Category Archives: Unpacking

BLOCKBUSTER!!! The Trolleygate Smoking Gun Surfaces

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Ready for his close-up: [Allegedly] corrupt Miami Commisioner Marc. D. Sarnoff
at the Trolleygate Dog and Pony Show posing for the Miami Herald.

A whistle-blower on Trolleygate could blow down the house of cards carefully erected by [allegedly] corrupt Miami Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff. At least that’s what people who call Sarnoff the “Teflon” Commissioner are hoping.

I received a call from an anonymous tipster yesterday telling me of an email being circulated privately (but has since become public) that should have put a stop to the government operated vehicle maintenance facility*, aka Trolleygate, before the first bit of dirt had ever been turned on the project. The email, from Dakota Hendon in Miami’s Miami Building and Zoning Department, said, essentially, that the government operated vehicle maintenance facility being proposed for Douglas Avenue did not
conform to the Miami 21 Plan.

Who is Dakota Hendon? For one thing he helped write the book on the Miami 21 Plan [PDF], so he should know what’s allowed and not allowed. According to an online biography Hendon worked in the City of Miami Planning Department from August 2006 to September of 2010, when he moved to the City of Miami Building and Zoning Department. It was in this capacity he wrote to Francisco Garcia, the City of Miami Planning Director, warning that government operated vehicle maintenance facility being proposed was non-conforming. Yet, like all projects that [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff comes into contact with, no one really knows how this non-conforming project got approved, especially after the Zoning department tried to put the kibosh on it.

It just kind of happened. Just like how the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park and the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Traffic Circle just kind of happened, even though no one has ever taken responsibility for green-lighting those projects.

However, we now know who tried to stop Trollygate before it even started. On May 24, 2011, Dakota Hendon wrote to Francisco Garcia — City of Miami Planning Director — which included a helpful definition from the Miami 21 Plan:

Francisco,

We have a bit of a problem. The Coral Gables Trolley Station that I met with you and the applicant on a few weeks ago appears to not be an allowable use as we had originally anticipated. See the definition of Auto-related industrial below. I believe this is specifically an industrial use. At this point, they have already submitted for the Warrant and action needs to be taken to stop the application. Additionally, IDR was adamantly against the project in the specific location. 　Please call me to discuss at your convenience.　

Auto-Related Industrial Establishment: A facility conducting activities associated with the repair or maintenance of motor vehicles, trailers, and similar large mechanical equipment; paint and body work; major overhaul of engine or engine parts; vehicle impound or wrecking yard; outdoor vehicle sales, storage or repair; and government vehicle maintenance facilities. This includes auto related Uses not otherwise allowed within the commercial auto related establishment category.

The Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park and adjacent Traffic Circle

Speaking of the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park: This has not been a very good month for [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff and his doggie park. The residents are up in arms after toxic dirt was found polluting not only the dog park, but also that last sliver of land that Sarnoff decided to leave for the children, after carving out a full two-thirds of the park and turning it over to the dogs. Since the residents are also Marc D. Sarnoff’s neighbours, I imagine it’s made for some tense relations along Shipping Avenue.

IRONY ALERT: In what can only be the supreme irony in this entire story, the only reason it was discovered that the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park was polluted in the first place was due to the West Grove residents’ lawsuit against the government operated vehicle maintenance facility, which was thrown out of court last month. While expressing sympathy to the residents’ plight, Judge Ronald G. Dresnick ruled he did not have jurisdiction in the Trolleygate case.

However, part of the pro bono legal team that represented the West Grove neigbourhood was Zach Lipshultz, who is a graduate student at the University of Miami School of Law’s Center for Ethics and Public Service. As part of that case, he started documenting the apparent toxicity in several West Grove locations. Recently the City of Miami ordered them to be tested again and, just for good measure, included the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park, which had never been tested before.

As David Villano of Miami News Times notes, the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park is getting an immediate clean up after toxic dirt was discovered there, while the City of Miami has known about toxic soil at Armbrister Field and 3 other locations for years without taking any action whatsoever. I guess when you’re the commissioner, you just get toxic clean-ups, dog parks, and traffic circles, while the rest of the citizens of Miami can take a flying leap at a rolling donut.

But, I digress. [I’ll be writing more about the Coconut Grove’s tainted soil in an upcoming post. One Sarnoff Scandal™ at a time. Let’s just stick with Trolleygate.]

It’s all about these fake trolley buses from Coral Gables, the next town over

Coincidentally my anonymous tipster (who was the first person to ever tell me about Trolleygate and even coined the name) had contact with Dakota Hendon when he was still with the City of Miami’s Building and Zoning Department. I was told that Hendon was a helpful resource within the office, always friendly, and willing to explain and help navigate the red tape to obtain building permits. The next thing my anonymous tipster knows, Dakota Hendon is no longer
working for the City of Miami and the non-conforming government operated
vehicle maintenance facility was rushed the zoning process “faster than shit
through a goose,” to use one inelegant phrase thrown around.

Now that Dakota Hendon’s email is public, my anonymous tipster wonders whether this is why he no longer works for city and whether he was pushed, or did he quit. Here’s what’s known for certain: [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff shepherded this project from beginning to end, working the backrooms with Astor Development to offer a $250,000 ‘bribe’ to improve Armbrister Field, suspected for years of being polluted.

Another long-time Sarnoff critic [who also wishes to remain anonymous. In fact, it’s hard to find someone willing to go on the record about Sarnoff because people are afraid of his vindictiveness. Many have told me stories of how he punishes his perceived enemies, something I witnessed for myself at the Trollygate Dog And Pony Show.] says this is a tried and true Sarnoff tactic: To offer something to one part of the neighbourhood to get them onside, in order to run roughshod over the rest of the neighbours’ objections, and while the various factions are playing off against one another, Sarnoff will do something like push through a government operated vehicle maintenance facility.

No doubt last month Astor Development and [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff had hoped that Judge Dresnick had the last word on Trolleygate. While the residents were decided whether they should appeal, the City of Coral Gables decided to sue Astor Development over its own government operated vehicle maintenance facility.

I don’t know if depositions are taken in cases like this, but here are some questions I’d like to ask if given the chance:

I’d ask Dakota Hendon:

1). Why he’s no longer working for the City of Miami;
2). Why does the written record end at his email;
3). Did he follow up with Francisco Garcia;
4). Who approved this project;
5). What contact did he have with [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff over this project;
6). What contact did he have with Astor Development.

