Despite a massive economic slump, some of the nation’s wealthiest citizens are squabbling over a tiny stretch of pavement.
Indian Creek Village, the millionaires’ island just west of Surfside is a luxury island closed to the public. But the village’s attorney is make one aspect very public.
“Doesn’t this road look like shit?” Stephen Helfman asked.
The island’s thoroughfare has seen better days. It is full of fissures, sinkholes, and puddles. And the crummy road has been trapped in a decades-old rift.
The 30-odd millionaire residents of Indian Creek Village — home to Norman Braman and Don Shula — are locked in a standstill with the Indian Creek Country Club, the equally secretive social club at the center of the island.
Both sects seem determined to wring the other’s neck. There are currently three ongoing lawsuits. All involve whether the town or the club should pay the bulk of costs for the island’s perpetually bored, seafaring police force.
The road is owned by the club, which, as Helfman characterizes it, keeps it in shabby shape as an extended middle finger to villagers. When the residents volunteered to pay for the repairs — and drew up spiffy plans that include a walkway so that Braman can pedal a weird space-age bike around — the club threatened to sue the moment backhoe hit pavement.
The club’s attorney– and former mayor of Miami Beach– Neisen Kasden claimed in a statement that “upgrading of the road is being held up by the village council, not the club.” In fact, Kasden claims the club has pledged $450,000 to the renovation– if only the village will accept a settlement agreement involving their other disputes.
We phoned Old Man Shula, who is both a villager and a member of the club, but got his maid — and some much-needed levity — instead.
Asked what she thought of the road’s condition, she said with a chuckle: “I’m not paying keen attention.”
Source: Miami New Times
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