Charter Changes are Not Getting Community Support

According to a recent Miami Herald Report, Charter Changes proposed by County Commissioner are getting luke-warm support form the community:

"Six charter proposals begrudgingly placed on the May 24 ballot by Miami-Dade County commissioners are getting an equally unenthusiastic reception among voters, according to a new poll, which ranks corruption in county government as the No. 1 local problem."

As you can see from the black area, which represents those against the charter amendment, in the graphic, none of the 6 have a majority vote.

Beth Dunlop Writes about the Marine Stadium Competition

There was a contest for a design for a floating stage at Marine Stadium. Architectural writer Beth Dunlop wrote about the competition:

The Miami Marine Stadium Floating Stage Competition, which concluded last week, could teach us lots of lessons about ideas and dreams. The energy that radiated from the 90 entries, one more exuberant than the last, should tell us just how unimaginative we’ve been toward our public waterfront in the past two decades, or longer.

We’ve built and built and overbuilt to the point that we think of the bay as the back yard of Condoland. We’ve allowed No Fishing signs to go up along our bridges and causeways and erected Jersey barriers to keep us from pulling off to the side of the road to enjoy a slower glimpse of the sparkling turquoise water or a particularly spectacular sunset. Buildings, big ones — among them the Jungle Island complex and AmericanAirlines Arena — fill former public lands, separating us from the water’s edge. We even — preposterously and beyond the imagination of the most satirical fiction writers — briefly delegated a portion of the waterfront as an encampment for sex offenders. As a city, and as a culture, we’ve turned our backs on our most priceless, most precious public asset.

Think of it: once upon a time we had a band shell by the bay, at Bayfront Park. Then we had Miami Marine Stadium at Virginia Key. We dismantled the band shell long ago. And after Hurricane Andrew in 1992, the damaged Marine Stadium was left to deteriorate to the point where it took a massive grassroots effort to persuade the city’s planners and politicians to save it. Its former floating stage, a tethered barge, sits half sunk on the bay bottom.

But now comes a little competition that begins to set our thinking straight. Initiated by the Friends of Miami Marine Stadium (an arm of Dade Heritage Trust) and run by DawnTown (that organization responsible for three previous high-profile competitions), the competition was sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Miami Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and open to architects and students around the world.

In the end, it yielded ideas for stages that swooped and soared. One entry recalled the Sydney Opera House, another a carnival ride and another a space station. There were boats galore — schooners, clippers, pirate ships, racing boats. Stages were barge-shaped, sail-shaped, bridge-shaped, turbine-shaped and even slinky-shaped, really the gamut. Some came with a dose of humor. Others were plenty serious. Importantly, this competition was billed — and judged — as a contest of ideas and not practicalities, of inspiration rather than actualities.

The submissions were judged by a stellar jury that included an architect, the Los Angeles-based Lawrence Scarpa, and an artist, Michele Oka Doner of New York, along with one of the country’s foremost preservationists — Frank Sanchis, who is director of American programs for the World Monuments Fund — and an up-and-coming urban designer, Walter Meyer of the New York-based Local Office. Miami was represented by Hilario Candela, who designed the stadium in 1963, and University of Miami architecture professor Jorge Hernandez.

The jury spent a full day scrutinizing, studying, analyzing and discussing the proposals, ultimately endorsing five.

Their top pick, called The Pearl, is an elegant, inspiring floating bauble designed to portray the dichotomies of a dynamic city that opens out onto a “tranquil and infinite sea.” The work of Jiong Wu + Gengxin Ou from Abingo Wu Studio of Lincoln, Neb., the design is most likely unbuildable, though inspirational. The second-place winner — from Pink Cloud.DK. Design of Copenhagen, Denmark — offered a slightly more pragmatic approach with a lighted helium disc or cloud (what else?) that would hover over a converted barge.

The “Water Box” from Igor Reyes of Coral Gables is indeed a box, or cube, but one with a cascading waterfall as a curtain — ideal when the performance would be in the water rather than on the stage.

The fourth place winners (Marcin Husarz,Wojciech Motylski, Jan Jerzmanski of biuro architektoniczne SCOLIOSIS; Wroclaw, Poland) designed a structure that would open and close, becoming a waterborne skateboard park when not in use as a stage, while the last endorsed entry (Chris Carrasquilla + Shamir Panchal of Roco.Co from Toronto, Canada) proposed “a traveling family of structures” that could roam the bay when not in use at the stadium.