I’d ask Francisco Garcia:

1). Why does the written record end with the email from Hendon;
2). Did he follow up Hendon;
3). Who approved this project;
4). What contact did he have with [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff over this project;
5). What contact did he have with Astor Development. 

Then I would ask some pointed questions of Astor Development:

1). How often did you meet with [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff on this project;
2). How many of those meetings were attended by community groups;
3). Who came up with the $250,000 bribe to Arbrister Field;
4). What assurances did you get from [alleged] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff that this building would go ahead as planned;
5). Whose idea was it to put shutters on the building to make it look more Bahamian;
6). What contact did you have with Francisco Garcia and/or Dakota Hendon.

Then, once I had the answers to those questions, I would call [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff to the witness stand and, UNDER OATH, based on the triangulation from all those questions above, see if he will admit to being a corrupt Commissioner. I say this because no one else can think of any other reason that [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff would go to bat for a developer from the next town over, to build a polluting bus garage for the next town over, that clearly contravenes the Miami 21 Plan, as evidenced by the city’s own Zoning and Planning Department official.

Who is getting what out of this project? Miami gets no tax revenue from this building and has been paying layers to defend it in court. It’s already a millstone around taxpayers’ necks. Meanwhile, the West Grove residents get all the pollution from this building, while the City of Coral Gables has denied them even the courtesy of a bus stop. Because: That might allow predominately Black West Grove to visit the lily White Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, the next town over, which is the purpose of these phony trolley buses in the first place. [Read more about Coral Gables in my series No Skin In The Game and see why I call it the city that racism built.]

Rampant speculation [in almost every conversation I have about Trolleygate] leads people to believe that somehow [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff made out like a bandit on this deal, because there is no other logical explanation for him selling out his own constituents the way he did in Trolleygate.

Read all my posts on Trolleygate here.
View all my videos on Trolleygate here.

* The reason I continue to use the awkward phrase “government operated vehicle maintenience facility is two-fold: 1) That’s what it is; 2). That exact phrase is one of the specifically prohibited uses along Douglas Road, according to the Miami 21 Plan.

Edited September 21, 2013: In my anger I used an expletive that I’ve excised. Also, a lawyer suggested I take out the word “bribe.” Instead I have surrounded it in ‘these quotes’ denoting the word is used colloquially and not legally.

Coral Gables Now Suing Over Trolleygate

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Almost finished: The polluting vehicle maintenance facility on August 26, 2013

The residents of West Grove woke up to good news this morning. The Miami Herald is reporting the City of Coral Gables is now suing Astor Development over the Trolleygate diesel bus maintenance garage. It was just last month when Not Now Silly was forced to report in the story West Grove Residents Lose ► Polluting Trolley Bus Garage Will Go Ahead:

The residents of west Coconut Grove had their hopes dashed yesterday when Miami-Dade County Judge Ronald G. Dresnick ruled that a polluting diesel bus garage will go ahead in their residential neighbourhood as planned.

What a difference a few weeks make. As the Miami-Herald’s Jenny Staletovich reports:

Coral Gables has sued the company building a controversial trolley garage for the city in neighboring Coconut Grove, saying the garage doesn’t comply with zoning rules in the surrounding historic black neighborhood.

And unless a judge rules otherwise, Coral Gables will walk away from the deal it struck with the developer, City Attorney Craig Leen said Wednesday.

Oddly enough the Coral Gables lawsuit [PDF] is based on some of the same grounds as the resident’s lawsuit that was rejected, but comes at it from a business standpoint, according to Ralf Brookes, part of the pro bono legal team that represented the community last month.

“We’re delighted to see Coral Gables has filed suit. Of course we agree with the city of Coral Gables that the intended use is not commercial and is a government vehicle maintenance facility is an industrial use. That’s what we have been arguing all along, but Judge Resnick ruled he didn’t have jurisdiction,” Brookes told Not Now Silly by telephone this morning.

The City of Coral Gables is alleging in its suit that Astor Development is not complying with the Miami 21 Plan and that, therefore, it is not obligated to go ahead with a second deal to convey Coral Gables land to Astor for a huge mixed use development. The Coral Gables suit is asking the judge, who will not be Resnick, to either rule the polluting diesel bus maintenance facility conforms to Miami’s official plan, or allow the city to back out of the contract allowing Astor to redevelop the land on which the current polluting diesel bus maintenance facility sits.

If the judge rules in favour of Coral Gables, what would happen to the building that’s almost finished? One community activist sees this as an opportunity for the struggling neighbourhood. An adaptive re-use of the building could include a farmer’s market or an incubator for small business opportunities. I see it as being large enough to become an artist’s’ cooperative, like The Rust Belt Market in Ferndale, Michigan.

Whatever the building becomes it is beginning to look like everybody’s predictions will come true: This building will never be used as a vehicle maintenance facility.

YouTube videos I took of the soon-to-be mixed use building on August 26, 2013. They show the relationship of this building to the quiet residential neighbourhood and the One Grove mural:

Grove Harbor ► No Skin In The Game

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When I think of seashore I don’t think of chrome and glass superstructures.

A faithful reader has written [privately] to ask that I get involved in the latest Coconut Grove controversy, Grove Harbor * [sic], or Grove Horror as some of the locals have taken to calling it. To that end, I spent about 2 hours reading up on the project, both pro & con, but mostly con because there seems to be more of that ‘out there’ on the innertubes.

I’m philosophically against any development on any waterfront anywhere
in the world: It blocks access to the waterfront, no matter how small the waterfront or the development. I
am reminded of Frank Lloyd Wright who loved to build on hills, but said
you should never build on top of a hill because you lose the hill.
Same thing in my opinion.

I tend to think of all Coconut Grove issues in relation to the E.W.F. Stirrup House. This proposed development is just a mile’s walk from the E.W.F. Stirrup House. At one time it might have been a gorgeous walk. Walk it these days and you’ll barely catch a glimpse of the majesty of Biscayne Bay, with Miami Beach in the distance, even though you’re walking parallel to it. Decades of bad decisions along the waterfront have led to what it is today, for better or worse.

