While it’s incredibly cruel that donated clothing was stolen right before the holidays, as reported by NBC Miami, Clothes donated to Orthodox Jewish Women (http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Thieves-Steal-Clothes-Donated-to-Orthodox-Jewish-Women-135759568.html), the story states that the robbery took place “in one North Miami Beach community.”
The truth is the home that was robbed is not located in North Miami Beach, but outside our city limits in an area commonly referred to as the “doughnut hole.” The house is actually located in Miami-Dade County.
There have been even more heinous crimes taking place in the area in recent weeks, including armed robbery and muggings. Unfortunately, these types of crimes usually do happen right before Christmas. Even more so when there’s a downturn in the economy, such as we’ve been experiencing in the last couple of years. Not that there’s ever any excuse to commit a crime, desperation causes people to do crazy things. The holidays just seem to make career criminals even bolder.
Most, but not all, of these crimes have taken place in the doughnut hole and not in North Miami Beach.
The residents who live in this area are understandably afraid and outraged. There is a community meeting planned for next Wednesday night (for details visit https://www.votersopinion.com/?p=2529). Public officials from the state, the county and the city are expected to attend, as well as representatives from the Miami-Dade County and North Miami Beach Police Departments.
Unfortunately for the City of North Miami Beach, when the media reports news for the northeast Miami-Dade County area, they almost always say “North Miami Beach,” even if the incident didn’t happen within our city limits. Ironically, they seem to get it right when it’s a positive news story, but if it’s a crime anywhere in our vicinity, North Miami Beach gets the dubious “credit.” They also manage not to mistake Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach or Golden Beach for NMB.
North Miami Beach has had its share of woes in the past few months. Between the aggravation involved in passing a balanced budget, the crap that the police UNION and some of its members have pulled, and the crimes that have taken place inside our borders, we don’t need any more trouble here.
But, we certainly don’t need to be blamed for the recent crime spree that has been going on in the past couple of weeks in the doughnut hole, which is the jurisdiction of the Miami-Dade County Police Department and not ours. I’m not pointing a finger at the county police, either, because some of these crimes are just not preventable no matter how well patrolled an area may be. But, when the media reports that it’s happening in North Miami Beach, it’s our cops who unfairly get the blame.
As you know, I’ve been pretty critical of our police department since the troubles started. But, I will always give credit where it’s due. Our police officers are responsible for protecting and serving the residents of North Miami Beach, but the area known as the doughnut hole is not a part of NMB.
The residents of North Miami Beach are contending with enough problems. Although there have been great strides made by the new administration, we still have a long way to go before we can polish up the tarnished image left by the former mayor Myron Rosner and his crony, former city manager Kelvin Baker.
The media has got to stop dragging our name into every problem that occurs outside our city limits. C’mon, people. Give us a break!
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
Don’t we have a County Commissioner that lives right here in our city? And isn’t she the one who is constantly telling us how to run things in our city? Even attending our city council meetings? What if she used a fraction of that energy to fix things in the donut hole, which IS HER TRUE RESPONSIBILITY. From the condition of the bus stops around Walmart, to the crime affecting the residents of the donut hole, the atrocious condition of county businesses along the SR 826 corridor, and a thousand other problems that directly affect our city, it seems to me that HER area needs a little more intervention from her than ours does.
I wonder when most of these crimes occur in the “Donut-Hole?” As I work fery early in the morning, I notice that there is a Security Guard patrolling the area with its green and yellow flashing lights driving around across the canal from the NMB side. Maybe the residents who are paying this service needs to re-evaluate this company to see what they are actually doing. As for Sally, she is more interested in her own Special Interests than the community. One of her recent projects was to open a Second County Dog Park at Haulover in 2010 when we had one, albeit a very poorly thought out (swamp) one at Greynolds East, without having proper funding. All we have right now at Haulover is a fenced in area with a few picnic tables to sit at, a water fountain and dog-poo station for each side. Meanwhile in May/June this year, a brand new dog park opened in Southwest Dade that was properly funded that has so many features including canopies, multiple dog-poo stations, walking paths, regular benches, agility equipment, etc. When asked why it is taking so long was told there is no money in the budget. People are not charged parking in the SW park, but people are charged $2 to $5 to use Haulover’s. If you go to any Food Truck round-up, you may see Sally in her Sprinter truck selling her Coffee.