Miami Noted News

Miami Beach

After a judge ruled (days before last Novermber's voting) that the Miami Beach Convention Center bond initiative could not be on the ballot before a contract was available for public presentation, the city commission voted to scrap the plan altogether. Beheading the draft outcome of an already rather long-winded process, the commission claims it wants to focus on the convention center, and not bundling other amenities in to the project.
The city now cancels a proposed project, Lincoln Lane, which Curbed Miami claims faced hampering corruption scandals. The resolution canceling the Lincoln Lane North project RFP claims three reasons for cancelling: the recent change in city leadership; changes in the real estate market; and an impending Lincoln Road Master Plan process.
In both cases I wonder to what extent, if any, the new leadership came to the table with projects of their own already in the works. In either case one hopes their efforts have a better impact on the City of Miami Beach than otherwise.
With public-private partnerships the community should be reasonably weary of the potential for nepotism, mismanagement, and poor oversight. While I don't support any more municipal big-bond projects which seem always to benefit private contractors more than public well-being, I hope the citizens of Miami Beach put pressure on the commission to be responsible and transparent in their dealings.

Aventura

On February 12 Miami Today News broke the story of  an Aventura Mall expansion. They don't specify how they found out, but I was able to hunt down a January City of Aventura Document Titled "CURRENT DEVELOPMENT & APPLICATIONS IN PROGRESS," which Google dates to February 9th. According to the official document this project is in "Developments in Review Process", or phase IV of a four stage process ending in phase I, complete projects. The two in-between stages are approval and construction.

Rumors in the mall for a few months now suggested the food court would close for some renovation. I had no clue it was an expansion until the 12th. Back in January I tweeted Miami-Dade Transit about what this would mean for the transit hub which services both MDT and Broward County Transit:

@premitive1 We'll ask and report back.
— Miami-Dade Transit (@IRideMDT) January 7, 2014

They haven't gotten back to me, but perhaps if they did I could have broken the story about Aventura Mall's expansion. Consider my ego bruised. Especially since in the Miami Today News story Aventura Community Development Director Joanne Carr makes some kind of claim about "transit facility," which may potentially unify the Malls currently somewhat disjointed transportation options. Inquiring minds may want to dive in to an Aventura planning document which gives details on the Mall's request for a zoning ordinance which seems to hold construction of a transit facility as part of the justification for the change.
After a public record request Yemar Reus, MDTs document manager said this regarding the future of Aventura Mall's transit hub,  "Where the mall will be placing the hub you will need to check with the Mall Operation MDT has nothing to do with the temporary relocation."

There are a few aspects of this story I would like to explore further:

• Given the number of people public transit brings to the mall (employees, locals, and droves of tourists) to what extent  does MDT and other transit services behold themselves to the whims of Aventura Mall? The current transit infrastructure is poorly designed and causes undue confusion to riders. Does Aventura Mall have any responsibility to transit organizations and their riders? Is there any written agreements or contractual obligations between any political body and Aventura Mall?
• What kind of transit facility design is being proposed and what are its benefits and short-comings?
• What role, if any, does the promise of a transit facility play in the approval of the zoning ordinance Aventura Mall requested?

I hope to get around to some of these questions in the next week, including photos of the plans proposed by the mall. Anyone one with recommendations on what to look for, or further information are welcome to comment or e-mail me directly.

in consideration of the purpose and uses of the sunpass express lane

The opportunity to help a friend necessitated driving down the local interstate highway, i95. Though rare enough to see me in a car, the trip downtown from the northern outskirts of the county fails to elicit some measure of excitement.
But imagine my confusion in 6:30 am 15 mph traffic. (Mind my share of rush hour horror for the last decade.) I could not imagine how rush hour's lethargic fingers reached back in the morning, so early in fact the sun had not yet risen.

The segment of 95 near the 826/441/Golden Glades interchange display chronic congestion conditions, but I assumed congestion began at 8 am. The early standstill adds kindling to a contrary notion that Miami's economy has bred a class of people who spend significant time in traffic.

Miami-Dade County developed an electronic toll express way with time or traffic variable pricing.  (find links about prices) Ranging from the current lowest of 25 cents to over five dollars in my own experience. Use of the express lane, other than through participation in a specialized program requires one purchase a SunPass branded device.
The SunPass express lane guarantees participants 55 mph speeds, but I'm here to state otherwise. And in doing so I have two points I'd like to bring up.

