One more time: No! to the Port of Miami Tunnel

We'd like to think the graphics beat Chavez, that the iconic comic bubble caught enough people's attention down there in Venezuela to turn the tide on madness. Perhaps it will work here with the City of Miami Commission. For MVB, it's all we got because we've outlined our reasons more than once on this humble blog to the point of embarrassment.

This Thursday the City of Miami commission votes on whether or not to contribute $50 million to the construction of a truck tunnel between the port and Watson Island. Without that contribution, the tunnel idea becomes the best bad memory all of us living here could have because public dollars allocated toward the project are removed and placed elsewhere and the project for all intents and purposes dies.

As far as we're concerned, that's the best thing that could happen because many experts predict a tunnel won't save the money generator port shipping has become. In fact, they predict that the cost of doing business at the port will inevitably rise because of the tunnel's cost ($1.3 billion at the last count) which will be passed on to the shipping companies in the forms of fees and tolls. Once it becomes too expensive to ship in and out, shipping companies will jump ship for cheaper and more accessible Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale leaving Miami and the County with the biggest money pit since Boston's Big Dig.

Perhaps we should start thinking about letting Port Everglades assume its natural roll as a container shipper and re-focusing the Port of Miami toward building on its position as the largest passenger cruise port in the world. We do not advocate removing the shipping industry from the port. On the contrary, we have been suggesting that perhaps it might be better and way cheaper to re-activate use of the existing railroad tracks attaching the port to the mainland with the idea that hundreds of shipping containers would be loaded onto railroad cars and hauled in and out in the wee hours of the morning so as not to disturb the growing number of people taking up abode downtown. It seems to make more sense. Unfortunately, the Miami commissioners are getting a lot of pressure from special interest groups to vote for the tunnel. The question is, which of the commissioners who voted against the tunnel will now vote for it? Here's hoping they don't flip-flop. That would be as embarrassing as yet another post from MVB on this subject.

Besides, if Miami has a $50 million hole burning in its pocket, we can think of a better place to spend it. Instead of throwing it at special interests-- shipping and trucking-- we'd like to see it spent where it will help the most people: here.

UpDate (2/16): The Miami Herald reports today that the FDOT officially awarded the contract to build the tunnel to Bouygues Travaux Publics. We find it interesting with each new story how cheaper the tunnel gets. Today the estimated cost to build it is $914 million. Could it be the paper is distorting its actual cost for reasons unknown to the public? And if so, why?

UpDate (12/13): Christmas comes early with the announcement that the tunnel project succumbs to a well-deserved death when the state and Bouygues Travaux Publics can't agree on terms. Hurray!

UpDate (10/16/10): Because of our utter frustration with the way things went south politically here, we haven't updated in a while. Since our final post in December 2007, the tunnel not only got approved but construction has begun on widening the causeway to accommodate the tunnel lanes. Still, we find it interesting to report today that according to the Miami Herald, the Port of Miami received $22M from the U.S. DOT to upgrade the port's existing rail line that connects it to the western Miami rail yards, something we have been advocating (as an alternative to digging a truck tunnel) since this blog was founded in 2006 (http://miamivisionblogarama.blogspot.com/2006/07/miamis-big-dig-manny-carlos-say-it.html). Now, instead of reading the official port stance that the rail line wasn't necessary (http://miamivisionblogarama.blogspot.com/2007/10/miami-today-newspaper-jumps-on-our.html), it's now something to make port director Bill Johnson "super excited" because it will lead to "more international trade and more jobs."

Hope Springs Eternal: Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez vetoes UDB Extension

We were wondering what if anything Miami-Dade County's mayor had done recently since winning the right from the people to be a "strong mayor." For those who backed his proposal as we were proud to do, we are given hope by today's news that he vetoed extending the sacrosanct (at least to a few county commissioners) UDB. Hopefully Alvarez will become more pro-active on equally important issues such a transportation and housing.

UpDate (4/25/08): The Miami-Dade County Commission votes 9-4 to move the UDB to allow a Lowes Home Improvement store. Even if Alvarez vetoes the vote, the commission has enough votes to override it. Next step: litigation. The state will oppose and we predict the county will lose. Right now, the people have lost thanks to these short-sighted, visionless, usual suspects: Bruno Barreiro, Jose "Pepe" Diaz, Audrey Edmonson, Barbara Jordan, Martinez, Dorrin Rolle, Natacha Seijas, Rebeca Sosa and Javier Souto.

UpDate (4/30): Alvarez vetoes the vote. Whoop-te-doo.

UpDate (5/7): The county commission overrides Alvarez's veto 8 to 4. Those who voted against this asinine proposal and who should be lauded are: Commissioners Carlos Gimenez, Dennis Moss, Katy Sorenson and Sally Heyman. Now it goes to the state. Expect another court fight.

UpDate (7/18): The State overrides the county stating "the city and the county skirted their own growth-management rules." The State believes "there is still enough land inside the development boundary for commercial growth." According to Mike McDaniel, chief of comprehensive planning, "There is no need for additional commercial land." Lowes vows to fight on.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist for MASS TRANSIT CZAR!