Open competitions have many virtues, among them the opportunity to find unknown talent and embrace new ideas. Too seldom do we let our minds roam the way the entrants in the Floating Stage Competition let theirs. Too seldom do we embrace impracticality, knowing that in our time, there are technological solutions that make the impossible come to fruition. And where would we be without the crazy, wacky, far-fetched, utopian, idealistic ideas that architects sometimes have? The Eiffel Tower comes to mind right away. But then, so does Miami’s Marine Stadium.

If someone (in this case Hilario Candela and a team of architects and engineers) hadn’t thought it would be possible to build a stadium out in the bay and cover it with a daring and dramatic cantilevered thin-shell concrete roof, Miami would never have had this iconic, bold statement of modern architectural bravado that was — and still is — unique in American cities.

The hyperbolic parabola of the thin-shell concrete roof created an indelible image for all those who listened to Mitch Miller or Elvis Presley or Jimmy Buffet there, or watched the sun come up at Easter or set (just before the fireworks) on the Fourth of July. It was a prime spot to witness boat races and other waterborne spectacles, and then, suddenly, it wasn’t.

After Hurricane Andrew, the structure was left to suffer — targeted for vagrants and graffiti artists, degraded by heat, wind, water and humidity. Then, a decade-and-a-half after the stadium fell to disaster and disuse, a determined group of preservationists operating under the umbrella of Dade Heritage Trust began to champion it. The Friends of Miami Marine Stadium has succeeded in protecting it as a local landmark. It was named as one of this country’s 11 most-endangered places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2009 and put on the World Monuments Fund’s “Watch List” (along with Machu Picchu and Old Jerusalem) in 2010. Last summer, the City of Miami approved a plan for Virginia Key that puts restoration of the stadium at the forefront.

But that’s just the first step. There’s money to raise; there are plans to be made. Preservation is far too often like the child’s game of “Mother May I” with a giant step forward and a baby step back, or vice versa. It requires constant vigilance and unrelenting advocacy — and any number of creative ideas.

The floating stage of competition fame may never get built, but in our world propelled by ideas and optimism (rather than the fear and cynicism that tend to rule us), it should, or something akin to it.

Ideas are dreams, and they add up to progress.

Read more in the Miami Herald.

The Miami Herald Interview of Mayoral Candidates

Julio Robaina, Mayor of Hialeah, has refused to go before the Miami Herald for their interview of Mayoral Candidates. He stated in part, in a letter to the Editorial Board:

Despite all efforts to make certain that your journalists and editors have accurate information regarding the false allegations that have been launched against me or key facts about me or my candidacy, The Miami Herald disregards the truth to cast stories with misinformation or erroneous contexts. Most concerning is the propagandist coverage of the race that has developed into a pattern directed at mischaracterizing me with the intent of influencing the outcome of the Special Election.

Dutch Bicycle Experts Come to Miami

The aim is to make Miami more bicycle friendly. According to the Miami Herald:

...their arrival signals that Miami is getting more serious about making room for cyclists.

The Royal Netherlands embassy in Washington has dispatched three of the famously bike-friendly country’s top experts on “cycling as transportation’’ to Miami, where they will spend three days figuring out how to turn the city’s car-clogged downtown into a virtual Amsterdam of safe, connected bikeways. Or as close to that as we can get.

Biking workshop:

What: ThinkBike Workshop, sponsored by the Dutch, brings experts from Holland’s Fietsberaad International cycling think-tank here to brainstorm ways to improve downtown Miami’s bikeability.

Where and when: Public introductory session 9-10:30 a.m. Monday,18th floor of Miami-Dade’s government center, 111 NW First St. Presentation of the plan 4:30-6 p.m. Tuesday at same place.

For more info: Follow ThinkBike Workshops on Facebook and Twitter, hashtag #thinkbikemiami.

Settlement translates into a windfall for the city?

According to the Miami Herald: Miami commissioners may vote on Thursday to settle a lawsuit with an outdoor advertising company that could prove to be a windfall for the city. Commissioner Carollo called the settlement agreement "Blackmail."

Miami Herald on Gulf Oil Spill: Sea life likely disrupted for years

Here is an excerpt from the Miami Herald article Sunday by Rene Schoof:

"It's probably going to be one of the worst disasters we've ever seen," said Paul Montagna, a professor of ecology at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi.

