The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: The Heat is On

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

It's the climate change episode. We have veteran meteorologist John Morales of NBC6 to talk with Billy Corben about how hot it is in Miami. Plus, David Samson joins the program to talk about how politicians and sports teams pave over green spaces to build stadiums and arenas and break promises to build public parks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. It is June and as Jimmy Buffett, the unofficial poet laureate of Florida, would say we are trying to reason with Hurricane season. And I gotta tell you, it's hot really. It is hot. We're talking now with John Morales, who in Miami everybody knows him as one of the most respected and trusted names in Miami meteorology at NBC6. He is the founder and lead meteorologist to climate data.

You were retired for like a minute and then they're like, oh shit, we need John Morales back at NBC and he is now the hurricane specialist at NBC6 because listen, when we see the cone of uncertainty, people are looking for answers and they look to John Morales. John, you wrote last week at NBCMyMee.com, one of the worst sentences I think I've ever read in my life. It is, quote, welcome to 2023, the year of hurricane season surprises.

We don't want surprises, John, we want predictability, we want it, we want it hot, and we want it, you know, afternoon showers as we've come to expect here in the tropics. Like, what the hell are you talking about? You know, I'm telling you, weather is so out of whack. There are so many extreme weather events going on right now around the planet, and we're just seeing this increasing year after year. And what's going on right now with the mix of an El Nino, which normally we'd be jumping for joy here in the Atlantic because El Nino normally suppresses hurricane seasons.

Well, that mix with sea surface temperatures that are as hot as they're supposed to be at the end of August and beginning of September, even in the middle of June. They're just not supposed to be this hot. So who's gonna win out here? The El Niño, and it's beneficial effects for suppressing hurricane activity in the Atlantic,

or are those sea surface temperatures that are off the charts going to win here and drive more hurricanes and stronger ones? Brian McNulty, the senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosensteel School wrote, also last week, I'm not bad weather, climate news last week. He wrote, this is getting to be absurd now.

There's not even a close historic precedent for how warm the Atlantic ocean water is. So that doesn't bode well. I mean, those of us who are armchair meteorologists here, and which as a native Floridian in life long Miami those of us who are armchair meteorologists here, and which as a native Floridian and lifelong Miami and we're all armchair meteorologists here. We all take our sharpies to the cone of uncertainty, John, but that doesn't bode well for hurricanes season this year. No, I mean, of course not, you know, hurricanes feed off the warm water and the water is not just warm at the surface. It's warm to greater depths.

Listen, there's a couple of natural factors acting on this right now. The trade winds have been weaker. Also, there's less seharon dust going on right now, and then some of those aerosols, some of those particles tend to block out and scatter the sun. I don't know what that is.

Is that PCP? What is seharon dust? What are we talking about? Now, you know, I mean, it gets blown off the African continent quite often. And we see that happening, it usually starts in April towards May and into the beginning of hurricane season. And the more of these Saharan air layers

or clouds of Saharan dust that cross the Atlantic, the drier the air is out there, the more stable it is and it suppresses hurricanes. There's not a lot going on of that right now. There's not a lot of Saharan dust. But probably because the trade winds are weaker and they're not blowing the dust off the Sahel and the African continent there near the Sahara. There's a couple of natural reasons for the water

being so hot, but there's the underlying reason of global heating, climate change, right? I mean, the fact that out of all the energy that's staying in our system, on the planetary system, where the greenhouse gases are trapping all this extra heat, where does the majority of that energy go? Goes into the oceans. That's why the oceans are heating up so fast. So they're hot in the Pacific

and they're hot in the Atlantic at the same time and the Atlantic temperatures could very well drive more and stronger hurricanes in 2023. I want to talk more about climate change, but first you had indicated in your NBC Miami story that less than 1% of tropical storms on record have formed between Africa and the Caribbean in the month of June. It happened in 33, 1979, in 2017, also Brett with 1T, and it's happened again. 29, 2017, also Brett with one T, and it's happened again. I mean, the earlier these storms start to form, does that and indication of future performance?

Is that an indication that like, it could be a busier than usual hurricanes? Well, listen, I mean, I don't know what it means for the rest of the season, but I can tell you that seeing systems form that far east in the Atlantic, this early in the season is just not normal. And at the end of the day, 2023's Brett ends up being the eastern most forming tropical storm in history, at least going

back to 1851. We've got reliable records dating back to 1851, that's 173 years. So it's an impressive feat from the system and it's worrisome in the sense that it's a symptom of the hot Ocean temperatures Mark Englough a Bloomberg opinion editor in climate change columnist also wrote last week That the planet could easily set a record high average temperature in 2023 and that we have already suffered through the hottest early June on record. I saw a study that you posted actually to Twitter that according to researchers at the University of Miami and Florida National University, Miami date is even hotter than what we're finding out on our weather apps or even, or even from the meteorologist on TV, and that some parts of Miami could even be on average six degrees Fahrenheit hotter than what I mean it already says

96 or 101 how much hotter is it then well I mean listen I mean you know go stand out in a corner in Halea or in Liberty City or okay well fine I choose where you want to be but I'm when I'm trying to point out is these neighborhoods in Miami these cities cities in Miami, that have no tree cover. Without the tree canopy, without enough shade, things just really heat up very fast. And normally, that is, you find that exactly in some of our front line neighborhoods, right? I mean, some of the, let's say, less wealthy neighborhoods are the ones that say that have less tree cover. So it's something to be resolved and no doubt these rising temperatures are concerning. By the way, we just had a saw story from the Associated Press.

