Archive for June, 2006

Big Box Fun

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 14, 2006
in Clubs, Max Strang, Miami and Sound Factory
. 0 Comments


A new 27,000 Square foot warehouse will be rising at 1035 North Miami Avenue, to provide more space for Miami’s growing industries. By growing Industry I mean, Nightclubs, but, that’s beside the point. The renown Sound Factory of NYC is coming and will be situated in this building designed by Max Strang Architecture, hopefully, by Winter 2006. The club will be four levels (I’m sure this one will be easy to get out of when some dipshit pulls a gun) and will feature 120,000 watts (enough for you to not hear the gunshots and just keep on dancing) of raw music power. Impressive…

Intelligent Gowth

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 13, 2006
in Dadeland, Datran, Kendall, NIMBY, Pedestrian, Pinecrest and Transit Oriented Development
. 0 Comments

Hey! Pinecrest Nimby’s! Here are some more developments going up in your backyard (Ah, yes, it’s sad that you have no control over them either) in the newly emerging skyline of the south; Downtown Kendall. This latest cluster will build out the remaining lots east of the Palmetto expressway. It never ceases to amaze me what some Transit Oriented Developments (TOD) can potentially lead to. It all started with the Datran Complex (Which is currently building the fifth of five buildings) built on county owned Transit Land. Excellent way to spur development and require more transit use, we’ll be seeing much more of this type of development along other rail stops including: South Miami, Coconut Grove, Overtown, and Allapatah…

Town Center One Homepage (Town Center is such a stupid euphemism for downtown)

In the News…

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 11, 2006
in Affordable Housing and Palm Beach
. 0 Comments
  • Palm Beach is already reaping the benefits of the new Scripps Research Institute, the Burt Reynolds Museum is going elsewhere. Question: Why the hell is there a Burt Reynolds Museum to begin with?
  • Miami-Dade County has compiled a wonderful list of land that is suitable not suitable for affordable housing, they titled it very appropriately: “The Miami-Dade County Affordable Housing List.” Um, Whoops. And we all wondered why there aren’t enough new affordable housing units rising…
  • We need another strip shopping center like we need a hole in our heads. This one is being built by Ft. Lauderdale’s Paradise Development Group, which seems to build anything but projects you’d find in paradise. It’s Mediterranean-style! I wet myself in excitement!
  • After a trip to the finals, you’d think Micky Arrison and Co. would be rolling around in dough. Apparently the heat will be lucky if they break even…

My Chronicles of Transit (Part II)

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 9, 2006
in Lejeune, Miami, Public Transit, Transit and bus
. 0 Comments

3 minutes. That is how little I had to wait yesterday for the J route bus to arrive. The ride home was flawless, quick, and just as efficient as if I had driven myself. The bus flowed as quickly as the traffic on LeJeune during the 5 pm crunch. The effectiveness of the whole ride home was a surprise to me; I never thought it could rival driving.
The bus was nearly full to seated capacity. The assortment of people riding the bus home included a couple of flight attendants (Delta and American Airlines), old folks, kids attending summer school at Coral Gables Senior high, and people who looked like they were just running errands.

All of the buses and trains were very clean, well air-conditioned, and for all practical purposes comfortable. The metrorail stations themselves need some help in that department, but in all fairness, they do see a considerably more traffic.

I took the metrorail down to South Miami to run some errands (Post-office mainly) before heading to back home. Having to depend on public transit, required me to plan my day accordingly and made my day go by much more smoothly. I felt better and more energized because of the added walking and saved time and money by planning my day ahead of time.

