The
Perils of Attacking That Which Gives Parkwest Life
Dear
SunPost Editor,
Regarding
Rebecca Wakefield’s July 12 article “Party Poopers”:
It is to
the advantage of the city, the developers and the condos
that these nightclubs stay in downtown’s Parkwest District.
Parkwest nightclubs pay millions of dollars in city, state,
federal and property taxes, yet the city has done hardly
anything to help out these million-dollar businesses with
the development of Parkwest. It’s time the city took some
responsibility to help develop Parkwest instead of taking
its only life away. With the condo boom over, the cessation
of all new condo development, as well as condo developers
running for the hills, there is hardly anyone left still
interested in the long-term existence of the Parkwest
District.
Let us not
forget that it was nightclubs like Club Space that brought
attention to Parkwest and caused real estate investors to
buy the parking lots that are now becoming condos. These
clubs are the only businesses that have managed to exist in
this undesirable environment and the only
hope or possibility of any future development to Parkwest.
Nightclubs,
restaurants, retail — there is a basic
chain to follow when creating a well-planned entertainment
community like Soho and the Meatpacking District in
New York City, or SoBe (South Beach) and Coconut Grove in
Miami. You cannot create a
community on condos alone. There will be close to 30,000
condos and apartments available in Downtown Miami soon.
Ninety percent of these are not close or near Parkwest.
Parkwest area condo buyers and residents know exactly where
they are moving and getting into when they invest and move
here. If you do not like nightlife then you should not move
to a new condo in Parkwest. This neighborhood is just not
for you.
I do,
however, agree with existing Park Place condo owners like
George Link about the noise problem and complaints, which
began just over two years ago when Nocturnal nightclub
opened its rooftop with a sound system that bleeds directly
east toward Park Place, Venetia, The Grand and other condos.
I do not, however, agree with Link’s comment of
“unbecoming persons.” This is complete stereotyping.
Millions of people from all over the world visit Parkwest
and its nightclubs yearly. To close down these clubs because
of a few people he does not like is a travesty. Once these
clubs are closed and these visitors are gone, who will be
the next group of “unbecoming people” that just don’t cut
the upper scale downtown condo standard? Will it be our
Overtown neighbors? Located just two blocks east from these
new condo developments, Overtown is one of this city’s most
impoverished areas. With no Parkwest nightclubs in between
the condos and Overtown, one can easily guess who will be
their next target? “Miami is for me” means “me” as in
everyone who chooses to live, work and play here, regardless
of wealth or how they choose to live their lives. If there
is a noise or any other type of problem, we should all work
it out like good neighbors. There are regular NET meetings,
which all club owners attend. We have yet to see Link or any
other condo owner attend a single meeting. If this noise
issue was so important then why was it not addressed at one
of our meetings?
Now that
Space and Nocturnal have installed sound deadening features
and minimized the sound levels exiting their venues, noise
is no longer the issue. With
no sound ordinance problems to back up their quest, the
condos and the city will need to find other ordinances or
excuses to end downtown nightlife. Recently the city’s push
has been towards terminating the 24-hour licenses, which
allow Parkwest clubs to open past 5 a.m., knowing very well
that without these licenses there will be no way for the
clubs and the entertainment district to compete with South
Beach. This would be a tough fight, however, as the fact
remains that the city did use the 24-Hour District as the
bait to lure club owners and others to invest millions of
dollars in the area. Then last month right after my arrest,
the city prohibited all off-duty police officers from
working at Club Space. For the past seven years, Space and
other Parkwest nightclubs spent close to a million dollars
hiring off-duty city police officers to patrol and protect
the Parkwest area and its visitors. These off-duty officers
were the only security and protection the area had.
Now thousands of
customers are walking around without any police protection
adding to possible muggings and accidents. With the off-duty
police gone and perhaps the clubs
too, the panhandlers, crack dealers, homeless, vagrants and
criminals will all return to live in the abandoned buildings
and warehouses in the area. No one will want to live or
visit this neighborhood and Parkwest and its city blocks
full of abandoned buildings and warehouses will return to
being the abandoned district it once was. Perhaps this is
something that our mayor and city commissioners should think
about next time they consider shutting down our Parkwest
Entertainment District.
