Miami Today: Week of Thursday, June 15, 2017

WEEK OF THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2017

A Singular Voice in an Evolving City

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FACING $24 MILLION SHORTFALL FOR OPERATIONS, COUNTY TRANSIT CHOPS BUS ROUTES, pg. 17 ROCKY RATE ROAD: Revenue per available hotel room in the Miami market is forecast as flat to down a half-percent next year in the annual tourism forecast that STR and Tourism Economics released last week at New York University’s International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference in New York. Miami and Boston are the only markets among the nation’s top 25 with that lowered expectation.

The other 23 were forecast to be flat to up a half percentage point in 2018. Overall for the nation next year, the forecast was a two-tenths percentage point decrease in hotel occupancy to 65.1% but an increase in average daily room rate of 2.7% and an increase in revenue per available room of 2.5%. The luxury market nationally is projected at the largest increase in daily room rate, a rise of 2.9%.

The Achiever

THE METER’S RUNNING: Miami-Dade County commissioners last week approved a maximum taxicab meter rate for for-hire vehicles and eliminated a cash discount. This revises the cab flat rate to and from Miami International Airport and PortMiami, and allows taxis to have flexibility in their rates.

The recommended maximum meter rate is $2.95 for the first one-sixth of a mile and 85 cents for each one-sixth of a mile thereafter until it reaches one mile. Thereafter, it would be 40 cents for each additional one-sixth of a mile. Recommended waiting time rate is 40 cents a minute.

IRISH SISTER: Miami-Dade will be reaching out to County Cork, Ireland, to become family of sorts now that both communities have expressed desire to establish a Sister Cities relationship. County commissioners passed the legislation sponsored by Jose “Pepe” Diaz last week. According to the resolution, trade and tourism are a significant portion of both communities’ economy, and Miami-Dade and County Cork want to cooperate to further trade, tourism, cultural and educational opportunities. Miami-Dade’s Sister Cities program, founded in 1981, has established relationships with 26 cities in South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa and Asia.

POOR PURCHASING RATIOS: A study involving a University of Miami business professor found that consumers often make poor purchasing decisions when they need to work with ratios to assess a product’s value. “This study points to the significant need for something like a ratio calculator built on to relevant shopping websites or perhaps in-store,” said Michael Tsiros, professor of marketing at the university. “Maybe it’s an easy mobile app.” The study, published in the May “Journal of Marketing Behavior” and completed with a Texas A&M professor, found that when they need to work with ratios to find the best buys only 25% to 30% of shoppers find the right answer.

Aida Levitan

Photo by Cristina Sullivan

Moving up to chair the board of U.S. Century Bank The profile is on Page 4

City’s kick can block Beckham soccer deal goal

By John Charles Robbins

A last-minute change to a deal between Miami-Dade County and Miami Beckham United clearing the way for the firm to buy county land for a Major League Soccer stadium in Miami has left City of Miami officials crying foul.

Among conditions the county commission set June 6, one would require Beckham’s group to hire county police and emergency responders for off-duty work inside the planned 25,000-seat Overtown stadium.

By agreeing, Beckham’s group may have created another roadblock for itself – after years of false starts and just when it was gaining momentum.

In order for the stadium to rise, the group will need zoning changes and a street abandonment by the city.

Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado hinted the issue of how city police and fire officers are used at the stadium may become a bargaining chip as the group tries to move ahead.

On the heels of the county’s decision to a sell 2.79 acres to Beckham’s group for $9 million to join with about 5.82 acres it already owns, city elected leaders were quick

to denounce the 11th hour amendment that would limit city police and paramedics to work outside the stadium.

City commissioners joined the mayor June 8 in expressing serious concern about what they saw as a county overreach.

Mayor Regalado said he has asked the city attorney’s office to research the legality of the county commission decision.

To require a private party to employ county police and paramedics inside a private venue is wrong, said Mayor Regalado, and sets a bad precedent. “The point is, this is a private venue in the City of Miami,” he said.

“I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade,” said Mr. Regalado. Some people may say the city is just trying to block the deal, but he said that is not the case.

The mayor spoke of what lies ahead for Beckham’s group at the city level: “This is not right for our City of Miami police, our City of Miami firefighters, and our residents … so hopefully this will be fixed – if not, when it comes before you for the zoning change, maybe we can say…”

Commissioner Francis Suarez quickly interjected a motion supporting the mayor’s request that the city attorney provide an

opinion on the county’s action; objecting to the county’s last-minute amendment; and directing the city manager to make sure that “our first responders are protected in any negotiation, deal, land sale, and/or zoning matter, and that that be incorporated into our negotiations.”

It was approved unanimously.

An attorney representing the Beckham group said recently it could be six months before the group is ready to make requests of the city government.

After the fanfare of Beckham’s announcement several years ago to bring a Major League Soccer team to Miami, several preferred sites for the privately-funded stadium were put off limits or were rejected, including PortMiami, the FEC slip next to AmericanAirlines Arena, and the area next to county-owned Marlins ballpark in Little Havana.

In December 2015, Beckham’s group announced the latest location, at 650 NW Eighth St. in Overtown.

The bulk of the land is a city block bounded

by Northwest Eighth and Seventh streets and Northwest Seventh and Sixth avenues, two blocks north of the Miami River.

Mayor asks to sell 142 county sites

Miami-Dade County should move quickly to declare 142 properties surplus and sell them to get them back on the tax rolls and reduce the county’s cost of maintaining the sites, Mayor Carlos Gimenez said in a memo to county commissioners last week.

Most of the properties came to the county due to non-payment of taxes, he said.

Maintaining the properties is a burden on the county, however, and it doesn’t have enough money to maintain them properly, the mayor said.

“Over the past five years, the county inherited more than 300 tax deed properties,” he said. “This significant increase in the number of tax deed properties was a result of the real estate market crash that occurred in 2008.”

In all, the county owns 533 unused properties for which it has no use plans in the future. Of those, the county commission has already declared 171 surplus and the county is trying to sell those sites.

The mayor outlined for commissioners the burdens of those properties. The average annual cost to mow the grass on each site nine times is $551, and funds are lacking to mow more often. It costs about $10,000 to fence each 50- by 100-foot lot, but there isn’t money to fence most of them. Other costs include demolishing unsafe structures, towing, trash removal, remediation, appraisals, title work and signage.

Selling some or all of the properties on the for-sale list would bring the county more money to properly maintain the other sites, the mayor said. In addition, 25% of all revenue from sales of these sites goes to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, as required by a resolution the county commission passed in 2016.

Before a property could be sent to the county commission to declare it for sale, the mayor wrote, the Internal Services Department distributed to each commissioner a list of district properties that aren’t in use and asked whether to move forward to declare them surplus. Of the 373 properties that the department wanted to sell, commissioners determined that 142 can be declared surplus.

MIAMI NEEDS TO UP ITS PR GAME, CHAMBER PANEL SAYS ...

