Op-Ed: Who are the “We” and Who are the “They” in Our “One” Community?

“Biscayne National Park and its coral reefs seen from space in February 2016. Adobe Stock/lavizzara.”

By DONALD ELISBURG
Contributor

I am writing this Op-Ed as a commentary on the recent barrage of comments coming from the Underground Utility Task Force discussions regarding the proposal to pay for the project through a homeowner-business owner assessment.

The central theme from a number of very well respected and longtime members of the Key Biscayne community is that choosing to pay for this approximately $45 million project through an assessment will severely impact, if not destroy, Key Biscayne as a tight-knit and caring community.  

I disagree.

Full disclosure:  I am a member of the task force.  During our initial consideration of how to pay for the project, I voted to recommend the assessment method as the fairest of those we considered. During our subsequent meeting to consider the formal submission to the Village Council, I urged a softer approach to recognize there are different ways to accomplish financing this project. I was not present for the final vote on this recommendation which just affirmed the original proposal.

To be quite candid, at this stage of the consideration it is up to the Village Council to further analyze the various options and to make the final decision.  Actually, even though I live in an undergrounded condominium, I no longer have an opinion on how to pay for the project. Right now, I only have this opinion: the Council should agree to do and start the project.  

In my own case, it seems clear the actual costs to me under any solution will be manageable. I defer to the wisdom of the Council as to what the financing decision will be.

I wrote an op-ed the other week that argued not to worry so much, the sky is not falling.  I still maintain that opinion.

This week, I want to raise some consciousness about the meaning of “one community.”  

So let’s take a look at the demographics of our 14,000 residents:

We have single family homeowners and condominium owners, and those who rent in both types of housing. We have the young and old, the wealthy and the struggling, and the people who’ve chosen to come here from many nations. Some have kids, others do not. Some think government has to take a strong role in dealing with various problems.  Others prefer that government do — and spend — as little as possible.

We have those who are only interested in what’s in it for them, and we have those who are willing to put their own needs second when their needs are less important than the needs of others.

But which are the most important when it comes to acting, behaving, and thinking as “one village?”

I submit that it those who understand that life isn’t always “fair.”

Because truly, fairness is often in the eye of beholder.

So, on the basis of my previous listing of our demographics, it is not clear to me how a melting pot and diverse community like ours can be so fragmented by attempting to discuss and eventually decide the varying options of choosing how to pay for needed improvements.

To have so many written and verbal comments before even attending or listening to the workshop group’s explanation as to how — after two years of study — it came to make its decisions makes me wonder why I agreed to be on the task force in the first place.

Each of the current and future methods of financing will impact every category of person I listed in different ways.  It would seem to me that the goal for the Council is to seek a reasonable consensus that takes into account the diversity and needs of the Village of Key Biscayne in 2019 and beyond.  

The activities of the past are instructive but cannot and should not be treated as dogma. The population is as different today as is the mix of residences and the needs of the infrastructure.  This is 2019 and addressing the 2019 needs of our Village should be the primary mission of this Council.