2020-10-22

Hello Key Biscayne!

It’s been raining all week long and then this newsletter shows up to rain on you a little more.

Ferrari crashes in Key Biscayne Oct. 2020 When your mid-life crisis becomes a financial crisis.

Guy was ok. Here’s the video.

Tiny town talk

Called it Halloween is canceled. Not completely, but all official festivities are off thanks to you-know-what. That said, it doesn’t mean you can’t recreate the whole thing virtually by eating a snickers in ten seconds while watching a YouTube video of a door being opened.

(Mayor Davey)

Best question ever You ever watch those presidential town hall things and wonder, “who are these people, how did they get up there, and what kind of question is that?” Wonder no more.

Key rat Isabella Peña (famed national anthem singer at our parades) and her mom Barb got to ask questions at President Trump’s town hall last week at the PAMM. Through connections at NBC6 they got picked and got to ask some inconsequential questions, as everyone has already decided (them included) who they’re going to vote for.

(Islander News)

Share the boo, last chance

It ain’t too late to donate some of that Halloween candy you won’t be eating. Share the Boo, started by MAST student Isabel del Valle McGuinness, is collecting individually wrapped candy to hand out to 400 children in Liberty City. Candy can be dropped at the Islander News, Key Colony Botanica security, and the Saturday farmer’s market ℅ Hermanos de la Calle. They also accept used or new Halloween costumes that will be distributed next year. If you can help, please do.

(More info)

Promote your own thing.

All wonk, no tonk

Last week we teased about some interviews the Rag sent out to all the prospective candidates, and how only two of them had replied. Well that was enough to get one more to bite. This time Oscar Sardiñas joins the fray.

Here’s an excerpt:

Should we have made the addition to MAST bigger?

Frank Caplan: The purpose behind MAST was to create a good option that did not previously exist. The purpose was not for MAST to be the only public option. At the time, we became satisfied after due diligence and close questioning that the district’s methodology was sound, and had been followed, for sizing MAST (middle and high school) and for space planning the new school to maximize student stations. I recall there were a host of factors including a number of student stations that would support the fullest possible array of electives offered at the new campus. The considerations also included KB demographic projections. It’s easier to look backward than forward to determining adequacy / capacity. Now, I’d be open to a fresh look at everything, taking into account what happened in fact, as distinct from what was predicted.

Matt Bramson: Yes. In general, I think that going bigger, when demographic trends indicate a growing need, is smart. The community center should have been bigger from the beginning and MAST should have too. It’s human nature to resist change and want to minimize it. The problem with this is that the change happens anyway and then buildings are expanded later and are never as optimal as they could have been. Ever been to an older hospital? They are cobbled-together messes of buildings and wings and expansions—because no one had the courage or foresight to think a decade or two into the future—and it’s too expensive and disruptive to tear the whole thing down and start again.

Oscar Sardiñas: Would have, could have, should have. We are part of a very small minority that has been able to break into the magnet school ecosystem and afford another incredible educational program to our Key Biscayne children. Could we have done better, possibly, but let’s not for a minute dismiss how blessed we are.

Read them in full:
Frank Caplan interview.

Matt Bramson interview.

Oscar Sardiñas interview.