What’s going on in the City of Miami Gardens
By Nelson Underdue, Intern student reporter
The City of Miami Gardens held its city council meeting on Wednesday at Miami Gardens City Hall, 18605 NW 27th Ave. The meeting addressed issues, ordinances and upcoming events in Miami Gardens.
Miami Gardens is preparing to “Paint the City Pink” in the October to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The plans include health fairs throughout the month and a walk to the Church of Christ which will be painted with a mural by local artists and Job Corp participants. “We really feel that breast cancer is one of those diseases that you no longer have to die from.” said City of Miami Gardens Vice Mayor Felicia Robinson. “the key is detection.“ Miami Gardens hopes to increase awareness with the Paint the City Pink initiative.
Several ordinances were proposed at the meeting including a motion to make the entire city of Miami Gardens a bird sanctuary. The City of Miami Gar-dens also plans to give its police officers the authority to penalize those in possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana with a civil citation in lieu of an immediate arrest, at the officer’s discretion. This follows a trend of similar ordinances passed in several Miami-Dade county communities in that want to lessen penalties for non-violent offenses,
The council meeting came to a screeching halt when Sun-shine for All, a non-profit organization that, among other things, provides free meals for senior citizens. Funding for meals distributed to senior residents of Miami Gardens were being provided by the city itself until recently when the funds for Sunshine for All were pulled by the council.
Several seniors who receive meals from Sunshine for All, lobbied the council for continued funding of the program. A frustrated Councilman Rodney Harris addressed the recipients and the council. “I feel like its groundhog day” Harris said “when we [the council} last had this conversation it was understood that if [Sunshine for All] would continue getting funding then another program would get cut but there is only so much money to be allocated. I’m open to suggestions.” Debate between the council members and testimony from beneficiaries of the meal service continued to be the focal point of the meeting for nearly a half hour. The issue remained unresolved and cast aside for a later date as well as the pending items on the agenda being postponed until the next council meeting for time restraint purposes.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 23rd at 7 p.m.
