A DAY AT DAN PAUL PARK
The young professionals did what the Government couldn't. They took over their parkland and dedicated it with a name: Dan Paul Park. Dan Paul was the one responsible for the park section of our Home Rule Charter. I did a picture post of the day's events. By the way, County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson said she had no problem with the new name. Parcel B is officially Dan Paul Park on this blog. Following is a pictorial of the festivities:
 | |||
| Of course the Miami Heat paved it over since this rendering, but that is Dan Paul Park on the far side of the FEC slip. Bicentennial Park is in the foreground (the 2 Museums in it call it Museum Park). Why is it everyone wants to take over the people's parkland? Well finally the people have done it! |
 |
| County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson, The Commissioner for the Area of Dan Paul Park was not happy about the park's paving by the Miami Heat but she said she read about the name - Dan Paul Park - and had no problem with that. Sorry I didn't get a better picture. |
 |
| The heat had a chain link fence at end with a big lock on it, they took it off (at least for the day). Legally they cannot fence off the property from the public because they got public money to do the seawall from the FIND commission. The property was recently re-leased to the Heat by the County. they use it for a parking lot. |
 |
| The young professionals were out in numbers for the dedication of Dan Paul Park. |
 |
| County Commissioner Xavier Suarez (looking mighty trim) attended the event. Ralph Rosado on the left. |
 |
| Some people found the spit of green on the site and took a yoga class. |
 |
| Others, made the best of the blacktop. |
 |
| Oops! |
 |
| What else could you do with all the blacktop the Miami Heat put down on Dan Paul Park. When the Heat got the land in a referendum, this acreage was promised to the people to be a soccer field, not a parking lot. |
19 comments:
Dan Paul Park. It looked like 300 people attended the re-naming. Everyone enjoyed the views and the breezes from Biscayne Bay. Although it rained elsewhere in the City, not a drop marred Dan Paul's Day. Foolishly, commissioners allowed the failed promoters from the Formula E race to add asphalt to the park. People want the asphalt removed and grass and trees added. People want the soccer field promised in 1996.
Great job everyone. But can't stop there. Please young professionals follow up and wait patiently for hours at city and county commission meetings to really get the park back. Listen to elected officials condescend and disrespect you. Then muster all your self respect to get up and speak politely to the same idiot officials who disregarded the public for decades while taking in campaign contrubutions and meeting with lobbyists for the special interests who took the park. Please vote, too. Please walk door to door for worthy candidates ( if you can find some in Miami)
Community activism is not a picnic in the park. And democracy is not a spectator sport. Also, be willing to sue.
These are very good people taking a county authorized lemon and creating a public picnic with a bit of lemonade.
"Great Job" anonymous...you sound like me (I didn't write it but I like it)
People are forgetting that the arena surface parking lots are all condos now. The city (Miami Heat)needs to build more parking lots so people can access the rest of the parks and arena. Dan Paul Park is the perfect spot for a multistory parking garage with green space on the top floor. Miami Beach is involved in a massive valet parking scam where buildings with no parking but can be rezoned to an unlimited capacity if the owner hires a valet service. According to some Internet pages the Perez Art Museum has a capacity of 5000 people. The numbers don't work for any of our local tourist areas.
Anonymous is correct. It is time consuming to attend County and City hearings, committee meetings and commission meetings but it must be done. Some of the older commissioners barely use E-mail and they never go on Facebook or Twitter. You must show up, wait and then speak truth to power.
Parking lots don't belong on the waterfront. That is a supremely dopey idea. Why don't you just suspend them over Biscayne Blvd??? Or build platforms on the water or leave your car at home and walk or ride a bike.
I suspect within a year a famous architect will submit plans for a sustainable parking garage with a soccer field on the roof. The design will be so beautiful nobody will go against it. It will even have a fenced dog park for the condos next door.
It was already in the plan. Parking with a soccer field on top. Don't act coy you knew it reader. A fucking famous architect... Must be you.
There is absolutely no reason the public should not have permanent access to this green-space. Hell, even HEAT fans could enjoy the breeze and views before going inside the arena for a game. If the HEAT needs valet parking overflow, they should negotiate with MDC for access to parking on the other side of Biscayne Boulevard, not paving over our waterfront. What great city would allow blacktop on their shoreline? This is a visible blemish on our city, greed on display, all along the waterfront.
Commissioner X Suarez is right - put in a pontoon pedestrian/biking bridge across the inlet and connect the waterfront to Museum Park. I am looking forward to Audrey Edmonson introducing a Naming Resolution to officially designate this location as the Dan Paul Park. If she wants to pretend she controls this location because it is in her district, let her do some good with it. Come on, Audrey, you can deliver on this.
No worries. Climate Change sea level rise will eventually reclaim this, the condos, the museums. Everything.
Nice photos! What ever happened to the park that was supposed to be built at Burn Notice studio in the grove?
Same hideous asphalting of waterfront land slated to happen on Virginia Key. For the Miami Boat Show. Check it outcast www.savevirginiakey.org.
Maybe it would be a good idea to report who put this event on so your readers could support the groups...
If you like the Dan Paul Park you can thank:
Emerge Miami - www.emergemiami.com
The Urban Environment League - www.uel.org
The New Tropic - www.thenewtropic.com
Maybe I reported that twice already BEFORE THE EVENT. Sometimes it is good to imagine something isn't organized, it is just people coming together to do a good thing. That is how I saw the event.
By the way, you can thank me too, I was one of the people who met with Armando Codina years ago when he was putting a high rise on this property and I stood out in a thunderstorm holding a sign to preserve the property. History. Interesting how people were telling me about it.
The parking areas around marine stadium are and have always been asphalt. The current plan is for flex park space giving the public another waterfront area with a Baywalk
You heard it here: David McDougal's chain and padlock around his waist was from his bike not the Heat entrance to Dan Paul Park. He just thought it a good story but denied it in the end.
Get the facts on Virginia Key www.savevirginiakey.org
Anon on the asphalt: should be ripped up and replaced with the public park promised in the 2010 Virginia key master plan. It's obvious the city officials just want to turn the area into another Bayside. And tear down the marine stadium for a convention center hotel. The massive marina in the basin would be a travesty for the ecology.
Re; Virginia Key and that waterfront walkway. There is no such thing as "Flex park" - would you really want your kids to play soccer on an asphalt parking lot covered in Astro turf? It's obviously a ploy to justify spending $18 million putting in water and sewer lines, even building an FPL substation behind the Rowing Club, so the City of Miami has the infrastructure in place to build the commercial dreamland of hotels, shopping centers (how about a Fishing Village themed one?), restaurants and mega marine. Nature be damned. Greedy and short-sighted and fiscally irresponsible, as the entire island is eroding. Within five years, accelerated sea level rise will eat away at that asphalt and the Astro turf will float away into Biscayne Bay. But taxpayers will be left with the bills.
Post a Comment