Anti-Social
We' not anti-people, just anti-social media. Interesting topics, with some logic, originating from the island paradise of Key Biscayne, Florida.
Anti-Social
Lerner and Regalado - Rematch in Miami-Dade's District 7
TWO ACCOMPLISHED leaders are vying for the same spot in Miami's County government - District 7 - which includes the islands of Key Biscayne and Virginia Key, as well as Coral Gables, Pinecrest, and South Miami.
CINDY LERNER, the former mayor of Pinecrest, lost to RAQUEL REGALADO by a narrow margin in 2020 -- now the two are in a rematch.
We ask them about the future of the Rickenbacker Causeway, traffic, and other issues confronting our community.
- Last day to register — Oct. 7
- Last day to request mail ballot — Oct. 24
- Early Voting Oct 21 - Nov. 3
- Election Day - Nov. 5.
The views expressed in the following program are views of the host and guests, and do not necessarily represent those of the CUPE skin independent of Miami for the state, portions were prerecorded and again and again
Unknown:she will she will always Be my
Tony Winton:friend. Live from Miami, Florida. This is Anti -Social, the podcast where we try to untangle the wires and cords of our lives that are our social media and make them straight and neat. Again, I'm Tony Winton and I'm Jan Dillow. Sorry, I just needed a visual clue
Jan Dillow:that would work. Yes.
Tony Winton:Well, I mean, have you ever had that trying to figure out where your cords go? And it's like, you need an organizer, oh my gosh. And just finding out, like, now there, there's all these different like, plugins to the plug. So I have some stuff that's related to one plug and then another well, and then the fact that they keep changing the plugs now, so I need three cords to charge my phone. Then I used to only need one. I mean, what is it with that? It's ridiculous. It's a way to make money, I suppose. Let's just move on. Well, I You are back from a trip to the continent. Are you? Yes, I had a great time. I was in Croatia. I did a
Jan Dillow:beautiful bike trip. It was amazing, through the islands, and I didn't quite realize how hilly it was going to be, but it primed me, since I didn't have an E bike, they had an E bike. Okay, yes, I did not. So I was maintaining the Key Biscayne ban even in Croatia, and
Tony Winton:see how law abiding we are, everyone?
Jan Dillow:Okay? But it enabled me to get some exercise, so that when I went to my second part of the my trip, which was to visit a friend who was having a big birthday party, I got to eat all the pasta I wanted to in Italy. Wow, that's like a dream come true. It was really great. The food there, I mean, they, you know, no matter where you go in Italy. I mean, I've never had a bad meal. Well,
Tony Winton:our guest is going to be talking about, I guess we talk about E bikes, and that'll be one of the topics we talk about today with both of our guests, because we're talking about really important office for Miami, Dade County, and not just Key Biscayne, but really a whole section of it. Yes, it is, and we're talking about district seven. This is a seat that's that is part of the county commission, and these are the folks who vote on your county budget, who help set county policy. They deal with things like transportation and all kinds of issues. And you know, you can, you can look at your local village council, but their role, especially in a place like Key Biscayne, we are an interdependent relationship with the state, the county, the federal government, and the next layer up is the county. So both of the guests today are running for office for district seven. The incumbent is Raquel Regalado, and the challenger is Cindy Lerner, the former mayor of Pine Crest, one of our neighboring communities, yeah, and it's a rematch, yes, right? Same two that faced off last time, right? Yes. So joining us on the program is again. Cindy Lerner also has been on our program before. Welcome back and welcome to anti social.
