For several years, North Miami Beach residents have been complaining about cars speeding through residential neighborhoods and putting their lives and the lives of their children at risk. One of the things they’ve repeatedly begged City officials to do was install speed bumps designed to slow down speeding drivers.
At a September 14, 2022 Town Hall meeting held at Highland Village Community Center, one of the residents voiced her concern about cars speeding day and night through the area, and she asked City Manager Arthur “Duke” Sorey if something could be done.
Duke responded:
“So let me, let me address this to you, um, first. Um, the speeding, um, um, I’ve, uh, I’ve heard that’s a major issue here in Highland, Highland Village as well as in the area you’re speaking of. And one thing that we have, um, done the Commission, your Commissioners had us reach out to the Miami Dade County we signed an interlocal agreement with the County, uh, for the installation of traffic calming devices, speed bumps, traffic circles, uh, speed humps, that type of thing. So we just, I believe, it just got approved at the last Commission meeting, um, they recognized that [unintelligible] proof.”
“Now does this mean we’re gonna just go out and throw speed bumps, speed humps everywhere? No, it doesn’t mean that.”
“But it means that, uh, the bureaucracy of getting it done is a lot faster, we can move faster and get it done.”
“Um, so we have several areas that we’re looking at. One fifty-ninth is an area that we’re looking at and Highland Village is a [sic] area that we’re looking at. So what we have to do now is we have to get our own engineers, we have to hire engineers to go look at it, and tell us what they recommended going in place. And [unintelligible] then we can move forward [unintelligible].”
WATCH!
What you just witnessed was bureaucrat babble for “I’m making this up as I go along.”
The “last Commission meeting” Duke was referring to was held August 16, 2022, and there is absolutely no mention of an “interlocal agreement” with Miami-Dade County “for the installation of traffic calming devices,” or any other interlocal agreement for that matter.
In fact, we searched all the Commission Meeting Agendas since January 1, 2021, and we couldn’t find such an “interlocal agreement” anywhere.
In other words, Duke lied!
Imagine that.
Despite Duke’s bogus “assurances” that speed bumps are coming to 159th Street and Highland Village, and giving every excuse in the book why it’s going to take so long, pay close attention to these words:
“Now does this mean we’re gonna just go out and throw speed bumps, speed humps everywhere? No, it doesn’t mean that.”
Imagine our surprise when we found out today that Criminal Commissioner Paule Villard, who does not live anywhere near “one fifty-ninth” or “Highand Village,” just happens to have not one, but TWO speed bumps within half a block on both sides of her home.
Duke even purchased and installed two “SPEED BUMP AHEAD” signs on the approach of each one.
Courtesy of North Miami Beach taxpayers, of course.
You know, the taxpayers who aren’t important enough to rate speed bumps in their neighborhoods.
North Miami Beach resident Keith Myers, who took this video, also drove around Paule’s neighborhood and noted that there are absolutely no other speed bumps in the entire vicinity.
Just the two that were installed to deter drivers from speeding by Queen Paule’s house.
WATCH!
Well, Duke, we guess you could “just go out and throw speed bumps, speed humps everywhere“ if you wanted to, huh?
Obviously, the safety and welfare of the children of North Miami Beach, whose parents pay your outrageous salary, don’t rate speed bumps.
But what Paule wants, Paule gets, right?
It doesn’t get more corrupt than this.
ON NOVEMBER 8, 2022, VOTE CRIMINALITY OUT OF NORTH MIAMI BEACH FOR GOOD!
VOTE FOR JAY CHERNOFF, PHYLLIS SMITH, AND FORTUNA SMUKLER, AND BRING GOOD GOVERNANCE BACK TO YOUR CITY!
Stephanie
They have been there for over a year. Miami Dade County takes years to install traffic calming deterrents. It took Esmond Scott multiple attempts to get approval for circles in 2 different areas, Uleta and Highland Village, which were built a few years ago. They say it slows down response times by Emergency crews, which are not as often as speeders running stop signs without even slowing down.
Kind of reminds me of Pierre getting approval to close down the alley next to his house by installing a chain across it. He was tired of everyone using it as a cut through to 171st/172nd streets. Meanwhile us regular citizens have to put up with this every day.
I wonder if the County is aware of these speed bumps installed. Many people use NE 8th Ave to bypass NE 167th Street to get to NE 6th Ave. If anyplace, they should be around the school shown in the video to prevent a tragedy of a child being struck by a speeding car.
Paule is only concerned with herself and whether or not SHE is protected from being struck by a speeding car.
This criminal is cut from the exact same mold as Marie “Antoinette” Steril, the North Miami Councilwoman who misappropriated public resources for the benefit of her own mother, rigged city bids for friends, took toys donated to the NM Police Athletic League for the children of North Miami and shipped them to Haiti, and then abruptly decided not to run for re-election in 2015 when state auditors were “snooping” into her travel expenses, especially trips to cities in Haiti where her relatives live.
The only difference between Marie and Paule is, um, er, well, nothing actually.
In fact, their strings are both being pulled by Andre Pierre.
So, yeah, cut from the exact same mold.
The city residents need to vote this commissioner out of office. Once that is done, get rid of Duke Sorey. I can’t believe this is actually our city manager or a city manager.
While I don’t particularly like Commissioner Villard, there is a speed bump that was installed in front of former Councilman Chernoff’s residence when he was a councilman
I didn’t know that. I only found out about Paule’s by accident when someone was driving through her neighborhood.