Respect Matheson

Greg Cote’s March 25 column, Serena, Miami Open a perfect match, has stuck in my craw.

I rarely read the sports pages, but the headline captivated me. Like hundreds of thousands of Miamians born and/or raised here, I grew up taking Matheson Hammock and Crandon Park for granted. As an adult, I learned that these precious spaces exist for our collective benefit thanks to the philanthropic Matheson family.

The lopsided manner in which Cote presented his opinion on the pioneering family’s opposition to its land gift to the people of Miami-Dade County being usurped by a private enterprise for enhanced financial gain is distressing. For Cote to cite the current defender of the land deed as “the litigious Bruce Matheson” is grossly unfair, and at best it’s a misrepresentation of the facts.

As I understand it from news articles published over the last 20-odd years, Matheson, who sees no financial reward by winning a suit, is attempting to 1) Protect the rights of Miami-Dade County’s ordinary citizens to access the parks his family gifted to the county in the last century, and 2) Protect these special places against excessive development.

He explained his family’s sense of duty in the Dec. 30 article, Tennis tourney again threatens to leave after legal loss, that covered his latest legal victory, which compelled a barrage of anti-Bruce Matheson publicity. Instead, we should all be thanking him for standing up to government and private business at his expense on our behalf.

This story was originally published April 15, 2016 at 9:38 PM with the headline "Respect Matheson."