"Instead of creating a typical spill, where the oil goes to the surface and you can scoop it up, this stuff has been distributed throughout the water column, and that means everything, absolutely everything, is being affected," he said.

Further complicating the toxic effects of the oil, the chemical dispersants - used as never before a mile below the surface - have changed the crude in ways that will keep it from breaking down.

The dispersants have modified the oil, keeping it in a form that's "much gooier and much oilier, and that has a lot of us worried, because it means the stuff is not going to degrade very easily," said James H. Cowan Jr., a professor of biological oceanography at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Because of the high pressure deep underwater, it's harder for dispersants to break up the oil, he said.

"A lot of us suspect that we may be dealing with this for decades," Cowan said.

BP's use of the dispersants also is likely to keep the damage hidden.

Larry Crowder, a professor of marine biology at Duke University, said the dispersant, Corexit, had kept much of the oil off the beaches, making it "harder to get 'Film at 11' about the effects." Many species that are killed by the oil in the water will die and sink out of sight.

"That may be the preference of the oil companies: to keep the damage out of sight, out of mind," Crowder said.

Scientists said at the seabed, where the gusher has spewed as much as 37 million gallons of crude since April, the world is like a refrigerator with the door shut: about 40 degrees and dark. Bacteria that degrade oil don't work well in those conditions.

"A lot of the technology that worked pretty well in shallow water we're finding - oops - there are some things we didn't know or think about," said Texas A&M's Montagna. "Obviously, there were no contingency plans."

BP's response plan for a spill in the Gulf didn't anticipate oil staying underwater. It said measurements would be made on the surface to calculate the size of the spill.

Layers of oil reach out in all directions under water, LSU's Cowan said, some deep, where they degrade slowly, and others moving toward the surface. One layer is a few hundred feet down in the water and 300 feet thick, he said.

He and his research team have been out checking the reefs with remotely operated vehicles. Most of the oil they've seen is near the shore, he said, "but we now think we're beginning to see some oil on the reef environment in a little deeper water."

Oil Drilling Poll in the Miami Herald

The UEL passed a resolution in October 2009, before the spill, against Oil Drilling in Florida that says:

A RESOLUTION OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT LEAGUE OF GREATER MIAMI, FLORIDA, OPPOSING THE APPROVAL OF OIL DRILLING IN FLORIDA’S WATERS IN AREAS OTHER THAN THOSE ALREADY APPROVED FOR OIL LEASING AND OIL EXPLORATION.

As a result we were quite surprised to see the St. Pete Times/Miami Herald poll results today, in light of the oil spill in Louisiana, that Floridians still cling to the idea of oil drilling off our coast. The poll said that 44% of Floridians do not support a constitutional amendment banning oil drilling off Florida's Coastline.

The Hold the Line Vote is Today. By Fran Bohnsack

The Urban Environment League is a member of Hold the Line. We agree with the Miami Herald Editorial that said: "The Commission sacrifices public good for private gain."

I will be representing the UEL at the County Commission meeting today, echoing the concerns raised in the Miami Herald:

"How many public officials and independent authorities have told the Miami-Dade County Commission that moving the Urban Development Boundary would open the floodgates to westward expansion for no good reason?

Five. The Florida Cabinet. The state Department of Community Affairs. The South Florida Water Management District. Florida Administrative Hearing Judge Bram D.E. Canter. County Mayor Carlos Alvarez.

Add to that list the county's own planning and zoning department experts and many, many Miami-Dade residents. They are tired of sprawl and the traffic gridlock and crowded classrooms that reckless, unplanned development generates without paying for the services it needs."

Continuing with the importance of public participation...

Yesterday, we reflected on the absence of public participation in SB 6. We also said that public participation in government was important to the UEL. Today Daniel Shoer Roth said in the Miami Herald:

It's one of those lessons that does not involve mathematical formulas or grammar rules. It's about standing up for what you believe is right.

The moral of the teachers' crusade lies in the importance of defending our rights against all odds and, above all, raising our voices in order to be heard should we feel oppressed by a political decision with which we disagree.

You do not have to be a teacher to organize and protest in front of a park or anywhere else against what you believe is an injustice. It's a habit that unfortunately we have been losing to the indifference and individualism that corrode South Florida.

Any group that rebels for a just and honest cause is worthy of admiration because it teaches us to not bow our heads before the most powerful nor to accept their dictates. And if it bears fruit, the lesson is twofold, because it's evidence that the effort -- no matter how painful it may be -- is worth it.

