Memorable Nights, Good Years

Back in the days (nights?) when Saturday Night Live was on television it was like the entire world stopped! Just about everyone that I knew was either at home watching it or with a group of friends watching it. Refreshments, perhaps some beer or wine, a few tokes from a joint being passed around, that was all part of the Saturday night ritual. That and laughing your ass off.

The skits, the jokes, the one liners were topics of conversation for days afterwards. Of course a lot of the humor was based on world events then current, and without knowing what we now refer to as the "back story" many wouldn't be the least bit funny. At the time, though, they were hilarious!

So the City of North Miami started some free outdoor concerts on the last Friday of the month, called Jazz at MOCA, and bought a portable stage and tons of lighting and sound equipment.

The next step was to do something similar, yet different, along a stretch of West Dixie Highway a few blocks to the north. It's an area with a number of West Indian restaurants and stores. It was decided to hold it every Saturday night, at least through the summer, and from 133 Street south to about 128th Street there's music at every intersection. Some is live and some is with a DJ. Some fantastic reggae! Most of the shops are open, as are all of the restaurants. You're not likely to see men with longer dreadlocks anyplace else in the United States.

There's fresh barbeque wafting enticing its enticing smell down the street, ribs and chicken, and if you're adventursome you can find some curried goat. It's really good. The Jamaican cuisine leans towards curry while the Haitian is mostly just really spicey hot (and I mean HOT!) and peppery. There's also a sampling of Cuban cooking, along with delicacies from other parts of the Carribean.

I was chatting with Councilman Jacques Despinosse a few days ago about ways for attracting more people. There's no shortage of nearby parking and it's easy to get to from the Beaches and I-95. Most of the people I see there are island folks who make their home here in North Miami. The local whites seem to ignore the opportunity to enjoy the food and the music just five minutes from where they live. The exact same people who spend piles of money on Carribean vacations and cruises so they can eat the same food and listen to the same music as we have right here. Crazy, huh? I always have a great time. I always eat too much also.

The North Miami City Council Screws Up Big Time

Actually, this photo has nothing at all to do with the story. Todd posted the photo, and then I had this political rant to get off my chest. Councilman Scott Galvin and I founded the North Miami Historical Society a few years ago, and this is history in the making...LOL This is my email to Scott. Here goes:

Hi Scott,

I just got a phone call about paying my dues in the Historical Society. I said that I couldn't afford it because the self-centered North Miami City Council gave themselves a ten-fold raise, health insurance, a nice expense account, etc., etc. while refusing to increase board "salaries" from the ten bucks a meeting that we were paid way back in 1961. How that doesn't even cover the cost of gasoline for looking at the properties we have to vote on variances for. How on months when they decide to not have a meeting there's no pay at all.

Then there's the fact that it was recently decided to buy us all expensive memberships in professional organizations that cost as much or more than our annual pay, but the city won't pay for us to go to any of the seminars or the conventions. The memberships? All just for show. A total waste of money.

This is fun. It gets worse!

It's amazing how everybody just seems to make the connection with that huge water rate increase.

Yeah, I know. It's different pools of money, different budgets, but the "man in the street" doesn't see it that way. He just see the skyrocketing water bill. He reads about your ten fold salary increase. He hears about your new health and retirement package. Better than anything he has!

Some of them see the row of new shiny black SUV's parked in the council parking places out back, behind city hall, as they walk across the street from the municipal parking lot when going to meetings. It no doubt fills them with that warm fuzzy feeling just knowing that their elected officials are so well taken care of that they rush out and buy themselves those pretty new gas guzzling monsters. That's a great way to set an example of conservation! It's cool if the citizens can't afford to drive anyplace. The elected officials will make enough greenhouse gasses for them.

But let's distract the masses, set up showmobiles, have festivals along West Dixie Highway, and have live rock and reggae music next to city hall, the same sort of diversions the Romans used twenty centuries ago. Entertain the masses!

Cheers,

Al