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?

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.

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.

Miami Dade County Transit route adjustments

I wrote an article for the local website TransitMiami, but I'm reposting it her

This link below is the document[s] I read to prepare this article.

http://www.miamidade.gov/govaction/legistarfiles/Matters/Y2009/092748.pdf

On or some time after December 13, 2009 Miami Dade Transit will be adjusting 36 routes, and adding two new ones.

These changes are what MDT calls SERI, Service Efficiency and Restructuring Initiative. The idea, as laid out in a Nov. 3 memorandum to the County Commission, is to: reduce cost, duplication, and underutilized service.

On paper the recommendations sound interesting. The memorandum (and other documents included) estimates 17,500 additional daily bus-to-bus transfers. To reduce the fiscal burden this would put upon the ridership, MDT will eliminate any cost associated with transfers within 3 hours of the initial leg of a trip.

While there is much more of interest in these changes (and promises made as part of these changes, such as “an aggressive SERI implementation plan” which includes but is not limited to the outrageous first bullet: disseminating information through marketing campaign, do they know Dec 13th is a month away? Quite aggressiveindeed !) I would like to focus on how the services changes will affect riders, specifically the Collins Ave/Miami Beach transit corridor, which has at least five rout adjustments.

Various busses currently enter the Beach and then run either up or down the remainder of its span. The G, H, and J bus will now no longer do this. They will enter Miami Beach, and shortly thereafter reverse back to whence they came. The K bus will be eliminated.
The bus drivers I’ve spoken with so far are a bit nervous about these changes because they put the burden of transferring on ANYONE who enters the Beach on these busses and isn’t going to their respective end-points. However, the S route will still run all the way down the Beach, but more importantly the Beach Max, which stops where the G, H, and J will end, will double its frequency!
This is precisely the sort of compensating service necessary to ensure that the aforementioned route changes don’t impose a large burden on riders. It isn’t a perfect compromise, as the Beach Max will still have limited stops on the Beach, but those riding there for work will most likely be well served by these changes.

I invite others to look at the proposed changes and share with us ways they see things falling out. I hope MDT takes advantage of the constant data-set the new Easy card system provides to often reassess their decisions and strive to offer better service in a very poorly served county.