North Miami mayor Andre Pierre probably couldn’t stand that his butt kissing city manager, Stephen Johnson, got his own headline yesterday, so he grabbed the spotlight and got his own story today. Hizzoner got the attention of Miami Herald reporter Nadege Green and cried the blues to her. As reported in her story, Deeply in debt, North Miami mayor faces foreclosure, she wrote, “The Pierres’ story mirrors that of many Floridians, who took advantage of skyrocketing home prices to finance their dreams only to have them come crashing down with the real estate market’s collapse.”
Can I get an “Oh, Puh-LEEZE?”
As one Herald reader called DeanDR commented, “WHAT!!?? Are you nuts? How many people cashed out a half-million dollars, using overvalued property as an ATM, purposely DEFAULTED on the debt, took bribes, wasted taxpayer funds on fake police badges, sent an open invitation for 10,000 illegal Haitians to come to Miami, and should be sitting in jail awaiting deportation? He “mirrors” NOTHING of value.”
Yeah, that about sums it up!
Yes, lots of otherwise intelligent people saw dollar signs flash in front of their eyes and got sucked into the millions of dollars of “free” money banks were lending when the real estate boom was peaking, and made a killing by flipping contracts, only to lose it all when reality hit. Most people, however, bit the bullet and scraped together the money to make their mortgage payments because, well, it sucks to be homeless. Andre Pierre was obviously not one of the responsible ones. He saw an opportunity to scam Bank of America out of hundreds of thousands of dollars and run.
For office.
And got himself re-elected. How’s that working out for you North Miami voters?
Although Andre Pierre has claimed that he’s in the process of renegotiating with the bank to ostensibly save his home, records show he simply stopped making any mortgage payments whatsoever. Gee, that’s responsible, huh? Most people would be making some sort of effort to start paying back the loan, but Pierre is above all that. Maybe he’s counting on the anonymous benefactor who gifted him with a $100,000 Porsche to bail him out of his mortgage blues?
Morningside Mortgage Corporation president Grant Stern was quoted as saying, “The incentive to pay on a mortgage is entirely predicated on having equity. With the collateral wiped out of the equation, there is little incentive for the person to pay. It just doesn’t make sense, economically, for the borrower.”
Really? Paying back what you borrowed “just doesn’t make sense?” I’m sure Bank of America, who is now stuck with an unpaid bill of $432,205 and a house that won’t command half that in today’s market, I’d say they’d disagree. Of course, you can bet BoA won’t be eating that cost. They’ll pass the tab onto its shareholders by reducing dividends and unsuspecting customers by increasing its new loan costs. What really makes no “sense, economically,” is to be a responsible and honest homeowner.
Or, apparently, an elected official.
Miami Herald reader DeanDR was right on the money when he said that Pierre “mirrors NOTHING of value.”
With all the dishonest, unethical and illegal things North Miami mayor Andre Pierre has done and continues to do, he still sits at the head of the dais at City Hall. He still flaunts the title of “Mayor” on his office door. He laughs in the face of the State Attorney, the Ethics Commission, the FDLE and his creditors.
As for the residents of North Miami, the ultimate joke is on you. You get what you vote for!
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
