The
Collins Park Neighborhood: Coming Soon Despite
Developers
Angie:
You hit
only the tip of the iceberg in talking about losing the
historic Collins Park Hotel to arson [“A Good Job of a
Pour Job,” published May 10]. I’d love to take you on a
tour of Collins Park and show you the other historic
landmarks threatened by owner neglect.
I too
sit on the CANDO Committee. Unlike Mr. Bloomberg, I’ve
attended every meeting. I took pictures of all the
blighted buildings in our neighborhood and submitted
them to the CANDO Committee just so everyone, unfamiliar
with this area, could see how many neglected
properties we had and how a true incentive program might
be just what is needed to jump start this neighborhood.
The
city of Miami Beach has already purchased three of these
properties and will do a joint venture with MBCDC for
affordable housing which will include cultural workers
and artists. Many other properties are being left to
decay, probably hoping that they can be torn down and
have something else built in their place. The most
notorious is the Collins Plaza just one block from where
the Collins Park Hotel’s burned-out shell barely stands.
This property, along with others in this neighborhood,
is owned by the Lieberman Family of SBI Realty fame.
They have made no attempt to be good neighbors or come
to a neighborhood association meeting or do anything
that might indicate a plan for development. This is sad,
but this is Collins Park today.
Our
vision for tomorrow is vastly different thanks to
developers like Alessandro Ferretti from Artecity,
Jonathan Breene from the Setai, and David Edelstein from
the W hotel Project. Not to mention other developers
like Brad Wilson bringing the James to the old Days Inn.
This is just the beginning. However, no one can do it
alone. It must be a team effort. If anyone thinks they
can do it without neighborhood input and approval, they
are sadly mistaken.
I have
attended enough meetings [of the] Historic Preservation
[Board] and there is enough previous history to ensure
that if any of our treasured landmarks are lost or not
able to be renovated because of the blatant neglect of
the owners, they will have to be rebuilt exactly as the
original buildings were. No one will be allowed to get
away with this injustice in our historic district.
We are
fortunate enough to have the city on our side. They have
completed some of their vision for Collins Park with the
completion of the Regional Library, opening of a
world-class ballet school with the largest facility
dedicated to dance in the world and home to Miami City
Ballet, and completion of the first phase addition to
the Bass Museum of Art. This year will see the start of
the $5 million project to rebuild Collins Park into a
world-class park with a Brian Tolle, Art in Public
Places, interactive maze and several water features. The
Collins Park Beach will have new bathrooms and a
concession open this year. It will be the first facility
to have an attendant according to Fred Beckmann,
director of public works.
Good
things are indeed happening. The city has three things
they must deliver on to complete their part of the
vision: a parking garage on 23rd Street, the second
addition to the Bass Museum and the extension of the
South Beach Local and possibly the A bus to Collins
Park. The rest is then up to the private developers who
seem to be in no particular hurry for this final
frontier of South Beach. Optimistically, we are five
years away from being truly a third destination on South
Beach but we will be the best! After all, we get to
learn from all the others before us.
Ray
Breslin, president
Collins Park Neighborhood Association
Miami Beach
50
Ways to Express Genuine Appreciation: Almost As Good As
Winning the Playoffs
Dear
Robin:
I was
very appreciative of the nice comments you wrote in your
article [SunPost 50, published April 26]. My inclusion
was really special. Thank you and your staff.
Harlan
Selesnick
Coral
Gables
50
Ways to Express Genuine Annoyance: Was Always Open On
Stadium Locales and That Car Was a Gift For My Wife!
I was
disappointed to read assertions made as facts that were
not correct in the SunPost 50 section, “Carlos Gimenez –
Loyal Opposition” [published April 26].
First,
I never “insisted that the Orange Bowl be the sole area
considered for a baseball stadium.” I felt it was a site
worthy of consideration, especially since the University
of Miami was contemplating a move to Dolphin Stadium and
the extensive renovations the OB needs. However, a
downtown stadium also has its advantages, i.e.,
proximity to Metrorail, access to expressways, parking,
among others. Moreover, when I was city manager of
Miami, we studied numerous possible baseball stadium
sites, including the Orange Bowl, and the three sites I
recommended were in the downtown area. Unfortunately,
your writer did not verify that I voted, along with the
majority of my colleagues, on March 6 to direct the
county manager to “consider all potential sites,
including the Orange Bowl, subject to subsequent Board
approval.”
