FIU’s predictable ‘mandate’ argument — no fair to Fair

Ladra called it last year when the commission voted to put the FIU “expansion” question on the November ballot: They are going to use this to push the Dade County Youth Fair and Expo into a relocation deal, to apply the political pressure.

It didn’t take long.

On Monday, as kids rode the swings and the loop-de-loop at the 64th annual Fair, FIU President Mark Rosenberg told CBS4’s Gary Nelson that he hopes the commission hears “the mandate” from the people and finds a way to boot The Fair off the 64 acres they need to grow.

Boot is my word. Mandate is his.

The referendum that passed in November, after a $1.65 million campaign and zero opposition, was for a non binding question that was supposed to just to gauge the public’s position on letting FIU use county park land for non-park purposes, to expand the school — if it ever got the chance.

The question was not whether they should expand the school. The question was not whether the Youth Fair — locked in a rock solid 99-year lease with the county through the end of time (or 2085) — should move to another location. The question was whether or not — if the Youth Fair ever agrees to move and FIU can expand on that land — we the people give them the same variance on park use zoning that we give The Fair.

And the only reason to put that question out there was to have it to use later (read: now) to apply political pressure, to spin the propaganda your way, if you are FIU, because “it’s what the people want.” We voted yes, after all.

Well, you tontos utiles voted yes. Ladra voted no. Because I knew what was coming. I knew that they would use it against us.

“My hope is we see forward progress on addressing the mandate that we received from the voters of Dade County,” Rosenberg told Nelson Monday shortly after meeting with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos “Mr. Giveaway” Gimenez. He added that a number of potential new sites for a relocated Fair were discussed, but declined to name them.

But you know who else met with Gimenez on Monday? Youth Fair President Bob Hohenstein. And he certainly didn’t call it a mandate.

“We believe that we are going to be in Tamiami Park with our youth fair and exposition business for many many years to come,” Hohenstein said.

In order to break the lease, Miami-Dade has to give The Fair an equal or better location for its fairgrounds and expo operations. Hohenstein has indicated that he does not think any such location exists.

Tropical Park has been completely taken off the table. But now people are talking about tucking The Fair into the retail mega mall project being proposed for Northwest Miami-Dade.

Because even if Hohenstein doesn’t like it, Ladra doesn’t put it past Gimenez and the county to force the move, even if they get sued and have to pay for breaking the lease — hey, maybe FIU promises to pay for it, like buying out a cellphone contract, but out of our state tax dollars — even if it is in the millions of dollars.

After all, they have “a mandate” from the people.

Dade County Youth Fair, FIU expansion

FIU’s predictable ‘mandate’ argument — no fair to Fair added by Ladra on March 17, 2015
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