Just as the Dade County Youth Fair is set to start its annual three-week carnival on March 17, FIU has a 
new champion for it’s delayed and struggling plans to expand onto property currently occupied in a rock solid lease by the Dade County Youth Fair and Expo: The student government president at the Tamiami Campus.
Alexis Calatayud, a senior political science major in the Green School of International and Public Affairs, has started a petition at Change.org, asking Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and members of the county commission to support the expansion of Modesto Maidique Campus to adjacent county lands.
Calatayud says she wants students to understand the importance of the expansion for them, future students and the South Florida community. But she did not return emails from Ladra and the language reads like she got help from some of the university’s PR staff:
“Dear Panthers,
On a November 2014 referendum, the Miami-Dade community demonstrated support for FIU’s
expansion onto the land adjacent to the Modesto A. Maidique Campus by voting “Yes.”
Now, more than a year later, it is imperative that we move forward with the plan to find the Fair a new home.
I am an example of the impact FIU has on South Florida. As a Miami native, FIU has allowed me to stay close to home while providing me with countless leadership opportunities. FIU has given me invaluable tools to pursue a successful career and I will graduate with no debt. Other members of my family also have made the most of their FIU educations – my mother and brother are all FIU alumni.
FIU gives similar opportunities to thousands every year – we have 55,000 students and 200,000 alumni. These are our community’s leaders, engineers, doctors and entrepreneurs. FIU educates our community’s top teachers, employs thousands, and is helping to transform Miami into a cultural hub.
FIU’s success is our community’s success. FIU’s expansion would mean more and better jobs and educational opportunities.
As president of the FIU Student Government Association, I invite you to join me in asking Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez and members of the County Commission to please take action. Some 30 sites have been studied and the South Dade site really works. Relocating the Fair to South Dade is good for FIU and is good for the South Dade community, which has already expressed support and excitement about bringing the fair to their area.”
But it’s not good for The Fair, say the Dade County Fair and Expo folks. Fair CEO Robert Hohenstein has already said that the South Dade — a county-owned property near the Homestead Air Reserve Base right off the Florida Turnpike and 272nd Street — is a no go.
Read related story: FIU’s bully battle vs. Youth Fair keeps costing us plenty
In a recent letter to the editor published in the South Dade Newsleader, he chided local electeds for falling for FIU’s trick — which is to build pressure on the county to break the rock solid lease and evict The Fair.
“FIU is free to spend its money as it deems fit, and 
a major investment in South Dade would be welcomed news for the area. But the plan is based on a false premise – that The Youth Fair is a willing participant. A move to South Dade would be corporate suicide for The Youth Fair and its exposition business, a fact FIU knows very well, since it co-sponsored and co-paid for an economic study that showed the financial devastation The Youth Fair would suffer in South Dade. FIU also knows the board of the Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition Inc. twice voted unanimously against such a move,” Hohenstein said.
“It is shameful that FIU persists in promoting the false plan. 
And it is disheartening to realize that city commissions such as in Homestead and Florida City are falling prey to this ruse whose only purpose is to pressure Miami-Dade County into The Youth Fair from Tamiami Park so FIU can take over the land.”
An email blast sent last week has this headline:”Moving to Homestead? No.” And follows up with: “Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric from FIU about the Youth Fair’s future.”
The email says the South Dade site would cut revenue by $3.2 million a year and ultimately shut down The Fair.
So why is everyone honed in on this location? Who owns property nearby? Because Ladra believes the county is getting ready to present their case to a judge and position this property as an equal to the one that the Fair now occupies, which is required by the lease.
Read related story: Carlos Gimenez ‘I’d break The Fair’s lease if FIU pays’
It’s the only one of 26 possible sites that Mayor Gimenez gave details on in his Feb. 17 letter to Gov. Rick Scott, asking for state funding in this year’s budget (our public money) for FIU’s expansion dreams — even though there is no agreement for a relocation yet.
“The funding is essential to making FIU’s expansion possible and I am as determined as ever to bring this project to conclusion,” Gimenez wrote. Shouldn’t his asks be for some county needs instead?