Sincerely,
Louis Puig,
owner
Club Space
Miami
The
Effects of Attracting Drunken Partiers Till the Wee Hours
In comparison to what
takes place in Miami, I might mention my residence for a
couple of months in the Port of Veracruz, Mexico. My hotel,
two blocks from the port, was two blocks from city hall, but
among many clubs and bars, as well as around the corner from
a brothel in continuous operation for five centuries. My
room was at the front of the hotel, and a new club with open
doors and windows played bombastic music until 5 a.m. My
hotel manager said that he couldn’t do anything about it. I
paid a visit to the chamber of commerce and pointed out what
a bad image this noise gave a city trying to attract new
businesses. By the time I got back to the hotel, the
government official in charge of the protection of the
environment (of all people) had come to report that the club
making the noise would be shut down. And it was! In Mexico,
where I lived for 15 years, there is also corruption, but
being an old and civilized country, there are also solutions
apparently missing in Miami. But then, Miami is not a
comparatively old or civilized place.
Last week, the zoning
board of the city of Miami gave yet another club owner in
Cocowalk in Coconut Grove the right to serve liquor until 5
a.m. This despite the protests of residents fed up with
rowdy drunks fighting, puking and defecating in the streets
and on their cars [News, “Having Vision,” published July
12]. Even the Sonesta Hotel protested, but to no avail. The
public hearing was closed just as I was about to tell the
board how the quality of retail establishments has
deteriorated over the past two decades, along with the
quality of nightlife in the Grove. Remember 20 years ago and
Mayfair, the Gingerman and the unique shops that all
the tourists visited? Now Cocowalk (where I managed a shop
some years ago) has a lot of empty stores.
In late evening, hordes
of kids head for the clubs. It is quite a different
atmosphere than before and is very harmful to residency and
business in Coconut Grove. Yet the mantra of Miami (and
Miami 21) is to pile more people in everywhere, and to hell
with peace and quiet. Big surprise that the downtown
“Entertainment District” is even worse than Coconut Grove!
We should have an “Entertainment District” at the edge of
town where nobody lives [“Party Poopers,” published July
12]. Big warehouses filled with people under the age of 30.
Lots of cops and fire rescue trucks. All noise permitted.
It would be a big mess, but at least out of sight and
hearing. Meanwhile, vulgarity reigns.
Judy Sandoval
Miami
The Danger
of Sneaky Developers Putting One Over on Residents
Letter to
Editor:
Re July 10
Hearing on Hotel Bijou Development, Ocean Drive.
Here is
what residents are up against: Calculating developers who
hire prestige architects and slick lawyers who spend as much
time in City Hall as they do at their office. They
contribute to political campaigns. They are well-connected.
They are shown great deference by city officials and
development boards. They are the power.
This time,
they are orchestrating a stealth move to build a Nikki
Beach-type operation in the quiet residential 300 block of
Ocean Drive, in the Historic District. This is a fragile
neighborhood, where developers let low-rise buildings
deteriorate to the point where they have to be demolished.
That is what they did on this site. The replacement is a
seven-story hotel featuring a 307-seat
restaurant/bar/lounge, with a Wet Willie’s-type terrace
overlooking the beach. The 130 hotel rooms on upper floors
are incidental.
The
application misrepresents the size and impact of this
commercial enterprise, claiming that it seats 125, when the
actual count is 307. Only 96 parking spaces are to be
provided on site, guaranteeing traffic nightmares, parking
conflicts, speeding valets and crowd noise at all hours.
This would end the district as we know it.
Unlike
Sunset Harbor, where there was forewarning that Home Depot
was coming, and the Miami Heart site, where everyone knows
Mount Sinai hospital wants a sale to the highest bidding
developer, this was done undercover. The hearing [was]
strategically timed during the summer when residents are
away. Few residents noticed the routine notice in Herald
Neighbors June 24, listing this project tucked among 13
applications scheduled for public hearings at the Tuesday,
July 10 meeting of the Historic Preservation Board.
Frank Del
Vecchio
Miami Beach
Best
Taste Exhibited by a Free Weekly
I never
bothered to read your paper before the “Best Of” issue
[published July 3]. I usually read the New Times.