16 years. That's how long Florida and the Seminoles warred over casino gambling. And then along came Charlie Crist. Within months the newly elected governor hammered out an agreement between the Seminoles and the State that the Florida legislature couldn't do, a deal that would guarantee the state $375 million in the first three years and to share 10 to 25 percent of the gambling pot after that provided the state doesn't allow racetracks or other nontribal gambling operations to expand into table games. If the politicians don't fail at derailing this plan, it is estimated that as much as "$1 billion over the first five years and $500 million every year thereafter"* will be available for education.

We really like his take charge attitude and think it should be used to get stalled mass transit programs fast tracked. The two that come to mind are:

• Opening a commuter rail between Palm Beach and downtown Miami via the FEC corridor.
• Putting BayLink, our favorite project, on the front burner.

Negotiations are ongoing regarding using the FEC corridor. We think Charlie should step in and and make it happen sooner rather than later. Although voters want some form of a mass transit connection between Miami and Miami Beach (we advocate a monorail), ex-Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer put up such a fight against it, that the plan has been pushed "back to the future," i.e, probably not in our lifetimes. This is wrong. Very wrong. Thanks to Dermer, who forced a second election on the matter, the people had to vote for it twice. We need it now, not tomorrow. Hopefully our "Get 'r done" Governor will turn his attention to both transportation issues and make them a reality before he leaves office. This could be his version of Kennedy getting a man on the moon. It should be a lot easier, right?

Random Thoughts from MVB

• The race for mayor of Miami Beach has always been disappointing with its lack of ideas, but now it has also grown uglier. It appears our candidate of choice Simon Cruz has pulled off the kid gloves and is going bare knuckle against his opponent, the grandmotherly but dangerous Mattie Herrera Bower. Her side began the scuffle with a lie and now Cruz is responding with half-truths implying she's not for the Jews (her husband's Jewish) and TV ads that present Ms. Bower as someone who isn't qualified to shoulder the responsibility of the mayor's office. The TV ads show Ms. Bower over and over again admitting she doesn't have a clue when it comes to what is being presented to her at the commission meetings which is true but these spots make it look like grandma's being picked on by a much younger man. This could come back like a sucker punch in the back of the head at the polls this Tuesday. It reminds us of the beef jerky commercials. You don't mess with grandma Bower just like you don't mess with Sasquatch:
  

• We can only hope Cruz isn't hurled by the voters out of City Hall like Sasquatch hurls those idiots that are picking on him. Why? Because he's the most qualified and open minded of the two. He's open to revisiting BayLink which is probably the most important issue facing Miami Beach (but which no one running for office talks about). Unless a mass transit system is championed between the Beach and the Mainland, the quality of life will continue to be less than it could be. Only Cruz has been willing to face the inevitable-- unlike Bower who seems to fear and mistrust outright any idea that will get traffic off the streets it if means accommodating those living on the mainland. So, despite Mr. Cruz's willingness to mix it up with grandma Bower, please consider the alternative and vote Tuesday for Simon "Messin' with the SoBe Sasquatch" Cruz.
• Vote for Deede Weithorn, too, for Miami Beach commissioner. She's in a very close run off and shouldn't be. She is so qualified. Voters should have been stumbling over themselves to get her elected the first time.
• According to the Miami Herald, "More than 71,000 residential property owners in Miami-Dade and Broward failed to pay property taxes for 2006 and delinquencies are growing as costs climb and the slump deepens." The total unpaid amount: $365 million. In Miami-Dade, that's 41,544 residential property owners (one in 16 households). You don't have to be a financial guru to predict that this crisis will be as devastating as a direct hit by an Andrew-class hurricane if something isn't done to bail people out. Too bad most of these homeowners drive to and from work. What with the rising cost of gasoline, it is going to become even more difficult to pay taxes and make their mortgage payments. Now, if this region had a working commuter rail running north and south and a monorail running east and west, they could scrap their cars in favor of keeping a roof over their heads. Unfortunately, that option isn't there.
• Miami-Dade County wants to add "Miami-Dade" to Carnival Center. We're against this idea because of two things. One is aesthetics. Less is always more. The other is ethics. "Miami-Dade" is synonymous with slime, bribes, incompetence, waste, political correctness, and back-room politics. Don't make us think about that every time we look at the buildings.
• What's with all the weathermen and women retiring and skipping town? Do they know something we don't know? First it was Elita Loresca. Now, after a blatantly orchestrated and prolonged exit for retiring weatherman Don Noe that's built around getting local "celebrities" to pronounce how sad they are and how much they're going to miss him through staged video spots every night for the past two weeks, it began to dawn on us that quite possibly these weather professionals might really know something we don't. Should we be worried? Sir Manny Mojito and the Knights of the Mesa Redonda think we should. After a short break following their valiant and body breaking effort to keep hurricane Noel away from our shores, the boys in chainmail have started a 24-hour "worship-a-thon" in front of the Goddess of the Storm altar. UpDate (11/24): Now it appears that some of the people who know better when it comes to hurricanes are taking it a step further. Instead of skipping town or retiring, one of them has actually had the temerity to die on us. Herbert Saffir, who came up with the hurricane classification system known as the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, died today at the age of 90. What? He couldn't hold out until the end of hurricane season?
  