What got me thinking about this program is a Miami Herald article published on Sunday explaining that people speed in the express lane. That has been the case on some occasions I used the express lane. While I cruise-controlled my way at 60 mph, many people sped right past me, at some points right to the back of a bottleneck caused by other drivers going the actual speed-limit.
How many people use the express lane only so they can speed?
With such a characterization of the express lane, the response given by the authorities is questionable. They propose to have more enforcement of the limit by putting boots on the ground. Does that bother anyone else? Pulling people to the side of a highway to ticket them strikes me as extremely dangerous. Why don't they consider an electronic ticketing system? Perhaps there are ulterior motives.

On an occasion where I paid more than $5 to use the express lane I found myself at some point in stop-and-go traffic. How did that happen and why was I being charged so much for such an experience?

All of this completely disregards opinions and complaints about the program related to its legality, and whether or not it equitably serves the community. And overall, what I have considered leads me to the obvious question: what is the goal of the sunpass program, and is it succeeding?

emptiness is next to godliness

Exmiami reports that the old Miami Herald building has not had any advertising on its sides for ten days. These advertisements face a highway, which is not only technically illegal (though god forbid the City of Miami ever do it's actual job) but an exploitive distraction.

I hope Genting, the company which is tearing down the Herald Building, keeps the adverts down too!

the two-tiered first ammendment protections of presstitutes and citizenry

The slew of citizen journalist arrests at protests deemed unauthorized demonstrates a clear double standard in the protections municipalities and their police grant regarding the first amendment. While orders to disperse from public streets are constitutionally questionable on face, the arbitrary discrimination between government condoned journalists and anyone else on the scene raises startling questions with human rights violation implications.
As if working together like members of a team, corporate sponsored mainstream media representatives are literally given a game plan by the policy media liason, as everyone else is treated like a criminal for what is a clear expression of the constitutionally protected right to assemble freely.

While I am interested in any cases which have augmented the 1st amendment to allow governments to impose time or place restrictions, the wording itself suggests no scope of time or place, which implies all collective spaces more than any other are subject to this constitutional protection.

Let me tell you why I've brought it up:
When journalists, "the press" are not as much watchdogs of power, but rather than lapdogs, it's becomes increasingly difficult for the population to understand what goes on around them. I won't purport any conspiracy about the unhealthy relationship between the powers that be and those charged to report on them, but rather, take a look at this youtube playlist featuring a segment from the Conan show called,  "media matters" In the segment Conan demonstrates the reality of a corporate local news affiliate feeder system whereby dozens of organizations across the country all report the same stories, in many cases with the same words.
Homogeneity in journalism is a big a problem for society. When everyone is getting the same news from the same voice, and that voice is not a free voice, we should all be terrified.

the 17 million dollar tracking system

Slowly working my way through my RSS feeds I came across (perhaps too late) this note on Miami Today about the Citizen's Independent Transportation Trust group approving a 17+ million dollar contract for a GPS tracking system on Miami-Dade Transit's buses.
This is something worth looking in to.

Here are links I've compiled so far, hopefully more to come once I've gotten back my public records requests.

http://www.miamidade.gov/citt/home.asp

the illustrious Faustin Denis

A quick write up requiring some follow up regarding Biscayne Landing, North Miami, and someone I have written about previously, Faustin Denis. The blog I wrote was later and much more recently featured in Voters Opinion, in part of a series on corruption in North Miami. In that particularly series my own investigations and analysis of bids made for a work contract led me to believe Faustin Denis is engaged in some kind of bid-rigging.

The rich want to pay for it, but why should they?

In this Miami New Times article, it is claimed by Neisen Kasden of the Downtown Development Authority that the filthy rich tenants of Brickell ave are "willing to tax themselves to pay for part of the improvements." Notice that there is no exploration of how much of these improvements they would be willing to pay, but given the project is estimated at only a measly $5-10 million, maybe they should just pay for the whole thing? They can call it giving back to the community, right?
One comment on the article by Esperanza Suarez Kelly notes, "My friends at Curtis + Rogers have been working on this for a very long time."

And so there is part of the story. You've got a design group whose been working on a project for some period of time despite their not being any money reserved for the project to begin with.
Who wants this project done?

I'm certainly very concerned with safety issues in the area, particularly Brickell which is notoriously anti-pedestrian, despite being one of the densest areas in Miami. However I am always skeptical of any plans that begin to hatch before they are laid.