The Urban Development Boundary protects environmentally fragile areas, including the Everglades, from the impact of development.
PEDRO PORTAL
pportal@miamiherald.com | May 16, 2018
Line of defense
My thanks to the Miami Herald’s Editorial Board for defending Miami-Dade County’s Urban Development Boundary (UDB). Thanks also to county Mayor Daniella Levine Cava for her veto of the Kelly Tractor proposal. In so doing, she showed that the UDB protects two national treasures: Biscayne and Everglades National Parks.
The UDB also protects a third national treasure: Redland, which is not simply another tract of land but a unique microclimate, unlike any other in Florida or the continental United States. On most days, Redland will be 1-2 degrees warmer in the day than Miami and up to eight degrees cooler at night. This swing in day-to-night temperature is the same as at middle elevations on tropical mountains. No coincidence that so many commercial orchid growers have chosen Redland for cultivation. Orchid species from which modern hybrids have been developed come from mid-elevation tropical mountains, as do numerous other valuable crops.
When researchers at the University of Florida tested various sites across the state for cannabis cultivation, they discovered it grew best in Redland. Yet to be discovered are other crops uniquely suited for that area.
Such national treasures, once lost, can never be regained. The UDB is the bulwark protecting them.
Martin R. Motes,
board member,
Miami-Dade Agricultural Advisory Committee,
Redland
Well-planned attack
The joint U.S.-Israel operation against Iran was and is a genius demonstration of spherical warfare — a three-dimensional view, exceeding land, sea, air and space views, integrating all facets, including cyber. The coordination between Israel and the United States was exquisite.
For those who think that we, with the Israelis, do not have the most able military and intelligence apparatus in the world, think again.
Robert E. Panoff,
Pinecrest
Duty deferred?
According to an ACLU study, Florida’s governors have historically called for a special election within eight days of a seat opening in the State House or Senate. As a resident of Brickell, I’ve had no House representative since Nov. 18, when our District 113 Rep. Vicki Lopez resigned to join the Miami-Dade County commission.
Why has Gov. Ron DeSantis not called for a special election after 102 days?
The answer perhaps can be revealed in his comments during a visit to the Hoover Institution on Oct. 17, 2025. He said, “[W]e strive to be faithful to the ideals the founders established.”
As school children, we learned that one of the founders’ most important ideals is no taxation without representation. DeSantis has denied us representation yet claims to be faithful to our founders’ ideals. He may be preparing to show his integrity with innovation by making Brickell a tax-free zone and ensuring we will no longer suffer from taxation without representation.
Scott R. Scovel,
Miami
Linguistic legerdemain
Four months into his second term in 2025, President Trump authorized the bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites. He said he obliterated Iran’s nuclear capability. Now, less than a year later, Trump has instigated another assault on Iran.
His justification?
Iran was weeks away from having nuclear missiles that could reach the United States.
Was Trump lying then, or now?
Probably, it’s both. Perhaps this is just another diversion from the Epstein files, or a prologue to create a crisis to suspend or cancel the mid-term elections.
Robart Whiting,
Kendall
Trading places
The March 4 Miami Herald story, “With Iran and Venezuela leaders down, Florida prepares for end to Cuban regime,” offers a glimpse of hope should the Trump administration turn its new regime changing policies toward Cuba. The good news is that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been in talks with Raul Castro’s grandson about the future of U.S.-Cuba relations.
The best possible solution may well be to send Rubio and U.S. Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and Maria Elvira Salazar to Cuba to help establish a democratic constitutional government.
Having these American politicians in Cuba may be a win-win for both sides. Cuba gets experienced legislators to help run their country. The U.S. benefits by the permanent relocation of MAGA Republicans and Trump enablers.
Edward Blanco,
Cutler Bay
Modern slavery
The International Labour Organization estimated in 2025 that about 28 million people are trapped in forced labor, sexual exploitation or forced marriage, including roughly 1.1 million in the United States. Other global estimates put the number at about 50 million. Yet when slavery moves in elite circles, our leadership too often looks away.
Jeffrey Epstein’s operation was modern sexual slavery with a Palm Beach ZIP code. Vulnerable, underage girls were groomed, transported and coerced into sex acts for Epstein and his well‑connected “friends.” Recruiters, staff and institutions handled the logistics and money. Private jets aside, it looks like an every-day trafficking case — but with billionaires and power brokers.
That’s where Florida’s politics come in. As U.S. attorney, Alexander Acosta cut Epstein a “deal of a lifetime.” Acosta later joined Donald Trump’s cabinet. Florida Attorneys General Pam Bondi and Ashley Moody branded themselves anti‑trafficking crusaders while failing to aggressively reopen Epstein’s case, resisting document disclosure and even undermining trusted trafficking hotlines.
Why?
If Florida is serious about ending modern slavery, we must demand transparency on Epstein’s network, release every record and enforce trafficking laws against the rich and connected with the same zeal used on street‑level offenders. Anything less is complicity.
Paul Howard,
Naples
War funding
The Department of Government Efficiency laid off hundreds of thousands of federal workers because apparently, we couldn’t afford to pay them. It closed USAID because it wasn’t efficient to feed the hungry and heal the sick.
However, we could afford to send an aircraft carrier from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean to arrest one man (Nicolás Maduro), then send it back to the Mediterranean to launch jets with million-dollar missiles at a country that didn’t threaten us. Additionally, three taxpayer-paid fighter jets (nearly $100 million each) were mistakenly shot down with air defense systems that we supplied.
If we’re going to build munitions, we should send them to Ukraine. Otherwise, Congress should take back the power of the purse — and the power to declare war — and spend our funds to further peace and prosperity.
Ted Burg,
Pembroke Pines
Condo laws
As a unit owner and lawyer, I am sometimes adverse to Donna Berger and her firm, but she is 100% correct in her Feb. 27 op-ed, “Florida’s HOA problems won’t be fixed with bill filed by Miami lawmaker.”
Will unit owners install separate water meters for WASD? Hire individual waste removal for their own unit? Leave it to “someone else” to replace the light bulbs in the parking lot? Duke it out over who is allowed to park where? Not bother to clean the pool or keep the pool fence in good condition?
Unit owners may be afraid of or wish to avoid the required four-hour certification course, though it was enacted to help them see how easy condo management can be when a knowledgeable and collegial board participates. I took the course: useful, easy to understand, full of concrete suggestions and cheap or free. Not scary.
The legislature should give all the recent HOA and condo changes a couple of years to settle. Sometimes, the best action is no action; this is one of those times.
Nancy C. Wear,
Coral Gables