As for
my absence during the Florida City annexation veto
override vote, I take exception to the notion I was “out
shopping for a sports car.” In fact, I had planned the
trip in question months in advance to celebrate two
milestone events — my wife’s 50th birthday and our 13th
wedding anniversary. I could not have known that the
Florida City annexation item would pass, be vetoed and
scheduled for an override vote at that time. As for the
car, it was my gift to her for her birthday and our
anniversary.
I take
very seriously my attendance at board meetings and my
record has been noted as the best by the Herald.
When the votes on the expansion of the Urban Development
Boundary took place, I was there to cast my “no” votes.
In fact, Audubon of Florida, in their Summer 2006
Everglades Report, recognized me as a “Hold the Line
hero.”
I hope
when the SunPost “honors” people in the future
that the research behind it will be more thorough.
Sincerely,
Carlos
Gimenez
Miami-Dade County Commission
Lumiere: Already a Topic of Discussion at Barbecues in
the Coral Way Vicinity
What a
shame!
Now
that 13th Ave. has become so beautiful thanks to the
petitions of the homeowners we will have to watch the
construction of a 12-story condominium “Lumiere” on 21st
Terrace and 13th Avenue [News Briefs, “Welcome to the
Neighborhood,” published May 3]. What a shame. This is a
single-family quiet and peaceful neighborhood. Why?
Please tell me why we, in spite of all our protests,
have to be imposed on to have this building inserted
into our neighborhood. I enjoy my back yard so much, but
from now on I will have no privacy. When we have
barbecues or parties, we are going to be facing this
12-story humongous building. I am frustrated, and so are
my neighbors of so many years. Our commissioner failed
us.
Sincerely,
Sylvia
Fernandez
Miami
Preparing For Hurricane Season: Just Keep the Dang Trees
Trimmed
To the
Editor:
We have
perception and we have reality. After the horrible
storms we have witnessed and the loss of electrical
power accompanying them, we hear the call for
underground wires [News Briefs, “The Power of
Liability,” published May 10]. Let’s look at this
situation.
In our
area, the rainy season is with us for months on end, and
with it comes street flooding. Streets and neighborhoods
are sometimes flooded for several days at a time. Now
here comes reality: How do repairmen work on underground
wiring in flood waters?
Simple
answer: They can’t. So, if there is a power outage which
can last for an undetermined number of days or more, the
electrical lines cannot be repaired until the water
evaporates or goes into the sewer system. Let us not
forget the telephone lines which are also involved in
the work. There would be disruption to our phone system
as well. New maps would have to be drawn up so that any
time a street had to be torn up, construction workers
would not sever underground wiring. Next, and more real,
FPL estimates the cost to bury overhead lines in its
communities will be between $55 billion and $80 billion.
Guess who would pay for it?
With as
rotten a situation that we experience with each storm
knocking out our electric power, I believe what we now
have to be the best option. Let’s see the poles fixed,
the tree limbs kept trimmed near the lines and hope and
pray for the best. There is no easy solution.
Sincerely,
Ronald
C. Rickey
Miami
Beach
Do
You Come From the Land Down Under? If You Do, Could You
Get Us Some Water?
Editor:
I would
like to comment on the letter published in your May 3
issue entitled: “Developers: Sucking the Life, and
Water, Out of Florida.” This letter ought to be
published on the front page of the Miami Herald,
and every newspaper in the state.
Any
Floridian, especially Southeast Floridians, would have
to be brain dead not to see the dim future we will face
with the unbridled development we are seeing in the
tri-county area within all points of the compass. Why in
North Miami Beach the elected mob at City Hall were even
counting submerged land in an effort to boost density,
that is, the number of housing units per acre as well as
to do away with building height restrictions. A
citizen-initiated petition to do the same thing as the
Florida Hometown Democracy statewide petition (to amend
the state constitution) was shot down by the city. The
requisite number of “valid” signatures fell short by 11
signatures. Over 3,000 signatures had been gathered. The
usual suspects used the usual reasons to throw out about
one-third of the signatures gathered. This makes five
petitions shot down in NMB in the past decade; none have
“ever” passed here by the way.
