MDX Moves Ahead with Project Plan to Toll the South Dade Busway.

The Miami-Dade Expressway (MDX) Authority moves ahead with financing a study to turn the South Dade Busway into a Toll Road for those willing and able to pay to get "there" faster.  These lanes will have variable prices up to $8.00 depending on congestion and rising with inflation in the future.

Get ready to pay South Dade because the MDX Authority, which is made up of developer friendly sycophants are "in it to win it!" South Dade citizens need to contact MDX and air their concerns in order to stop the tolling of all our roads.   South Dade is already burdened with the Turnpike as the only express road out of the area.  Many of our citizens are resigned to paying for the Turnpike as US1, even with its recent improvements, is still a local access road with its many traffic lights.

There is opposition to this project in the cities Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, and Cutler Bay.  The City of Homestead?  Not so much.  Actually not a word from City Hall as to their position on this project.

Construction interests are very strong in Homestead and throughout the county. They have no interest in furthering Public Transportation when they can have a steady stream of income from tolls to build more roads.  These roads will in-turn facilitate their expansion to the Urban Development Boundary (UDB) and beyond.

If this seems like a machiavellian scenario, you're on point.  It's not a coincidence that land developers and construction interests are at the helm of MDX, it's by design.

Below are reference links for the project.

http://getmdxoffthebusway.com

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/29/3313745/mdx-forging-ahead-with-us-1-express.html

http://mdxway.com/img/projects/future_projects/downloads/US-1-Express-1-Project-Fact-Sheet.pdf

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MDFR Ladder #65 at Work by Homestead High School.

Miami Dade Fire Rescue Ladder #65 by Venetia Groves pull a woman out a sinking car.   This happened at the intersection of SW 167th Ave and Palm Drive by Homestead Senior High School.

Thank you MDFR #65 for the good works you perform for our community,  Bravo!

Note:  The Miami Herald article below has the wrong address as Palm Ave and 167th Street doesn't exist in Homestead or anywhere else in Miami-Dade County.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/18/3293614/firefighters-save-woman-in-sinking.html

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Dr. James Tranthem on School Security

Armed Sentinels In Every Homestead School - Not Teachers In the last few months, more than 1100 bills have been introduced, at the state level, in reference to gun control laws. While most federal and state laws deal with the sale and distribution of guns and who can and cannot legally buy or sell them, much attention has been given to school security which sparked a national debate. No gun control law could have prevented the action that took the lives of 20 children and 6 teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Conn. in December. We will never know if an armed officer, a school sentinel, could have saved even one life, but one life would have been worth the investment in enhanced school safety. Most cities and school districts do not reject the concept of armed officers in schools, but claim that the funds are not available to add more security to the already stretch budgets in their jurisdictions. South Dakota has passed a law to arm teachers, which will go into effect on July 1st, 2013. However in a recent poll by CBS, 56% of the respondents said that they would be uncomfortable with armed teachers. This begs the question then, "how do we deter anyone from bringing a weapon into a school?" For years Miami-Dade Public Schools has used School Police in high schools, resource officers and security monitors in middle schools and unarmed security monitors in most elementary schools (not a deterrent for an armed intruder.) At no additional cost to the school system and no new taxes...part-time and certified armed officers ( retired or reserve officers - returning combat veterans (35,000 from Afghanistan) for example working in half-day shifts for the same dollars as unarmed security monitors could fill that void in all elementary schools. With a unanimous vote, The Homestead Education Committee has asked the Homestead City Council for an ordinance to require any new school or satellite in the City to provide a certified armed school sentinel while the children are in attendance, 180 days a year. And, for the new school year beginning July 1st, 2013 all schools in the City should be required to provide this same enhanced safety precaution. Our children's safety is too important to wait for federal, state or county officials to decide on adequate protection... Homestead should act now and set the example.

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GO TO OUR FARMS! DON'T FORGET KEYS GATE MARKET

South Dade u-pick farm can keep growing fruit . Upload and share your own. You can share related videos and photos. Submit: VideoPictures By Barbara Corbellini Duarte bduarte@MiamiHerald.com A South Miami-Dade u-pick strawberry farm can continue growing fruit, the Redland Community Council decided Wednesday. The council unanimusly approved a variance to allow Strawberry Fields of Kendall, at 117th Avenue and 160th Street, to continue farming tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, cabbage and strawberries in an area zoned industrial. Miami-Dade County rezoned the site from agricultural to industrial in 1984, but the county allowed farming to continue because the agricultural use predated the rezoning. Farming is not normally allowed in industrial zones. Strawberry Fields has occupied the site since the mid-1980s. But around 2005, Strawberry Fields’ landlord decided to build warehouses on the site, said Lynn Chaffin, Strawberry Fields’ owner. Farming ceased for about two years. When those plans fell through in 2008, Chaffin resumed farming on the site. By that point, however, county officials said Strawberry Fields had abandoned its right to farm on the site.To continue farming on the site, which is now surrounded by warehouses, Strawberry Fields needed the variance that the Community Council granted on Wednesday. County staff had recommended that the elected council reject the variance because the farm was not compatible with the surrounding industrial uses. But council members said Strawberry Fields has been a farm for a long time and wasn’t asking for anything new. “That piece has always been there as a u-pick field,” said Curtis Lawrence, the council’s vice chair. “I live a few blocks from there.” But Chaffin argued that the site would likely be vacant if he weren’t farming it. “The benefits to the community and the benefits to the public far outweigh any of the negatives,” Chaffin told the council. “What would this place be if there weren’t any farming on it? Probably an overgrown grass and weeds.” Susan Blake, who lives East of the Turnpike in the same area and shops at the farm, was one of three people who spoke in favor of the farm. “They employ senior citizens. There are a lot of people from the community, North and South, who go there. A lot of local people go there. We don’t have a Farmers’ Market to go to,” she said. “It’s a treasure.” In the early 80s, farms took the majority of the land between 168th Street and 152nd Street. Today, Chaffin’s farm is the only one left. Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/10/3274654/south-dade-u-pick-farm-can-keep.html#storylink=cpy

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ASIAN CULTURAL FESTIVAL

Visth the Fruit and Spice Park in the Redland on Saturday--cuisine, crafts, art, entertainment and plants on sale.

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