You know, there's like a hundred people just recently died in India in the north due to the heat wave going on over there. And so, I mean, heat is the silent killer, kills a lot of people, and we're only going to see more and more heat waves in the future. And of course we are vulnerable to sea level rise. The heat isn't helping obviously. There's about $145 billion in real estate that is Miami. They call one of the most vulnerable or at risk cities.

Obviously the entire state of Florida is. As a result of that, you start to see what they call climate change gentrification, wealthier people kind of move inland to some of these higher lying neighborhoods such as Haya-Lia or Liberty City. And what's interesting about that, as you've already pointed out,

is that there's so much concrete. There is so much everything but green space, parks, trees. I really want to talk about this because later on, I'm going to be talking to David Samson, the former president of the Miami Marlins about how sports teams keep, first thing we do is we keep paving our green spaces, whether it's for Mel Reese, whether it's for this arena downtown here for the Miami Heat, and then you have teams like Inter Miami and Fort Lauderdale, like the Miami Heat and Downtown Miami, promising us Park Space.

It'll be a part of the project, right? It's all a part of the plan. We promise, just give us your property, give us your money, and then they don't do it. How bad is it when you drive around downtown Miami here and Brickle, and you see the growth, you see the number of new people that are here, you know, how sustainable is this

when there's no master plan? You might have more people flushing more toilets, taking more resources, but there doesn't seem to be any more investment in infrastructure, or it's not just quality of life to have a park, right? I mean, it's the survival of this community, is it not? Well, totally. I mean, and that's why you see these bond issuances like in Miami and Miami Beach where they're trying to find funds to be able to fix the infrastructure because let's not forget some of those pipes from the sewers and whatnot

are now sitting at the water table level or below because the water table is higher because of sea level rise. Sea level rise is causing our water table to be higher. It's rusting out all the infrastructure that is down there. And of course, it's leading to more of these sunny day floods and all these other issues and oh, by the way, you know, storm surges like Hurricane Ian's storm surge are driven higher and further inland just based on the fact that sea level is already seven inches higher today than it was 29 years ago. Since 1994 at Virginia Key, our tide gauge right here in Miami, we've seen seven inches of sea level rise just since 1994. How's that for rapid acceleration of sea level rise just since 1994. I mean, how's that for rapid acceleration of sea level rise?

And that's, you know, it's not gonna take 29 years for the next seven inches, all right? You know, it's going to continue to accelerate and it's very concerning. What do we do about it? I mean, I suppose we can mitigate. You can't really stop it, but we can slow it when what are number one and number two,

what are the policies? How much money can we possibly throw at this? Well, that's just the thing, right? And people should Google that column I think last year, I had an op-ed in the Washington Post about that, how in Florida all the spending has been towards adaptation at the state level I'm talking about. Just throw money at adaptation and do nothing to mitigate the root cause of what's going on, which is, of course, the burning of fossil fuels and pumping more greenhouse gases into

the atmosphere. And listen, resilience has its limits. You can only be so resilient. Eventually, you get a ban and off storm surge that's going to carve out all the bottom infrastructure of all these buildings along the coast, Miami Beach and sunny Isles Beach and all these other places. The day that happens, the damage is going to be not just $100 billion, but we're probably talking closer to $200 billion in damage when we get another hurricane, one like Ian, but coming up our coast instead of the Southwest coast of Florida.

And the long-term problem too. Listen, I mean, because Florida is the way it is and our municipalities and counties work the way they do, they all want their property tax money and they continue to approve all these massive projects to get more revenue to be able to pay for some of those adaptation measures that they're trying to adopt. But I don't think it can be done quickly enough, as I said, resilience has its limits. And what we need to do is slow down the warming and slow down the sea level rise. You're right.

You can't stop it. But you have to find a way to slow it down. So mitigation needs to be a part of the effort too. I happen to love some of the tropics. I love a good tropical depression, I really do. There's something kind of warm and romantic about it. You're inside, you kind of watch the laser light show, maybe you'll lose electricity for a little bit,

but I've always, you know, growing up here, it's always been part of the experience. So, you know, we prepare obviously for the storms, but we don't run scared every time it rains because it rains almost every single day. And so, one of the upsides of summer in Florida is mango season. And it's like, it's Mother Nature's way of saying,

I know it's gonna be a hard couple of months, but here's some God of the Nectars for you to tie you over. You know, and the last few years, it's been weird. It's been like, it the nectar for you to tie you over, you know, and the last few years it's been weird, it's been like it hasn't come, it's been late, it's been weird, like, and we're always alarmed. So this year it was like it came early and it was bountiful. And I thought, oh shit, because the one thing that man goes need to grow is heat. And that just meant not only is it hot, but it got hot earlier, it got hot sooner. And I don't really know what to do about all that. Other than eat

mangoes and watch the world end. John, listen, the trend in Miami, temperatures in Miami are 2.7 degrees hotter now than they were 50 years ago on average. 2.7 degrees doesn't sound like a lot, but you have to think of temperatures as a bell curve. And the ones on the right-hand side of the bell curve, that part that's super hot, those terrible, terrible days, when it's, in Miami's case, 97, 98 degrees at the humidity, it feels like 115, 120.

