Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla flew to Las Vegas this week to visit Elon Musk and tour the Boring Company which has proposed building a $30 million tunnel under the Miami River connecting Brickell to the downtown.
Talk about gambling with money and lives.
First, nobody believes that Musk or anyone else can build a tunnel for electric cars that will cost $30 million. The same or a similar project had been priced at around $1 billion less than three years ago. It seems like too big a difference to just be all the hands in the cookie jar.
If it’s even remotely true, the the authorities need to investigate whoever put the 2018 proposal together.
Secondly, Florida is the U.S. capitol of sinkholes, with more than 400 reported just since Hurricane Irma. Is there anyone else who thinks it’s not a good idea to burrow a tunnel beneath the Miami River? Has Musk not heard of sea level rise? Also, what might we find there, just a stone’s throw away from where the ancient Tequesta Miami Circle, uncovered by development in 1998?
Read related: Alex DLP takes city paid trip to Sarasota golf resort to meet with Bill Galvano
This tunnel pipe dream seems like another cool fundraising idea for Suarez, whose term ends in November if he is not re-elected.
So this Vegas trip seems more like a city-paid mini vacation for the blossoming bromance. They even got a nifty ride through a Disneyesque prototype tunnel.
Who is paying for this trip? The mayor’s office footed $1,426.89 bill for two tickets and two hotel rooms for two nights. He was accompanied by Lazaro Quintero, the director of constituent services from his office.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla is investigated on ghost employee at Omni CRA
Yeah, Ladra has no idea how many of the mayor’s constituents live in Vegas.
Diaz de la Portilla did not tell Ladra who went with him or where he was staying or who paid for that. But maybe he took the sergeant at arms that went with him to Sarasota when he stayed at a swanky resort to talk to Bill Galvano privately about carving up the districts.
And it’s not the first trip the two have taken together. Remember, they went to Paris last February, right before the COVID lockdown.
Paris. Vegas. What’s next? Rio? The French Riviera?
Miami mayor and city commissioner fly to Las Vegas for gamble on tunnel added by Ladra on
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