Miami Today: Week of Thursday, August 31, 2017

WEEK OF THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2017

A Singular Voice in an Evolving City

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BAPTIST PROBING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO READ IMAGES, HELP DIRECT DOCTORS, pg. 17 VIRTUAL TRAINS FOR US?: Miami-Dade County should study using the new virtual trains that 2-year-old Chinese rail manufacturer CRRC Corp.

Ltd. unveiled June 2, Mayor Carlos Giménez told a mobility study group at county hall last week. The mayor said he met with the company about the trains last Tuesday. The rubber-tire trains have sensors that can run on a roadway, detect the road’s dimensions and follow a route better than buses yet work without a metal rail, reports say. Each can carry up to 307 passengers and go as fast as 40 mph. The Beijing company, the world’s largest manufacturer of rolling stock with more than 183,000 employees, hopes to roll out the trains in 2018. The system costs about $2.58 million per mile, far less than conventional railways.

“This is something we need to look at, something spectacular,” the mayor said.

(See Transportation Planning Organization looks at trackless trains, page 3.)

The Achiever

TRANSIT HUB TIME OUT: The county could complete negotiations in October with Miami Gardens Transit Village LLC to develop a site at Northwest 215th Street and 27th Avenue with a transit hub as anchor of county bus routes, a park-and-ride facility and a six-story hotel, a memo from Mayor Carlos Giménez to county commissioners revealed last week. The development is based on a county solicitation for the site. The county was supposed to report on the negotiations to commissioners in September but the developer asked for two months more after finding “site conditions that may constrain the surface area that can be developed.” The county has grant funding of more than $5.6 million available just for the transit hub portion of the project.

VIOLENT CRIMES INCREASE: Violent crime in the areas patrolled by the Miami-Dade County Police Department was up 5.15% in the first seven months of the year from the first seven months of 2016, a county report says.

Non-violent crimes rose 2.33% over the same period. The murder rate rose more than 20%, from 44 murders in the seven months’ time last year to 53 this year. Rapes also rose more than 20%, from 237 to 286. Robberies rose 2.7%, from 814 to 836. The data cover only the county police department’s jurisdiction. Most of the county’s incorporated areas have their own police forces and their own data.

PARTY ON THE PLAZA: Coral Gables officially opens Giralda Plaza, the open-air dining and shopping space on Giralda Avenue between Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Galiano Street, with live music and performances at 7 p.m. Sept. 15. The plaza was created as a part of the Miracle Mile/Giralda Avenue streetscape that began in July 2016 and is expected to be completed

by January, according to the project’s website. With the city’s encouragement, several restaurant operators have created or expanded their outdoor dining options to take advantage of the pedestrian promenade.

Jeffrey Duerk

Photo by Cristina Sullivan

New provost seeks more recognition for UM research The profile is on Page 4

City marina vote tied to affordable housing ‘gift’

By John Charles Robbins

If enough Miami commissioners attend a special meeting Friday to make quorum and review a multi-million-dollar marina redevelopment, Chairman Keon Hardemon says money from the winning bidders for affordable housing would go a long way to secure his vote.

He said so to the players in a new company, Virginia Key LLC, on Monday when the mayor tried to convene a special meeting on the project.

Three of the five elected commissioners were no-shows and no meeting could be held. At the request of Mayor Tomàs Regalado, Mr. Hardemon recessed the meeting until 9 a.m. Friday.

But before everyone left City Hall, Mr. Hardemon addressed the representatives of Virginia Key LLC. He said the commission has recently been seeking added public benefits through new and renewed leases of city-owned land, in the form of contributions for much-needed affordable housing and housing rehabilitation.

For example, this year the commission approved a lease extension for the Monty’s commercial property and marina in Coconut Grove

in exchange for major renovations, additional rent, and a promise to pay $25,000 a year for 50 years into a single-family housing rehab fund.

The city charter requires that voters approve any sale or lease of city-owned waterfront, and the Monty’s lease extension is on the Nov. 7 ballot.

Everyone should have the opportunity to live in decent housing, Mr. Hardemon told the Virginia Key LLC representatives. He suggested they have a conversation with the city’s Department of Real Estate and Asset Management about financial contributions for housing needs citywide.

“We look forward to having that conversation with you. For me, personally … it could make or break a decision,” Mr. Hardemon said Monday.

For several years the city has sought a new operator for the Rickenbacker Marina and Marine Stadium Marina on Virginia Key, a barrier island owned largely by the city.

The last attempt to request proposals to redevelop the marinas, launched in 2015, was sunk by controversy ending in a contentious bid protest, and the commission rejecting all bids.

The latest request for proposals saw two prior competitors unite: Virginia Key LLC is a joint

venture of the RCI group and Suntex Marinas.

Aselection committee and City Manager Daniel Alfonso chose the partnership as top proposer.

At Friday’s meeting, the commission will be asked to authorize Mr.Alfonso to execute a lease with Virginia Key LLC and to put the proposal on the November ballot.