Cindy Lerner:Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Thanks for giving me the opportunity. Well, thank you. But first off, let's ask, Why? Why are you what? Why is it a rematch? Why are you come going in for another year of punishment? Tell us about yourself. Okay, so if I can back up a minute and talk about eight years I served as mayor Pine Crest because that is what initiated my interest and vision for what the county could and should be doing with our municipalities and county wide that I didn't see happening. So I served eight glorious years. I say glorious because it was glorious for me and for the people of Pine Crest. We were only 12 years young as a municipality, and a lot needed to be done, and so we got to work getting that done. First thing I did was bring our constituents together, the voters, the residents, and asked them to help create a strategic plan for Pine Crest, because there was none, we created advisory groups to continue. You the engagement, and we started working with Miami Dade league of cities. I eventually became the president of the Miami Dade league of cities, and I joined the National League of Cities, Energy, Environment Natural Resources Committee to learn what are best practices for what local governments, both cities and counties, should be doing to envision a quality of life, and you mentioned budget, policy, transit, transportation, infrastructure, all of those critical things I learned about best practices I learned about the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Action Plan, and I saw that our municipalities were isolated from each other. As president of League of Cities, I went to then Mayor Jimenez, and I said, we need to collaborate. The cities need to problem solve, together with the county and economies of scale would allow us to assess vulnerabilities, bring in resources, and enable our local governments to achieve much better successes than has been and still is currently happening by isolating each of us. So I decided to run when the seat opened in 2020 I won the primary, and then ended up, because it wasn't by 50% ended up in a runoff with Raquel Regalado and lost by 1% in 2020 November, 2020 I didn't give up. I didn't stop being engaged with all of the constituencies throughout district seven, because I as a candidate, had been asked to prioritize various issues that were important to different parts of the district, and made promises. And as time went by, I saw that Raquel raccolado broke every one of those promises, voted against community interest and obviously, within the pocket of major developers that interfered and imposed congestion and lack of infrastructure on so much of the district. So yes,
Jan Dillow:right? I hear you go ahead, Jen, you know I was just going to say, Well, we do have a couple of questions in particular that are really going to be are important for our listeners. Of course, we know we aren't all of district seven, but you had said that, you know, you were the mayor early, you know, early in Pine Crest Village Development. And I was just wondering we have our own for Key Biscayne, the master plan of Virginia Key and that whole community and what's going on there is very important to us. And I'm just wondering, if you are familiar with sort of, what has been going on with the Rickenbacker development, you know, the Marina master plan and those kinds of things. You know, it's important to us, because, as key bis gainers, the only way to get to our our homes is really to drive over the Rickenbacker so there's a lot of issues there with traffic and that whole master plan of of you know, transportation. Are you familiar with that area and what? What are your thoughts there?
Cindy Lerner:Yes, I am familiar. I have spent time on Virginia Key at various events, recreating on Virginia Key, and it is very concerning that there appear to be some efforts to potentially create major development on Virginia Key by city of Miami, there are concerns about the impacts of decisions that city of Miami constantly makes when they're utilizing either The area around marine stadium for boat shows and concerts, and the concerns about what's going to happen with the traffic flow is obviously a priority for all of the Residents in in Cape Biscayne, that has not been resolved. There are there have been studies, but for four years that Regalado has been the commissioner, there have been no improvements in the traffic flow along. Keep his game. What happened when the Florida.
Tony Winton:The Department of Transportation wanted to improve the ramp, was a nightmare, a disaster, and the commissioner did nothing to look at what should be done on a larger, long term plan. Well, isn't it also, isn't it also a question of the county administration? I mean, Mayor Levine cava, you know, had brought in this idea of having plan Z to at least explore that that eventually got that got killed the redevelopment of the Rickenbacker causeway. Just recently, her Director of Transportation resigned after earlier being disciplined by the mayor. So isn't, isn't it true that the county government in general is kind of rudderless on on what's what's happening on the key?
Cindy Lerner:No, it's your county commissioner who is your first line of defense and voice for key, Biscayne, and what has she done to address those issues and bring home a resolution the plan Z was a perfect example of how she went in and took a privatization plan and and rallied around it, rather than coming to her constituents on Key Biscayne and saying, let's sit down and talk about how we solve this problem. She never does that, whether it's Bay Shore Drive or Kendall or anywhere else in the district. She does not go out to constituents and seek their problems and solve them together. She comes in with a rubber stamp for somebody else's idea that the constituents are
Tony Winton:incredibly unhappy with, and then she's rigid. She refuses to listen, right? Well, I mean, I think the history is it was the mayor who put forward the plan Z, private public partnership and and she agreed later that it that the process was incorrect and that she she was responsible for helping to get rid of it. But I guess the real question is, how, what do you think should happen? There it is, as Jan pointed out, the roadway in and out, it's going to be very expensive to replace the bear cut bridge and the other work that would involve possibly redeveloping part of the causeway, and we've got unknown questions of what would happen to the marine stadium. We have unknown questions about what's going to happen to this aquarium and that site. I think for the listeners we report to, they're going to want to know what is your plan.