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MIAMI TODAY

TODAY’S NEWS

The Insider ALLOW WHISTLE BLOWERS AIR: Miami-Dade County commissioners gave preliminary approval last week to prohibiting employers that contract with the county from retaliating against employees for providing information about unlawful activity. The legislation, sponsored by Sally Heyman, would prohibit employers of 10 or more from any attack against their workers for disclosing information on unlawful activity, improper or wrong treatment by employers, agents or independent contractors of the county. In 1996, the commission passed legislation known as the Whistle-blower Ordinance that prohibits the county from retaliating against county employees. The proposed ordinance is tentatively scheduled for a hearing before the Public Safety and Health Committee on July 12. Details:http://www.miamidade.gov/govaction/ legistarfiles/Matters/Y2017/171387.pdf FESTIVE IMPROVEMENTS: Miami city officials cut a ribbon June 9 to celebrate completion of Southwest 15th Avenue improvements from Southwest Eighth to Seventh streets. The $371,799 cost was funded by the Office of Mayor Tomás Regalado. The project transformed the corridor to a raised and festive street that is pedestrian-friendly. While the street will still serve cars most of the week, new removable bollards will let the city close the entire street, allowing only foot traffic during special events including Viernes Culturales.

This creates an outdoor experience unique to Calle Ocho and Little Havana.

Southwest 15th Avenue also features decorative colored pavers designed to emphasize the street. The pavers match the look of the section along Southwest 15th Avenue to the south in front of Domino Park.

PARKING BOARD HUNT: Miami’s Department of Off-Street Parking is seeking candidates for an Off-Street Parking Board vacancy created by the recent death of Arthur Hertz. The city charter requires: “Each member of the Board shall either reside or have his/her principal place of business in the city and shall be an individual of outstanding reputation for integrity, responsibility and business ability, but no officer or employee of the city shall serve as a member of the Board while employed as such officer or employee of the city.” The board oversees the Miami Parking Authority.

Meetings are usually monthly, with special meetings as Art Noriega needed. Resumes and inquiries should go to authority CEO Art Noriega at Anoriega@miamiparking.com by noon June 19. Interviews by the board of selected applicants will be at 1 p.m. June 29.

ADDITIONAL AMMO NEEDED: Miami commissioners have authorized spending on lead-free zinc ammunition from NPEE L.C., d/b/a/ National Police Ammunition, a competitively solicited Bradford County Sheriff’s Office contract. In February 2016, the city manager approved accessing Bradford’s contract for ammunition. In June 2016, the city commission raised spending capacity $150,000 due to a consent decree by the Department of Justice imposing additional training requirements on the police department, requiring all sworn members to be qualified on all firearms issued to them. Failure to comply would impose legal and financial responsibilities on the department.

To fulfill the mandate for 2017 and provide in-service training, academy training and training for newly-acquired patrol rifles, an additional $259,928 is needed to procure the ammunition and for training, a background memo says.

TRAFFIC EDUCATION: As Tom Hudson of WLRN was introducing a Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce panel on transportation last week he had to finesse the absence of Transportation Planning Organization Chairman Esteban Bovo Jr., speculating that Mr. Bovo probably was caught in the gridlock that the panel was to discuss. So when Mr. Bovo later slipped into his chair, Mr. Hudson said, “Welcome, Chairman Bovo, how was the traffic?”

Mr. Bovo drew applause when he answered: “No, it wasn’t the commute. It was my son’s last day of school today.”

ON-THE-JOB TRAINING: Mr. Bovo, who has been in the driver’s seat in seeking county transportation solutions, told the chamber audience about the best training for the job: “My experience in transportation is that I drive in Miami-Dade County.”

POOH-POOHING NEW TECH: The county needs to move ahead now with mass transit despite all the hoopla about autonomous vehicles soon making mass transit obsolete, Mr. Bovo told the audience: “My 6-year-old is really pumped about autonomous vehicles by the time he’s 30.”

EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION: The Miami City Commission has approved a contract with Harris Corp. for $12.1 million for an enhanced two-way radio communications system throughout the city for all public safety and local government users. Commissioners accepted a Harris proposal received Aug. 30, 2016, to provide a fully featured 800 MHz P25 digital trunked simulcast network system for the police, fire and General Services Administration departments. The contract is for three years, with two two-year extensions. In May 2016 the city requested proposals for the system. An evaluation committee ranked Harris the highest responsive and responsible proposer and recommended the city negotiate a professional services agreement with Harris. The negotiated price is $11 million plus a 10% contingency allowance of $1.1 million to complete the project.

NOTICE OF WATER, SEWER WORK: Miami-Dade commissioners gave initial approval last week to electronic publication of projects being done by the Water and Sewer Department. This would authorize the “transparency report” to be published on the Water and Sewer Department’s home page (www.miamidade.gov/water/) instead of submitting paper reports for county commission agendas. The ordinance, sponsored by Barbara Jordan, states it would benefit the department’s customers. The transparency report would be available in the Water and Sewer Department’s Capital Improvement Program each Barbara Jordan month by the second Monday and would be sent to each county commission district office. The proposal is tentatively scheduled for a hearing before the Infrastructure and Utilities Committee on July 11.

DIGITAL HEALTH ACCELERATOR APPLICATION OPENS: Startupbootcamp, one of the world’s largest accelerators, has opened applications today (6/15) for its digital health program in Miami. Entrepreneurs working at the intersection of healthcare and technology with proven models are encouraged to apply at https://www.f6s.com/startupbootcampdigitalhealthmiami18/ until Sept. 1. Companies chosen to participate will receive funding, implementation opportunities, a mentor network and a comprehensive suite of services.

WEEK OF THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2017

Miami’s PR needs boost, panelists say

By Catherine Lackner

Miami needs to up its public relations game so that the community’s businesses can attract more companies and their employees, participants at a Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce roundtable discussion said. It was part of the chamber’s annual goals-setting meeting June 7-8.

“Miami-Dade County is a collaborative place to do business,” said panelist Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, president and CEO of Celebrity Cruises. Yet, when she was based in the Northeast, she did not initially want to move to South Florida.

“I’m not sure people understand how dynamic and young the city is, how good the school system is, and what a great family place it is,” she said. “It’s a real selling job.”

“The perception of Miami needs to evolve,” said panelist Ralph Lopez, American Airlines vice president of Miami hub operations at Miami International Airport.

People think of the beaches, but not of the community. It’s one of the bright spots for opportunity and growth.”

American Airlines is doing its part, he said; the latest issue of the “American Way” in-flight maga-

Photo by Marlene Quaroni

American’s Ralph Lopez: “The perception of Miami needs to evolve.”

Trade,housing,railways,smartcities,moreatconference,pg.10-12 zine featured a 10-page spread on Miami.

Ms. Lutoff-Perlo said she and cruise line communications staff are putting together a plan that she will present when it is more jelled.

