Why take Parks for Buildings County Commissioners? Enough. By Geniusofdespair

Note that the Museums ate up 8 acres of the park taking 4 each. If you think two new Museums will  use up only 2 acres,  you are an idiot. Parcel B is a piece of shit. Use that if you really want to appease certain groups that already have museum space, but leave Bicentennial alone - I am begging you.

They renamed Bicentennial Park, Museum Park and then forced down our throats two Museums there -- in the park leaving us with about 21 acres -- using up what little green space is left downtown. Now those clueless County Commissioners want 2 more museums except instead of in parcel B, they want to use Bicentennial Park. I am sure they will want to fill in the slip AGAIN that spans between Parcel B and Bicentennial Park. That was the plan when they wanted to put the Soccer Stadium in the park, or was that the Baseball Stadium.

Buildings don't need the waterfront. People do. Do you know how many people are downtown now? You can't drive anymore. Brickell is one big parking lot. They now say they only want 2 acres of Museum Park Bicentennial Park. It is never two acres, you need parking roads etc. Again filling in the slip might get pulled into this very bad plan. Even though the Virginia Key Trust, once headed by Athalie Range,  is planning a history museum celebrating African American and Caribbean Culture, Commissioners want a SECOND museum. And, even though the Freedom Tower is there with significant Cuban history, they want another Cuban Museum almost across the street.  NO NO NO.  Build them somewhere else. DO NOT FILL IN THAT DAMN SLIP MORONS.

Doug Hanks and Andres Viglucci of the Miami Herald reported:

While engineered to defuse a brewing fight over putting the museums on county parkland, the plan to double the museum count at Museum Park hasn’t mollified opponents. And pulling off the Museum Park strategy requires approval from the Miami City Commission, where a key commissioner overseeing the park is already grumbling about the scope of the plan for a two-acre parcel.

 Museum Bicentennial Park. Little green space left with a few trails, parcel B behind the American Airlines Arena on the right in the photo. Green space here is stupid. If you must build build in Parcel B. No in the small bit of green space in Bicentennial Park.

Take friggin' Parcel B. Pile all your damn museums and other crap there. It is so noisy from the causeway you can't hear yourself think from Parcel B. Leave what is left in Bicentennial Park and don't fill in the damn FEC Slip.

Old bad ideas do resurface....I wrote a blog in 2011.

Who has the Cojones in the County to Call a Bail Out of the Frost Museum A Bad Move? By Geniusofdespair

Apparently the only two people with Cojones are Mary Cagel and Juan Zapata when it comes to calling out VERY BAD DEALS for County Residents.

I had many reservations about Mary Cagle our Inspector General, one of them being her close ties to Katherine Fenandez Rundle and our Ethics Commissioner. They are all out of the same office but Cagle surprised me in a good way with her recent report on bailing out the Science Museum. You must remember, the Science Museum has a good home near Vizcaya and if they needed more room, there was available space at the former MAM museum across from the history museum. Why did we spend millions of dollars to design and build the museum complex by the library only to leave it vacant? The Science Museum didn't have to build in Bicentennial Park. The Science Museum insisted on the move to the Park saying they would raise the funds. Apparently the Frost Couple came through with funds but not many others. Now we have to take care of the damn building.

From the Inspector General report:

OIG DUE DILIGENCE OF THE PROPOSED RESCUE PLAN

As it directly relates to the proposed agenda items, the County has been placed in an untenable position. After having approved the investment of $165 million, the County is now faced with the possible cessation of construction—and the degradation of its investment—due to the Museum’s fundraising shortfalls. The County’s initial investment represented 61% of the $270 million project. With the proposed increase of funding, the County’s investment will increase to $210 million or 69% of the revised $304.4 million project.

County Commissioner Juan Zapata has Cojones

 The vote was 11 to 1 at the County Commission to bail out the Science Museum, County Commissioner Juan Zapata was the only no vote, from the Miami Herald:

Commissioner Juan C. Zapata cast the lone no vote against the proposal. He said he wanted the administration scrutinized over the crisis, which saw Miami-Dade pay roughly $160 million to a construction project only to see Frost unable to provide the private dollars needed to finish it. “We didn’t get here by accident,” Zapata said.

