Surveying The Road Home From Hell

Hell would be having new giant concrete poles from 80 to 110 feet tall running through North Miami's residential neighborhoods carrying high voltage lines connecting a substation here with one in Miami Shores a few miles to the south. Florida Power And Light (FP&L) decided to route it first north, then west, before heading south again. Hardly the shortest or most direct route. A lot of residents are extremely upset about it. I'm one of them. One of those poles will be right next to my house.

Councilman Scott Galvin has been the major force in trying to get FP&L to reconsider its plans. The logical shortest route would be a diagonal, and fortunately the Florida East Coast RR tracks are within a few yards of the North Miami substation as they head southwest towards the Miami Shores substation. The RR right-of-way doesn't go near schools or places where kids play, and for the most part the surrounding land is commercial/industrial, not residential.

This morning there was a public hearing at city hall arranged, it seems, for the convenience of the FP&L executives and a representative from the Florida Public Service Comission (PSC). Why else schedule it for 10 AM on a Monday? The average resident with a real job would have to take time off from work in order to attend. The FP&L executives got paid for "working". They gave us a little presentation consisting of essentially the same rhetoric in different words by their executives and legal counsel. Then Scott started asking questions. The FP&L folks started tap dancing. They danced all around the issues but never came up with a straight answer.

It seems like FP&L and the PSC had already cut a deal, their minds were made up, and...etc., etc., but there just might be a solution!

Scott, get together with the city attorney to draw up a new ammendmant to our zoning ordinances requiring all concrete poles in the city to be painted a bright flamingo pink, require that the paint be maintained in good condition, and that any graffiti be removed or painted over within 24 hours. We could probably hire a couple of new code enforcement officers with the fines from FP&L alone. (If they'd prefer a dusty rose color to match my shirt they can apply for a variance.)