Grant Stern  Profile picture
Jul 9, 2018 16 tweets 5 min read Read on X
*** THREAD ***

I would like to say something about the #Miami MLS proposal.

Firstly, forget the merits, there's a big problem.

The process.

I do not trust it.

Residents must make a final decision on a complex multi-million dollar real estate transaction.

1/
Thus far, the @MiamiHerald's @joeflech was stonewalled when requesting the public records to report on it during the last month.

The vote is Thursday.

Then it goes to a referendum where competing groups will dump millions of dollars into lobbying a plan nobody has seen yet.

2/
Residents of @CityofMiami have seen the failure of the backwards approach to business time & time again.

Not just from failed developments.

But from MLS very specifically, who has already announced another stadium deal with the City of Miami in 2015

3/

cbssports.com/general/news/b…
If the Beckham/Mas/Claure group is serious about working with the community to allow for a fair and independent evaluation of their plan.

Then they can create a transparent website that the public can access, and deliver that plan to the city as a public record.

4/
Sending the entire issue to a referendum this Thursday without any time for the public to vet the plan and the details is not fair to residents who deserve the time to evaluate such a consequential decision.

Melreese is one of the city's largest real estate assets.

5/
Three months is a minimal amount of time to vet such a large transaction, let alone to disseminate the details of the plan in such a way that an informed electorate can make a decision.

None of this factors in the merits of the plan, who these people are and the central...

6/
Role in Miami that they will play after the City sells them such a high profile piece of the city's property right in the heart of town.

It doesn't take into consideration any covenants that the City can or should place on the deal either.

Because we don't know anything.

7/
The City of Miami has a rare opportunity to control the destiny of a central district and that should be considered carefully with full input by the community.

That simply cannot happen in a few months when all that has been submitted is pretty pictures.

Not a full plan.

8/
Parcel B is a prime example of why this must be done carefully.

Miami-Dade County still doesn't let the public use that waterfront public space even though it has accommodated auto racing.

Whatever agreements were there, were weak.

9/
Jungle Island
Watson Island
Marlins Park

All land deals that have been bad for the city.

Look at the Boat Show: it's a traffic nightmare and they chopped down endangered mangroves to hold the event.

The Miami Marine Stadium is still closed.

10/
Watson Island has a sweetheart lease.

The City Attorney shanked residents fighting the deal along with the City Commission she was supposed to represent.

All that's there is a mega-yacht marina which is profitable to a foreign investor given 10+ years of special help.

11/
Marlins Park?

Do I need to elaborate beyond those two words to invoke the horror of that deal, which Melreese opposer @Manny_A_Diaz made happen?

That deal had a ton of problems.

When the city waived competitive bidding, we got screwed.

12/
Jungle Island is losing money for the owners and the city.

Now they want to upzone the heck out of the island, against ALL covenants and agreements they ever made to get a generous deal.

Again, why couldn't the city have kept THAT as a public space?

13/
So, there is ample room to call the @CityofMiami's history of real estate deals to be less than stellar.

#Miami's public needs time to thoroughly review the MLS proposal for Melreese before it is set for a referendum.

If it is such a great deal, why hide it for months?

14/
Here are the public records about the #MiamiMLS plan

miami.nextrequest.com/requests/18-10…

15/
Here's another set of public records related to the #MiamiMLS plan

miami.nextrequest.com/requests/18-684

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More from @grantstern

Sep 24, 2018
@Lawrence the Russian historian Yuri Felshtinsky has written two major stories about my deep dive journalism. He's a world-famous Russian historian. He co-authored a book with Alexander Litvinenko, who Putin poisoned with polonium tea. Solid citation here. english.gordonua.com/amp/news/exclu…
Felshtinsky just released this story, which includes his affirmation of our work on Alexander Torshin and Maria Butina.

english.gordonua.com/news/exclusive…
Simes has relocated to Moscow to be a full time propagandist.
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Sep 15, 2018
#BREAKING

#EXCLUSIVE

New video exposes #LosAngeles GOP congressional candidate @RealOmarNavarro as a real neo-Nazi supporter.

He posted a group photo with three of his neo-Nazi supporters in his Twitter profile cover photo, now Milo loves him.

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Nazi saluting Milo

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Sep 6, 2018
Burt Reynolds is gone.

The world has lost a great FSU Seminole alum.

RIP Bandit.
Did you know that Burt Reynolds designed the Noles iconic 1980s uniforms and donated the design to FSU?

He did.

Reynolds was always close to Bobby Bowden and the team.

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Sep 6, 2018
The biggest Trump supporter in #Florida is the @FloridaGOP gubernatorial nominee @RonDeSantisFL.

@politicofl's @MarcACaputo reports he chose #Miami Republican Rep. Jeanette M. Nunez as his running mate.

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It looks so nice in the original mobile format.
I guess @RepJNunez has to stop opposing the KKK to join the @RonDeSantisFL campaign?

Right @BillyCorben?
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Aug 27, 2018
*** THREAD ***

Social Media Analysis of the race for #Miami's easternmost #FL27 Congressional district which has five Democrats vying to be the nominee (and presumptive front-runner) to replace Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

I used @crowdtangle to analyze all 5 candidates last 3 months.
Twitter:

@david4florida - highest engagement rate, most retweets
@matthaggman - most popular single post, lowest engagement rate, most posts.
@VOTEHEPBURN - doing better than:
@rosengonzalez - least posts, fewest interactions
@DonnaShalala - nearly fewest posts, underperforming
The most popular post in the entire last 3 months is from @matthaggman who has the most overall engagements by posting more and more material. He's also leading in most posts, almost double Richardson, but has 1/4th of R's engagement rate. Effective tho.

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Aug 25, 2018
*** THREAD ****

This is the real reason why Russia's Taganskaya mafia calls Alexander Torshin the Godfather.

He's got a private army

Torshin used those credentials to impress the NRA and infiltrate them as part of the #TrumpRussia election attacks.

thesternfacts.com/exclusive-buti…
The Vityaz are a prestigious former brigade of the Russian Ministry of Interior, which have been reorganized into three parts, two of them private.

- A battalion of regulars in RosGvard, Putin's praetorian guard.

- A spetznaz training center
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Alexander Torshin frequently shares photos of himself with Vityaz, calling them "his people" and he frequently appears with their Commander, Col. Sergey Lysyuk, who is a Hero of the Russian Federation and Butina spent a considerable amount of time with them too.
Read 8 tweets

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