Miami New Times offers a cynical perspective on a recent national report ranking Miami 38th in the nation for our lousy parks. To illustrate, New Times posts a photo of an empty paved parking lot. It is no joke. Or rather, the joke is on voters who for decades elected and re-elected politicians to office for whom the definition of a public space was something to exploit by a developer/ campaign contributor.
Who recalls the Miami Heat Arena/ Alex Penelas deal that was sold to the public on the premise and promise of a public park including a soccer field adjacent to the project? Apparently, no one.
The cynicism is boundless. County commissioner Pepe Diaz has ideas for public parks. They need to be for off-road vehicles to chew up open space and wetlands. What Diaz and his allies want is to plant more advocates for development in areas like the federally protected wilderness preserve between Miami and Naples. No joke.
At every step of the over development of Miami-Dade, county commissioners could have insisted that zoning changes fomented by private developers and lobbyists (ie. Greenberg Traurig) needed to include adequate space for parks. Never happened.
Public spaces can knit communities together. That ought to be a goal of policy makers, but there is no traction for common sense when too much money can be made by building subdivisions designed by cookie cutter, or lifeless rock mines, or highways into farmland. Call it Balkanization by design.
One of my first impressions of the state of Miami-Dade's parks: thirty years ago I was lost in Kendall, driving my son to a soccer game at a field I had never visited before. I stopped and asked the few pedestrians on the sidewalks if they knew where the soccer fields were. They all seemed startled by the question as deer in a headlight. Even though the soccer fields were within half a mile, none of them knew how to get there. If you can't find your local park, how are you going to find your sense of community? The answer, clear. You aren't.
Now we have "civic organizations" including board members from the Great Destroyers who nod to our national parks instead of standing up for parks and public spaces inside Miami Dade County. It's a shame, and an indicator.
It ought to be clear that a good parks system is an economic engine. Businesses want to invest where employees can easily access the outdoors. But we have taken our chief attractions and allowed private enterprise to wall them off. Instead of investing in parks, we glorify museums, performing arts centers, and sports stadiums. We allowed insiders like Jorge Perez (a former Miami city planner) to usurp access to the Miami River. Even much smaller cities like Providence RI understood the value of creating neighborhoods around parks, especially those connected to the waterfront. Not Miami. (Where was The Miami Herald, on these issues?)
Miami and Miami-Dade taxpayers are now boxed in by multi billion dollar infrastructure deficits (hidden by decision makers in order to promote low cost growth), that have the effect of sharply narrowing options to re-work the overdeveloped urban landscape.
On the other hand, the single most important step we could take to affirm our attractiveness to investors and economic generators would be to develop a new map and plan and moneys to ensure a 21st century park system for our region. Where is THAT economic development conversation, Beacon Council?
What we need, first, are new elected officials who can sweep away the old thinking of our unreformable majorities on the city and county commissions. Easier said, than done.
Who recalls the Miami Heat Arena/ Alex Penelas deal that was sold to the public on the premise and promise of a public park including a soccer field adjacent to the project? Apparently, no one.
The cynicism is boundless. County commissioner Pepe Diaz has ideas for public parks. They need to be for off-road vehicles to chew up open space and wetlands. What Diaz and his allies want is to plant more advocates for development in areas like the federally protected wilderness preserve between Miami and Naples. No joke.
At every step of the over development of Miami-Dade, county commissioners could have insisted that zoning changes fomented by private developers and lobbyists (ie. Greenberg Traurig) needed to include adequate space for parks. Never happened.
Public spaces can knit communities together. That ought to be a goal of policy makers, but there is no traction for common sense when too much money can be made by building subdivisions designed by cookie cutter, or lifeless rock mines, or highways into farmland. Call it Balkanization by design.
One of my first impressions of the state of Miami-Dade's parks: thirty years ago I was lost in Kendall, driving my son to a soccer game at a field I had never visited before. I stopped and asked the few pedestrians on the sidewalks if they knew where the soccer fields were. They all seemed startled by the question as deer in a headlight. Even though the soccer fields were within half a mile, none of them knew how to get there. If you can't find your local park, how are you going to find your sense of community? The answer, clear. You aren't.
Now we have "civic organizations" including board members from the Great Destroyers who nod to our national parks instead of standing up for parks and public spaces inside Miami Dade County. It's a shame, and an indicator.
It ought to be clear that a good parks system is an economic engine. Businesses want to invest where employees can easily access the outdoors. But we have taken our chief attractions and allowed private enterprise to wall them off. Instead of investing in parks, we glorify museums, performing arts centers, and sports stadiums. We allowed insiders like Jorge Perez (a former Miami city planner) to usurp access to the Miami River. Even much smaller cities like Providence RI understood the value of creating neighborhoods around parks, especially those connected to the waterfront. Not Miami. (Where was The Miami Herald, on these issues?)