And:

Supporters of these laws in the Florida Legislature have already disclosed that they will again propose the reform. Such is life, no victory is permanent. What remains forever, however, is the memory of that triumph, which is an inspiration to raise one's voice again. It is among life's most important lessons.

Thank you Mr. Shoer-Roth. You said what some of us were thinking...

The Miami Herald: "Legislators deserve a reckoning for their reckless pursuit of paving over more and more of Florida."

The vision of the UEL for Miami-Dade County begins with:

"A safe, clean, vibrant, sustainable community guided by the public's interest and governed by a Master Plan..."

Editorial for the Miami Herald:

GROWTH LAWS GET A BREAK

In a rare mood of candor, legislative leaders have admitted that they're forgoing their usual assaults on Florida's growth management laws this session because it's an election year. They're worried that voters will retaliate against how they've managed growth (badly).

Yet knowing that the majority of Florida's residents hate sprawl and support sound growth management principles never stops them from weakening these laws in off-election years.

Consider 2009: The Legislature approved a bill that lets developers off the hook for paying for roads for new subdivisions. Lawmakers used the recession as an excuse, arguing that it would jump-start construction.

It was a false premise then, and it still is. Construction is at a standstill. In the midst of the foreclosure crisis the state has more vacant housing stock than ever.

Lawmakers are also worried about a 2010 ballot question -- called Hometown Democracy -- that would let voters decide land-use decisions. They're being careful not to bad-mouth it, fearing voter backlash.

Remember this cynical double-dealing come November. Legislators deserve a reckoning for their reckless pursuit of paving over more and more of Florida.
The Miami Herald

Miami Herald: Glenn Garvin against public financing of Dolphin's Stadium.

In a stinging editorial, Glenn Garvin made a case against public financing of the Dolphin's Land Shark Stadium. He said that giving public money to the stadium is welfare for rich people -- the stadium owners:

The conga line for a stadium handout starts with the Estefans, but includes their equally glamorous Dolphins co-owners.

Garvin said about the $460 million income from the Super Bowl:

Without a roof and more luxuriant seats for the pale, tender butts of corporate aristocrats, Ross says, the NFL will stop bringing the Super Bowl to South Florida. And pffft! -- just like that! -- we lose the $460 million that comes with the game.

The problem with that argument is that it's -- how do I put this politely? -- a monstrously bald-faced lie. The economic impact of big one-shot events like Super Bowls is easy to track through sales-tax receipts, and literally dozens of studies have shown that they bring in far, far less than the Dolphins and their local-government toadies are claiming.

(Of course, the Dolphins have a study from a lobbyist company to back up their estimate. Funny how they won't let anybody see it.)

Garvin quotes economist, Philip Porter, from the University of South Florida: ``When we subsidize stadiums, we're giving money to the wealthiest class of people among us.''

Super Bowl by the Numbers: Is the Economist right or Rodney Barreto?

The Miami Herald reported that economist, Victor Matheson, said that a Super Bowl brings in less than $100, million into the economy of the host city:

His research shows that the Super Bowl's economic punch likely tops out at around $90 million, though it can dip lower for large tourist destinations like Miami that already enjoy busy winters. His research found that in 1999, South Florida's economy gained $36 million from hosting the Super Bowl.

In today's Miami Herald Rodney Barreto's numbers are very different. He claims the economic impact to Miami Dade would be $219,622, 875. Mr. Barreto, as Chairman for the Super Bowl Host Committee, is advocating for public dollars to refurbish Dolphin Land Shark Stadium so Miami can attract future Super Bowls.

In a Miami Herald editorial Sunday, they balked at Barreto's appeal for money, they said the stadium is not a priority:

"Maybe if South Florida's economy weren't struggling there would be a way."

"Where would the money for stadium renovations come from? The public treasury is tapped out, and enhancing a privately-owned stadium would set a bad precedent."

Foreclosures in the Miami Herald Today

There are at least 4 different articles on foreclosures in the Miami Herald today. It appears to be everything you ever wanted to know about foreclosures. We are not happy to see our neighbors in Homestead so hard hit by foreclosures. The UEL did preach the anti-sprawl mantra during the building boom, but this is not the outcome we expected. The Herald said:

Once dubbed the fastest-growing city among medium-sized cities, Homestead is now dealing with the aftermath of its explosive building boom...While home values across Miami-Dade have crashed, no city has been hit harder than Homestead, where one out of every 49 homes was in some stage of foreclosure in September, the highest rate in a county with one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state.

