We filled you in recently on the North Bayshore Drive Bicycle lanes - from what we have heard, the city is working to adapt this project to include the lanes. No official word yet, but we will keep you posted as we hear more.
It has come to our attention that another critical bicycle access point will be entering a design phase in the coming months. This time it is South Bayshore Drive in Coconut Grove, one of the busiest Bicycling corridors in all of Miami-Dade County. South Bayshore Drive is a critical stretch of roadway for recreational and commuter cyclists, linking up with the highly used Commodore Trail and Rickenbacker Causeway. Since this a County maintained roadway and project, we’ll be posting up a new set of contacts in the coming weeks.
I recently attended one the public involvement sessions on the Long Range Transportation Plan at the Collins Park Public Library on Miami Beach. 17 members of the community, flanked by an equal number of consultants and staff, played with Lego blocks and ribbons to help formulate the plan for future transportation improvements and enhancements to the year 2030.
You see, the Miami Dade County Department of Planning and Zoning has forecast growth to be 323,000 households and 615,000 jobs by the year 2035. To show this, the room was set with tables of identical county maps, and the two maps on the center tables had “buildings” made of striped Lego blocks: one that represented jobs and households today and one in 2035. The concentration of growth around the Costal Communities and Bay Shore was shocking: as was the growth projected beyond the UEA (Urban Expansion Area). It was hard not to see the difference between now and then, based on these projections.
After a beautiful lite dinner of sandwiches and cookies, the focus group officially kicked off with a lightening speed definition of the MPO, its guiding mandate and geographical composition. The program kept it’s fast pace through the opinion gathering portion of the evening: a survey of statements about “feelings” of transit…”Do you agree it is safe to ride transit?” “Do you agree the possibility of global warming should affect transit programming decisions?” “Do you think building more roads will make traveling better?” The responses were recorded through hand held gizmos, and zapped to a data collection point, where in real time, the responses would be projected on the screen in numerical and graphical form, a la Who wants to be a Millionaire?
For those whose true feeling about transit could not be measured in lifeline questions, a longer comment/suggestion sheet of proposed goals and objectives of the LRTP was presented for feedback and filling out. This two-page work-product, from the firm Gannett Fleming, featured eight categories and no less than 49 lofty concepts, ranging from “Reducing congestion” to “Enhancing mobility for people and freight.”
Each table of participants was given bags of Lego’s; purple and orange ribbons; stickum; scissors; a tape measure and markers. They were told to work together, to make group decisions, by the table facilitator, who explained the exercise and recorded the results. Groups were instructed how to “Build Out” the County, with the “Large-Scale Growth Scenario Base Map”. The households were represented with 253 yellow Lego’s and 160 red Lego’s stood for employment, with one yellow piece representing 1, 280 households; The red, 3840 jobs. (These Lego’s represented new growth only) The intensity of growth was portrayed by vertically stacking the Lego’s within each one-mile square grid on the six-foot map. Next, folks were instructed to add purple for more roads and orange for transit improvements that would be needed. The participants were encouraged to add as much as they thought was required. As playtime came to a close, the groups were told to go on a diet, measure the length of orange and purple on the map and use no more than the allotted amount.
Click here to submit your own thoughts on the Miami-Dade LRTP…
We apologize for being slow to comment on the recent Herald series about the People’s Transportation Plan disaster. Everyone at Transit Miami has been extremely busy as of late, but we’ll definitely have several pieces in the coming days and weeks discussing many of the elements referenced by Larry Lebowitz’s multi-part series.
Tonight was the Miami-Dade MPO BPAC committee meeting in Miami’s City Hall. For those of you who didn’t make it, you didn’t miss anything earth shattering except that we all agreed that we have a long way to go before we have a sensible bicycle network in this county. If you have any suggestions, comments, or ideas for possible bike related projects, feel free to email them over to us (Movemiami@gmail.com) and we’ll be sure to get them over to David Henderson (Pictured above giving the main presentation of the night…)
This video provides us with a glimpse of Miami’s first Transit Oriented Development, conceived in the 80s at the Kendall Station of the southern terminus of the metrorail system. This video kicks off a series of articles which will be aimed at discussing TOD…
A Judge has thrown out part of Norman Braman’s lawsuit against the inter-local agreement which among other things enabled the construction of the Marlins’ Ballpark, funded the Port of Miami Tunnel, and expanded the Omni/Overtown CRA district. Hopefully now the Sunpost will stop touting Braman as a local hero… It’s no surprise that a car salesman would be against a plan that would enable urban life and create viable public transportation.
What goes up, must come down: The Miami Skylift has filed for bankruptcy. Really? Now can we please stop turning Bayfront Park into a cheap carnival? What’s wrong with some usable green space?
But out past Northwest 22nd Avenue, the Miami River is far different — it’s a fast-paced economic engine that carries ships from 26 international terminals out to the Caribbean and back again, floating $4 billion worth of goods a year on its narrow, twisting back.
Much of that river, which handles as much shipping as the busy Port of Tampa and is Florida’s fourth largest seaport, lies within the district of Miami Commissioner Angel Gonzalez.
“That river is dead,” Mr. Gonzalez told the commission last week as he voted to remove marine industry protections along the river from the city’s land-use plan. He’d rather develop condos and mixed-use projects there to help the area’s economy.
What is it about $4 billion a year that Mr. Gonzalez doesn’t understand?
Does he think developers will pump that much into condo towers and dump enough jobs into his district to replace all those that river shipping supports?
Does he think banks will scramble to finance towers while tens of thousands of condo units are still rising and planned projects near the river are handing their land over to lenders because they can’t repay their loans?
