Monday, April 13, 2015

Imagine: You are blind trying to get from the Ziff Ballet Hall to the PAM Museum On Biscayne Blvd. Sidewalks. By Geniusofdespair

 Danger Pedestrians Trying to Walk!

I am not blind and I still couldn't navigate the sidewalk between to the two locations -- PAMM and the Ziff Ballet at the Arsht Center -- yesterday on the West Side of the street. I am nursing an injured ankle. Take a look at how they maintain our expensively designed (by Brazilian Artist Burle Marx) sidewalks in our prestige Art Center District, it is a very short walk:

If your blind, how do you not trip? How exactly do you navigate the sidewalk without hitting into something like a tree or pole or garbage pail here. Remember these fancy sidewalks cost a fortune.
This is a real obstacle course. This is where you cross to get to PAM/Bicentennial Park (to the left). You can see the crosswalk to the side street in the distance. All of this greets you on a crossing corner. Where is a straight line to cross without crap in it?
Here is a decaying support in the middle of the sidewalk. I hope it supports nothing important like the Road above it...

Why is that girder there, and the bricks and the piece of plywood? Not much to trip on here.

Bricks missing and never replaced. You could trip in the sand trap or that short pole in the middle of crosswalk area just beyond it.  What is that thing sticking out from the pole on the left.

Here it is again, looks easy to walk here.

This is where my accident occurred. I tripped on the bolts sticking up on that circle, trying to avoid tripping under that pipe that could catch your foot easily. I jammed my foot into the bolts and tripped over them. Note this is before the cross walk you can see in the photo.

Walking into these concrete barriers would be really easy. Who jury rigged this? And, then the bolts sticking up are just beyond. In front of the Arsht Center the sidewalks are maintained but this is just a block away.
Where the fancy sidewalk ends there is a dip in the middle  (you can see it about 2 feet from the end) a very easy trip in that hole you hardly notice.  Then you get to the regular sidewalk. Gracious, what is a pedestrian suppose to do in downtown?  This is not new.  I wrote about the sidewalk before in 2014 (East Side). The sidewalks must be maintained or people can get seriously injured.

I also wrote a THIRD BLOG about the East and West side of the street in 2009. The above blog addresses the West Side of Biscayne Blvd. only. Fix the damn sidewalk someone.  I want physical therapy on my ankle. To tell you the truth, these 3 blogs are good for a lawsuit.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

More evidence of lazy overpaid government workers. They are sitting on their asses rather than doing then work we pay them to do. Next we will hear them crying for another raise with your support.

Juan said...

This is the result of mismanagement at the city of Miami. Regalado is the mayor.

Anonymous said...

This is FDOT.

Anonymous said...

what it is. Is lazy standard city of miami management

Anonymous said...

This also shows lazy and unprofessional government workers on the Arsht Center / PAC payroll. The PAC costs the taxpayers over $25 MILLION per year in operating losses covered by taxpayers and debt service covered by taxpayers. All that tax money and no workers care enough to pick up trash in front and maintain the sidewalks?

Anonymous said...

Miami, exceptional city.

Anonymous said...

Maintenance of infrastructure like sidewalks and streets is even worse in non tourist areas. But even emerging tourist destinations like the heart of little Havana where Domino park is is deplorable- broken pavement dead trees, garbage everywhere. Yet they were charging $10 an hour to park in a municipal Peking lot and on street parking. Please.

Geniusofdespair said...

Don't let FDOT off the hook for all the poles in the middle of the sidewalk.

Anonymous said...

Holy Cow!!!! Where is Michael Spring???

WOOF said...

Besides that Mrs.Lincoln,
how was the show ?

Anonymous said...

Urban Observer: EPIC failure by the Miami Planning Department. What a joke that WalkScore ranks Miami 5th most walkable city. This train wreck is repeated all over the city. Look at the even worse sidewalk treatment in the Mimo District. And everywhere new projects are plant trees in the middle of the sidewalk! Check out the new 79th Street CVS.

Anonymous said...

And our politicians seem to think that building a $600M expressway bridge is the answer to revitalizing the area.

Anonymous said...

I guess the only way to get something done is to stop going to the Arsht Center for concerts. Their lack of revenue will make someone pay attention. It is a nightmare to walk to and from concerts. Last time we got accosted by a mentally ill person screaming and following us down the block.

Anonymous said...

ADA lawsuit. File it against Miami and Miami Beach. The city of Miami and Miami Beach will just privatize the sidewalks.

Anonymous said...

Chain gang time. Make Johnny Winton and Former Mayor Manny Diaz work on a crew to fix things up on downtown sidewalks since they're the ones who made such a friggin mess of the place. Oh, and put Jorge Perez in there too.

Anonymous said...

Pls stop blaming the workers. The span of control at Miami Dade is a ridiculously low 3 to 1. That means for every 3 low wage union guys you see leaning on their shovels there as a supervisor somewhere not supervising but sitting on his ass collecting even a larger paycheck.
The irony is when they privatize the sidewalks and the three union guys lose their job the supervisor keeps his but now he is charged with supervising the private company's contract. Which by the way he typically does just as efficiently as he managed his three man crew.
Now multiply that model by 10,000 politically connected managers and you have Miami.

Anonymous said...

To the Annon above,

That's funny, former Commissioner Lynda Bell argued about the abuses of the Unions' hierarchy and they way they "game" the system, but her arguments fell on deaf hears back in August.

Oh well, too bad. so sad.

Hey, I have an idea. Perhaps our new County Commissioner Cava can help. Oh, that's right, she towed the Union line all the way to victory.

The Status Quo remains.

Anonymous said...

Hell yeah I am proud of my Banana Republic

Anonymous said...

Take an Uber!

Anonymous said...

"Miami is an exceptional city": Marco Rubio.

Anonymous said...

Union workers take orders. Who is in charge?

Anonymous said...

Good quote - "exceptional" - a word with double and triple meanings rendering it almost meaningless. The use of "Remarkable" has that twist, too. It's similar to saying a horribly experience is "interesting."

How interesting that Miamians don't bitch about their decrepit surroundings.

Anonymous said...

Assumption: this mess is part of a "larger" project and that it's "slated" to get fixed on a set time schedule. That would be the answer if you got through to anyone by calling 311. Good luck with that.

Anonymous said...

In a city as big and sprawling as Miami - there needs to be a huge anti-litter campaign, a huge broken windows campaign. Instead, we head towards tripping lawsuits and blatant code violations.