So far, the city election ‘season’ has been a sleep-through session.
Of three positions available held by Mayor Phil Stoddard, Commissioners Josh Liebman and Bob Welsh, only one has drawn candidates. My friend and former Mayor Horace Feliu and Claudia Hauri are the lone challengers against Mayor Phil
That’s it. Just Horace and Claudia, both attempting to duke it out with Phil but very likely to no avail in what knowing politicos (me excepted) continue to call a “sleeper election,” meaning maybe we should just continue to sleep through it!
Frankly, with nary a soul seeming to care about running or even talking much about it, it’s turned out to be the dullest and most boring election in years, in spite of the best efforts by those who oppose Stoddard and his occasional offbeat views. It seems balloting will simply go down as a ho-hum exercise for the incumbent mayor but I gotta tell ya, unless I’ve read the tea leaves incorrectly, Phil will be reelected with ease. (BTW: Please note that I’m hedging my bet, however, and just in case Horace wins or my old professor Claudia becomes mayor, I’ll deliver 10 pizzas to the victory party. Sorry, Phil, no pizza for you!
Ambled over to Casa Cuba the other day and found the place hopping as I ran into Commissioner Josh, Chip Black and Levi Meyer, the real estate guys, and Javier Hernandez-Lechtl, top exec’ over at West Kendall Baptist Hospital. And let’s see, who else was there? John Edward Smith, Publisher of SoMi Magazine and mayoral candidate Feliu, talking up a storm and gathering support while sipping his cafe cubano and chowing down on a couple of Pastelitos de Carne.
What is going on with the corner property at Sunset Dr. and SW 62 Ave.? This prime chunk of real estate was recently purchased for some $8.8 million and the city has approved construction of a nice office building but neither a single shovel nor a survey crew has appeared to date. Surrounded on both sides by parcels owned by Baptist Health, the folks at the health care giant must be most unhappy, having missed a chance to solidify the neighborhood with what the commercial real estate sharpies like to call a development assemblage. I’ve heard that other health care organizations are looking to lease office space by the bunches, once a professional-type building opens doors — and, of course, whatever goes up will most likely post its name on a large sign right across the street from South Miami Hospital, proclaiming its medical identity. Should be lots of fun to watch this one unfold – unless, of course, there are still corporate shenanigans in the hustings between wholly-owned somethings transferring rights to some other dah-dah-dah corporate entity. Sheesh! You just never know what might happen in this town until the CBS blocks start piling up. We’ll wait and see what happens.
South Miami Pharmacy has been serving our community for many years and we are very excited that they are expanding their business. Their patient-first philosophy is one that I personally know very well. Their expansion into a state-of-the-art second location will allow them to provide even more accessible and direct service to their customers. Congratulations to Dr. Armando Bardisa and the entire South Miami Pharmacy family.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez is trying to strike a delicate balance with the announcement of his desire to have a company operate a ferry service from Miami to Cuba, and he is arguing this is just a contract with a company. And they determine where they go as long as it is legal but the matter is getting blowback from the Cuban exile community who note the repression in Cuba has not gotten less since the opening of relations and Cubans are continuing to flee from the Communist Nation given the new rapprochement with the United States and the Obama administration and is another wrinkle to the issue is how Cuba got its hands on a Hellfire missile one of our nations higher tech weapon systems that use lasers for accuracy. And the Obama administration is having no luck getting the dummy missile back. And this issue could bleed into his reelection campaign given the sensitivity of the issue. The last item was provided by watchdogreport.net