Cindy Lerner:So the plan is to assure that there are no further major developments, either at this aquarium or on Virginia Key, and that the the restoration of marine Stadium, which should have taken place 20 years ago, does get restored, but it's up to the commissioner and the Key Biscayne council together to work to protect the access in and out for the residents Key Biscayne. Yes, there does have to be a redesign, and I have seen absolutely no effort by this commissioner to sit down with the residents and redesign together, we have wonderful traffic analysis that could be done. There's a traffic congestion redesign proposal that Dover Cole has submitted, and she's not touched it. I think it's a brilliant way to to start out the process from the entrance to the Rickenbacker, and then work that kind of visioning all the way down throughout the Rickenbacker into the entrance. Keep a skein right. There will have to be other redesigns to to stem the flow, yeah, arts to allow people off to
Tony Winton:to Virginia Key alright? And those options have to be mayor Lerner, give me, give me. We have only a limited amount of time, and so there's a lot of topics. So I've tried. I'm not being rude, but I do. I do, I know I listeners want to hear from you on some of these other topics. So if I may pivot over to another big issue in Key Biscayne, and that would have to be about E bikes and E scooters, micro mobility devices, as they are sometimes referred to Key Biscayne, as you know, adopted a ban after the tragic death january, february 14, of Megan Andrews, who was who died after being involved in a collision with a 12 year old the village just just this other day, the county approved an interlocal agreement with Key Biscayne that is going to allow class 1e bikes to be operated on Rickenbacker. Or, excuse me, on the Grandin Boulevard. But the real question is, would they would that use expand? Would it go to local streets? What happens in the future? What's your position on localities being able to regulate e bikes, and what is the best way of, I guess, navigating between the desire to use micro mobility devices that many people have and the safety of residents,
Cindy Lerner:yes, like clearly priority number one and the response, the short term response, was appropriate to deal with the dangers that existed from from lack of regulation. I would like to see the exploration of additional transit options so that there isn't the emphasis on everybody having to get on a scooter or an E bike to get somewhere, but circulators, trolleys, transit would enable people to get back and forth throughout the key without having every single person have to rely on their own own it's single form of transportation and transit How? How are people going to get back and forth? Is a question that has to be resolved and without further study and input from the residents. I can't say I have a solution right now, but I do think further options for transit makes a lot of sense. Well, there's some there were some people who argued the county commission that Key Biscayne should not be given this authority because it would weaken the cause of micro mobility in other places, and you didn't want a patchwork quilt of regulations from village to village to municipality. How? But the real question is, how do you navigate that? How much freedom do you support, or do you think a locality like Key Biscayne or Pinecrest, your your hometown? How much freedom should they have to set their own rules? They should have freedom to set their own rules. And yes, that is likely going to result in patchwork. But patchwork is what satisfies a locality with what their individual needs are. We need to allow localities to do that.
Tony Winton:We are sat. We are, sadly, at the very end. I wish we had more time, but I'm looking at the timer, and that's, that's where we are. You have one minute. We call this the closing argument. So just to summarize why you think there needs to be a change in the representation for county commission district
Cindy Lerner:seven, so on behalf of all of district seven, which stretches from Key Biscayne to Pine Crest and then a large swath of candle all the way down to the fall shopping center, much of which is new. It is critically important that every part of district seven have a commissioner who is present, who is responsive, who will problem solve, and most of all, will listen to the constituents and won't broke break promises that the current commissioner has ghosted most of the district. I've been knocking on doors since February, and most people don't know their Commissioner. If they do, they complain that she her office never responds when they call in complaints, and we all deserve better. So I'm asking for the vote of the district seven constituents between now on november 5, thank you very much Cindy Lerner for coming on. Cindy learners running for the district seven Commission Commissioner position, and we really appreciate you taking this time to talk to us and this keep the Key Biscayne portion of the constituency. Thank you, and we will be back on antisocial after this alert.