And does that mean he is going to kick The Fair out and let them take him to court? Gimenez has asked FIU to guarantee they would pay the legal costs of any court fight. Is he trying to get them state funds for that?
Ladra has an idea. Why doesn’t the county give FIU that South Dade land for a satellite campus? Wouldn’t it better 
serve the community in South Dade — which the mayor constantly ignores — to have the school there? Classes closer to home for many South Dade youth. Jobs in an area that needs them.
Gimenez said in his letter to Scott that the project is “so critically important to increasing educational opportunities and economic development for our state.” But wouldn’t it be better for increasing educational opportunities and providing economic development if the expansion were in South Dade?
Why is nobody asking that question?
My favorite part of the letter to Gov. Scott is where Gimenez lies yet again about the 2014 referendum in which voters simply gave FIU the same waiver of use on park land IF AND WHEN they ever expanded to the fairgrounds. He actually says that he is committed to “working cooperatively and creatively with FIU and The Fair on a site solution that addresses the needs of all parties, and ensures that we fulfill the terms of the November 2014 referendum.”
That was the whole reasoning behind the ballot question, which was obviously premature since there is no move or relocation plan on the horizon.
It’s too bad that the mayor takes these very same voters and ignores them when it comes to the referendum for the Pets’ Trust Initiative.
FIU student prez, county mayor keep pushing to evict Fair added by Ladra on
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FIU treats their Adjunct Professors like slave labor. World class?
This is not about the mayor, but about FIU, which is likely the most important economic engine in this community. In order to be the world class city we aspire to be, we need a world class public university. Boston, Austin and Silicon Valley/Bay Area are world class hubs of innovation and entrepreneurship because of their universities. Miami attracts the world’s wealth, but will not reach its potential as a center for 21st century, knowledge-based industry without world-class higher Ed. UM and FIU have to step up and reach the level UCLA/USC or Cal/Stanford. Simply put, we need the FIU expansion more than we need to have the Youth Fair at that site. The Youth Fair has a strong brand and it will thrive whether it is in South Dade or at its current site. But the siting issue cannot continue to impede this community’s progress toward prosperity. The Youth Fair may risk a consumer backlash if it continues on its current course.
Yes, it is about FIU and the juicy contracts that will be awarded to those pushed by our mayor to build on that expansion. Let’s have the state pay for that 100 year lease agreement and the cost of the Youth Fair move and FIU can build as it pleases. What this county cannot have is a lawsuit for breach of contract and be held responsible to pay with it with our tax dollars. We have already been fooled plenty of times.
LOL comparing West Dade to Boston. When was the last time you were in Cambridge? Top schools are not measured by the size of their campus but by the size of their endowments (apparently much like Republican primary candidates) if the FIU Board of Trustees were truly accountable and not some varsity version of the children’s trust Board playing not with with real endowment money but instead with our taxes, this idea would’ve never left campus. ( by the way greatness is also measured by the quality of admission and graduates. in the case of FIU shit in shit out)
And here I thought that TOURISM was the most important economic engine locally.
Speaking of who might incur backlash if this controversy continues, stop lying, CosmoB: it’s not the Youth Fair but rather FIU that will.
Let not forget the rape of the FIU nature preserve to build an astroturf practice field for their useless football team.
On a more urgent matter, who is this person and who is financing his mayoral bid? Is he a Gimenez’ “fifth columnist,” there to damage and weaken the Regalado Campaign? Doubtless readers would like to know!
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article65532512.html
Mr. Vazquez you have a good nose for detecting corruption. I do not know this gentleman Alfred Santamaria but it strikes me real odd that someone with no political experience would appear out of nowhere as though puffed out of Aladdin’s bottle and host a fundraiser at the Biltmore Hotel and so far have amassed $71K in contributions.
Is this individual Marcelo LLorente2? I would not be surprised. Knowing how corrupt Mayor Carlos Gimenez is and how much money he has at his disposal, it would not be out of the question if he paid a third or fourth individual to run to dilute the votes and prevent Regalado to beat him in August.
You would think the FDLE Corruption Unit would look at this anomaly and open a preliminary investigation to determine if there is any association between Gimenez and Santamaria and the two are connected but that would mean that you would have investigators willing to investigate and a State Attorney willing to prosecute and as we well know those agencies neither care nor dare investigate the powerful.
