Is Aventura Mall gutting their food court?

For months rumors floated about a possible renovation of the Aventura Mall food court. My interest concerns the bus stop outside the food court which services Miami-Dade Transit, Broward Transit, and serves as a taxi stand. Any closure of the food court would also seal off the entrance to the mall nearest the bus stop.
Though I tried to gather some information I came up empty handed until last week the press picked up Aventura Mall's proposal to the City for expansion, included a transit facility; the scope of the project obviously much larger than the initial rumor purported.
Unsatisfied with the reports I visited the City of Aventura planning department to view the design and see what Aventura Mall proposed.
While my primary interest is the future of the transit hub (which I use to get to work) I found the proposal altogether interesting: women's Macy's will finally extend their store per a previously approved expansion; seven story parking garage featuring a ground level transit facility. The garage, abutting JC Penny and the mall extension, can potentially unify the different transit options currently available, often at different parts of the mall. Finally, a three story extension of the mall from where the food court already exists.
One wonders what's to happen to current food court tenants when the construction begins. More curious than that is where the food court will be once the construction completes.
I admit total ignorance in the skills of reading design plans. Check if you can see something I don't: the future food court. I can't place it. It gives me the impression that there won't be a food court in the mall. Can anyone see it?

Roundup

Fallen behind on my duties, so I'll link spam today with commentary.

This isn't the first time FPL has been in the news of late. Their in wait for an approval of a rate increases amounting to over one billion dollars. Or else they'll have layoffs and cancel programs. Not that I support FPL, but why don't they try to set it up so that rates would increase incrementally over time, rather than in noticeable jumps every once in a while?

--

A woman in Boynton Beach (from the AP) hit two girls, kills one. I wonder if she was charged more or less harsh than a girl who recently received sentencing on a similar hit and run.

--

Spanish language production company Univision is opening a studio in Miami. I generally don't like spanish language television content, so I won't hold my breath on how this venture turns out, but it would be nice if they produced some documentary material about the lives of latin americans in Miami.

--

Another AP story, this one about a bill in the State Congress attempting to fund Tri-Rail to vie for Federal stimulus money. Is there a trend with the AP having the best local news?

--

Massive Medicaire fraud.

--

Superficial AP piece about cuts in school funding in the State. Interesting fact claiming families are leaving florida at a faster rate than they're coming. No link or cite. And estimates that private school kids will flock to public schools, who now have less money.

--

First local piece of the night, Rothstein's relationship with Broward police.

--

Profile of a struggling single mother. I didn't read the whole thing.

--

Very weak and hollow piece about a petition to recall County Mayor Alvarez. No real explanation as to why Mr. Gonzalez is intent on recalling the Mayor. What are his Grievances? They even bother to have the Mayor's spokeswoman defend him, despite a lack of charges.

But how many was it?

The Miami Herald again forgets to answer the question it poses to the audience.
In this particular article the author discusses laptop theft on metrorail. He claims readers e-mailed him about this very issue.

Unfortunate then that he doesn't tell us how many laptops have been reported as stolen on the metrorail.
I'd be interested in knowing.

A commendation for this Miami New Times article exposing unlicensed chemical hair treatments solicited via Craigslist.

There are two links in the article, one to an article from another source, and the second to a live Craigslist ad for unlicensed hair treatment.
Perhaps two isn't sufficient, but it's better than what I'm accustomed to.
What do you think?

The Miami Herald: not picking sides in a battle between truth and lies

T-Mobile, the cell phone service provider I haven't paid in three months wants to build a cell phone service tower in the city of Miami Gardens, according to this Miami Herald article. But the people of that city are terrified that such a tower would give them all cancer, causing eventual and painful death.

The Herald notes though, from a pamphlet handed out to citizens by T-Mobile citing the American Cancer Association that "microwaves, FM radio transmitters, baby monitors and police radios emit more radio frequencies than a cell site."

Read this short article and note how the writer avoids offending anyone.

In most cases I think journalists should avoid picking sides because in many situations the facts are tenuous at best, and much is yet to be resolved. However, once truth is established I think it's a journalist's responsibility (if they want to go by that title at least) to not only recognize the facts, but to also point out which side of a debate is wrong.

The citizens of Miami Gardens who threatened legal action in response to this situation are wrong. These ignoramuses do no deserve equal coverage in this article because their opinion, while popular amongst the uneducated, is not supported by facts.

And this of course goes to the heart of why I dislike government. Politicians are responsible to these idiots, who care not for truth and reality, but instead are concerned with their warped views of how the world works, and maintaining some schizophrenic sense of justice and peace which coincides with their delusions.

It makes me wonder how [not] far the species has come overall when the majority still cling to folklore and urban legends in the face of cold hard evidence from impartial parties.

Perhaps they think Satan has misled the American Cancer Association to surreptitiously increase cancer rates around the planet.

ps sorry for comparing ignorant people with evangelical christians.

Banana Republican't

Francisco Alvarado has a piece in the Miami New Times which makes a few claims he doesn't bother sourcing or substantiating:

• City of Miami Mayor Tom Regalado and Commissioner Marc Sarnoff supposedly pressuring now resigned and indicted ex-Commissioner Angel Gonzalez "to come into City Hall for an emergency city commission meeting to appoint Spence-Jones's replacement"
• Then the duo trying to get the City Attorney to write an official opinion allowing Florida Governor Christ to choose the replacement for Spence-Jones
• Then they try to get the City Clerk to "expedite the certification results of today's runoff."
• And back to the Attorney.

There's no way to say whether these claims are true or not, I haven't bothered doing the research, but as the Miami New Times is a News source, I shouldn't have to do research to verify their articles, right?