On the subject of the Mayoral debate
In spite of all the chaos in the audience at the Mayoral debate the other night, it was a well organized and well attended event, the only problem is, that many Grove people didn't show up.
Sure, the audience was packed with ringers from both sides, those are the people who were rude, the few Grove residents sat mortified, but that's the problem, there were only a handful of Grove residents. So the loud, rude people who came to the Grove for the event, actually filled the seats and made for a good show. It would have been nicer to see more of our own community there.
Special thanks to Grove merchants for furnishing food platters: Calamari, Greenstreet Café, Bookstore in the Grove, Fresh Market and Milam's Markets. Harry and I were taken for bartenders at one point, but that's ok.
And special thanks to Sue McConnell, (VOCG); Maria Freed, (CGPHHA), and Grace Solares (MNU) who put this event together. It was very well done and planned out.
Sure, the audience was packed with ringers from both sides, those are the people who were rude, the few Grove residents sat mortified, but that's the problem, there were only a handful of Grove residents. So the loud, rude people who came to the Grove for the event, actually filled the seats and made for a good show. It would have been nicer to see more of our own community there.
Special thanks to Grove merchants for furnishing food platters: Calamari, Greenstreet Café, Bookstore in the Grove, Fresh Market and Milam's Markets. Harry and I were taken for bartenders at one point, but that's ok.
And special thanks to Sue McConnell, (VOCG); Maria Freed, (CGPHHA), and Grace Solares (MNU) who put this event together. It was very well done and planned out.
posted by Tom Falco at 12:01 PM
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15 Comments:
Grape, when our Coconut Grove homeowner associations invited MNU (Miami Neighborhoods United, a city-wide organization) to co-sponsor, they made the debate a city wide event. They even changed the invitation to remove the language that made it Grove-specific. I thought it was great they organized the debate and a terrible shame they involved MNU and allowed them to take it away from the Grove.
Also, for the record, I saw a lot of Grove residents I knew there, and although bad behavior did come from people I didn't know, I also saw a Grove resident who I know yelling, "You lie" while Joe Sanchez was talking. The bad behavior, which I am ashamed took place in our community, was not exclusive to "ringers," as you call the people from other parts of Miami who came to our city-wide debate.
Perhaps a more Grove-oriented venue would have been more appropriate. The Museum of Science, while a nice place to hold a debate, is relatively centrally located for the entire city, which in turn, would encourage the entire city to attend.
The election is citywide.
It is a shame the Museum of Science is so rundown. Its Director warns it might close. Maybe a debate at Ransom Everglades School would be a better location?
Perhaps Joe Sanchez should stop claiming the Marlins are hiring 20% city residents when not only are those goals aspirational and not contractual but there appears to be no evidence the Marlins have hired any city residents. It is true the taxpyers get stuck paying for 99% of the stadium and its garage with no corresponding economic benefit. (The cost of debt service must be factored in.)
The Museum of Science is a great venue, free parking and seats 250 people. The venue was not the problem! If it good enough to be an election site for the Grove it is good enough to have a debate.
Michelle you need to verify your facts FIRST before impulsively commenting. Miami Neighborhoods United (MNU) was always part of the organizing group. MNU also represents the Grove, given that all the homeowner associations are members of MNU. And at no time did MNU hijack this event or make demands on who could attend. If you were on the witness stand, under cross examination, I'm afraid your statements would not fare well given the overwhelming physical evidence of the planning process for this event. We have Board meeting minutes, agendas, notes of the one-on-one meetings with campaign officials & lots of emails. We have solid documentation on the objectives, format, campaign efforts & recommendations by Michael Putney -which we shared with all parties.
Phonetically speaking there is little difference between Lawyer and Liar, and you are not helping with the distinction. Your remarks are disappointing.
Maria, you did a great job. I did not mean to insult you or the organization of the event, but to point out that it ultimately was publicized without specific reference to the Grove and being co-sponsored by a city-wide organization made it a city-wide event. That's not a bad thing, it's just different. I also did not think it was fair for Grape to imply that: 1) non-Grovites ("ringers") should not be welcome at that city-wide event or 2) that all the bad behavior came from them, since I was witness to it coming from some of our own. As for the lawyer/liar comment, I will take it as the rantings of an early morning post. I have too much respect for you to be personally offended. M
To Michelle, MNU is an umbrella for all homeowner groups including North Grove and Center Grove. They fight for our issues in the Grove as well - so why would you have a problem with them? They were a part of the organization of the debate from Day One (and Joe knew it) and to insinuate that they were slipped in at the last minute as a distraction is totally erroneous.
Sue McConnell
I recieved an e-mail from Joe's Campaign.
" I will be debating Tomás Regalado at the Miami Science Museum. Although this debate started as an event for the Coconut Grove community, one of the sponsoring organizations is city-wide and the most recent invitation does not limit itself to the Grove. That is why I am writing to you today. "
To Anon at 12:43 - and your point is? Joe can say whatever he wants, he knew from the inception it was always 3 groups putting on the debate. MNU is involved in Grove issues as it "umbrellas" Grove homeowner assns and protects and speaks out for the Grove. What's the point? So what! Does that mean when he has a debate in other parts of Miami, the Grove cannot attend? Sounds like a breakdown between Joe and his Grove campaign person. M.Niemeyer even emailed me the end of Aug. and told me what a great flyer it was.
The Grove is one of the most affluent and outspoken areas of Miami. It seems only natural that Miami Neighborhoods United were part of the whole thing.
I see two issues here:
1) The first is that I think the organizers of the event should feel proud they were able to successfully organize a debate between our mayoral candidates. Although it was perhaps initially supposed to be a Grove-specific debate, I'm glad it became city-wide because this might be one of the only debates the general public gets to attend, and thus it's better that it was citywide.
2) The second issue is that I also don't believe that the "ringers" were all non-Grove residents. I don't like the elitist undertone of that comment. Overall, the issue of concern should be about what a shame it is that the two mayoral candidates couldn't have a more purely issues-focused debate, and that they couldn't offer clear rational plans for the City of Miami. Furthermore, it is a shame that the general citizenry can't behave in a more mature manner as they watch the debate.
I am hoping the next few months of the mayoral campaigns can be more calm, rational, and issues focused. And we as citizens should be championing for the candidates to speak to important City management issues and not respond to our yells.
I think a big round of applause is in order to Maria Freed, Sue McConnell, and Grace Solares.
They not only organized it but as sponsors for the event they paid for the space, got food donated and had several meetings to make sure it went well.
I think it resonates that these people cared so much for it that not even our own village council foot part of the bill and helped.
Bravo!
Whomever this Maria Freed is, she really should watch what she says.
She made good points then came of sounding childish with the name-calling and all.
Why must everyone be so angry here?
Grape, I thought you said previously if someone was going to comment and bring up someone's name and be negative they needed to use their name or it wouldn't be posted. Anon 4:14 above should have the balls to use his or her name like Maria and Michelle.
Anon @ 4:14
I guess the problem is because Michelle insinuated that Grove invited some people in at the last minute. When in fact they were the people who put it together, had meetings, paid for it etc.
I would be upset too if I put together an event and all of a sudden someone shows up and starts running the show and blaming whats wrong on the original people
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