After reading the editors’ excellent recommendations on
dining establishments in the "Best Of" issue I am going to
have to start reading your paper from now on. I found the
recommendations in the SunPost quite superior to
those in the New Times. You guys have excellent
taste. I will now investigate your other articles in
expectation of finding the same level of excellence. Keep up
the good work!
Sincerely,
Marc
Manfredi
Miami Beach
Best
Mandate to Keep Going
To [Miami
District 2 aides] Ryan, Claudia, Ron, Yvonne, Patty, Bert,
Peter:
Congratulations to the office. I am only the namesake; each
one of you earned this accolade everyday [“Best Politician,”
Best of 2007, published July 3]. Just think of the number of
people who could have won this award. Well, they did not;
you did, each one of you, one constituent at a time. We gain
our trust in inches and we can lose it in miles. Keep up the
good work, and remember we have to try even harder to gain
the public trust because of the environment of public
corruption today and yesterday.
Remember if
we are to implement our Good Government package of
government we must have the public trust to do so. When we
gain that trust other officials will look to us for
solutions. You do the heavy lifting and we can set the
policy that will make the city the respect of the South and
Avenue to the Americas.
Marc
Sarnoff
Miami City
Commissioner
Best Way
Free Weekly Can Save Money and Stop Annoying Us
Dear
Editor,
I would
like to make a suggestion that the SunPost put a
flier in the newspaper inviting readers to give their names
and addresses if they wish to receive a FREE SunPost. Then,
the rest of us don’t have to be burdened with tossing this
newspaper in the trash once a week and picking up papers for
out-of-town neighbors. It might save you some money and
would save us a lot of irritation.
Elizabeth
Calderon
Surfside
Shall We
Assist the Less Fortunate or Continue to Build Costly
Monuments? What Say Ye, Senate?
To the
Editor:
Regarding
your article on June 21, “More Moola, Pretty Please.”
When it
concerns Dade County and taxpayer dollars, this is a mere
pittance. When initially envisioned, this center for the
performing arts was to cost $172 million. When finally
completed, it was $472 million! After all, what is $300
million to taxpayers’ wallets in overage?
Metrorail
was to have cost $650 million and have a ridership of 80,000
people per day. It finished costing $1 billion dollars and
hosts maybe 15,000 brave passengers daily. [Editor’s Note:
According to Miami-Dade County Transit’s Web site, Metrorail
averages 58,630 weekday boardings.]
Improving
and changing our Miami International Airport is now $1
billion over budget and is still ongoing.
When I hear
that shows at the Carnival Center have ended with standing
ovations, it really tears at my heartstrings with all the
cost over-runs and need for more and more money. How
rewarding.
Let’s
forget the blind, the homeless and those in need at Jackson
Memorial Hospital. At least we have a poorly attended,
unsafe area for those who appreciate the fine arts. Locally,
I would have to say taxing the people consists of plucking
the goose to obtain the largest number of feathers with the
least amount of hissing!
Sincerely,
Ronald C.
Rickey
Miami Beach
This
Week’s Carnival Center Comedy Hour Episode: ‘What Are They
Smoking’
Once again
you have kept me amused with a funny article on the trials
and tribulations of Miami’s silly nouveau riche [“More Moola,
Pretty Please,” published June 21]. I was at the point of
utter guffaw when I read of Taffy Gould’s dissatisfaction
when she called her whopping donation of $300,000 for a
covered parking lot a “disaster from the start!” She must be
daffy to think that a single $300K donation would cover any
more than the painting and security for a five-story
concrete structure for a year? Hahahahahaha! Is what she’s
smoking legal?
What’s even
funnier is that the movers and shakers in Miami have been
pumping high potency steroids into this city’s main arteries
for almost 10 years and are suddenly shocked by the side
effects? Just what the heck are they smoking?
Silly
wabbits, listen up! Cities that have healthy cultural
centers have very healthy cultural benefactors with deep
pockets that date back generations. GENERATIONS! Now how
long is a generation? A REALLY LONG TIME! Miami was a sleepy
little town until the ’60s, for heaven’s sake! South Florida
does not have “generations” of sophisticated cultural
supporters where paying for the arts is really in their
“family blood.” I think it would shock the board of
directors of the Carnival Center to call up the Carnegies,
the Gettys or the Guggenheims and ask them how much
supporting their little cultural habit costs them annually.
