I have never in my life ever been around so many whiny, selfish, stupid and self-entitled people as I have discovered I am surround by in the Village of Miami Shores. They whine about every thing, especially things they know absolutely nothing about.  The website called Next Door should really be called The Whiner's Gathering Place.

I first realized that I was surrounded by some really whiny assholes when some guy started posting about how he wanted someone - and the whiners are always looking for "someone," but never themselves, to solve their problems - to clean up a portion of the sidewalk on Biscayne Boulevard daily so his precious dog wouldn't be tempted by the chicken bones laying on the sidewalk.

Biscayne Boulevard is a federal highway that probably has 100,000 or more cars going back and forth on it every day, yet this guy wanted, and expected that the portion of the sidewalk that he chose to walk his dog on should be swept clean every day before he took his dog for a walk, so Poochy wouldn't be tempted - like dogs are - to pick of stuff off the ground and start chewing on it.

The funny part was how many other morons chimed in to support his demand, as if the responsibility for making sure that Poochy wasn't tempted by chicken bones thrown away by some carless person was everyone, other than the dog owner's responsibility.

And yes, throwing chicken bones on the sidewalk is not an act of civic mindedness, but we do live in a major American city where manners and civic mindedness are not always displayed by our fellow citizens, but as I have been known to say, It's Miami, Bitches, and getting used to rudeness is par for the course!

Since the hurricane - actually it started before the hurricane - so many people went on this Next Door site to whine and complain and talk stupid shit that I wondered if somehow, during the dark of some night, a bunch of crazy people from some lunatic asylum had been moved in unannounced as part of some sort of experiment to see if they could be re-socialized by secretly moving them into our Village in an out-patient capacity.

One set of postings after the storm really took the cake.

A woman named Iris Reyes posted a basically harmless comment about how the folks in the Village should be grateful considering the problems that folks in the Florida Keys were having, and it only took 2 comments before a respondent started blaming FPL for not "strengthening the grid," and then two posts further down, Leliz Cabrera couldn't resist posting:

          "By the way don't feel sorry for people in the keys I own a

          second home there and most of the people that live there

          are well to do and insured! So kinda educate yourself about

          the keys..."

There's nothing like a whiny, self-entitled and ignorant woman to make my inner misogynist say, "Bitch, are you crazy"

As someone whose family settled in the Keys sometime in 1815,  before my great, great grandmother was born on Indian Key in 1816, when those islands didn't even belong to the United States, the notion that someone would be so quick to foresake concern for their fellow man because they might be, "well to do and insured," is truly an indictment of both our educational system and an endorsement of my claim about stupid, selfish and self-entitlement being the core of what passes for character in so many of our neighbors.

But then it got better, or worse, because somehow GOD found himself dragged into the fight.

Someone asked where was God, and Tere Media was quick to respond, "Really you are serious where was God? I hope you weren't serious"

From there it only took a couple more posts before Marta Bouza responded:

"Tere Medina, I have the right to be an atheist This is a free country with freedom to choose any or no religion. You are not blessed, just happened to have you house is on a more reliable grid. But if it makes you feel better to believe in some entity that you cannot see and no evidence of his/ her existence by all means do."

From there it was off to the races.

Tere Medina:"I know what I know. You will one day as well. And what you said is foolish since I was one of two homes with power the entire time . Blessed to the fullest ! Grid nothing"

Marta Bouza: "So Tere how big is the halo over your house. Where can I get one."

Tere Medina: "Funny I wasn't scared to die . I was fully thinking it was coming head on. And I once didn't think of a halo ( sorry I am not 12) was covering my home . What did happen whether you believe or not is a type of miracle . And yes I am blessed ! You can't make me feel bad for what I know. But again I can guarantee you will find the truth for yourself

Aaron Aarons: "If there were a god, I wouldn't thank it for sparing me while devastating the lives of other people at least as deserving of well-being as I am. I'd damn such a being."

Aaron Aarons: "I don't always like Bill Maher, but I liked his quip that the fact that all of Donald Trump's properties were spared by Irma is proof that there is no god."

Tere Medina: "You are able to feel whatever you want . You have your belief . I have mine. I know what I have been through in my life. I know why I know there is a God. I just can't wrap my head why there are even these comments on a thread where the poster, is saying they thank God."

Debbie Johnson: "Marta, people can choose to believe whatever or in whomever that please. After an ordeal such as the one we just endured, I would think we would practice empathy, tolerance and compassion for each other. It doesn't hurt anyone whether they belive or not. No one from the dead can speak. I choose to believe and that works for me. I breathe but I don't see the air but I still trust that it's there."