Those days are starting to happen more often. And it's dangerous, it's downright dangerous, not just for, if you wanna take a jog outside or go cycling or whatnot. But I think of all the people that work outdoors, in agriculture, in construction, or just in and around the city, you talked about downtown Miami, what's the name of the group that tries to be friendly

to tourists and guide us and whatever, there's a group out there. Those folks are working outdoors all day, right? Think of what just went on in Texas, where the governor passed a law that said, you cannot give water breaks to the people that work in construction out there. I mean, how dangerous is that?

Lives could be at risk. It's like a 10 minute break every four hours or something like that. So that's exactly the opposite of what you have to do, given the trends that we're seeing because this is not going to stop. We will continue to see warming. The question is how hot is it going to get? How unbearable will it be? How many lives is it going to cost? And again, mitigating, cutting our emissions is key to be able to think of a planet in which we're

going to be able to have our children and grandchildren be able to live comfortably in. Sanity science zero comfort from John Rellis. I always talk we talk a lot about the show sort of like the political existential threat to like our community into our environment. This is like the existential threat full stop. Last week when Miami mayor Francis Suarez was announcing his run for president at the Reagan presidential library in order to paraphrase Reagan, he said, Miami is a city on a hill. I thought to myself, Miami is a city under sea level. Like, whatever the exact opposite of a city on a hill is,

that the antithesis of that, that is actually what Miami is. How can I help? So, John Morales, thank you so much for being here. It's John Morales TV on Twitter. That's right. Follow him for more gloom and doom. That's right. And more importantly, to learn how maybe,

maybe we can make this one earth that we have last a little bit longer for us in our offspring. Thanks Billy. A laís, bluque, a laís. Escuchéis lo que escuchéis. Tapados los ojos. La calle vamos todos a cieras, pero lo más aterradores no saberen que confiar. Uí de las personas que os piden que mireis. Si queréis seguir convido. Here in Miami we have competent professionals at the city level, at the county level, and they are here to save us from ourselves. Problem is, I don't know that they can save them from themselves.

Here is a particularly frustrating clip from Miami Mayor, and now, GOP presidential primary hopeful, Francis Suarez, A.K.A. Now our latest challenge, of course, is the water and the heat, as you've said in the prior segment. And we, our citizens approved right after Hurricane Irma in 2017, which created a four to six-foot storm surge in our central business district, a plan called Miami Forever. And the basis of the plan is to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on our voter approved. That was actually a voter approved tax and combine them with other funding sources like

the state and federal government to be able to upgrade our infrastructure to deal with all the things that are being thrown away from mother nature. But when you said you can't afford not to take it seriously, I wonder if you think the national Republican Party takes the problem of climate change seriously. Well, what we're seeing at the national level is that the only action that is occurring is action that's taken in a bipartisan basis. The Democrats, unfortunately, have failed to be able to pass bills to address climate at any sort of scale.

So the infrastructure will be reasonable. Well, they don't have any Republican votes. They also don't have all Democrats on board, but it would help if they had Republican votes. Miami forever, my ass. Every time, every time this guy opens his mouth, he just embarrasses himself, he embarrasses this community. And Roy, do you know why I call him Ponzi post-Alytta?

Because it's a con man. Well, yeah, that's Ponzi. So Ponzi obviously is for Charles Ponzi post Alita. Because it's a con man. Well, yeah, that's Ponzi. So Ponzi obviously is for Charles Ponzi, the famous con man who we named a whole scheme after. His name's Sake Trade, the Ponzi scheme. And of course, the last place he applied his trade was here in the state of Florida before he was sent to Massachusetts

and then deported to Italy. But a post Alita is... He's a poser. Is a... Yeah, I mean, the literal translation is postcard, but it's kind of like a Miami Cuban slang that means a faker, a poser, a bullshit artist. You know, post-alita, it's superficial, it's a fraud, it's a facade, it's not real. I think I've made myself clear.

I think I've made myself clear. So... Well, hold on, I'm played a court. Go ahead and play. Party most of the time. Not even more clearer. So what he's talking about here is the Miami Forever Bond. This was an initiative that his predecessor, Miami Mayor Tomas Regalato, Republican

who he had on this show. This was kind of a pet project of his to have more money available for infrastructure and resilience and climate change and sea level rise mitigation projects. And so Francis Suarez at the time was a city commissioner who was running for mayor. And the city commission had to vote not once but twice whether or not to put this item, this Miami forever bonds item, $400 million so we could try to save the city or have some help saving the city onto the ballot. And he had to vote as a city commissioner on that.

