WEEK OF THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015
A Singular Voice in an Evolving City
WWW.MIAMITODAYNEWS.COM $4.00
TRANSPORTATION
Some shed private cars, take new roads to savings, pg. 11 RISING RENTS: Annual effective rent growth in South Florida apartment markets continued to strengthen in January, according to Axiometrics, a company that supplies apartment market research and analysis. The average Miami rent of $1,545 was $93 more than the January 2014 average of $1,452. Miami’s January 2015 occupancy of 96.2% was relatively stable compared with that of January 2015.
Miami International ranks ninth globally in timely flights, pg. 12
THE ACHIEVER
BY LIDIA DINKOVA
WATCHFUL TECH: Miami city commissioners have authorized purchasing from Argent hardware/software network monitoring tools for the Department of Information Technology on a three-year contract with two one-year renewal options. The cost is about $98,240 for five years. The city now doesn’t have tools to monitor hardware/software and networks to circumvent potential disasters. Argent software is to enable IT to monitor the city’s more than 300 servers, databases, software applications and network appliances. Staff said key IT personnel will be able to manage their applications and make adjustments to reduce downtime. The commission confirmed the city manager’s finding of a sole source, waiving requirements for competitive sealed bidding. OUT OF THE ORDINARY: Miami commissioners have approved 22 covenants with property owners in the Design District to construct and maintain non-standard improvements within the right-of-way abutting their properties. In July 2012 the city commission adopted a Special Area Plan for the Design District that includes non-standard improvements in the right-of-way. Design District property owners have agreed to enter into covenants to run with the land that cover their properties, so applications for master permits may be submitted from time to time that contain the proposed location and design of the improvements. Improvements include pedestrian crosswalks and signals, way-finding signs, streetlights and façade lighting, streetscape, drainage wells, private infrastructure crossings, street furniture, public art and utilities. CIRCLE UPKEEP: The maintenance of traffic circles in Miami will be handled by SFM Services Inc., a Hialeah company. City commissioners approved a one-year contract, agreeing to pay $318,688 for the work, which includes landscaping work for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, 118 traffic circles citywide, Butterfly Garden, 11 triangle medians and the Northwest 62nd Street embankments of I-95. SFM submitted the lower of two bids. The contract provides up to four additional one-year options to renew, subject to the availability of funds and the contractor’s performance. Commissioners must approve of any renewal of the agreement.
Dolores Sukhdeo
Guiding WPBT 2 to meet South Florida’s needs The profile is on Page 4
Five-year downtown ePrix deal powers ahead BY JOHN CHARLES ROBBINS
As days wind down to the inaugural Miami ePrix downtown March 14, city commissioners will consider cementing a deal to host the Formula E races for the next five years. Mayor Tomás Regalado is today (2/26) to bring to the commission a resolution to authorize an agreement with Formula E to run the FIA Formula E Championship – the world’s first fully-electric racing series – yearly for five years. A draft agreement says it would cover five Formula E championships downtown, including this year’s inaugural and running through 2019. The cars have a maximum speed of 140 mph, and can accelerate from zero to 62 mph in three seconds. In the agreement, Formula E would apply for permits, street closures and other plans with the city and finance all approvals and permits. Formula E must also pay for police, fire, and emergency personnel on site before, during and after races, the draft agreement says. “They pay for everything,” Mayor
AGENDA
For transit, studies out, revenues in
Regalado told Miami Today on Tuesday. The mayor said everything is done for this year’s race. “They already have the permit for this year… The resolution enters into an agreement for the next five years,” he said. “This year is already done. DOT [the Florida Department of Transportation] is on board, and all the stakeholders, AmericanAirlines Arena… they are going to be using the bayfront,” the mayor said. He said race organizers have an agreement with Miami-Dade County to use Parcel B, a stretch of open waterfront east of the arena. The race route shows much of Parcel B being used as Pit Lane. There’s no rush to approve the extended contract with race organizers, said the mayor, but it will be nice to get the commitment. “The race is on, no matter what happens Thursday,” he said of the March 14 event. Last October, city officials met with organizers to announce the race date and route. The track in the heart of downtown makes its way under the MacArthur Causeway and around the arena. Last fall, the mayor said, “This event will help to make Miami more of a sports city. In addition, we will show the younger genera-