“Many people are reluctant to come here because they don’t think of it as a family place, and a place where

their careers can grow,” she said.

“The perception is locked into what it was in the 1990s,” said panelist Kieran Bowers, president and head of US operations for Swire Properties. “Resort-y, a place to party. It never gets to the substance of Miami as a nexus of trade and a fantastic place to do business.”

Metrorail to Florida City first among ‘equals,’ top planning officials state Metrorail that takes over the current South Dade Transitway with rapid runs between Florida City in the south and Dadeland will be the first of the six planned new transit corridors in Miami-Dade, Transportation Planning Organization officials said last week.

“I am convinced that an extension of Metrorail all the way to Florida City” will show the public that leaders are serious about building new transit, said Esteban Bovo Jr., the chairman of both the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization and of the county commission.

“I 100% agree with the chairman.

We need a win. This community needs a win,” said Francis Suarez, planning organization vice chairman and a Miami city commissioner who is running for mayor. That’s the top priority, he said.

The transitway was until recently named the South Dade Busway. It’s a bus-only highway built atop a former rail line, now long abandoned. The Florida Department of Transportation built the first 8.3 miles, and it opened in 1997 for express buses.

The final of two extensions took the now 19.8-mile route to Florida City in 2007.

The choice of that express bus route for rail was the first public indication of which of the six transit corridors would be top priority.

County officials have carefully sidestepped any hint of favoritism in order to hold together support for transit expansion. Before the SMART transit plan agreed on six corridors, commissioners had been battling for first choice for their own communities, slowing solutions to increased traffic congestion.

Indeed, at a Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce panel on which Mr. Bovo and Mr. Suarez gave the south corridor prime position, the county’s transportation chief, Alice

‘I 100% agree with the chairman. We need a win. This community needs a win.’

Francis Suarez

Bravo, took pains to say that “the end game is to implement the entire SMART plan.”

But she did note that the northeast corridor up toAventura has the tracks and the south corridor already has the transitway, “so we have two corridors that are ready to go.”

And when she was asked by moderator Tom Hudson of WLRN if it was news to her that Mr. Bovo and Mr. Suarez had tapped the south corridor to do first, Ms. Bravo replied flatly “not at all.”

Mr. Suarez called the South Dade route low-lying fruit. “With the southern corridor we have the right-of-way,” he said.

Both Mr. Bovo and Mr. Suarez said that transit action now is vital before politicians can convince voters to repeal the half-percent sales tax that they approved in 2002 for transportation only.

The half-percent is jeopardized in an election year without progress, Mr. Bovo said, and “unfortunately now it has become political.” So the south corridor is vital, he said, and it must be rail.

Mr. Suarez, talking of doubling the tax to complete the entire sixcorridor SMART plan, agreed. “If we’re going to explore another half penny in the future,” he said, “we have to deliver.”

Acknowledging that the SMART

plan aims for six more mass transit routes while use of all forms of mass transit here is falling, Ms. Bravo said that county transit use is down because the economy is improving and as people get jobs or move up to higher pay, “the first thing they did was went out and buy a car.”

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MIAMI TODAY

VIEWPOINT

WEEK OF THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2017

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

Transit plan’s biggest shortage isn’t money, it’s courage Almost 14 months after Miami-Dade unveiled with full fanfare a s o-called SMART plan to add six transit corridors, all we have is that same empty pledge.

The glaring lack of detail and almost to- Michael Lewis tal uncertainty failed to enlighten a transportation session at last week’s Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce Goals Conference.

Other than a focus on six new transit corridors – the same six we were promised when voters approved a half-percent transit sales tax in 2002 – what do we really have?

As chamber members heard, we have: ■No decision on whether to use buses or rail on any or all routes.

■No decision on what kind of technology we’d use if we did pick rail.

■No firm costs to create any of the corridors. Nobody is putting a full price on the whole plan.

■No funds to build or buy equipment for any of the corridors.

■No firm plan for who to tap for the funds, or even where to look first, public or private money or new taxes.

■No public timetable to do anything.

■Agreement – yes, agreement – that all routes won’t get done at once, but no decision on which comes first.

■No courage by most to even tiptoe through the political minefield to pick a first corridor.

■Not even a hint of where to get money to operate six corridors at a certain loss if we manage somehow to find funds to build.

Transit fares here pay only about 17% of operating costs – though the chamber panel got a vague estimate nearer 30%.

The discussion left many of us who desperately want this plan to succeed wondering who will take needed steps so we get something done somewhere.

The two politicians on the panel – no mayors in sight – implied that once a single transit leg is added they will come back and try to double the transportation sales tax to add more.

They can’t do that using as a showpiece the only rail the tax has built in 15 years – a short Metrorail leg to the airport – because the county last month cut service owing to weak use and high operating loss. Nobody on the panel mentioned those cuts, but they sure aren’t sales tools.

The best hope was that the transit and government leaders are all certain they can do something.

Asked what we might see in a year, MiamiDade Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo Jr. predicted that “we will have asked the [Transportation Planning Organization] to vote on a corridor and we will have put the funding in place to do that corridor.”

He even knows what the corridor will be: he’s betting on converting the busway from Dadeland to Florida City to rail.

If Mr. Bovo had all the votes, that would happen. But he’s one of 13 votes on the county commission and one of 27 on the Transportation Planning Organization board, which will make the final decision on routes and transit methods.

Mr. Bovo chairs that organization, with

Life in the Magic City: PR for Montenegro Well, today’s “eye opener,” as CBS News likes to say every morning, is the image of our President pushing aside the prime minister of Montenegro to get to the front of the pack for a photo op at the NATO summit. Pretty Susan Kahn embarrassing.

But admit it. You don’t know where Montenegro is. You probably didn’t even know it was a country. I didn’t either until I happened, coincidentally, to visit it on a cruise last year. Montenegro, I can say from personal experience, is breathtakingly beautiful.

But it’s small – very small. I took the tour of its royal palace, and Vizcaya has more bedrooms.

Over the years the poor Montenegrins have had to contend with invasions by the Romans, the Goths, the Avars, the Slavs, the Venetians, the Ottomans, and now it appears – Donald Trump.

This may be the worst humiliation of all – and, wouldn’t you know, just when they’re about to become the newest member of NATO. And just when NATO members are getting lectured about forking over more money. Even if Montenegro were to contribute its 2% to the pot, that works out to exactly one half of one F16.

NATO may be based on “one for all and all for one,” but I don’t think we should count on Montenegro to bail us out of anything.

On the other hand, I feel really badly

for Prime Minister Markovic. I used to hate it when I was in a group photo and some showoff would stand smack in front of me, and I could only be identified by my eyebrows. As I got older, of course, I appreciated the opportunity to be cut in half by the person in front – it makes you look thinner – and perhaps Mr. Markovic could take solace in that fact.