I’m getting the feeling private supporters in Miami believe
that giving a one-time gift of $10 million is a huge gift.
Unlike Donald Trump’s casinos, cultural institutions are not
big time moneymakers. Ten million bucks won’t get you much
more than your name over a doorway in a structure like that.
Cultural support is a lifestyle and lifelong commitment, not
a pissing contest. Hahahahahaha!
The scary
part is that these knuckleheads who have built the largest
performing arts center in the last 40 years simply cannot
afford to fail. Because if they fail, it will be the soup
stain that proves they haven’t developed the table manners
to attend a formal dinner such as this. So they had better
buck-up.
I think
someone once said “If you can’t run with the big dogs,
stay on the porch.” Unfortunately, Miami is finding
itself out in the middle of street, with its sleeves rolled
up, and barking like a big dog. Oh well. They also said that
a piece of raw steak is the best thing for a black eye.
Thanks
again for keeping me laughing. Keep up the good work.
PJ Mills
El Portal
Get With
the Program, Media! Help Us Support the PAC
I am
writing today as a volunteer and patron to express my
support for The Carnival Center for the Performing Arts.
The
Carnival Center for The Performing Arts is what Miami needed
to begin the process of cultural development in our city. It
requires the help of everyone in the community, from
politicians to government entities, large to small business
and from the people of Miami in general.
FINANCIAL
SUPPORT:
very much
needed, to continue the work of gaining the experience
necessary to run a center of this caliber in a city like
Miami.
AUDIENCE
SUPPORT:
More Miami residents to come and experience an enjoyable
afternoon or evening performance at the center, without
letting the bad publicity get in their way. More volunteers
like me, to contribute their time to help the Center reach
greater success.
The
Carnival Center for the Performing Arts needs time,
assistance and understanding from the press and from the
community, to achieve their goal of excellence. We must all
work together, to help The Carnival Center for the
Performing Arts serve as the venue that will make Miami a
better place to raise and educate our children.
Josephine
C. Perez
Miami
Shores
Work for
the PAC, Dang It! ’Cause It’s More Than Just a Few Buildings
Dear
Editor:
Two years
ago a friend in Broward sent me an article from the Miami
Herald about the imminent opening of the Miami
Performing Arts Center. It changed my view of South Florida
to think that Miami could support something as grand as a
major performing arts space. I immediately wrote a check to
become a founding member and finally moved down last June
from New York.
I was one
of the first volunteers and continue both volunteering and
attending as a patron from the first day of the weekend
opening gala until the present. It has been a wonderful
experience both culturally and socially for me. The
performances are top flight and I have made many new friends
from among the other volunteers and staff of the now
Carnival Center for the Performing Arts.
It is more
than just a group of buildings though. It is a monument to
what Miami has become (in no small part because of the
Carnival Center) — a world-class city. The Center has done
even more. It has brought the many diverse cultures of Miami
under one roof through their common love of the arts.
The
Carnival Center is such a positive step in South Florida’s
growth that it must be nurtured and maintained. Let us look
at the positive and support it with all our hearts and
resources.
Steffani
Martin
Miami
Support
the PAC, Dang It! Otherwise It May Just Shrivel Up and Go
Away
To Robin
Shear, Editor:
The birth
of the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts represents an
important milestone in the cultural development of
Miami-Dade County. The Knight Concert Hall and the Ziff
Opera House offer local patrons, visitors and tourists
substantial additional choices in classical, theatrical and
contemporary arts, comparable to much larger metropolitan
areas and at very reasonable prices. The criticisms raised
by media, albeit with watchful intentions, often appear to
be alarming, but surprisingly, as did the parking scare of
early 2006, the problems seem to evaporate. The operating
shortfall is evidence that the surrounding patronage is
either insufficient or inadequately coordinated to provide
the desired level of revenue. Larger metropolitan areas
receive financial support from varied resources that include
major corporations and philanthropists. In recognition of
this valuable cultural asset, I believe that any assistance
to the Carnival Center at this initial stage is well merited
and will help in the flowering of a treasured but
underestimated section of our cultural garden.
How about
helping the city succeed with a great performing arts
center. It must be here to stay. Encourage the public to
encourage performers.
Thank you,
Terry and
Fleur Sequeira
Living in
Miami since 1980 (Waiting 27 years for a Center)
