Takin’ it to the streets

They’re protesting public funding for the Marlins’ ballpark down in Miami:

Elected officials, community organizations, business owners and others gathered outside the Fillmore at the Jackson Gleason Theater in Miami Beach on Tuesday, explaining how the proposed Marlins baseball stadium would divert needed money from the local economy.

One member of the coalition, City of Miami Beach Commissioner Dee Dee Whitehorn, said, “I implore we go slow and do our homework” . . .

. . . The coalition also claims that current agreements to build the 37,000-seat stadium could force the county to tap into its general revenue funds, which it suggests would affect on local services.

Coalition members includes Clergy for Change; Urban Environment League; Human Services Coalition; Miami Neighborhoods United; Democracy for America; The Workers Center; Health Care For All; Former Rep. Gus Barreiro; Philanthropist Anthony Shriver; Miami Community Activist Jack Spirk; FIU law school student Mayowa Odusanya; South Miami Commissioner Valerie Newman; Kendall Community Activist Pat Erwin; Hialeah Community Activist Mercy Dominguez.

Given my leanings on issues like this I’d like to think that this represented something important, but really, protesting is a dead art. These days no one moves anyone in mass about much of anything. Instead, you issue press releases and make sure that your smallish group fills up the five seconds of TV air time the locals allot you. As such, you never know if a movement is truly a groundswell or simply an assemblage of motivated fringe types.

I hope this sort of thing actually moves Miami-Dade officials to say no to the stadium, but I kind of doubt it will.