The Cortadito Calendar for week of March 6

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The Cortadito Calendar will now be published on Monday to give people time to send Ladra the events they have planned for that week. Please keep sending info on your government meetings, campaign events and political powwows to edevalle@gmail.com so we have a full calendar each and every Monday.

This one is our first on a Monday and our first for March. It’s about a month before the next important local election — in Coral Gables. So we have the first candidate forum for those three races on Tuesday.

There’s also a commission meeting at the county, a city council meeting in Doral, a talk about women’s issues, the requested upzoning of a whole stretch of Little Gables, more hand-wringing over the future of North Beach and yet another powerful speech by our esteemed schools superintendent.

So, let’s get on with it.

TUESDAY — March 7

9:30 a.m. — The Miami-Dade County Commission meets to again ratify the awarding of $27.5 million to five companies for engineering services related to the water and sewer consent decree (more on that later), consider changes to the annexation and incorporation process, approve $1.8 billion in expenditures for building supplies for mulitple departments and designate an area of Miami Gardens as blighted so they can create another community redevelopment agency for their friends to raid. They will also consider giving yet another no-bid contract to a vendor who wants to open up at Miami International Airport and awarding a $1.5 million contract to Perez & Perez Architects for revisions to the 2008 11th Judicial Circuit Courts and corrections facilities master plans. And they will get a report on a plan to develop and maintain several county owned properties in the downtown Miami area, coincidentally or not including Cielito Lindo, the historic courthouse that needs to be redeveloped or replaced.

6 p.m. — The first of at least two scheduled debates for the candidates in Coral Gables begins at 6 p.m. at the University of Miami’s Fieldhouse, 1245 Dauer Drive (next to the Watsco Center). This “forum” put on by the Gables Chamber of Commerce every election consistently turns into a lively debate. Each group will be given 50 minutes, moderated by WLRN’s Vice President of News Tom Hudson. The first up will be the four candidates for the open seat, vacated by Jeannett Slesnick‘s move to the mayoral race. The second group will be incumbent Pat Keon against former Commissioner Wayne “Chip” Withers and the last will be the headliners, the mayoral candidates, Slesnick and former Mayor Raul Valdes-Fauli. Residents can submit questions online at events@CoralGablesChamber.com or in person on 4X6 cards that will be made available. Scheduled to end at 9 p.m.

WEDNESDAY — March 8

10 a.m. — The Doral City Council meets Wednesday and on the agenda is the $2.4 million contract for paving and stormwater improvements to H&R Paving, the purchase of 25 police vehicles for $600,000, the negotation of two contracts for towing services in the city, and the creation of a partnership with Baptist Health South to jointly develop a wellness program at Doral Legacy Park. The meeting starts at 10 a.m. at Doral City Hall, 8401 NW 53rd Terrace.

6 p.m. — Women will unite to talk about issues near and dear to them at an International Women’s Day panel Wednesday that will touch upon reproductive rights, workplace equality and religious discrimination. Among the panelists are Maggie Fernandez, director of the Miami-Dade League of Women Voters, Latinas for Trump co-founder Denise Galvez, Safespace Board Member Alicia Consuegra and former Miami-Dade School Board member and one-time mayoral candidate Raquel Regalado, who has been consipcuously quiet on a lot of issues lately. The panelists start their discussion at 6 p.m. and will be there through at least 8 p.m. at La Palma Restaurant, 116 Alhambra Circle.

THURSDAY — March 9

11 a.m. — The Miami-Dade Commission Chairman’s Policy Council will hear presentations from both Lowell Clary, the FDOT’s former assistant secretary for finance, and Miami-Dade Expressway Authority Executive Director Javier Rodriguez before they discuss the possible financial avenues for transportation projects, specifically MDX funds, PTP funds, tax increment financing and community redevelopment agencies. Seeing as how this is Chairman Esteban Bovo‘s special committee for all the important stuff, it stands to reason that this is a preview of what we might see be presented at a future commission meeting.

6:30 p.m. — The Westchester Community Council will have a public hearing Thursday to consider a land use map change for 4.5 acres west of LeJeune from 9th to 16th streets from low density residential (2.5 to 6 dwellings per acre) to medium density (13 to 25 dwellings per acre). This is an area of unincorporated Miami-Dade that is called Little Gables and could be annexed into the City Beautiful. The council could make recommendations to the county’s planning department and commission at the end of the hearing, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at Ruben Dario Middle School, 350 NW 97th Ave.

7 p.m. — Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who once was thought of as a potential Miami-Dade mayoral candidate and could be again for 2020, is speaking to the members of the Kendall Federation of Homeowners Associations at their meeting Thursday. Carvalho heads the fourth largest school district in the U.S., with 346,000 students and 52,000 employees. He is expected to talk about issues related to Kendall area schools. The meeting is at the Kendall Village Center’s Civic Pavilion in front of the Regal Cinema box office, 8625 SW 124 Ave.

FRIDAY — March 10

8:30 a.m. — Miami Beach North Beach Master Plan Steering Committee meets at the Normandy Shores Golf Club, 2401 Biarritz Drive. These are the people charged with turning the sleepy northern end of the city into a more bustling second or third “downtown” area. It includes the two-block Ocean Terrace, a slower, older version of Ocean Drive (ala 1988) where voters turned down a huge tower development in 2015. The steering committee is tasked with finding ways to revitalize the neighborhood and spur redevelopment while maintanining the pedestrian-friendly, modest, walkable scale that makes it one of the last vestiges of beachside old Florida.

  Alberto Carvalho, Coral Gables, Raquel Regalado