Foreclosure crisis and local action: Report from Miami Gardens

This morning an email came in from Andre Williams, a city councilman in Miami Gardens, about what he and his city are doing to combat the foreclosure crisis while the government in Washington flails about. Mr. Williams: today you're a guest blogger. Keep up the good work. Readers: click on the links he provides, and you'll be wiser and more motivated.

Here's his email:

I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for all of your hard work on behalf of the Democratic party in South Florida. As you may know, I am a proud Democrat and a hard working and productive City Councilman in Miami Gardens, the largest African American city in the state with a population of 115,000. We were very active with organizing the vote in our city for President-elect Obama.

I wanted to share some exciting, substantive news with you and the rest of our Democratic colleagues about the work that I am doing on behalf of our residents which has captured the attention of TIME magazine and our local media. I believe it is a great story the party can tell about one of its local elected Democratic officials.

TIME magazine continues to follow our extraordinary efforts in Miami Gardens to provide assistance to our residents facing foreclosure. This is the link to the most recent article: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1860879,00.html.

The magazine has followed me for the past several months to chronicle my efforts to engage lenders on behalf of our residents who are in jeopardy of losing their home. The magazine's first article may be found here: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1826970,00.html.

Local television and print media has also taken an interest in our work: http://video.nbc6.net/player/?id=284936 and http://www.sfltimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2051&Itemid=1.

While federal assistance has been largely inadequate, we are committed to saving as many homes as we can from foreclosure in Miami Gardens.

Regards,

André L. Williams

Councilman

City of Miami Gardens

NBC wakes up: FlaDems not so bad

Over at Naked Politics, the Miami Herald’s blog, they’re reporting a mea culpa from NBC political director Chuck Todd, who maligned our beloved Florida Democratic Party as one of the worst in the country.

After a little fact-checking, he says that was back in the distant past – 2004 and earlier – and nowadays we’re much better.

I’d be inclined to agree if our Bless-its-heart party had had the wit to see trouble coming with the too-early primary date and had fought it tooth and nail in the state legislature. That misstep was only a year ago, so by my clock we’ve only been doing much better since then.

Late-breaking thought: If the state legislature is agitated now to be passing laws about boys showing their boxers, will Naked Politics be safe and legal?