But I’m not sure that applies in this situation. No, I think he seriously needs to save face for his little country. What he can’t show in size he can make up for in appearance – he could use some Miami style PR. He actually has a lot to work with. Lots of famous people have come from Montenegro – Brank Babovic, Zivko Andrijasevic, Gojko Berkuljan and Zarko Bulajic, just to name a few. (OK, so Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor and Sylvester Stallone have hung out there, too). And let’s not forget Casino Royale in the 2006 James Bond flick. Even Brad Pitt once filmed a movie there.

Mr. Markovic just needs to milk all of this a little bit better. As I said, Montenegro is beautiful, and it’s becoming a celebrity hotspot, according to the European press, so it’s really a matter of getting the world’s attention.

A few thoughts – invite the Kardashians over and let them party in the palace for a while. Have Sports Illustrated to do its swimsuit issue on the beach. Get the film crew over for the next “Bachlorette.”

But if none of this works, not to worry.

Tomorrow morning there’ll be a new “eye opener.”

Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez vice chair. Both agreed on the panel that South Dade comes first. That’s two votes out of 27.

The clear barrier to progress is that nothing will happen politically to choose a route and transit mode until funding to build is clear, yet the lion’s shares of funding won’t be put on the table without a clear route and transit mode, be it rail or bus.

The even bigger bind, everyone knows, is that whatever is done is going to lose money in a big way because we collect so few full fares. Metromover is free and nobody is willing to charge a penny. The county issues many types of free transit passes for no-doubt worthy users and many half-fare passes for many more no-doubt worthy users. Figures on what percentage of people pay undiscounted fares are hard to come by – or even figures on how many pay at all.

The fact is, whatever system we build must be even more heavily subsidized than in other cities to make up for minuscule fares. What is the political will to collect anything more equitably at the fare box?

None is visible.

As the chamber was being told of the SMART plan, it heard a variety of ways to fund it. Carlos Roa, assistant director of transportation and land use for the Transportation Planning Organization, suggested special assessments. County transportation head Alice Bravo suggested a tax increment financing district and bonding against its revenues, a program that Mr. Bovo has suggested along transit corridors.

Two federal loan programs were cited.

Mr. Suarez suggested going to Washington for 15% to 20% of costs but noted that we’d still have to find the balance.

Ms. Bravo said up to half the money could

L etters

come from the federal New Starts funding program. Mr. Suarez suggested that half the money could come from restructuring the way the county now doles out receipts from the half-percent transit sales tax, but noted that the county is using the money for maintenance and covering transit shortages, not as voters were promised.

But nobody suggested getting more money from those who will use the system. Covering operations, as usual, is an afterthought.

That brings us back to square one: we can’t do all six routes at once, we can’t choose a single route without political courage, we can’t get agreement without funding, we can’t get funding without stepping on someone’s toes over use of the transit tax or collecting more from fares or taxing visitors more (everyone agreed that can’t be done) or at least picking a single route.

So, that leaves us, unfortunately, very short not only of the untold true billions to build but the one commodity that’s scarcer than money. To quote Mr. Suarez, we need “the political courage and leadership to do it.”

“The politics of what corridor goes first and who to offend and who not to offend,” Mr. Bovo said, “that honestly has been a subliminal part of the conversation.”

Folks, it’s time to stop worrying about who doesn’t go first. If we can’t get past the political minefield and pick a corridor we’ll never get to the costs or how to both fund and then operate a transit corridor. And if we don’t fund operating losses from the outset we can forget any long-term transit gains.

As Mr. Suarez said, where is the political courage and leadership? It’s time to put it on display or accept permanent gridlock.

And that’s just plain politically and civically unacceptable.

to the

Preservation boards must protect Miami’s patrimony

Thank you for continuing to highlight historic preservation issues with the recent Achiever profile on Dade Heritage Executive Director Christine Rupp.

I like to think of myself as an “accidental preservationist” because I basically stumbled into serving on an historic preservation board back in 2012. Lured to join the organization by a long-time preservationist and founding member, I now find myself drawn to the protection of historical patrimony and have morphed into an ardent protector of all things “old” locally and beyond.

I love the Jane Jacobs maxim: new ideas need old buildings. Yes they do! Forget the LEED certifications and sustainable stamp of approval… what can be “greener” than a building that has been preserved and repurposed?

I applaud Christine Rupp and Dade Heritage Trust for the steadfast fight to save places that matter such as the Miami Marine Stadium and the Little Havana District. Yet while these are milestones in preservation, a few saved places and districts dwarf the number of buildings and structures that are demolished every day. How many more

E ditor

will our cities lose – remember the Everglades Hotel, the Miami Herald building or the many historically-significant Walter De Garmo-designed mansions in Miami Beach – to encroaching development? With each demolition, one erases another layer of cultural identity.

Cities like Miami, Coral Gables and others have historic designation ordinances written to protect cultural patrimony, and yet time and again historic preservation boards vote against historic designation.

In these instances, preservationists become powerless: powerless to a demolition; powerless to protecting a landmark; powerless to history.

Dr. Karelia Martinez Carbonell

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TODAY’S NEWS

MIAMI TODAY

WEEK OF THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2017

Airport foreign trade zone on runway

By Camila Cepero

Miami-Dade’s Aviation Department is still working to set up a foreign trade zone magnet site on Miami International Airport property, anticipating that the approval will come by the end of the summer.

Officials have said that the zone will attract new business opportunities and better utilize vacant cargo and non-terminal areas.

Emilio González, Miami-Dade Aviation Department director and CEO, first told Miami Today of the plan in April 2016.

The airport first began talking with PortMiami, the grantee of the foreign trade zone (FTZ), and then had its federal application moved forward.

“An airport is all about real estate, and if the airport doesn’t grow it’s bad for business,” Dr. González told a crowd at a panel event last week.

As Miami Today reported, Miami International Airport was declared the first pharmaceutical hub in the US and only second worldwide in late 2015 by the International Air Transport Association, following a year and a half of negotiations.

“MIA’s big pharma numbers have gone up 80% in the last five years without this designation... so this is a very important thing for us,” Dr. González said at the time. Officials, he said, plan to “aggressively” market MIA as an international air pharma hub that allows companies to transport very high-value, lowweight items through Miami.

The new FTZ site on airport property will allow manufacturers to lease available airport property and have their tariffs deferred, reduced or eliminated.

On Nov. 1, 2016, the Miami-Dade County Commission approved an

Ross Report on Real Estate

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application to the US Department of Commerce that would designate the airport as an FTZ magnet site.

The application was then submitted to the US Department of Commerce’s Foreign Trade Zone Board in Washington.

Once a decision has been made about the airport’s application, the Foreign Trade Zone Board will notify PortMiami, the grantee of the FTZ. Officials expect the certification to be finished by the end of the summer, Dr. González said last week.

The airport FTZ has the potential to generate $7.7 million a year in lease revenue and create an estimated 1,500 jobs at the airport.

