When Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Commissioner Audrey Edmonson made themselves members of the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority early last year — convincing colleagues to appoint them rather than citizens, as they had traditionally done 
— there was talk about making MDX toll funds available to build rail for the SMART plan.
That was the whole idea, wasn’t it? That’s what Gimenez campaigned on in 2016.
Instead, all he’s done is get his daughter-in-law work and promote the construction of 14 new miles of highway.
That’s not what we were expecting.
Read related: MDX spent $400K on PR, including $60K for mayor’s daughter-in-law
“Miami-Dade mayor takes a seat on MDX toll board and eyes money for rail projects,” read the Feb. 7, 2017 headline in the Miami Herald.
“County preparing to spend $3.6B on rapid transit,” reads another headline, Feb. 16, 2017, in The Next Miami. “Mayor Carlos Gimenez and another county 
commissioner recently appointed themselves to the MDX board with the intention of taking MDX funds for rail,” the story said.
The mayor himself, at his first MDX meeting, said they agency had to be about more than highways.
“What the commission did in putting myself in and the vice chair is a clear indication that we consider MDX to be part of the solution and that we need to work together because its about mobility, its about getting around” Gimenez told the board at his introduction meeting.
“MDX is about maybe expressways. Maybe it should be more than that,” he said. “How we get around in the very near future is going to be quite different than how we get around today.”
What happened to all the promises?
Read related: Kendall Parkway to nowhere is an intentional slippery slope for UDB
By July of last year, after he was made chairman of the board at MDX, Gimenez was already saying rail wasn’t going to happen. He called it old fashioned. “So 19th century,” he told the Miami Herald’s editorial board. And, instead, he proposes the modern, 21st century solution: More buses.
Now his role on MDX is to promote the Kendall Parkway, a highway to nowhere 
over endangered wetlands and across the Urban Boundary Development line that everybody in the world knows will just become gridlocked as soon as it opens and that most Miami-Dade residents — and all environmentalists — don’t want.
Gimenez has become the lead advocate for the proposed $1 billion extension of the 836 expressway. Last month, before the county commission voted to approve the highway to nowhere, he actually said that 5,000 postcards received from residents in favor of the Parkway — which is perfectly named because it will become a parking lot — proved support for the project.
What he didn’t say was that there were really 150,000 cards sent out by MDX before the first vote in June — at a cost of $125,000 (which seems inflated) — and that they did not have an option to mark if you were against the new 14 miles of highway. Ladra can’t help but wonder if Gimenez, who was made chairman of the MDX board this past summer, approved that.
Read related: No-brainer Miami-Dade Commission approves Kendall Parkway despite so much
He also forgot to mention that MDX spent at least $400,000 on PR for the Kendall Parkway vote, including $60,000 that went to the company the mayor’s daughter-in-law works for.
On Monday, the Herald’s Doug Hanks wrote that two environmental groups filed separate lawsuits to block the 
construction of the Kendall Parkway, saying that the public was misled about the details and that what the commission approved was different than what was advertised.
Today, Tuesday, Gimenez will hold court at MDX, 3790 NW 21st St., where the board meets at 4 p.m. On the agenda: an update on the Kendall Parkway and a $2.6 million contract for “Construction Engineering and Inspection (CE&I) Services” on a number of projects, including the addition of a continuous westbound lane and interchange improvements at 57th and 17th avenues, the addition of a continuous eastbound lane from west of the LeJeune exit to 27th Avenue with interchange improvements, and replacing some tolling location points.
Not on the agenda: Rail.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s dual role on MDX board hasn’t panned out added by Ladra on
View all posts by Ladra →
…One can’t draw blood from a stone.
Let me please reiterate a little further on the Miami Herald and it’s Editorial Board .You can have all the Politicians you want and all their friends write cute little cozy Op-Ed pieces about their Agendas that will help friends and family including lobbyists,so called lobbyists not registered/Consultants ,and so on.The Miami Herald has been nothing more than free advertisement for the corrupt Politicians,their friends, Family,Campaign Donors too.The Miami Herald bosses are part of the problem not the solution by how they conduct their business as usual nonsense .If the Miami Herald bosses don’t request public records and do investigations than what good are they ?
Corrupt Carlos has been making decisions since in office based upon few basic principles..Does it help my Lobbyist friends..campaign contributors and my family members ?
no 19th Century technology for us (you know rail that the the rest of the world uses ..)..no $$$ in for my friends and family….but lets build new roads and new condos and pack in more any more people for even greater traffic nightmares..
This County is like A Family Affair ! “tHE gIMENEZ mOUNTAIIN ” , All Family Conflicts of Interest Ignored By Sentorino and The ETHICS Boards (COE) . How Soon Can We Elect a SHERIFF in MDC To Stop The Corruption ? Our politicians Have their Hands in ALL The Pots. Who Will Benefit from All This Constructions In The BCC and Their Lobbyist ?
Why Not Extended It to KROME Ave (US 27 ) Already finish Just a few Blocks Away ?
Does This Smells like The SWAMP of Dade County ?
MDX/Miami Dade Expressway Authority is a set up to keep extracting money out of our pockets or off our credit cards to keep all the Procurement people in business,that includes lobbyists,Consultants,contractors, Etc,etc,etc.who give money back to all the Goverment people who are in power in the way of third party campaign contributions ! That will be for the next referendum 9n the Ballet the next time around to stop this in your face theft by these corrupt politicians ! These politicians are operating in their own self interest and not our interest .Also,Miami-Dade County lawyers our part of the Corruption as well .The Miami Herald never will tell it like it is because they’re in Bed with the Corruption !
Corruption! Gimenez has been neck deep in corruption for decades.
This guy never ceases to amaze me! I just don’t understand how he takes arbitrary actions just because his the mayor. He shoves this crap right down the voter’s throats and he is not afraid to do so. He fears no repercussions from the voters! I am stunned at the incompetency or just the “don’t give a crap attitude” of this mayors actions by this communities voters. What is the difference between Gimenez and a Russian Czar? The Gambino, I mean the Gimenez crime family continues to advance its agenda. Every day you hear how he is filling the coffers of friends and family, plus giving himself a 100k raise. Assuring him and incredible pension pot at the end of his term. Don’t forget about his pot from previous ventures! When will the voters wake up and smell the coffee cuz theirs a fresh pot brewing. Be assured that he is not done with his agenda. The actions he takes from now until his term is up will be to completely put himself, family members and cronies in control positions or financial heaven at the expense of the Miami-Dade voters!