From the proposed Ferris Wheel over Miami (from Straight to the Point, on today's Miami Herald opinion page), you could see the Sedano supermarket empire. The business section of the Miami Herald features a story on the sale of the Sedano pharmacies to Navarro. The principal owner of Sedano, Armando Guerra, is also a speculator in costly land holdings outside the Urban Development Boundary. Krome Gold, for instance. (Memorialized by Eyeonmiami's "Krome Gold Photo Contest!")
We’ve speculated on how much cash is draining from the housing bubble. Its boosters like Mr. Guerra run the Miami Dade County Commission like their own private string section.
You could hear the hiss of air let out from the frenzied bubble popping. Now, you can read about it too.
In today’s Wall Street Journal cover story, “The United States of Subprime”, some $29 billion in high rate loans, from 2004 to 2006, originated in Miami-Miami Dade County. ("High-rate loans are those that carry interest rates of three percentage poitns or more over US Treasurys of comparable duration." These loans comprised over 30 percent of total loan volume during this time!)
You could see much of that real estate from the observation wheel, too, all the way to the Urban Development Boundary.
At any rate, I’m not sure about the advisability of an observation wheel in Downtown Miami. We are in Hurricane Alley.
You’d want to be sure that the base of the facility was engineered to rotate on its axis in order for the wheel to face at a right angle to oncoming storms, like a ship headed into a fierce gale.
On the other hand, what our decision-makers seem to be able to do best, when it comes to land use decisions, is head taxpayers straight onto the rocks.
There's a vaunted tradition in Florida of pirates who set out lights for false harbors, causing ships to wreck on the reef. Afterwards, they scavenged the remains.
It's kind of like the way the real estate crash is unwinding.
You might, then, want to tie the Ferris Wheel into the power grid, like a wind farm. To see it free spinning in a hurricane would be a sight worth paying taxes for.
9 comments:
Why not build the observation wheel on top of the Performing Arts Center?
Gimleteye: Didn't you think the Herald was trying to steal our thunder:
Eye "over" Miami
Eye on Miami .....
This is not the idea that will save Miami, but, if someone else is going to pay to construct it and run it, and if a profit is made, the County will get a piece to invest in Port infastructure, mimizing the taxpayer's burden, I don't see a problem with it at all. Defede really has become a malcontent.... His complaint is that no one will ride it. Well, even if that is true, the only party that will bear the cost is the private entity that builds and runs the thing, not the taxpayers.
So, with plenty of upside, and very little downside for the County, why not???
I say, give a free ride on the ferris wheel to anyone who buys a season ticket to the Marlin's new downtown stadium!
It's an observation wheel, not ferris wheel... There are not tax-dollars going on the wheel as proposed, unlike the Marlins Stadium...
People can take the port tunnel to the wheel. Oh, that's right, we don't have a port tunnel.
No port tunnel yet, but I hope that the City will wake up, and anti-up. With all the development downtown, they are crazy not to advocate and contribute to the construction of the port tunnel that will shift all those semi's from the downtown streets to 395 to 836 to the airport...
The Bayfront Park Helium Balloon was tested today.
I noticed it only has one tether line to keep it from smashing into buildings, cranes or drifting out to sea.
No matter how strong that line is I would suggest a second and possibly third redundant tether line for safety reasons and to reduce the insurance rate a bit.
I guess they must have arranged for a secrete permit from our Mayor or Commissioners for advertising since they will not even come close to a break-even
point without advertising revenues.
The Farris Wheel idea is another example that Miami-Dade County and Miami are more like a circus and carnival then a real cosmopolitan city.
I guess our Commissioners have been inspired by Panama City and wish to emulate it instead of Buenos Aires, Barcelona, San Francisco, Seattle or Sydney.
We got plenty of cranes that will be idle very soon so some of them may be used for bungee jumping.
Then all we will require will be some mega waterslides and tacky mini golf location.
Most cities with the luxury of a Bayfront location cherish it and would never consider cheapening it like we do.
But most cities are fortunate enough not to have a government like ours leading us to the abyss with a stop-over at tacky.
Ok, Harry, I guess then that London is not a world class City, Begin is building its own observation wheel for the coming Olympics, Sydney is actually building one too (maybe you should remove it from your list). The London Eye was supposed to be removed after the 2000 celebration, but, it has been so successful that it has remained intact. And it is NOT a ferris wheel. It is not a carnival ride. It is an engineerin marvel, that adds to the skyline, and makes the skyline accessible to those that don't work or live in the downtown skyscrappers. We are only studying the feasiblity here, and there are not tax dollars that will go into the construction or operation. Open your mind a bit.
Post a Comment