Foreign trade zones lure businesses because the sites allow goods to be unloaded, manufactured, reassembled, tested, sampled, processed, repacked and re-exported without intervention by US Cus-

Photo by Marlene Quaroni

Emilio González: “If the airport doesn’t grow it’s bad for business.”

toms authorities.

Nonetheless, foreign trade zones are approved in part by US Customs and Border Protection because the areas are in or near ports of entry.

Potential site users in the airport’s FTZ include auto parts, electronics, textiles, footwear, perishables, metals, minerals, pharmaceuticals,

avionics and machinery equipment companies.

Dr. González said he expects “a lot of light manufacturing for avionics and consumer goods.” “[The airport] has some capacity left to house that,” he said, “and we will do P3 projects on the cargo side to create more space.”

Bid to lengthen bridge lockdowns expected to be scuttled: river team

By Catherine Lackner

A local marine coalition representative says that the US Coast Guard plans to deny a request by Miami’s Downtown Development Authority to extend the hours during which the Brickell Avenue Bridge is locked down to allow vehicular traffic to flow.

The bridge is supposed to be locked down (except for vessel emergencies) between 7:35 and 8:59 a.m., 12:05 and 12:59 p.m., and 4:35 and 5:59 p.m. weekdays. The new rules would extend the morning and evening lockdowns until 9:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. respectively.

Public Notice Foreign-Trade Zone 281—Miami, Florida; Application for Expansion (New Magnet Site); Under Alternative Site Framework An application has been submitted to the Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZ) Board (the Board) by Miami-Dade County, grantee of Foreign-Trade Zone 281, requesting authority to expand its zone under the alternative site framework (ASF) adopted by the Board (15 CFR Sec. 400.2(c)) to include a new magnet site in Miami, Florida. The application was submitted pursuant to the Foreign-Trade Zones Act, as amended (19 U.S.C. 81a–81u), and the regulations of the Board (15 CFR part 400). It was formally docketed on May 2, 2017.

FTZ 281 was established by the Board under the alternative site framework on August 2, 2012 (Board Order 1844, 77 FR 47816, 8/10/2012). The zone currently has a service area that includes the northern half of Miami-Dade County and consists of three magnet sites and forty-eight usage-driven sites. There is an application currently pending with the FTZ Board to expand the zone to include an additional magnet site (proposed Site 31) in Miami (Docket B–50–2015).

The applicant is now requesting authority to expand its zone to include an additional magnet site: Proposed Site 55 (3,248.24 acres)—Miami International Airport, 4200 NW 36th Street, Building 5A, Miami. The proposed new site is adjacent to the Miami Customs and Border Protection port of entry.

In accordance with the Board’s regulations, Qahira El-Amin of the FTZ Staff is designated examiner to evaluate and analyze the facts and information presented in the application and case record and to report findings and recommendations to the Board.

Public comment is invited from interested parties. Submissions shall be addressed to the Board’s Executive Secretary at the address below. The closing period for their receipt is August 8, 2017. Rebuttal comments in response to material submitted during the foregoing period may be submitted during the subsequent 15-day period to August 23, 2017.

A copy of the application will be available for public inspection at the Office of the Executive Secretary, ForeignTrade Zones Board, Room 21013, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230–0002, and in the ‘‘Reading Room’’ section of the Board’s Web site, which is accessible via www.trade.gov/ftz. For further information, contact Qahira El-Amin at Qahira.El-Amin@trade.gov or (202) 482– 5928.

For legal ads online, go to http://legalads.miamidade.gov

Mark Bailey: Coast Guard will deny.

All along, the bridge was only to be opened – with a few exceptions including vessel emergencies and boats under tow – on the hour and on the half-hour during all other times.

The downtown authority has said that bridge tenders indiscriminately open the bridge, most often for pleasure craft. It has also said bridge-tender logs, handwritten in pencil, are of little value.

Jim Wolfe, the new Florida Department of Transportation secretary for District 6, has agreed that timestamped photos and digital readings should replace the current bridge logs. The department controls the bridge roadbed, while the Coast Guard controls the waterway.

“We have been informed that the USCG will deny the proposal initiated by the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) requesting to extend the Brickell Avenue Bridge opening curfew (morning and evening) periods,” said a letter by Mark Bailey, executive director of the Miami River Marine Group.

“The USCG’s desire to carefully assess/study the real and underlying conditions surrounding the Brickell Avenue Bridge operations and its impact on the area’s marine and vehicular traffic was necessary, appropriate and pivotal in determining this important decision,” continued the letter, a copy of which Miami Today obtained.

“The USCG conducted a detailed, thorough and comprehensive assessment/study of the current conditions surrounding immediate area marine traffic, Brickell Avenue Bridge operations and the broad implications of the proposed increase on

restrictions of Brickell … bridge operations.

“Unlike the recent FDOT study, the USCG assessment/study dug deep into the actual, true conditions taking place – utilizing bridge-tender logs, onsite research and observation in their analysis – not FDOT’s flawed ‘presumed simulation modeling’ evaluation technique, to reach their pre-determined position.

“The USCG assessment/study reveals, among other results, extending the current Brickell Avenue Bridge closure/curfew periods in the morning and evening will not result in having a meaningful impact on alleviating vehicular traffic in the area; and increasing the Brickell Avenue Bridge closure schedule may actually cause more vehicular traffic congestion.

“Furthermore, the USCG assessment/study questions the validity of some important assumptions and resulting conclusions reached by the ‘presumed simulation modeling’ evaluation technique used by FDOT. “Unfortunately, the DDA has identified the Miami River marine industry as a scapegoat for the traffic congestion caused by the unchecked downtown development.The Miami River Marine Group, however, will continue to support meaningful solutions – including those authored by the Miami River Commission – to alleviate traffic in the downtown area, but not at the expense of the Miami River marine industry.”

“Every time the bridge opens, particularly during peak rush hour, traffic backs up and business in the urban core shuts down,” said Alyce Robertson, downtown authority executive director. “We need a better system to track enforcement of the existing rules before we can even begin to assess the impact that any curfew extension might create. Our responsibility is to all of the downtown stakeholders, and that includes the thousands of employees and residents who rely on Brickell Avenue as a means of transportation every day. Doing nothing – or staying the course – is not an option. We need to work together to find a solution that benefits the residents, employees and visitors of downtown Miami.”

10

GOALS CONFERENCE

MIAMI TODAY

WEEK OF THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2017

Chamber focus on NAFTA renegotiation, our trade position

By Camila Cepero

Panelists at last week’s Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce Goals Conference gathered to speak about trade and goods under the new administration, focusing especially on NAFTA renegotiations and international trade activity in Miami.

Elaine Brouca, consul and senior trade commissioner for Canada in Miami, expressed the importance of the North American Free Trade Agreement for trade between the US and Canada.

