The lesson here: don’t be like John and encourage others. Miamista readers, it’s out secret.
· Crank out a few well written sites rather than just one. Or you may consider tying a bunch of pages on various topics together (like online “magazines”). It will not only increase your space for advertising, an individual topic blog may become a hit while others lag. Here are some Adsense numbers. Remember, this is only one funding source. Bloggers make much more by direct advertisement.

§ 33% earned under $30 per month
§ 16% earned between $30 and $99 per month
§ 11% earned between $100 and $499
§ 9% earned between $500 and $999
§ 4% earned between $1000 and $1499
§ 2% earned between $1500 and $2499
§ 4% earned between $2500 and $4999
§ 3% earned between $5000 and $9999
§ 1% earned over $10,000
§ 13% do not use Adsense
§ 4% did not wish to disclose their earnings

Can Miami Blog A New Miami?

2006-04-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

I was having chatter with a one of my heroes, a former alt newspaper owner and writer. It was about blogs and changing media. There are a few dozen columnists/ news/ event blogs in “the city” (which is the self absorbed term New Yorkers use for New York and more specifically Manhattan). There are thousands of blogs.

Finding them is like happening upon a group of friends. You meet an interesting person and latter more of their people that get winnowed to a few mainstays. Then they lead into others… This why advertisers are willing to pay good money for bloggers with a following.

The advertising revenue for blogs written about New York is exponentially higher than Miami. I get quite a few shiny pennies for the group NY/LA/general blogs that I contribute to. Miamista wasn’t worth putting up the ads. Considering the highest payouts are in teenie bopper aimed celebrity/entertainment blogs that isn’t necessarily a plus for New York. (Disturbingly national, party affiliated rings also do well.)

I’ve used blogs to increase my own business. This is where commercially blogs work best. So far however, I have scrupulously avoided cross referencing Miamista with other blogs and business. I’d like to think that makes Miamista much more honest. It’s a conversation with a community that I know and care about.

“I saw your blog” or “What, you didn’t read my entry/column/post” or “Well as I was saying on my blog…”, have all become part of the daily conversation. This happens in my NY daily life and I suppose it will become ubiquitous with in Miami social life. Conversations on some topics become short hand b/c your friends have seen your blog. (I imagine some people are unhealthily denying themselves REAL interaction too.) I suppose that in some of my own *"isms" there are people I wouldn't talk to that I've had had in depth discussions on the internet. Exploring the implications would require another post.

I hope that the growth of local blogging continues from the core that anyone reading this blog is familiar with. One of the things that will help is not getting caught into a prototype of blogging, especially one that’s passe.

Gothamist, Metroblogging and blogs of that nature are fine in and of themselves. (A friend compared them to the Village Voice when it was a psuedo-radical 4 page flyer: great for its time but outdated.) These set ups do tend to blandly rehash the local top news stories. At this point however, we have a variety of sites that are blurring the lines between newspapers, weekly tabloids, magazines and even television. The line between print and electronic media itself has become not only blurred but inconsequential.

One of the more intriguing elements of blogging is the opportunity for interaction through comments (don’t say it, I just turned comments back on). Many alternative newspapers are using this, effectively turning online newspapers to wikiblogs.

I hope in the future our community expands, increases readership, explores cooperation and new formats. I also hope that as commercialism creeps into blogging we retain the honesty, integrity and breadth of perspectives that MSM so woefully lacks.
Blog On!

*Personal shout out- That quiet, unobtrusive and "unattractive" person they/we didn't talk to was quiet b/c there's a lot of idiots around and I was shallow to not call them on it, R.S. AND those people that don't see how beautiful you are are stupid! Stop making assumptions about me. I'm not a snob. Call me and tell me how your new job is going!!!! (I lost your contact info.)

Changes and Remaining the Same

2006-04-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

(Pictures Gesu Catholic Church c. 1922 and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral c. 1896. Coconut Grove Playhouse c. 1926, Happy Easter!)
1. Possible Error warning. Vouching for people's integrity is a serious thing for me. I figure that individuals that despise me are near legion. As much as I don't give a flying leap about other people's dislike, wrong headed ideas or assumptions, I would take a moment to pimp smack the shit out of anyone who said I don't assist those in need much less take advantage of them. And I've also never treated an employee badly in my entire life. Those things go to character.

Five people shared their very dim view of yesterday's Miamista shout-out recipient. I knew one. Reasons? Maltreatment of employees and a lack of genuine concern for the needy. I spoke from limited knowledge and these people may be doing the same. Everything with a grain of salt. Notwithstanding I should have reserved that support for people I could vouch for regardless of such feedback. I have to be very honest here and say that I heard mixed reports about the SFICWJ so I thought I would go with him as your contact person. I hear that Fr. Frank Corbishley at the University of Miami is a good hearted soldier. Either way it's about the workers. We need to continue to support the unionization effort. 11 days into the hunger strike now!