To the rest of you commissioners: It is all Bullshit, we don't need your words we need you to protect our money with your vote. We get that you are all intimidated by Rich People like the Frosts but you are not on the Commission to make them happy and suck up to them. Instead you should have all been hopping angry like Juan especially in light of the OIG report:

This week, the county’s Inspector General office issued a report criticizing the Gimenez administration for allowing almost all of the county’s $165 million contribution to the museum to be spent while the Frost was allowed to save its private dollars until the end of the construction time line.

“What are we telling our kids if people do wrong acts and what we do is just bail them out?” school board member Raquel Regalado, who is challenging Gimenez in the 2016 mayoral race.

Bicentennial Park to get Chicago's Millennium Park Sculpture? By Geniusofdespair

Millennium Park - Plensa Sculpture - photo by Geniusofdespair 

Artist Jaume Plensa

Jorge Perez has bought the massive head sculpture, Awilda, that was in Millennium Park in Chicago and wants to put it in Bicentennial Park, or as the Art Museum and (broke and begging for money) Science Museum like to call it: Museum Park. Jorge does not want to put the head in the sculpture garden. I expect he wants it at the entrance way to the park, next to the wastewater building (where they pump the poop for initial treatment). Get nose and ear plugs if you ever have the good fortune to be invited in.

Millennium will still have its bean. Why would they sell this sculpture that has been at the entrance of their park? Chicago doesn't need money...not like Flint...that has to get ready for at least a million lawsuit plaintiffs.

My source says they are removing the head at Millennium because it was a temporary installation. My guess originally was that Jorge Perez might be buying a similar version to this particular Chicago head, as the artist does have a body of work that looks pretty similar...well very, very similar. Anyway, I happen to like the sculpture, although there are a lot of these heads around the country. His last phase of sculptures -- lattice-alphabet people -- are everywhere. There is even one at Aventura Mall.  A few steps above Romero Britto to be sure.

NO WAY on Conservancy for Bicentennial Park (Museum Park) - will be heard today. By Geniusofdespair

The City of Miami is hearing the wacky PRIVATE Conservancy idea for Bicentennial Park (They call it Museum Park). It is happening too quickly without enough public input. Don't do it!! What is the rush, does Commissioner Marc Sarnoff need a legacy? The park has recently opened, give it a chance. I wrote about this dumb idea in depth. Read the damn article. As Clark Kent said in my article:

The park looks great now. It's better to leave well enough alone. For the first time, I actually like a park in the City of Miami and thought the City had done a good thing for the public. The park is not cluttered with crap or commercialism. The open green spaces are so few in downtown Miami, to have this in the heart of the city is an unexpected delight. But of course, this being Miami, anything that is free and good and open is eyed by private for profit special interests for their own enterprise. Let's not let that happen. What a dumb idea to consider tearing up the park to build an underground parking garage - on the Bay - and all this for an upscale restaurant?

They are so intent on stealing this park from the public, piece by piece over the years. They have one museum that can only afford a shell and another that has private parties all the time. Let the dust settle, let the Science Museum open first. What else do they want from us.....tell the City of Miami commissioners: We need more time to digest this Manny Diaz idea as we might want to barf it up.

Viglucci Article: Should we have a Private Conservancy For Bicentennial Park? I Say "NO". By Geniusofdespair

I love the walkway along the water. There are shade trees yet open space for a concert, craft show, yoga or to throw a frisbee. There is a bathroom  and a sewage pumping station, what else do you need? Oh there are also the two stupid museums in the north side of the park separated by a colonnade of trees.