A History of Biscayne Landing

The Urban Environment League since about 2002 onward, has long been involved with the cleanup of the former superfund site called Munisport (now Biscayne Landing). The Miami Herald, along with an article, printed this helpful history of the site.

We have yet to see any progress on the cleanup of the toxic plume under the site, which we called for (with Tropical Audubon Society) time and time again. Instead DERM allowed an experimental sugar based underground clean-up pilot study which later was proved ineffective. An above ground system was to be implemented upon the failure of the experiment but as of this writing, we are not aware of any progress.

Miami Herald Time Line on Biscayne Landing/Munisport:

1960s: Plans for Interama, short for Interamerican Trade and Cultural Center, a futuristic theme park serving as a gateway for the Americas.

1970: City of North Miami purchased 350-acre parcel out of the more than 1,000 acres that was originally planned for Interama.

1971: City of North Miami leased property to Munisport to build a recreation center with Olympic pools and golf.

1974: Instead of providing recreation, Munisport began accepting ``clean fill'' and construction debris.

1975: Munisport began accepting solid waste and operating as a landfill.

1981: Landfill shut down.

1982: Environmental Protection Agency places property on Superfund list, as one of the nation's most polluted places.

1999: EPA deems site safe for development.

2001: City solicits letters of interest from potential developers.

Nov. 2002: Development agreement between Swerdlow Group and the city.

Oct. 2004: Original ground lease.

2006: Developer Michael Swerdlow sells his interest in Biscayne Landing to Boca Developers, along with several other South Florida condominium projects.

Mid-2007: Residents begin moving into The Oaks, the first condominium tower built at Biscayne Landing.

Dec. 2007: Boca Developers misses a $17 million loan payment.

2008: Banks negotiate a forebearance agreement with Boca Developers, giving the company a chance to try to pay its debts.

April 2008: City of North Miami approves changes in development agreement to allow construction of 1.2 million square feet of commercial space.

Dec. 2008: Boca Developers misses an $80 million loan payment.

July 2008: Cerberus Capital Management takes over The Oaks I and II after Boca Developers defaults on a construction loan. The Cerberus group had provided equity financing to Boca Developers for Biscayne Landing and other Florida condo projects.

June 2009: Cerberus says it will walk away from The Oaks and turn the project over to iStar Financial, the senior construction lender.

July: iStar files a foreclosure action against BLIA Developers, the Boca Developers subsidiary that developed The Oaks. iStar will take over the 161 unsold condos.

August: Wells Fargo, acting as trustee for a commercial mortgage-backed securities fund, files a foreclosure action against Biscayne Landing. The developer owes $196.3 million in debt to the lending group.

City of Miami Vote today on revised Virginia Key Master Plan

The City of Miami Commission will be voting today on the revised Virginia Key Master Plan. The Miami Herald Editorial Board weighed in this morning saying the revisions were not enough:

The Virginia Key Master Plan coming before the Miami City Commission Thursday is better than the version pulled from the agenda by Mayor Manny Diaz in June, but it is not nearly good enough to warrant approval. There are still too many brick and mortar projects and not enough natural features. and:

The new master plan still includes five-story parking garages, which are utterly out of keeping with the overall redesign intent. The proposed retail village and possibility of including a conference center have no public support. They appear, in fact, to be another attempt to give private enterprise a big footprint on public property.

Miami Herald on Virginia Key Master Plan to be reviewed tonight. By Fran Bohnsack

I usually think Andreas Viggluci writes clearly and well, but today's piece on Virginia Key in The Miami Herald is not up to his usual standard of analysis. I think the EDSA revision is improved, but still top heavy, and I am concerned that simply changing the name of something proposed in the original plan doesn't necessarily indicate what is intimately going to be built.

There is still concern about a hotel sneaking in, for example, either at the Virginia Key Beach Trust, or at the North Point. Also, under Miami 21 - the zoning atlas actually zones the Marine Stadium basin edge as T-6-8, which is defined as urban core, one of the highest and most dense uses in the city. This would pave the way for intensive commercial development around the basin. There are still no answers about EDSA's original proposed system of governance for the island (read developers and realtors). UEL will attempt to find answers to these questions and others, and will post them here. Stay tuned.

The Miami Herald says:

 Gone are the proposed mountain-bike and BMX trails, along with the spa building, the corporate retreat center, the aquatic center and most -- though not all -- of the hulking parking garages that gave critics of the Virginia Key master plan fits.

