The Coral Gables Times

Coral Gables Times

Second Class Postage Paid at Miami, Fla. Published at 364 Sevilla Ave., Coral Gables 34, Fla. JOHN T. WATTERS | President ROLFE NEILL | Editor & Publisher

A PUZZLER: WILL MAYOR SEARLE RUN AGAIN?

A Change of Mind That May Mean Well

Joe Murphy may be trying to figure it all out, though we suspect he's not too surprised. But as for us, we're delighted to see Mayor Bob Searle changing his mind and talking of running again. It would be regrettable for the City's top elected job to fall to Murphy by default next April, as it has appeared it might until now. There was a tacit if not actual understanding between the men two years ago that if Murphy would sit on his hands at that time, Searle wouldn't be a re-election candidate in 1963. Then last summer when the Mayor got particularly choleric at The Times, he told more than 100 people at the Youth Center he wouldn't run again. JOE MURPHY— . . . bridesmaid again? Now, he seems to be changing his mind. Well, political promises boxed in a dry season often unaccountably sprout in another so we won't hold the Mayor to his earlier comment of "no longer seeking elective office." It is reported that Searle recently approached Murphy to see if perhaps the latter wouldn't like to wait still another two years to make his Mayoralty bid. We doubt anybody's going to keep Murphy in the stall again and it could be that the Mayor, after hearing Murphy's answer, may seek only a commissionership rather than run against such a strong candidate. The Times is allied with neither candidate. And we hope there will be still other worthy men for consideration. It could well be a feisty spring after all.

Proud of Mrs. Staats

It will seem natural to many who know her that Mrs. J. Riley Staats should be named Florida's Teacher of the Year. Her name is synonomous with teaching achievement; she has brought learning to her students at Southwest High with a bit of the old-fashioned discipline that holds that knowledge is worthy for its sake alone. And to herself she has gathered numerous honors, both within her calling and without it. We hope that the national title finds Gableite Mrs. Staats this spring, but whether or not, her townsman take pride in her accomplishments and are happy to note that others continue to recognize them, too.

Reader Questions 2 Commissioners

EDITOR: I awaited either editorial or reader comment on your news item of Dec. 13 "Murphy, Evans Attack Plan Suggested for Gables Land," but neither was forthcoming. Are we really as disinterested in the thinking of our paid City Commissioners as this silence would seem to indicate? If the reported quotations are accurate, and I assume that they are, it is difficult for me to believe that men of their supposed intelligence would make such irresponsible comments. Said Evans: "It was a gross disappointment to me, a profound disappointment. What I had in mind was far different from what I received. "I wanted a SURVEY, NOT RECOMMENDATIONS" (emphasis mine). If Dr. Evans merely wanted a survey, instead of voting to spend $12,000 of taxpayer money, all that he needed to do was to study the nicely colored zoning maps, a copy of which, I am sure, was presented to him when he took office. These maps provide a survey of each and every lot in the Gables and the present lawful use. He objects to the recommendations. Doesn't the good Doctor realize that he voted for a land use plan and that a land use plan, by its very nature, is not limited to present use but that its primary purpose is to recommend the best use to which the property might be put? Recommendation and land use plan are indivisible and go hand-in-hand. "It's elementary, my dear Evans." Joe Murphy is quoted: "Skyscrapers in the Gables are wishful thinking. We don't have to have them and the Rogers Building is ABOUT as high as you have to go, I THINK" (emphasis mine). Joe, I realize that it is apolitic to endorse high rise as part of a land use plan but why must we close our minds to it or consider it wishful thinking? Incidentally, I have always interpreted the term "wishful thinking" as involving something that was good for me but at the same time something that I really shouldn't hope for because it would never become a reality. Why are high rise or skyscrapers as you prefer to term them, wishful thinking? If progress, good, sound planning and the best interests of the City of Coral Gables as a whole indicate the need for high rise, why isn't it a reality? Why should you oppose it? I am in favor of strict zoning providing it is good zoning. I am in favor of a change of zoning if a good land use plan dictates the change. No one of my remarks should be interpreted as a complete endorsement of the land use plan as submitted. I have studied same; I attended the Town Hall presentation. I am in accord with some of the objections raised by my fellow citizens. No land use plan will ever pass the acid test of 100 per cent approval. The real test is: "Does a recommendation serve the best interests of the Gables even though a tiny segment of the population opposes it?" If so, the recommendation should be adopted even though a few votes fall by the wayside in the process. "Skyscrapers" and 'High Rise" are not synonomous. What one deems a skyscraper in one environ may be considered a "low rise" (if there be such a term) in another. Every situation must be judged on its own facts. If good planning and best land use dictate that the central business area include and-or be girded by skyscrapers (Rogers building plus a floor, two or three), let's not consider this wishful thinking. Five years ago, the Rogers building with its seven stories (or is it really eight?) would have been considered a skyscraper in the Gables. Let's keep abreast of the times. The Gables has been labeled a bedroom community. If this is accurate, let's stifle the commercial area which presently bears 48% of the entire Gables taxload and have the bedrooms pay for everything. I do not advocate a total disregard of the wishes of people even remotely affected by changes recommended by a land use plan. It is proper that every voice be heard, but, when it militates against the best interests of the community as a whole it is time to stop and ponder. Do we Progress and adopt that portion of the land use plan that is good planning and a living thing, or do we Regress and throw it out in its entirety along with our $12,000? Let the City Commission face up to its responsibility. A merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all. CHARLES FINKELSTEIN 815 Catalonia Ave. (Editor's note: Unfortunately, space today doesn't give us room to make comment on the Finkelstein letter. Next week, we shall have something to say in the editorial columns.)

