The Coral Gables Times

THE Coral Gables TIMES

Howls Without Reason

No one expected the Coral Gables Apartment Association to do anything but what it did last week: Protest a City Commission ordinance which gives homeowners the right to continue to rent a room or two. The association, through President Robert Brinkman, wants a tighter curtailment on the practice than that provided by the ordinance, i.e., rental of the rooms until the present property owner dies. Seems fair to us, this ordinance. And Brinkman made no case of a clear and present danger to apartment owner interests. We hope the City Commissioners will consider this same approach in the property revaluation that's underway. That is, let those whose low valuations will be violently disturbed by the revaluation have a cushion. It needn't run until death but only until the property leaves the hands of the present owners.

How to Live With a Monster (III)

Our No. 1 proposition in this series of editorials, ending next week, is that Metro has been granted too much power. It is power that formerly belonged to the cities of Dade County and we are going to be forever sorry if we don't reclaim some of it. The Times believes that if Coral Gables is to survive as a city of individuality that Metro must be reigned in. It is easy simply to oppose this higher government and reserve everything to ourselves, to say that we really don't need any Metro. Some of us might think it worthwhile to live with a few less services (that Metro proposes) than to put up with the orneriness (and greater cost) of this new government. But we believe that most citizens of Coral Gables— RECOGNIZE THE NEED for a Metro-type government. Our people do not regard themselves as individuals existing on an island. We are happy to live as citizens, not only of Coral Gables, but of Dade County. We recognize times have changed and that it is necessary to surrender some of our local prerogatives. It is self-evident that we must have a larger government to deal in a commodious parks system, provide county-wide library services (where there are none), build a seaport, lead expressway development and the like. In fact, this is precisely the kind of government Gableites— THOUGHT THEY WERE voting for when they approved Metro, both at the beginning and in subsequent tests. We have found, in disillusionment, that we tossed away our right to set our own higher building code standards; that we have no claim even to have a court in our town of 35,000 (the Metro court here exists because of some adroit work by local politicians, we are told, and whether it will remain we can only hope since it has no statutory permanence). Further, we found that we gave up our excellent motorcycle squad and now are hard put to receive even minimum motorcycle service; that we can't even regulate a matter so small (but important) as the price of a parking ticket on our streets. Neither have we seen, after some several years, the promised creation of special taxing districts to apportion equitably the costs of some duplicated services. We hope our citizens recognize what must be done to Metro and that they will go Thursday night of next week to the Youth Center to tell the Charter Review Board involved is not only us but our posterity.

Kiwanians Load Up

The Kiwanis Club of Coral Gables passed a resolution the other day asking Congress to investigate this country's State Department to "determine the cause of its failures." Struck us as a bit odd, this resolution, coming from a local civic club. But no, we thought on reconsideration, these are men who live on our block, run the grocery or fix our teeth. There's nothing that says a civic club can't express a political opinion through a majority of its members. In our opinion, the men were giving voice to a fear that gnaws at more Americans every day. That is, irrespective of who's in charge in Washington, Democrat or Republican, the State Department seems paralyzed when it comes to running an offensive operation.

Things Are Not Always What They Seem

Dissenting View on Plane Deal (Editor's note: Mr. Morris, who lives at 8445 SW 54th Ct., is a businessman whose aircraft parts duties sometimes carry him abroad. This is the first of a series of impressions from a recent European tour.) By JOE C. MORRIS Correspondent PARIS — Many Americans thought Uncle Sam was crazy when he agreed to sell 130 F86D jet fighters to communist Yugoslavia last January. But here at the American Air Material Force European Area Headquarters, near Chateauroux, France, members of the USAF think it was a dandy deal. The question in the minds of Stateside Americans is the same as the West German pilot being trained in Texas who asked, "Why is the United States training Yugoslav pilots to fly F86 jet fighters which someday may be shooting at us?" The answer, according to Jack Azoff, procurement director for the private French firm Serima, which has the job of dismantling the aircraft for Yugoslavia is, "The U.S. never expects Tito's air force to fly the fighters much less fire them. The F86D jet model was an electronic and hydraulic nightmare all its life. "The automatic portion of the electronic system that guides the aircraft to the target, fires the weapons and returns it to home base is so complicated and troublesome it was almost impossible to keep it in the air. "The planes were finally flown in from their European bases to AMFEA headquarters to be scrapped. They were pushed off the runways and left to the elements for two yers. "Corrasion attacked the engine parts and airframe, rendering them impossible to fly with a complete overhaul. "And to obtain spare parts from the factory or surplus stocks is almost impossible. There just aren't any parts available for this particular model." One surplus dealer in London has a tremendous stock of F86 parts and expects to make a fortune selling them to Yugoslavia. He's in contact with them now. What he does not know yet is that his spare parts are for an earlier model and are not interchangeable. Yugoslavia has been aware of the many difficulties from the beginning. Yet they are paying Uncle Sam with their own money, not foreign aid, several thousand dollars per bird more than he would have gotten from a scrap sale and they are paying $1,800 to $2,000 each to have them dismantled and transported by truck to Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia pilots supervising the deal here admit they may need help later with the fire control system but because they've flown earlier model F86's they are sure they won't need too much advice. "By December 15th this year the last of the ships will be on their way to Tito. And the only customer Uncle Sam would have been better off selling them to is Russia," Azoff laughed. Other personnel at Serima think it's a dandy deal for the Americans also. One of their people said, "Yugoslavia is paying America for the rope with which they will bind their military arms."