UpDate (1/10/08): This is the last post that mentioned Carnival Center. As of today, the name will change to Arsht Center for the Performing Arts because Adrinne Arsht agreed to donate $30 million and Carnival didn't have a problem with it. Ms. Arsht sold her Total Bank last year for $300 million so it's not like she's going to miss it. Now, if they can only come up with a way to get people to buy enough tickets to make it profitable.

Surfin' USA Miami: the world's first urban surf pool

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According to today's Miami Herald, "Miami city officials are concerned that plans for the redesign of Bicentennial Park are too elaborate and pricey." Well, since it has been brought up, we thought we'd remind who is ever interested that one plan that has never been discussed is ours-- creating the first urban surf pool in the boat slip separating AA Arena and Museum Park. We think it's a natural. Funding might be a joint venture between the city and a surf pool builder (there are more than one). Open 24 hours a day, it would also provide free entertainment to those sitting on grassy berms on each side of the surf pool. And, of course, it would be another already-in-place venue for a future Olympics. If you agree with us, you can voice your opinion at a public meeting tomorrow from 6:30-8:30pm at City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive. If you can't make the meeting, you can still contact the City of Miami planning department here to let them know how stoked you are on this idea. Until then, keep hanging ten, dude!

The Orange Bowl's last hurrah is tonight

After tonight, the Orange Bowl becomes a fast fading distant memory. Following tonight's game with the 'Canes taking on 23rd ranked Virginia at 7:15, the fabled bowl will be torn down. In fact, according to the Miami Herald, some locals are already ripping the seats out for souvenirs.

How sad. The stadium's ignoble fate is symptomatic of every public arena down here. We suspect next up on the hit list will be another example of the white trash mindset of our public officials: the Miami Marine Stadium. It too was left to rot away into nothingness and memory. Whether or not it can or will be salvaged is still a mystery.

We have advocated saving both. When we wrote that the Orange Bowl would come in handy for future Olympic Games, we were laughed out of the stadium, so to speak. We saw the stadium being re-imagined as an organic structure that appeared from the street as a giant wall of bougainvilleas with red, purple, burgundy, and orange bursts of color against a leafy green background. Aluminum planters welded to the sides of the old structure and connected with an automatic watering system would create the appearance of a living, breathing monument to nature's dazzling beauty. The idea was that someday, the "Bougainvillea Bowl" would be connected to downtown via MetroRail or a dedicated monorail link. This would create an "Olympic Village" because all the venues-- American Airlines Arena, Miami Arena, downtown baseball stadium-- were close by and connected by mass transit. Not to be.

We are also dismayed by the lack of vision found in our local government and the amount of time and energy they invest in pursuing the idea of building a baseball stadium on the Orange Bowl site where access to mass transit and expressways is non-existent. We still believe our Miami Megaplex idea is the way to go because it puts the baseball stadium downtown over existing MetroRail and future commuter rail and a BayLink monorail. The new downtown with all of the condos about to come online will supply many of the fans. The rest can leave their cars behind-- even those living as far north as Palm Beach-- by taking the train or, hopefully, a monorail. And, of course, attaching the Miami Arena to the baseball stadium/hotel would help both survive through using the space for conventions, concerts, and tractor pulls.

Miami is a city of compromises starting with MetroRail (at one time, rubber tired vehicles were considered) and most recently the location of Carnival Center, a performing arts hall split down the middle by a major highway. The land was donated by Knight-Ridder, once parent company of the Miami Herald. The best location available at that time belonged to the public but it wasn't considered. A Watson Island location with architecture befitting its place could have rivaled the Sydney Opera House. But it was being saved for something bigger and better and not so public: Miami Island Gardens.

So it goes.

UpDate (11/11): The Orange Bowl has the last laugh on the university that betrayed it. The 'Canes lose to Virginia 48 to nothing.

New Mexico continues to forge ahead with the world's first civilian spaceport while Florida and Miami...

Well, New Mexico is proceeding with the world's first civilian spaceport as Florida sits idly by and allows that upstart little state to usurp our rightful place in history. Recently Spaceport America selected the architectural firm of URS/Foster + Partners to design the main terminal and hanger building in that state's godforsaken desert (follow the link to some amazing conceptual images right out of the future). MVB has been advocating from nearly the first day of its inception to use south Florida's existing infrastructure to get the jump on those pesky New Mexicans. The Virgin Galactic approach to spaceflight involves taking off and landing on a runway two miles long. We have one 35 miles west of Miami smack dab in the middle of the Everglades. It's been sitting idle since Congress killed the U.S. supersonic passenger jet program in the mid-seventies (the runway once known as the "Jetport" was built out there to diminish the impact of the sound of the jet engines which experts feared would create quality of life issues). Only one person in government showed any interest in the site. That guy, under former Governor Bush, was given the job of getting a civilian spaceport off the ground. In his email back to us he said he never knew the runway existed and wanted more info. We sent him a picture of it and its history. Never heard from him after that. But at least we tried.

