Please be advised that the County Commission meeting regarding changing the Miami Dade Home Rule Charter to allow advertising in parks is cancelled. It may be heard at a later time so please stay on top of this important issue!

August 26 at 11 am the County Commission will decide whether to put the Charter Change allowing advertising in parks on the Ballot. Once that Citizen protection is off the parks, the County Commission can legislate more and more advertising, and loosen any rules they promise us without much oversight. Do we really want to start this ball rolling?

They are giving voters an either or scenario: Raise fees or else advertising.

Tomorrow is election day. Can we surprise everyone in the country and get more than 20% of Miami Dade County voters to vote? We can make a difference if you use your clout by voting. Take a friend or neighbor with you!

Thank you friends and neighbors….THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT LEAGUE.

It wasn’t so long ago that the cities along the ocean wanted to put a school on Haulover Beach to solve over-crowding in Bay Harbor Islands school. The Urban Environment League fought long and hard on this fight and stopped this intrusion on our park land. There will always be a scheme to get open land fro some “good use” and the citizens have to remain vigilant on this subject. At the time the Park Director said something like:

You are asking the people to choose between clean water and clear air.

In other words, in this case, between the equally important Parks and Schools. Now we are being asked to choose between the integrity of our park — and a few dollars from the pocketbooks of park patrons. It will be a short term solution leaving us with a long term result.

From Miami Herald:

“In the past few months, Kelvin Jennings and his buddies have taken their first plane ride, toured the Everglades for the first time and gained local celebrity for writing and recording an eco-conscious rap video in a real-deal Miami recording studio.

Soon the teens’ mugs will be recognized statewide, as the newest faces of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Everglades restoration campaign.

And it all started with the Jacksonville teen’s knock at Nanciann Regalado’s door, peddling homemade CDs of rap music with a positive message.

“She thought I was trying to scam her at first,” said Jennings, 15. “She put the CDs on. She liked it and three months later she called the school looking for me.”

It turned out Jennings, a then-eighth grader at Jacksonville’s Paxon Middle School, was selling the CDs as part of GEAR UP, a federal mentorship program for disadvantaged kids. He and friends Quinterius Cameron and Shawn Cameron had been working with their mentor, Travis Pinckney, on recording equipment at the school.

Many of the songs deal with drugs, violence and personal experiences of death and jailed family members.

“We created music about their pain, how their pain could actually make them stronger,” said Pinckney, a senior at the University of North Florida. “We released a lot of negative energy and refilled it with positive energy about academics.” Regalado, an outreach coordinator for the Corps of Engineers in Jacksonville, was brought to tears as she listened to the CD. She wanted to reconnect with the young man who had such an effect on her.

As she telephoned schools throughout Jacksonville searching for Jennings, a bigger idea took form. Regalado would use her own free flight credits to send the kids to Miami, let them tour the Everglades, and use their talent to produce an eco-conscious rap for the Everglades restoration campaign.

The three North Florida city kids had never been anywhere remotely like the sprawling, lush river of grass. After a day of hiking and canoeing, they were inspired to stay up until 3 a.m. crafting rhymes. Then they headed to a Miami studio to record the music and video under the group name The Path of Righteousness. When you get there, you’ll receive information; Of what you need to do, to enhance conservation; Takes the whole community to cause a transformation; Save the Everglades for the next generation! the boys rap on the final video.

That was back in April, but the idea just keeps growing. The video debuted May 18 at Paxon’s Eco Awareness and Career Fair, along with a billboard near the school.

The video gained a nationwide audience June 25 when the National Parks Service posted it on its website. “It really resonates with the audience, from 7-year-olds jumping around to teenagers,” Regalado said.

Now the Corps of Engineers has plans to expand the billboard campaign to inner city locations statewide, including Miami. Bernadette Morris, president of Sunshine Communications, the company that runs the Corps of Engineers’ outreach campaign, said the billboards could be up by early fall.

Regalado constantly gets e-mails from educators who use the rap to teach about the environment and others who were simply impressed with the video.

She and Jennings have developed a friendship. He often uses “Ms. Nanciann’s” garage as a recording studio, making more uplifting, cuss-free raps with his friends, and inviting other classmates to join. The members of The Path of Righteousness hope to make it big someday, but for now, they’re reveling in the current limelight.

“It’s like a huge experience for us to ride each and every day and see us on the billboard,” Jennings said. “I had to just do something positive with myself for this to happen.”

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/17/1778867/teens-rap-on-virtues-of-everglades.html#ixzz0wrx4lftB

This week we learned that some Miami-Dade county commissioners want to change the county charter so that they can sell advertising in county parks. They have scheduled a meeting to consider this on August 26 at 11:00 a.m.

The UEL thinks that Parks are an important part of Miami-Dade County not only because they provide areas for recreation, but because they are places where residents can escape the pressures of urban life and find some peace. A vibrant, well-supported parks department is a vital part of our community.

Should we open our parks up for advertising in order to raise revenue? Parks are exactly the kinds of amenities that should be supported by the whole community (through property taxes) because we all benefit from their existence. A $20 addition to annual property tax per household would completely make up for the budget deficit in park maintenance. Changing the charter to allow advertising would be a short-term way to raise revenue, but with long-term negative consequences.

The UEL opposes any proposals that would litter our parks with advertising. During the great depression, our government responded by building more parks and creating jobs. We think it does not make any sense now — during our own economic downturn — to lease our parks away to advertisers.

Readers, what do you think?

P.S. Dan Paul, who recently passed away, was the father of Amendment 7 in the County Charter, it was called “The Dan Paul Amendment.” This is the Amendment that will be threatened on August 26th. The charter change would not only change policy in County Parks, it would change policy for most City parks as well.

We are proud to say that Dan Paul was a longtime member of the Urban Environment League Board of Advisors.

(photo: candidate’s forum at Pinecrest library, Danny Marmorstein standing)

A huge thanks to everyone who came out and heard from the District 8 candidate’s for Katy’s seat. We had a full house, and the candidates did an excellent job. Our moderator Matthew Haggman, assisted by Laura Reynolds, kept everything running smoothly and made his best effort to make sure everyone’s questions were addressed.

Some of the hot issues of the forum were:
-Would you ever move the Urban Development Boundary?
-How do you feel about the new proposal to have advertising in the parks?
-Do you support the expansion of the Turkey Point nuclear plant? What about other alternative energy sources?
-How will you as a Commissioner support green development?
-Can we trust our commissioners to keep their promises? And how do we know we can trust that you’ll keep yours?

Feel free to comment with your opinions on the forum