From The County Recall Election to Modern Art: A Conversation with Civic Activist and Philanthropist Martin Margulies

6 p- 6:30 social time (cash bar) 
6:30-7:30 Delicious Dinner: (Cost: $25/$20 student)
7:30 - Program (The program only is free and open to the public)
 
Martin Margulies has been a successful builder who developed Grove Isle among other unique projects. He followed his passion for Modern Art and started the extraordinary Margulies Collection Museum located in Miami. (We will see a series of images from his collection.) His concern for the quality of life in Miami developed into several substantial philanthropic gifts to the residents. He has also become an outspoken advocate against the public funding for museums in Bicentennial Park as well as the Marlins stadium. Margulies is now supporting the Mayor Alvarez recall and efforts to stop state funding for the Dolphins (Sunlife) Stadium. He will be questioned by UEL Vice President and UM Professor Gregory Bush about how his life in development, art, and civic activism relate to each other.

The Carl Fisher Story - UEL Screening. By Sonia Succar-Ferre

Our film program on Wednesday was a great success in spite of the bad weather. We hosted it in partnership with The Civic Circle. Over 50+ people attended.

The film on Carl Fisher was excellent and Dr. Gregory Bush, lead a great follow up discussion with questions from the audience.

Virginia Key Guiding Principles.

Does Virginia Key Need Guiding Principles? From viewfromvirginiakey.com:

Alternatives to the 2009 proposed master plan for Virginia Key are now being mulled over by community groups, public officials, editorial writers and even University of Miami Architecture School students in a special design workshop on Virginia Key. The City of Miami Commission is set to reconsider the Virginia Key Master Plan in May 2010.

What will guide decisions about what, where and how the island should be used? Should public land be redeveloped using the same principles as private property? Do private sector rules of highest and best use apply? Does public access trump revenue generation by a cash-strapped city? Should short term goals override sound, long-term planning? Is the fragile environment of Virginia Key going to survive?

Perhaps a lesson from the recent past can help. In 1999, the City of Miami was in the throes of a financial crisis, much like today, and Virginia Key public land was seen as an opportunity to increase revenues, much like today. Sensing a need for some kind of order amid the chaos of competing interests, University of Miami Professor Greg Bush, then president of the Urban Environment League, came up with these guiding “Principles for the Future of Virginia Key.” Here is Here are the principles:

-Free and clear public access to the beach and all public property should be maintained.

-Public participation should be insured throughout the process of re-designing the use of public land with due public notice given in major newspapers. The need for public charrettes, paid for by the city and other sources of funds is paramount. All city and county reports should be completed on schedule and issued in writing.

-Those Virginia Key Advisory Board or Waterfront Board members with personal interest of their own, or by members of their family or close personal friends in future economic benefit from the and in question should consider that this might constitute a conflict of interest and should consider removing themselves from their respective Committees.

-Public bathroom facilities should be made available to all and adequate security should be maintained in all public parks.
-Public access to public land should not be inhibited by parking restrictions or inadequate public transportation.

-Public parkland should be used to enhance the appreciation of nature through walking trails, public campgrounds. It should also provide places of contemplation and relaxation as well as be redesigned for active recreational uses and as entertainment venues. There is a paramount value to keep all activity small scale.

-Public parkland on Virginia Key should be used to memorialize the civil rights struggle of African Americans. A memorial structure should be constructed modeled after the FDR memorial in Washington D.D. that will be a place of contemplation and tell the history of the struggle. It should be developed in cooperation with the Black Archives. The site should be a non-commercial service to the community, act as a tourist destination. All proceeds should benefit underprivileged youth.

-A suitable memorial should be created for all those from Cuba and Haiti who arrived on the shores of Virginia Key in their flight from oppression.

-Commercial eating facilities should be strictly limited to small scale operations.

-Educational programs for youth should be a major objective in redesigning the public parkland - done in conjunction with the Biscayne Nature Center.

-This Committee should be retained during the entire process of the planning for Virginia Key not merely to help with Specification for RFP’s so that there be continuity of knowledge.

