GIVING THANKS FOR FINALLY BEING HEALTHY

I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT I LOOK HALFWAY IN SHAPE

This is not me.

http://Pedestrianspace.Org asked for a full length photo.

I’m still used to seeing the 300 pound me. 

This is the 170 pound me. 

Eating healthy, working out has transformed me after 4 decades of being overweight.

THANK YOU TO MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ AND HIS TEAM

GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

Where I grew up, you went out of your way to thank a person for helping you.

Recently, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and his professional team – in this case led by Director of Constituent Affairs Lazaro Quintero – addressed a problem that threatened the health, safety, mobility and civil rights of my wife of 33 years.

I will not go into much detail -- because if the person who illegally targeted Heidi Johnson-Wright ever attempts to hurt her again, a half dozen lawyers will litigate them into oblivion. Suffice to say, picture a super-sturdy and costly wheelchair ramp -- in place for 20 years at a 100-year-old home – coming under attack without cause or justification.

At the brink of launching an exhaustive legal recourse and unrelenting media campaign to underscore an unjust situation bordering on a hate crime, we reached out to Mayor Suarez.

Years ago, when he was our District Commissioner in the City of Miami, he resolved a longstanding battle over the future of the small green space we live on. Historic William Jennings Bryan Park was slated to become two acres of asphalt for a noisy traffic and parking nightmare that would trade tranquil open space for a grossly out-of-scale tournament tennis center.

A compromise was drafted. Basically, the eastern acre of the park became active space – three outstanding tennis courts, a restroom/park manager building the size of a small house, a barrier-free play area plus preserved trees and benches. The western acre remained as one of the few islands of green grass – where folks 8 to 80 could play dozens of games, from kite flying to soccer.

Long known as a free-thinker who speaks his mind, I think my praise for Mayor Suarez and his team means more because I have had no issue sharing problems with the city. This blog and all of my social media has called out the mayor, city manager, commissioners plus city departments and organizations.

Usually, it is about lack of wheelchair access. Dockless scooters blocking curb ramps, sidewalks and bus stops are a frequent target of my speaking truth to power. I also shine light on new or renovated buildings that illegally lack wheelchair access.

I’ve also been known to criticize development deals, especially those that encroach on precious park land.

While I don’t back every policy decision Mayor Suarez makes, but I appreciate him deeply for sincerely caring about people with disabilities.

We praise his actions while stressing that he DID NOT do us a favor. We did the city a favor, by alerting it to a civil rights-denying action against people with disabilities.

Recognizing this and protecting the interests of all who have physical, visual, hearing and cognitive disabilities, is what earns our praise.

 

 

THE PRICELESS VALUE OF PARKLAND

AS A DEFENSE AGAINST FLOODING

This is a picture of historic Bryan Park in Miami's Shenandoah section of Little Havana.

More than a decade ago, my wife pretty much sacrificed two-plus years of our lives to protect the rare 2-acre green space in the heart of a densely urban area.

An incredibly ill-advised plan proposed to pave over all but about 5 or 10 percent of the park to put in a tennis center.

About 100 kids who played competitive tennis would have benefited. About 10,000 -- who play dozens of improvised games on the soft, safe grass -- would have been driven into the streets for life. Over the decades, perhaps 100,000 people would be denied a safe, green oasis in the heart of the city.

And the plan almost became a reality. A grant was written, contracts were put out -- all with zero public notice. The power play for the few almost ruined recreation and open space for the many.

More times than I can count, my wife and I were shouted down by selfish tennis parents who could only think of their kids and not of the community.

We made power points and handed out flyers listing the dozens of reasons why a park -- already half paved over for tennis courts and park equipment, needed to preserve the roughly one acre of green space remaining.

We got threaten phone calls, dirty looks and worse.  At one meeting, my wife and I mentioned that a recent heavy rain -- not a hurricane, not an end of the world rain -- had flooded the area around the park.

We had water in our garage and several neighbors suffered damage. This was before anybody was talking about sea level rise in Miami. 

I suggested that the acre of green grass was a sponge that could save our nearly 100 year old homes.  I said endless impermeable surface will result in flooding even when it rains only an inch.  Far too many house lots featured almost zero grass, as people concreted over their back yards for patios and paved their entire front yards for parking.

My wife and I pleaded for a few more stormwater drains plus the preservation of the big, grassy area that could absorb water that would otherwise flood us.  

 An official obsessed with building a giant, out of scale, revenue-producing tennis tournament center dressed us down. He said we were grasping at straws to save our view of the park.

Well, I'll spare the reader of all the thousands of hours we spent dedicated to preserving parkland -- in the city that has the least amount of parkland per person in the U.S.  Suffice to say, after many setbacks and attacks on us, the tennis center finally went away.

When Francis Suarez became the District 4 Commissioner, brokered a deal to build a compact community center, but to preserve the park for people and green space.  That is why, among dozens of other strong reasons, we will vote for him for mayor this fall.

Francis later created a covenant to protect the land.  But Miami City parks are still vulnerable.  Not a year goes by when some city official, elected person or community leader suggests paving over our precious little park space.

Fire stations, revenue-generating events/facilities, bigger swimming pools, community centers that could be on lots not used for parkland -- all of these are suggested. They all might be good uses, but not at the expense of reducing the green grass that gives life to our children and protects the homes of their parents.

Yesterday, it looked like about half of Miami and Miami Beach was under a foot or more of water.  Our area was very hard hit by relentless rain.

When I came home, the nearby traffic circle at SW 24th Avenue and SW 14th street was a lake.  A pair of low-lying house lots on SW 23 Ave at SW 13 Street were flooded up to the doors of the houses. But the rest of the area around Bryan Park was wet, but not severely flooded.

I looked out. Bryan Park was a lake.  Just a few inches of water, but a lake.  All that water that would be displace by concrete, was percolating through to soft, green grass and into the soil.  It is how nature intended it.

I'm no engineer, but I'm sure some slight modification of the grading of SW 13 Street and maybe a few more French drains -- and Bryan Park would be even better equipped to serve as an inexpensive, brilliant flood control device.

Thank goodness my wife and I had the courage and conviction to fight for our park. Had we not, I think half our neighbors would have suffered tens of thousands of dollars in flood damage.

I'm not saying this to boast. I'm sharing it as a cautionary tale.  Please, fight for your green space. Push city officials to buy more park land.  Even a single house lot-sized pocket park may be enough grassy area to channel flood water into.

Sea Level Rise is real. It will take billions of dollars and genius technology not even yet developed to save greater Miami. In the meantime, let's realize that park land is our most valuable asset. And park land that doesn't have parking lots, concrete courts and roof lines on it -- is the parkland that's best prepared to safely handle runoff stormwater.