What would Emperor Headly do?

The footprint of the proposed Grove Harbour development is roughly everything
on the right half of this vintage post card, but the historic buildings will remain

Let’s face it, that job is already filled by alleged corrupt Miami Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff. However, if I were a benevolent Emperor of Coconut Grove, here’s what I’d do to correct previous dunderheaded mistakes along that section of South Bayshore Drive, after hanging banners that said “The Waterfront Belongs to Everybody.”  

  1. Raze every building on the east side of South Bayshore Drive from McFarlane through David T. Kennedy Park, except those few that have historic designation. 
  2. Declare the resultant green space, once landscaped, a People’s Park;  
  3. If the members made enough noise, I might be inclined to grandfather in establishments like the Coral Reef Yacht Club and the Coconut Grove Sailing Club, that serve a ‘community’ of members. However, I would maintain a public access to the waterfront for all;
  4. I would be disinclined to grandfather in commercial enterprises such as Scotty’s, the Chart House, or any of the boat sales/rentals places or the charter boat companies. If any of those businesses wish to remain on prime Coconut Grove real estate, they will have to pay through the nose, on short leases, with all the money going into waterfront improvements;
  5. Decree that from this day forward nothing larger than bike racks and public restrooms could be built on the east side of South Bayshore Drive until the end of time;
  6. Remove every parking space from the east side of South Bayshore Drive, forcing people to walk over from the thousands of parking spaces just a few short blocks away in Coconut Grove Center;
  7. Create level pedestrian crossings at every intersection along South Bayshore Drive, forcing drivers to yield to anyone within the crosswalk; 
  8. Add calming speed bumps and traffic circles to discourage drive-through traffic on South Bayshore Drive;
  9. Set my mind on other ways to encourage pedestrians and make it harder for cars along South Bayshore Drive;
  10. Rip out all the mangroves in Peacock Park, which were only planted in the ’80s;
  11. Take back Peacock Park from the private lease given to St. Stephen’s Church (What the hell was Sarnoff thinking on that one?);
  12. Turn the former NET office into something that actually serves the community.
An artist renderinging of Grove Harbor at night,
when the chrome and glass will really shine

That’s just 12 things I would do off the top of my head and, admittedly, I’ve done no research on these ideas. However, none of my suggestions would ever include building a chrome and glass thingamajig on the waterfront, give restaurants 80-year leases, and attach a huge parking garage. But, that’s just me because, in my opinion, the waterfront belongs to everybody.

Truth be told, this is a long-winded way of saying I really don’t care and I am hesitant to get involved in this battle. I have no skin in the game. I don’t live in Coconut Grove. I don’t own a boat, therefore I don’t need that kind of access to the water. Nor am I one of those rich folks on the west side of South Bayshore Drive, hoping a few deluxe restaurants and a glitzy glass and chrome dealie on their doorstep will improve their property values. It’s hard not to compare those values to the property values on Charles Avenue, just a mile away, where the E.W.F. Stirrup House is still undergoing Demolition by Neglect.

Despite the wish fulfillment expressed in the One Grove mural, Coconut Grove is one of the most racially and economically divided communities you’re ever going to see. This project is only 2.2 miles away from the Trolleygate garage, which is across from the One Grove mural, but it might as well be a million miles. The concerns of the folks on South Bayshore Drive are light years away from what affects the people of West Grove. One community is complaining about a huge development that MIGHT be placed on its doorstep, while the other is complaining of huge diesel bus maintenance facility ALREADY dropped on its doorstep, which a judge recently ruled they are powerless to stop. What’s wrong with this picture?

At the unveiling of the One Grove mural earlier this year

Truth be told, I really don’t know enough about *THIS* particular project to jump into it. There will apparently be a referendum, so the community will have its say. And, when I say “community” I really mean Miami as a whole, because Coconut Grove is only a fraction of Miami. And, the community will get whatever the community decides, unlike West Grove.

However, there are two big red flags on this project that should give everyone pause:

  • Just like Trolleygate and the Coconut Grove Playhouse, all the serious
    negotiations and decisions have already happened in the back rooms
    between the politicians and the developers. 
  • Allegedly corrupt Miami Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff is involved in Grove Harbor negotiations up to his hip-waders.

As near as I can tell the referendum will just be
the rubber stamp to what Coconut Grove assets allegedly corrupt Miami Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff has already sold out to the developers. Unless the Coconut Grove community can muster
enough opposition to stop the project, it’s a fait accompli. Just like Trolleygate was for his other constituents. Rich or poor, Black or White, Marc Sarnoff doesn’t care who he sells out.

I’ll leave this windmill for the Coconut Grove Grapevine to tilt at.

* My fingers stutter whenever I am called upon to type a word that should have a “U” in it, like harbour and colour.

UPDATE: It turns out my fingers needn’t stutter. Grove Harbour is spelled exactly the way I would spell it.

A Coconut Grove Grapevine Update

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It was just a few days ago I took Tom Falco, of the Coconut Grove Grapevine, to task for his nutty conspiracy theories concerning me and Not Now Silly. I called the post Go Home, Coconut Grove Grapevine, You’re Drunk!

In that post I graciously offered Tom Falco the opportunity to retract his crazy accusations. He has yet to do so. I had planned to just leave it alone . . . until I found the following on his failure of a blog, posted just yesterday:

I’ve been drawn quite far into this debate about the waterfront plan. I’ve always taken great pride on debating the issues and not getting personal. I will try not to do that anymore, simply because I don’t like it.

I didn’t like it when Tom Falco got personal with me, either. Despite his having second thoughts, which prompted him to apologize to Ron Nelson, and his wife, I am still awaiting an apology for him for this:

I will not bow to threats by Headly and his crew. I don’t cover events that I am threatened to cover. That’t [sic] how they operate.

The previous Coconut Grove Grapevine logo

As I explained to Tom Falco: I work alone. Not Now Silly has no crew. I have made no threats. I require an apology and retraction, just like Ron Nelson and his wife, because that’t how I operate.

However, Ron Nelson is Chief of Staff to allegedly corrupt Miami Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff and, therefore, might be important to Falco’s continued access. I’m just a guy with a blog, whom Tom Falco dismissed years ago as unimportant. I tried to bring him on-board to save the E.W.F. Stirrup House for the West Grove Community, not a rapacious developer. However, he dismissed me in emails I have yet to release. [Okay, that’s a threat.] Later I learned that the rapacious developer, through various companies and corporations, just happened to be among the Coconut Grove Grapevine’s advertisers. Imagine that.