2. Miami city manager Joe Arriola is going out wit' a bang! Undereducated, unqualified, ill tempered, corrupt and clownish? Yes. Boring? No! At a chamber of commerce forum this week he called columnist Jim DeFede Jabba the Hut, (complete with mocking hand movements and sound); another male reporter a make up wearing drunk, (with an obvious gay insinuation) and called a bunch of other folks all sorts of worthless, crybaby losers. Following this performance he promptly made his way to a Heat game where security had to be called because of his unruly behavior. (Recall he was thrown out of a game earlier this year for walking on the court, cursing screaming at officials.) The games were televised and I'm sure Arriola's latest outburst will make its way to a wire service sinc e it was videtaped... In recent weeks he reeled off expletive ridden tirades at/to reporters saying that he would go when he damn well wanted. After the news broke that he was being pushed into retirement he stated he "was just fucking with (reporters)".

His legacy will live on. Beyond his firing or demoting of 21 of 22 department heads and threatening new and old to do what he wants, no questions asked if they didn't want to be fired themselves; he also gave favored developers variances like gumdrops; hired unqualified cronies to plumb positions at unheard of salaries; threatened to withold hurricaine relief if residents did not vote for candidates he supported; illegally intervened into the process of firing a department head at the behest of a commisioner; handed out consultancy jobs to cronies; oversaw the waste and fraudulent misuse of millions of dollars for low income housing, forcing HUD to cut funding to the city; pushed through a backdoor pay raise for his boss; pushed through the illegal fire fee deal to pull the city of debt while enriching cronies and cheating citizens...

Even in academia his feats are recognized. This excerpt from the Herald: "CONFLICTS `AMAZING', Judy Nadler, a senior fellow in government ethics at Santa Clara University -- and a former Santa Clara mayor -- said Miami leaders' actions present so many potential conflicts it is ``amazing.''''I think I'm going to end up writing this as a case study,'' Nadler said, citing issues such as transparency and mayor-city manager relationships."

*Manny Dickhead reiterated his total support of Mr. Arriola throughout. Now he wants to be seen as finally seeing the light, by dealing rather sternly in not letting Arriola announce his "retirement". Arriola can't like that. More sparks?

*Note: An upcoming post will deal with what Manny could do to redeem himself and his political viability. Send your ideas.

3. Shortest story, quickest to be taken down from the Miami Herald site? Originally written in haiku, the story was expanded just enough to downplay the charges (notably differing from the original police report in tone.) Prosecutors nixed the felony charges and declined the abuse and resisting arrest charges against Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine "Prostitution of Prosecution" Fernandez Rundle's son. Both of her sons, who live at her residence, have criminal histories.

4. Miami-Dade teachers will get away with fraud and incompetence. It's not the fraud that bothers me as much as it is the imcompetence. I am aware of MDPS teachers that couldn't string together three grammatically correct sentences. MD teachers have resisted testing requirements for licensure. Add this in the "con" box for unionization.

5. Another reason to support the Unnicco strikers. I know many of you are feeling the crunch. (Tangentially related question: Do Mexican wrestlers come to the US to take the smackdowns that American wrestlers don't want to take?)

6. Senator Tancredo, the caring public servant that wants all Latinos born elsewhere to go home (he opposes any path to legalization of undocumented immigrants and repeal of the Cuban Adjustment Act); he has one sane idea in his immigration reform package. As it stands, vicious criminals from “bad countries” such as Cuba, Cambodia, etc. who cannot be deported have a get out of jail free card.

7. Miamista doesn’t trust the Coconut Grove Playhouse board for a second. Board members have links to developers that want the property. As you will remember, the certain board members resisted landmark designation. Later the board asked the city to make part of the building free from both zoning and landmark designation so that it could sell to that development group. Now they are going out business. The city donated the property, various government and private entities gave millions of dollars to upgrade the structure. Now the same board that has used the Playhouse for their own racket wants to cash in on millions of dollars of public giveaways by shutting down and selling. The evil schemers are using this last ditch effort because the Playhouse is in line to receive millions of more public dollars that will help it operate; thus no reason for sale to developers. Obviously the board needs to go. Enough of Miami “real estate development” through manipulation of government zoning laws, funding and public theft!

And for the record, no Cuban American with sense believes that Lucie Arnaz is talented or a star except Fabiola at the Herald. All the Jewish, Cuban, right-wing pandering plays in the world won't change that.

8. FIU takes a cue from the Coconut Grove Playhouse and makes a play of its own. Even Jeb Bush was turned off. Just when I was trying to be supportive of Mitch Maidique, the FIU president…

9. The tone, content and the set up of Miamista could be changing a bit. (Or could be set out to pasture. Blogging without a purpose is eccentric. Read on.) Miamista will be requesting topics of interest. I will try unfettered comments, giving you an address to send you private correspondence. Just have to experiment with a work around on Blogger to offer "recent comments". (After I see how things are going I may well abandon Blogger.) The original idea, which was to cover tourism, real estate, entertainment, style and a few other topics will be dusted off. Expect some postings along the lines of an about-town-diarist, though not necessarily by me. Tie-ins with potential advertisers won't be entirely shameless. Enough on this for now. Get at me before I frame somethings in my next posts. Private note: GJ, AA, CW, JR I hope your happy with me now! I know, I know, mail it back to last year when you were around and would have given a shit!

