Peter Schorsch
American Dream Miami, the mega-mall entertainment center proposed for northwest Miami-Dade County, has come up against political heavyweights who want to derail the project.
The owners of Sawgrass Mills and Aventura Mall have launched an all-out effort to derail the mega-mall before it can get off the ground. They’re hoping to persuade a majority of the Cabinet to reject a routine surplus land sale to Miami-Dade County that is essential for the project to move forward.
In addition to the personal lobbying efforts of Jeffery Soffer, a principal with the company that jointly owns Aventura Mall with the Simon Property Group (the owners of Sawgrass Mills), a campaign of disinformation, distortion, and scare tactics has been launched against American Dream Miami.
The principal attack against the mega-mall is that it will create daily traffic jams on adjacent highways. The truth, though, is that the Florida Department of Transportation would never grant development approval to a project that doesn’t meet their strict criteria.
The traffic jam argument is just a smokescreen for the real reason these mall owners oppose American Dream Miami: Competition.
Competition is one of the central tenets of capitalism. It gives consumers greater choice, drives prices down, promotes innovation, and creates greater efficiency. But, obviously, it can also turn a competitor into a bitter rival who will say and do anything to gain advantage or undermine their competition.
Free enterprise is the cornerstone of capitalism and among the reasons America is truly a land of opportunity. Attempting to use government as a shield to competition subverts the basic principles we stand for.
When the smoke clears on Tuesday, let’s hope the governor and Cabinet will have voted to encourage economic development and promote healthy competition in Florida. It’s the right thing to do.
