Miami-Dade commissioners just don’t give a damn about the Everglades’ health | Opinion

There’s no true love and appreciation for the environment in the stunningly beautiful county where we live.

Only paid-for, political lip-service and the invasive weed of greed thrive in Miami-Dade.

So our county commissioners once more prove, voting Tuesday to put at risk, among other necessities, our primary source of drinking water, by yielding to developer pressure and extending the Urban Development Boundary in place to protect fragile lands.

Development where there shouldn’t be any wins the day, always does, quality of life, present or future, be damned.

Building more structures — a 400-acre industrial park on farmland that floods? No problem. Overbuilding in the area causing worse flooding to existing neighboring residents? For commissioners, no issue there.

Developing an area vulnerable to sea-level rise? They turn a blind eye.

It’s only the Florida Everglades we’re ruining, that remote area nobody ever thinks about unless they’re on Alligator Alley heading to play in Sanibel or Naples. But it’s like the umbilical cord that tied you to your mother.

You wouldn’t be in this world without it — and Miami would be unsustainable without the River of Grass.

Here’s why: The Biscayne Bay aquifer is the primary source of our drinking water — and its quality is largely determined by the health of the Everglades.

Why would anyone, Republican or Democrat, developer or environmentalist, want to risk inflicting more damage on this already fragile and essential life source?

There’s only one answer: Those profiting from development, politically and monetarily, don’t give a damn.

READ MORE: County commission overrides veto, clears project outside urban boundary near Biscayne Bay

The vote

If they did care, the Miami-Dade County Commission wouldn’t have taken the extraordinary step to override Mayor Danielle Levine Cava’s long-shot veto to stop the ill-advised extension of the Urban Development Boundary.

The great majority — nine out of 12 commissioners — didn’t choose to prioritize the environment, not when political donors are in the game. When they bring themselves to use code words like “climate change” and “rising seas,” there’s usually a hurricane at our doorstep, and they want to look like they’re on top of it.

And, truth be told, to exempt themselves from responsibility.

Too late then. Too late now and for the rest of our days in a region where normal king tides bring regular cycles of flooding.

Faced with the UDB expansion request to build what developers are selling as the South Dade Logistics and Technology District, commissioners had various opportunities to prove they believe in natural threats to our geography and act on smart policy.

But, at every turn, it was developers’ pitch the commissioners favored with public hearing speaking rules, listened to, and fought for.

Mayor’s veto

The mayor’s veto of their vote to approve the extension near Biscayne Bay didn’t stand a chance against them.

Commissioners weren’t moved by her reminders of Hurricane Ian’s path of destruction, fueled by storm surge that this area, too, could experience. Nor by the precedent the approval of this extension, the first since 2013, sets.

“It opens the floodgates for sprawl and unsustainable development that threatens our economy and our health,” Levine Cava warned.

Only three commissioners — Sally Heyman, Danielle Cohen Higgins and Eileen Higgins — signed on to her arguments. And this happened with Commissioner René García, who had voted against the project Nov. 1 and made this play: He skipped the override vote.

Then, Miami Herald government reporter Doug Hanks writes: “Minutes later, García was in the chambers and asked that his vote be recorded as against overriding the mayor’s veto, which would make it an 8 to 4 vote to override.”

Developers obtained the eight votes they needed to override Levine Cava’s veto from the same commissioners who had approved the project: José “Pepe” Díaz, Oliver Gilbert, Keon Hardemon, Jean Monestime, Kionne McGhee, Raquel Regalado, Rebeca Sosa and Javier Souto.

No doubt, some of those commissioners fell for the promises of jobs for locals that developers always make.

It’s short-sighted thinking that doesn’t solve systemic poverty issues — but only helps the wealthy get wealthier.

This is the stark, harsh reality: Developers and their money run this county, fronting the needed funds to pay for all those attack campaign ads and fliers, so often full of lies, that undermine better, but under-funded, candidates.

READ MORE: A guide to biggest environmental vote yet for Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava

Now, they’re free to turn farmland into an extensive warehouse complex in an area the federal government will need for Everglades restoration, opening this area to more construction and development.

For a study on how we dig ourselves into deeper misery, rainy season after rainy season, look no further than Tuesday’s vote by the Miami-Dade Commission.

There’s no kind way to say it: With few exceptions like Levine Cava, this generation of political leaders is turning out to be lousy stewards of natural gifts.

If you don’t value Everglades restoration, if the threats to Biscayne Bay don’t move you, you don’t deserve to live and enjoy Miami, much less lead us.