-A Wilderness Campground should be created for inner city children, children at risk, and others, similar to the youth camp at Biscayne National Park.

-Any designs should be completed only after full and active consultation with local experts in the fields of environmental science and local history and with due deference to the ecological and historical nature of this island.

Invitation to Revive Public Input to Redesign the Master Plan for Virginia Key. By Gregory Bush

Public input meeting to redesign the master plan for Virginia Key will be held: Saturday September 26, 2009 at the Rusty Pelican, 9am- 1pm
 
Virginia Key is a 1,000 acre island off the coast of Miami that has long been a hodge podge of land uses.  It is an island without a plan. No one lives there. Our Virginia Key Planning Coalition needs help in helping the city design a viable plan to make this island into a place we can all look to with pride in the coming years. It could be a thoughtful, well conceived and environmentally sensitive island that serves the needs of all residents and is a viable attraction for tourists as well.
           
Background:

For the past few years, the city has tried to design a Master Plan for the entire island.  It hired the planning firm of EDSA to oversee the process but their plan, presented this past May, ran into unanimous opposition from the City’s Planning Advisory Board and the Waterfront Boards.  It desperately needs the publics help.
           
Major concerns have been expressed about the need to retain the Miami Marine Stadium, an historically significant structure, and make it a viable venue again.  Others strongly dislike plans for a huge sports complex in the old land-fill area in the center of the island.  The plan has not addressed mass transit concerns, nor has the historically black beach been adequately integrated into the overall plans. Most observers are not opposed to all commercial development nor all aspects of the EDSA Plan but believe that allowing high rise hotels and a theme park atmosphere would seriously damage the fragile –though disturbed- eco system that exists on the island.  This is a unique tropical island that should not be overbuilt like Watson Island.
           
Recently, the Urban Environment League, the Friends of Miami Marine Stadium, Miami Neighborhoods United, the Sierra Club, Tropical Audubon and numerous other organizations, have agreed to work with the city in trying to forge a new consensus behind a Master Plan for the island.
           
WE have been able to secure a large room with a great view at the Rusty Pelican for September 26, 2009 as a venue for a public design workshop to come up with a set of drawings to put into consideration to the City Commission in the coming months. No experience necessary. Give us your visions. We expect to have several break-out sessions where the public will be invited to address (1) the marine Stadium basin (2) the landfill area (3) natural areas such as at the Northpoint/Jimbos area and (4) island wide transportation and thematic integration between the Virginia Key Beach Trust, educational and commercial interests, (5) South Va Key spaces such as Rosenstield School, Hobie Beach and the Seaquarium. 
           
The public is ensourgaed to attend this design workshop. Speak out.  City and County residents are welcome because many of the parcels on the island are owned by both entities.
We are looking for architects and planners, students and everyday folks to volunteer their Saturday to help put Miami on the map as a city in which democratic planning can help create a better place. If you have professional standing as an architect or planner, and like credit for your work, please contact Jorge Hernandez at jhernandez@miami.edu
           
For further information, contact the UEL at uelinfo@bellsouth.net
Phone: 786-472-0011.


Help us help the city create a first class plan and show how citizen input can make a positive difference in South Florida. Please let your friends know about this event so that we have a large turnout and can send a signal that people care about this place. Please distribute this flyer to get as many people out as possible.

Decisions on Virginia Key Should Be Postponed

The UEL, Friends of Miami Marine Stadium, MNU and numerous other groups are organizing a public design workshop that is scheduled to be held at the Rusty Pelican on September 26. The idea is to create a positive event, building on the work of EDSA and gathering additional public input in helping to plan the future land uses of the island. We expect at least several hundred people to attend.

Towards that end we request that any action on the EDSA plan or its offspring be deferred by the city commission until at least October if not later. We assume that any revised plans would also have to go before the Waterfront and Planning Advisory Boards again.