In the same press release, it was also announced that Northrop Grumman Corp has invested "100 percent" in Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites which designs and constructs the spaceship. That investment of money and brains can only help speed up the arrival of the day when ordinary-- albeit rich-- people will be able to fly into space on a daily basis. Oh, yeah, we were also informed that Sharaf Travel in Dubai has been designated the world's first travel agency specializing in spaceflight for the masses. Oh, please!

Still, it may not be too late for Florida to reclaim its destiny with the cosmos because, believe it or not, Scaled Composites has some competition. The Paris based European company EADS Astrium is developing a much simpler approach to getting people into space and maybe, just maybe, a state or local governmental official with just a little vision might want to offer our nearly forgotten artifact of past visionaries as a future testing site and spaceport. Not having to construct a two mile long runway will save EADS Astrium millions and effectively advance their program along at a much more rapid pace.

Budget Boy: A BayLink monorail could be had for $20 million-a-mile (Give or take a million)

According to Miami-Dade County's Budget Boy, estimated costs for building a monorail link between Miami and Miami Beach is $20 million-per-mile. Now some might question this figure considering Budget Boy works for a government famous for cost overruns ranging from the half billion dollar Carnival Center for the Performing Arts to MIA, but at least his estimation won't cost taxpayers a multi-million dollar consultancy fee since it's free-- try to get your money back from a consultant who under estimated costs-- which they invariably do-- and this begins to look like a pretty good deal. According to Budget Boy, his numbers are the result of factoring in:

• The fact that 95% of the BayLink monorail is built on utility-free space. Relocation of buried sewer, water, gas, and electric lines are not a factor-- where most traditional construction costs are accrued. The MVB BayLink plan calls for attaching the monorail to the bridge from Miami to Watson Island and then running it at grade (no need for elevated concrete runways) along MacArthur Causeway to the Beach. The run becomes elevated at Terminal Island. When it meets the beach, it makes a hard left and runs north and south on the sand all the way to 17th or 19th Street with its northern terminus at the Convention Center with stops at "5th West," "5th East/Beach." "Lincoln Road/Beach," and, of course, the Convention Center and the Live Nation Theatre.
• The Miami run will be the most expensive since it will be built on land with existing utilities-- but it affords connections to Carnival Center, the Miami Megaplex ("The Grand Central Station of the American Pastime" with MetroRail and FEC commuter rail connections), American Airlines Arena, and the Museum Park MetroMover station.

With these kind of figures, the $200 million the City of Miami wants to throw at an antiquated trolley line could pay for ten miles of track!

Miami Beach: AKA Nimbyville

Now that 30 Miami Beach civic organizations have banded together into a unified force, it appears that any futuristic vision of connecting Miami to Miami Beach with a Disney-style monorail will only occur with the ingestion of large amounts of hallucinogens. Some may say that MVB's plan was conceived on them anyway but after reading The SunPost's story about their efforts to come together to affect "the most important (election) in recent Miami Beach history (which will) determine what the city looks like for the next 25 years," it looks entirely hopeless as "the 30" gangup against change.

Why, you may ask?

1. Because most Beach activists can't see beyond the monorail's concrete which they equate with "development." They can't see that it negates tearing up 95% of the streets because most of it runs on beach sand. Or that it will remove cars from the roads including all light rail and trolley car concepts which share and congest traffic lanes by their mere presence. If you would like to see our solution, please click here, here, and here.
2. It has been determined that a Miami Beach election can be won on as little as a thousand votes. The new Beach 500, a political action committee, has been formed to get 1,000 people to sign an oath promising to vote only for the committee's chosen few.
3. Visionaries with a sense of the future aren't running. The ones that are running are already towing the line when it comes to "development," treating it as a pejorative when in reality it's just another word for "change" which can be good or bad and is, in fact, inevitable.
4. The current antiquated "default" BayLink solution is a result of a second vote forced onto Miami Beach residents. When Miami Beach Mayor David Dermer didn't like the outcome of the first county-wide vote in 2002 where its citizens voted to tax themselves a half-cent on sales for mass transit projects including some form of Baylink, he led the commission in calling for another vote on the subject. The fear of living through years and years of torn up streets seemed in the end only to be his fear because again, Miami Beach said bring it on. Only this time, BayLink has been diluted of its visionary grandeur and, in fact, is everything Dermer dreamed it would be: a fixed-rail trolley car system with overhead electrical wires that will require streets to be torn up for years and years to come.

How sad. What could have been a project that was inspiring, aesthetically pleasing, and removed the main objection of the inconvenience of its construction, will now be replaced with ugly high maintenance catenary lines feeding power to light rail trolley cars that will contribute to traffic congestion instead of solving it.