Why Falco would jump into the waterfront controversy without any consideration of his bottom line is puzzling. Especially after he returned from his hiatus in January saying he was all done with politics. Opposing what could be the biggest real estate development Coconut Grove has seen in many years, can’t be good for his bottom line. Maybe Falco has found journalism.

A word of advice and something else that Tom Falco should take into consideration: Some of the people to whom he has been trash-talking me, are not the friends they pretend to be. That’s because they turn right around and tell me what Falco has said about me, almost gleefully I should add. What gets back to me sounds an awful lot like slander. Yet, Tom Falco has the audacity to falsely accuse me of libel? He libeled me when he accused me in print of working with some unnamed crew to threaten him because, of course, that’s how we operate.

Will Tom Falco do the right thing and apologize to me or will he continue to spread unfounded rumours about me?

Go Home, Coconut Grove Grapevine, You’re Drunk!

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Tom Falco acting inconspicuous right in the middle of downtown Coconut Grove

Uh oh! I’m involved in another media bun fight with Tom Falco, writer-editor-grammarian of the Coconut Grove Grapevine. And, I didn’t start it this time. The last time we had a battle of wits, he came half-armed. This time he’s come completely unarmed — or unglued, you decide — and I almost don’t have the heart to finish this post . . . the operative word being “almost.”

Before I lay out our latest skirmish, let me first clear up one thing, because this is a discussion I refuse to have ever again:

I have always considered every email sent to me as my property to do with as I wish. Most people know that I am a journalist before they write to me. Consequently, emailing me does not automatically confer confidentiality. Having said that, there’s loads of email I receive that get and deserve confidentiality. I have several sources guaranteed anonymity, as well as a few whistle-blowers who send me documents. They all know I’d never burn a source. I have exchanged email with Tom Falco, on and off, going back to 2009. He’s always refused to join in my campaign to Save The E.W.F. Stirrup House. That he did so with several off-hand remarks that I took as racial, still rankles. [But then, if you’ve been following
Not Now Silly for any length of time, you know that I see racism in almost everything. Maybe I was wrong about why he refuses to cover West Grove issues. Maybe if the West Grove could afford advertising in the Grapevine it would be a whole different dealie, but this parenthetical is already too long, so we’ll leave that for another time.] I even offered Tom Falco the opportunity to be an off-the-record source for my Coconut Grove stories. He declined to even meet with me to discuss it over coffee. Consequently, no confidentiality for you!

Put a pair of sunglasses on Mr. Softee and you would be able to tell them apart.

Not that I feel I need any further excuse for printing Falco’s emails, but just today he chose to print an email on his joke-of-a-blog that wasn’t even addressed to him; it was an email passed to him by a 3rd party. As far as I’m concerned, that makes Falco’s emails fair game.

And, because I simply can’t resist piling on, here is grammarian Tom Falco at his run-on best from today [sic throughout]:

He wanted tot talk on the phone or in person, I wanted a typed answer that I could copy and paste, as most things I write, Ron tells people that I get incorrect, so copy and paste is the answer I would like. So I can have a written copy to verify the answer.

I apologize. Those are the worst two sentences you’ve ever read, I know, but it’s the Internet Age. Nowadays everybody thinks they are a writer, which has devalued a reputable trade I spent a lifetime learning. But, that’s also another argument for another day.

Not only is it worth quoting Falco just for the lulz alone, but also because it proves what I have been saying. I’ve accused Falco of cutting and pasting the press releases he’s sent, which he turns into blog posts that will stroke the ego of his pool of potential advertisers. “I could copy and paste, as most things I write.” It’s like he’s not even trying any more.

Here’s a news flash, Tom: If you cut and paste press releases, you aren’t writing. However, when you’re cutting and pasting, your grammar improves dramatically. You might want to stick to cut & paste. 

Slightly more context: I need to introduce you to Al Crespo, of the Crespogram Report. Crespo is one of Miami’s best muckrakers. I wish I had his guts and his investigatory skills. I tried to get Crespo involved in the E.W.F. Stirrup House too, and he also declined. I never held that against him the way I did Falco. Crespo’s reasoning, which made sense, was (paraphrasing) “the developers got their hands on the E.W.F. Stirrup House fair & square.” However, to give Al Crespo’s due credit, he recognized sheer genius and The Crespogram Report linked to my Not Now Silly post Is Marc D. Sarnoff Corrupt Or The Most Corrupt Miami Politician? That one mention was worth 422 hits, which was much appreciated. However, as I admitted to him, I cribbed some of my info from the Crespogram Report.

The Trollygate diesel bus government maintenance facility
that I’ve been writing about since January

So, now that you’re all caught up: Last week Crespo sent an email to Tom Falco and CCed me on it. Here’s our full exchange as of a few minutes ago:

FROM: Al Crespo
TO: Tom Falco, Headly Westerfield
SUBJECT: TOM I THINK YOU NEED TO COVER THIS
Aug 17, 2013


——– Forward Original Message ——–
Subject:     My latest on Trolleygate
Date:     Sat, 17 Aug 2013 16:47:05 -0400
From:     Headly Westerfield
To:     undisclosed-recipients:;

West Grove Residents Lose ► Polluting Bus Garage Will Go Ahead

FROM: Headly Westerfield
TO: Al Crespo, Tom Falco
Aug 17, 2013
       
Tom doesn’t cover politics. He’s said so himself.

Tom doesn’t cover West Grove because I’ve tried to get him involved several times in West Grove issues and he has always declined.

BTW: Trolleygate was all Sarnoff’s doing. He screwed his own constituents by gifting them a diesel bus garage.If he were not term-limited, he’d never get another West Grove vote.
   
FROM: Tom Falco
TO: Al Crespo, Headly Westerfield
Aug 24, 2013
       
I will not bow to threats by Headly and his crew. I don’t cover events
that I am threatened to cover. That’t how they operate.

If you check the Grapevine, you will probably see hundreds
of stories that take place in the West Grove. You probably
have never checked once to make a libelous comment like that.
I suggest you do a search in the upper left box of the Grapevine
and see every Village West event I have attended and covered.

