Transit Miami

Hello Miami. Well, I thought now would be a good time to get a visual of Miami-Dade County’s mass transit upgrades provided that the main projects that have been proposed are completed. Since the People’s Transportation Plan and subsequent half cent sales tax was passed in 2002 to fund new transit projects, there have been many colorful maps illustrating what the County would look like with all the wonderful new lines built. Unfortunately, after four years of mismanagement, debt, corruption, and poor planning the original master plan for rail projects to be built through 2025 now isn’t much more than a fantasy.

So after I scribbled all over a Google earth image of Miami-Dade I realized how screwed up future system will look. What an illogical mess. Here are a few of the conclusions I’ve come to:

1) More than half of the updated system will essentially be commuter rail. Obviously you have Tri-Rail, but then the North extension of the metrorail largely traverses the suburban industrialized no-man’s land on the northern end of 27th avenue. It’s better than nothing, sure, but it shouldn’t be prioritized ahead of more logical inner city alternatives. Also, the East-West extension to FIU is looking nearly as ugly. Less than half of that line will run though city neighborhoods like Flagami (provided Flagami NIMBYs don’t get their way) while the remained will run in more suburban areas west of the Palmetto and terminate way out at the turnpike where stations in the vicinity will serve largely as park n’ ride. Park n’ ride? That, my friends, is a staple of commuter rail. In summary, the only wholly inner-city rail extension appears to be the Miami Streetcar project, which hasn’t even secured any funding yet.

2) What’s the deal with skipping over Little Havana? It’s arguably the largest highly urbanized neighborhood in the entire state of Florida. Apparently, though, it’s not good enough for quality mass transit. Forget about the proximity to downtown, not good enough. Forget about it being perhaps Miami’s most organic neighborhood, still not good enough. Forget about Calle Ocho being one of the most famous streets in South Florida, the tourism, the critical mass of working class residents, or the strong pedestrian presence…not good enough. It seems ludicrous to me that Calle Ocho or Flagler Street have not even been considered for streetcars. In my opinion this corridor is without question the most deserving of a streetcar in all of Miami-Dade County. It wouldn’t even be likely to cause a major traffic problem because both Flagler and Calle Ocho are one-way streets.

3) Talk about fragmented; if I live in South Miami and attend FIU, I’d have to go the complete opposite direction all the way to downtown first, then way north of FIU to the airport before I arrived in West Miami-Dade. This trip will likely take 45 to 60 minutes, which is just outrageous considering it’s only a few miles between South Miami and FIU.

4) We have to get Miami Beach connected to the mainland. We can’t wait another 10 years before we even evaluate BayLink again. Quite frankly, not having a connection between downtown Miami and South Beach is just unacceptable. These are two of the most urbanized areas in the entire Southeastern United States. These are the economic engines of Miami-Dade and to a large extent, South Florida. I could write the entire report for advocating this rail transit connection. This is the South Florida version of not having a connection between Manhattan and Brooklyn or Queens. Just the idea alone is unfathomable for anyone with any recollection of New York whatsoever. It shouldn’t be any different here.

Bottom line, despite the recent developments with Tri-Rail and the Miami Streetcar, we cannot be complacent. We must continue to put pressure on local officials in charge of our collective future. We need to hold our elected officials accountable and we can start by taking to the polls this fall.