And how do you think he voted, Roy? How can I help? So he voted no, not once, but twice. Mr. Mayor, you're brilliant, you were super smart. So I could have been up for third time. Mayor, you're brilliant. You were super smart. So I could have been up for third time and and he lost it did go to it did get on the ballot to go to referendum and you think he went out and supported the referendum and

encouraged people to vote for this $400 million in bonds to try to help save the city and increase infrastructure and no. No. He did not. And Miami, we are definitely not woke. So now he's going on national television, Roy. And he's taking credit for this. And not only is he taking credit for something that he was passionately against three times, but something that we've only spent in the city of Miami,

100 million of that 400 million on any kind of infrastructure of mitigation. I think some of it was for a park, some of it was for some pumps. But $300 million still remains. And that's what I mean when I say post-alita. He's going out there and he's pretending to be something he's not. He's just lying. And more importantly,

he is the mayor of the city with one of the most, if not the most vulnerable cities in the world. We have billions with a B of dollars of vulnerable real estate and property right along the bay, right along the ocean, and it's not going well. And yet he's out there talking about how like, he doesn't even know. I know it's frustrating. I know, this is so great because it's like, this is what he's been doing this last week to running for president is that when he doesn't get challenged in an interview, he feels emboldened.

And the next interview, he tells a bigger lie. And bigger lie about his record, he talks about his policies he has no policies as a ceremonial mayor. He stands in the way of policy, he stands in the way of progress and here he is on Fox News a favorite stop of his talking about climate change hysteria. Of course I'm fired up about it and they're coming after Miami. It's obvious why they're coming after Miami. They can't protect their citizens. They can't keep their taxes low and they're rejecting

high paying jobs in their own community so they have to go after something and this is what they've chosen to go after. They've chosen to tell people, Miami's going to be under water so don't invest in Miami. Don't believe me, the mayor, the private sector, believe the private sector. They just of Miami. Don't believe me, the mayor, the private sector. Believe the private sector. They just grew Miami last year by 12%, which is the second most growth in recorded history. So they are themselves betting on the long-term future prospects of our city being here forever. I agree with them. Don't believe him. Don't believe the mayor, absolutely not. That would be crazy. But what he says is believe the private sector. Follow the private sector. But he talks about growth.

You follow the private sector. You shouldn't follow realtors, Roy, okay? And businesses and billionaires and millionaires who are buying their second third and fourth houses here, they can afford to self-insure. They can afford, by the way, at the drop of a hat or the drop of a hurricane, they can up and move just as fast as they came here. They can move their companies, move their offices, move their homes, move their families.

No problem. Chopper will come down, airlift them the hell out of here. That's some short term private sector business, okay? This growth is absolutely unsustainable as we talked about with John Morales, a scientist in the earlier segment. But let's follow the private sector, Roy. I trust the private sector who hires actuaries. Let's look at the insurance companies.

We just had last week the 15th insurance company in the last 18 months has just announced that they will no longer be writing new policies in the state of Florida. I believe that was farmers. So we are fah, fah, fah, fah, fah, fah, fah, fah, fah, fah, fah, fah, fah, fah, fah, and that's the private sector that i will follow when i'm looking to see what the future brings because there are the ones actually looking at the future i'm not trusting a realtor driving a rent in maclaren that guys not thinking too far ahead of himself and when you mention

the uh... the pumps where exactly they put those pumps well in in the city of my new, they put the pumps where that mayor, Phil Levine's property was. He owns a lot of property in real estate. So they put the pumps there. In the city of Miami, it doesn't even matter. I think they put, well, they put them near the water, which makes sense.

They're pumping it out. But there's not enough of them. And they have the money sitting there, but they're not doing anything with it. But the mayor also wants credit for it. I just, it's so frustrating because, you know, when I come on this program and I spit facts, I get labeled a hater. And that's why I say in this town, Miami is where truth is hate and lies are love. And where we don't have reality, we have realty. And I say that because

of exactly this reason, I have a buddy Roy. I don't know reality, we have reality. And I say that because of exactly this reason. I have a buddy Roy, I don't know if you remember that video that went viral during the April floods, the April rains. And it was right outside the window here basically. Someone in one of these condos by the arena on Biscayne Boulevard looked out at the three, at the big Miami's Big Dig,

which is the 395 construction site where the signature bridge is going in. And man, they sent it to somebody who works for the mayor and they wrote back, don't be a hater. And it's like a hater. Like this is just a weather. I just took a video outside my window. What are you talking about?

A hater, but not everybody buys Francis Suarez's bullshit. Here's an event that the Miami Young Republicans threw. It's a American conservative climate rally at a park right here on Biscayne Boulevard. And this was, I mean, this was your biggest line and this Barbie's are you you can't publish me for shit We call it I heard what I said You're a paper public

I'm leaving don't touch me. I'm leaving don't touch me Man that music is very positive. I thought I did, did Mike add that? I thought Mike added that. Did Mike add that? No, Mike did not add that. But that's all right. That's embedded right there, huh?