Sportin' News and More Guvmint Re-Form

2006-04-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

1. Ingrates I tell you! (If you haven't been reading Steve Klotz start to immediately after reading Miamista!) The Marlins have been the perfect small market team, buying talent low and selling it high. As far as baseball, they couldn't have done things better. Obviously they need two things: an outside PR firm and some flexibility with the stadium thing.

The government should be flexible too but it may be too late. We've spent our way out of flexibility. I find it absurd that the city spent so much on the grossly over-budget and over-schedule MPAC, which should have been paid for by mostly private money (as other PAC's around the country are). At least a stadium is able to provide more services to the community and appeals to a wider base of users. Water under the bridge.

I do agree with the majority of "fans" here that Miami sports teams have to deal with the fan base they have. We need only recall the league low attendance at Heat games in rebuilding years. And a loss at a UM football game usually means the loss of fans for the rest of the season.

The other part of the equation is that Miami and Miami-Dade cannot support sports teams but Broward, Palm Beach and Dade together can. Look at the Dolphins and their fan base; largely Anglo and suburban with steadily increasing Latino fans. If half the population of your city was born elsewhere and most of them are poor, it's kinda hard to get them to concentrate on getting out to root for "the home team". (I got family in Miami who have been generational fans of the Yankees since their great grand parents lived in Cuba and would never change.) So you need to get a mix here obviously. Isn't our fault that the Marlins can't figure that out.

Still, the sound, "The MIAMI Marlins". It's gotta ring (or two).

2. In a recent Herald opinion piece, Merrett Sierheim takes a swing for the team. The team, the International City/County Management Association, has been pushing for its membership to speak out against the "Strong Mayor" form of government. By supporting the ICMA position, Stierheim seems to contradict himself from an earlier opinion. (Of course, everyone should be entitled to reversals based on new reasoning and evidence.)

Many in the community familiar with our area's history of government management and mismanagement raised a brow upon hearing Merrett's arguments. He has been, afterall a highly respected administrator of various municipal entities. Stierheim states that professionals of his caliber are far better stewards than the politicians that appoint them. Mr. Stierheim is known to have a healthy ego. I’m willing to allow him his ego; it’s been earned. IMO it is where it leads him that veers from reason.

There is little reason to believe that a strong municipal manager is necessarily more accountable or more insulated from politics. Even Stierheim’s assertion that professional manager selections are more qualified than politicians is a too broad generalization. The last two Dade County managers stand as proof. Both are/were widely regarded as highly politicized, barely competent and beholden to the political interesst of commissioners.

In fairness to Mr. Stierheim, he stresses that a city manager should have the requisite education, experience and ethical track record. That seldom happens in our various municiapal govermenments. For instance, the current City of Miami manager, Joe Arriola, has no education or track record whatsoever. No standards have been instituted by any Miami-Dade municipality.

There are other problems with his Stierheim’s argument. Managers can be blamed for failures of elected officials and often are. It is too easy to scapegoat a manager (because people seem to ignore that politicans should be held accountable for their lack of ability to hire a competent manager). I also don’t know that the process of removing a manager is that much easier than replacing an elected official. (Again, the entrenched evil troll, in the City of Miami’s manager’s office is evidence of this.)

There are answers enough to explore. The assertion that this an either/or argument is obviously a self serving characterization put forth by both sides. It is possible to create a strong mayor form of government with a professional manager, selected by a mayor and approved by commisioners. The division of power would be delineated by what represents agenda items and what represents bureaucratic management items. It should be pointed out that the nationwide movement has not been towards an either or solution but to some form of balanced government. (Municipal governments are also instituting mixed at-large seats and district seats.) Stierheim and the ICMA, as well as Miami-Dade Commsioners seem to ignore this.

There are other measures that can instituted to ensure a more answerable strong mayor. Shorter terms is an example but it leaves the question as to whether a three year term leaves enough time for policy outcomes to be judged. More reasonable would be ethics codes that with teeth. Stierheim argues this ensures professional conduct for municipal managers. It could reasonably be applied to a strong mayor. A strong mayor could be made more easy to remove through special referendum or by a no confidence by a unanimous vote. Budget approval and input by commisionerss is another way to assure a strong mayorship does not devolve into tyranny. Such measures have been used elsewhere.

Qualifications for elected officials who govern us should be something that the people pass judgement on. It is true that we usually botch the job, choosing self serving, interest driven politicians over those most qualified to run a city. If a community determines that it wants, for instance, a police administrator of a deeply troubled department who was also father to a serial rapist teenage son, rather than say a Harvard educated lawyer with demonstrated integrity who has steadfastedly pursued government reform and sound management, well, people get what they deserve. (That will be the last attack by Miamista on Mayor Alvarez until he actually DOES something. Geddit? Really, I want to like the guy.)

Where to Find Weekend Notes + SUNDAY BONUS

2006-04-08T21:26:00.000-07:00

Say ya want a new Miamista posting for the weekend? Check two posts down or click for "Weekend Notes"! Blogger isn't working properly (surprise) so I can neither copy nor move the post to today, Saturday, April 8, 2006. Hope you enjoy! Have a lovely weekend. -Miamista

I've got something of a Sunday Extra for you! My nominations for the new, weekly, Herald inspired, "WTF are YOU talking about award"!