Tony Winton:And we are back on antisocial. I'm Tony Winton and I'm Jan Dillo. Well, as one candidate leaves, the next candidate comes in, we're giving it to we're giving you all the information you can get in one podcast, right? And of course, it was funny, because our guest, before being the current district seven Commissioner, was a school board member, and so there was some confusion about, would she be able to find this little studio that we're in in WLRN? And of course, I found it. She found you, just as easy to find her way.
Raquel Regalado:I don't know how she got through a locked door, but I think she's got some magic going on. Well, I was, I used, I used to be on the board of WLRN, and I love this place because it's like a time capsule. And when I was a school board member, I used to break into this building all the time. So I tell you candidly that I know how to get into this building, you can lock all the doors. I will get in every single time. That's why, when I said my question was like, what studio? Yeah, I could get into any radio station. It's a gift. It's a gift. But I love this place, and I love being here. It's super fun. Thank you for being our guest again. Well, we are. You're as we told our listeners in the first segment, this is a rematch of four years ago. You are facing the former mayor of Pinecrest, Cindy Lerner. You were running for reelection after, I guess, some bruising years on the county commission. Why would you want to sign up for another four because we've gotten so much done and we have so much more to do. You know, the county commission really is a fascinating place, and now we have, with the constitutional officers, a real change in our county government. This is the biggest change that we've seen since the creation of special member districts, and I've really been at the forefront of that, explaining to the Commission how this is changing and how we need to change our regional government and changing the dynamic between municipalities and the county, and that's why, you know, I'm running again, and I love the work that I do. I have the support of all of my mayors. I have all the municipal support. There is no municipal that is not supporting me in this reelection, and that is an amazing testament, especially in Key Biscayne. I mean, Gene Stearns just sent a letter to all the Key Biscayne voters. I don't know if you've got yours really talking about how this isn't about party. This is about people, and this is about getting things done. And then I'm the best County Commissioner cubistain has ever had, which, you know, I think coming from a Democrat and coming from like the George Washington of Q Biscayne says a lot. He's been a wonderful partner, and I'm happy to go through all the things that we've done. I think that we've proven that we can work with the city, that we can work with the village, and that together, the three of us can really move Key Biscayne forward unfinished work. Oh, we have a ton. We have a ton. So, you know, the first, the first big thing was the library. Obviously, the library had been in litigation. It's still kind of funny. How do you litigate over a library? But here we library? But here we find ourselves, you don't know key comedy. No, I do. I settled with them. I do. You really don't know, but, but it was, it was an interesting moment, because they were really against doing something bigger, and we were able to explain that this was about community space. Libraries are very different, and our community center in Key Biscayne is busting at the seams. I would love to do programming, but I can in this little tiny library. So we came up with something that's thoughtful, that's beautiful, that fits Key Biscayne, and that allows us to bring that county programming. We're actually we just approved giving them a temporary space. So we're going to be announcing the temporary space of the library as we demo that little monster that has no architectural value, but we are keeping the pond, you know, and the landscaping, and then we're moving things around, and we're actually working now with David Martin to see if we can help with the easement as he's developing the sands. We don't want to be in anybody's way, but it really was a labor of love. So the library is a huge win. Obviously. You know, our bigger issue was Crandon. There was so much deferred maintenance all over the key. I started with Hobie. The other side of Hobie had the invasive Australian pines. It had been closed and fenced off for 14 years. You know that some people thought that taking down, I know Australian pines was echo side. No, no, that's what they called it, a tree homicide. Tree homicide, which, by the way, I forecasted the tree homicide when I approved, when I approved that, I said, I want to have the mulchers out there so we can show people that we're mulching the Australian pines, because they're going to accuse me of a tree homicide. And the director of Park was like, That's ridiculous. They're invasive. I was like, No, buckle up. Here we go. And I was physically out there when people would stop and be like, Why are you doing this? Can I ask you, are you want any of these Key Biscayne chats? Because I am on some of them. I am on some of them, fun times, fun times, you know, so So at Edison, I respond to all of it. And, you know, people said, Oh, my God, you're gonna put, like, commercial stuff? No, I'm not putting anything commercial on there. We're just doing parking, and we're opening it up, and we're redoing the sea wall, and it's gonna be lovely. I have been working with the City of Miami on an MOT