Wendy Mendoz" "Perhaps all comments regarding religion should be kept off of these boards, this is for neighbors to inform each other about what is happening in their particular neighborhood, let's keep it that way please."

Michael McCullom: "Wendy has spoken so be it. God is not a religion"

And so it continued. My neighbors, your neighbors typing away on their IPADS or cellphones, oblivious in many instances to reality, or spelling, where finally the responses came to an end with:

Natalia Edwards: "Leliz learn how to write. Plural word for lady is ladies. The correct word is their. Not there. Also make sure you always capitalize I.....Did I just drop the mic?"

Drop the mic indeed.

Of course this was not the only string of comments that seemed to be more like a group psychotherapy session then comments between residents interested in discussing and providing their neighbors with factual information about how to deal with the aftermath of the storm, because sadly not only do many of these people whine and talk stupid shit, most of them are also absolutely clueless as to how the Village government operates and the fact that they - as the property owners - are the ones responsible for the loss of electricity that they and their neighbors faced  caused by THEIR TREES falling on the electric poles and lines, as well as the ATT and Comcast lines.

The more ignorant they were, the more they wanted to blame FPL, and the more they wanted to stick their noses up the ass of Tom Benton and the Mayor and Village Council to tell them what a fabulous and great job they had done.

Here's a list of the great job that these people did:

Instead of complying with Section 8-23 of the Village Charter that spells out clearly, concisely and in plain English the responsibility of residents to TRIM THEIR TREES so that they are at least 6 feet from electric lines, the Village Manager never told Code Compliance go around to make sure that residents were doing that, and if not did not, to serve them with a Notice of Violation so as to prompt them to understand that this was their responsibility.  You can read my original story with the copies of the meetings of the Village Council and the actual section of the Village Charter HERE.

Even though City Managers in other cities and villages made a decision before the storm to order sand and sandbags so that their residents could try and mitigate against flooding,  Miami Shores Village DIDN'T.

Even though other cities realized that after the storm there might be a need for ice and water by some folks, and that the best way to try and be in front of that problem was put in an order before the storm arrived for deliveries for a couple days after the storm, Miami Shores Village DIDN'T.

Instead, the ice that everyone was so quick to thank the Manager and Police Chief for was actually CHARITY ICE provided by the City of Miami Police Department and County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson.

Of course, not everything that happened before, during or after the storm was the fault of Benton or the Chief of Police, but between them and the members of the Village Council, who continue to refuse to address the gross incompetence that permeates the management of the Village, they bear much of the responsibility for the resulting outcomes.

And, while numerous aggrieved residents went on Facebook, Twitter and Next Door to complain, when it came to showing up at Village Hall on Tuesday night for the Council meeting, only 2-3 of those folks showed up.

The folks who did show up for the most part couldn't get to the podium fast enough to slobber about the wonderful job that Tom and the Chief and the Council did - even though no one saw or heard a word from Councilmen Brady, Meltz or Zelkowitz and Councilwoman Burch - although I suspect she kept in touch with her list of close personal friends and supporters - or as Mary Benton and several others did to continue to argue for the importance of planting more trees for the Tree Canopy.  

It's the Tree Huggers who have bullied Benton and the Village Council into abdicating their responsibility to make the residents not only aware that it's their responsibility - NOT FPL'S - to prune the trees in THEIR yards, and the Village to prune the trees on the VILLAGE'S PROPERTY!

But, as much as people bitched, whined and moaned about how badly the Village failed to take care of business before the storm, or even the placement of police and National Guard at 96th Street and 10th Avenue, not a peep was uttered about any of that at the Council meeting.

I'm working on a couple stories about the theft of thousands of dollars of equipment stolen from the Miami Shores Village Public Works Compound on the night of September 8th, that almost no one other than those in Village Hall know about, along with several other stories of willful incompetence and mismanagement in the Village, but I really needed to get this off of my chest, because the whiny bullshit that passes for civic discourse in this Village is both an embarrassment and a measure of just how much trouble many of you people will be in if a real Category 4 or 5 hurricane or other catastrophe hits Miami Shores.

For those who have at least some common sense and a willingness to try and put an end to some of this bullshit, I've posted a couple more photos below that show what trees leaning on, or surrounding electric wires look like.  

Get out of your house, walk your alley and see whether you or your neighbors have trees that also need to be pruned.  Call the Village Hall at, 305,795.2207, ask for Code Compliance, and make a complaint. Keep a record of that call.

If the Village won't do what's right, even if it's written in the Village Charter, and those are the laws they're legally obligated to obey in managing this Village, then a class action lawsuit against these people is the next step, and there is already evidence to support such a lawsuit being filed.

The key now is to gather overwhelming evidence that they not only fucked up before the storm, but that they're contining to fuck up weeks after it passed by.