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| Parcel B |
This is the famous Parcel B owned by the County (The City of Miami sold it to them), always zoned parks. In a referendum to get the Heat Arena property, multi-billionaire Micky Arison promised it would be a soccer field. The County went to the Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) to get a matching grant to do seawall work. Everyone pays a small fee on their tax bill to the FIND Commission. The grant money is given contingent on the project being of public interest and must remain open to the public. FIND's mission is to encourage public access to the waterfront and keep the Florida intracoastal waterway operational.
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| Lester Sola said the City put up this fence and installed the cement barricades. The City said not true. |
On the North East corner of the Parcel B Property, the County put up a fence and concrete barriers even though they got money, more than $2 Million dollars, from Find in 2006 and 2007. In the letter below the FIND Commission is calling them out for not giving the area public access. Remember they got the money OVER 8 YEARS AGO. See fence above. In fact, Parcel B has fencing and locks on all side.
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| The letter is careful NOT to say Parcel B is public, only the Baywalk even though the people promised it would be in a referendum. We were lied to? |
Here is the County's response. Note Lester Sola is writing the letter, the Mayor's new tool, who is head of Water and Sewer, which this appears to have nothing to do with. Since when are seawalls and bay walks Water and Sewer projects. Is he misrepresenting himself? Sola wrote it on Internal Services Director's Office letterhead. Was that his former job (if so he should have said so) or has he that position also??
The inaccuracies of the Sola letter. If the County was concerned with the Cities unfinished baywalk they would have put the fence on THE OTHER CORNER. Parcel B is completely okay for public access. The FIND Commission wanted a sign erected. In 7 or 8 years they couldn't put up a sign? Now Sola says they will install one...in a few months. A few months to install a sign?
The City of Miami claims they did not put up the fence or place the concrete barricades. In fact the City doesn't have the equipment to move those concrete barriers. Sola blames the city for the fence. Sola doesn't say in the letter that Parcel B isn't open and hasn't been
open all these years. He fudges the question saying the City put the
fence up on their own property (which would have opened the site if it
weren't there) and he doesn't really say the entire property is available to
the public anywhere in the letter. Once again, the City says they DID
NOT put the fence up. I would look to whomever put up that other fence
along the American Airlines venue. Note: Lester Sola says the BAYWALK will always be public, not the property.
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| Read this page carefully. Pedestrian access? That is what we get? |
11 comments:
Don't they want to put a Cuban Museum on this site, Parcel B?
Parcel B is an incredible waterfront site. It should be a landscaped park with a mini-soccer field. Recently the County politicians allowed the Formula E race promoters and its sponsor DHL to kill trees and grass on the site. Photos now show 2-3 acres of newly poured asphalt. Wait until FIND inspectors see that.
There are already 3-4 Cuban Museums in Miami-Dade County including a large one being finished up on Coral Way that has cost the taxpayers over $10 Mil, so far. Of course, the Freedom Tower exists and Miami-Dade County has a Cuban history exhibit there that is open to the public.
Excellent reporting GOD. Where's the Herald?!?!?
Hypothetically, there would be permits issued by the County and/or City for the fence. That would conclusively show who applied and whose property the fence is on. Hypothetically, these permits can be researched on line.
Also, you are correct to question Sola's role and representations to the State. Where is the Mayor on this issue and on Sola's position with the county. Oh, wait, all these musical chairs are his fault and decision anyway. His county reorganization is a complete failure. He and his team of former assistant mayors (who are now department directors or asst department directors ) have created chaos, disfunction and entropy in all county programs.
City doesn't have to pull permits. City will always claim a safety issue. Miami Beach condominiums have done this with their fences which blocked public access. The arena property must be secured at all costs. They will get the police to give a statement that the back of the property needs to be fenced off.
Wish this would wake them up --- probably not. I think a free Parcel B flotilla is in order.
The Bayfront Park Management Trust maintains and oversees both Bayfront Park and Museum Park for the City of Miami. The Trust did not install the fence or place the concrete structures shown in the photo.
If the County and City both claim they did not install the fence etc., who did? Possibly the Heat?
Neither the city nor the county can legally install a fence without a permit. So see if there is a permit. If not, then there is yet another violation of the law. Also if the city and county want to open up this connection, then tell them to both remove the fence. Also there should be an article about all the other unpermitted work paving included that has been done. It is also worth noting that even the city on its land has to comply with the county's shoreline ordinance and a gate that blocks the connection is not compliance. The Sola letter is pure crap as it pretends that the fence is to address an unsafe situation. If the city wanted to address an unsafe situation in such a fashion, then it would need to block access from the other side of the fence too. But instead, such access is unrestricted on both sides of the fence. All the fence does is prevents a connection from the city property to the county property. You can still access BOTH properties by approaching from the other side.
The Heat and its thug lobbyist/lawyers work 24/7 to keep the citizens (taxpayers) off Parcel B. Recently, the low IQ commish Audrey Edmonson voted to let promoters kill trees and grass on Parcel B. Worse, she and other idiot commissioners voted to let the promoter cover another 1-2 acres in concrete. What happened to the soccer field the Heat promised us in 1996?
In one of the local city newspapers last month, an article was written about a public official's frustraited concern that Parcel B was not a park as promised yet. But the best part was that he cited how the American Airlines Arena is using the land as a staging area for the equipment brought by the attractions that are scheduled to perform there. If you really want to investigate the fence issue and barriers, start by finding out who really has the key to the gate. The next time the circus comes to town, just check to see if their equipment is being stored on the property. It will certainly answer a lot of questions for everyone.
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