That's fair use. So here's the thing, there is a, it's called a trickle down effect. A lot of things trickle down in Miami. No pun intended, but the way people treat climate change, sea level rise, and resilience in this town, it trickles down from the attitude that the mayor has, which is that it's a joke, and it's not something to be taken seriously. And Roy, in the city of Miami, there have been three chief resilience officers in three years.

I don't even think there is one right now. And the third one, they hired her after a nationwide search and she came to Miami and after a few months, she's like, peace. Not very resilient, I'm not. She's like, I'm outta here. She's like, this place is toxic and unaffordable, and there's no way anybody can get any real serious work done in this town.

I'm out. She bolted from city hall. And here's something even more interesting, and I don't know that anyone's reported this before. We need a real like, you know, look at me, Louis breaking news kind of banner here, like, because I'm breaking news, man. One of the chief resilience officers when they approach the mayor's office about

important issues related to resilience here in the city of Miami, one of the mayor's high level staffers at the time, one of the aids told this chief resilience officer, the mayor is not focused on resilience issues because they're too long term. He's looking for short term PR victories to raise his profile. He's not looking for long term solutions to help save the city because nobody's going to be able to see those immediately see the effects of it. And it's not going to be politically advantageous for him.

If you put garbage in, you're going to get garbage out. Boy, lots to complain about today on the program, and that's what the hotline is for. 7-8-6-505-9842. That is the because Miami complaint line 7 eight six five zero five nine eight four two Do we have any calls this week Roy? Dan Billy Long time listener. I love listening to because Miami because It makes where I live and Fergus Falls Minnesota seems so much better Your city's the disaster. Thank you. Well, you won't

just have me to complain about this summer. We're going to have some guest co-hosts coming. Oh, yeah. That guy's such a long time listener. He thinks Dan's still here. Dan and Billy. Billy and Roy now, but there's also going to be some fresh face, fresh faces. There's going to be some funny faces. There's going to be some, we, fresh faces. There's gonna be some funny faces. There's gonna be some, we're gonna have a good time this summer. Aren't we, right? Maybe. We're gonna have, if we can keep the lights on,

keep the electricity on here in the studio, it's gonna be a good time. And that caller, you know, he says our cities at his ass are gonna make some feel better about where he lives and we're proud to provide that shadow for ID for those of you in Minnesota. But if you really wanna know, the problem here is that not only the mayor is a fraud.

But he also doesn't have any policy, as I said earlier. Like, the guy who really runs the city, and this is the problem, if anybody out there watched one city commission meeting online, no one would ever move here, invest here, open a business here by a house here, certainly not send your kids to school here, but Commissioner Joe Garroyo. This is Daniel, a little Twitter account, a little Billy. But it is my podcast.

So we are going to end the segment. Just so you have an idea, there was an item on the agenda recently, Roy, at the City Commission about climate change and resiliency and sea level rise. And so they welcomed school children from high school, middle school, college. Everybody came and spoke to the commission about how they felt about this existential threats to our community, our earth, their futures. And this is what Joe Corroyo, who really makes the policy and runs this city while Francis Suarez runs around, you know, playing post-Alytas president. This is what Joe Corroyo told those children.

But you know what? I can't help but you think while sitting up here that I hear so much of this, the world's coming to an end. Right away with climate change and we have to do everything tomorrow. And I look at what is happening in Ukraine. Do you think the people there are making or should make priority climate change? Do you think that the other threats that our world is facing when you hear a war criminal, a thug like Vladimir Putin, threatened with nuclear weapons?

When you hear our own presence saying that Russia could use biological or chemical weapons anytime, or that we need to be prepared because we're going to be attacked by Russia through the internet. We're going to cyber attack us. I will tell it all of you that those are immediate dire threats for everybody out of office that we're facing. Those are real because I will tell you. This whole rant was seven minutes long.

Maybe he went on about Iran, he went on about North Korea, he went about suit case bombs. All those kids were sitting there Roy Like the audience in the producers when springtime for Hitler is being performed They were just like what the hell is this and really that's the best reaction To this town is what the hell is this do you know why Roy? Because my name the name of this goddamn podcast, Speaking of which, David Samson. Next.

I love this town! Miami is known for sun, fun, and sex. And Miami, you are about to get f**ked. These five commissioners are voting on the biggest real estate deal in the history of Miami, and if you thought the Marlins Park deal was sh**ing wait until you get a load of this. The city wants to give billionaire Jorge Moss David Beckham and their Inter Miami soccer team a 99 year no bid lease below market value on a hundred and thirty one acres of

parkland at Mel Reese. That's Miami's single largest piece of public property. They want you to think this is about a soccer stadium but it's just another real estate hustle to pave paradise and build a hotel, office park and shoppied mall. But city leaders don't care, they're all getting paid. Miami is one of the poorest cities in the country. We need help. Instead, we get welfare for billionaires. While rents in Miami have shot up as much as 60% in the last year alone,

these guys want to pay the same price they negotiated back in 2018. The city is being cheated out of $17 million every year by allowing this deal. This is a billion dollar heist happening in broad daylight and it gets worse. The city manager who is the lead negotiator has a shady side deal to get a fat six figure gig with the inter Miami team after he forces this game through the city commission. Don't be fooled. Don't let them steal from you. Tell them. Don't bend over for Beckham. This is the biggest boondoggle in Miami history. The Mel Ries giveaway is so bad, it would make the Marlin Stadium deal look good. Take it from me. Someone who actually negotiated with your politicians and almost single andedly ended stadium of look financing.