Delays Continue: Switch to XM Channel 150

XM Radio Channel 150: Make it Mandatory for Obtaining a Florida Drivers License

Recently I've been using a loaner with XM radio. Until I listened to Channel 150, a comedy channel, I dismissed paying for something that is free as foolhardy and a waste of money. I was wrong. In fact, I think the state of Florida should require proof of buying into the service as part of the requirements for obtaining a drivers license. It is my belief that listening to Channel 150 will not only put a smile on your face while driving during the most horrendous traffic, but it will reduce traffic accidents and road rage. I understand that there are other comedy channels available on XM that are not as "adult" as Channel 150 and these should be allowed as alternatives for families or those adults who have a hard time with profanity and "adult situation comedy." Of course, Sirius, the other satellite radio company, will get bent out of shape because the state chose XM over them, well, to that I say, give the franchise to the company with the lowest bid, i.e., a rate so low per driver that old school drivers like me won't mind forking over a few extra dollars per month to pay for the service. This might be done by supplying a stripped down version of satellite radio that includes only the comedy channels. To make it even more palatable, make it a requirement that the winning company give a percentage back to the FHP.

P.S.: Don't forget the next meeting regarding the fate of the Miami Marine Stadium is tomorrow at 6pm in the La Salle High School (3601 S. Miami Ave.) cafeteria.

Miami: The World's First Spaceport Redux

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For awhile, MVB has been advocating making Miami the first city in the world to offer daily flights into space for the common man. Despite a nearly forgotten two mile long landing strip sitting in the middle of the Everglades which could be used to launch and retrieve Virgin Galactic designs immediately-- if the rocketplanes were available-- the state and county's less than enthusiastic response has allowed New Mexico to get the jump on being the first place in history to offer these daily space flights.

Until now. The Paris based European company EADS Astrium announced yesterday that they will be building a "space jet" which will be able to do something the Virgin Galactic team wasn't pursuing-- taking off and landing from commercial airports. The EADS Astrium approach also differs in the design of the aircraft. Instead of using a small vessel attached to a large plane with an unpowered free-fall back from space (Virgin Galactic and the space shuttle) , the Astrium will be a single aircraft using jet engines upon takeoff and landing and rocket engines for the final boost into suborbital space. Because it will use jet engines for a controlled flight back to the airport, it removes the necessity to surround the launch site with thousands of unpopulated acres as required by the space shuttle and Virgin Galactic and opens flying into space for every airport.

Miami should make every effort to stage the first multi-passenger fee paying space flight scheduled for 2012. The county and the city ought to form a delegation and travel to Paris to sell them on making that happen. Since it won't be easy convincing Europeans to launch the first space jet outside of Europe, the delegation should be willing to make some major concessions, i.e., giving up space at Opa Locka Airport to assemble the prototype and test fly it. Right now, there is an EADS office in Houston. The delegation ought to be willing to give EADS "free room and board" to move it to Opa Locka. In so doing, Opa Locka Airport finds a new purpose and revitalizes the economy. A little showmanship wouldn't hurt either by combining the first flight with a new Orange Bowl Parade whose theme for 2012 might be "Fly Me To The Moon!" As we like to say here, it only takes a little vision.

Click here to see a video presentation of the EADS Astrium vision.

Downtown Miami-- "It's wall to wall bums and perverts."

So says a "man in the street" in an eye-opening multi-media linked "sidebar" to a recent Miami Herald editorial by Lisa Gibbs. She tells us "It's time to take action."

Ms. Gibbs, it's been time to take action twenty-years ago. Downtown is a joke, hidden behind a facade of chi-chi condos concealing broken sidewalks and bums on the make. Danger literally awaits around every corner. What the city needs is less editorializing and studies and more action to solve the problems. MVB suggests starting here with our 4 part "Simple Plan":

• Put a moratorium on any more "studies." Downtown has been studied to death.
• Fix the goddamn sidewalks.
• Sweep the bums off the streets. If there is no budget for more cops on the beat, hire less expensive workers and give them the legal authority to round up the vagrants, put them in the back of a van and drive them over to Camillus House. Photograph them and get their SS numbers, etc, and input their mugs and info into a "bum data bank." If they're caught downtown again, freeze any benefits that they might be getting that allows them to eek out a living. Repeat offenders go to jail where they will learn to live without booze and drugs and will be employed in meaningful pursuits such as working on a chain gang. Make hanging out downtown a pain in the ass and in time, they'll find more hospitable places to crash-- unless, of course, the ACLU gets involved and they put the kabosh on this idea.
• Reduce parking fees. Until Miami finds its rhythm with people who live and work downtown, parking fees must be scaled back to make coming to downtown attractive and affordable.
  

International Toy Fair-- It Ain't in Miami

MVB has encouraged city leaders and those in real estate over a number of postings to make Miami the home of the toy industry. It began when the International Toy Center (ITC) in Manhattan lost its lease two years ago. Cities like Atlanta, Dallas, LA, and Orlando began sending delegations to the ITC to pitch them on moving. Last night the Toy Industry Association (TIA) voted to move the 2007 American International Fall Toy Show—the mass market show—to Dallas.

We believe a valid, single-minded effort on the part of the Beacon Council through a joint venture between Miami Beach, Miami and the County would have convinced the TIA to come to Miami.

It's a lost opportunity for Miami and the Beaches to show the international toy industry how worthy we are and what a great location south Florida would be for a permanent headquarters. Hosting the fall show would have made it easier to convince the TIA to move here. As it's been said before, you only get so many chances...