Last year alone, $635 billion worth of goods was exchanged between the two countries, or roughly $1.7 billion worth of goods per day.

“The agreement creates jobs on both sides of the border,” Ms. Brouca said, adding that roughly 9 million jobs in the US depend on trade with Canada.

“In regards to Florida specifically, the relationship is based on more than oranges and snowbirds,” she said. “Florida exports more than 25% of its agricultural goods to Canada, 4.4 million Canadians visited Florida last year and contributed $5 billion.”

Furthermore, Canadians own $50 billion worth of real estate in Florida and over 400 Canadian companies have invested in Florida, creating 43,000 direct jobs.

Most importantly, however, Ms. Brouca said, what Canada and the US share is the desire to avoid falling into a position of “protectionism.”

“NAFTA, in our opinion, has been positive for all three countries,” she said, “so whatever we do in this renegotiation, it needs to not harm our current really good status and put us in a bad position.”

PortMiami is one of the largest beneficiaries of international trade in the country, said Eric Olafson, manager of Foreign Trade Zone 281 at the port.

On average, visitors to Miami stay an average of one week, but others, such as Canadians, can spend anywhere from an average of four weeks to six months, and others yet, like visitors from Latin America, can stay even longer.

“They have to buy furniture, which comes from Asia, which comes through the port. They have to buy clothes, which comes from Asia, which comes through the port,” Mr. Olafson said.

Elaine Brouca, Canada’s senior trade commissioner in Miami, said that the NAFTA “agreement creates jobs on both sides of the border.”

“Miami is the shopping cart of the Americas. There are so many people coming to Miami and doing a year’s worth of shopping in a few days.”

Refrigerated containers now make up 30% of the volume at PortMiami, Mr. Olafson said, carrying in fruits and citrus from Peru and Argentina and other perishables.

The port has seen an 11% increase in cargo from Asia, year to date, with many manufactured goods coming from Asia.

Seven countries do a minimum of $1 billion in business with PortMiami, Mr. Olafson said.

These include China, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama and El Salvador.

Colombia, though not yet part of the “billion dollar club,” is expected to join the ranks this year.

Emilio T. González, director and CEO of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, said that Miami Internal Airport is the largest cargo airport in US, and although air freight has been flat for several years, “overall things are growing well.”

“We monetize our strongest asset,” he said, “which is our supply chain and our ability to handle perishables.”

The airport’s budget this year is $1.26 billion, Dr. González said, but cargo accounts for only 10% of activity at the airport. However, 70% of international tourists to Florida fly in through MIA.

Refrigerated containers now make up 30% of the volume at PortMiami, said Eric Olafson, manager of Foreign Trade Zone 281 at the seaport.

Photos by Marlene Quaroni

Lee Sandler: new frontiers have “transformed the way cargo moves.”

“This community has been a global distribution center,” said G. Lee Sandler, founder of international trade consulting firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg.

“Under this and prior administrations, we were challenged by increased scrutiny on immigration and increased regulations in goods transited.”

New frontiers in trade, like ecommerce, have “transformed the way cargo moves,” Mr. Sandler said, with agencies such as US Customs and Border Protection creating e-commerce departments.

“Change can be a problem for us,” he said. “They are going to be changing the way they regulate

cargo moving into US.” Furthermore, he said, federal agency staffing is going to change because of the intention of building a wall on the southern US border.

“The new administration’s budget freeze on government hiring and funds directed towards border [is going to be a] problem because as we try to grow we need those funds.”

“Florida exports high-tech material components subject to scrutiny over many agencies,” Mr. Sandler said. “Over the last few years, we tried to condense that and make it easier, but the new administration probably wants to undo that, so the emerging

high-tech industry in Florida may be hurt.”

Ms. Brouca said that “Canada understands that a free trade agreement and NAFTA in particular cannot encompass every piece of trade.”

“We can’t think it’s some golden rule that will solve everything,” she said. “International students and tourism will not fall under NAFTA.” “Canada is all for the modernization of NAFTA because there are things in there... that need to be updated and modernized.”

There are two elements not included in NAFTA “because they just weren’t around” when NAFTA was drafted, Mr. Sandler said.

These two elements are e-commerce and intellectual property.

Moderator Brian Fonseca, director of the FIU Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy, asked panelists for their thoughts on the administration moving away from multilateral trade and more toward bilateral trade.

“The country of origin rules drive supply chain,” Mr. Sandler said. “Every time you have a different rule to comply with, it changes the way you do business.”

“Instead of harmonizing rules, we’re making it more expensive, more complex, and maybe even impossible,” he said. “The administration says, ‘We’re going to renegotiate and come back and harmonize,’ but that’s probably not going to happen.”

Brightline rail service to start with deeply discounted fares The new Brightline rail service linking Miami to West Palm Beach with a stop in Fort Lauderdale will start with deeply discounted fares when it takes its first runs in late summer and offers full service in the early fall, CEO Dave Howard says.

While he wouldn’t reveal the fare structure, Mr. Howard told a Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce transportation meeting last week that the discounted cost is “going to be less than the cost of driving your car.”

Fares, he said, won’t be revealed until just before operations begin. He did not provide specific dates.

The full service in the fall, he said, will amount to 32 round trips daily between Miami and West Palm Beach.

The West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale stations, built expressly for the Brightline service, are getting their final touches,

Mr. Howard said, while the massive station complex in downtown Miami handled by parent All Aboard Florida continues to rise.

Asked to predict the status of the railroad next June, he said that Brightline will then be on the way to carrying 3 million passengers a year.

“The railroad is the answer of the future,” traveling on a line that was built by railroad magnate Henry Flagler just before 1900.

“What an awesome opportunity to reinvent that system.”

The railroad as conceived by its owner, Coral Gables-based Florida East Coast Industries, was to be a link between Miami and Orlando, linking to Orlando’s cluster of globally known theme attractions. But communities along the route have tried to sidetrack the planned operations, delaying that longer part of the run.

Mr. Howard said only that the Brightline

will be “ultimately connecting to Orlando in phase 2 of our project.” He did not provide an estimate of how long that might take.

He did note, as he has in the past, that no privately funded passenger rail service has been completed in the US in the past 100 years. “This is a privately funded project that has enormous public benefits,” he said.

He said the level of service planned on the line now exists nowhere in the nation.

That might help to cut into the car-centric culture in the region.

“Yes, we need to change behavior, Mr. Howard conceded, “but the behavior that we have to change is painful. So it should be relatively easy” to motivate South Floridians to ride the rails rather than suffer in heavy traffic.

As for the impact on the community, Mr. Howard, who arrived here in March from

New York, where he ran sports-oriented organizations, said that he hears a lot from employers about dependency on cars impeding business growth. “They can’t afford to lose people for hours in the day in their cars just to attend meetings,” he said.

As for getting Millennials to ride the Brightline, he said that the generation is much more favorably inclined to alternative travel modes than their elders and they already feel connected to city centers.

