There is no shortage of schemes to make south Miami Dade more than it is. Zoo Miami ranks with Joe Martinez' lousy idea to turn the Homestead Air Force Base into Hollywood South, with film / sound stages to lure the industry and all the support businesses that thrive in Los Angeles. Now there was an idea.
Now comes 20th Century Fox (really?) with a plan to convert scarce native habitat owned by the US Coast Guard in the far reaches of southwest Dade into a theme park - Miami Wilds - for the kiddos featuring long lost creatures, animated to be like the humans we are -- soft of heart, well meaning except for a few bad apples.
Who's going to be drawn through Miami's traffic wilderness to some destination as valid as the International Chess Hall of Fame? Beats me, but it didn't stop the M-D County Commission from throwing $13 mil at the project.
I have an alternate plan: use eminent domain to take underutilized property close to US 1. Throw out a few strip malls and put Zoo Miami there. In an outparcel for the new Zoo Miami, create a side exhibit animated by cute animal characters: "zoning decisions we wish we had never made". I'm guessing you could build attendance on that theme, but whether you could get people to pay for it is another question.
Why not just take all those millions and send the kiddos to Everglades National Park? Oh that's right, there are no mammals there. They all went to star in the movies.
Now comes 20th Century Fox (really?) with a plan to convert scarce native habitat owned by the US Coast Guard in the far reaches of southwest Dade into a theme park - Miami Wilds - for the kiddos featuring long lost creatures, animated to be like the humans we are -- soft of heart, well meaning except for a few bad apples.
Who's going to be drawn through Miami's traffic wilderness to some destination as valid as the International Chess Hall of Fame? Beats me, but it didn't stop the M-D County Commission from throwing $13 mil at the project.
I have an alternate plan: use eminent domain to take underutilized property close to US 1. Throw out a few strip malls and put Zoo Miami there. In an outparcel for the new Zoo Miami, create a side exhibit animated by cute animal characters: "zoning decisions we wish we had never made". I'm guessing you could build attendance on that theme, but whether you could get people to pay for it is another question.
Why not just take all those millions and send the kiddos to Everglades National Park? Oh that's right, there are no mammals there. They all went to star in the movies.
17 comments:
Not to overstate the obvious but....
A good rule of thumb is if the promoter has a sure fire plan to make everyone money but it needs public assistance, it's not a sure fire plan.
And if his lobbyists threaten to take his sure fire plan somewhere else if he doesn't get public assistance, the plan is exponentially more likely to fail.
Case in point: David Beckman sure fire plan to bring soccer to Miami saying the large hispanic population was a guarantee of success.
This quote in the LA times last week on the folding of the sure fire MLS team there.
"Unfortunately, our plan for Chivas USA was based on a brand that was targeted to the Hispanic market. We found out very quickly that strategy wasn't effective," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said..
True that.
If a project hires a bunch of lobbyists and it is being promoted just to generate fee income for connected insiders and construction work for a partner the project will surely fail. Miami Wilds looks like another dog. "Destroying nature to make an entertainment park"?
How much money does ZooMiami make? What are its attendance records? Just asking. The Miami Dade Oarks Deot has lost its soul. And purpose.
What killed me about the news report on Channel 10 is that the reporter said, "8000 jobs will be created." My aching ass. Why do reporters just regurgitate marketing BS as "fact"? Happens all the freaking time in Miami! Nail Clipper Building is another one.
So you believe Mayor Gimenez is doing the right thing? Don't fall for it. The day before he reased his memo threatening to suspend (not revoke) the permits for the Wal-Mart in the Richmond (Zoo) pinelands, he secured $13.5 million for the Miami Wilds project from the Commissioners in a public hearing. He did not disclose during that hearing that he was going to release this memo the next day. He did not disclose that the area is designated critical habitat for endangered species. He did not even disclose whether or not the USCG has agreed to vacate their property for Miami Wilds. (The $13.5 million is to relocate the USCG antennas to make room for Miami Wilds. The antennas are on land that could be restored to endangered pineland - especially with $13.5 million.
Don't believe the mayor or the parks department. They are fighting to make sure Miami Wilds will be built. How ironic that it will destroy real wild and rare lands.
Follow the money. Who stands to profit from Miami Wilds going forward?
Yes and Yes and Yes -- this is a really dumb idea. Needs to be stopped NOW!!!!
Once a tourist city, always a tourist city.
ENP?
The Zoo has an Everglades exhibit planned. They would rather not have the competition from the real thing so pave away right?
Boycott the Zoo. If they can't respect the nature around them, they should close as they have no integrity. Also, close down Miami Seaquarium, which leases land from the county parks Dept. Taxpayers shouldn't support such anti-nature enterprises.
If the State and the County want to stop destroying our natural resources and create real jobs - Everglades restoration is one massive project which is a good example because the damage from big Sugar has to be un done in addition to erosion from piece meal zoning/land use, sea level rise. Let's just start there for the sake of a general conversation. It needs workers on so many fields from general labor to engineering to scientists. Florida voters, 75% of them, want these lands protected. The sooner the political hacks realize creating jobs while saving this land is where the focus should be. But, yes, it takes brains and foresight, which is lacking at all level of the political spectrum.
These political pet projects are just that. We have enough tourism jobs paying minimum wage. The only people who ever profit are those in at the beginning when the ink is dry on the tax payer funds to develop and destroy our land because it is ours!
"Oh that's right, there are no mammals there. They all went to star in the movies."
No, they all got strangled by the Burmese pythons. Ain't no more small mammals in ENP - if you don't believe me, ask Larry Perez, who is with ENP.
Isn't it great that Rupert Murdoch became a U.S.
citizen so he could buy Fox and be able to join the
distinguished ranks of Miami Carpetbaggers David Beckhan and Gentiing Corp arriving on white
elephants to save our languishing city from obscurity and lethargy. And our great leaders are at the city gates with the key and sweet meats. Maybe they can all meet at a library, if one is left. They all got one right in our state and fair city: economics andgreed trump everything, if we let it. FIGHT THE BASTARDS! Not one insect, one bird, one saw palmetto, one inch of pine land! To The Baricades!
It may take that. How many are willing here to stand in full of the bulldozers when they come? I am.
Follow the money. Who is the GC? Who is the architect?
I miss the International Chess Hall of Fame. I was active there when it was in Miami.
As a volunteer there, I can't tell you the struggles we had when the school buses could not find it. They could see building from the interstate, but couldn't get to it.
The state of Florida finally added some signage from US1 and in Kendall, but they fought doing it, because they said that the signs would become signs to nowhere because Miami Dade County Public Works would be a hindrance to finishing the additional directional linking signage on county roads. Ya think?
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