According to Herald reporter Michael Vasquez: Bid to sell former park for $1.4M is rejected by the City of Miami Commission. It is hard to believe that this parcel sold for $200,000 in 1973. The City commission made the right decision on Walker Park yesterday especially since the land is still zoned “Parks and Recreation.” DUH!
This is a very positive step by the city and I don’t want to diminish it. Thank you CIOMI.
As you can see in the aerial photo, there is not much greenspace in the area. Pocket parks like this are very popular at lunch hour in New York. Speaking of pocket parks, what is going on with the waterfront Brickell Park? Is it still being used as a construction staging area by Jorge Perez?
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We all owe thanks to newly elected Commissioner Marc Sarnoff. With Sarnoff's leadership and the votes of the other commisioners a park will get to be renovated back into a park.
Staff wanted to sell the park to a very well connected lawyer/real estate speculator. Thanks to Marc Sarnoff for speaking up.
As usual, City staff wanted to sell our scarce park land. When will they realize that parks have value? Congratulatiosn to Commissioner Sarnoff.
Lets hope that not all the new residents in the condos going up decide to use the pocket park at the same time.
The Flagler Street site, which was formerly a pocket park and is currently a closed sub shop, is surrounded by small office buildings and small retail shops. It is very close to the Courthouse. No one lives on that block at the moment. It could be a wonderful small park serving office workers and the tens of thousands of people who visit that neighborhood every day. It could be a shinning example of what a smart excellent government can do. Unfortunately City staff from the shady Department of Economic Development has spent the past few months trying to sell the park to a speculator from Miami Beach. Watch what happens carefully. Miami needs park land not more failed sub shops.
As someone who was in an office across the street from that park, when it was a park... It was dirty and treated as public bathroom space... I was always intrigued by it.... it was a lovely concept, but never was maintained in a matter it deserved to be.
I hope they do better this time around.
last anonymous
We should never let the neglect of our public space by the powers that be -- coax us to give over our public space to private entities. It is a crime that the space was previously used as a latrine. Perhaps we need more public facilities in the area?
Why can pocket parks work so well in New York and not here? Do they have better police than we do?
When I was working out of the Port of Miami in 89, I spent quite a few lunch hours in this park. When I moved back down here 10 years later, I was surprised that I couldn't find it. It WAS a great little park.
We obviously need to fire the entire City Staff. And find and prosecute whoever allowed that beautiful little park to become another damned building.
Pocket parks. Many great cities have fantastic small parks. NYC has many great small parks that are very busy and very clean. Several have incredible works of art and amazing water features. Yet in Miami City staff cannot keep our parks clean. And we see the idiots in the Dept of Economic Developement feverishly trying to sell our scarce park land for pennies on the dollar.
As geniusofdespair stated... do not judge our parks by the idiots in charge of managing them. Imagine if Bicentennial Park was lush with landscaping and interesting walkways? Imagine a man made beach on the Bicentennial Park waterfront?
In the meantime, let us hope the speculators can be defeated and the Paul Walker Park at 46 W. Flager Street can be revived.
Watch this site carefully. 46 W. Flagler Street. The sneaky City staff and the shady Dept of Economic Developement will try to find a way to give this park away. They are working on a scheme to give this park to a connected speculator.
With so little park land in Miami and almost no green space downtown this park should be returned as a park. We are lucky Commissioner Sarnoff uncovered this scam and we are lucky Commissioner Regaldo strongly supported him. Keep watching.
Gre3at, a tiny pocket park will be added back to the Miami inventoy of parks. We are still 55 out of 55 medium and high density cities in park land per capita. We urge anyone who cares about preserving parks to get serious about art and science museums taking nearly a third of Bicentennial Park? Hello Gree advocates.....Are you going to sit back and allow non water related or dependent buildigns to take over Bicentennial Park? If this was a County Park, these buildign woeu be told to go elsewhere. To be kept informed on this theft of public park space, send your name, address and email to KeepParksGreen@aol.com. Steve Hagen and Nina West, co Chairs of the Parks Committee of Miami Neighborhoods United
There is a group of concrete lovers who have made friends with Manny Diaz and other small thinkers who want to pave Bicentennial Park. Bicentennial Park is currently 28 to 29 acres. They want to pave and/or construct massive buildings on at least 16 acres. (Buildings, parking, driveways, fire lanes, etc) And they want the taxpayers to provide $500 Mil. If you object let your elected officials know. Let the media know. Save our green space.
Watch Commission meeting Feb 8th. We see this pocket park is back on the agenda. We predict city staff still wants to sell our park to another speculator. Come speak.
On February 8th, Commissioner Marc Sarnoff beat back another attempt by city staffers to sell the Paul Walker Park to a well connected speculator. Commissioner Sarnoff wants the sub shop demolished and the park renovated. Sarnoff referenced NYC's famed Paley Park on East 53rd Street. Paley Park has won numerous awards and it is one of the most beloved parks in NYC. Interestingly, it is also 4,200 sq ft, the exact same size as Miami's Paul Walker Park. Stay tuned.
It is now May 12th, 2007. What is the status? Can we get this site cleared ASAP?
More parks are needed...
Now August 17th, 2007. City of Miami staff dragging their feet?
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