Second Runner Up: Anna Menendez, Columnist. (I went to school with Anna and I hold her in high esteem but she is apparently still capable of a laughable gaffe)- The set up- Fearing that the FCAT places too much emphasis on ensuring that children can read, write and count in Florida, a parent opines, "I fear that students may graduate and not be able to recognize the difference between a Renoir and a Rembrandt, and that will be a loss.'' As opposed to learning to read and write? That wasn't the quote she wanted to use, I think. Incidentally Florida has the highest drop out rate in the US.

First Runner Up: Oscar Corral, Reporter. I don't read him so I could have missed other worthy performances. Reveries of delusion. Sometimes propaganda from all sides goes well beyond manipulation, shading, lying, etc. to becoming downright hilarious. The serial killer looking reporter writes, that reportedly, "A pro-government mob ganged up outside the Villa Clara home of dissident Bertha Antunez Pernet for an acto de repudio on August 24, threatening her so she wouldn’t carry out a vigil for political prisoners. She didn’t panic. She grabbed a couple of loudspeakers, placed them on her window, and cranked Willy Chirino music, reports Janisset Rivero, who runs the federally-funded Directorio Democratico Cubano with her husband, Orlando Gutierrez. The hostile crowd reportedly burst into dance, forcing the government organizers to send them home, Rivero said." Anyone listening to Willy Chirino is what gave up the lie. (In 2005, the US government provided over $8.99 billion in funding to groups working against the Cuban government. Miamista wants a piece of the action.)

Winner: Noah Biermann, Education Writer- There is a Sunday Herald "Top News Story" about a fraternity whose UF chapter is down to one member this semester. Okay, where is the "top" or "news" or "story" here? I mean this isn't even the top news story at the Daily Gator or whatever their paper is called. The Herald editorial staff should receive honorable mention here.

Critical Miamista (with addendum)

2006-03-31T04:26:00.000-08:00

Why I’m Critical, Miami
Got all the mail, and yeah I know the stupidity of a few (God let me believe it is a few) can have an outsized effect. Still, I can’t imagine living and working full time in Miami. Not Miami as it is. I only have one life and I wouldn’t consign it to that sort of mediocrity. I know there are also people that delight in Miami’s dysfunction. It is the sort of personality trait that is common enough to keep daytime talk shows in business. (Inadequacy loves to poke fun the more inadequate.) But Miami still has all the great things that nature provided it, here in the good ol’ U.S. of A. It still has all the wonderful things that make me a part time resident and gives me hope for the city's future. And it has you good people.

I’ve discussed with all of you some of the more egregious instances of unchecked “isms” that flourish in our community. And we all know the statistics, Miami leads the nation in poverty, illiteracy, homelessness, low wages, infectious diseases, violent crime, blah blah blah. Of course these things translate into real human suffering and frustration. I feel it is my duty to hammer away at them as long as I am writing a Miami blog. Few among our small community of bloggers comment on these problems.

In the future I will push for the creation of specific programs, starting with an afterschool program. The idea of blogging is useless for me if I cannot do something positive with it. I am hoping all of you will offer suggestions and assistance. More on that in a later post.

The posts I put up are not intended to be daily updates or logs. If you revisit most posts (and I hope you do) you will find that they deal with long standing issues, offering long term solutions. Hopefully readers will imagine what Miami could be and become more active in changing Miami for the better. To make it easier I offered a group of suggestions in Miamista Has All Your Answers. I have two more to add.

Yessuh, What We Need Is That There Guvmint Re-Form
County Charter Reform including a Strong Mayor. In one of Rebecca's greatest interviews, Merrett Stierheim explained why. (For you newbies Stierheim is a long time, some say legendary, Miami-Dade public administrator educated at Dartmouth and originally from Mineola, Long Island.) As he emphasized, the mayor of Dade is the only person elected across districts and ethnic blocs. As it is now the office of Dade County Mayor has little power. With a powerful mayor there maybe less passing the buck; less murky commission proceedings and backroom bargaining. A strong mayor is easier to hold accountable and easier to cover. (It is the reason county mayor Penelas self destructed but the commissioners skated on MIA dealings.) If successful such a mayor can actually be a statesman, uniting the entire community across ethnic and social lines.

As I previously mentioned we also need a full time, adequately paid county commission. Perhaps the greedy commissioners will make a trade- power for money. They’re use to doing that. We also need some term limits on the commission. As it is, the commission is a lifetime or until-you’re-incarcerated position.

Add to that public access to the communication and visitation logs of lobbyists. Our mayors and commissioners have interpreted Sunshine Laws so as to not include this. Let’s get this straightened out.

Hey Mister, Wanna Paper?
A reinvigorate newspaper. I’m not sure what is going to happen with the Herald but I don’t have much faith. Chuck Strouse and the New Times home office needs to grow some balls back. We need a real newspaper in Miami.