Brightline, he said, is one of the solutions to connect the cities together.

Mr. Howard said that the owners of the Brightline feel good about their investment. The cost was low, because they already owned the right-of-way. At a cost of a little more than $1 billion for the five train sets and stations combined, he said, “this is actually an extraordinarily efficient investment.”

14

DOWNTOWN & BRICKELL

MIAMI TODAY

WEEK OF THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2017

Riverfront revival targets hotel, convention center, riverwalk

By John Charles Robbins

A variety of stakeholders have their eyes set on a riverfront revival in Miami.

These interests are converging now and could lead to a new and vibrant riverfront downtown that could see a revived hotel and convention center, expanded and improved public riverwalk, and a renovated and reopened Fort Dallas Park.

The changes might also encourage the use of water taxis.

The players include City of Miami officials, the Miami River Commission, Downtown Development Authority, Hyatt Regency and the Miami Parking Authority.

The group may include a hotel on private property, River Park Hotel and Suites, hugged on three sides by city-owned land.

Voters in the city may also have a role in this transformation as any lease or sale of city-owned waterfront property must be approved by referendum.

Recent actions by the city commission and the Downtown Development Authority have resurrected interest in the riverfront.

Commissioners voiced approval of the city administration moving forward with negotiations for the proposed redevelopment of the city-owned James L. Knight Convention Center and attached Hyatt Regency hotel, at 400 SE Second Ave. On April 27, commissioners discussed a proposed memorandum of understanding to be executed by the city manager be-

Photo by John Charles Robbins

Fort Dallas Park has been shut for years. It’s home to the Flagler Worker’s House and a restaurant site.

tween the city and Hyatt Equities LLC to negotiate an amended land lease with Hyatt. The new deal would require Hyatt to redevelop the site, which includes the hotel, convention center and a 1,450-space Knight Center garage that is the base of the privately-owned Miami Tower across the street.

Daniel Rotenberg, head of the Department of Real Estate and Asset Management, has said the new deal would include a master plan for the riverfront and could incorporate city-owned Fort Dallas Park at 60-64 SE Fourth St. The city’s growing public riverwalk connects the Knight Center-Hyatt property with the park, and the River Park Hotel and Suites is sandwiched inbetween.

Commissioners questioned Mr. Rotenberg about city attempts to get the private property hotel onboard with a new riverfront development.

He said some discussions had been held but went nowhere.

At its May 25 meeting, after commissioners approved an agreement settling financial disputes with Hyatt, the city commission voted to direct administrators to pursue further talks with the River Park Hotel and Suites.

River commission members have for years pressured the city to clean up and reopen the city park. River commission members learned in the past month that the city has hired a firm to assess what work is needed to repair The Flagler Worker’s House, also known as Palm

Cottage, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a key component of the park.

The park has been neglected and fenced off for years. It’s home to several structures, including a former seafood restaurant and the Flagler house.

City officials said the historic house will be repaired and the park might reopen.

City Commissioner Ken Russell has said he’d like to see a master plan of the downtown riverfront that preserves Fort Dallas Park, maximizes green space and activates the area.

The neighborhood is in Mr. Russell’s district, and he heads the development authority’s board.

The city recently requested qualified property managers, operators and promoters to note

their interest in obtaining a longterm lease at Fort Dallas Park.

The request seeks information from parties interested in leasing park property long term to establish a restaurant. The request says the project shall include an educational component.

The document points out, “This is not a Request for Proposals, but a Request for Information, solely to gather information to assist the city in determining whether there are interested respondents who are willing to plan, renovate, build-out, and manage a waterfront restaurant, paid for with respondent’s private funding.”

The city wants the responses by 4 p.m. June 30. If interest is shown, it could lead to a new formal request for proposals.

The park’s high-profile site is adjacent to the county’s Riverwalk Metromover Station and has existing city dockage.

The public riverwalk could get a boost in funding from a general obligation bond proposal being considered now.

The Downtown Development Authority’s board recently placed the riverwalk on its wish list of projects it would like to see get funds from the anticipated $275 million general obligation bond issue, if approved by voters this fall.

Among priorities on the authority’s wish list are Baywalk and Riverwalk, waterfront open spaces for pedestrian and cyclists ($25 million); a Brickell tunnel under the Miami River ($20 million); and development of two docking areas for waterborne transportation ($2 million).

Two-day workshop seeks riverfront urban design strategies An urban design and planning firm has partnered with local officials to examine the Miami River Greenway, Jose Marti Park, Virginia Key, sea level rise and more. A two-day charrette/workshop is set to begin June 22 in Miami.

SWA is a landscape architecture, urban design and planning firm with a network of seven studios worldwide.

SWA Project on the City is an actionoriented initiative that seeks to improve the quality of life in dense urban cities around the US. SWA in conjunction with the Miami River Commission, Trust for Public Land, Miami-Dade County Planning,

Miami-Dade Office of Resilience and the City of Miami Office of Resilience & Sustainability have identified three significant projects within the City of Miami that can benefit from an experienced and knowledgeable group of experts focused on key issues.

Over the course of a two-day charrette/workshop, SWA principals aim to develop design strategies for challenges and issues dealing with open space, programming, infrastructure and resiliency within Jose Marti Park, the Miami River Greenway and Little River Park.

The proposed solutions for the three case studies will incorporate needs and

issues identified by public agencies and community stakeholders and subsequently presented to the same group at the conclusion of the two-day workshop.

SWA has invited government agencies, district representatives, businesses and residents to join the initiative.

Jose Marti Park is a city-owned park at 351 SW Fourth St., on the Miami River.

The Miami River Greenway is a public pedestrian and bicycle trail along the historic river, from near the airport to Biscayne Bay. The greenway is a riverwalk directly along the shoreline, wherever feasible, and then continues around neighborhoods and marine indus-

trial businesses as an on-road greenway.

Little River Park is a county-owned park at 10525 NW 24th Ave., in northeast Miami-Dade County.

SWA’s collective aim is to identify key issues pertaining to open space, infrastructure, mobility, ecology and climate change and provide insight and ideas that can guide future planning and design efforts. This program is conducted pro-bono for select clients across the US. The workshop will be held at the James L. Knight Convention Center in Miami.

Details: mamador@swagroup.com

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TODAY’S NEWS

MIAMI TODAY

23

Commission looks closely at jail, criminal court facilities

By Susan Danseyar

County Commission Chair Esteban Bovo Jr. believes Miami-Dade must take care of its imprisoned.

“This was one of our priorities,” he said last week during his Policy Council meeting. “We’ll never be a society that doesn’t have people incarcerated, but it matters how we treat them. We have custody of these people and must be mindful of that.”

The council got an overview of county facilities, including the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building, the main criminal courthouse, built in 1958, which houses all of Miami-Dade’s criminal circuit courts, most of its criminal county courts and the Miami-Dade Clerk of Court’s criminal division.