UpDate (3/16): It was revealed that "only Dallas and Atlanta presented complete proposals," to the TIA to move its mass market show out of New York according to TIA president Carter Keithley. Where was Miami and the Beacon Council?

20 Days Left Till Strong Mayor Vote

There are many reasons to reel in a city or county commission's power when they become corrupted by it, but this may be the most important: to keep them honest.

As we predicted, in the most recent example of in-your-face callous indifference to what we think, the city of Miami commission, led by Michelle Spence-Jones, promises to "change the rules in the middle of the game" to get what they want-- the ouster of the homeless from their shantytown called Omoja Village. The Village, built on land owned by the city of Miami-- a lot made vacant when the city tore down an apartment building in the traditionally segregated part of Miami known as Liberty City and forgot to rebuild it ten years later-- embarrasses the commissioners and, we're sure, the Mayor, and the bureaucrats down at City Hall.

"By God, we've got a Super Bowl coming up! We can't have the world's media covering a story like this! It'll make us look like psychopathic assholes! Worst yet-- it'll make us look like a third world country!"

No! Not a "third world country"! We're bigger and better than that-- so we keep telling ourselves. So, in that effort to make it go away, Ms. Spence-Jones, an African-American who represents that part of town, has introduced an ordinance that passed 3-2 to make it more difficult for you and me, and especially those without a voice or a roof over their heads, to assemble on city owned land. With a change in the law, Miami will have a legal right to remove the shantytown and everything it stands for before the Super Bowl hits town. It doesn't sound very American does it? And we wonder where our critics come up with that "third world" moniker?

The final vote comes January 11th. Will Miami commissioners rise to the occasion and surprise us by voting against this ordinance? Don't hold your breath. Although there are many characters on the commission, there is a dearth of character individually. Still, there is a ray of sunshine. If the ordinance passes, Commissioner Tomas Regalado has threatened to walk off the dais and join the poor and homeless at the Village where he expects to be arrested along with 40 other "squatters".

If he does, you and me, we should too, join him that is, down at the Village. In the words of Kathie Klarreich in an opinion piece that appeared in today's Miami Herald, "For those who believe in our responsibility for the least among us, the demolition of Umoja Village would diminish us all."

Too bad the Strong Mayor county commission vote doesn't come before this City of Miami vote. That vote is expected to win. Overwhelmingly. Just the eye-opener the city commissioners need to remind them they have been "commissioned by the people" to serve them and not their own self-interests.

If you would like to volunteer to insure the outcome of the vote or would like more information, click here.

MVB's Top 25 Ideas of 2006

Although it's only been since July that MVB officially has had a public presence with the publishing of this blog, many of the ideas found here have been lobbied for years old school, i.e., via snail mail and the occasional confrontation, excuse us, meeting. We thought it might make an interesting end-of-the-year posting to gather them together in no particular order.

1. Make it our civic duty to build the tallest building in the world in Miami on the "Boulevard of Giants."
2. Carnival Miami Orange Bowl Parade: Revive the Orange Bowl Parade by bringing the best Rio Samba schools and floats to parade up and down Biscayne Blvd.
   
3. Get our highly paid local artists and athletes to fork up some dough to support our arts through Slam Dunk for the Arts.
4. Bring the International Toy Center to Miami.
5. Connect Miami with Miami Beach with a Disney-style monorail.
6. Put Cirque du Soleil in the Miami Arena or
7. Attach a new baseball stadium/hotel/convention "megaplex" to the Arena.
8. Scrap the streetcar for a jitney to employ people and save millions.
9. Ditch the "Big Dig" and use the train.
10. Create "Broadway South," a theater district around the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts.
11. Use shipping containers for a fast, inexpensive solution to Miami's affordable housing crisis.
12. Make Miami home of the first spaceport.
13. Facilitate the Watson Island Mega-Yacht Marina where a symbiotic relationship will develop between it and the spaceport.
14. "Give" the poor our shuttered public housing units in exchange for sweat equity.
15. Accomodate the "Miami Circle" with a soaring, spirit-lifting, taxpaying condo/office/hotel tower.
16. Make Miami the first "Airship" port in the world.
17. Turn Overtown into "Soul Street U.S.A."
18. Create a world-class surfing pool in downtown Miami.
19. Use the FEC tracks for commuter rail now!
20. Recycle technology, build the "Miami Monument" on the cheap.
21. Recycle the "Harmonic Runway"-- make it the "Harmonic Bridge."
22. Save the Miami Marine Stadium.
23. Arc de Fun!-- Miami's answer to the Arc de Triomphe
24. Joy Temple: Miami's Public Trophy Room.
25. Free Lolita and build the biggest and best Miami FreeQuarium.
    

The Miami FreeQuarium

Me and the boys of MVB were sitting around talking and sipping mojitos, is our wont at the end of the day, when the lively conversation inevitably turned to the county commission's poster child for boorish behavior and environmental indifference. When Natacha Seijas recently beat back the citizen led attempt to have her removed from office, I wondered half seriously if perhaps our community might be jinxed. I was surprised by the response by our staff resident renegade on the run, Nokosee Osceola (first introduced here with his hot girlfriend).

