The Miami Herald

In My Opinion

Posted on Sat., Dec. 10, 2005

To dream the impossible dream . . .

By Ana Menendez

The literarily inclined will note that this year marks the 400th anniversary of Don Quixote, which, allowing for some artistic license, seems as fine an occasion as any to raise a toast to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez.

Anyone following the debate over the movement of the urban development line knows the story: In a certain village in Florida, whose name I care not to recall, there lived one of those old-fashioned gentlemen who never lacked for a lance upon a rock, a decrepit target or the impulse to face down all logic and common sense in defense of an unsustainable ideal.

Welcome to the quixotic reign of Carlos Alvarez.

AN EPIC STORY

Alvarez's unflagging opposition to moving the county's development line already has the makings of a great epic: a plainspoken hero, a hopeless cause, lots of monsters.

If only Alvarez were tilting at mere windmills. As it turns out, the mayor has taken on the real-life, fire-breathing giants of the Latin Builders Association. It's not a fair fight. The LBA and others who stand to gain if (and when) the line is moved have deployed lobbyists by the dozens.

And the list is impressive. The Herald's Tere Figueras Negrete recently reported that a former mayor, a former county manager and a former ambassador are among the more than 100 who have signed on as paid advocates of developers.

Given the clout of the army he faces, Alvarez's only comfort may be that he has the people on his side.

''Not only e-mails, but phone calls, letters, people on the street,'' he told me. "I would venture to say that almost 100 percent are in favor of the stand I took.''

I've no doubt that in the year 2405, in a forced-oxygen school on Southwest 783rd Terrace, kids will recite the Alvarez name with awe.

The rest of us, confined to this poor century, can only wonder why there aren't more politicians willing to confront the moneyed interests that run this place.

Last Friday, when Alvarez vetoed applications to move the county's Urban Development Boundary, his enemies accused him of playing politics while supporters wondered privately about his political astuteness (literary critics might have noted a clever ability to play the fool).

This week, surprising no one, commissioners voted 12-1 to overturn Alvarez's veto. The applications can now proceed to the state for review before returning to the commission in the spring.

THE UNBEATABLE FOE

Alvarez's veto was doomed, impractical, ill-planned, and, whatever his intentions, utterly worthless, not to mention naive.

And I love him for it.

Sure, everyone understands that the UDB issue is complex. It's not enough to say hold the line at the Everglades: There must be an alternate plan and it's becoming increasingly clear that the plan will have to include higher density in established neighborhoods. And just wait to see what that fight will look like.

In the growth debate, Commissioner Carlos Gimenez represents the voice of reason: ''I'm not in favor of moving the UDB, but I'm not an absolutist,'' he told me Friday. "I'm a little bit more reasonable. There are some projects that make a lot of sense.''

Reason is good. Practical sense is good, especially in a political environment that would have Machiavelli blushing under his cappello.

But a philosophy of gradualism is what brought us West Kendall. Growth in the county is already so mismanaged, so motivated by greed over principle, that it's hard to swallow all the ''valid reasons'' for extending the line.

So there is something to be said, at this stage of our self-destruction, for knights of the impossible.

''At the end of the day, you gotta live with yourself,'' Alvarez said. "I don't need more information. The line does not need to be moved.''

In other words: the ability to reason the un-reason, being afflicted by reason, saps our ability to reason.

Ride on, Mayor, the giants are coming.