Andres Viglucci, usually one of my favorite reporters at the Miami Herald, curiously didn't ask the opposition for comment on an article he wrote on a proposal for a private conservancy that would upgrade and run Miami's Museum Bicentennial Park. He did report on enthusiastic support from two very popular people in the City of Miami:

Supporters of the proposed Museum Park Conservancy, including Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff and former Mayor Manny Diaz, say they’re off with a bang. They’ve secured at least $7.5 million in pledges from private donors, an amount they say is just the start to a campaign that aims to raise tens of millions more to create an iconic downtown park.

Andres is usually very thorough in his reporting. Anyway, I decided to help him and I found some people with long histories in park preservation that were not all that enthusiastic to the idea of a Conservancy and the fancy plans by politicians to fill up every available space of Bicentennial Park.

South Side of Park Where Tall Ships Can Dock in the FEC Slip

PERRY WHITE (ME):

The Park has nice clean bathrooms and people use them.

Leave well enough alone. Bicentennial Park is a nice park, quiet in a sea of squalor around it. People will find it and love it. Give it time, the dumb Science Museum isn't even finished yet. Everything doesn't have to be filled in to the brim. If not for Mayor Tomas Regalado, all that green and blue in the photo at top would be the Beckham Soccer Stadium. Regalado nixed Mayor Gimenez's idea to fill in the slip for the stadium.

The park is managed now by Bayfront Park Trust and they are doing a great job. It looks very inviting and it is kept clean. You are automatically drawn down to the water by a cavalcade of trees and a wide sidewalk of pavers. When you reach the Bay there are movable chairs and tables so you can eat lunch in the shade. It is quite a nice spot for relaxing, watching the cruise ships and viewing the water. Did I mention they had bathrooms? Rich people go away. You now have a 1/3 of the park for your galas. That is enough for less than 2% of the population.

CLARK KENT SAID:

The park looks great now. It's better to leave well enough alone. For the first time, I actually like a park in the City of Miami and thought the City had done a good thing for the public. The park is not cluttered with crap or commercialism. The open green spaces are so few in downtown Miami, to have this in the heart of the city is an unexpected delight. But of course, this being Miami, anything that is free and good and open is eyed by private for profit special interests for their own enterprise. Let's not let that happen. What a dumb idea to consider tearing up the park to build an underground parking garage - on the Bay - and all this for an upscale restaurant?

Opening Day of Bicentennial Park

LOIS LANE SAID:

Bicentennial Park was saved from the Marlin's Stadium by activists like all of us at the Daily Planet Newspaper.

We didn't do it so Concrete Manny and friends could come along and take over the park for ridiculous and expensive "features" like a grand entrance, pavilions and a parking garage and a restaurant(s) catering to the wealthy. We did it for the public to enjoy. In the end, the 2 museums took up one-third of the park but at least we got a nice green space and waterfront park for the public to enjoy. And now they want to take that way.

Of course, this area was also eyed by David Beckham for his retail lined (Bayside-like) soccer stadium. This valuable waterfront land will be eyed by other developers for their own private enterprises. We can't let that happen.

Let them raise money for more shade trees and garden areas, more park benches, for maintenance. And that's all. The public needs to speak up now to claim this park as their own. Did the public ask for a "grand entrance way?" Are they demanding an upscale restaurant? Is there a need for an underground parking garage? I don't think so.

The idea of a conservancy to manage the park is fine in theory - but in Miami, this will be abused. Even when there are deed restrictions and rules, like the Carollo amendment that requires a public referendum before allowing private uses of public waterfront land, we have seen time and time again how the City of Miami gets around these rules. Examples are Watson Island, where there will be hotels and private businesses on public waterfront land. Or Virginia Key, where the City allowed the Miami Marine Stadium, the City is proceeding to spend $20 million of taxpayer money to develop the land around it to create a private event space - the Miami Boat Show - on what should be waterfront parkland.

Opening Day of the Park

The excuse that Museum Park needs to be "programmed" to get people to use it is bogus. That's what they told us the Museums were for. Didn't work did it? To see an example of parks that are not programmed but are immensely popular for picnics, walking, biking, people watching, dog walking - go to Margaret Pace or David Kennedy Park. These parks also are severely overcrowded - it shows how much people want and needs parks, without fancy entrance portals or upscale restaurants.