A significantly pared-down blueprint for the battered but ecologically rich island's makeover is now set for review Monday by the city's waterfront advisory board, before a Thursday vote at the city commission.

The Miami Herald said about our Planning Meeting:

But critics of the plan -- who held an alternative planning session last week in Virginia Key, with 100 people in attendance -- said that the revised version, while greener, still raises numerous concerns.

"I think we've come a long way. They listened, because they had to,'' said parks activist Greg Bush. "But it's still a hodgepodge. It needs to be pulled together better.''

Miami Herald on Virginia Key Beach Park Budget Cuts.

A few days ago on this blog, Greg Bush commented on this issue regarding Virginia Key Beach Park:

Digging deeper, Miami may cut once-untouchable agencies
BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
aviglucci@MiamiHerald.com
Miami would shut down its network of NET offices, the problem-solving neighborhood outposts of City Hall, under a proposed budget that aims to close a yawning $118 million budget gap.

Mayor Manny Diaz's budget plan would also scrap the city's film office, responsible for the care and handling of cable TV's most popular summer show, Burn Notice.

And it would pull the financial plug on the nonprofit trust that runs the historic, formerly ``blacks only'' Virginia Key Beach Park, which reopened to great fanfare less than two years ago after a multimillion-dollar restoration.

The three agencies are among several city or city-supported programs targeted for outright elimination by the administration's budget writers, who have also recommended deep cuts in police, parks and other municipal services.

Those ``zeroed-out'' programs could still see at least some of their funding restored by the time the city commission finalizes the budget Thursday, subject to ongoing negotiations one commission aide called ``very fluid.''

But the fact that some agencies once seen as sacrosanct were singled out for no money illustrates the depths of the financial crisis besetting the city. Even if commissioners adopt Diaz's $511.4 million budget in its entirely -- an unlikely scenario -- it would still leave them with a $28 million hole to fill.

``People have to realize that the budget crisis in the city of Miami is much deeper than in the county, which is getting all the attention,'' said Dario Moreno, director of Florida International University's Metropolitan Center who has conducted campaign polling for Diaz. ``That's almost one-eighth of the budget that's disappeared. Their situation is dire.''

The political and practical difficulty of the choices couldn't be plainer than in the case of the Virginia Key Beach Trust, backed by much of the city and county's black leadership, or the proposed elimination of the NET offices, popular in many areas where a trip to City Hall is nearly inconceivable.

Virginia Key Park administrators and trust members spent much of last week in meetings at City Hall with administrators and two key commissioners, Marc Sarnoff, whose district includes the city-owned beach, and Michelle Spence-Jones, whose district encompasses most of the city's black neighborhoods.

APPEAL FOR SUPPORT

Spence-Jones said through an aide she wants some continued funding to the Virginia Key trust, to allow the group time to become self-supporting. She also strongly supports the continued operation of the NET offices, at least those in her district, the aide said.

Trust leaders say cutting off all $1.3 million in city funding so abruptly would jeopardize the park's future as well as other funding, in particular $20 million in bonds earmarked by the county for a planned museum focusing on the ecologically rich site's social and natural history.

``We were a bit blindsided. Our staff would be wiped out and all operations underway would grind to a halt,'' said trust Chair Gene Tinnie. ``The cost of the disruption to the taxpayers could exceed what's being saved.''

Other smaller city offices would also be eliminated by the budget plan, including the mayor's Office of Sustainable Initiatives, which coordinates environmentally friendly ``green'' programs and the Community Relations Board, as well as $750,000 for festivals and $1 million for parks and green space acquisition.

Among agencies facing a total shutdown, the loss of NET offices would be likely the most widely felt by city residents. Eliminating the agency would save $4.5 million and cost 49 city employees their jobs, including some members of the city's much-praised homeless outreach teams, which are managed and partly funded by NET.

The 13 NET offices, created in the 1990s at a time when City Hall came under intense public criticism for neglecting its neighborhoods, function as one-stop shopping for residents seeking municipal services, permits for tree cutting or block parties, or help with complaints ranging from potholes to noise and trash dumping.

NET officers also function as troubleshooters, monitoring neighborhood conditions and coordinating deployment of crews that clear illegal dumps, said NET administrator David Rosemond.

