Waterfront Land Up for Grabs!
Who Knew?
By Gregory Bush
New land has been found in front of the American Airlines Arena. Put a stake in the ground and claim it before others do!
Who knew that this new public land had been found? Who has been involved in deciding what to do with it?
Sadly, in its present form, the issue appears before the County commission's Recreation and Culture committee Monday April 14th at 2 pm at the Stephen Clark Center. A Bay of Pigs Museum tied to a 1,000 space Heat parking garage appears politically favored to win the day.
Not far away, however, in great silence, a Bayfront Park statue honors Ponce de Leon, another adventurer who discovered (?) and claimed "new land" for God and the King of Spain. The point is that the history of our landscape is critical to our sense of place and the long term quality of our lives. Our process for deciding its use should be corrected now. Our struggles for the Miami Circle, Bicentennial Park, Virginia Key, Sewell Park and the Barnacle addition in the past few years should have told public officials that new modes of decision making for public land need to be instituted and carried through.
In 2008, this parcel contains 2.7 acres of precious waterfront land worth millions that is apparently up for grabs to the cleverest packager because the public process for designing public land has been indefensibly lame. This issue is not about the worthy goal of honoring the Bay of Pigs veterans, whose museum should appropriately be placed in the Freedom Tower, but about the power of big time lobbyists who have cobbled together a deal to promote a 1,000 space parking garage for the parking needs of the Miami Heat.
We, the public, need an investigation of this process of appropriating public land with little public input. How did this deal come about? Why aren't other organizations able to ask for and receive such valuable waterfront land?
New land? Who recalls that the Heat sold the public the idea of getting their land for the American Airlines Arena with pictures of kids playing soccer on the field in front of the Arena. Now they need more parking spaces for their events. Our fast changing landscape and our processes for defining its future uses has a deeply textured but largely forgotten history. More generally, according to conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks, we are all living in the Bad Memory Century. "Already, the information acceleration syndrome means that more data is coursing through everybody's brains, but less of it actually sticks."
Miami is the poster child for America's Bad Memory City. Public officials seldom recall deed restrictions or commitments for public land use, or a myriad of other commission actions passed in prior years to utilize public land. We're a fast buck place that seems to re-invent wheels over and over again just to appear new and to jump to the tune of clever promoters with deep pockets or political influence.
The result is to foster an ephemeral culture with game-oriented people who live in places that don't last. We need to think more about retaining open space for scale human values rather than just buildings and cars. We need to assess the health and ecological value of public spaces, the complex needs of our diverse communities and the sense that we are building places that could last for centuries. Think of the Miami Circle.
Today's game involves the Heat playing with the Bay of Pigs Museum (evoking memories of great sacrifice) to take this land. (See the conceptual drawings at www.bayofpigsmuseum.org )
Significantly, the County Parks Department, which has recently touted a new long range Master Plan at the Great Parks Summit, was apparently never part of the process of deciding what to do with this space. The County Manager's report on the issue, delivered by GSA without Parks Department input.
Yet there was a public process to decide the future of this site in 2004 that was led by the nationally recognized group Project for Public Spaces which has not been referenced and has been totally ignored. They called for lush landscaping, movable stages and seasonal events to be held at the site along with small scale concessions such as food and bike rental, and plenty of open space. (See their report reprinted at www.uel.org Their recommendations have all been ignored.
The public should be aware of this land grab, the context behind it, and decide for themselves the uses of this critically important parcel. Consider the following:
1. Serious questions relate to improper procedures in terms of the County Charter Section 7, the Dan Paul Amendment, as well as the Carollo amendment for any city related property. SECTION 7.02. RESTRICTIONS AND EXCEPTIONS.
…parks shall be used for public park purposes only, and subject to the limited exceptions set forth in this Article, there shall be no permanent structures or private commercial advertising erected in a public park or private commercial use of a public park or renewals, expansions, or extensions of existing leases, licenses, or concessions to private parties of public park property, unless each such structure, lease, license, renewal, expansion, extension, concession or use shall be approved by a majority vote of the voters in a County-wide referendum.
2. Public processes were already created in 2001 and 2004 for this site that included hundreds of people calling for an integrated waterfront from the mouth of the Miami River to Pace Park. Why are these earlier visions being ignored by such monstrously large buildings?
3. This land is zoned for park and recreation. Is a 1,000 space parking garage with a museum on top that takes up 88% of the land in any way a park? How stretched can we make the definitions for parks these days?
4. The structure being proposed will take up 88.8% of this last available open space on the bay in downtown Miami. Without significant view corridors and little to do with water related or water dependent uses as specified by local CDMP and the MCNP directives.
5. Commissioner Souto and others raise serious questions about the public process in passing the Mega Deal for downtown Miami. One can justifiably ask the same questions in relation to the public process for Parcel B as well.
6. Show us the money! Just like the PAC and the Science and Art museums, Miamians can give public land to groups in an ad hoc fashion who don't prove their own financial abilities to raise money before the buildings are initiated. The cost overruns we have recently seen remain enormous for everyone in the county. Who is accountable for this money and what processes are in place before the structures are built?
To conclude, this item should be deferred from present consideration by the commission and a rational process for waterfront land use devised with sufficient public input within the next six months.