tions that you may have motor racing without noise or pollution.” The Miami ePrix is set along Biscayne Bay incorporating the backdrop of the city skyline. At 2.17 km and featuring eight corners, the temporary street circuit has been produced by track design company Ayesa. The track boasts a number of long straight legs and 90-degree corners on Biscayne Boulevard, with a pit mid-way around the lap at turn six. Mayor Regalado said he’s excited about having car races downtown again, as the city had decades ago, “although they won’t be noisy” this time. The electric cars don’t have the traditional roaring engine of traditional Formula 1 cars. Of the race organizers he said, “They’ve done their homework. They made presentations to all the stakeholders.” And the people who live downtown know what to expect, he said. “This is not going to be an Ultra,” he said, referring to the annual electronic music festival in Bayfront Park that draws complaints about noise and disruptions. Details: miami.fiaformulae.com/
The head of the Miami-Dade County committee that targets transportation says he wants transit projects to become more than just ideas on paper. The county has commissioned studies on new transit but committee members say little has come to fruition. “We have seen over the last couple of years every study possible done on corridors and what needs to be done. I don’t propose that this committee should launch any more studies or investigations or thinktanks,” said Esteban Bovo Jr., who chairs the Transit and Mobility Services Committee. “What I do believe has to be our mission is to identify sources of funding that could… get these projects done.” Projects on the table include light rail to link downtown and Miami Beach and a streetcar line in Miami’s urban core. Both ideas pre-date the past recession but construction has started on neither. “I’m not here today to commit to one corridor or another,” Commissioner Bovo told the meeting. “But I will tell you this: We need to pick a corridor and we need to get it done.” He went as far as to say that if there’s no dedicated funding by the end of his two years as committee chairman, he’d consider his tenure “a failure.” Mr. Bovo added that he will approach congressional and state legislature leaders about Miami-Dade’s traffic woes. “I don’t expect the federal government to fund 80% of our projects,” he said. “What I do expect is for us to come up with a plan that is funded 80% and ask them to top it off.” The county collects a half-cent sales surtax that was meant to expand Metrorail. But revenue was diverted and just one of eight promised projects was built. Among revenue sources that Mr. Bovo mentioned at the first committee meeting Feb. 11 are a bed tax and public-private partnerships.
MIAMI GIVES ITS LITTLE HAVANA STARS A CARETAKER ...
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NEW INITIATIVE SEEKING TO TIE STUDENTS TO BUSINESS ... 10
VIEWPOINT: LET VOTERS ENGINEER METROMOVER FARE ...
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MIAMI AIR LINK WITH ISTANBUL COULD ARRIVE BY 2016 ... 13
DOWNTOWN LOOKING TO LURE PERSECUTED JEWS HERE ...
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MISSION AIMS TO UNCOVER DENVER’S TRANSIT SECRETS ... 15
ARTS SCENE A MAGNET AS MUSEUMS RECRUIT LEADERS ... 10
CHARTER REVIEW SEEKING TO EASE VOTER INITIATIVES ...
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TODAY’S NEWS
MIAMI TODAY
WEEK OF THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015
Emerging arts scene a magnet as museums seek leaders BY SUSAN DANSEYAR
Outside museum leaders being recruited for key openings in Miami view the arts community here as emerging and a territory that’s open to new ideas at a time that museum leadership here is rapidly changing. There have been key additions recently in the community’s museums, with the Lowe and Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museums recently bringing in new directors. But three major local museums now are without directors. Suzanne Weaver left Suzanne Weaver as interim director of the Institute of Contemporary Art just over four months after the new private museum announced her arrival. Thom Collins, director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami, announced in January he will leave to head the Barnes Foundation in Florida. And Cathy Leff left the Wolfsonian Museum at Florida International University in April. To date, the museums have not named successors. Recruitment is ongoing.
How candidates see the Miami arts scene may be a tipping point in filling those posts. The perception of Miami’s arts scene by top-level professionals has been evolving for some time, said Terrence Riley, former director of Miami Art Museum and, before that, chief curator of the department of architecture and design at New York’s Museum of Modern Art for 14 years. At one time, before the Pérez Art Museum Miami and Art Basel, people in arts administration were a bit hesitant to “jump on board” here, said Mr. Riley. When he first started looking to hire a chief curator of what would eventually become PAMM, the new building had not yet been erected. “I was talking to people with titles and seniority,” Mr. Riley said. “Anyone I wanted had built careers over many years and it was not an offer they couldn’t refuse.” Miami wasn’t a high-profile destination for museum professionals before PAMM and Art Basel, Mr. Riley said. Once the international show was launched in Miami Beach in 2002, however, it had a catalytic effect in terms of bringing arts professionals to Miami, he said.
“They wandered farther afield and saw private collections, went to galleries,” Mr. Riley said. “Art Basel had a collateral effect. It gave Miami a positive arts profile the city didn’t have before and people become more aware of the arts community here.” He rarely uses the term “game changer” but said no other phrase truly describes what PAMM did insofar as what arts professionals think of Miami. Jordana Pomeroy, who recently left Louisiana State University’s Museum of Art in Baton Rouge to become director of the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum in early January, said Miami is a city with great potential. “My sense is that you can bring new ideas to the table in your museum,” she said. “There’s less wiggle room in a city like New York, where things seem more rigid.” Ms. Pomeroy said Miami has the feel of an open society and that can transfer to one’s experience in museum work. “There are so many cultural groups, transience and the sense of newness. That’s very attractive, although there may certainly be those who might be wary and want something more established.” About five months ago, Jill Deupi left
Connecticut, where she was director and chief curator of University Museums at Fairfield University, to become the director of the Lowe Art Museum. She credited the Lowe’s solid foundation as well as Miami’s effervescent arts scene for her decision. Ms. Deupi, who has worked at museums around the country and in England, told Miami Today in January that the Lowe and Miami arts museums compare very favorably. “Miami is a worldclass city at this point, as are its museums,” she said. Ms. Deupi said one of her recurring goals, wherever Jill Deupi she is, is to work to the highest professional standards, take what she’s experienced at other museums across the nation and internationally and incorporate them into the fabric of her current position. “I’ve been very pleased to see that the Lowe is and has been doing wonderful things that are very, very high level,” Ms. Deupi said. “That is also visible across the city at our peer museums: the Bass, Frost and PAAM.”
Talent Development Network to tie students to business via internships BY CATHERINE LACKNER
Creating high-paying economic opportunities has been the focus of One Community One Goal since its inception more than two decades ago. But in its most recent iteration, a focus has become how to connect bright, educated people with businesses searching for them. The Talent Development Network, to be rolled out this year, launches a group of students into the business community with internships, coaching, a network of contacts and the tools they will need to start or go the next level in their careers. “This is a home run,” said Matt Haggman, Miami program director for the Knight Foundation. He and Nelson Lazo, CEO of Doctors Hospital, took over as One Community co-chairs late last year. Miami-Dade County has the seventh-largest number of college students in the country, Mr. Haggman said, so there’s no lack of young people who are pursuing educations. But employers lament that they can’t find qualified people to fill positions. “We want to end that discon-
“It’s a way in,” said Nelson Lazo.
nect. It will be an internship program on a giant scale,” he said. “If it’s done right, networking and mentoring among members of the cohort may well be the biggest contributor to its success. Building relationships with others is critical and a very exciting component of this.” It might be of particular value to youths from underprivileged economic backgrounds, said Mr. Lazo. “It’s a way in, an introduction that they may not have had before.” Florida International University will play a prominent role in the launch, but all local universities have gotten involved, Mr. Haggman said. The program is
an outgrowth of the Academic Leaders Council, an initiative that gathers the presidents of Barry University, FIU, Florida Memorial University, Miami Dade College, St. Thomas University and the University of Miami, along with Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, to brainstorm. “It’s really tremendous to have these university presidents in one room with the single aim of improving opportunities in this community,” Mr. Lazo said. “I don’t think it’s been done before.” “It’s a great academic collaboration,” Mr. Haggman agreed. The next step is to recruit businesses people who will hire interns and give them real-life experience, he said. Mr. Lazo, who previously headed One Community’s life sciences and healthcare task force, said he hopes many of the internships will be in technology and in medical fields, which will help keep skilled people here. “It’s much more expensive if you have to go elsewhere to hire,” he said. Houston has become a medical hub and has drawn many
Photo by Maxine Usdan
The Talent Development Network “is a home run,” said Matt Haggman.
healthcare workers, especially nurses, away from Miami. “If they had better opportunities here to continue their education, they would be more likely to stay. It’s much more cost-effective to [retain] the employees you already have, and support them in continuing their education and building their skills.” The need for technology workers is great, Mr. Lazo said. “In my hospital, nearly everything we do is tied to tech.” From medical record-keeping to robotic surgery, he said, endless innovations require people with specialized knowledge to understand the technology that sup-
ports the tools. Young college students are ideally suited for the field, he said. “They live it; they’ve been around technology their whole lives. It’s natural to them.” With the second-highest growth rate nationally in college-educated young people, Mr. Haggman said, Miami’s brain drain could be a thing of the past, provided the talent-to-careers disconnect can be eliminated. “We have terrific urban living, and a growing downtown population of people ages 25 to 34,” Mr. Haggman said. “We now have a case to be made.”
One Community One Goal partners with Macy’s on fashion BY CATHERINE LACKNER
While the Talent Development Network will occupy a great deal of attention at One Community One Goal in the coming months, it’s far from the only project the group has in the works, said Matt Haggman, Miami program director for the Knight Foundation. He and Nelson Lazo, CEO of Doctors Hospital, took over as One Community co-chairs late last year. “We’re just getting started, and our hope is to build on the excellent work that Art Torno and George Foyo have done,” Mr. Haggman said, referring to the previous chairs.
When One Community was formed more than two decades ago, seven areas were identified as targets for the growth of high-paying jobs: aviation, creative design, hospitality/tourism, international banking/finance, trade/logistics, information technology and healthcare. In the creative design arena, the organization has partnered with Macy’s department store to create a fashion incubator, akin to the tech business accelerators that have sprung up in recent years. Students will learn all aspects of the fashion business, from “trend forecasting, retail pricing and cost/value analy-
sis, to distribution channels and finance management, profit margins, markups, sourcing and production,” said Ed Goldberg, Macy’s New York senior vice president, at a Beacon Council event when the incubator was announced. Three similar programs Macy’s operates in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco are well regarded, observers say. “The students will be people who are already working in the business,” Mr. Lazo said last week. In addition to getting real-world business training, he said, the incubator is their opportunity to make contacts in the industry and show
their work. With Miami Swim Week a deeply entrenched event as well as a generous supply of both exhibition space and hotel rooms, the region has a natural propensity to become a fashion hub, Mr. Haggman said. The Miami Boat Show is the country’s largest, and Art Basel Miami Beach the hemisphere’s most important art event, so the infrastructure for major events is already in place. An aerospace trade show is now being discussed, Mr. Haggman said, and, though that may be farther down the road, the gears are turning.
WEEK OF THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015
MIAMI TODAY
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Top impact project, 45-bridge 826-836 interchange, delayed BY CATHERINE LACKNER
Completion of Miami-Dade County’s most impactful road project – the interchange of state roads 826 and 836 – has been delayed until January 2016 because of inclement weather, but significant milestones have been reached, said project spokesman Oscar Gonzalez. Of the project’s 45 bridges, four are built of 783 individual segments. Each of these bridges weighs 60 to 80 tons, he added. “We just placed the last segmented bridge a couple of weeks ago; two are open to traffic and the other two will be open by the end of the year,” Mr. Gonzalez
said. A special crane designed for the curvature of the segmented bridges will be disassembled and is likely to be retrofitted for another job, he said. The 826/836 interchange project, begun in 2009, is a collaboration between the Florida Department of Transportation and the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority. The interchange, which Mr. Gonzalez has described as “a pivot point,” is used by 430,000 motorists each day. When it is completed, drivers going north on State Road 826 will have a direct connection – for the first time – to westbound State Road 836, and then to the Florida Turnpike. As construction pushes forward, driv-
ers can expect more lane closures and rerouting, Mr. Gonzalez said last week. In March or April, southbound drivers on State Road 826 will be encounter construction at Northwest 25th Street. Then, westbound traffic on State Road 836 will be shifted to the future eastbound lanes to allow for the construction on the permanent westbound lanes, and exits that were previously on the left will be temporarily shifted to the right. “Drivers are going to be seeing changes, but we are bringing benefits on line on 836 westbound,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “This will allow us to finish.” The project remains on budget at $560 million, he added. Meanwhile, the Alton Road drainage
project on Miami Beach pushes north. It includes the installation of three pump stations (at Fifth, 10th and 14th streets) adding to the new drainage system. It’s an effort to alleviate the perennial flooding problems the barrier island has experienced, which are feared to grow worse with sea-level rise. The project includes rebuilding the roadway, driveways, sidewalk and pedestrian ramps, and building new concrete islands. Some parking spaces will be lost, and the new design includes barriers to prevent left turns at a few chokepoints. The Alton Road project, which began in April 2013, is expected to be completed to Michigan Avenue in August.
Some shed private car, take new roads to savings, efficiency BY MARILYN BOWDEN
For some Miamians, carsharing options managed through smartphone apps provide a costeffective, convenient alternative to car ownership. Launched in July 2012, Car2go, which connects users to cars parked around the city, now has more than 28,000 members who share about 280 subcompact fuel-efficient vehicles locally. The basic cost, after the onetime membership fee of $35, said Luis Campo, Car2go’s Miami location manager, is 41 cents a minute. Gilberto Castro, a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley in Coral Gables, started using Car2go about a year ago and liked it so much he gave up his personal car. “In my case, it works very well,” he said. “I was paying about $500 a month for a car that was parked 90% of the time. Using Car2go costs about $150 a month.” Before giving up his car in the fall of 2013 in favor of Car2go, Peter Zalewski, principal of Condo Vultures Realty, said he spent about $1,000 a month on car insurance, tickets, maintenance, gas and parking. “I’m not a car person,” he said, “so from my perspective Car2go is fantastic.” Renting a Car2go is simple enough. “Before I leave my office I go to their app to see if there are any cars available and make a reservation,” Mr. Castro said. “I open it with a magnetic key, and inside are the car keys.” After entering a PIN number and answering questions about the condition of the vehicle, he said, “I can take the key out and turn on the car.” “Right now we cover about 43 square miles in downtown, Biscayne, Brickell, Midtown, Wynwood, Coconut Grove,” Mr. Campo said. In those areas, drivers can leave the cars anywhere. In others, such as Mi-
Photo by Maxine Usdan
Car2go user Gilberto Castro “was paying about $500 a month for a car that was parked 90% of the time.”
ami Beach, Coral Gables and Dadeland, drivers must leave them in designated spots. While availability is rarely an issue, Car2go users say there aren’t enough drop-off spots in heavily trafficked areas. “If I were to make recommendations,” Mr. Zalewski said, “I would suggest making deals with grocery store chains.” Sometimes the interface between smartphone and network doesn’t immediately work, Mr. Castro said, but the member isn’t charged for the extra time, and “customer service is great.” Details: www.car2go.com. Zipcar, which arrived in South Florida in July 2012, works on similar principles, but cars must be picked up at one of 23 pods from West Palm Beach to Miami and returned to the same location, said Smokshane West, Miami market manager. There’s
served parking spots, insurance, roadside assistance and up to 180 miles of driving per day. The service has been available at the University of Miami since 2009, Mr. West said, with pods in front of every dorm, and has proven popular with students, faculty and staff. He said Zipcar’s studies have shown that carsharing helps reduce the number of cars of the road. “If you own a car,” Mr. West said, you will use it more than you need to. Nationally, Zipcar members have a 46% increase in the use of public transportation, 10% in bikes and 26% in walking.” Details: www.zipcar.com For those who prefer being driven to driving, Uber and Lyft, both launched last summer, offer alternatives to taxis that users say can cut the cost of the Peter Zalewski, not a car guy, put ride in half. Both services match about $1,000 each month into his. riders with independent con-
a choice of vehicles: hybrids, convertibles, sedans, SUVs and pickup trucks, as well as Mercedes C250s and Audi A3s. For longer trips, said Mr. Zalewski, it’s the less costly option. The membership fee is $60 a year or $6 a month; rates in downtown Miami start at $10 per hour and include gas, re-
tractors who drive their own cars. “Uber is great,” Mr .Castro said. “The drivers are friendly people with very nice cars, so it’s a much more enjoyable ride.” Valerie Mnayarji, who recently moved to Miami as Jones Lang LaSalle’s industrial analyst, has no car and is too young for a traditional rental agreement. She used Uber previously in Washington, DC. “Sometimes it’s efficient and the driver communicates well,” she said, though it can be difficult if rider and driver don’t share a common language. “Overall, it’s pretty reliable. They are very responsive if you have a problem. I prefer it to a cab because I never have had to wait longer than five minutes for a car, and it’s convenient.” Kasra Moshkani, general manager of South Florida region, said in the eight months it has been in Miami Uber has created a few thousand jobs in the area. “Drivers go through a rigorous background check,” he said. Uber offers three service levels with accelerated rate structures – the basic Uber X; Uber Excel, larger vehicles that can seat up to six; and Uber Select, driven by highly rated drivers with higher-end vehicles. Details: www.uber.com. Web developer Tom Lackner has used Car2go frequently, but says “I live in a geographically isolated downtown region, and sometimes Lyft is easier than walking half a mile to the nearest car.” Katie Dally, Lyft’s communications manager, says the service covers Homestead to West Palm Beach; Miami drivers include women and men, fulltime and part-time drivers, students and parents, and more. Mr. Lackner said he finds Lyft’s app simpler to use than Uber’s, and he likes the flexibility: “If I want to invite a friend over I can arrange to have them brought to me.” Details: www.lyft.com.
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MIAMI TODAY
TRANSPORTATION
WEEK OF THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015
Photo by Maxine Usdan
Miami passengers had 83.2% of outbound and incoming flights within 15 minutes of schedule last year.
Miami International ninth globally in on-time arrivals and departures BY SUSAN DANSEYAR
Miami International Airport ranked ninth of 20 large airports in the world for on-time performance of arriving and departing flights in 2014, according to a report released by OAG, formerly Official Airline Guide, a United Kingdom-based business providing aviation information and analytical services. Miami’s on-time performance – defined as departures and arrivals that take place within 15 minutes of schedule – was 83.2%. According to the report, the top 20 large airports – defined as handling more than 20 million scheduled seats per year — on average ensured that 82.9% of arriving and departing flights were within 15 minutes of their
scheduled arrival and departure times in 2014. The average data coverage for these airports was 90%. The airports that surpassed MIA last year include Munich (89%), Tokyo Haneda (87.9%), Seattle (86.2%), Singapore Changi (85.3%), Minneapolis (84.5%), as well as Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Sydney. Airports with the lowest ontime numbers were Rome Fiumicino and Kuala Lumpur (79.1%), and Seoul Incheon and Houston (78.8%). While four US airports made the top 10 list, MIA was one of only two that serve more than 40 million passengers, according to a statement provided by MiamiDade Aviation Department. “We are extremely proud of this ranking, especially given that
MIA is the busiest US airport for international freight and the second busiest for international passengers,” said Miami-Dade Aviation Director Emilio T. Gonzalez in the written statement. “Despite facing the challenges that come with being a top global gateway, our efficient infrastructure and strong partnership with our airlines has placed us among the best in the world for on-time performance. We understand and appreciate the value of on-time flights to our passengers and cargo customers, and this recognition is a testament to the hard work of the entire MIA community.” The release adds MIA benefits from a highly efficient, fourrunway airfield with nearly zero airfield delays and a new North Terminal facility for American
Airlines’ Latin American and Caribbean hub that features dual taxiways for quick aircraft turnarounds. None of the top 20 large airports achieved over 90% ontime performance in 2014. According to OAG’s report, this reflects greater operational challenges large airports face. “Aside from congestion due to high demand for slots, these airports are also more likely to feel the effect of disruption elsewhere as their route networks include many more airports,” the report states. In addition, the OAG report says the higher proportion of long-haul flights that these large airports handle also provides more scope for flight duration to vary from the schedule simply through head and tail winds. “The factors contributing to a good on-time performance are sometimes out of the control of an airport or airline,” the report says. “However, there are some that still manage to perform consistently well. The shift from small to medium and large airports by lowcost carriers is definitely becoming a factor, making it especially challenging for larger airports to consistently deliver high on-time performance when they increasingly have a mix of oldline carriers and low-cost operators to handle, the report states. “The type of aircraft an airport handles is also a contributory factor, with ranges in mix bringing their own complexity.” American Airlines and US Airways, who merged together are among MIA’s largest carriers, had a combined 4,779 arrivals at Miami in December, 77.9% of which were on time, according to the US Department of
Transportation’s latest monthly Air Travel Consumer Report. Of those flights, American’s 77.1% of its 4,250 were on time and 84.8% of US Airways’ 521 were on time. The report also lists the percentage of all carriers’ flight operations arriving and departing on time in December for 18 time periods, beginning at 6 a.m. and ending between 11 p.m. and 5:59 a.m. the next day. The overall on-time arrival at MIA was 79.1% with the highest at 96.6% between 6 a.m. and 6:59 a.m. and the lowest of 67.4% between 8 p.m. and 8:59 p.m. For departures in December, 78.8% left on time, with the high of 90.9% between 8 a.m. and 8:59 a.m. and the lowest at 68.5% between 5 p.m. and 5:59 p.m. In May 2014, Miami International Airport ranked sixth in ontime flight performance among the nation’s 25 busiest airports, according to data in the US Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report. According to the report, which covers domestic flights only, 82.5% of arriving flights and 82.2% of departing flights at Miami International were on time in May. That was better than an ontime average of 77.3% for all major US airports in May, according to the department’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Miami International’s on-time performance in May was an improvement from a year earlier, in May 2013, when it posted an ontime arrival rate of 81.1% and an on-time departure rate of 79.6%, Bureau of Transportation statistics show.
WEEK OF THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015
TRANSPORTATION
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Miami air link with Istanbul could take wing early in 2016 BY SUSAN DANSEYAR
No specific date is yet set, but Miami is poised for a direct flight to Istanbul in the near future, at which time officials expect travel will greatly increase to and from both cities. Hamdi Topcu, board chairman for Turkish Airlines, announced in late November that the airline planned an aviation link to Miami within two years, according to Turkish Consul General Özgür Kivanç Altan. “I am pressing all the buttons for this to happen and think it will occur in the first half of 2016,” Mr. Altan told Miami Today last week. Once the link is established, he predicts Turkish Airlines will surpass both London and Frankfort in terms of air traffic. To that end, Mr. Altan has been working with Emilio T. Gonzalez, Miami-Dade Aviation Department director, and Chris Mangos, marketing division director for the department, which operates Miami International Airport. “As part of our strategic plan to develop new routes in emerging markets, we continue to have discussions with prospective air carriers in Europe and Asia, including Turkey,” said Mr. Gonzalez in an email. “We are hopeful for new air links to begin in the near future, but there are no agreements to confirm at this time.” Mr. Gonzalez said the depart-
Photo by Maxine Usdan
Photo by Marlene Quaroni
“I am pressing all the buttons for this to happen”: Ozgür Kivanç Altan.
“We will continue to pursue direct air connections”: Emilio Gonzalez.
ment greatly values its relationship with and the efforts of the Consul General of Turkey. “I strongly support these community partnerships that may lead to new travel and trade opportunities for us all,” he said. A direct Turkish Airlines flight between Istanbul and Miami is a major point for Mr. Altan and his team, and just the beginning to reinforcing pathways between the two hubs. A direct flight would facilitate economic and trade missions between the two, with Greater Miami and Florida delegations having easier access to Turkey and vice versa, he told Miami Today last fall. In addition, a trip on Turkish Airlines is always a pleasure, Mr. Altan said. “I’ve known other
diplomats to say that, particularly in their hardship posts, they know they are back to home comfort already once they step onto a Turkish Airlines plane.” Last week, Mr. Altan said a direct flight to Istanbul is necessary for a number of reasons: more than 20,000 Turkish citizens live in the state, many concentrated in South Florida; traffic both ways is huge; and it will aid tourism with Turkish Airlines offering most of the foreign flights to Israel and people from Turkey wanting to come here and enjoy what the cruise lines have to offer. Right now, he said, Turkish Airlines’ assets are stretched with flights to South America, Africa, every part of Europe and
beginning a flight to San Francisco in April. It will take some time for the airline to acquire new wide-body aircraft necessary for transatlantic flights. Once the airline has them in its inventory, Mr. Altan said, it will be ready for a direct flight to Miami. Soon after Miami welcomed the new consul general of the Republic of Turkey in Miami a little over five months ago, Mr. Gonzalez and aviation department staff began discussions with Mr. Altan about connecting “the Gateway of the Americas” with Istanbul, the historic gateway linking Asia and Europe, which now stands as one of the world’s fastest-growing hubs for air travel.
After an October meeting with Mr. Altan, Mr. Gonzalez said “Turkey’s new consulate here in Miami is a strong indication of the growing business and leisure ties between our communities, and we will continue to pursue direct air connections in keeping with our strategic plans to make MIA into a truly global gateway.” Istanbul is centrally located – straddling two continents – and the city of 14 million is home to two international airports. Air traffic demand is so strong that a third major international airport is in the planning phase, according to a press release provided by Greg Chin, communications director for Miami-Dade Aviation Department.
Transportation Summit Advancing the community’s vision for public transportation
Thank You
The Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust thanks over 500 attendees who took part in the discussion of advancing the community’s vision for public transportation in Miami-Dade County at the 2015 Transportation Summit. We invite you to continue the discussion in the planning and development of the next major transportation projects in our community by submitting comments at www.miamidade.gov/citt. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE 2015 TRANSPORTATION SUMMIT, VISIT:
www.miamidade.gov/citt | citt@miamidade.gov | 305-375-1357
Transportation Trust
@GoCITT
This event was organized by the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust in conjunction with Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, the Board of County Commissioners, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and the Miami-Dade County League of Cities.
GoCITT
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TRANSPORTATION
MIAMI TODAY
WEEK OF THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2015
New I-95 bus route to link health district with Broward BY L IDIA DINKOVA
If you ride the I-95 express bus that connects Broward and Miami-Dade counties, this might be good news for you: the Florida Department of Transportation plans to start an additional I95 express bus route during or after April. Nine buses are to begin servicing a new route that in Miami-Dade will stop in the Civic Center neighborhood, or the Health District home to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and
the University of Miami Life Science and Technology Park. Specifically, the buses are to stop on Northwest 15th Street and 12th Avenue. The additional route is part of a larger Urban Partnership Agreement among statewide and South Florida transportation agencies. Part of the agreement calls for new express bus service to run in the high-occupancy toll lanes between Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The Florida Department of Transportation is funding the additional route.
Specifically, the department is to finance the $9 million cost of the new nine articulated buses using tolls revenue. The department is also committed to pay the $2.5 million annual operating cost for the service through 2020. Continuation of the service is contingent upon the department continuing to finance the annual operating cost. The state department, however, is committed to continue funding this service in the future, Miami-Dade Transit spokeswoman Karla Damian told Miami Today in an email.
The I-95 express bus service is for peak hours only. That means it will operate only on weekdays between 5:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., and between 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. The additional I-95 express bus service will have the same Broward County stops as the existing service. Buses will stop at the Tri-Rail park-and-ride lots on Sheridan Street and on Broward Boulevard. When the new I-95 express service reaches Miami-Dade, it is to stop in the Civic Center instead of in downtown Miami as the existing service does.
Port rail link hauls cotton yarn, alcohol, auto parts and more BY SUSAN DANSEYAR
PortMiami has been efficiently connecting this city to the rest of the nation ever since its rail system was expanded, say port officials. “We have up to two doublestacked trains that can take between 50 and 150 containers leaving the port every day,” said Eric Olafson, manager of cargo development. “Each train has the capacity to take up to 150 trucks off the road.” Prior to the reopening of the rail line, PortMiami had not had on-dock rail service since 2006, leaving trucks as the sole mode of domestic cargo transportation in and out of the seaport. Jackson-based Florida East Coast Railway and PortMiami formed an alliance to rebuild the railway, with the railway adding 9,000 feet of processing track, according to Debra Phillips, vice president for the railway’s corporate communications. “Every mode of transportation is involved in the shipping of a product,” Ms. Phillips said. “In today’s marketplace, customers are going beyond US borders and need efficient transfer from ship to rail.” Mr. Olafson said the port is shipping a wide variety of products by rail, including seed corn grown and harvested in Chile in March, shipped through the Panama Canal, offloaded at PortMiami and – using the FEC Intermodal Rail – offloaded in Chicago and then transported
‘Every mode of transportation is involved in the shipping of a product. In today’s marketplace, customers are going beyond US borders and need efficient transfer from ship to rail.’ Debra Phillips
Photo by Maxine Usdan
Florida East Coast Railway and PortMiami formed an alliance to rebuild the port’s dormant railway link.
to the heartland to be planted for the spring harvest. Cotton and yarn travels by rail from Charlotte, NC, to PortMiami and then is shipped to Honduras and Guatemala, with finished goods then shipped from Central America to the US distribution centers via PortMiami. The Thread Express, an intermodal stacktrain service operated by the FEC and CSX
Intermodal, runs between PortMiami and a rail hub in Charlotte, NC. Mr. Olafson said before the Thread Express, companies like Hanes would truck their containers over streets and highways. The trains leaving PortMiami’s rail system also transport alcohol for major distributors in Australia, auto parts from the Nissan plant in Tennessee to St. Petersburg, Rus-
sia, and recycled paper from a large plant in Orlando to China. In addition, trains leave the port with empty containers from the shipping lines and carry them as far as California, Mr. Olafson said. PortMiami invested $50 million in the restoration of its onport freight rail system, creating a connection to the national rail system and expediting the movement of goods throughout Florida and the continental US,
according to a PortMiami press release. The release also states that with the port being the closest one in the US to Latin America, improving the rail system gives PortMiami the advantage of transferring South American grain to the rest of the US faster and more efficiently than any other port in the country. PortMiami is to be the first port of call on the Asia-America trade route via the expanded Panama Canal. Products that move through the port include fresh citrus from Florida, produce, electronics, household goods and building supplies delivered from Asia and South America. According to PortMiami’s website, the seamless ship-torail transfer through the Sunshine Gateway service allows the port to handle additional volumes and ensures that shipments move more quickly and efficiently with the potential to reach 70% of the US population in four days or less.
Steady rental car hub use will repay building’s loans early BY L IDIA DINKOVA
The Rental Car Center, which consolidated previously independent car rental firms at one facility near Miami International Airport, continues to see a steady influx of customers. Thanks to the steady business, the federal and state loans used to pay to build the Rental Car Center should be repaid much sooner than expected. The Rental Car Center is part of the larger Miami Intermodal Center, a $2 billion Florida Department of Transportation-built transportation hub just east of Miami International Airport. If revenues from a rental car surcharge that customers pay are any indication, the Rental Car Center’s customer base isn’t just staying steady – it’s growing. For fiscal 2014, the facility collected about $46.7 million in revenues from the rental car surcharge, about 4% more
than the surcharge collections in fiscal 2013, said Nick Serianni of Ernst & Young Infrastructure Advisors, an accounting firm working as a financial consultant to the Florida Department of Transportation on the Miami Intermodal Center project. So far in fiscal 2015, the Rental Car Center is on track to at least match the fiscal 2014 earnings. During the first quarter – October, November and December – the center collected about $11.6 million from the rental car surcharge, the same amount collected during the first quarter of last fiscal year. The Rental Car Center charges a $4.60 daily surcharge for a rented car. Part of the revenue from the surcharge helps pay off the two federal loans and the state loan used to build the Rental Car Center. According to the latest estimates, the federal loans are to be repaid 22 years before the loans officially mature and 15
years before originally projected. The Rental Car Center cost $395 million to build — $270 funded by the two federal loans, $113.5 million by rental car surcharges collected from the individual car rental firms, $11.5 million by a Florida Department of Transportation grant, and $95 million funded by a state loan. So far about $45.8 million, or 17%, of the federal debt has been repaid. The federal loans mature in October 2044 and originally it had been predicted that the loans would be paid off by October 2037, Mr. Serianni said. But based on the latest surcharge collections, the federal loans are to be repaid by October 2022, he said. The state loan is subordinate to the federal loans and it’s to be paid off by April 2019 per projections. The surcharge collections pay off more than the loans. The surcharge revenue is first used to cover the about
$7 million annual operating and maintenance cost for the Rental Car Center as well as half the operations and maintenance for the MIA Mover, the light rail that connects the Rental Car Center and Miami Central Station to the airport. The remaining revenue is put into a reserve fund. Then the annual loan principal payments are drawn from the reserve fund, Mr. Serianni said. At no time could there be less than $10 million in the reserve fund, he added. The $4.60 rental car surcharge is to increase to $4.85 in July, and it’s to continue increasing by 25 cents every five years. The steady revenues collections are indicative of steady passenger traffic at Miami International Airport. The number of domestic and international passengers that came through the airport in fiscal 2014 was about 40.9 million, 0.93% more than the number who came through in 2013.