By boat, the Miami Circle looks even more forlorn today than it did five years ago, when its discovery -- an ancient Tequesta Indian site-- and vulnerability to a condo developer's plans made national headlines. Then it was just the Sheraton Brickell, a mid-rise mistake on the Bay, that overshadowed the historic remains of native Americans who once thrived at the mouth of the Miami River. Today a massive high rise condominium complex turns the plot of land into an outlying parcel of the development bust: a monument in its own way to the rampaging armies of lawyers, lobbyists, engineering and construction firms, and to the politicians--many still in office in Miami-Dade and City Hall--who aided and abetted the building boom.
In Miami Today, publisher Michael Lewis does a workman-like job painting a picture of the Miami Circle controversy, and asks the question, what was it all about? "The Miami Circle comes full circle, hidden perhaps forever." But Mr Lewis omits a key reference point for the controversy.
Like other mainstream media, Miami Today never credited the depth of public anger, in 2003, against the building boom and its incursions against common sense for fiscal moderation.
Most citizens had a visceral reaction to the discovery of the Miami Circle. The mystery of what native Americans made of their celebrations of life connected, instantly, to making sense from the puzzle of contemporary life in South Florida. We read in the anonymous post holes of the Miami Circle our own past, present and future.
In 2003, what Miamians wanted to do was to protect something, anything, against the laying of concrete, rebar, and the power of lobbyists. What evolved was predictable in its own right: a politically connected developer got what he wanted: a three-fold return on his investment, made less than a decade earlier, at the point of litigation.
Today, that part of the controversy is forgotten even though it happened only a few years ago.
The speed of the housing crash and implosion of credit markets has hit Miami and the rest of the nation with the force of a slow-motion hurricane. The preservation of the Miami Circle in 2003 was like a comma, in a long sentence that ended in 2005 when the markets began to reverse.
What we see on the Miami skyline, within its cranes and legions of workers who stream into the city in morning and leave at evening, is the emptying of the pipeline, now spitting fitfully. What we see in the Miami Circle, as Michael Lewis notes, is a forlorn patch of empty space, signifying the little value we assign to history and its discontents.
Photo by Harry Emilio Gottlieb
5 comments:
THE CITY OR WHOMEVER ACTUALLY ENCOURAGED PAYING $26 MILLION FOR THE MIAMI CIRCLE SITE, WHICH WAS THEN, RECENTLY PURCHASED FOR $8 MILLION, WHICH ALSO INCLUDED PLANS FOR SEVERAL HUNDRED APTS. AND MOST OF THE "MAJOR USE SPECIAL PERMIT" APPLICATION COMPLETED BY GREENBERG AND TRAURIG FOR SAID PROJECT. I THINK THIS WAS A CITY/OTHERS PURCHASE BASED ON THE DEVELOPER'S DEFENSE THAT HIS PROFITS WERE GOING "TO BE" IF HE BUILT THE PROJECT. AND THAT'S FOOD FOR THOUGHT ON THAT STORY. ONLY IN AMERICA, LAND OF LAWYERS, LOBBYISTS, AND PROFORMA STATEMENTS.
If I recall correctly, it was the state- read Governor Bush- who would finally pushed the $26 million figure- one so high that no one would ever attempt such an action again. Yet why hasnt Marty Merzer done another story on the negotiations that took place over the remains found on the north side of the river? He's been absent. Hmmm. Wonder why the Herald stayed out of this?
The Herald is on vacation...could it be that there is someone worse than Fiedler at the helm?
From an historical and archaeological standpoint, the MET site north of the old Dupont Hotel was probably many times more significant than the site where the Circle is located. Hundreds of prehistoric human burials were removed from beneath the foundation of the old Royal Palm Hotel, yet it rated barely a mention by the Herald and zero local outcry. But what was preserved (for now at least)at the Miami Circle site is something much more rare than the Circle itself, a piece of waterfront property at the confluence of the Miami River and Biscayne Bay without a gigantic condo on it. Worth $26+ million? Only time will tell. The events surrounding the preservation of the Circle site were extraordinary (and for BCOM like hitting the powerball lottery), and are unlikely to ever happen again in this community that cares so little about the present and the future, much less the past.
The site was valuable to Jorge Perez and Related. Perez got a view corridor and he did not have to pay a penny. And now the public does not even have access to enjoy their investment. Another victory for Greenberg Traurig. Shame.
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