FIU pumps up the pressure in fight over Youth Fair grounds

On Tuesday, Miami-Dade commissioners will get a report from Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Mr. Giveaway” Gimenez on efforts to relocate the Dade County Youth Fair to make room for Florida International University’s expansion.

In it, he identifies four potential relocation sites — really two, since two are old sites already rejected — as if progress has been made.

But don’t be fooled. Despite a Facebook campaign and heightened pressure from supporters, paid and unpaid, FIU’s dream of growing onto 63 county-owned acres now leased by the Fair is as far from reality as it was before the Nov. 4 vote that would only give the school the same non park use waiver that the non-profit has.

Because that is all the non-binding referendum did, ladies and gentlemen. It was not a “mandate” from the people for the Fair to vacate the premises for FIU’s benefit. That may be what the alumni association and lobbyist Jorge Luis Lopez want everyone to believe, but the language was clear.

The language on the ballot passed by voters was to let FIU use park land for something other than a park, should the Youth Fair ever decide to move. FIU keeps forgetting that it doesn’t say the Youth Fair should move. Wouldn’t that have been nice for them? Don’t let them confuse you.

So, even if it passed with 65% of the vote in the face of absolutely no opposition, it is not a “mandate.” Although I am certain that was the intention of the measure.

So that, for weeks, FIU boosters, paid and unpaid, could use that lame “mandate” excuse to ramp up the pressure. Recently, they started a Facebook campaign. Then they turned up the heat , mafia-like, with a sudden threat from the university to take away the use of two garages that have been used for years for overflow parking arrangements (this year, the Fair paid FIU $128,000 for parking and transportation costs).

Something about needing the space for night school. On Saturdays. And even on weekdays the garages are not filled to capacity. So it’s very obviously a faux excuse.

Then there were complaints about alleged substandard living conditions for the carnies who work there for 21 days out of every year.

Youth Fair Executive Director Bob Hohenstein told Ladra that the accusations were bogus and that he took several county officials and commissioners on a tour of the grounds — including the trailer row where the carnies live — and showed them that there was all the necessary plumbing and electrical to comply with the conditions.

“And it’s all up to code,” he said. “We have to pass inspections all the time.”

“All this peripheral stuff is not moving the process forward. It’s soemthing being done to debase and degrade our organization and its value and impact in the community,” Hohenstein told Ladra. “And the value of the lease.”

It’s sort of intimidating. Not just to the Youth Fair organizers, a non-profit that makes $13 million a year, but also to the vendors, workers and people who attend. The message is clear: Our days are numbered. And Ladra can’t help but wonder if that had a chilling effect on the Fair’s gross earnings this year.

One might almost expect the Youth Fair grounds to suddenly suffer some kind of suspicious fire or something… FIU has been acting like such a thug about this.

Some observers think that, like any good mafia boss, FIU has the money and

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Carlos Gimenez, FIU expansion

FIU pumps up the pressure in fight over Youth Fair grounds added by Ladra on April 21, 2015
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