As for this past story, I was in the hospital for 8 days with
kidney failure. That is why i did not cover it.

Tom Falco
Editor | CoconutGroveGrapevine
www.coconutgrovegrapevine.com
The Daily News of Coconut Grove

FROM: Headly Westerfield
TO: Tom Falco, Al Crespo
Aug 24, 2013

What the hell are you babbling about?

Crew? I have no crew. I work alone. I am simply one guy, living in a different county, who found a house I wanted to save. I tried to interest you in the story. You declined to help me. To be fair, so did Al Crespo. However, that desire to save the E.W.F. Stirrup House has led to all my other reporting on Coconut Grove.

You can take the boy out of the newsroom, but you can’t take the newsroom out of the boy.

Threats? I have issued no threats.

Libelous? I suggest you first look up the word and then retract your accusation that I have issued threats.

Let me see if I have this straight: Because you have a totally whacked out conspiracy theory that I am working with some unnamed “crew” who “threatens” you to “cover events” that don’t seem to interest you, you will leave other perfectly good news items on the floor in a fit of pique because that’s how “they” operate?

Stamp your foot louder. They may not have heard it in Brickell.

I’m sorry to hear you’re not feeling well. Get better soon, so CGG can better serve the West Grove neighbourhood. It could use a voice with your readership. I do what I can, but I’m just one guy.

I doubt I will ever get an apology from Tom Falco. That’s about as likely as Falco covering issues and events of importance to West Grove residents. I alerted him to Trolleygate way back in January, so I’m not really buying his recent kidney troubles as an excuse. Falco made it clear the Coconut Grove Grapevine is no longer COCONUT GROVE’S ONLY DAILY NEWS, when he took down that rubric (after I criticized it many times) and replaced it with Daily updates on what’s up in Coconut Grove and beyond including Brickell, Coral Gables and Midtown Miami.

To be fair: Maybe Falco’s not drunk at all.  Maybe it’s the kidney meds.

Unpacking The Writer ► The Bearded Edition

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Every month, or so, I do another one of these blog posts about the inner-workings of being a writer, but all my regular readers know the unvarnished truth: It’s merely a clever way to induce you to click on one of the adverts on this page. I’ll wait…

Done? Good, because there’s so much to talk about this month.

CIRCLE THE DATE: First and foremost, there are only about 70 more shopping days before National Beard Month is once again upon us. As The Flying Monkey Squad turns its lonely eyes upon National Beard Month, the question on everyone’s lips is, of course:

How will Fox “News” Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen be celebrating National Beard Month?


FACEBOOKERY: One of the (many) reasons I joined in on the facebookery in the first place (when I was still writing under the performance artist nom de plume of Aunty Em Ericann) was to see whether writing as a different character would free up my writing style. After a decade in the Citytv newsroom, I felt my writing had gotten staid and pedestrian. Assuming the identity of a character was incredibly liberating. Now that I am back to writing as Headly Westerfield again, I feel a
freedom with words I never had before, which is now reflected in every word I write. Even this one.

COMING SOON: Which is why I can announce that Not Now Silly will be serializing excerpts of my book in the next couple of weeks. Some of my most faithful readers have been curious about all the documents I have been collecting. That’s so I can more accurately describe the protagonists/antagonists of the book and, more importantly, the times in which they lived. There’s been recent, rapid progress and I’m excited to be able to unleash it on the world. You’ll be surprised at where the research took me because I was surprised. So, please stay tuned for that. I’ll be posting it just as soon as I am able to format the parts of the book that are ready for publication. The graphics have been ordered and I’m awaiting delivery of that, too.

AN AUGUST MONTH: The month of August has been exciting at Not Now Silly for another reason as well. I got two of my highest hit counts ever on days this month — one almost twice my previous all-time high. That makes this month on track to set a new record as well. It didn’t hurt that Reddit picked up one of my Trolleygate stories, as did Curbed Miami. However, to my eternal delight, Curbed also linked to one of my stories about the historic, 120-year old E.W.F. Stirrup House, currently undergoing Demolition by Neglect. Saving this house and restoring Mr. Stirrup’s legacy has become an obsession. People are starting to take notice of the E.W.F. Stirrup House and that can only be a good thing. I have made an exciting new connection recently, which I also hope to report upon soon.

Meanwhile my Top Ten Posts for the same period looks like this:

FIRST PAST THE POST: These are all essays I’m extremely proud of. I’m pleased they are getting this kind of devoted readership on Not Now Silly and being shared on the innertubes. If you like what you’ve read, feel free to use the SHARE buttons at the bottom of every post. I always appreciate the added readership.

CH-CH-CHANGES: I will be making a slight change to Not Now Silly over the next couple of days, one that (hopefully) you might not even notice. One complaint I’ve received (more than once) is that the colour scheme makes the links hard to find. I’ll be tinkering with colours to make links more obvious. However, that’s the only negative feedback I received from the format change in April, which pleases me. I like the current minimalist look, so I’m not going to tinker with it too much.

JUST DO IT: If you’ve gotten this far without clicking on an advert, shame on you. That’s the only money I get for all these words that you obviously enjoyed so much that you’ve made it this far down the page. Clicking on an advert costs you nothing, but it puts a few cents in my pocket . . . and I do mean few.

So, click on an advert. Do it for the children. Do it before you’re too busy celebrating National Beard Month.

Is Gino Falsetto Breaking The Law Again? ► A Charles Avenue Update

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The Charles Avenue historical marker with the
E.W.F. Stirrup House across the street.

It’s always been about the E.W.F. Stirrup House. My research into Ebeneezer Woodbury Franklin Stirrup has led to many interesting tangents, none of which would I have ever heard about had it not been for Mr. Stirrup.

Among those tangents include my series No Skin In The Game, documenting 90 years of Coral Gables racism; my investigations into [allegedly corrupt] Miami Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff, who managed to build himself a dog park and a traffic circle, not to mention the undying enmity of his West Grove constituents; and my ongoing reporting on Trolleygate, which culminated in a hearing at the Dade-County Courthouse on Friday. However, I would never have come across those stories had I not accidentally encountered the Charles Avenue historical marker in February of 2009. That was the day I first set eyes upon the E.W.F. Stirrup House and fell in love.