NOKOSEE: You got that right.
VERTICUS: What do you mean?
NOKOSEE: My shaman, E.F. Hialeah says--

At this point, I was surprised to see the staff lean forward in anticipation. I sensed I had been missing out on something and made a mental note to attend more of the daily mojito sessions.

NOKOSEE: Free the fish.
VERTICUS: "Free the fish"?
NOKOSEE: Free the fish.

I must have been missing something. I looked around for help. The guys were nodding their heads in sage agreement.

VERTICUS: Okay, Nokosee, what the hell are you talking about?
NOKOSEE: Until you free the fish, this place will never be happy hunting grounds.
VERTICUS: "Happy hunting grounds"?
NOKOSEE: Si.

I sighed and tried to remember that Nokosee is the product of a Cuban mother and a Miccosukee/Seminole father who met at Hialeah High School and that getting a straight answer, an answer that I might understand without an interpreter, would require patience, something I'm not famous for. So I exhaled slowly once more through my mouth and waited, smiling hopefully that the young hunk sitting in front of me in a loincloth sipping the last drops of his mojito would be more forthcoming.

NOKOSEE: It's wrong to imprison the fish. Like all living things, we are born to be free.

I looked around at the guys.

VERTICUS: Does anyone know what the fvck he's talking about?

Eyes rolled, shoulders shrugged, but no one had a clue.

NOKOSEE: The big fish in the Seaquarium, you dumbkoff! Do I have to spell it out for you?

Nokosee's outburst caught us all by surprise. Although rumor had it that he had been groomed by his mysterious ex-Green Beret Nam dad to be the first of the "New Seminole" to take back south Florida, we hadn't seen any of that probable streak of genetic madness until now. I proceeded cautiously.

VERTICUS: You talkin' about Lolita the killer whale?
NOKOSEE: You got it, kemasabe. As long as she's kept in captivity, this land will be cursed.
VERTICUS: "Cursed"?
NOKOSEE: Big winds, bad people, and insurance rates skyrocketing right out the top of your chickee.

I was afraid to say anything and tried to conceal my astonishment that anyone today would believe in such nonsense when I guess Nokosee caught my left eyebrow rising slowly across what I thought was my best poker face.

NOKOSEE: You don't think the land and its people are cursed, do you?

A trembling smile broke across my face and I shrugged helplessly.

NOKOSEE: Did you know that California hasn't had an earthquake since they freed Willy?

I looked around for help. The guys turned away. I tried to keep my mouth shut, but I'm cursed too.

VERTICUS: Just mudslides and fires.

Nokosee jumped up and threw his cocktail glass down on MVB's terraza floor. It exploded in deadly shards. One stuck in Nokosee's calf and blood began to pump out but he never flinched or lost a beat.

NOKOSEE: That's for their other sins to mother earth!

With that, he set his bare foot on my desk, yanked the glass splinter from his leg and threw it at the Hooters calendar on the wall behind me. The glass shard stuck squarely in the middle of today's date. I swallowed deeply and turned to see him leaving a trail of blood across the floor and out the door. The resounding sound of the door slamming shut had us all jumping in unison.

As we paused to collect our breath and to wait for our collective heart beats to drop, it became clear to us after a much needed mojito refill, that the half-naked Seminole might be onto something. Especially after our resident archaeologist Bobby Bermudez, champion of the controversial notion that the Miami Circle is really a giant pre-Columbian "Smiley Face," suggested that history is full of cursed people and lands and despite intense scientific scrutiny, many have not been disproven. So, after another round from the mojito pitcher, we all agreed that freeing Lolita was worth the effort. By the end of the work day we approved the following course of action:

1. Work to free Lolita.
2. Propose a joint venture between the county and the Seaquarium to reinvent the old rusting hulk by turning it into the biggest and best fish-friendly aquarium in the world. No more performing mammals of any size-- except for the divers who will clean the tanks.
3. Call the new tourist attraction FreeQuarium.
   

Over the following days following our communal hangover, we discovered more reasons to lift the curse. For example, we should work to remove the trained animal shows because of the methods employed. You can learn more about why we have taken this stance here and here.

Miami Spaceport

One of the things MVB has been advocating since its short time in cyberspace is for Miami to build the world's first spaceport here and here.

Compared to the competition, we could do it relatively inexpensively and quickly by using the existing jetport lying fallow 35-miles west of Miami in the Everglades. Unfortunately, it looks like we won't be first-- even though ex-Governor Bush had formed a committee to look into making a spaceport a reality in Florida. (As an aside, part of MVB's mission statement besides using the blog to pick up girls is to not only advocate "things" but to actually act on those ideas. In that regard, we got in touch months ago with Bush's point man for the spaceport. We told him about the jetport. He didn't know it existed. We sent him pictures and info and have heard nothing since-- which is normal afterall when you consider that this is the "Rodney Dangerfield of Blogs").

