Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo may as well just resign now. He can’t get anything done in his last year. All he can do is talk and talk and talk and he seems even bored with that option.
He’s been effectively neutered. And he looks defeated.
Carollo had a really bad day on the Miami Commission Thursday. He was on the losing side of the settlement for the redistricting lawsuit (which is all his fault), the giant LED billboards issue — though he eventually voted for the “compromise” — and the controversial outdoor gym at Maurice Ferre Park, built without any public notice, which will have to be torn out.
Ladra has already asked for the date of the demolition. According to Commissioner Damian Pardo, who had a really good day on the commission, several people had already emailed him Thursday evening asking for the date. There will likely be an audience.
The moment when Carollo may have realized he is a lame duck was when he made a motion to defer the outdoor gym equipment item — which was an appeal of the planning and zoning board decision to reverse the planning the permission — and the motion failed for lack of a second. He can’t even count on Commissioner Manolo Reyes for that anymore.
Read related: Residents win rollback on ordinance for huge LED signs in Downtown Miami
In November, the PZAB said that the planning department should not have been permitted the outdoor gym in the first place. It’s not in the master plan and there was no community outreach or input. It was just done by the Bayfront Park Trust at Carollo’s behest. Like the cats and dogs that cost nearly $1 million that went to a friend of Carollo’s wife Marjorie.
Crazy Joe wanted to wait for the referendum in August, one of three, where voters would decide. The question as it will appear on the ballot:
“SHALL THE CITY OF MIAMI KEEP ALREADY INSTALLED OUTDOOR GYM EQUIPMENT LIKE IN
MANY OF OUR PARKS AT THE CITY PARK LOCATED AT 1075 BISCAYNE BOULEVARD, MIAMI, FLORIDA 33132, ALSO KNOWN AS MAURICE A. FERRÉ PARK, TO ENHANCE RECREATIONAL FACILITIES AND PROMOTE COMMUNITY HEALTH AND FITNESS FOR ALL OUR RESIDENTS?”
Sounds like propaganda. Do we still have to bother with it?
Carollo was also on the losing side of the vote on the settlement on the redistricting lawsuit after a judge ruled that the 2023 map was racially gerrymandered. During the trial, consultant Miguel DeGrandy, who drew the map that cut the Grove up and was ultimately approved by the commission, admitted that he drew Carollo’s house into his district to please him. There’s no way Carollo did not somehow direct it.
The weird thing is that this was the settlement that they all agreed to in the shade meetings with the city attorney — a settlement that allows him to live in the house through the end of his term without having to again rent a home in the district. Why is he still fighting it?
Read related: Joe Carollo votes to keep his house — and other Miami redistricting madness
Carollo, who is termed out anyway, presented figures that showed that his district was the only one in which the Hispanic number of residents went down. It’s still 80% mind you. There are still three majority Hispanic seats.
Is Crazy Joe losing his faculties?
We know he’s lost his hearing. That’s been established over the years as he is tone deaf to residents. Now, Carollo may also be losing his vision. Because when Elvis Cruz asked all the residents against the LED signs to stand up, and about three fourths of the room rose, Carollo said he counted 25 to 30 people. The audience erupted in boos at what was definitely an undercount. It sounded like a lot more than 30 people.
In his own comments, award-winning filmmaker and head Carollo critic Billy Corben suggested that the city take the LED billboards ordinance to referendum if the commissioner wanted to gauge the support or opposition in numbers. “You had some trouble counting today, but the only number you need to count to is 63.5 million,” Corben said.
That’s the dollar amount that a jury awarded to Little Havana businessmen Bill Fuller, who owns the iconic Ball and Chain bar, and Martin Pinilla after they found that Carollo weaponized the city government to target their businesses and properties after they supported his opponent in 2017.
Several residents directed themselves at Carollo, and he pretty much sat and took it like Ladra has never seen. One person called him a “rogue commissioner.” Former commission candidate Marvin Tapia said that Carollo “should be embarrassed that instead of listening to your residents, you’re mocking them.”
But Carollo, like any good psychopath, is never embarrassed. That’s the only super power he has left.
Joe Carollo and the horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day at Miami City Hall added by Ladra on
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