By now it’s pretty obvious that we here at Voters Opinion have given up on the City of North Miami, which is barely worth the ink anymore.

The last time we chimed in was back in August when Mayor Philippe Bien-Aime stopped ogling random women long enough to attempt to insult me on Facebook and got bitch-slapped by resident Laura Hill.

We also covered North Miami’s municipal election last May, which apparently a complete waste of time.  Thanks to Laura Hill’s painstaking investigation and brilliant exposé of the City’s well organized election fraud crime ring, we all now know that the election results were a foregone conclusion.

Until some law enforcement agency — whether local, state, or federal — decides that election fraud really is a crime and the perpetrators are arrested (hint: don’t hold your breath), there will never be a free and fair election in North Miami.

Unless you have unlimited access to city employees who will bribe and coerce voters, and city resources to fund your campaign (or at least enough enough turkeys to buy votes with), don’t waste your time running for office.  Stay home and watch reruns of Law & Order instead.

And, in case you’re wondering about the status of Philippe Bien-Aime’s Foreclosure, it’s still in limbo.  The Plaintiff, Refresh Funding, LLC, filed a Motion for Entry of Final Judgment of Mortgage Foreclosure, which was originally scheduled to be heard on September 14, 2021, then canceled, then rescheduled for October 14, 2021, then canceled again.

Since neither a Satisfaction of Mortgage nor a new Mortgage has been recorded yet, we can only assume that he made some sort of deal with Refresh Funding to extend the maturity date of the Mortgage until he could refinance the loan.

We also must assume that he somehow came up with some cold, hard cash in exchange for a temporary reprieve from the lender moving forward with the foreclosure.

Of course, we won’t know anything for sure until either a refinance or a foreclosure is filed among the public records, but we’ll continue to check on the status when we have nothing else to do.

In any event, the clock is ticking.

According to his March 25, 2020 Settlement Agreement with Refresh Lending, Philippe was to pay all real estate taxes owed on the property, which he still has not done.

In May of this year, he somehow came up with $5,117.79 to pay his 2020 taxes, but he never paid his 2019 taxes, which are now due in the amount of $5,313.15, and for which a tax certificate has already been sold.  And, of course, Philippe has still not paid his 2021 taxes, which are due and payable by no later than March 31, 2022.

Keep in mind that Philippe purchased this property on February 28, 2014, and until 2020, a tax certificate was sold due to non-payment every single year for five years in a row.

What a freaking loser!

In any event, Philippe will eventually find a way to refinance, most likely with the help of some big developer who owns his vote on the dais, or the foreclosure will go forward and he’ll be homeless.

Odds are the latter.

In 2019 we reported that North Miami was the ranked as the 7th worst place to live in Florida by the website RoadSnacks.net, a subsidiary of HomeSnacks.net, which “combines recent data from the Census, FBI, OpenStreetMaps, and dozens of other sources into bite-sized studies to help you understand what it’s like to live in different communities across the country.”

We’re happy to report that North Miami made the list once again and retained its #7 ranking in 10 Worst Places to Live in Florida for 2021.

Don’t feel too bad, NoMi residents.  At least you’re not Opa-locka.

Yet.

This year, RoadSnacks noted that North Miami’s only two redeeming qualities are The Ancient Spanish Monestery and Oleta River State Park.

Which are actually located in North Miami Beach!

And finally, no blog about NoMi would be complete without checking in on North Miami’s Real-Time Debt Clock™

Yep, still broke.

In fact, a quick review of North Miami’s Revenues v. Expenditures reveals that the City has been in debt almost continuously from October 1, 2017 (FY 2017-18) through the present date.

The only exceptions were during the months of March and April, 2020, when the COVID-19 Stay at Home Order prevented the politicians from spending your tax dollars on themselves, and again for three months after all the ad valorem revenue was received in November 2020.

Those small bursts of surplus were short-lived, though.  The spending spree resumed in earnest beginning March, 2021 through the present date.

As of today — less than three months into the fiscal year and after the bulk of ad valorem revenue has been received, North Miami is already $16,611,107 in the red.

Good times!

Maybe one day we’ll muster enough interest to blog North Miami again.

Or not.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

Stephanie