Miami residents argue the city is allowing too many trees to be cut down, raising concerns about environmental and quality-of-life impacts across neighborhoods.
CBS News Miami | April 2026
Defending trees
After attending the city of Miami’s first three tree ordinance workshops, one message was unmistakable: residents want stronger protections for our rapidly disappearing tree canopy, not weaker ones.
So why is the city pursuing amendments to the ordinance when the commission and senior staff know that Florida’s Senate Bill 180 prevents local governments from strengthening tree regulations and effectively permits only changes that weaken them? If stronger protections cannot legally be adopted, why spend $180,000 on a community engagement process?
Residents participated in good faith because they care deeply about Miami’s trees. They offered thoughtful recommendations on preservation, transparency, enforcement, maintenance, mitigation and accountability. Many of these improvements can and should be implemented immediately through administrative and operational changes, not through code amendments that risk weakening existing protections.
Miami’s mature trees are essential for reducing extreme heat, managing stormwater, improving air quality, supporting wildlife and enhancing our neighborhoods. Once they are removed, those benefits take decades to replace.
The community must remain engaged and vigilant. We cannot allow this public process to become a vehicle for weakening one of Miami’s most important environmental safeguards. Our tree ordinance should protect and preserve our canopy, not make it easier to lose it.
Sandy Moise,
Miami
No model parent
Just how insensitive does a creature need to be to out a young, traumatized child?
Sexual abuse is an intensely personal issue at any age. Yet, our governor, in all his wisdom and experience, outs a child.
One could have only hoped for more discretion in an adult male who is, himself, a father.
Kathy Terry,
Coral Gables
Tainted education
Re: the Aug. 20 story, “How Florida quietly removed climate change content from textbooks.” This is what happens when politicians protect polluters instead of preparing Florida’s children for the world they are inheriting. President Trump canceled and shuttered clean-energy projects worth billions that could challenge the fossil fuel industry.
Our children are already living with extreme heat, runaway sargassum decaying on beaches, sunny-day flooding, toxic blue-green algae, bleaching coral reefs and increasingly costly extreme weather. Yet Florida’s education policies are making it harder for students to connect the dots between these realities, the science behind them and the choices that could help solve them.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world is investing in cleaner energy and the technologies needed for the coming decades. Florida should be preparing students to lead that transition; not shielding them from the science that explains why it is necessary.
Our children will inherit a hotter, more dangerous world, along with enormous economic costs. The least we owe them is an education that gives them the knowledge to understand the problems we are leaving behind, the critical thinking to evaluate solutions and the opportunity to innovate and build a better future.
Michele Drucker,
Coral Gables
Math problem
Reading the Aug. 20 story, “How much will Miami-Dade schools new superintendent make and when does he start?” I was stunned to learn that the annual salary of current superintendent Jose Dotres is about $400,000. Meanwhile, incoming superintendent, Rafael Villalobos, will receive $385,000. Additionally, they are provided with cars, cell phones and monthly stipends ranging from $900-$1,200.
In contrast, our county public schools teachers rank among the lowest paid of all 50 states. Teachers returned to their classrooms this year to discover that some of their necessary teaching tools were stripped. These vital tools provided learners with auditory and visual learning styles to master science and history concepts.
No wonder a mass exodus of teachers leaving this profession continues. Lack of financial support and tools to help students become competitive globally in this age of technology is definitely hurting our students and teachers.
Mayade Ersoff,
Palmetto Bay
Accept the losses
Obviously, President Trump cannot accept any defeat, large or small. Fortunately, several federal judges, liberal and conservative, have followed the law and limited his attempts to rule by Executive Order rather than by seeking congressional approval.
After the courts definitively ruled that Trump’s name had to be removed from the Kennedy Center, he now wants to engrave an acknowledgement that he “restored” it. He has almost destroyed it single-handedly. How petty, weak and egotistical.
The Supreme Court ruled against the Trump Administration’s attempt to deny birthright citizenship, upholding the U.S. Constitution. But that did not stop Trump from further attempts at limiting such constitutional protections.
Unable to gain control over the Straits of Hormuz and defeat a third-world, dictatorial country like Iran, he now wishes to declare the Strait a U.S. territory (almost laughable, were it not so typically Trumpian). Iran rebuked him by affirming that one cannot win a war “in a Tweet.”
This latter inability to comprehend and acknowledge his failures is endangering the safety of our servicemen and women, some of whom have died due to his hunger for power and threatens our national security.
Peter and Lee Brooke,
Doral
Respect the vote
Politicians who continue denying the results of the 2020 presidential election, particularly when Donald Trump stands intently behind them, should consider the broader implication of that position. By denying the legitimacy of that election, they are not only denying Joe Biden’s votes but also casting doubt on the votes Trump received. The same election process counted votes for both candidates.
Our democracy cannot work if we accept election results only when our preferred candidate wins. Every legally cast vote deserves the same respect, whether it was cast for Biden, Trump, or another candidate.
Disputing election results without credible evidence insults the judgment of millions of Americans who participated in that election. Voters deserve better than having their choices dismissed simply because the outcome was disappointing.
Political disagreements are part of democracy. However, denying an election result isn’t merely an attack on the opposing candidate. It can be understood as dismissing the judgment of the voters. Respect for the voters and the integrity of our elections should be what politicians uphold and protect.
Enid Garber,
Palmetto Bay
Members only
All political parties must do their politicking on their own dime. If they want a neutral person or agency to count ballots for them, fine. They just have to foot the bill. Tax dollars and the government should not be involved with how candidates are picked. Only the general election should be run and observed by a government agency.
Losers always whine and then try to change the rules and proceedings to favor their way of thinking. One cannot go to meetings and vote for anything in the Marine Corps League unless one is a Marine and a member in good standing. Ditto most other private clubs and organizations. To allow non-party members to vote in an organization’s decision-making skewers the vote like it’s a general election.
Florida keeps trying to change the rights of an organization to conduct its business and select its representatives. At least the ringer of a write-in candidate keeps the cross-overs at bay.
W.F. Cunningham, III,
Fort Lauderdale
Make a deal
No matter how much President Trump threatens Iran, that is not going to end the war. Blustering about bombing them like no one has ever seen before or putting into effect the worst economic sanctions ever won’t help. The world knows it’s just hot air.
He must work out a deal to get out of Iran, open up the Strait of Hormuz and declare victory. Once this is accomplished, we can get back to the important things, like building the White House ballroom and fixing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Art Young,
West Kendall