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Last Updated:
Friday, August 29, 2008
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Column Readers Respond XLIII
With hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, a lot of good people in Miami Beach have been intimidated and silenced by this
aggressive pro-rail campaign.
A.C. Weinstein
Columnist
What is this light rail business really all about?
Short and sweet: The push to bring a rail system into Miami Beach is a well orchestrated campaign by a number of consultants and lobbyists as a
method to loosen the formula on concurrency in order to increase development beyond its current allowable level. Some of those consultants and lobbyists will also benefit financially from
the commission’s 4-3 decision to go forward with a rail system “study.”
The public relations campaign currently underway is to heavily promote the “streetcar” and downplay the years of rail and overhead cabling
construction, particularly across the MacArthur Causeway. Although many years away if it should ever happen at all, the dual streetcar that is being proposed to run on rail across the
causeway and into Miami Beach is 160 to 180 feet long, more than half the length of a football field.
What’s also just as troubling is that Miami Beach is losing the opportunity to immediately provide enhanced public transit citywide with a new
and improved bus service technology. The costly and disruptive rail system is simply a tool to loosen concurrency to increase development density in Miami Beach. That’s it, folks. Little
else.
With hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, a lot of good people in Miami Beach have been intimidated and silenced by this aggressive
pro-rail campaign. Not this writer. Not one little inch.
There is, however, a well-aimed public relations campaign that’s still being exerted from several fronts to prevent the public from hearing
rail’s relationship to concurrency and development. In more than twenty-five years of writing about the public’s business, from my perspective, the push for rail is one of the more
influential and forceful campaigns to slam shut the public’s right to know the truth.
Are you predicting any results in the November 4th Miami Beach election?
The outcome of this year’s election will be determined by what percentage of the electorate will turn out to vote.
The Miami Beach Commission approved the expansion of the New World Symphony. What’s the next step?
The next step in a decade long series of steps will be the issuance of a Request For Qualifications (RFQ) for architectural, engineering, design
and construction administration services needed to plan, design and construct a municipal parking facility on the current site of the city hall surface parking lot. That facility will have
to be built and completed to replace the parking that will be displaced on the 17th Street surface lots prior to any construction of the New World expansion.
According to the city’s schedule and projected construction timeline, the new parking facility will be completed in February 2008. The expansion of
the New World is on a schedule to be completed between 2013-14. The key to any advancement of the timelines will be to limit the political shenanigans that will undoubtedly arise during
the competitive bidding process for the new municipal parking facility.
Did your October 2nd column “Out of Line” concerning the rising salaries at Miami Beach City Hall provoke any controversy?
Every political column should be thought provoking, if not somewhat controversial. Otherwise, what’s the point? The feedback from the “Out of Line” column agrees overwhelmingly that the rising
salary levels within the Miami Beach administration are way out of line when compared to other cities with a similar population and budget. In fact, the salaries at the administrative
level in Miami Beach are higher than many cities with a far greater population and budget.
Will the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau be moving their offices to Miami Beach?
At the most recent coming together of its executive committee, the bureau voted to end its costly, seven-year dream to move its operation over
to what has been touted as its new office building on Watson Island. That leaves the bureau with two realistic options: It can extend its current office space lease on Brickell Avenue or
move the show to Miami Beach. That vision for the future will likely be the decision of the bureau’s new chairman and spiritual leader, Don Peebles.
If the bureau moves to Miami Beach, several local office building developers would love to capture that lucrative, multi-year lease. For that to
happen, the bureau would like in return a five-year, 20 to 25 million dollar marketing contract with the city. The bureau is now eyeing the Sony Building on Lincoln Road and the new office
building on Michigan Avenue as the preferred locations for its new home. Stay tuned.
Did the results of the one commission race in the recent election in Sunny Isles Beach surprise you?
The money, development interests and a number of local politicians heavily backed the incumbent, who openly tooted her adoration for tall and
massive structures. The lesser or hardly known challenger ran his campaign on controlling development, which appealed far more to the voters of Sunny Isles Beach. The voters also expressed
at the polls their frustration of being continually ignored by a city government that ignored or simply refused to acknowledge their concerns.
Why would anyone be surprised that the pro-development incumbent was tossed out by a 2-1 margin? Elected officials should never ignore or
dismiss the wisdom of the voters. When that happens, a stirred up electorate might just come out to return the favor.
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