Death of the Herald, A Primer
The Miami Herald disappeared with the departure of David Lawrence in 1999. Many blame the ugly CANF related events. (It involved CANF related defacement of property, death threats, shit placed in newspaper boxes and a lawsuit.) Tony Ridder, the owner of family enterprise Knight Ridder, abandoned Miami as the flagship paper as well as a city. Mr. Ridder, unlike the Knight family whom the Ridders purchased the paper from, never warmed to Miami. With the city seemingly on an endless slide from late 80's on, Tony moved operations to the prosperous city of San Jose.

The Herald, once esteemed, is now regularly ridiculed in the journalism industry, and was all but buried by several Columbia Journalism Review articles. The final straw there may have been Alberto Ibargüen being run out as publisher. Ibarguen made some comments about the lack of tolerance among certain ultra right wing elements that were not well received.

Death of the Miami New Times, A Primer
The Miami New Times more than picked up the slack. It was part of a national chain of alternative weeklies, each having considerable editorial freedom. California native, Yale educated editor Jim Mullins and his star columnist, Brooklyn native Jim Defede took full advantage. Defede eventually sold out, becoming a watered down version of himself at the Herald. (The irony there never stales.) MNT lost Jim Mullin after the Art Teele suicide and an office blog scandal. Seems Jim’s permissiveness burned him thrice.

Despite being a self avowed Republican with deep respect for the diversity of the city, Jim Mullin was seen as anti-Cuban and too liberal among some. Mullin’s MNT was very popular among fair minded people. The weekly was an equal opportunity exposer of scoundrels.

After his departure seemingly every MNT reporter worth their salt jumped ship. Some have wound up on the Sun Post. The Sun Post is still not making up for what the Miami New Times was. What the locally owned Sun Post doesn’t have is the investigative reporting, the resources and seemingly, the latitude New Times reporters had.

So we’re left with a handful of hard charging columnists at the Herald and Rebecca and Omar at the Sun Post. With the notable exceptions like Bob Norman, Broward’s papers aren’t any better.
So let’s get Jim Mullin, Jim Defede, Max Castro (fired from UM and the Herald b/c of right wing extremist pressure) together and get us a paper…OR A BLOG!

Appreciation Time for Critical Miami/Alesh
Alesh is one of those people who make me wonder why he lives in Miami. I am glad he does all the same. Critical Miami achieves what Miamist (which IS getting better) should have been. It’s not committed to any single aspect of local life though there are flashes of incisive criticism and observation. CM politely refuses the contentious but discusses the talk of the day, like a good cocktail party host. CM is smart and hip without being pretentious. (Note that Alesh wisely avoids reporting on the Beach club scene, choosing more eclectic, slightly less gagifying Wynwood, etc.) Finally, CM is just edgy enough to promote back and forth debate without the site becoming “political”.

You Incestuous Little Bloggers
Our blogging community is sort of like the Herald, Sun Post and the New Times readership- Eastside Anglos and a smattering of middle class Latinos.

Miami is fractured by ethnicity and class and the blogging community reflects it. For example, the excellent Overtown Blog continues to be our only blog from Overtown, or for that matter, the only Black authored blog. The Black and Latino neighborhoods and cities that make up most of Dade are not reflected in our blogs. East Grove, Brickell-Roads, the Beach, Broward and gentrified Wynwood make up the blogging community.

No blogs for Liberty City, Opa Locka, Carroll City, Allapattah, Latin Wynwood, Flagami, Florida City, Sweetwater, Hialeah fuck it, the Northside and most of the Southside of Dade County. In all honesty, I can’t imagine what we would get if we had blogs representative of Greater Miami. But it would help to hear the voice of our entire community.

*So for those of you who wrote me, PLEASE imagine Miami with lower crime, reasonably good government, a larger middle class, a strong economy with good wages, better roads and public transportation, great schools, great research institutions, better access to healthcare for families, after school programs for our youth, more ethnic integration, less racism and greater opportunity. Maybe not a San Jose, Seattle or Boston overnight, but just not the top of every list for negative things. And then we would truly be the Magic City.

Weekend Notes, (Saturday, April 8, 2006)

2006-03-30T21:03:00.000-08:00

1. It will take a lot from the Herald’s Cuba specialist to spin a story of victimhood from this one (but I have faith). Let’s see, there is a ring of smugglers involved in various other crimes in Miami, a Cuban family who arrived in Mexico only to starve, criminals from Cuba who continue their activities here. Seems that some of the smuggled migrants had criminal histories in Cuba which would have made them undesirable in the eyes of U.S. immigration officials in Havana. Having come here at least one of the immigrant turned smuggler commenced a life of crime by committing grand theft from his first Miami employer.

Another smuggler in this recent party arrived a short time ago and was promptly arrested here for robbery and battery. The smuggling ring netted $2 million and was also reportedly active in human smuggling from the Dominican Republic. Cuban authorities accuse the smugglers of drug trafficking as well, which apart from the source would seem credible. Unknown to trusting passengers these smugglers left people on deserted islands. Former passengers were victims of extortion by these crooks after arriving in their destinations.

