If you take away the employees who had to be there — the deputy mayors, the directors and assistant directors, 
the police command staff — and the mayor’s family, the press and the family members of the three employees he decided to highlight in his State of the County address, the lobbyists and the students from his internship program that he made stand up, there was barely an audience at the State of the County address Wednesday.
In fact, there may have been more protesters outside than there were Carlos Gimenez fans inside.
The Dade County Auditorium seemed mostly empty, cavernous in fact, for Gimenez’s feel good fest. Even the people who were there — which included few elected officials — were busy checking their email and twitter feeds while the mayor droned on and on about the same ol’ thing he’s said a million times before. Applause was light and not very enthusiastic. Don’t believe me? Check the video.
All the action was outside on the street, where protesters had started to
gather hours before the address at 10 a.m. The ad hoc coalition included Miami-Dade cops with the Police Benevolent Association, transit workers, the Pet’s Trust people, residents of Liberty Square donning bright yellow t-shirts that said the mayor “doesn’t give a damn about black people” and taxi and limo drivers, who drove up and down the street slowly blaring their horns.
The message was clear: They want “anybody but Carlos” to be elected in August.
It’s quite possible that this was the first protest of a Miami-Dade SOTC speech, indicating that maybe not all is as rosy as Gimenez paints it.
The taxi cab drivers and owners want to be treated fairly in light of all the liberties taken by ride sharing companies like Uber and Lyft with the local government’s nod. Next week, for example, they have an item about retiring dozens of cars that are seven years old, the maximum allowed for taxis. Uber and Lyft cars can be 10 years old.
“Where’s the fairness in that,” asked Diego Feliciano, one of the taxi industry leaders.
The Pets’ Trust people just want their 2012 vote — 
where 65% of the voters said they wanted to pay an extra $10-$15 in property taxes to fund a massive spay and neuter program — to be respected. One protester who ventured inside to hear what the mayor had to say didn’t like his exaggeration of the animal services department’s successes, which he said included coming close to a no-kill status.
“That’s a lie,” she shouted as she stood up. Police officers quickly moved toward her and she sat down and shut up.
Transit workers want the mayor to stop using the half penny sales tax from the People’s Transportation Plan to balance the budget and put it into transportation solutions like the voters intended.
Cops want the mayor to stop dismantling the department and hire the 600 to 800 officers needed to cover the county.
These are all old protests. But the newcomers were the members of the Liberty City community, including many Liberty Square residents who said they’ve been hoodwinked by the mayor and his plan to redevelop the oldest public housing project in Miami.
An ambitious plan to redevelop Liberty Square is in the pipeline, 
but the mayor has ordered that the top two bidders resend their final proposals — after the community group already picked one developer which is, obviously, not the inside deal the mayor was working on (more on that later). Eric Thompson, a member of the Liberty Square Resident Council, said they felt betrayed.
“He came to us several times and he told us that we would be included, that we would make the choice,” Thompson said. “Now that we have made a choice, he wants to take that right away from us.”
Thompson told Ladra that 90% of the Liberty Square residents voted for Gimenez in the last two mayoral elections.
“We won’t make that mistake again,” he said.
So, while 
Gimenez put poor employees who had to be there to sleep with his monotone list of bullshit successes, the real story was outside, where the mayor was being held accountable for the chaos he created in the county and the lack of any real leadership.
Like it said on one of the many hand drawn signs: “The State of Miami-Dade County? It sucks.
“Thanks Mr. Mayor.”
More protesters than audience at Carlos Gimenez SOTC added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
