tagged w/ Miami-Dade County
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When Miami increases its residency restrictions on registered sex offenders, unintended consequences result. Many offenders are forced into homelessness due to the lack of affordable and compliant housing, while others are funneled into the few places where they are legally allowed to reside. These new laws were enacted to protect the Miami community, but may be doing more harm than good. Is the culture and ideology behind such laws really what's best for our children?When Miami increases its residency restrictions on registered sex offenders,... more
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In an excerpt from Miami Babylon, Gerald Posner recalls 1980s South Beach, when it was a Wild West of drug cartels and sex parties that made Scarface look tame.In an excerpt from Miami Babylon, Gerald Posner recalls 1980s South Beach, when it was... more
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Maybe director Gus Van Sant, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, actor Sean Penn, and everyone involved with Milk thought they were making a nice little tribute to gay activist Harvey Milk, something to remind us that the dark days of Dade County and the "Twinkie defense" are no more. Come Proposition 8 and Newt "Gay and Secular Fascism" Gingrich, and suddenly it looks like, more than ever, we need the film and its lesson of what it takes to defend one's liberties.
I was able to sit down with activist Cleve Jones, who was a friend of Milk and a consultant on the film, for this Air America interview.Maybe director Gus Van Sant, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, actor Sean Penn, and... more
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New research by Florida State University suggests that a future sea level rise along Florida's coast might be lower than an international climate panel previously predicted.
But before rushing out to buy that beachfront mansion, consider that even under the lowest and highly conservative estimates in the FSU study, some 10,000-plus acres of Miami-Dade County real estate worth nearly $5 billion would be awash by 2080.
And the rest of county -- along with the entire state's low-lying coastline -- would face far more frequent and damaging inundation from hurricane storm surge.
The study was released Wednesday, along with a companion report by Florida Atlantic University. The FAU report calls on state lawmakers to consider more research funding and sweeping changes in growth management rules, transportation planning and other areas to reduce the economic impact of global warming on the state.
''We have some tough decisions ahead,'' said Jim Murley, director of FAU's Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions and leader of that school's study.New research by Florida State University suggests that a future sea level rise along... more
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I received this interesting and very disturbing video below via e-mail several days. The 6+ minute video looks back at the crime wave which hit Miami in the late 70s and early 80s, right around the time of the infamous Time Magazine article "Paradise Lost". A central theme of the video is the supposed role played by Colombian drug traffickers and people who came to Miami via the Mariel boatlift of 1980 in the sharp increase in homicides during that era.
A little context: the video was posted by a group called Immigration Control Florida (ICF), whose opening paragraph on their website states:
ImmigrationControlFlorida.com / ICF requests that Americans join our group to support our stated goals to save America. Our group worked to stop the 125,000 Mariel Cuban refugees that illegally invaded Miami-Dade County that destroyed Miami with 50,000 murderers, psychopaths, criminals, criminally insane, hitmen, drug pushers, and enforcers making "Miami the murder capital of the world" with 615 murders in only 1 year with so many bodies that the Miami Medical Examiner had to rent a refrigerated truck to store the excess bodies at a cost of $150 million in 1 year making "Miami a 3rd World Country" ! (U.S.News & World Report -Jan.16, 1984 - page 29).
Let me make something totally clear: I am against illegal immigration, but ICF doesn't even try to conceal their disdain for any immigrant group, in particular Cubans from Mariel. Yes, there were criminals mixed in with regular folks who came over via Mariel. Yes, there was a strain on the services the Miami community could provide, but I don't know where and how ICF got the "50,000" number they use to slime an entire community. As we know, the collective group from Mariel has turned out to be yet another in the long tradition of Cuban-American success stories, despite the initial shock of Miami having to absorb 125,000 new arrivals in Miami in only a few short months.
In short, ICF sounds like nothing more than a bunch of bigots and racists who give reasonable folks' objections to illegal immigration a bad name (as well as provide unnecessary fodder to those who feel naturally inclined to bash anything resembling securing borders).
Some of the quotes in the video are quite over-the-top and no doubt representative of the ethnic conflict which gripped Miami during that time. Riots in Liberty City in 1980, Mariel a few months later, passing of "English Only" ordinances in Miami, huge law enforcement scandals. It was a pretty turbulent time. For those of you who weren't here during that time, it's worth your time to view the video below. For those of you who feel that Miami and South Florida are currently living through bad times never seen before, the video offers some much needed perspective.
H/T Rubio for the video.
(Note: make sure to identify the journalists in the video. It's a who's-who of local and national personalities).I received this interesting and very disturbing video below via e-mail several days.... more
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