Seems that a problem with wet foot dry foot is that the blanket refugee status encourages undesirables. Same could be said about our entire immigration policy. Before you White folks get your indignant, anti-Cuban, immigration reforming pants in a bunch take a look at the trash and riff raff from Europe that made its way to our shores in years of yore. SSDD.

In related news, anti immigrant Senator Tancredo says that Senator Martinez should be deported (he has declared that we should rescind the Cuban Adjustment Act).

2. (Left this out of the Good News Post.) City planning is growing up. Miami could do great things by introducing Miami 21, even if it will have to wait to the next mayor and the next building boom. Dade County government seems to have its head up its ass but hey, gotta start somewhere. Broward has reigned in development, focusing on a well planned urban core. The long, long over due North/South FEC commuter train is being discussed, the MIC could be a great success (or not). I hear murmuring about a raised train cutting across to Collier though I don’t believe it will ever happen. Jeb and company have already set the tone of opposition to super-regional transit even when the voters want it.

3. (More left out of the Good News Post but not all good news.) Miami Beach is doing us all a favor and actually making zoning rules for the footprint, architectural congruity, and scale for new buildings. They also are letting the historic Coral House (I don’t think that’s the name) on Collins be destroyed, reinforcing the habit of local, well connected builders of purchasing historic property, neglecting or deliberately damaging it and then tearing it down. We all heard of how Orlando put a stop to this practice by fining for the full amount of the value of the property while demanding the new building be torn down and a replica of the old structure be put up in its place. Maybe we should do that here. God knows there are plenty of ugly properties built in recent decades that should be first on any list to tear down.

4. New blogs- "Depth of Field" starts off with a distinctly Miami warning (looks promising). "Coral Gables Blogspot" represent! (Note the 1920's era Coral Gables pics.) The author's of that Gables blog has jokes. Her posts and comments around other blogs had me laughing. Been wondering when we would see a Gables blog. There is one annoying blog by a loser in the Gables who manages to be racist, a religious bigot, a right wing zealot, ill educated, ill informed... So you can assume I won't be linking. "Amy in Miami Beach"- a Mormon gal in Miami Beach, I can't get into it, perhaps b/c I'm a guy, not Mormon or have never been to Utah. "Sex in the Beach" is about to be my favorite blog but there are some other contenders. The "Burnettiquette" or Burnett's Urban Etiquette is my favorite Herald blog, which may not be great praise, so let me also say I like it. The GMVBC started a blog that leaves something to be desired as far as layout (talk to New Miami Girl) but it's informative. Blogging South Beach, (reviews, activities events about SB from a smart perspective) makes the Miami New Times just that closer to useless. Older blogs- I've lauded Coconut Grove Grapevine but I will stop b/c some suspect bias. Issena is revealing a lot of himself in a way that was too funny to be off putting. Klotz may like to mix it up more than Alesh, kinda like transplanting a shoot into a new flower pot, and voila! it grows. May not agree with everything J-Hop has to say (I think I'm to the right of him, whatever that means) but do yourself a favor by reading. If you're afraid that the old Bohemian Grove is dying (I sure am) visit and buy something from local artisans at Miami Craft Mafia. Enough of my Grove promoting? Envy Broward residents who can pick up Bob Norman in the Broward/PB New Times but you would do better to visit The Daily Pulp. Other blog news: The possibility of getting Kordor reconstitued in edgier form through Miami Muse's efforts in exile. Not really blogs but: Herald columnist Leonard "The Pitts" Pitts should give the Pulitzer to Anna Menendez that went to that undeserving marshmallow writer. Pitts won of course, due to the minority quota for superficial, knob polishing idiots who work for the Herald with the surname "Pitts".

5. Underappreciated- Radio Progreso, which is lost it's English language spoken commentary. (It still is fully bilingual otherwise.) At times a little too pro-Dem for my taste. That aside, a few years ago their coverage of Cuba would have gotten their legs blown off, their businesses fire bombed, their jobs lost, their children threatened, subjected them to mysterious tax audits and wiretaps and had their names mercilessly smeared. In fact, several of contributors and supporters of Radio Progresso were victims of local terrorists. Miami is still a rough place for freedom of expression. Max Castro recently was subject to loss of employment and harassment. Nevertheless, Progreso and other alternative outlets are playing a more active role, recently rallying support in opposition to travel restrictions to Cuba.

6. Just when I tried to not hate new South Miami Mayor Horace Feliu as much he mollifies all attempts. There has been some Jew-baiting going on (amidst the rest of the ethnic friction that seems to define South Miami), as I mentioned in other posts. So Mayor Feliu makes it his first order of business to say that a moment of silence is not going to cut it, calls in Rev. Gay for a good Christian prayer, while some of the rednecks on the board pipe in with a real Americans love Jesus, love the military, love the country diatribe. All of this had a target of course, being former City Commissioner Craig Sherar. Mr. Sherar who is Jewish, had asked that freedom of faith be respected two weeks ago while he was still serving. In fact a moment of silence had been a standing practice for years until it occurred to the Cuban American mayor (who happens to be Protestant) that he might curry favor among Miamuh crowd by encouraging Anglos and Latinos to hate, I mean pray together.

Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro (Ollie to his friends) was let go for apparently similar reasons (currying favor among bigots) though I must say he should have been fired anyway, for reasons Miamista readers have already been made aware of.

-PS, I'm about to winnow out some of the inactive blogs. To steal an academic saw, "publish or perish".

More Exiles from the Banana Republic

2006-03-29T22:15:00.000-08:00

Miamista is sad today. Why? Because Miami has managed to run out yet more good people. Miamista himself has been spending more and more time in New York and LA. Time away only reminds him of why. Miami is danger of becoming the bad seed- you have so much hope for it, love from familiarity and what it promises and it breaks your heart. A veritable tropical Sodom with daily flights and tour packages.

If this was an isolated event I wouldn't think twice, but it's not. It keeps telling the well educated, the bright and the talented to go elsewhere. It banishes people on the basis of language, ethnicity, race as well as national and regional origin. It remains insular, inbred and corrupt. The people who stay are too often people who would be, or imagine they would be losers elsewhere. When I read blogs by local folks that I find interesting and intelligent (all eight of them) you know what creeps through my mind? This person doesn't belong in Miami. They would be more successful, more appreciated and would experience more, well, everything in another city. Yet I hope they will stay and create something different.

I could read you a list of good friends and family who have graduated from the top schools in the nation, are really intelligent, young and ambitious and have lived in Miami. (I imagine that just these friends fueled Miami's real estate boom.) Despite settling for less money and less opportunity, Miami spits them out. Even folks from the Oakies, (yes you Cynthia, if you still read this) breifly dazzled by what for them is the big city, go running. So yeah Miami, thanks.

Anyway Kordor folks, loved your blog and hope you will keep Miamista/Miamistans updated. Whether it's news from Miami or elsewhere (points of comparison are good), Miamista will defintely put it up here. Who knows? We could eventually put together something great. Seriously! (It better appeal to tourists though.)

Now some issues with the Kordor farewell. Sure I know the Manny jive was political. We all know that dipshit isn't going to do anything good. Without his wife and a gaggle of developers he would be doing personal injury claims with a crooked Little Havana medical center. (As an aside, a New Orleans rehabiltation proposal outline shouldn't take people from their task. Miamista and company put together something for an aide to Marlon Gusman who apparently isn't running, so that's dead.)

But what I will not let Kordor get away with is the Curbed.com crack. Miamista cut his teeth on New York and LA real estate/urban issues; has the Stoler Report on dvd's; knows per foot land, construction and rental prices (commercial and residential) by heart; recites the NY RPA data like his phone number; and still knows the coolest spots to eat, shop and lime in both cities. Miamista will take Curbed on any day, provided the money and technical support, and kick their asses covering NY or LA, much less Miami. Hmmph! Curbed indeed!

(Note: I was going to put up a draft of a piece intended for an urban policy journal today. It compared the impact of The LA Times led Otis/Chandler Family and The Miami Herald led by Shutts & Stoneman/Knight-Ridder & Chapman on their respective cities. On closer inspection any comparison may be a preposterous insult to LA.)

Miami Notes

2006-03-28T19:50:00.000-08:00

(Pictured Right: CCCG/Miami City Club's new "Latin Night"?)
1. Miami Overheard: People in Miami seem to be given to regurgitating something someone else said or just not knowing much about anything. I’d like to think that the blogging community in Miami is changing/has changed that. Miami is an outpost city of the American empire, full of sinister intrigue-exciting? At first. Eventually it becomes dull. Crazy isn't necessarily interesting. Miami's oddities and insularity become predictable and even stifling. Again, here comes the blogging community to the rescue. Still, nothing beats live and in person listening to what people are saying.

Forget about the bars, night clubs and the streets, my favorite places to eavesdrop are the Miami City Club or the Country Club of Coral Gables Gable (aka CCCG on the license plates of social climbers). I'm poor and wouldn't waste the money on memebership but my university club has reciprocal relationships. I see the funniest mix of Miamians, the self imagined elite. It’s like being in Calcutta in 1940.

There are the handful of white colonials given to wearisome, boozy complaining about the "natives" (in Miami the natives happen to immigrants). There is the contingency who seem to be entirely unaware of the peculiarities of frontier living, being thoroughly frontier folk. And many people are in some stage of moving away from Miami. Or at least they all say that. The final type that comes to mind are also my favorite, the almost-adapters. They feel an elusive happiness is to be found in adapting to the peculiarities of frontier living but they have not quite arrived there. I'm compiling some of the more interesting comments overheard in all sorts of environments. Not sure what I'm going to do with them.

2. Speaking of boozy Anglos suffering from peer abandonment, Katherine “Kitty Kat” Harris is saying she will spend her estimated $10-15 million inheritance on the FL governor’s race. I have shared with you all why I am voting for Kitty Kat, and it DOES have to do with Kat class and Kat style. I told you why before, she’s a flirty lush and her make-up says “eager to please”. And lately it has been reported that she’s 86’ed the jacket and wore those "pea smuggler" (geddit?)sweaters and blouses to show off the goods. Any of you nauseous yet?