Originally, we thought people were going to be launched into space from airport runways at commercial airports. It turns out these Virgin Galactic rocket planes need lots of room around them, hence the first regularly scheduled spaceflights for civilians will in all likelihood take place somewhere in New Mexico because of the open space and the fact that the state is already constructing a spaceport. Too bad for us because the jetport has the required runway length (over 10,000 feet) and open space-- with the Atlantic Ocean thrown in for good measure. We thought since Sir Richard Branson has a home here, maybe that would be enough to rustle up some interest. Guess not.

Still, in hopes of keeping the idea alive regarding Miami becoming one of the few cities in the world that has a spaceport, we thought our two loyal readers might enjoy this way cool Virgin Galactic video and animation.

UpDate (12/17): It looks like the Feds are a little nervous about flying civilians into space. The FAA will require future space tourists to sign a waiver promising not to sue the government should anything go wrong.

Carnival Miami Orange Bowl Parade

MVB misses the annual King Orange Bowl Parade down Biscayne Boulevard. It put the world's spotlight on Miami and brought families and the community together for 62-years until it was canned in 2002 because of dwindling numbers disappointed by cut-rate floats and no-name entertainment.

MVB thinks we should bring it back re-dressed (or undressed) as "Carnival Miami Orange Bowl Parade" with the floats and most of the marchers representing Rio's winning samba schools.

If done right, it could pay for itself and maybe make a few bucks that could be channeled back into an affordable housing fund. Realistically, to bring the winning floats and dancers here would require a massive amount of logistical planning which won't be cheap-- but if positioned properly with sponsors picking up the tab and securing TV rights, it would become the only viable sexy alternative to America's more traditional parades which probably is enough for it to find big bucks advertisers. As an example, the dancers from the "Paraiso do Tuiuti" samba school and their float could be flown in and sponsored by Burger King or Bacardi. DHL, with its North American base in Broward, could trade off flying in floats for "free" advertising along the parade route in the form of banners hung from streetlights. Or, for "naming rights:" DHL Carnival Miami Orange Bowl Parade. Hey, it might be a mouthful, but it works for us. This would be the "Americanization" of Carnival-- and there is nothing wrong with that if that's what it takes to bring it here-- especially if it helps fund affordable housing. The many membered schools would get a free vacation in Miami/Orlando-- which is pretty good when you consider this may be the only way some of the impoverished Brazilians might ever get to see America.

And, really, Carnival is so much more reflective of multi-cultural south Florida's youthful, fun-loving, sensuous lifestyle. With just a little effort this could be the most famous exciting parade in north America if not the world with randy earthlings from all over racing to get to Miami to spend their money to cop a seat along the parade route and to participate in other "official" events we're sure the Chamber of Commerce, the county, the city, and the private sector will dream up.

MVB says, let's embrace the girl from Ipanema and never let her go (especially the one in the picture).

Calatrava Miami?

MVB doesn't know how it was back in ancient Athens 2,500 years ago when they were building the Parthenon, whether or not the citizens had any input in the design, but for what it's worth, as citizens of Miami, we're suggesting that we go for the "big one" when erecting the next building on the Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami.

In a rare example of the public sector using a visionary approach in solving a problem, the college recently ran a full page color ad on the back of the Miami Herald's Business Monday tabloid looking for partners to develop "one of the last parcels of undeveloped land on Biscayne Boulevard" which they own. Realizing they need another 250,000 s.f. for an Arts and Humanities Center, they decided it would be a win-win situation for private developers to build the structure in exchange for "air rights."

It's amazing that this property is still available. Just south of the Freedom Tower and the American Airlines Arena, Lot 1 (see map) hopefully will attract an equally visionary deep pockets developer to take them up on the offer with a landmark design that mixes office and living space with the college's needs.

Hopefully, too, the building won't be anything subtle. As a "beacon" to those around the world searching for an education, it should stand out from the crowd-- and not just the buildings around it, but also all the others in all the cities around the globe that claim and will claim to have the tallest buildings. Miami should raise the bar high enough that we, as proud citizens of south Florida, can claim bragging rights that will last at least a century (2,500 years might be asking too much).

To perk the digital ether, we've Photoshopped Santiago Calatrava's proposed world's tallest Chicago tower onto the Miami Dade college site. We think it looks pretty good there. Actually, Calatrava's design would look good anywhere-- especially next to an actual Miami proposal for the world's tallest condos called Empire World Towers.

Hopefully seeing this MVB proposal will start people thinking about the really big picture that speaks to the intangible aspects of the human heart with an architecture that lifts the spirit and sparks the imagination like the Parthenon has done for mankind all these years.

Perhaps a Pericles, the visionary Athenian politician who gave the world the Parthenon, will rise above the pettiness of local politics and take a stand for bold vision by simply requiring that the design will be this new millennium's Parthenon.

Miami is in a unique place in time that probably won't come around for another hundred years before the towers that are being built today are torn down and replaced with newer models. We should leap at this opportunity to snare the skyscraper title. In fact, we should look at it as our civic duty-- just like the ancient Athenians did. Let's make Biscayne Boulevard the "Boulevard of the Giants."

You can read more regarding this proposed partnership on the college's web site.