Miami and Miami-Dade taxpayers are now boxed in by multi billion dollar infrastructure deficits (hidden by decision makers in order to promote low cost growth), that have the effect of sharply narrowing options to re-work the overdeveloped urban landscape.
On the other hand, the single most important step we could take to affirm our attractiveness to investors and economic generators would be to develop a new map and plan and moneys to ensure a 21st century park system for our region. Where is THAT economic development conversation, Beacon Council?
What we need, first, are new elected officials who can sweep away the old thinking of our unreformable majorities on the city and county commissions. Easier said, than done.
15 comments:
Marc Sarnoff is covering grass turf areas in any park he can get his hands on with astroturf! He is a visionary green genius, the other type of green.
I sat on a Miami-Dade zoning board for years. When a big development would come before us I, and other members, would ask about park concurrency. We were always told we had enough park space to fulfill the requirements. The nasty trick was that the county counted vacant and overgrown lots and Everglades National Park in their calculations. Yeh, we always had plenty of park space whether they were useful or not!
The title of this post should be "On public parks, Miami ranks as a dismal third world American city."
The city of Miami has the issue far exacerbated by condo development on every open lot available.
Allegedly, Miami ranks 47 or 48 in park space per capita. Politicians voted to pave 8 acres of the 28 acre waterfront Bicentennial Park. Worse, they gave the 8 acres to two broke museums.
It is a quality of life issue that many of these elected officials seem to know nothing about. They must lead awful lives filled with stress. Regular park-goers live by their park get-a-ways. It keeps you in touch with nature, it eliminates stress, it gives you quiet time away from talking people, cell phones, and day-to-day confusion. Time there is good for exercise, play, thinking through problems, personal renewal, family activities, sporting activities for children, and community get-togethers. In such a beautiful natural environment, why would anyone with half a brain want to pave parks?
Miami-Dade Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department:
Nationally accredited, a three-time winner of the NRPA National Gold Medal Award and winner of the 2009 Florida Governor's Sterling Award for excellence in management and operations, Miami-Dade County Parks is the third largest county park system in the United States, consisting of 260 parks and 12,825 acres of land. It is one of the most unique park and recreation systems in the world. Made up of more than just playgrounds and athletic fields, it also comprises out-of-school, sports-development, and summer-camp programs; programs for seniors and people with disabilities; educational nature centers and nature preserves; environmental restoration efforts; arts and culture programs and events; the renowned Zoo Miami and the Deering Estate at Cutler; the Crandon Tennis Center, home of the Sony Open; golf courses; beaches; marinas; campgrounds; pools; and more. For information about Miami-Dade County Parks call 3-1-1, or visit www.miamidade.gov/parks/.
Our elected officials need to spend more time in the parks. Beyond up-lifting their spirits, there is a political dimension in getting to interact and know the people they serve. Each park has a unique life of its own depending upon its features, facilities, and what it offers. Usually there are the regulars, runners and walkers who come to the park everyday beginning early in the morning. They are normally done around 10:00 am. Then you have the housewives with little babies and seniors from 10:00-1:00. From 1:00-2:30 you have people who want the parks to themselves, who don't even see other people. Kids start coming in around 2:30 for organized sports activities, and there is heavy park usage until park closing time. Weekend warriors are there on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as family picnics, community groups, and events. All of these elected officials need to get in the parks and start walking. Once they become regulars, they would never even consider paving over a park.
Well, if we can't get commissioners interested from the fact that parks are an integral part of the lives of taxpayers, maybe we have to go to the tourism angle. During the winter months, tons of people from all over the world visit and use our parks. You pave them, they have no where to go to relax and appreciate our unique tropical environment. They are an attraction in and of themselves. Maybe the Park System can offer day trips directly from the hotels to tourists for a fee. Pavement, blight, high-density development, storage areas and a lack of open space exist allover the world in urbanized areas. We should be different.
Miami politicians use parks as opportunities to pave over green space. Bicentennial Park could have been our Central Park.
Manny Diaz and other hacks destroyed the taxpayer owned waterfront Bicentennial Park. It is being paved over...
Idiot politicians and lame government managers never bought land when land was cheap. During the 2007-2010 recession people were giving land away. Now that more people live on Brickell, Downtown and in Edgewater Miami-Dade County is even more park space deficient. Public sector pay and benefit plans remained high but no one thought to buy land...
Where are all the people going to go who live in condo canyons? Stuck in their little boxes? Will the Atlantic ocean soon be included in open space and park acreage calculations?
How about Brickell West? Mary Brickell Village area? That area is all concrete with MORE concrete planned. It has no green open space. In fact, the City Commissioners just voted to give a park, the Allen Morris park, to a developer so he can build another 50 story high-rise.
How can that be? Aren't parks included in the Comprehensive Plan?
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