On a day when he wasn't trying to figure out which one of his Coconut Grove houses he lives in, Miami city Commissioner Marc Sarnoff decided to show his adoration for the Miami Heat's billionaire owner. During the Miami community redevelopment agency's public hearing yesterday, the city commission was considering setting aside $250,000 in taxpayer money to make the neighborhood around the American Airlines Arena "beautiful." But the money wouldn't be spent by the CRA directly. No, no. The funds would instead go to property owners to fix up their lots. Before the city commission voted to hand out this manna from Heaven, Sarnoff gave a short monologue on why it was such a great idea.
In doing so, Sarnoff professed his love for Micky Arison for paying the big bucks that landed Lebron James and Chris Bosh to join Dwayne Wade in the Magic City. Below is an excerpt:
America is the land of opportunity not the land of the guarantee. What do we do to enhance the opportunity given to us by Micky Arison? He gave us three great basketball players and 52 games a year that allows Miami to shine. That is like having 52 Super Bowls in Miami...I support this. I think we should spend the money...It seems we should be doing everything we can to put our best face.Yeah because creating jobs in the poorest neighborhoods in Miami doesn't really do much to improve the city's image. Better to spend taxpayer money on sprucing up illegal parking lots owned by multi-millionaire property owners like those operated by Sarnoff's buddy and Downtown Development authority board member Nitin Motwani.
Luckily, Commissioner Willy Gort emerged as the voice of reason and objected to the blatant giveaway, so the vote was postponed until the next CRA meeting.
