April 30: UGH on commissioners' UDB decision

By Sylvia Gurinsky

The Miami-Dade County Commission needs some second thoughts on the environment.

Those second thoughts should be about nine commissioners' bad decision last week to approve building over the county's Urban Development Boundary. Just why does one draw a line if it's not going to be respected?

Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez does respect it, and he has vetoed their measure. A thumbs-up to him. However, the commission currently has enough votes for an override.

Rebeca Sosa, Joe Martinez, Bruno Barreiro, Jose "Pepe" Diaz, Audrey Edmonson, Barbara Jordan, Dorrin Rolle, Natacha Seijas and Javier Souto were the commissioners who unwisely gave this the ironically named green light. Actually, there was nothing green about their action, which opens the door to plenty more.

Any Miami-Dade resident who cares about the environment should flood these commissioners with phone calls and e-mails to change their minds. Here's the county page with more information, including phone numbers:

http://www.miamidade.gov/commiss/

Only four commissioners - Carlos Gimenez, Katy Sorenson, Sally Heyman and Dennis Moss - said no - to their credit.

Last week, the South Florida Business Journal published an article about the vote:

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2008/04/21/daily52.html?page=1

Shame on the South Florida Water Management District, which cries "conservation" and then gives a warm welcome to Lowe's. Water managers, your two sides are showing......

Does talk about the environment mean nothing to the "non-green nine?" Perhaps they might want to go to the schools in their districts and talk to the students who are learning about what it takes to save the future. So far, those commissioners are flunking.