I now plan to make busses a part of my weekly routine in getting to and from work and other places (aside from my usual use of metrorail on weekends.) My next plan is to try a longer distance (maybe the beach on a Saturday.) I regret that Ryan had such a miserable experience in his attempt to get to FIU but I hope that doesn’t discourage some of you from taking the Transit Miami Summer Transit Challenge. I did and it worked…

Experiencing Public Transit (Part 1)

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 8, 2006
in Lejeune, Metrorail, Miami, UM, US-1 and bus
. 0 Comments
Well, having already used public transportation for pleasure and recreational purposes on various occasions, today is the first day I depended on the system for my daily mobility. I began my day, 40 minutes earlier than usual and arrived at the UM metrorail station by 7 am (on foot.) The stations and metrorail were busy with what appeared to be working class individuals; the business executives were only visible as I peered through the window of the train at the traffic down below on US-1. I rode the train North to Douglas Rd. (next stop) where I disembarked around 7:12. That’s where the efficiency level of the system suddenly took a sharp drop.

Now, I knew the J bus would take me to my destination, however, the trip planner recommended route 42. So, with that knowledge at hand, I proceeded to the route 42 bus stop. The station had a bit of activity but did not appear to be more or less than usual. Route 37 seems to be the popular route. I waited for 20 minutes, watching a couple of J routes come and go as well as a route 42 heading towards Coconut Grove, empty.

The arrival of the 42 could not have come at better time, as the sun was just beginning to peak over the trees and buildings which were shielding it from me and the heat was just starting to intensify. It appears many people are unaware of today’s free rides as the bus driver himself quizzically glanced at the ticket I just handed him and riders continued to pay or show their golden passports. The bus embarked immediately.

The ride was uneventful and much more serene than my new daily commute down the same thoroughfare in my car. Once on the bus, we flowed seamlessly until I disembarked at my location at 7:50, nearly 50 minutes after my public transit endeavor began. Next time, I’ll spring for the route J, and a shorter commute which could in fact rival driving which often takes me up to 20 minutes… I’ll be back later with the conclusion to my daily errands and a wrap-up on what I think could be improved.

Take a Dump!

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 7, 2006
in Gas Prices, Miami-Dade County, Miami-Dade Transit and Transportation
. 0 Comments

It’s National Dump the Pump Day, which happens to land right in the middle of my Transit Miami Summer Transit Challenge. I implore all my readers to take a ride on South Florida’s public transportation today, it’s free! After you do, send me a digital telegram (movemiami@gmail.com) and tell me all about your personal experience (good or bad.) Random entries will be posted on the site along with my own day-by-day account. I’ve ridden nearly every form of public transportation available in South Florida and tomorrow I will test to see if I can survive without my car. Good Luck!


Transit Coupons!

Odds N Ends

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 6, 2006
in Congestion, Flagler, Miami 21, Streetcar, Traffic, Transit and traffic circle
. 0 Comments

  • We took the time recently to check up on the Flagler Street Capital Improvement Project occurring in Downtown (Pictured Above, Look Valet Parking, so that you really don’t have to use transit) and were thus far dismayed by the progress. Aside from some “decorative” lamps, a few palm trees, and some bricks around the courthouse, the “Flagler Street Marketplace” as it is referred to on city records, is nothing but a lousy $12 Million makeover for one of our city’s principal streets.

  • Alesh, already spilled the beans on this one, but, the gears are in motion to bring streetcars to Miami (again.) They will traverse the city from the Stephen P. Clark Center North, just past the Midtown Miami Waste of Land Development and also head west through Overtown to the civic center area. Late by two years, this project is expected to begin construction next year and be fully operational by 2010. This streetcar system will provide residents with a great amount of mobility and will continue to spur development along its route and in the up and coming design and Wynwood districts.

  • Home owners in the Roads area of Miami are calling for traffic circles to be placed in their neighborhoods to help prevent a potential traffic disaster when all the new Brickell buildings are completed. The benefit of these devices abound keeping traffic under control yet flowing at a fairly constant rate. If only someone would design the things properly (omitting the hideous “Stay Right Signs” (Coral Gables), not encircling the thing with reflective French fry-like barriers (Miami/West Miami), Putting Yield signs instead of Stop signs (All of the above))…

And then there was one

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 6, 2006
in Airport, Control Tower and Miami
. 0 Comments


Well, the old Control Tower at MIA is finally coming down. CBS4 covered the dismantling quite well.