3. I am not that different from the folks that Alesh obviously detests. (Note his energetic and wholly entertaining back and forth with Rick.) Despite or because of my multi-generational Hispanic-ness, I am sure that at some point I actually have said “uhmurcan” (as in our blessed way of life in the U.S.) being screwed up by “furnurs” (those people who don’t share the values and culture that I am most comfortable with). Damn it, recent immigration, (whether due to poverty, disenfranchisement, or just plain damn “foreign-ness”) has assaulted our way of life! They don’t get our values and principles. They don’t assimilate or even try. People are always giving them handouts and their behavior undercuts what has been achieved in our society. Some of them have a sense of entitlement that is unbelievable! *1

4. Local book dodgers, I mean Miami-Dade students and presumably their parents, find that there is another reason to protest besides the FCAT, English immersion and rules against night club outfits in schools. And this time they have a worthy cause- the immigration bill now in the U.S. Senate. Whoo-Hoo!

5. He’s small, he’s furry, and he’s one of the most annoying sidekicks since Scrappy Doo. As the diminutive fuzzball that forever lives in the shadow of his master, Arriola offered little more than a steady stream of wisecracks. And yet, in playing through any of the Mayor Diaz and games, one can’t shake the feeling that having a sidekick that you don’t ever control is a bit of a missed opportunity. Well now, the little critter has gone solo and in Miami, you get to play out all your furry little fantasies.*2

6. I urge you all to contact Bonnie Gross about getting us a new Multicultural Directory. We have very small but growing pockets of every ethnicity imaginable along with the usual Caribbean area folk. This isn't New York or LA (so what) so it is hard to really know anything about them or their cultural offerings without a guide. Bonnie, a really sweet person, has stated to me that she would like to do a new one, but the old one had to be removed because it was outdated. I believe she needs proof that some people actually care before making the investment in personnel time. Contact: Bonnie Gross, Executive Producer, blgross "at" sunsentinel "dot" com , 954-459-2283

7. At the Dade County Commission we have a clown spotting. Or maybe it's a masquerade. Katie “Clueless” Sorenson is bullshit- she doesn’t have a clue on what to do about transportation, education, poverty, substandard housing, economic development, crime, or any goddamn thing. I’ve seen Clueless Katie repeatedly in interviews in print, radio and TV struggle to offer even a coherent answer or worthwhile idea. I’m ashamed to say that it took me this long to figure it out- she is either an idiot or self serving apologist. I listened to her respond to a question about the FEC corridor transit line and she seemed confused, like she had never heard of it!When communities have a problem such as unfair mitigation fee for newly incorporated cities she tells them to go to county manager Burgess. Burgess! Burgess! The ass ferret to developer-loving commissionners Burgess! (My credulity is tested beyond belief!) People have gone against their better instincts again and again and trusted her, only to be given the shaft. She is riding that urban boundary thing a bit too far. I’m ashamed of having supported her. Now that I found magic sparkle dust blown off- Poof! Another Bullshit Artist. Too harsh? Let's give her ONE more chance to redeem herself b/c of the UDB issue.

8. (Katy figures into this one too.) Ever heard Katy Sorenson speak on issues of integrity in public spending or affordable housing? Neither has she? What about hovels that the county is getting fat on by administering? Where was the great reformer on this one? Hell, I’m forced to buy Dade Mayor Carlos “Frankenstein” Alvarez’s wooden, rehearsed “too many excuses, this is unacceptable, who’s mayor around here (no really, who?)” outrage. Give him a dime for each time it’s offered and he’ll be a millionaire.

9. Expect great things from Obdulio Piedra. He is one of the good hearted folk of our city. Ask him to do something helpful with the community and he’s there. He has pushed for integration and affirmative action opportunities (training not "position quotas") in many institutions he's involved in, including Great Bank of Florida. (This is a new thing Miamista is doing, recognizing good folk in his postings.) While I’m mentioning him, Miamista shouts out his son JP- you’re one funny SOB. I saw that crazy baby food eating heifer in NEW YORK. I really need your help with the PR thing I was telling you about. Get back to me. (Miamista will limit himself to one shout out an article.)

10. Kimco, the giant retail property owner that pushed through the Home Depot in the Grove has cut down old mahogany trees and doesn’t even want to pay the mitigation fees (or replant trees it seems). Trees get in the way of the construction starter-site that is the parking lot of all Home Depots. The supplier of mother’s milk to Mayor Dickhead and Winton wants to keep Home Depot happy since it is one of its largest clients. Rather than wait for Home Depot to cut down the trees, Kimco is doing the dirty deed. Contact Winton- Boycott Home Depot- Poe's Hardware people! (Poe's Hardware & Rentals 425 Dixie Hwy. Coral Gables FL 33146 305-667-6413 )

*1-Gotcha! If you agreed with that you are a racist, xenophobic, narrow minded bigot. Or you could be perfectly normal. Can't decide which one.
*2- That piece actually comes from a magazine review of the Jak and Daxter (?) video game written by a buddy. I proofed it for him and suddenly noticed that if you change the names...