That’s the very same day I started researching the history of the house, which quickly led to the discovery that E.W.F. Stirrup was a remarkable man — decades ahead of his time. Mr. Stirrup created an area unique to this entire country. Because of his efforts Coconut Grove at one time had the highest percentage of Black home ownership in the entire country, which might be the only reason West Grove has remained intact all these years.

Elsewhere in ‘Merka, Black neighbourhoods were comprised of a majority of renters, with absentee landlords. This is why I-95 could be punched through the middle of Overtown, or why I-75 totally obliterated Paradise Valley, in my home town of Detroit.

Yet, sadly, Mr. Stirrup’s legacy is barely known to the people of Coconut Grove. If they know the name at all it’s only because of the E.W.F. Stirrup Elementary School. However, that’s not Mr. Stirrup being honoured by having a school named after him. That’s his son. Not that he doesn’t deserve to be commemorated, because he was a man with a legacy in his own right. However, his father was far more significant to the history of Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida and the United States. This is not hyperbole. Read my previous chapters on the E.W.F. Stirrup House to understand why Mr. Stirrup was important and why it’s imperative to save his house.

Even though the E.W.F. Stirrup House has been designated historic by the City of Miami, a rapacious developer got his hands on the Stirrup House 8 years ago and has been allowing it to undergo Demolition by Neglect ever since. Aries Development is the name of the company and and Gino Falsetto is the name of the man who runs it. Falsetto is Canadian, not that I hold that against him because so am I. However, Falsetto left a string of bankrupt restaurants behind in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on which the Canadian taxpayers lost an estimated $1,000,000. And, of course, all the employees and vendors lost money. However, shortly afterwards Falsetto landed on his feet as one of Miami Real Estate’s big wheelers and dealers. Then he set his eyes on Coconut Grove and built the Grove Gardens Residence Condominiums on Main Highway, immediately behind the E.W.F. Stirrup House. And that’s when the E.W.F. Stirrup House began to fall apart.

One wonders if the Canadian taxpayers provided Gino Falsetto with the grub stake to buy into the always over-heated Miami real estate market.

During Falsetto’s property-trading he managed to acquire a 50-year lease on the E.W.F. Stirrup House, the ownership of which still remains in the Stirrup Family. At the time he acquired the lease, Falsetto promised to restore the house. In the 4 years I have been visiting the house, and the 4 years prior to that, he’s done virtually nothing, except to make things worse by allowing it to undergo Demolition by Neglect.

It was just a year ago, August 18th, that I got into the house for the first time. I documented that in a Not Now Silly post called Unpacking Coconut Grove ► Part Four ► Open Houses and Broken Laws. Compare the pics in that post to the current look of the interior in this video taken on August 16, 2013:

All of that interior destruction is apparently taking place without the benefit of a plan for historic restoration, which I am told must be approved by the Miami Historical Board before any work is to take place. The work is also being done without benefit of a building permit, which must be posted prominently on the property while work is going on and until the completion of the renovation.

A wide-open gate on the Stirrup property says, “C’mon in.”

Let me tell you a little something about getting inside the E.W.F. Stirrup House. Last Friday was the first time I ever surreptitiously entered the house, but the two previous times I was invited in by workmen.

There was a time I used to wander onto the Stirrup property at will. There was a very large hole in the chain link fence at the extreme south-east corner of the property. After I started posting pictures of the property (that had obviously been taken from on the property), I discovered the hole had been patched. Once that hole was fixed I stopped slipping through that gap. Nor did I ever slip through the gap between the two front gates, which are chained together so loosely that Rush Limbaugh could squeeze through. However, I have encountered those gates wide open on many subsequent visits. When the gate is left wide open I take that as a personal invitation to document Gino Falsetto’s shoddy stewardship of a precious Miami historic site.

On August 16th, when I arrived at 7 a.m., the gate was wide open and had clearly been left that way overnight. I wandered onto the property and took several pictures before I headed off to my next appointment. However, I noted something on that visit that required an additional visit later to see whether my eyes were deceiving me.

When I got back to the E.W.F. Stirrup House I discovered my eyes hadn’t deceived me at all. The front door had been left open a crack all night and, at 2 in the afternoon, it was still open the same crack, which meant that there had been no workmen there in the interim. So, if an open gate says, “C’mon in,” so does an unlocked front door. My desire to save the house and protect it from idiots who have no conception of the history the house represents overrules any proprieties about property rights.

An example of some of the destruction that’s taken place inside the E.W.F. Stirrup House.

So, yesterday I a very busy boy. I spoke to a very nice woman at the City of Miami Historical Preservation office. She told me that as far as she could tell, there were no plans on file for historic preservation of 3242 Charles Avenue, aka The E.W.F. Stirrup House. However, she would have to do some more research before she could state that categorically.

Then I left a message for Peter Iglesias, who is head of the Building Department, where any building permits would have been issued for work on the E.W.F. Stirrup House. However, I suspect there is no building permit. Just like there was no building permit last year when I reported [allegedly] illegal demolition work inside the house. That file was closed without a determination. What’s crazier is that no matter how many times I called back, no one was ever able to tell me what happened to my complaint, only that it had been closed. I had a confirmation number and everything. I believe it fell into a Black hole, pun intended.

In fact, I have documented here, in an open letter to Miami, how all my previous phone messages left for City of Miami employees have all gone into the same Black hole. Miami employees never answer their phones and have never returned the phone messages I’ve left. I was shocked when Marina Novaes in the Historic Preservation office answered her phone. That was a first! She took my number and said she’d get back to me. That would also be a first.

And, just like last year, and the [allegedly] illegal demolition work inside the house, it’s invisible if and when the building inspector comes around because IT’S ALL HAPPENING INSIDE THE WALLS OF THE HOUSE, not outside. I can’t stress this enough. That’s why Gino Falsetto has been getting away with this [allegedly] illegal work. And, that’s why I took the risk and decided to enter the house. I’ve got it all documented if the City of Miami Building Department Chief Peter Iglesias wants to see what’s happening inside this historic house.

After cutting back the vines in February, they’ve not been cut since. Before
they were cut the last time, they grew 30 feet high and over the top of the house.