If Manny Diaz and Marc Sarnoff want to propose stuff to do - why don't they don't propose volleyball nets or a small playground? A hot dog vendor would be fine.

If these so-called park advocates want to raise money - they should focus their sights on other urban and neglected parks - like Allappatah and Douglas Parks which have been closed to the public for years because of soil contamination. These parks need to be 'elegant,' too.

Miami is more than Biscayne Boulevard and Bayshore Drive - the residents in other neighborhoods pay taxes, too. Maybe not as much as the hedge fund millionaires buying the $5 million penthouse suites but, so what? Elected officials represent all the people of the City of Miami and serve in the public interest. Right?

Isn't the waterfront view enough? Do you really need to satisfy a politician's wet dreams?

JIMMY OLSEN SAID:

Not sure it would be bad for the park. Central Park and Prospect Park have benefited from Conservancies. The key thing is that there be no disadvantage to the general public in terms of full access and use. Donors can have their galas and the public gets a better park. Of course in Miami I do worry.


...There you have it from all of us at the Daily Planet that Andres Viglucci forgot to interview.

Tall Ship Eagle Came June 14. It Docked at the FEC Slip that County Mayor Gimenez is dying to fill in Against The Will of the People and City of Miami Officials. By Geniusofdespair

The USCGC Eagle (WIX-327) (formerly the SSS Horst Wessel) is a 295-foot (90 m) barque used as a training cutter for future officers of the United States Coast Guard. She is the only active commissioned steel hulled sailing vessel in American military service. She is the seventh U.S. Navy or Coast Guard ship to bear the name in a line dating back to 1792. Each summer, Eagle conducts cruises with cadets from the United States Coast Guard Academy and candidates from the Officer Candidate School for periods ranging from a week to two months. These cruises fulfill multiple roles; the primary mission is training the cadets and officer candidates, but the ship also performs a public relations role. Often, Eagle makes calls at foreign ports as a goodwill ambassador.

Built as the German training vessel Horst Wessel in 1936, it served to train German sailors in sail techniques until decommissioned at the start of the war. Given anti-aircraft armament it was re-commissioned in 1942. At the end of the war Horst Wessel was taken by the US as war reparations.

This is where the Soccer Stadium was wanted by David Beckham and Mayor Gimenez. They wanted to fill the slip. Since the City owns the slip, they nixed the deal. People were free to go on board the vessel for a tour.  The salon has been restored to the way it was decorated when Hitler Christened the Eagle. Howard Slotnick of Op Sail New York (he was the Op Sail Vice President and Seaport Trustee) is going to encourage more Tall Ships to visit Miami's FEC Slip.


Mayor Reglado at the soft opening of Museum Park and the Arrival of the Eagle. Everyone was in a festive mood when the Mayor said NO to the Soccer stadium on the waterfront.

School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho with the Lovely School Board Member Raquel Regalado.

Grateful Citizens

Bicentennial/Museum Park - not as ugly as Mayor Gimenez thinks.

Picture of the Day: Dolphins Swimming in the FEC Slip. By Geniusofdespair

As a resident of the Marquis located at 1100 Biscayne Bay for over 3 and half years, I wanted to share the fact that the ecosystem in the FEC slip is thriving. I’ve attached a photo of a dolphin family and baby, I see frequently when walking my dogs.  There are at least 2-3 manatee that use the slip for shelter and sunbathing during early morning. The local “shrimpers” troll during full moon events at the entry of the slip.

We are all meeting at the slip "Occupy Museum Park" on June 14th by utilizing it as a public space: enjoying picnicking kayaking, boating, etc. We meet by the boat slip. The Coast Guard tall ship EAGLE will be in the slip that weekend. You can get a tour of the former Nazi built warship and learn about its history, like how we ended up with it.

Also see Channel 6 Video, Nurse sharks and coral.