In addition, we would like some preliminary discussion about how the fate of this island relates to the financial state of the city. All to often in the past, parks and other public spaces have been set up to alleviate fiscal distress in the city. Beyond the deed restrictions that have seldom been acknowledged by EDSA there are not clear guidelines or principles about the value of public space in Miami. In such a void, it frequently becomes an easy target and then can never be redesigned as a natural or even a public area. We need to continue to have positive public dialogue and think creatively about this island but not waste the public's attention with mixed messages about unwarranted commercial development.


Gregory Bush
Vice President, Urban Environment League

Democratic Planning and the Public Voice: A Statement of Principles for Local Governments in South Florida. By Gregory Bush

Drafted by Gregory Bush: email: bush4398@bellsouth.net  
 
From the time of Thomas Jefferson’s Northwest Ordinance of 1785, land use planning has evolved at both the national and local levels in ways that have tested our federal system and our relationship to the land.   Our present condition of suburban sprawl and the increasing scarcity of land require clearly articulated principles and a coherent set of priorities to guide future development at the local level.

In order to promote better local land use, improvement of the general welfare, and more representative forms of civic engagement in planning efforts, the undersigned organizations believe that the following baseline set of principles should be followed by area governments.  Central elements should include impartial professional and scientific standards, broadly defined notions of stakeholders, and sensitivity towards public land, urban design, economic equity, and environmental conditions.

Planning must be transparent and democratic in order to build public confidence in the quality of local government and hope for a better future for all our residents.
 
Principles:

1. Democratic planning should never rationalize or promote pre-determined results by special interest groups but build community consensus from maximum feasible participation of area residents.
 
2. The goal of the planning process should be to create a viable vision for long-term land use and include sensitivity to the historic character of neighborhoods, cultural and ethnic diversity, greater economic equity, sustainable environment and green design.
 
3. The public planning process should always be clearly defined and transparent, provide multiple public workshops and various forms of public input and public decision-making that are assessed and tracked through the entire planning process. Resident friendly meetings should be held in accessible venues, at convenient times for residents who work, take place on multiple occasions, with plenty of advanced notice. Meeting results should be published and readily available to the public in a variety of different media.  Special efforts should be made to include a wide diversity of opinion, including the elderly, young people, as well as gender and ethnically diverse populations.  
 
4. A comprehensive information data base should be developed early in the planning process for maximum impact on participants. A variety of organized public information outlets should be developed and updated in a timely manner through the web and other venues. Successful experiments in broadening public participation in other areas of the world should be implemented.  The voices of area residents should be captured, preserved and relayed to interested participants in a manner that increases awareness of local issues.  The information data base should address all aspects of the planning process including specific historical references to deed restrictions, and changing land use and zoning classifications.
 
5. A broad notion of stakeholders shall include non-contiguous residents (notably if the land in question is a regional asset), students, and involve include focus groups, social needs assessments, and other tools in assessing public opinion, notably within schools as well.   
 
6. Public land use and the public interest must be paramount considerations at all times, and should include enhancement of parks for public use, and adequate access to public space consistent with the stated goals of the growth management process. 
 
7. Economic criteria for redevelopment, including bond funding, must be derived from an open public process that views an improved standard of living for all as the central social goal.
 
8. A countywide Joint Democratic Planning Commission, set up by non-profits, governments, experts and non-professional residents, should periodically assess local planning efforts for their adherence to the above principles and others that may in their wisdom be added in the future.  

Waterfront Board Meeting Last Night

Congratulations to the residents of Miami Dade and the City of Miami for defeating the EDSA Master Plan at the Waterfront Board last night. The UEL especially wants to thank attorney Blanca Mesa for her hard work in rallying people against this foolish plan. The forthcoming meeting at the PLanning Advisory Board on June 17 is equalling important as is the process of lobbying City COmmissioners against the plan. They vote on June 25. We need to push the need for more public meetings in order to keep the island from stupid commercial development. Overall, this could be another example of a good public planning process similar to that of Virginia Key Park Trust. Maybe its a new day. Maybe. Greg Bush