Does he think that removing the “Port of Miami River” designation from city plans won’t push marine terminals to sell out to future high-rises that might never get built, killing river shipping in the process?
Does he care? Do his fellow commissioners?
Anyone paying attention knows that the Miami River is a working river — even though the commission refused to allow that phrase in its plans.
Well, the Miami-Dade County Commission did it again – they continued the mentality that rising fuel costs should amount to higher transit fares. As much as I would like to agree that transit fares were well below the point they should have been, I cannot justify anyone spending $100 for a monthly metropass.
Let us compare similar monthly passes across America:
Atlanta $52.50
Boston $59
Chicago $75
Dallas $50 or $80
LA $62 - $98
New York $81
Seattle $54-$108
Portland $76
Are we oblivious to what happens elsewhere around this country? Most cities have a zonal system of affixing prices to their tickets, charging more for longer distance trips. These long distance routes, service suburbia, places where transit really should not be servicing unless the area population density is well above 8 people/acre.
There is also the logical answer to the funding dilemma; charge drivers. Congestion pricing and parking pricing encourages greater transit ridership while reducing congestion (see London.) Those whose travel habits cost the greatest societal burden (drivers) pay the most for their services.
I could go on for hours on this subject (I assure you, I will) but the underlying message here is that we are continuing the flawed mentality regarding our automobile habits and transit funding.
If the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority is forced to cut trains, the authority — and even the state, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties — could face a $275 million lawsuit by the Federal Transit Administration, Tri-Rail officials fear.
Only in Miami/South Florida does a transit agency face a lawsuit from the Federal Transit Administration for reduced local funding for transit. How do we think this decision will affect Miami-Dade’s attempts to secure funding for the north corridor? Let’s ask “Pepe” Diaz what he thinks:
“If we’re cutting routes locally,” ["Pepe" Diaz] said, “where are going to get the funding for Tri-Rail?”
That’s the spirit, justify the Tri-Rail cuts with our own local stumbles.
Follow this link to send emails to our local senators in support of Tri-Rail…
The Herald is reporting that the county commission overturned Mayor Alvarez’s veto in favor of moving the Urban Development Boundary for a Lowe’s at 8th St and 137th Ave and a retail center at Kendall Drive and (gulp), 167th Avenue (i.e. the Everglades). More sprawl, more self-interests, more incompetence. We’ll have lots more on this later.
Does anyone even care anymore?With all this talk about global warming, alternative fuels, and the trimming of every government budget due to major financial cutbacks, you’d think the community would be up at arms about an approval to build even yet more development on our western fringes.Ecosystem destruction? Check.Vehicular-oriented development? Check. Massive unnecessary infrastructural strains on the County?Check.This approval falls in line with every single reason why living in South Florida has become extraordinarily difficult for the average middle-income family.
I’ll tell you this much, I’m fed up and Transit Miami is going to do something about it.
For those of you who are still out in the dark, the County Commission moved the UDB boundary again last week in order to accommodate some projects in the name of the community saving special interests.Disgustingly, the 9-4 super majority vote is enough to override the impending veto by Mayor Carlos Alvarez.In doing so, our incredibly intelligent elected officials have defied the opinion of local planning experts (not just us), most County residents, and State growth management officials.
But the county commission overlooked those pleadings Thursday when it approved two controversial applications to build outside the UDB — one for an office complex, another for a home improvement center, which includes plans to build a new high school. The state, mayor and planning and zoning board’s pleas also were ignored.
Big box retail and absurdly placed office complexes (with plenty of parking), just what nature called for along the edge of our shrinking everglades ecosystem.600,000 square feet of office space in a river of grass would equate to something like this:
The county planner said construction outside the UDB isn’t necessary because there is enough space available inside the boundary for several decades.
Sorenson stopped her colleagues before the final vote, warning of a long fight in the courts if the state finds the county didn’t comply with growth management law. Addressing Assistant County Attorney Joni Armstrong Coffey, Sorenson asked what would happen if the county was not in compliance with state growth laws.
”We will be in litigation,” Coffey said.
Where is Norman Braman when you really need him?
Let the lawsuit begin (Note: yet another strain on the public financial capacity…)
If you’ve been sitting at (or more likely driving by…) one of the Miami-Dade County bus stops lately, then you’ve likely noticed the addition of some new blue trash receptacles. I recently spoke with John Labriola at MDT to get a better understanding of the trash bin program and the financing behind it:
“All were in Unincorporated Miami-Dade, as the County does not have jurisdiction over bus stops in incorporated areas. The bins were installed by MDT with funding from the Solid Waste Department, which will be responsible for emptying out and maintaining the litter bins.”
MDT identified the 1,000 stations for the Miami-Dade Solid Waste Management Department and were placed from August through December.
We are relieved to know that the trash bin funding came from outside sources rather than some of the recent raids on the PTP and are glad to see that MDT is not responsible for the maintenance.The fact that MDT or Solid Waste, both County agencies, do not have the authority or jurisdiction to place these receptacles within the municipalities is a cause for concern.This is a blatant example of the division we experience in Miami-Dade due the fragmentation of municipalities.These multiple cities create that extra layer of bureaucracy which in this case, prevent the county agencies from rolling out a consistent pattern for municipal structures.Note: Miami-Dade bus shelters are located only in unincorporated areas as well, leaving the individual municipalities to purchase their own distinct shelters while preventing MDT from establishing a countywide brand image.It may seem insignificant, but the trash bins provide a visual glimpse of the political barriers our county agencies face…
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