Ladra called it last year when the commission voted to put the FIU “expansion” question on the November ballot:
They are going to use this to push the Dade County Youth Fair and Expo into a relocation deal, to apply the political pressure.
It didn’t take long.
On Monday, as kids rode the swings and the loop-de-loop at the 64th annual Fair, FIU President Mark Rosenberg told CBS4’s Gary Nelson that he hopes the commission hears “the mandate” from the people and finds a way to boot The Fair off the 64 acres they need to grow.
Boot is my word. Mandate is his.
The referendum that passed in November, after a $1.65 million campaign and zero opposition, was for a non binding question that was supposed to just to gauge the public’s position on letting FIU use county park land for non-park purposes, to expand the school — if it ever got the chance.
Read related story: Premature ballot question = pressure on Youth Fair/FIU land deal
The question was not whether they should expand the school. The question was not whether the Youth Fair — locked in a rock solid 99-year lease with the county through the end of time (or 2085) — should move to another location. The 
question was whether or not — if the Youth Fair ever agrees to move and FIU can expand on that land — we the people give them the same variance on park use zoning that we give The Fair.
And the only reason to put that question out there was to have it to use later (read: now) to apply political pressure, to spin the propaganda your way, if you are FIU, because “it’s what the people want.” We voted yes, after all.
Well, you tontos utiles voted yes. Ladra voted no. Because I knew what was coming. I knew that they would use it against us.
“My hope is we see forward progress on addressing the mandate that we received from the voters of Dade County,” Rosenberg told Nelson Monday shortly after meeting with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Mr. Giveaway” Gimenez. He added that a number of potential new sites for a relocated Fair were discussed, but declined to name them.
Read related story: Two ballot questions cost promoters $2.5 mil — so far
But you know who else met with Gimenez on Monday? Youth Fair President Bob Hohenstein. And he certainly didn’t call it a mandate.
“We believe that we are going to be in Tamiami Park with our youth fair and exposition business for many many years to come,” Hohenstein said.
In order to break the lease, Miami-Dade has to give The Fair an equal or better location for its fairgrounds and expo operations. Hohenstein has indicated that he does not think any such location exists.
Tropical Park has been completely taken off the table. But now people are talking about tucking The Fair into the retail mega mall project being proposed for Northwest Miami-Dade.
Because even if Hohenstein doesn’t like it, Ladra doesn’t put it past Gimenez and the county to force the move, even if they get sued and have to pay for breaking the lease — hey, maybe FIU promises to pay for it, like buying out a cellphone contract, but out of our state tax dollars — even if it is in the millions of dollars.
After all, they have “a mandate” from the people.
FIU’s predictable ‘mandate’ argument — no fair to Fair added by Ladra on
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Raise your standards, FIU … back to the days when Mitch was Prez. Your decision to admit anyone who completes the SAT is leading to this “need” for additional land, while also producing an increasingly worthless degree.
I attended the fair this weekend. It was clean, well run, and organized. I was impressed with how large it has become and its involvement with the schools and the community. The witch hunt on the traditions in Miami-Dade County in the name of progress will not be to anyone’s benefit.
FIU created a false land grab issue based on greed. FIU should be using its weighty resources to find soltuions to existing problems that abound in our community rather than this gluttony.
On that ballot there was a similar bogus vote for “libraries in parks.” It wasn’t meant to enhance libraries. It was meant to punish libraries while bolstering budget-battered parks with library funding. For example, the intent to move Palm Springs North, a 3,500 sq ft wired, established storefront into a local park’s 400 sq ft weather shelter for campers – was for political show. The result, if implemented, will create a future, poorly staffed dilapidated computer “lab” with the word “Library” over the entrance.
Miami Dade County voters seldom read or research any issue before they vote for it. The 17% of voters who actually make it to their voting precincts care about one or two issues on their ballots and fails to read or understand the consequences of their actions.
The FIU referendum was “slipped” on the same ballot as the County Courthouse referendum. While Raquel Regalado and many others questioned the courthouse referendum nobody opposed the one for the Youth Fair move.
Did the fact that Carlos Gimenez’s confidant and fraudulent campaign consultant Al Lorenzo was made a regent at FIU a yer and a half prior to the vote not raise any alarm from the media? Did the fact that the mayor’s corrupted friend Rafael Garcia-Toledo was selected as a member of The Youth Fair, Inc. one year prior to the vote not set off any alarm? Did the fact that lobbyist and political gadfly Jorge Luis Lopez was hired to push the referendum not concern anybody prior to the vote?
As Commissioner Javier Souto often says “ESTO ESTABA COCINAO”, meaning everything was taken care of prior to the vote.
At the end of the day the vote went through, the citizens voted “in the interest of education” and we all got shafted. Pay up county residents, you are gullible and obtuse. You elected the tyrant, now try taking him down.