for that entire Rickenbacker area, and we brought major Rita Rodriguez, who is the best that Miami Dade County has for traffic control, and we're working on that. We're baking it into the RFP for the Marine stadium. For those of you who know, the Marine stadium is my father's fourth child, so he No seriously. He asked me about it every Sunday at dinner. He was the one that declared it historic, so that many Diaz wouldn't tear it down. And now we're finally working on an RFP, and I'm happy to take. Questions on on that we'd love to hear all about it, because we know that that's happening, and we are very interested in what's going on with the so right now, I mean, there's a lot going on with the Rick and backer and we can talk about bear cut too, because we're doing the maintenance on bear cut and we're doing the sleeves. So we'll talk about that. But on Rickenbacker, our biggest problem with the city has been, like, playing Whack a Mole with them, because they approve a permit, and then we have to, like, run and figure out what's happening with mot. Does the village have notice? Do we have notice? How many police officers do we need? So I asked everyone, like, Hey, can can we just put together a memorandum of traffic? And can this be the baseline? You can do more, but you can't do less, because I can't be running around every two weeks trying to figure out what the permit holder is doing, officers an interlocal agreement. It is okay, it is and it's being baked into the RFP that's going out for the Marine stadium. So what the city right? What the city is doing is they're saying, You know what, instead of having all these random permits and all these people coming in, we want one operator for the Marine stadium. And we're saying, Okay, that's great. We want to participate in that process, which we have been participating in. We want to proffer the MOT, which is a memorandum of transit. It is the floor, not the ceiling. If they want to do more, they want to do better, they can. And then we get noticed. They get noticed. And we all work together. And one of the things I'm doing in this is splitting up the where the cars are, because the cars all get concentrated in one side, and then we're working with them to figure out where the ride share drop off is. I want to make it at the front so they don't come all the way in. Let me skip ahead just a little bit, and the money's gonna go to restore the marine Stadium. The village's stated goal is to basically have a, I guess you'd call it a flyover, or an express lane, whatever you want it is to get so that traffic that's going back and forth to the village of key, Biscayne and also the state park, yes, has a way to get there without being tied up in these events. That is, that is the repeating, recurring problem, yes, and exacerbating the traffic, right? So isn't, isn't this, or shouldn't it be contingent the development of the marine stadium and I, and I would say even perhaps this aquarium, which is could be down the road. Yeah, Danielle and I are working on this aquarium, and I'm happy to talk about that the potential for potential for gridlock, is people's eyes glaze over when they see the kind of development that could happen on these opposing properties on other side of the road, without the construction that's needed to build this lane first, isn't it, putting the cart before the horse to talk about development before you get the solution? No, we've already met with certain stakeholders talking about the Rickenbacker. So we're doing that. You know, obviously gene wants to fly over, and we're having meetings on that. This is not alone. Yeah, no, no, Agree, Agree. And obviously we have Virginia Key, right, which we don't know what's going to happen with Virginia Key. The issue with that is we have to put together a master plan, and we have been meeting, you know, with the village on it. But meanwhile, the city of Miami is moving forward with the marine stadium, right? So we have to be participating. I don't want to slow down the marine stadium. I mean, in in this agreement, you know, we're also working on this other option, but currently they're going to keep having events in the marine stadium. They're not going to stop. So if we put a pin in it, then they're just going to keep having random events, and we're going to keep having problems. You know, we need to have an agreement with them as to the in and out, how much use they also have a petition to put in docks, which I don't agree with, and I've been very candid about I do not think we need docks there. We don't need to launch boats. We have enough going on there without launching boats. I have requested that. Obviously, we worked with F dot when the whole issue with the ramps, but we all I also requested for them to look at eliminating the light on 26th road. For those of you who know, I grew up on 28th road. I know this intersection Well, you know. And what I've requested is for them to look at doing a roundabout there, because that signalization just jams us all up. We need to, you know, figure out how we get through the roads. And I've been dealing with the city on that end, because obviously, you know, there is a traffic flow issue as we come in and out. So right now, we've met with several stakeholders. We have put together a group. We're working with the key, Biscayne foundation, you know, who we've been supporting for four years. And they're bringing in someone to, like, mediate this. And Daniela and I are on board. We had a public meeting, you know, we've spoken to Damian, you know, we've, we've spoken to Francis, and obviously