To be honest, as a nearby resident and parent of an FIU student, I’d much rather see the Fair move away. It really doesn’t help the community here.
WHOSE community? FIU’s? Try expanding your definition of “community” beyond your myopic one and recognize there’s a larger one beyond your university enclosure.
So, during an election year, it’s ultimately benefiting Gimenez to prolonging this fight? Makes him look weak to anyone following the issue. Makes him look strong on education to everyone else who isn’t following the issue.
Love the parody.
And who does own the land around the S. Dade site?
The Youth Fair should partner with FAU and bring their satellite classes down South. That would add a bit of competitive capitalism – what Republican wouldn’t be in favor of that?
Seems rather foolish to waste taxpayer money, whether it’s the county or the university paying, on such a frivolous lawsuit. The county signed the lease, abide by it. Simple. Build a satellite campus in Homestead, the jobs are needed there anyway.
One of the best ideas Ladra has had yet. Let FIU expand into South Dade. But hands off of the Fairgrounds!
Ladra, I’ve also started a petition on this issue. Please help spread the word!
https://www.change.org/p/carlos-gimenez-expand-fiu-campus
Mr. Padron, you should have shared the text of your petition, because it is hilarious. I wish Ladra had thought of this.
Here is his parody petition, folks:
“Florida International University is fast running out of space. Students are crammed hundreds to a classroom, food shortages are a daily occurrence, there is no running water and cholera outbreaks are routine. As would be expected this has put quite the damper on the college experience for every student except those peddling cocaine on campus.
If allowed to expand to adjacent lands currently leased to the Dade County Youth Fair, a front for a satanic cult, all of these problems would magically disappear.
Please help make Florida International University truly great by relocating/banishing these cultists to the outer fringes of Dade County where the swamp and heat will consume their very bones.
Finally, should FIU have thought of this before building a football stadium that houses an utterly unnecessary football team that has nothing to do with the job of a university, namely, educating impressionable young adults easily manipulated by local politicians? Probably.”
On. Point. Love it!
Muah, Ladra
Loved it!!!
Commented on, signed and SHARED on Facebook will do so later today via email too!
Amazing! At such a young age Ms. Calatayud is already showing tremendous promise as a Dade County politico-scumbag with her petition!
Exactly! I dread that this scumbag-in-grooming Alexis Calatayud will one day be seeking local office or – even worse – be able to hoodwink voters in electing her to one. Go away, Alexis! Change your major to ditch digging. Better suited for ya!
The solution to the FIU – Dade County Fair legal quagmire is simple, on August 30, 2016, FIRE Gimenez and elect Raquel Regalado Mayor. As a lawyer, she understands it is not legally prudent to challenge a “rock solid lease.” Clearly not judicious unless Mr. Gimenez is willing to waste millions of our tax dollars paying legal fees and ultimately have his fragile case summarily dismissed! Whether some accept it or not, Miami Dade is a county in the United States of America; The United States of America is “A Nation of Laws, Not a Nation of Men!” Honor the Contract Miami Dade County and voters . . . FIRE Gimenez!
You got it Ignacio!!!! 2016’s rallying war cry for voters is: ABC – ANYBODY BUT CARLOS!!
Ladra, if this county had an honest State Attorney’s Office or was protected by a law enforcement agency that new or cared about its residents, this matter would have been solved long ago.
A 12 year old six grade student can tie the dots and see exactly the ride this county has been taken on with the Fair grounds. First, they gave the The Youth Fair, Inc a 100 year lease (wonder who got greased on that one). Then it became convenient for the mayor to award future contracts at the site to MCM Construction (as he does with every major contract in this county) and that explained the bruhaha that is going on today.
This entire episode has been pushed by Jorge Luis Lopez, the mayor’s handler. Check out the involvement of Rafael Garcia Toledo in The Youth Fair, Inc., organization and last but not least our great absentee ballot broker Al Lorenzo, who was “conveniently”awarded a regent position at FIU just prior to the vote.
If this incestuous and corruptive relationship is not enough to get the FBI or FDLE interested forget going anywhere else for help. The fix is in.