Hopefully, someone will come up with the bright idea (other than us) of transferring the tower to Opa Locka Airport to get rid of their current Control Tower, Pictured Below (Yes, it is a high-rise trailer park)…

Disco Lights

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 5, 2006
in Miami-Dade County, Signalization and Traffic Lights
. 0 Comments
Although we don’t generally preach about the available methods to improve the flow of vehicular traffic, Larry Lebowitz from the Herald, recently dug up the truth about Miami’s hectic streetlight grid. The system is archaic to say the least, as it was considered cutting edge technology back when disco was just coming of age.

As we have come to expect with nearly every county project, the upgrading of the system is years behind schedule and millions over budget (with many consultant firms cashing in on the stupidity.) It never ceases to amaze us how such a car-based society can go so long without upgrading the timing on the streetlights.

However crucial the fix may be, we would like to clarify that there is no easy solution for the traffic in Miami. Though adjusting the timing and synchronization of the streetlights may improve the traffic flow slightly, it is not a plausible long-term solution.

The Institute of Transportation Engineers says that signal timing should be reviewed every year to maintain effectiveness and efficiency.

Whoops…

Reaching for the Sky

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 4, 2006
in Empire World Towers and Miami
. 0 Comments

Hopefully, our new font and color will be permanent. Thanks to our readers and Alesh for making many suggestions to us on how to improve our new page.

In any case, here are the latest renderings of the proposed 1,200 foot behemoth Empire World Towers, proposed to rise along Biscayne Boulevard. Odds are the FAA will chop the suckers down quite a bit, but in any case, its nice to see how such a tall building would fit in. Images found on Kobi Karp’s website.

Below the radar

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 4, 2006
in Airport, American Airlines, Miami and North Terminal
. 0 Comments
In an effort to trim the ridiculously high costs of yet another county funded project fiasco, Airport director Jose Abreu plans to reduce the size of the North Terminal. He plans to do this by first receiving approval from the cash strapped American Airlines (um, yeah they won’t have a problem with that, considering they choose to add useless fees at every opportunity in an effort to nickel and dime the hell out of us.) In any case, what we find most troubling (aside from the escalating costs) are the insanely high estimated figures for passenger traffic:

When upgrades were designed prior to 9/11, the airport was projected to serve 55 million passengers by 2010, Mr. Abreu noted. “That just isn’t going to happen, so we have to scale back accordingly.” Now, officials project about 33 million yearly passengers by 2010.

Honestly, who makes these estimations for the use of South Florida modes of transportation? Besides, wouldn’t it have been easier to scale down the project before construction began. In any case, here we are scaling down a project that has exceeded its estimated budget by $300 million, 5 years after 9/11. Pure genius, almost as smart as the $2 million we are paying to exercise this same terminal’s people mover because of project delays (um, couldn’t we have scaled it back then?) Makes you wonder about those “Your tax dollars at work” signs all across the county…

Ryan’s Transit Disaster

Published
by
Gabriel Lopez-Bernal
on June 1, 2006
in Miami-Dade Transit
. 0 Comments

Unfortunately, as Ryan figured out in yesterday’s Transit story, getting around Miami on a bus can be quite difficult without the necessary planning and foresight. As even Ryan noted himself, our sprawl is making our lives much more difficult and is seriously hampering the ability of our transit to move us around effectively. We’ve noticed that some parts of our system are very effective in moving passengers downtown, however, that is often not the destination of choice for many of the riders. We would like to encourage Ryan as well as our other readers to continue with the Summer Transit Challenge, perhaps by using transit for shorter or non-essential trips first before fully relying on it to conduct your daily business. Use the South Florida Regional Transit Trip Planner to help you plan your next trip (as always, let us know how it went!) Happy riding…