Letters from the Issue of September 26, 2002

Filmmaking in Miami: There is a time to just say no

Comments (0) Thursday, Sep 26 2002

...continued from page 1

Several times I heard from moviemakers: "I'll pack my bags and film elsewhere." My response was: "Sounds good to me. Let's not spoil it for the next guy." But just for the record, I wasn't always successful in thwarting outrageous street closures. Several times the project was just too big to go away, and I might have been caught in the same vise that nailed James Quinlan, as Brett Sokol reported in "Kulchur" ("Rebel Without a Causeway," September 12). One in particular was the Arnold Schwarzenegger flick [True Lies] that closed down Brickell Avenue for about three weeks.

But Brickell Avenue is not the MacArthur Causeway, and the people in that area were used to the Miami River bridge getting stuck in the up position or being repaired, so it wasn't as risky. The public seemed to accept it. Go figure.

George R. Detrio

Kendall

Jilda Unruh Is Not the Story

The story is Pat Tornillo's rococo gewgaw: Thanks to Rebecca Wakefield for her informative story about Channel 10's Jilda Unruh and Pat Tornillo, head of the United Teachers of Dade ("Is Jilda Unruh Getting Stiffed?" September 5). However, as an outsider, the day-to-day skirmishes that make for an interesting newspaper article are not what I take away with me.

I don't know any teachers who have anything good to say about the union. I look at their new building and wonder how much money could have gone to each teacher in the system if it had not been built. I regard with distaste the idea that Mr. Tornillo and ten others make five times what a teacher makes. In other words, the whole system has become rococo, a fanciful gewgaw thingamajig with little relation to the ideas and ideals that created it long ago. The creation of a few rich and powerful people on the backs of hundreds of union members is a distortion.

Michael Graham

Miami

Monkey Lawyers on the Attack

With a scumbag for a client: Good for you, Jilda! Now that you've been bound and gagged by UTD's monkey lawyers, perhaps someone at New Times will pick up the reins and expose Pat Tornillo for the scumbag he is. Send him out the same door Roger Cuevas exited, but this time with no golden parachute!

Susana Anderton

Miami