we're working with art, so I think we're all on the same page in terms of finding a solution. I just don't want to allow the whack a mole at the Marine stadium while we find a solution. That's, that's my that's my big issue. Okay, so, but we can continue talking about other things. Talking about other things that we've done. Yeah, we have a long list. So, so Crandon. So first, so, so Crandon, obviously, we had a lot of deferred maintenance. I started with Hobie, so that's done, and I think everyone's really happy, you know, minus, you know, Australian pines are not good Australian Yeah, minus the Australian pines. But they're, you know, they're beautiful mulch, right? They turned into beautiful mulch. Yeah, so on the other side, we had a lot of intersections that we were able to fix, so we were able to do that mast Academy. We worked with the district for a very long time, talked about a lot of things, and then I finally got frustrated, and I was able to just do it ourselves. So the the changes that we made to that intersection was was actually done by my district office and DDP W we fast tracked it, we brought everybody in, and I think it's the start to a solution for mast, right? I think it's much better, if you look at the intersection right now, it's much better than it was before we made those changes. And we've been working with the new principal and with the PTA and obviously, with DPW on where the busses stop and how we can move kids around. In the middle of that, we had the incident with E bikes. So obviously, we've been dealing with that well, that, that's one of the things we wanted to ask you about, was the was the E bikes, because we've, we've now found that E bikes are going, sorry, certain classes of E bikes are now going to be used on Crandon. And we're wondering, you know, obviously, we had the tragic death of Megan Andrews, yes, earlier this year. So we're just, we're wondering how you feel about like, should that then be extended through the rest of the city? Do you think it's up to us or the village? Excuse me, no. I mean, we met with the family members and obviously with the community. We were there at the community meetings, and there was a request for the village to ban e bikes completely, which I told them from the beginning that as their partner, whatever they wanted to do, I would support them in that. Now, banning e bikes on the Rickenbacker is a different situation because of the nature of that road. So that's why I brought an item to the Board of County Commissioners, by the way, first of its kind, a pilot that is limited only to Key Biscayne, and I was able to get unanimous support from my colleagues and listen, I mentioned this because, I mean, I think I've been super engaged in Key Biscayne. I've been very responsive to Key Biscayne. I love Key Biscayne. I grew up in Key Biscayne as a as a not a key rat, but a Rhodes rat. Because, like I always explain to people, Key Biscayne was my backyard. I just took my bike across the Rickenbacker, and there we were. I have every single birthday I celebrated in Grandin, with the exception of my 10th birthday that I celebrated at the by Vizcaya. But you know, for the for the most part, I think the key thing has been listening to the community and and getting my board to understand that the issues that we have at Key Biscayne are very unique, you know. And when I bring these issues, whether it's this aquarium, or whether it's the Rickenbacker or whether it's the E bike you know, or whether it's the iguanas you know, or the peacocks and Pine Crest like these are issues that for a lot of my colleagues just seem bizarre, because they have very different issues. And time and time again, I've been able to get unanimous support and to get a carve out and to let us work together, and the E bikes are no different. I am the chairperson of the mobility committee at the TPO. I am the bike person. I am the bike scooter person. I brought scooters to Dadeland, and we did a pilot there. You know, I am the Commissioner of the underlying along with Higgins. So, I mean, I think that this was the best way to do it, and we don't want them riding the E bikes in Key Biscayne proper, they would have to walk. They would have to walk it. And now we're working on the enforcement of that. And yesterday, I was actually in Key Biscayne talking to some seniors about how they feel about it, and they're happy with it. They want the band. They want the band within the village. They're not going to be walking around the Rickenbacker so they're fine with the compromise that we've made, but it's a two it's a two year thing you had. You had to change it because it didn't have initial support at the version you had didn't have an initial support. And also, the larger question is, if you are on the one hand trying to promote micro mobility, and on the other hand saying, except one locality. What happens is you get this patchwork effect. Your opponent just told us a moment ago she's completely okay with patchworks. That's what democracy is all about. You disagree? No, yeah, I don't. And that's why I did it as a pilot program, and that's why I said from the beginning that we need to monitor these things. Look when I first brought the scooters to Dadeland. Most of the Board of County Commissioners was against it. We had a ban like mine is the only scooter program. But I worked on it. We did something that was thoughtful. It's it's worked, and now we're doing it in other areas. So I stand behind the pilot to prove the concept, and I bring the data and I'm happy to defend it. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. I mean, look, one of the things that I tried to do, we tried to compost sargassum. I really tried. I tried for two years. It didn't work. I have a lot of issues with forever chemicals. I have a lot of issues with the EPA. We could talk about trash all day, but I tried it. It was difficult, you know, I found another, another solution. So I think you. Have to kind of work with the community on this and support your partners. So it's not about Patchwork, it's about responding to a crisis. And that's one of the things that I said, you know, Megan's death brought us to this point, and we had to respond, you know, we had to respond like and I would have fought, I would have died on that hill like at the county commission. If my county commissioners would not have supported me on this, I would have doubled down, because I think for the village, it was a tremendous loss, and we had to be responsive. And we had already had lots of incidents. We had been talking about the incident well for some time. Everybody calls before, right, right. And with scooters and, you know, and we had talked to parents and but I think if we have, if we would have done a complete prohibition, you know, then we would have found ourselves in court, and then we find a judge making a decision that's not necessarily best for the county, you know, and best for the village, so, so that's why I think that kind of taking the moderate. I mean, I'm the Forever moderate, taking, kind of, like a moderate approach to it, seeing how it works, where it works, and if. And what I told Joe and the commission is, you know, if this doesn't work, we could do more, right? Like, I'm happy to do more, but let's see if this works, and take it from there and use it as an opportunity to educate. Let me loop back. You talked about it very beginning, but you are having this massive constitutional change in the county, and of course, it's going to be a very much a traffic issue, because the power is now shifting from this department being run by the mayor now being run by an elected sheriff. Don't you lose some ability to control that, though, does it? I mean, in the sense that now you're dealing with this whole other elected person. I mean, how do you keep your hands on the wheel? Is what I'm asking. If you're my opponent and you have problems with other elected yes, if you're recovering a lotto No. You know, when I was at the school board, I worked on civil citations with Carlos Martinez. You know, I actually brought the item on the sheriff and negotiated that with the PBA. I had the full support of the PBA. I brought the item to now give. I fought in Tallahassee to keep our municipal police. I met with the sheriffs, and when that didn't work, I brought the item to conform to the statute. I have the support of the FOP, right. And I brought the item to give the jails and corrections to the sheriff. I have a good relationship with both of them. And I think that as a policy maker, will it's it's about relationships, right? It's about relationships. And that's why these elections now change dramatically. Because if you're the type of politician that can't get six votes, if you're the type of politician that is nasty and fights with people, you're going to have a problem with the sheriff, you're going to have a problem with the tax collector. You're going to have a problem, you know, with elections, because these are all humans that are equally elected, and we can disagree without being disagreeable. And I think I have proven that time and time again, even with people who complain about me, you know, and this campaign I have, you know, the the support of the majority of my colleagues, and they will tell you, Yes, her color is difficult, yes, she's persistent, yes, she will keep us here for several hours. You told you told me, you also bring food, right? I bring food. I cook for them all the time. I cook for them all the time. You know, people love making videos about it, but I'm happy. I'm happy to cook for them. I'm not being disrespectful. I'm being smart. I'm a middle child, you know. So I'll get my votes and I'll get my support. But one of the things that I think is important for this district, and Key Biscayne, also, I have put more money into the road work for this district than this district has seen in the last 35 years. I repaved old Cutler. I fixed so many roads, you know, from the city of Miami all the way down to unincorporated. We had a lot of deferred maintenance. And that brings us to Crandon. I put together the Crandon committee. We the Crandon committee finally met. Like, after years of me saying, like, can we have a meeting? Can we have a meeting? And then finally the mayor was like, hey, Raquel, we figured it out. Like we finally know we finally know we can't have a meeting. They don't have a quorum. And I was like, Can you name me? And she was like, I will name you. And we named Mike Davey too. And the Kremlin committee met, and we had a great meeting. We passed all of the village's items. We passed my items. We're actually considering pickleball. Yay for the pickleball now it goes back to the Board of County Commissioners and then back to the committee. Like, when? When they called me, they said, they said, When are you available? I'm like, any day, whatever day that you know, Matheson is available, whatever day you guys are available, I will be there to meet. And we were able to fix the parking lots, to fix, to fix the bike paths, and hopefully we can get a little bit further on Korean then we fix the tennis center, and we're working on the golf course.
