It's easy to get distracted by the craziness that goes on at Miami City Hall, but that's often a sideshow to the really bad things that are going on inside the city.

Even when intentions are good, there seems to be almost a fatal desire by some folks, either through a lack of understanding, a willfullness to put politics before public policy, or just a lack of paying attention that results in the kinds of eventual decisions made by the city commisison - although on their own the 5 members of the commission can fuck up just about anything that comes before them for a vote - that people then turn around and say, 'How in the hell did that just happen?'

An area where many, if not most of the clashes between opposing philosophies, desires and the realties of government decision making collide is over issues of Planning and Zoning.

Do the residents want Special Area Plans, or don't they? That's been a topic of discussion that's taken center stage at the Planning and Zoning Board over the last several months, and a decision on whether the that concept remains on the books will be coming before the City Commission at the next meeting.

A lot of fights have been breaking out between competeing visions of what the Miami of the future will look like and they all in one way or another center on the language of Miami 21, the Master Planning and Zoning Code that was adopted 10 years ago.

In an effort to address some of those concerns, the city commission decided to create a Task Force to look at Miami 21, and because there are some folks who pay more attention than others to the intracies of how government works, it was discovered that of the 12 open seats on this task force, 7 folks had been appointed, and 3 of those included the 3 top lawyer/lobbyists for the developers.

There are some apparent problems with this, and attorney David Winker, who in recent years seems to have become the Don Quixote when it comes to standing up for the rights of the citizens of Miami, sent the below letter to the City Attorney and the members of the commission.

It's raise issues and questions that if left unanswered, could one day result in decisions that people, unaware of what had gone on behind the curtain, would once again say, 'How in the hell did that happen?'

It's always good to remember that even if you're not paying attention to what you government is doing, there are people that are, and most of them aren't doing it because they have your best interest at heart.

It's Miami, Bitches!

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