Everybody's Business

By Rolfe Neill Tough Going There is a proposal to limit admission to Harvard to those students placing in the top one per cent on nationwide tests. You'd think after these years as one of the nation's oldest schools, that Harvard at least would have learned the advantage of leaven in the loaf, i.e., some of us other 99 percenters. An Opinion Those who heard Dr. James W. Parrish last week when he received the Junior Orange Bowl Service to Youth Award agreed that he made an excellent talk. He did credit to the occasion. What I wonder is, did the occasion do credit to Dr. Parrish, president of Stetson University? Certainly the attendance didn't, being just over half the number expected in the joint civic club meeting. But more important than that is the event itself. This is the second such annual award and I'm wondering if, at this point, the whole affair isn't a bit contrived and a trifle hollow. The object is to achieve publicity for the city. In this, there hasn't been conspicuous success. On top of that, however, there is no real meaning attached to the award. The method is to get a "name" and hope the publicity follows it. I would suggest this: 1. Drop the stunt as ill conceived, or, 2. Re-conceive it and promote it along an all-Florida line with real competition in cities or areas for their candidates. Most likely the winner wouldn't be some personage such as an Eddie Rickenbacker but some unknown teacher or coach or lay worker. These are the people who really do serve youth. A gift reflects the giver as well. Let's remove the tarnish. Potomac Haze Businessmen have generally been suspicious of the Government's monthly unemployment statistic, feeling that it probably includes a lot of people who aren't genuinely in the "unemployed" category (such as babysitters). In Washington last week, some argued that the figure should be based on the number of people who need work, not those without it. The Budget Bureau, however, rejected this idea. So did a Ford Motor Co. economist who noted: "To introduce the concept of need into unemployment statistics would be to introduce a subjective factor which has no business in the measurement of the size of the labor force and the extent to which it is being used." That may be. But what must people are concerned about is that since this monthly figure has great political implications, we be a little surer about its authenticity.

"It's been three days since Christmas and he hasn't once put it down where it can be stepped on."

Sanyifania "It's been three days since Christmas and he hasn't once put it down where it can be stepped on."

Character Leaving Our Food?

By PHILLIPS RUSSELL Correspondent "In the eating places along the roads the food has been clean, tasteless, colorless and of a complete sameness. It is almost as though the customers had no interest in what they ate as long as it had no character to embarrass them." This is the verdict of the novelist John Steinbeck, writing in "Holiday" after a lone motor tour around the country. Persons with recollections of what they found in roadside restaurants and cafes in the course of summer visits to other states can decide whether they endorse Steinbeck's findings. Food without character. Customers without interest in what they eat. These charges are harsh, but who can say they are not deserved? Consider the item of bread alone. We have ground the flour, sifted it, denatured it, and ironed it out until it has forgotten it was ever related to the grain that once grew in the ground. The bread that results seems to be not even a distant cousin of the bread that used to emerge from our mothers' oven. It is a bread recognizable by the label only. In taste it is more like damp chalk. We insist on having every slice of it toasted in the hope that something like flavor can be browned into it. Yet the big bakers declare this is the sort of bread that's most in demand; and dealers support them by saying it is the only kind of bread that nine out of 10 customers want. Is there worse to come? Steinbeck hints that the devitalizing process that has produced an anemic bread is being extended to other eatables, so that although clean, our roadside dinners are losing all taste and color and are graduating into a complete sameness. What will become of a nation whose food is without character?

Remember The Times

10 YEARS AGO The 1952 neighborhood solicitation campaign of the Dade County Community Chest began this week. Directing the local campaign were Mrs. George Swanson, Mrs. B. Anthony Bowers and John J. Partin. Coral Gables construction topped the 1950 total of $11,362,541 to bring last year's total to a record of $14,779,311. 1 YEAR AGO Construction is scheduled to begin on the widening of Le Jeune Road through Coral Gables. Cost of the project is $738,278. James M. Hess who was twice-defeated as a dane candidate for the Coral Gables City Commission finally got a seat when he was named to replace Winston W. Wynne who resigned to take a seat on the Metro Commission.

Established Jan. 15, 1926 Published Weekly at 364 Sevilla Ave., Coral Gables, Fla. Second Class Postage Paid at Miami, Fla.