July 31, 2006
Letters To The Editor
Three eye opening headlines graced the front page of the Miami Herald website last week, yet only two were responded to in "letters to the editor."The House of Lies, a multimedia package about homes intended for low income buyers instead being sold to speculators who are flipping the property, received a letter titled, "County delayed developer's South Miami project."
Re last week's series, House of lies: I was disappointed with how our involvement in building the administrative headquarters for the Miami-Dade Housing Agency at the South Miami Metrorail Station was portrayed.The project is being delayed because the county failed to disclose and misrepresented in the contract with Hometown Station Ltd. that the property had encroachments, utility easements and underground construction from the adjacent county garage.
The other article, ''Why Miami struggles to be a world-class city," caught the attention of one reader who said she was in dismay about this article and the opinions of Marivi Iglesias.
Let's be fair. We are a young city making amazing strides. In two months, our performing arts center -- destined to be one of the world's great arts venues -- will open. And I challenge anyone to find better public art than the remarkable new works commissioned by Art in Public Places for this complex.
The article that caught our attention was the piece about Armando Codina's project in Hialeah, "Deal reached on Stadium Land." In case you're not familiar with Armando Codina we wrote about him several weeks ago. He is one of many accomplished Pedro Pans, a long time developer in South Florida and a good friend of the Bush family. In fact, President Bush will be at his home in Coral Gables today for a fundraiser. Despite several attempts by Miami Lakes residents, environmental groups and the Department of Community Affairs to stop the project, Codina is going to build a 5 million square foot complex inside the Urban Development Boundary. Codina has done some impressive projects in South Florida but this one just doesn't make since.