To the Editor:
Traffic congestion and lack of mobility (the ability to get to our jobs) may be the greatest challenge and the biggest obstacle to future quality of life and economic growth here in South Dade.
And we can expect no help from Miami-Dade County. After denying elevated Metrorail expansion for South Dade because the county “doesn’t have the money” they are now moving toward approval of 13 miles of elevated Metrorail for the north corridor that will cost half a billion dollars more than the 20 miles that we were promised.
In an angry open letter County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava protests that those actions may “undermine the public’s confidence in county government.” This is a gross understatement. I have concluded that the county doesn’t give a damn about South Dade and will continue to defraud us and deny us fair treatment. To the downtown elites, we are just a place to put sewage treatment plants, landfills, nuclear power plants, and Section 8 housing.
Meanwhile the county is still approving massive over development in South Dade based on that failed promise and facilitated by inaccurate and dishonest traffic impact studies using flawed count-based methodologies. These fraudulent studies also relieve the developers of their obligation to mitigate and pay for stopgap improvements to the traffic infrastructure that they, by law, are required to provide.
So our tax dollars are being wasted to subsidize the developers by funding their infrastructure improvements instead of funding real solutions to the traffic problem — solutions that we desperately need.
It appears to me that this will not change. Even if it did, the damage is already done. Traffic is already unacceptable in South Dade, and it will not get better. But we must not despair.
Having been denied mobility, we must focus on accessibility, that is bringing jobs to our community. This is our challenge. To hell with the county. Our future depends on our ability to do this by ourselves.
Our local South Dade municipalities, community councils, Economic Development Council, chambers of commerce, HOAs, Community churches, social clubs and organizations, civic activists, and other local stakeholders must unite to form and support an empowered coalition dedicated to South Dade and its future prosperity and quality of life by bringing jobs to our community.
And, we need citizens who care enough about their community to get involved.
If we don’t do this, no one else will.
Stephen Zarzecki
Cutler Bay
P.S. Commissioners Cava and Moss are true champions of South Dade, and their efforts are greatly appreciated. But, they are outnumbered by the 11 other commissioners.
Stephen Zarzecki is a retired professional engineer. He is a third generation, lifelong resident of South Dade County, president of the Concerned Citizens of Cutler Bay, and a past member of the county’s South Corridor People’s Advisory Group.
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