Dade poll challenges case for secession
Basic services OK, most say
Dade residents are fed up with rampant growth and traffic in their neighborhoods, but satisfied with basic government services like police, fire and trash pickup.
Those are the conclusions from a wide-ranging survey of attitudes toward Dade city and county governments.
The poll, conducted by Florida International University researchers, found residents have strong opinions about what their government is doing right and doing wrong.
Residents of Dade’s cities and its unincorporated areas generally agree that ambulance, police and fire service is pretty good. For the most part, they give their libraries and garbage service high ratings.
But in many areas of Dade, roads have too many potholes, traffic is too congested, code enforcement is lousy and zoning decisions have hurt neighborhoods, the poll suggests.
At the same time, the poll showed a surprising lack of support at this point for breakaway incorporation movements aimed at turning Dade into a string of smaller cities.
That may provide reason for cheer at County Hall, which is battling one of the most serious secessionist movements in Metro’s 28-year history.
“When it comes to the incorporation movement, the train seems to be moving faster than citizen opinion,” said FIU professor Milan Dluhy, who directed the survey.
Metro commissioners asked for the survey earlier this year to find out how voters feel about Metro.
The reason: Leaders from several communities in unincorporated Dade - Aventura, Pinecrest, Destiny and others - are pushing to form cities in those areas. They say smaller governments will be able to provide better services and provide more representative government.
Researchers at FIU’s Institute of Government conducted a random telephone survey of 5,166 Dade residents in April and May.
They found:
- Only about 1 in 5 residents of unincorporated Dade favors breaking way from Metro to form new cities. Support is soft even in the Pinecrest and Destiny neighborhoods. The finding, however, might be colored by residents’ lack of information about the issue, the poll suggests.
- At the same time, residents generally favor measures to strip power from Metro commissioners and bring it closer to home. A majority, for example, favor neighborhood zoning boards and community-based administrative centers to handle citizen problems.
- Residents may want to reshape the Metro Commission. Nearly two-thirds in unincorporated areas favor adding commission seats so distinct unincorporated areas such as West Kendall can elect their own commissioners.
Leaders of local incorporation movements said they aren’t discouraged by the poll.
Gary Matzner, lawyer and leader of the Pinecrest movement, said though the poll was probably valid in some respects, he still detects widespread support for incorporation in his area. He and other community leaders have collected about 2,000 signatures, and have the endorsement of 20 neighborhood groups.
“I know that what we are doing is good for the community,” Matzner said.
What The Poll Found
Residents of unincorporated Dade aren’t rushing to break away from the county and form their own cities. But they do favor some other ideas for making government more responsive.
If you had to make a decision today about the unincorporated area that you live in, would you prefer that your area …
| Response | Percent |
|---|---|
| Remain unincorporated | 24.4% |
| Become part of nearby city | 4.1% |
| Become incorporated | 18.7% |
| Wait for further study | 41.5% |
| Don’t know | 11.2% |
Instead of incorporating new cities, there have been a number of other suggestions about how to improve services and the operation of government in the unincorporated parts of Dade County. Tell me what you think of them:
| Proposal | Very good idea | Mostly good idea | Mostly bad | Very bad | Don’t know |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay higher taxes or fees to improve services in the unincorporated areas | 9.2% | 24.9% | 18.8% | 35.2% | 12.0% |
| Establish locally elected zoning boards | 26.5% | 31.1% | 5.7% | 6.1% | 30.7% |
| Establish community-based administrative centers to handle citizen problems | 52.4% | 31.3% | 4.8% | 5.6% | 5.8% |
| Have both at-large and district-elected representatives for the county commission | 30.2% | 32.6% | 7.2% | 9.2% | 20.8% |
| Redraw district boundaries and add commission seats so that unincorporated areas of Dade County will have representation on the commission through their own commissioners | 34.8% | 28.2% | 7.0% | 11.7% | 18.3% |
Dade Report Card
Here is how Dade residents rate government services in the areas where they live.*
| How would you rate… | Excellent | Good | Fair | Poor | Don’t know |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Police services | 17.1% | 45.5% | 21.5% | 8.0% | 7.9% |
| Code enforcement | 11.5% | 37.1% | 19.8% | 14.1% | 17.5% |
| Fire and rescue services | 27.7% | 42.6% | 6.6% | 1.4% | 21.6% |
| Planning and zoning | 8.2% | 34.7% | 20.0% | 15.6% | 21.7% |
| Parks and recreation | 13.9% | 38.8% | 17.7% | 12.1% | 17.5% |
| Trash and garbage collection | 25.3% | 54.1% | 10.9% | 4.6% | 5.0% |
| Road and street maintenance | 10.4% | 37.8% | 26.9% | 22.9% | 2.0% |
| Libraries | 20.9% | 41.4% | 11.3% | 6.0% | 20.3% |
Would you say that the services where you live this year have generally… Stayed about the same:60.8%; gotten better:22.2%; gotten worse:11.5%; don’t know:5.5%.
Some people feel that when there are problems like garbage in the streets or potholes in the roads, it is useless to complain to local government officials? Do you… Somewhat agree:23.2%; somewhat disagree:24.3%; strongly agree:24.5%; strongly disagree:20.3%; don’t know:7.7%.
Figures reflect opinions of5,166residents surveyed in cities and unincorporated areas. This portion of the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus4percent.
Graphic credit: Martin Rincon / Herald Staff.