Almost. I'm David Samson and I approved this message. I thought it'd be the final guy who f**ked you. It turns out I'm not. He is the former president of the Miami-Marlins, of course, the host of Nothing Personal. He is MetalArch's own David Samson. And that was a little, what do we call that? A side project that he and I worked on together last year to educate the community about the realities of paving paradise and putting up another friggin sports stadium. David, this show today has been a lot about climate change,

environmental resilience, sea level rise. And now we have, once again, as you know, we are going to eliminate another green space and other public park to build a soccer stadium. We did the same thing by Centennial Park, Bayfront Park, right across the street from here to build the Miami Heat Arena. We actually voted on that in 1996

on a yes means no, no means yes, ballot referendum initiative. Part of that ballot was supposed to be the promise that Pat Riley made to us in countless TV commercials saying there was going to be a public park here in parcel B between the arena and the Bay, Inter Fort Lauderdale, AKA Inter Miami, when they got a $1 a year lease on a park in Fort Lauderdale, they promised to build a public park as well. Both the Miami Heat Parcel B and the Inter Miami Fort Lauderdale property have been nothing but parking lots. Now, it could be David that the ownership misread the deal. It said, it said park, they read, they read Valley, parking lot.

I'm not sure, but, David, why is this such a thing? These broken promises, and why does it always seem to involve the amenities that were promised to the public? It doesn't seem to me that these sports teams ever, it never comes up short on their end of the deal, but only the public's end of the deal. Well, that's because there's no one actually enforcing the agreements. And in fact, I would argue that the majority of people

who vote on the agreements on both sides don't actually read them. So the TV commercials that you're referring to, that's just to get a vote. And the yes, no, no, yes. I don't know if you're glossing over that, but the way a referendum is actually worded, that's the whole ball game.

A referendum wins or loses based on its wording. So I'm not at all surprised. As a little known fact here, Billy, the Marlins wanted, we wanted to build a ballpark on parcel B. We wanted to fill in the space to the north of Miami, Hina Rina, and we were told that no, because there's going to be a park. Well, first of all, Hina Rina. And we were told that no, because there's gonna be a park. Well, first of all, that was insane. You wanted to fill in an area in which the Bay came, and you wanted to pile a bunch of dirt and concrete

into the Bay. No, we wanted the public to do that. Well, right, you wanted us to pay for it. Yes. No, we would never have paid for that. That was going to be very, very expensive. And the argument was that it was too much traffic, because Marlon's attendance, plus he's attendance,

plus they were doing it that time. There was a thought of the museums that are there. The science museum and the Perez Tax Disduction Museum. All of that was coming. And the thought was it'll just be too much. Well, you know, they didn't have to worry about the Marlins attendance, God knows. I mean, as it turns out, more people go to that science museum

than go to a Marlins game. Definitely not. But definitely not. But why is it a public park? Why is that like a staple down here? I guess because we don't have enough of them, and we give them away to millionaires and billionaires for their developments and their sports teams.

Why is that always like the carrot and the stick here? It's like, oh, we'll give you a, yes, we're gonna pave over your park, but we're gonna give you a public park because intra-miami is promising exactly the same thing in Miami. The same promise that they've already broken in a year or two to the city of Fort Lauderdale. They're promising us exactly the same promise that they've already broken in a year or two to the city of Fort Lauderdale.

They're promising us exactly the same. Oh, there's not going to be less park space. You're actually going to have more park space in Miami. It's bullshit, isn't it? Yeah, it's complete. So here's the background. A lot of officials in Miami were jealous of New York and how Manhattan managed to keep Central Park and a bunch of other green areas.

And the view was that Miami was always planned in a very haphazard way. There wasn't any Central Park, and I put that in quotes. It wasn't planned at all. I put the word planned in quotes too. I guess that's true. And that is a problem when you're trying to be a first class city. It's not just sports teams and convention centers.

You do need green space, but you need urban planning. So each individual deal that the government did down in Miami always had to include green space because that was a buzz word for county commissioners before they would give you your vote. Is they wanted to know how many acres were being taken away and how many were being added. It's like companies who you fly in private planes, but then say we planted 12 trees, so let's call it even, right? It's that sort of concept. I've never seen anyone plant trees.

I don't know where that happens. It is right. But certainly, well, that I used to do. Before it was cool, right? For my bar mitzvah, hey, instead of cash, you got 12 trees planted in your name. Today, I've never visited the trees, though got 12 trees planted in your name. Today I've never visited the trees, though I've been to Israel many times.

