The Budget is passed, North Bay Village looks like it is on track for 2013 with all the important operations funded. It's time to start looking at the infrastructure.
The first piece that leaps out is our city hall and police station. They are in the unseen corner of a sea of vacant storefronts at the Lexi. If that's your first impression of North Bay Village, an abandoned unfilled strip mall, you might think the city didn't have much hope.
Next to the building, in an unkempt lot, sit our police vehicles and the various seized contraband. The lot is ugly, unmarked and looks like an urban wasteland.
Our police department is two layers away from the street. First you have to find the city hall and then know that the Police Department is behind an unmarked locked door.
You know, we had a murder this year in North Bay Village and the prime suspect surrendered to the Miami-Dade Police. Imagine if he decided to surrender to the North Bay Village Police. First he would have to find the building, then the suspect would have walked in to find the routine city counters. He would have surrendered to the postal clerk since there is no public counter for the police.
The reasons behind the current location are the old story of personal greed and political influence. But those days need to be behind us.
The city owns a property on Harbor Island where we just tore down the old city hall. We passed the bonds, we have the money. We spent $2m on the causeway. Let's get it moving.
Kevin Vericker
October 7, 2012
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