And, while I’m on that topic: The City of Miami by-law compliance officers need to see what’s happening behind the house, too. I’ve documented previous occasions when the property has been cited for a lack of landscaping upkeep and graffiti on the back wall. Remember that Gino Falsetto (Aries Development) is the lease-holder. However, it’s the owner, Stirrup Properties, that gets cited for all the deficiencies caused by Falsetto. Do I have to point out the obvious? The Black corporation is being blamed for the White corporation’s misdeeds.

However, Gino Falsetto seems to have learned something else: the by-law compliance officers cannot see what’s behind the house, so that area is almost never landscaped. It became a jungle, which I also documented in previous posts. It grew over 30 feet tall and part way across the roof of the house in the back, all unseen by the by-law compliance officers.

That jungle was cut back drastically in February for the first time in the 4 years I have been visiting the property. However, that had nothing to do with being cited by the city. It was in advance of a meeting of the Charles Avenue Historic Committee, on which Gino Falsetto sits. He wanted to be able to point to SOME WORK having taken place, in case people asked. However, what was done actually destroyed part of the house, as documented here.

Since then the vines have been allowed to grow unmolested again.

Say, I got an idea! Let’s start a pool and bet on how tall the vines are allowed to grow before Gino Falsetto feels he needs to impress someone else with the work he hasn’t been doing on restoring the E.W.F. Stirrup House and it gets cut back again merely for appearance sake, and not because the vines are harming a precious historic house.

Of course, if the City of Miami ever manages to inspect the inside of the E.W.F. Stirrup House and determines that Gino Falsetto has ordered illegal work, it will be Stirrup Properties, LLC, that is cited and/or fined.

Let’s face it, Gino Falsetto doesn’t care about Stirrup Properties, LLC; Coconut Grove history; or the Stirrup legacy; nor has he shown any care of the historic 120-year old E.W.F. Stirrup House. Falsetto is a rapacious developer who cares only about making money by developing property. In fact, having to save the Stirrup House foils Falsetto’s ultimate plan. He has managed to scoop up every bit of property surrounding the Stirrup House, including a financial stake in the Coconut Grove Playhouse. An empty lot where the Stirrup House currently sits would be far more valuable to Falsetto than this house that he’s committed to restoring. Is that why he’s allowed 8 years of Demolition by Neglect to eat away at the house? Is that why the property is left unsecured, hoping for an accident to happen?

Here are several more pictures of the state of the E.W.F. Stirrup House on August 16, 2013:

West Grove Residents Lose ► Polluting Bus Garage Will Go Ahead

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Indefatigable Coconut Grove community activist Laurie Cook leading the protest

The residents of west Coconut Grove had their hopes dashed yesterday when Miami-Dade County Judge Ronald G. Dresnick ruled that a polluting diesel bus garage will go ahead in their residential neighbourhood as planned.

Prior to the hearing about 50 resident of the Grove gathered in the 100 degree heat for a public awareness campaign on the courthouse steps, until they were kicked off the steps and made to use the sidewalk. Then everyone gathered in courtroom 4-2 at 10:30 a.m. to hear oral arguments.

[This was the coldest room I have ever been in. After we all came in sweaty and clammy from the heat, everyone was immediately chilled to the bone and remained that way until the hearing ended at 1 p.m. Meat lockers are not kept this cold. It must be so the law won’t spoil. The court clerk had what appeared to be a blanket pulled over her shoulders. The lawyers were the only ones not disadvantaged by the cold. Now I know why they all wear suits.]

The meat locker called Courtroom 4-2. Can you see their breath?

The legal arguments went on for nearly 2.5 hours and when it was all over the judge ruled — to make a long story short — that he really didn’t have jurisdiction to issue the residents an injunction to stop the polluting diesel bus garage based on the several legal arguments presented.

To make a long story long: The judge decided he wasn’t going to rule on the Plaintiff’s Constitutional arguments, which were about prior neighbourhood notification (where residents only have 15 days to file a protest) and how one gets word a project has finally been approved. Those approval notices are posted every 2 weeks on a hard-to-find area of the City of Miami’s web site. [I’m net savvy and I’ve never been able to find it.] Furthermore, as I learned in court from the plaintiff’s lawyers, 49% of West Grove residents do not have access to the internet. And, even if they did, they would be required to keep checking the city’s web site every 2 weeks — 26 times a year — in case a building permit has been issued on a project of local concern. It’s a lot like that opening scene of the Hitchhiker’s Guilde to the Galaxy when a work crew arrives to demolish Arthur Dent’s house for a highway bypass. They tell him that he had every opportunity to protest the highway because he could have always gone to City Hall to see the plans:

“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

Another Plaintiff argument the judge rejected was that the Coral Gables Bus Garage would be a “government vehicle maintenance facility” which is specifically EXCLUDED by the Miami 21 Plan for the Douglas Road corridor. That argument didn’t fly for 2 reasons, as I understand it. * Defendants argued that the bus garage is currently owned by Astor Development and, therefore, it’s not government operated yet. Only when Astor Development signs over the bus garage to the City of Coral Gables would it become a government vehicle maintenance facility . . . or, maybe not.

The other argument from the defendant seemed far more arcane to me, but the judge bought it. Lawyers for the defendants argued that under the Miami 21 Plan a commercial gas station, or tire repair place, would be allowed on that site and these places could provide minor repairs. Therefore, it came down to the definition of “minor repairs” versus “major repairs.” Furthermore, defendants argued, a gas station or tire garage would have similar environmental and noise impacts on the neighbourhood. That might be so, but those businesses do not start their day at 5 a.m. and run to 11 at night. Their hours would be limited to whatever the Miami by-laws allow, as in any city, and 5 in the morning to 11 at night would not pass muster. Regardless of those details, in essence, the judge ruled that it appeared to be merely a by-law violation if (when?) major vehicle repairs are done in a place where only minor repairs are allowed.

Nor was the judge swayed by the safety arguments of the plaintiffs. The design of the diesel bus garage, with bus parking and bays in the rear, requires the buses to enter on Frow Avenue and exit on Oak Avenue; both are residential streets, without sidewalks, upon which thousands of children walk to school — to say nothing of all the other residents, some of whom are elderly and infirm, just like in any neighbourhood.

None of the safety or environmental issues — those that most concern the residents — mattered to the judge because those arguments were not legal arguments. Legal arguments are the clauses and subclauses of the written law and the precedents the lawyers can cite for the judge to rule one way or another.

