‘We’re on it?’ Well, maybe…

Just a few weeks ago, Martha Backer who blew the whistle on SW 104th Street widening in West Kendall queried us about the 30 mile per hour speed limit on SW 157th Avenue, a four-lane divided thoroughfare. (Someone got ticketed for going 40 mph.) “Shouldn’t it be 40 or 45 mph? I have driven it and felt like it met the criteria for higher than 30 mph,” writes MB. “Is there a formula? Who decides this? Can you find out?”

A couple of weeks ago, we noticed the same 30 mph limit on a SW 134th Street winding through The Crossings, south of SW 104th Street. So we jauntily wrote in this column last week that our crack reporting staff was “right on top” of the speed limit issue and would have an answer.

Here’s what Delfin Molins, Public Information Officer for MDC’s Public Works Department, replied in total: “The roadway characteristic of SW 157th Avenue is a curvilinear type that runs from Kendall Drive (SW 88th Street) to SW 104th Street. Even though it is a four lane divided facility, due to its curvilinear nature it is posted 30 MPH.

This facility acts as a neighborhood roadway with its proximities to schools, residences and businesses. The Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) is responsible for enforcing the speed limit on this facility.” Well, okay, Delfin, but we still want to know who makes all the decisions on speed limits. Get busy again, staff, and find out who does what, or neither Martha nor the boss’ll be happy!

Ribbon cutting at Winston Park K-8 Center where a former playground was closed for safety hazards four years ago due to its barren and pitted dirt surface. Credit the school’s PTSA that raised $30,000 to lead the effort to bring back the school play area with an official ribbon-cutting set for 9 a.m. on April 20, to celebrate.

Another Continental Park HOA meeting last Thursday night brings out more protest against legal maneuvers by Riviera Schools to utilize existing rights of the former church owner’s property, thus avoiding a public hearing. Neighbors now look to appeal the administrative order that bypassed normal zoning channels that are normally required to convert the property for multiple school uses. Of course, the only ones making hay out of this ploy are the lawyers involved! Hispanic Coalition will hold its second Job Fair with Chase Bank on Tuesday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Coalition’s West Kendall Office at 3839 SW 137th Avenue. Those who are bilingual and looking for work should attend, and bring a resume, too. For information, call 305-262-0060.

Idle thoughts by a grizzled CN editor over the ineptness of local TV glamour anchors who fail to background the school education bill, primarily an attempt to share funding of the Obama “Race to the Top” billions that were won by Tennessee and Delaware.

Florida finished ‘out of the money’ by devising an inadequate program to qualify for such big bucks. “TV reports who, what, when and where’ but totally overlooked the ‘why,” gripes the curmudgeon of traditional journalism, adding “that’s why TV news will always be considered just headlines between commercials, promotions and brainless chatter, unless, of course, a teenage celebrity is involved,” he grouses. . .

Thought for the Day:
I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.
Mahatma Gandhi

Richard Yager contributed to this column. Got any tips? Contact me at 305-669- 7355, ext. 249, or send emails to < michael@communitynewspapers.com >.


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