Jan Dillow:Raquel, I'm sorry, like machine gun fire, exactly. Machine gun fire, you've covered a lot of ground, but we want to be mindful of your time too. And I think that we are moving to a period where we need you to have we're going to give you a minute to give your sales pitch.
Tony Winton:Why? Closing argument, my closing argument.
Raquel Regalado:Listen, we have a lot more to do. I feel like we've done so much in Key Biscayne. We've supported so many community organizations. I have so much bipartisan support in the key because of my commitment. I am always here. I'm here to listen. I'm here to partner. I'm not a divisive person. I mean, unfortunately, we've had a lot of divisive people in the key, and I think that that has held us back. And I think we're in a great place right now. We have a wonderful mayor, we have a wonderful commission, and we really have a interest in making decisions at the generational level that will move Key Biscayne forward. So I've been supportive of the stormwater project, of the ACAM project, you know, of working with the key in order to get these things done. Obviously, the Rickenbacker, the maintenance, the bear cut, you know, William Powell, these are the big things that we need to tackle. And I think that my track record in Key Biscayne speaks for itself. And anyone who says differently clearly hasn't been in the village in the last four years. Raquel Regalado, Commissioner, district seven. Thank you for being our guest on anti social, and thank you. We will be back after this. You
Unknown:itching as
Tony Winton:you and we're back. I'm Tony Winton and I'm Jan Dillo, and we have now finished. That's the second segment there. Pretty amazing, huh? Yeah, we got, we've got all of your district seven questions. Well, you know, we come in with a list. We do come in with a list and never get through because there just isn't enough time. And we try to mine your time, because you're listening this on your car, your exercise, or whatever you're doing, and we try to keep these shows a relatively digestible length. Yeah, there's, there's a lot of stuff that, I mean, it's true, there's a lot of stuff that's going on. So there are a lot of questions, but hopefully you got, we got some of the high points for you. Yeah. And this topic of, you know, the relationship between the local government, the county government, the state government. One thing that's fascinating as a just as a reporter to cover Key Biscayne is a it's really an amazing little microcosm of interaction, because we have a national park one mile offshore Biscayne National Park, the only underwater National Park we have Grandin Park. We have Bill bagg State Park, State Park. We have, we have this. The federal government has a research facility on Virginia Key NOAA has a research station. There a marine fishery station there. So you have this amazing interplay of all federal, state, county, local, in a beautiful location and these, and it's just because it's Florida, you have now what we call the news business Florida. Man, we just have these crazy Florida, Florida stories that just keep happening because it's Florida. So it's, it's the news. I don't know if there's a metric you could use for it, but the news stories per minute or the news stories per hour, it's just, I don't know it's, there's a lot, yeah, and we're, we try to get to it, but we we need two more reporters. I think, well, but now you know why we have this last segment. Because of that. Yes, you need your help. Yes, please remember that we are don't we are funded by our subscribers and by you as donors. We can't do this without you, we try, you know, we we are trying to be on top of as many stories as we can. Tony complains to me every time I talk to him about the length of stories, the number of stories he's got on his list of stories to do. So there's plenty of news out there, and we're trying to get to it for you, because we want an informed when an informed community, because informed communities make better decisions, right? And we are now have a second publication, liberty, city independent. We have a soft launch underway, and there are important stories that are happening in that community too, right now. You know the the effects of what's happening nationally, with calls to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, and, you know, all kinds of issues that are that for listeners and readers there, that's a really scary thing. Yeah, we have a very large Haitian community, so, so we're, we're trying to get that hyper local reaction, the local perspective, that you're not going to get any place else. So, k.
Jan Dillow:Be independent that org, you can donate online. And you can also, please remember us as we move into the period for give Miami Day, which is in the end of November, right? So with all of that, please do not forget us as you're thinking towards the end of the year.
Tony Winton:Pot up the the our closing music. So
Jan Dillow:thanks very much for listening. I'm Tony Winton and I'm Jan Dillo. Be safe, everybody.