Theresa Therilus, assistant director of Internal Services, who spoke on behalf of Director Tara Smith, said there are 45 courtrooms, and between 1996 and 2016 the department spent $13.5 million on capital improvements including the roof; the air conditioning, electrical and fire alarm systems; and elevator additions.

A re-certification report found the criminal courthouse to be electrically safe, Ms. Therilus said.

In the next three years, the department plans an elevator addition and air conditioning improvements with $4.8 million in General Obligation Bond funds.

Funding has not been identified yet for the next five years but the department would like additional

The Gerstein building, the main criminal courthouse, was built in 1958.

‘There’s space around the other courthouse with a P3 if necessary.’

Edward Marquez

work, including a new roof and restroom upgrades.

The courthouse is in good condition for its time but the Internal Services Department continues to work on it, Ms. Therilus said.

Commissioner Rebeca Sosa cited problems in the criminal and civil courthouses. She asked if the county can create “a big scope” to fund construction.

“Should we keep fixing or

rebuild?” Ms. Sosa asked. “Let’s look at what we have and see if we can get all the funds needed and build a new one.”

Deputy Mayor Edward Marquez said the department has been looking at all its needs. “There’s space around the other courthouse with a P3 [public-private partnership] if necessary. Let us get through what we’re doing now,” Mr. Marquez said.

Commissioner Dennis Moss requested that the county commission schedule a look at “individuals charged with crimes and being let out on the street and committing more.” He said the discussion might be through the Policy Council, the Building Safer Neighborhoods Subcommittee or the Health and Public Safety Subcommittee to get some of these things under control. Mr. Moss said a lot of people in his district are being arrested two times for weapons possession and being let back on the streets.

Commissioner Audrey Edmonson said she has found the same pattern in her district. She said gangs that started in the 1970s are starting the same patterns of behavior.

Mr. Bovo asked if such a big facility is needed downtown and whether it could be downsized. He said the Policy Council’s intent is to take a field trip next month to see the facility.

Daniel Junior, interim director of the Corrections and Rehabilitation Department, gave an update on the Detention Center.

It’s the eighth largest correctional system in the US, with 204 sworn correction officers and 3,800 to 3,900 inmates daily on average, he said.

In 2008, the average daily population was over 7,000 and the downward trend over the last nine to ten years is consistent with national trends, Mr. Junior said.

The action plan, he said, is to take $30 million left from $47 million in General Obligation

‘Should we keep fixing or rebuild? Let’s look at what we have and see if we can get all the funds needed and build a new one.’

Rebeca Sosa Bond funds and use it “to address infrastructure issues and meet unmet needs.”

Mental health inmates are currently being taken care of at Miami-Dade’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Facility, which meets all standards, said Jennifer Moon, director of the county’s Management and Budget Office. The county, she said, is looking into a mental health facility on Seventh Avenue. Ms. Moon said there are issues related to subleasing the facility.

In a few months, Ms. Moon said, the administration will update the commission on the mental health diversion facility, which would provide multiple services.

Miami offers a 30-day lifeline for month-to-month renters

By John Charles Robbins

In the face of a critical affordable housing shortage, Miami city commissioners offered a bit of help to renters without a lease who face evictions and a rush to find a new place to live.

Commissioners on June 8 required at least a 30-day written notice of eviction for residents who rent month to month without a specific duration.

State law requires a 15-day written notice for persons renting month-to-month, and municipalities have the right to increase the period by passing an ordinance requiring at least a 30-day notice before termination by either party.

Commissioners had approved the ordinance on first reading May 11.

Final approval came after objections and pushback from landlords and members of the South East Florida Apartment Association.

“Without some changes, we can’t support this ordinance,” said Kelly C. Mallette, an attorney with the law office of Ron L. Book P.A., which represents the association.

She said the association represents property owners managing about 18,000 rental units in the city.

Ms. Mallette objected to the ordinance as written, suggesting it would result in hardships to landlords and even hurt good tenants.

She said technical issues with how the ordinance is written will harm market rate properties – the

‘It is the exact same wording. We believe we do have backing and it is legally strong.’

Ken Russell most sought-after apartments.

Ms. Mallette said the ordinance makes it harder for a landlord to remove a tenant. She said the association was willing to work with city officials in amending the proposal.

Others who objected said the measure had unintended consequences and would impact transients and increase costs to landlords.

Resident Esther Nicely, an affordable housing advocate, spoke in favor of the ordinance, noting that 70% of Miami residents are renters.

“We are your constituents,” she told commissioners. Those impacted the most by an eviction notice of 15 days are folks with very minimal resources who find

it nearly impossible to find new housing in such a short time and who could benefit from an additional 15 days, she said.

Other supporters spoke from the local group Housing for All Miami, saying the change would protect month-to-month renters who have no lease and who are up to date on rent payments.

Supporters also pointed out that Miami Beach has had the very same ordinance on the books for more than 20 years.

“There are two Miamis,” said Commissioner Ken Russell, sponsor of the ordinance.

First there is market rate Miami, he said, “which is doing just fine.” Then there is the other Miami where countless residents struggle to get by, who know all too well that “rent is too damn high,” he said.

In some cases, evictions can break up families and neighborhoods, he said.

Mr. Russell said the ordinance is commissioners’ opportunity to “be a voice” for the other Miami – to stand up for that part of the community.

“It makes sense and it’s not harmful to landlords,” he said.

Mr. Russell also mentioned that Miami Beach has had the ordinance for decades.

“It is the exact same wording,” he said. “We believe we do have backing and it is legally strong.”

He said Miami Beach’s ordinance was upheld by then state attorney general Robert But-

terworth.

In a 1994 attorney general’s opinion, Mr. Butterworth wrote: “Thus, the Legislature has provided minimum notification rights to both the landlord and the tenant regarding the termination of a tenancy without a specific duration.

There is no language in … Florida Statutes, that may be construed as a prohibition against more lengthy notice requirements by a local government. The enlargement of the notification period by the City of Miami Beach by passing an ordinance requiring at least thirty days notice before termination of a month-to-month or week-to-week tenancy by either party would be supplemental to the state statute and compliance with such ordinance is possible without violating [state law].”

Mr. Butterworth concluded: “Accordingly, I am of the opinion that the City of Miami Beach may

enact local legislation extending the notice requirements for the termination of a tenancy without a specific duration.”

The critical need for affordable housing in Miami became even more of an issue in the last year as long-time West Grove residents were getting evicted and the city fought with landlords over endless code violations.

For months last summer and fall, residents of the West Grove and others who supported them regularly attended commission meetings to fight for better housing.

Mr. Russell said that the situation in the West Grove led him to sponsor the 30-day notice ordinance.

He said city leaders ought to do all they can to assist residents like those in the West Grove, and he said that the change from 15 days to 30 days “is the least of the least that we can do.”

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