While
the Florida peninsula is surrounded east, west and south
by water, we can’t drink the stuff. The only water we
have comes from down under, and I don’t mean Australia,
or it comes from above and we haven’t seen much coming
from above lately. It shouldn’t need to be explained
chapter and verse to link development and a rapidly
disappearing volume of water in the Florida aquifer.
Salt water encroachment is a very real possibility. The
temporary solution is to drill deeper for fresh water
(either that or tow a few icebergs down here, and who
knows it may come to that!). We know those crooks in any
city hall who we have elected supposedly as the lesser
of two evils won’t do a darn thing about it as they’re
too busy giving their blessing to whichever developer
comes down the pike, taking huge kickbacks and giving
developers huge tax breaks at the expense of the
taxpayer. They then try to woo us by telling us how
great this is as it increases the tax base and raises
revenue and tell you in the same breath that if you
don’t meekly go along with all the bull manure they’re
feeding you, why, your taxes will rise. The carrot and
stick approach is nothing new, and everyone ought to be
wise to it by now.
Honestly, I would be a complete dunce to believe that
kickbacks, undeclared gifts, bribes and such don’t
exist. When an incumbent plunks down about $70,000 for a
“part-time” job which pays $3,000 a year you just gotta
be a wee bit suspicious. Or, when a County Commissioner
incumbent has a war chest of well over $300,000 from
developers and their ilk, well you know just where their
loyalties lie. They won’t help citizens save their
state. The lure of “filthy lucre” is simply too much of
a temptation. SO, let’s sign that new petition I
downloaded at
www.floridahometowndemocracy.com,
and don’t forget we now need a supermajority to get the
constitution amended thanks to a slick ad campaign paid
for by developers and realtors. Let’s not be left high
and dry.
Brian Rook
Miami-Dade County
The Perils of
Becoming Like Sunny Isles or Miami Beach…
I’d like to thank the
SunPost for helping create a greater awareness of
two key issues that affect every South Floridian’s
quality of life, as well as future generations. First,
by publishing Lesley Blackner’s (president,
Florida Hometown Democracy) letter on May 3,
“Developers: Sucking the Life, and Water, Out of
Florida.” There is very little to add to Ms. Blackner’s
eloquent letter. All one need do is attempt driving
through Sunny Isles —Miami-Dade’s newest concrete wall
or jungle. I have long
ago signed the petition and contributed to Florida
Hometown Democracy (www.floridahometowndemocracy.com).
I encourage all my fellow concerned citizens to foster
their high aims by doing the same, and the sooner the
better. Time’s running out!
Also, Murmurs: “Grosz Point Blank,” published May 3, for
bringing attention to just how
many of our small communities are mimicking more and
more, state and federal campaigns and the extraordinary
amounts of campaign monies collected by candidates
running for these smaller Town and City Commission
seats. This issue begs these questions: Do we need
“locally tailored” campaign finance rules and
regulations? Does an inherent ethical conflict exist or
can one arise from these unnecessary and outrageous sums
of money being contributed, accepted and spent?
For the first time, in my small hometown, Surfside, this
past general election displayed a “good” example of at
least the need for some local public discourse regarding
this matter.
Both
the mayor (Mr. Charles Burkett) and vice mayor (Mr.
Howard Weinberg) of Surfside outspent their opponents as
follows:
Mayor
Burkett collected and self-contributed $5,265 +/- or
$7.68 +/- per vote (686 votes), versus his opponent,
Frank MacBride Jr., who did not accept contributions and
spent 98 cents per vote (523 votes).
Vice
Mayor Howard Weinberg’s contributions and spending was
even more lopsided. He spent a whopping $14 +/- per vote
(686) or approximately $9,600 +/- versus his opponent
Mitchell Kinzer, who both spent and collected
approximately 89 cents per vote (515 votes).
Historically, candidates running for a seat on the
Surfside Commission either financed their own campaigns
or accepted small contributions from friends, neighbors
and family. Have these
campaigns become a contest of egos to see who can
collect the most money? Are we therefore ending up with
the best government money can buy? I believe we’d all be
“more comfortable” and productive having the best people
governing, and I suspect that these are not always going
to be the “very well connected” candidate or the biggest
campaign fundraisers!
Joseph
Graubart
Surfside
[Editor’s Note: Joseph Graubart ran unsuccessfully
against incumbent Surfside Commissioner Steve Levine in
2006.]