Support also runs deep for Virginia Key Beach, for decades during segregation the only one open to black Miamians and later closed for more than 20 years. It was revived after a 10-year campaign led by the late Athalie Range, the city's first black commissioner, spurred by plans the city floated to turn it over to private development.

Trust leaders say they now fear the same concept may be in the offing again, as city administrators urge them to explore ``partnering'' with developers to establish overnight accommodations or other profit-making ventures.

``We have had very casual and perfunctory conversations about this,'' Tinnie said.

``I'm not opposed to talking to private interests, but we have a vision. It's as if I'm hearing no kind of understanding of the idea that an open natural space is an economic asset in and of itself.''

$1 MILLION AT ISSUE

The trust oversaw renovations and runs the 82-acre park, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. This year it supplemented city funding with nearly $1 million in income from donations and parking, concerts, festivals and rentals.

But those events would end without the staff to run them, trust administrators say.
The city money helps pay for a staff of 15 full-time employees to maintain the beach, plan and manage ongoing renovations and the museum, and run history and nature tours.

While the beach would not close, its operation would be taken over by a parks department that is already stretched thin and is itself facing a 25 percent budget cut.

At least one ``zeroed-out'' agency doesn't face folding, however. The Bayfront Park Trust, the semi-independent agency that runs the downtown park, earns most of its $3.6 million budget from paying events. Its finances were recently shored up by a deal with Live Nation to manage its popular amphitheater. The concert promoter put up more than $2 million to renovate it.

The budget plan would cut the city's entire $585,000 contribution to the park, which would force cuts in services, pay rollbacks and frozen positions, said Bayfront trust Director Timothy Schmand. Even though business has been down because of the economic downturn, Schmand said he will seek more paying events to compensate.

``One of the beauties of being Bayfront Park is we have the ability to make money. We're optimistic,'' he said.

Miami Beach Residents will get Public Access to Baywalk

In a stunning victory for public access, the Flamingo Condominium has agreed to provide access to its baywalk. Miami Herald reporter Andres Viglucci said:

What does it take to open a two-block stretch of public baywalk in Miami Beach? Apparently a battalion of attorneys, a convoluted and costly court case that alleges fibbing by a well-known architect and a prominent lawyer, and a peeved federal judge.

Twelve years after the developers of the Flamingo South Beach residential complex on Biscayne Bay seemingly promised Beach residents a public baywalk in exchange for permits to build a massive tower, they have finally agreed to open it.

But it took more than a year of litigation, with at least seven lawyers on each side, after the developers balked at opening the baywalk, contending they thought the city wanted a private promenade. The Flamingo then failed to produce the documents that would have cleared up the question in court, claiming they were missing.

Only some of the records weren't really lost, prompting U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga to call the developers and their attorneys ``obstructionist and careless'' in a strongly worded order.

The case put Flamingo architect Bernard Zyscovich and lawyer Lucia Dougherty under the microscope. The city found e-mails between Zyscovich and Dougherty that its attorneys contend show the two concocting a scheme to avoid acknowledging they knew the baywalk was to be public.

We at the Urban Environment League thank the City of Miami Beach for pursuing this on behalf of the public.

Budget: The City of Miami uses the County Playbook.

Just as Miami Dade County did, the City of Miami voted to keep the tax rate flat. The Miami Herald said about the budget meeting:

Taxpayers flooded Miami City Hall Thursday for the first of two budget hearings -- a meeting so volatile a screaming match broke out between a commissioner and the mayor.

The City of Miami has a $118 million budget gap - not even close to the County's half a billion gap. The vote for the flat tax was unanimous at the City because Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, who wanted a delay, left the dais and did not vote.

If the Commissioners go with Mayor Diaz's proposed budget, the gap will be more manageable, only $28 million.

Is Amendment 4 the Right Answer?

There is an article in the Miami Herald today about Amendment 4. The author says:

In the complex world of comprehensive land-use plans, the public cannot vote.

However, this uneven balance of power could change in the 2010 elections. A proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution would give the public the final say on changes to a comprehensive land-use plan that have been approved by commissioners.

Given that changes to a development plan determine the fate of a community for future generations, it is vital that those changes reflect voters' interests, maintains Florida Hometown Democracy, which is promoting Amendment 4.

Contrary to the arguments of the amendment's foes, the objective would not be to ask voters to approve all changes, no matter how minor, like putting an addition onto a house. Instead, it would be limited to significant changes in development policies.

What is your opinion readers? Do you want to leave the last word with voters or politicians?