However, what the residents of west Coconut Grove were reminded of, as if they needed further reminding, is that “the Colour Line is the Poverty Line is the Power Line (Ambalavaner Sivanandan, 1923 – ). If this were a White neighbourhood this never would have happened; not because the residents would have successfully won an injunction in court. It would never have come to court because had this been a White neighbourhood the property values would have been such that Astor Development would have never found cheap land to buy in West Grove. Those 9 decades of Systemic Racism are described in the several previous articles on Not Now Silly under the rubric “No Skin In The Game.” People tell me they are shocked at what the series reveals.

* I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on television. I only had few minutes to debrief Ralf Brookes, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, before he rushed off to a depo, as he called it. If I misunderstood anything I will provide corrections once my bone-headed errors are pointed out to me.

No Skin In The Game ► Part Four

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The One Grove mural in Coconut Grove

On the same day I was posting about the upcoming court hearing for Trolleygate, a news article came across my transom that dovetails with that story nicely. Tell me if this doesn’t sound familiar:

A nearly all-White town refuses to install bus stops that would make it convenient for Black folk to get to their community. While this fight is between suburban Beavercreek and the nearby city of Dayton, Ohio, it could almost be coming from Coral Gables and Coconut Grove.

The brouhaha in Ohio began a few years back, when the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority decided to add three bus stops in Beavercreek. The Bevercreekians said, ‘No fucking way‘ and started enacting legislative barriers to any new bus stops in the community, which oddly enough, don’t apply to current bus stops, like heat, air conditioning, and a high-tech camera system. According to Think Progress:

Many in the area argue that their opposition boils down to a simple reason: race. According to the 2010 census, 9 in 10 Beavercreek residents are white, but 73 percent of those who ride the Dayton RTA buses are minorities. “I can’t see anything else but it being a racial thing,” Sam Gresham, state chair of Common Cause Ohio, a public interest advocacy group, told ThinkProgress. “They don’t want African Americans going on a consistent basis to Beavercreek.”

A civil rights group in the area, Leaders for Equality in Action in Dayton (LEAD), soon filed a discrimination lawsuit against Beavercreek under the Federal Highway Act. In June, the Federal Highway Administration ruled that Beavercreek’s actions were indeed discriminatory and ordered them to work with the Dayton Regional Transit Authority to get the bus stops approved without delay.

Beavercreek, though, isn’t particularly keen to do that. The city council voted most recently on Friday to put off consideration of the matter until later this month. They are weighing whether to appeal the federal ruling, or perhaps whether to just defy it altogether. Appealing the ruling could cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, according to a Washington D.C. lawyer the council hired. However, non-compliance with the ruling could cost Beavercreek tens of millions of dollars in federal highway funds.

Fake-trolly that won’t be stopping in Coconut Grove

Oddly enough, White Coral Gables has refused Black Coconut Grove a bus stop outside the polluting government vehicle maintenance facility that it has foisted upon their neighbourhood. When it appeared the bus maintenance facility was a fait accompli, some residents asked for a bus stop at the very least. They were turned down flat.

Keep in mind these are the FREE diesel buses to take shoppers up and down what Coral Gables likes to call Miracle Mile, the exclusive, high-end shopping district. Of course, it might affect the businesses bottom line and Coral Gables property values if too many Black folk were able to get Coral Gables conveniently. It’s better if they walk a half mile to one of the Coral Gables fake-Trolley stops than to give them a bus stop in their own community.

The more research I do into the history of Coral Gables, the more I see that its progress and development over the years is due to almost a century of systemic racism. I make that case in my previous chapters on Coral Gables:

No Skin In The Game ► Part One
No Skin In The Game ► Part Two
No Skin In The Game ► Part Three

Click here to read all my stories on Trolleygate.

Trolleygate Update ► The End Of The Line?

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Artist rendering of the Coral Gables’ diesel bus garage designed in a Bahamian style

Circle the court date: August 16th. 

At times it seems the wheels of justice turn ever so slowly. I posted An Introduction to Trolleygate just over 6 months ago. I followed up a few days later with The Trolleygate Dog And Pony Show, which documented the joke of a public information meeting conducted by (allegedly corrupt) Miami Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff.

Ironically that was the very same day a lawsuit was launched by residents of Coconut Grove asking for an injunction to stop the neighbouring town of Coral Gables from building its polluting government vehicle maintenance facility in their residential neighbourhood. Ironic because it allowed Sarnoff to wriggle out of answering any of his VERY ANGRY constituents questions, since the issue was now in front of a judge. However, that didn’t stop him from presenting his Dog & Pony Show, during which I watched a masterful performance by (allegedly corrupt) Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff.

Diesel bus disguised to look like an old-timey, non-polluting, trolly bus

In late February I documented Coral Gable’s Modern Day Colonialism and Trolleygate and in March I spoke to plaintiff’s lawyer Ralf Brookes for An Update On Sarnoff’s Trolleygate aka Astor’s Trolley Folly. In fact, I’ve been the only journalist who has been covering this story on an ongoing basis. That may be why I was sent the notice of hearing for August 16, 2013, along with the pleadings from both sides in the dispute.

My source tells me this hearing should decide all matters and the judge will issue a ruling one way or another. Either Coconut Grove gets stuck with a polluting government vehicle maintenance facility, or Astor Trolly LLC will have to find another location for this building; a facility promised to Coral Gables so that Astor Development (another tentacle of the same company) can develop the site of the current government vehicle maintenance facility in order to make millions of dollars for itself and Coral Gables. [This paragraph was massaged slightly after being published for clarity.]

Neighbours opposed to the polluting diesel bus garage are calling for a protest on August 16th on the courthouse steps at 73 West Flagler Street for 9 a.m.with the hearing set to begin at 10.

It will be interesting to see how the court rules. I’ve been told off the record by several someones-in-the-know that this building will never be used as a bus garage. That would be welcome relief to the economically poor, minority neighbourhood trying to stop it, but it then begs the question:

What will happen to the building, which is almost finished?

THE DECISION IS IN! READ:
West Grove Residents Lose ► Polluting Bus Garage Will Go Ahead

Pictured below: 
Unveiling the One Grove Mural on March 3, 2013. immediately across the street from the polluting Trolleygate garage: