Miami Today: Week of Thursday, August 6, 2015

WEEK OF THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2015

A Singular Voice in an Evolving City

WWW.MIAMITODAYNEWS.COM $4.00

TRANSPORTATION

As air traffic grows rapidly, big push to handle it, pg. 13 DESTINATION DENVER: A delegation of 51 Miami business, political and community leaders is to meet peers in Colorado this week for a first-hand examination of how the Denver-area public transportation agency is creating a comprehensive mass transit system. The two-day summit provides an opportunity for MiamiDade to learn how the transportation agency that oversees public transportation for eight Colorado counties is executing its FasTracks project that will include 31 park-and-ride facilities, enhanced bus service, 122 miles of commuter and light rail service, 18 miles of bus rapid transit service and 21,000 new parking spaces at light rail and bus stations. The program includes detailed briefings on Denver’s FasTracks, its publicprivate partnership financing method and tours of some major projects. Upon their return, delegates aim to apply lessons in Miami-Dade so local mass transit projects under consideration can move forward.

826-836 interchange to handle flow normally this year, pg. 16

THE ACHIEVER

BY SUSAN D ANSEYAR

HOMES NEAR TRANSIT: The way has been cleared for a developer with plans to build a large mixed-use residential project about a block from Metrorail’s Douglas Road Station. Miami commissioners gave final approval to ordinances that changed the land use for 3650 Bird Road from light industrial to restricted commercial and rezoned the site to “urban core transect zone open.” The triangular property is bordered by Douglas Road (Southwest 37th Avenue) and the Metrorail, just north of US 1, and is home to an auto dealership. Morgan Group plans 359 residential units in two 18-story towers, ground floor retail and a garage to park about 646 vehicles. Documents on file with the city show the project’s tentative name is Pearl at Douglas. DEGREE IN DISASTER: Florida International University will offer a master’s degree in disaster management starting this fall. The Professional Masters in Disaster Management is the first of its kind in the state, and is designed to prepare a new fleet of emergency management and humanitarian assistance leaders. The degree will be offered through the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs. MLB ALL-STAR GAME: Major League Baseball’s All-Star game is to take place at the Marlins Park in July 2017. With the looming construction of a soccer stadium next door, Miami Today reached out to MLB to find out if the proposed stadium would affect the league’s event. “We will discuss the timetable for construction and all the relevant details with the Marlins,” the league responded.

Photo by Marlene Quaroni

Helio Vitor Ramos Filho

Helping forge Brazil’s business ties to South Florida The profile is on Page 4

Beach ready to seek proposals to build Bay Link BY CARLA V IANNA

County works to unify Bay Link projects, pg. 3 Bay Link across the causeway are far

The City of Miami Beach is on track with its portion of the Beach Corridor Transit Connection Project, known as Bay Link, a rail network that was essentially split into three parts in May. The three parts include one rail line within the city limits of Miami Beach, another within the city limits of Miami, and a final piece running across the MacArthur Causeway to connect the two lines. Mayor Philip Levine said Miami Beach has received an unsolicited proposal from Alstom, a global French company that supplies a variety of rail products that he visited in July. The next step, Mayor Levine said, is to request proposals to allow additional bidders to come forward. “That could be 60 to 90 days to allow others to come forward,” Mayor Levine said. “Then, we’ll hopefully move forward.” The city is looking for a cable-less rail service that will be powered via the tracks it runs on. The portion of the rail line within Miami Beach will cost an estimated $150 million, he said, which will most likely be funded

through a public-private partnership. Per the agreement that the committee spearheading the project came to in May, each city will launch its own, independent environmental study. The study each city conducts must comply with federal and state guidelines to keep the project in the running for federal funds once the three parts merge into one. Miami Beach will begin its study, which should take about a year, once a provider is chosen, Mayor Levine said. The breakaway from the original project aims to free the two cities from what could be a five-year-long federal environmental impact analysis that could cost up to $10 million, which is required for the portion of the system connecting the two rail lines via the causeway. Mayor Levine said Miami Beach continues to secure funds for that environmental study, in which Miami-Dade County and the cities of Miami and Miami Beach would each bear a cost of about $417,000 at the most, Miami Today reported in March. “The problem is the environmentals, the federal regulations and the hurdles for the

AGENDA

8% bus use drop points to upgrades

greater in duration and complexity than for us to do our own within our cities,” Mayor Levine said. The proposed Miami-Miami Beach light rail link is estimated to cost $532 million in capital expenses and $22 million for annual operations and maintenance, both in 2014 dollars, Miami Today reported. Florida Department of Transportation officials warned the Project Executive Committee, which votes on Bay Link decisions, that splitting the project into three chunks could jeopardize federal funds. In the meantime, the state transportation department is to work with federal officials to make sure they understand that the project’s pieces are to eventually merge. The committee is comprised of MiamiDade Mayor Carlos Gimenez; Miami-Dade Commissioners Xavier Suarez and Bruno Barreiro, both of whom are also members of the Metropolitan Planning Organization; Mayor Levine; and Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado. “We are prepared to continue to move forward,” Mayor Levin said, “as a partner with county and the City of Miami.”

County bus ridership is falling rapidly, a trend Miami-Dade Transit officials say they plan to reverse by making the system clean, safe and reliable. In May, weekday and weekend Metrobus boardings totaled 5,874,383, down 8.2% from May 2014. This drop tracks national trends, said Karla Damian, Miami-Dade Transit public information officer. The American Public Transportation Association’s transit ridership report for the first quarter of 2015 shows that total bus ridership dipped 1.78% nationwide. In our world-class city the transportation system must be dependable for all, said Alice Bravo, county transit director. “It’s a quality of life issue so we want to make sure we provide a high livability for the community,” she told Miami Today this week. To that end, she said her department will analyze bus service and take remedial measures, including sending surveys to learn why people aren’t riding, streamlining routes, focusing on maintenance and possibly adding shelters and sidewalks. Additionally, Ms. Bravo cited new buses en route. The system received 35 in December and is to get 43 more in a few months. State and federal grants helped upgrade the fleet. “At the end of the day, the only way to eliminate traffic congestion is for people to use public transportation,” she said. “We have a great bus system and it could work for a lot of people.” It’s possible, she said, some residents don’t know about it. “I’d like to get some testimonials out there so others can hear about those who use the bus, have been able to get rid of their cars and are seeing substantial savings.” County bus ridership has fallen for a number of reasons, Ms. Bravo said, including people using new free trolley options that cities and towns are offering.

TANGLE OF OBSTACLES BARS MIAMI CIRCLE PARKING ...

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CITIZENS’ INSURANCE RATES GOING TO RISE IN MIAMI ...

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STATE AIMS FOR I-395 CONSTRUCTION PACT THIS YEAR ...

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FUNDING STILL A STRUGGLE AT MIAMI DADE COLLEGE ...

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VIEWPOINT: WE CHEAT OURSELVES BY BEING CHEAP ...

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STRONG DOLLAR HAS LITTLE IMPACT ON OUR TOURISM ...

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SOUR LOOKS GREET PLAN FOR 700 MIDTOWN RENTALS ...

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COUNTY ADDS 27,900 JOBS, GROWS AHEAD OF US PACE ... 22

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MIAMI TODAY

VIEWPOINT

WEEK OF THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2015

MIAMITODAY Miami Today is an independent voice of the community, published weekly at 2000 S. Dixie Highway, Suite 100, Miami, Florida 33133. Telephone (305) 358-2663

As soccer flub proves, we cheat ourselves by being cheap It’s no surprise that elected officials were caught unawares when Miami Today revealed last week that a contract among Miami-Dade County, the City of Miami and the own- Michael Lewis ers of the Miami Marlins gives those baseball owners significant control over a soccer stadium next door. It’s no surprise because despite a soccer stadium being top-level news and the baseball contract being the most controversial here in memory, few elected officials have ever read the document. It’s not that elected officials are derelict or unable to understand a contract. The fact is, these officials get mountains of paperwork, attend multiple monthly meetings and get paid peanuts for it all. It’s a rare MiamiDade commissioner who can live on the $6,000 they get yearly and have the luxury to devote full time to county service. Those in the press who pore through the documents that commissioners get and who try to view their meetings can attest that the job is a heavy load. It took us nine hours to read and annotate the massive 2009 baseball contract, plus added hours on subsequent reviews. We can’t expect that kind of time on major issues for $6,000 a year. Unfortunately, if we want elected officials to make major decisions on our behalf with a county budget of

more than $6.76 billion this year and the future of our quality of life and our economy in the balance, some of that time from commissioners is vital even if aides help. After all, we didn’t elect the aides to make decisions – we elected those $6,000-a-year executives. It’s no wonder that elected officials didn’t inform Miami Beckham United about the baseball contract’s strictures on any soccer team, or that one of the key investors, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure, would tweet out a total denial of Miami Today’s report that the restrictions exist – which they most certainly do. Soccer executives probably relied on public officials to tell them what they must know about their use of public property – and our elected officials didn’t know what the contract said. That’s not only highly embarrassing but can undermine soccer talks. The outcome is still up in the air. What is not up in the air is the need to pay elected officials enough that they can devote full time to knowing what they need to know and doing what they need to do. Most commissioners totally missed this county’s transportation crisis until it got too bad to ignore. Most totally missed the need to update water and sewer infrastructure until we were told that we need more than $13 billion (that’s billion with a B) just to catch up with where we should have been years ago. What else are we missing? And are we focusing on any of it? We’d all feel better about attention to what’s coming down the road – both big problems and big opportunities – if we thought that our elected officials

L ETTERS

TO THE

Why can’t a soccer team play in Marlins Park?

million trip to Pluto 3 billion miles away was a success. But I have a problem. There is a homeless camp half a mile Regarding the Marlins’ contract re- from my house. George Childs strictions on a new Major League Soccer team, can someone explain, with these restrictions especially as to playing dates, why they can’t actually play in Marlins stadium? It has hosted soccer before. It is alI disagree with your editorial about ready built (they could start sooner). It is cutting or returning tax money. county owned. I don’t get it. With 30,000 We have only two economic enseats in lower bowl and soccer is seeking gines in South Florida: tourism and 25,000? Seems like a match to me. trade through our airports and seaFrank R. Nero ports. But we could start seeing a drop-off if we don’t do some drastic and costly improvement in our ground transport systems. More highways are I just want to get from South Beach to not the answer: the toll system we North Beach without taking my car and have is going to tick off the tourists. fighting for a parking space. I also The locals are already really upset, won’t be competing for a seat on the and we know these [tolls] will go up already full Miami transit bus that is again in the future. There is only one transporting people going longer disanswer. It’s to have a huge and contances. nected rail system thoughout MiamiAnother issue is paying full bus fare Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Collier when I just want to go up the road a and Monroe counties. South Florida is short way and come right back in about a very interlocking area; we are nothan hour or two. Really excited about ing like the Florida above Lake using the expanded trolley service. Okeechobee. Marjorie Ochstein It would be an expensive infrastructure effort, but without it you can kiss the two economic engines goodbye. I’m looking at this for the future I hear that the taxpayer-funded, $700

Transportation surcharge central to economic vitality

Beach trolleys ring a bell

It’s 6 billion times closer

were paying total attention. Again, how can they at $6,000 unless we elect only multimillionaires? As we have noted before, MiamiDade has more population than do 102 nations. Show us even the poorest nations paying their top officials just $6,000. We are by far Florida’s largest county, yet we pay our commissioners by far the least. The state sets commission pay for the other 66 counties, but as a special charter county we get to set our own. The result? The five large counties including Miami-Dade are capped at paying commissioners $95,782 this year, up $259 from last year and due to rise Oct. 1 everywhere but here. We still pay the $6,000 to govern 2.6 million people that we paid in 1957 to govern a third that many; it has never been raised. Florida’s smallest county, Liberty with 8,483 residents, pays commissioners $24,573 – least in Florida other

than here but four times what MiamiDade spends. Lafayette County at 8,618 residents pays the state scale of $24,659, again more than four times what we pay. Nobody pays less than four-plus times what we do. Why are we surprised that our commissioners don’t dig into issues? If they worked full time for $6,000 they’d get only about 36% of Florida’s minimum wage of $8.05 per hour, so what should we expect? Commissioners themselves are unlikely to seek a raise. They’d need voter approval, and if voters did raise the pay to the state level of about $96,000 next year commissioners would find competitors at the next election who now can’t afford to run. Why add competitors? No, the only ones who would seek to pay commissioners fairly would be business leaders who realize how underserved we are by $6,000-a-year work. It would take a publically initiated referendum to change our charter and raise commission pay to where it should be. We save about $1.17 million a year in salary by paying $6,000, but how much more could we save if just one commissioner with a bit more time studied just more vital document or dug into one more important issue? What if one of them had effectively pushed better transportation systems and funding a decade or so ago? Or had looked at the water and sewer system before it became a crisis? Or if anyone had mentioned to David Beckham’s group that they’d better examine the contract with the Marlins before a key soccer team investor got egg on his face by telling the public that the document didn’t exist?

E DITOR

residents of South Florida. I will not benefit a lot since I’m getting up in years, but as someone who has lived and enjoyed the use of the infrastructure built by others before me, I feel obliged to contribute and leave improved facilities for the future generations to have even better opportunities. Today we are paying for the lack of foresight by our leaders since 1980 until the present, taking the easy way and instead of pushing the country forward in progress and economic growth let it stagnant and decay, and not making sure the wages increased over the years, so the average taxpayer was earning enough that infrastructure was looked at as the investment it is and not some tax burden he just can’t afford, even though he spends hours a day sitting in a traffic jam,

Make Your Views Known

while money he could use just pours out of his tailpipe as he idles on the expressway. I think we need a transportation surcharge of maybe $200 from every home, apartment and business in the five South Florida counties yearly to save the South Florida economy of the future. Two hundred dollars a year isn’t that much – people blow more than that on one pair of sneakers! Joseph Szot

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Editor and Publisher / Michael Lewis Vice President / Carmen Betancourt-Lewis

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MIAMI TODAY

TODAY’S NEWS

WEEK OF THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2015

Port looks at providing on-site fuel for big ships BY SUSAN DANSEYAR

Photo by Maxine Usdan

The Florida East Coast Railway moves goods but also repositions empty cargo containers from the port.

‘We found a niche in the market’ moving empty containers for lines BY CARLA VIANNA

A Florida East Coast train arrives at the PortMiami via an on-dock rail connection in the morning, then departs in the afternoon, carrying with it an assortment of commodities that range from garments to waste paper to refrigerated cargo. As of July 28, the two-yearold rail service had transported 8,420 cargo container units northbound from the port and 10,257 southbound into the port. Aside from transporting goods to and from the port, the rail service is also moving empty containers for major shipping lines. “We found a niche in the market,” said Robert Navarro, port director for the FEC Railway. “Not only do we move loads, we will move empty containers for the [shipping] lines – what they call repositioning.” Shipping lines move their empty containers, or empties, from one port to another. The port’s rail service has taken containers as far as California. The rail service is operating

seven days a week, except for major holidays, Mr. Navarro said. The port also ships seed corn grown and harvested in Chile in March, which is offloaded at the port, then transported via the FEC Intermodal Rail to Chicago, then taken to the heartland to be planted for the spring harvest, Miami Today reported in February. Cotton and yarn comes into the port via rail to be shipped to Central America, with finished goods then shipped from Central America to the US distribution centers via the port. Mr. Navarro said he’s done business with all major lines but would like to add more cargo volume. Nearly $50 million of the more than $1 billion PortMiami has invested into a slew of projects in preparation for the Panama Canal expansion went toward the revitalization of the on-port rail service. “Our strategy is to bring more business,” said Juan Kuryla, PortMiami’s director. “Now that we’ll be able to accommodate larger vessels and unload a

larger number of boxes here in Miami and rail them in conjunction with the FEC rail, we can reach 70% of US population in less than four days.” The rail service can carry up to 240 40-foot-equivalent-units on its 9,000 feet of track. But the trains are not yet leaving or entering the port hauling that much volume, Mr. Navarro said. The facility is being used at 60% capacity, with 40% left to spare, he said. When a train leaves the port, it rolls straight across the PortMiami bridge, crosses Biscayne Boulevard, then goes west to the Hialeah Rail Yard, where it is connected to the national rail system. Mr. Navarro said the trains have not yet backed up traffic downtown. The only area on its route that a train might affect is when it passes the AmericanAirlines Arena, he said. Although rail cargo volume has increased dramatically since service was restored in 2013 after years of inactivity, Mr. Navarro said, there’s plenty of room for growth.

PortMiami officials are investigating the viability of providing onsite fuel service for large ships, a decision that will ultimately depend on further discussion with cruise lines. PortMiami, one of the busiest cargo container ports in the US and the cruise ship capital of the world, does not currently provide fuel services itself. Rather, a tugboat and barges deliver fuel to the port from a terminal on Fisher Island. The process is costly and timeconsuming. It can take five hours to fill a barge with fuel and an hour for a tug to push the barge to PortMiami. Cruise and cargo ship operators have reported paying about $40 more per ton of fuel at PortMiami than at other Eastern Seaboard ports. For the PortMiami 2035 Master Plan that officials worked on over a year and completed in December 2010, they examined a long-term provision of fuel, said Kevin Lynskey, deputy director. In April 2013, county commissioners voted to ask that Mayor Carlos Gimenez confer with the seaport’s cruise and cargo customers regarding potential advantages of developing on-dock fuel facilities at the port. The mayor was also asked to complete a feasibility study that would look at the port acquiring and installing on-dock fuel facilities and consider alternatives to do so. PortMiami contracted with engineering consultant AECOM to complete the feasibility study, which identified two potential alternatives: build an on-port fuel facility and dockside hydrant system or install below-the-bay pipes to flow fuel from Fisher Island to PortMiami. At this time, Mr. Lynskey told Miami Today, the port’s preference is to avoid taking up land on its 520-acre site on Dodge Island. He explained that building an on-dock fueling terminal would eat up as much as 10 acres and referred to that being “a huge negative.”

‘Our decision relies on discussions with the cruise lines to find out their preference.’ Kevin Lynskey Moreover, building a fuel facility and a dockside hydrant system would cost about $41.9 million, with an estimated annual operating cost of $2.8 million. Building a pipeline between PortMiami and Fisher Island would be much less expensive and safer, Mr. Lynskey said. The estimated capital cost for the pipeline is $17.7 million, he said, and it would require using less than half an acre of port land. Port officials don’t have a deadline to decide. Mr. Lynskey said the next steps are to enter talks with Fisher Island tank farm owners TransMontaigne Partners LLC about providing a piping system. “Our decision relies on discussions with the cruise lines to find out their preference,” he said. For either plan, the AECOM study states, the port would require a third party to finance and maintain the required infrastructure.

FILMING IN M IAMI These film permits were issued last week by the Miami-Dade County Department of Regulatory & Economic Resources’ Office of Film and Entertainment, (305) 375-3288; the Miami Mayor’s Office of Film, Arts & Entertainment, (305) 8603823; and the Miami Beach Office of Arts, Culture and Entertainment-Film and Print Division, (305) 673-7070. 44 BLUE PRODUCTIONS INC. California. Tentatively Rock and a Hard Place. Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. HIGH NOON PRODUCTIONS LLC. Denver. Quinceanera. Countywide, Miami Beach citywide, Unincorporated Miami-Dade County. PILGRIM STUDIOS. California. Untitled Dancing Miami series. Unincorporated Miami-Dade County. Telemundo Studios/NBC Universal Media, LLC. Miami. Bajo el Mismo Cielo. Unincorporated Miami-Dade County. Dangerous Lessons, LLC. Miami. Till death do us part. Haulover Park Marina, William Powell Bridge Turnaround. Richard Hall, Inc. Brooklyn. American Girl. Matheson Hammock Park. The Pool Productions. Los Angeles. Shueisha. Marlins Park Stadium, Miami Beach citywide, Paradise Farms, Sam and Philly’s, Sweet Record.