If anyone thinks this extension of the 836 known as the Kendall Parkway is about transit and alleviating the gridlock in the western edge of Miami-Dade County, ask yourself this question: Why would we build a bus stop to nowhere?
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Mr. Giveaway” Gimenez, who has made this the crowning 
jewel of his final term — and, perhaps, his administration — didn’t wake up the other day suddenly concerned with transit solutions. If that were true, he wouldn’t be stealing millions in People’s Transportation Plan monies to pay for the operation and maintenance of a mediocre at best bus service and limited MetroRail. He would not be pushing so heavily for this Parkway band-aid that will only end up putting more cars on the street.
No, ladies and gentlemen. This is about money. This is about all the campaign contributions that Gimenez took over the years from the property owners who own tracts west of the Urban Development Boundary.
Gimenez is not building a bus stop to nowhere. He is building a bus stop to future development.
Read related: Rumors persist of a new recall effort to oust Carlos Gimenez
If the commission gives final approval to this Dolphin Expressway extension over protected wetlands on Thursday — a plan criticized for its lack of detail because it doesn’t even have a precise route or locations for bus depots, a rendering of which is photographed here —
it will prove only one thing: that the UDB can be moved. And once we’ve opened Pandora’s Box, da lo mismo chicha que limonada. The next logical step is to move it again to build something.
Ladra’s money is housing, which is an issue like transit. Glade Villas or something like that. Then come the shopping centers and schools to serve the new neighborhoods.
It’s called a slippery slope. And we are on the tippy top of it looking down.
Because after we move the UDB under the guise of facilitating transit, they will bring it back. Especially if people don’t show up Thursday with pitchforks and demand a stop to this nonsense that is being rushed and railroaded through. There is a lot of private property west of the UDB and those property owners, you can picture them salivating right now, will say “There was no push back! You already moved it once and nothing happened!”
The second time it will be under the guise of affordable housing choices. Just wait.
After all, developers already tried to build a 60-acre warehouse and office complex just west of the line three years ago — citing the planned extension as a plus. They were denied then. But how much you wanna bet the group of developers is salivating, waiting to come back?
Read related: Carlos Gimenez is raising funds for his PAC again — but for who or what?
Are we so desperate for transit solutions that we will accept a temporary halfway fix that puts in jeopardy our long term environmental resiliency? Is transit so horrible that we are willing to take a bite out of our future health?
Let’s forget, for a second, that this is environmentally unsound, that this does not expose sensitive lands to potential development. Let’s forget, momentarily, that it undermines the so-called SMART plan that has real transit solutions. Let’s forget, for a second, 
that there could very well be alternative sites for routes and bus depots within the UDB and that this has not been explored enough.
This is not a long term solution because building more roads and widening the existing ones does not solve congestion. It only brings more. The Kendall Parkway, which MDX spent at least $150,000 in ads promoting (more on that later), will become The Kendall Parking Lot in five fat minutes. Even Sen. Marco Rubio is against the idea because it puts the Everglades restoration plan at risk. And some lofty promises about MDX buying 1,000 acres of wetlands elsewhere to make up for it doesn’t really help us here, does it?
Nobody except developers will tell you it’s a good idea to move the UDB. Actually, some scientists might. Since the UDB was drawn, and it’s really an artificial line in the sand, we’ve learned more about sea level rise and water flow in the Everglades. There is a theory that the line should be redrawn around actual flood zones, which would call for a more jagged boundary and, very possibly, include areas already developed. It’s probably the right thing to do, but it won’t happen because even the scientists don’t want to touch the UDB.
Once you move it, you show it can be moved.
Laura Reynolds, a consultant with Friends of the Everglades, was quote in the Miami Herald saying what everybody is thinking, which is that nothing the commission promises Thursday about holding the UDB line matters. “The reality is a six-lane highway will force future commissions to move it,” Reynolds said.
So, no, this is not about Gimenez getting religion and seeing the light on transit for the people in West Kendall, an area he never, ever goes to, by the way. This is more likely about developers telling him, “Oye, you’re coming to the end of your last term, bro, and you said you’d move the UDB. Get creative.”
It is up to the 13 commissioners to stop this. If they don’t, we can really never trust them again. Restrictive covenant will mean nada. Conditions on development agreements will mean nada. Any language they add to “guarantee” there is no future development beyond the UDB or that developers won’t use the Parkway as a motivator will mean nada.
Their word will mean nada.
Tell the mayor and MDX: We are really not building a bus stop to nowhere. Look east.
Kendall Parkway to nowhere is an intentional slippery slope for UDB added by Ladra on
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