But no, it's the story of Miami and it's the old story and it's not just Miami, lest you feel you're special, that these green deals, both capital G and lowercase G, they don't actually happen. And so, Miami Heat, if the government ever wanted to enforce the contract, they could, just like for Lauderdale's trying to do with Moss. But at the end of the day, it's so costly to enforce, it can be in litigation, and the teams just know that they can wait out the government, and eventually new politicians will come in, be voted in, and they'll forget about it again. It does seem amazing, however,

what is happening in the city of Fort Lauderdale, because it seems like there are people in the government who actually want to enforce the deal. There are people who are trying to hold the team accountable. They're saying, where is the park? You promised us, you're using it as an overflow parking lot, and now they're apparently exercising some kind of clause at the city where they are going to pay for the park, which they anticipate costing about 25 million, 13 of which is supposed to be the

inter Miami end of it. The rest of it's coming from a park spawned initiative that was on the ballot before. And the city's just going to do it and send a bill to Moss. Is it like 30 days? Is it net 30? I don't know what the bill is. But what's funny is that part of the dispute over this is the team claims that we're not gonna start

we're break ground on the park until you wave $1.4 million in building permit fees that we are supposed to pay anyone else doing this kind of construction would pay, but we don't wanna pay. So the first thing we want the city to do is they're extorting them here as to forgive $.4 million dollars in debt that they legitimately owe the city and then we can talk about maybe the park we promised you We tried for maybe eight months of the negotiation with Miami to get permit fees waived

And we did not win that we took we got our wins and other places in the deal But that's a thing they don't ever want to waive permit fees. We actually hired someone as part of the budget for Marlon's Park who was a permit expediter. That was their job was to get through the red tape and make sure that permits didn't hold up construction. And we had a clause in there that if it did, we wouldn't have to cover overruns. Expand? And we were due to cover overruns, therefore they got the permits done.

We call that a bag man in our lot of work. That's exactly the quote unquote, expediter. Yeah, sure. The reason that for Lauderdale is starting to enforce the deal, it's not a coincidence that they're doing it after Miami is going to Miami. Once the Melri steel happened and the thought is that they're not gonna be permanently

inter for Lauderdale, all of a sudden the government in Fort Lauderdale said, listen, we're about to lose this team with Messi. Although my view is Messi will be long gone before they ever move to a stadium at Mel Rhee's will wait to see on that. But that's why I think they're enforcing the contract. Sure, but it also seems like there was a relatively newly elected commissioner in the city who seems to be holding their feet to the fire more so than anyone else. But you have experience with that as well, not everybody, you know, you got the vote you needed,

but not everybody voted for you. There were certainly people on the other side. Oh, there's always no. My favorite, I've told you this before, Kate Sorensen was a no, was always a no, was never gonna be a yes. And I loved her for it. We had roots together in Wisconsin because I don't wanna waste my time. I didn't even meet with her as registered lobbyist. I didn't spend one minute with her

because it was just a waste of my time. It's the people who you know you can get to yes, but you have to hold their hand and go to meeting after meeting and give them, after give them a park here, a park there, everywhere a park park. And then you get the yes, that was always a bigger pain in the neck. You have to, shall we say, expedite them, perhaps. But my favorite Katie Sorenson story, Katie, who was no notoriously as like one of the

most straight commissioners, probably in the history of Miami-Dade County, she started a Miami-Dade institute on ethics and good government at the University of Miami, fully funded, great operations, and people who were either in government or interested in being involved in government or running for office would come through there to learn about ethics and good government. And my favorite headline, one of my favorite headlines

in the history of this town, and I'm not making this up. This is not the onion. It said, this is Katie Sorenson's operation. It said, Miami-Dade, Good Government Institute, shuts down due to lack of interest. That was not, everything happens to be a correct headline. And it wasn't lack of funding, plenty of funding.

It was, there were sitting there in empty classrooms. No one was interested in Good Government government here in Miami-Dade. David Samson, I wanna ask you, what were some of your broken promises to the taxpayers here in Miami-Dade? We gave the Miami Heat an $87 million piece of property, waterfront property. That was $87 million in 1996 money.

So now that's a multi-billion dollar piece of property that I don't think they pay property taxes on that they didn't pay for. They did fund construction of the building, but yet we pay them $6.4 million a year to run it. We're supposed to have revenue share. We have not gotten dollar one on that revenue share in nearly 30 years. You guys got an even better deal on Marlon's Park. I would argue.

I'm sure you would argue something different, but I want to know it and and i will tell you that to the credit of the heat and what you said about you got to read the the fine print you got to read the ballot language didn't matter what pat riley promised in that ad the park itself the parcel be park was not actually in the ballot language despite the fact that everybody believe that would be the case let's also safer moment that when they pulled the popularity of a publicly subsidized arena there,

considering eight years earlier, we had just built the Miami arena for $50 million. And of course, the Florida Panthers took off to Broward. The Miami Heat took off, they wanted to take their own, everybody needs their own, why does everybody need their own damn arena? Why can't we share? They're open for 20 days out of the year for MLS soccer.

