Litter Bugs, Litter Bugs, Whatcha Gonna Do?
Watcha Gonna Do When They Come for You?

Jason Jeffers’ article about banning fliers on South Beach streets makes the assumption that “distributors” are actually handing fliers to potential customers, who then toss them away [“Another Choice,” published Nov. 16]. This isn’t usually the case. I’ve seen flier distributors walk down the street and scatter dozens of fliers onto the ground for maximum visibility. If customers are really interested, they pick one up. This isn’t advertising, its litter and we already have laws against litter--they just need to be enforced. Put some undercover people on Washington Avenue at night and have them bust these litterbugs, as many times as they need to till we stop this undesirable activity.

John Schuster
Miami Beach

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Every Time a Flier Falls on the Sidewalk, a Promoter Gets His Wings

It’s unfortunate that the business of passing out fliers has come to this, but the ban has to be done [“Another Choice,” published Nov. 16].

Many of the promoters guilty of the blatant disregard for the littering involved in passing out fliers don’t live here and could probably care less that their business makes our neighborhoods look like a trash heap. How many times have you left Mansion and watched competing promoters literally throwing fliers on the sidewalk outside the club? And it’s not just the club promoters who are doing this. There are restaurants, hair salons, and other random businesses leaving fliers wherever they can get them to stick. Every time a flier goes on a car it ends up in the street. Every time a flier gets handed out without a garbage can around it goes on the ground. It’s irresponsible advertising on the part of the business and unfortunately they’ve done this to themselves.

Kevin McGovern
Director, SoBeVIPs.com

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When Preservationists Misquote Dead Architects — Lapidus Liked Ben Wood’s Work, He Really Did!

Your recent article on the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board approval of closing the 1100 block of Lincoln Road to vehicular traffic is an amazing account of board members who ignore or re-invent history to force their aesthetic desires on the rest of us “Westward Expansion of Pedestrian Mall Backed by City Board,” published Nov. 16].

Beth Dunlop put her words in the mouth of our iconic Lincoln Road architect Morris Lapidus: “If he were alive, he would have done this.” Hardly! Lapidus was alive and an active participant in the process when Ben Wood re-designed the pedestrian mall; which of course opened the 1100 block. Morris only had compliments for the current design and said “Ben did a better job because he had more money to work with.” The late Senator Moynihan (New York) once observed “everyone is entitled to their opinion, no one is entitled to their own facts.”

There is no economic necessity to close the block. There will be no increase in tax revenues due to the closing or loss if the block is left open. The developer of the SunTrust building who was induced to go the route of asking for the closing by city staff stated that his “project stands on its own merits.” 

If the block is not as busy as some complain it is due to the design of the existing SunTrust building which is not oriented to retail or pedestrian friendly and the placement of cafe tables on a sidewalk created too small to accommodate them. Because of the space needed for the center median, Ben Wood knew the sidewalk would be too small and assured us at the visioning sessions for the current design that the 1100 block would not be issued sidewalk cafe table permits. Subsequently, table permits were issued despite the zoning intention and the narrow design (and even lack of bathrooms for one cafe). So, on one side of the block we have a dead zone and on the other a sidewalk too congested to walk comfortably. Board Chairman Randall Robinson concluded: “he doesn’t support closure or maintaining vehicular traffic. … I’m not sure that either extreme is correct.” Perhaps what Randall detects is a solution in search of a problem.

Redevelopment of the SunTrust property (at no expense to the city) and reconsideration of table permits on the block would be preferable to closure; at least to the tenants and property owners east of the block that signed a petition against the closure who fear the impact on business of a road construction project.

Lincoln Road was open entirely to traffic until the 1960s. There was no historical justification or preservation issue to justify the Historic Preservation Board approval. Board member Arthur Marcus found “the openness and the flow of landscaping design (for the proposed 1100 block) really celebrate the nature of the (rest of the) pedestrian road.” Based on such logic, why stop at Alton Road? The pedestrian mall could be extended to West Avenue and east to the ocean. Maybe north to the Convention Center, south to ....well you get the idea.

Howard Talesnick
Surfside

[Editor’s note: Talesnick is a Lincoln Road property owner.]

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Bring Preservation to Your Own Towns, If You Love It So Much

Historic Preservation is OK. However, not all buildings that fall into a certain design criteria should be saved. For those who are going to the rally in Bay Harbor Islands: Landmark your own buildings [Murmurs, “MiMo Mission,” published Nov. 9].

Allow those of us who want to develop our properties not to be encumbered by your aesthetic.

The MiMo preservationists are interfering with my ability to use my property as I wish.

The coalition has already impacted the sale of our property by limiting the height of buildings and now ultimately is trying to take away our right to develop or sell our property.

The historic preservation of the islands will impact our quality of life with tourists, walking tours, bus tours. The privacy and quiet lifestyle that Bay Harbor Islands residents enjoy will be impacted. It is not fair that a few vocal and politically connected people should dictate to those that are not in favor of preservation to suffer all the restrictions and expense involved with preservation, ultimately restricting the ability to maximize the investment potential of our properties.

Jeffrey Koster
Bay Harbor Islands

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Starbucks: A Real Boon for Culture, Unless You’re a Starbucks Employee or an Ethiopian Farmer

Dear Editor:

When I visited the Luna Star after my return from the North, the proprietor showed me the SunPost story on the opening of Starbucks in North Miami [“Corporate Culture,” published Sept.7].

While I do not question the right of Starbucks to open a coffee shop wherever laws and regulations permit, I found the depiction of this company as having “corporately social responsibility” disingenuous at best. At present, Starbucks is engaged in a bitter and devious anti-union campaign in New York City and elsewhere to prevent its employees from organizing to better their exploitative working conditions. In Ethiopia, Starbucks is doing all it can to reduce the country’s coffee farmers to virtual peonage. Other corporate crimes will undoubtedly come to light in the future as this firm’s gilding of “social responsibility” wears ever thinner.

Anyone choosing to patronize Starbucks should know which side he is taking in these disputes. 

Sincerely,

John Gorman
North Miami