Everybody's Business

by Rolfe Neill Fountain of Youth We hereby restore, with full honors and all the perquisites due her, 10 years to Mrs. David S. Ball of Sevilla Avenue. That makes her 91 on New Year's Day. In a piece here last week about that charming lady, we unintentionally stated it as 81. Which reminds me: It's somewhere about 70 or so that women stop lying about their age and become proud of it, wanting every year that's theirs to be counted. ★ ★ ★ Ho Hum President Kennedy demanded an on-site verification in Cuba that missiles threatening our life had been removed. Castro wouldn't give it to him and Kennedy has been silent. Castro demanded an on-site (in Florida) verification of the supplies ransom we're paying him. He got it. You figure it out. ★ ★ ★ Assessment Speaking of Kennedy, "T.R.B.," who writes a Washington column for The New Republic and is really Richard L. Strout of The Christian Science Monitor, said the other day of the President, whom he admires: "The queer thing about Mr. Kennedy is how rarely he drops his reserve. For a moment, in this instance (defense of Adlai Stevenson in a press conference), it seemed to fall away; then he grabbed it again in embarrassment like a man losing his bathing suit. "He would be a vastly more effective politician if he could more readily show a more human side. "But asking a man to be somebody other than himself is fruitless; Mr. Kennedy is cold, impersonal, attuned to power, and with a positive allergy to public emotionalism." That's an assessment fitting a number of New England businessmen I know. ★ ★ ★ Punctuated In the passage quoted in the preseding item, you'll notice that the writer twice used a semi-colon. Instead of putting a period at the end of a sentence he made a compound thought and united its divisions with the semi-colon. It is a form of punctuation I like but which has become somewhat archaic. Certainly, it was practiced to excess when semi-colons were stylish but in redressing the grievance we have virtually exterminated the semi-colon as a mark of punctuation.

This Is One the Kids Will Love

If you want to take the family out to see an authentic snow scene, a la the holiday season, then this is for you. The photo was taken in front of the Holsum bakery plant on South Dixie Highway, just north of Sunset Drive. The train moves (two of them, in fact); smoke pours from the chimneys; walking figures enter the church in endless procession and scale model trucks, cars and buses inch along the snow-banked highways. The scene, traditional at this spot, has been considerably built up this year. It will remain for a few days yet.