You at least what do you have 80 days out of the year? How often is your park open? Well, if I'm the A's trying to get a deal done in Vegas, I'm gonna tell you that we're gonna have 300 days, we're gonna have world baseball classics, all star games, every single year we're gonna have it. Tons of concerts, it's absolute horse hockey. But in terms of promises, let me just be clear,

the documents are all online and publicly available. When I was there from 2009 to 2017, 2009 is when it was approved, 2017 is when I left. We followed it by the letter of the law. We looked at that agreement and we did everything because we never wanted to open ourselves up. That said, during the course of the negotiation, there were many things that went on

that people may or may not have thought made it into the final agreement, but I never felt badly when we would talk about something and then it didn't make it into the agreement but people thought it did. That's their own problem and their own fault. The biggest example is a youth academy. We actually had an entire ribbon cutting for a youth academy in Miami, like the one they

haven't compton. It would have been amazing for Miami. I really wanted it. Baseball was involved and ready to do it except it never happened happened. And to this day, it's never happened, but it was not in the agreement, Billy. Wait, so you had a photo op, you had the event, as if like had us on the back, give us credit victory lap, and then you did not,

wait, how do you have an event for something that doesn't exist, though? It is a modern day miracle of PR. We had great PR people. So what you do is you bring a bunch of people to a place where you think there's a chance it could be, even though you have no land deal, it was gonna be inside a park where the airport

is not Miami Airport. Oh God, is it near, it's the big park where one of your commissioners is so involved down there. It doesn't matter. I can't remember where it was. It was a ground, like you had shovels and hard hats on? Or it's better. So it wasn't a ground breaking.

It was a ribbon cutting of the concept of a dream of an academy. It was absolute nothing, but we had cameras. Two of them were our own, but we did get some of the new stations to come. There were commissioners who went, the president of baseball flew in for it. It was all part of making sure we got the nine votes to get a stadium approved, which ended up happening after. But we had to make sure that that did not

make it into the final agreement because we had no way of funding it. Baseball wasn't going to give us money. We weren't going to invest in it because we wanted to sign Heath Bell, and the public wasn't gonna give us money. We weren't gonna invest in it because we wanted to sign Heath Bell. And the public wasn't gonna fund it. So therefore it wasn't gonna happen, but we got to say, hey, it is gonna happen, sorry. So you set up a ribbon in a public park and cut it in front of a whole bunch of cameras with never the intention of doing anything,

never actually doing anything. Well, the ladder, Billy, obviously, I would have loved to, there have been an academy. It's really cool to have a academy. Oh no, I didn't see you didn't want it, but I said you had no intention of doing it. We had no path to do it. Is what the headline is.

There was no agreement to do it. There was no path to an agreement. There was no financing plan. There was nothing required that was in existence that made me believe it was possible. So what was I feeling during this time? The same thing I was feeling traveling to Portland and Vegas in San Antonio when I knew Bud Silic had told me you can never move the Marlins.

They will never relocate. Wait, you told us you were gonna go to Vegas. I was pretending. You all cowboy hat. I was pretending. We knew we did not have permission for relocation. We had permission to seek relocation. Go back and look at the statements I made.

A lot of things trickled down in Miami. Remember when I, the term post-alita? Remember the term post-alita? Yeah, so this is all about, you know, we're at a time, but I really wanted to talk to you about John Ruiz. We have biometric technology. You know a hustler and a Miami hustle when you see one and you smell one,

but I think we're gonna have to wait on that for next time. You better not wait too long because I'm not sure how long he's gonna be free. Whew. I love this town. David Samson, I'm sorry, Metal Lark's own, that we're contractually, I have to identify you. It's right here, it's right here.

No, that's incorrect. Read my contract. Metal Lark's own. It acts as, no, no. You can't say that, because I'm not Metal Lark's own. I'm not an employee. What you're supposed to say is host of nothing personal with David Samson, this is David Samson,

who also makes appearances on the Lebitar. You know what? I think it's time I take a step back. Now I think I've heard what the audience has to say in the internet, which can be oh so cruel. And David, you go ahead and you do the show on Thursday, you go ahead and you do the show on Friday, you know, you do you, and I'm gonna take a step back, cocaine.

You're unbelievable, Billy. You really need me to take over your show now too. All right, here we go. I appreciate your time and remember, everything that happens is because Miami right now I want to take you back to an unbelievable Miami moment that will literally make your hair stand up on your neck. Bye bye. Hi John and Frank. It's Mayor Francis Swars wishing you both much success

tomorrow in your NASDAQ listing. I know it's going to be a wonderful day, it's wonderful. With a Miami-based technology community of hometown guys, makes it all the way to NASDAQ. It opens the NASDAQ bell. It's incredible. An incredibly exciting moment for our city, an incredibly exciting moment for you guys. I know it's going to be memorable and I wish you the best success. Thank you for innovating,

thank you for creating your company in our city and good luck and have fun tomorrow.