The partnership plans to invest more than $80 million to create a facility called Virginia Key Harbour & Marine Center.

The project would include 162 wet and 750 dry slips, parking for 630 vehicles under the dry stack storage, 24,000 square feet of commercial space for small retailers, and 2,600 linear feet of landscaped baywalk.

The lease would run an initial 45 years with two 15-year renewal options and payment of $2.2 million base rent annually, plus 6% of gross revenues.

On Monday, Mr. Alfonso recommended against delaying a decision on the marinas, saying that revenue from the improved marinas is needed to help offset costs to restore Miami Marine Stadium.

“We’re here. We’re ready… and we’re going to need this,” he said.

Green light for smarter traffic lights Smart traffic signals that self-adapt to traffic flow will be installed in Miami-Dade by Sept. 30 and be in use by year’s end, Mayor Carlos Giménez told a group examining Miami’s decreasing mobility last week.

“By the end of the year the smarts will be turned on on roads and busways,” the mayor told the Miami Mobility Fastrack group meeting at county hall to begin a 16-week crash study of how to increase county mobility quickly and inexpensively.

The signals now are ticketed for the 300 traffic signals in the ten most congested corridors, Mr. Giménez said. He said those 300 would be in service within a year.

Eventually, he said, all 3,000 county traffic signals will join the smart network, which will be tied in with Waze and other smart phone traffic apps, whose data are to be integrated with the signals.

County commissioners in July approved a two-year $11.1 million contract to buy adaptive traffic lights from Econolite Control Products Inc. The firm is to provide the adaptive signal traffic controllers, supportive hardware, software and associated services for the 10 most-congested corridors.

The smart signals are managed by a computer that flashes red, yellow and green lights based on actual traffic demand. The county has had computerized traffic signals since 1976, but changes were overseen and then made at a central control operation.

Changes at each signal now can be made on the spot in real time.

Pivotal to the system’s operation are video detection systems, which Econolite is to provide as well.

At the end of 2016 the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust unanimously earmarked $10 million in transportation sales surtax bond proceeds for the Advanced Traffic Management System to get traffic moving along the county’s most clogged arteries.

Precursor signals were installed last fall on Northwest 36th Street between 71st and 84th avenues.

TRANSPORTATION PLANNERS LOOK AT TRACKLESS TRAINS ...

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BRIGHTLINE MAKES TRACKS TO CREATE MIAMI RAIL RUNS ...

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VIEWPOINT: JETER COULD TURN ULTIMATE DOUBLE PLAY ...

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MEDICAL TOURISM MARKETING’S RULES DIFFERENT HERE ...

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19 RARE PALMS GET NEW LIFE IN TRAFFIC-CALMING FLAP ...

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PLATFORM TO ADD WELLBEING COMING FROM COLOMBIA ...

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THREE SCENARIOS IN COUNTY CHARITY FUNDING PUZZLE ...

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COMMUNITIES UNITE TO BUILD ONE SHUTTLE BUS SYSTEM ...

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MIAMI TODAY

TODAY’S NEWS

The Insider OCEAN “SLOW” DRIVE: Drivers accustomed to cruising up and down Ocean Drive on weekend evening are due for a big change in a four-week pilot project to make the street more pedestrian friendly: from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights – and for Labor day weekend Monday night too – Ocean Drive traffic will be southbound only. A hopeful Miami Beach release says “cars are expected to naturally travel slowly and continually due to these restrictions.” Right!

MASSIVE TRAFFIC JAM: There are only two Federal Transit Administration employees to process transit requests and paperwork for eight states, members of Miami-Dade’s Transportation Planning Organization (TPO)’s Transportation and Mobility Committee learned Aug. 16. Daniella Levine Cava, TPO member and county commissioner, asked what can be done. Alice Bravo, county transportation and public works director, was in the administration’s Atlanta offices that very day to address the issue, said Aileen Bouclé, TPO executive director. “She was told that the FTA has promised to add resources,” Ms. Bouclé said. Aileen Bouclé AFFORDABLE HOUSING LINEUP: Preparing for county budget talks this week, Mayor Carlos Giménez on Monday sent commissioners a memo explaining that while the budget lists more than $227 million for affordable housing, $182 million of that is carried over from other years, with $45 million being added this year. “Many of these allocations are for projects that take a number of years to complete,” he notes. His July memo to commissioners on affordable housing noted that 42 projects in the pipeline would add 4,613 housing units.

HILTON HOTEL AT BAPTIST ON SCHEDULE: The 184-room Hilton Hotel to the west of the main entrance of Baptist Hospital is on schedule to open late 2018 after breaking ground in December. The 150,000-squarefoot hotel is to have 150 guest rooms, 34 rooms for longer-staying guests, a wellness center and a farm-to-table restaurant. “Now, when guests come to us, we’re able to assist them with preferred pricing at partner hotels if they need accommodations, but when the Baptist-Hilton hotel opens, we’ll have a more convenient solution,” said Mario Mendez, corporate vice president and chief medical officer at Baptist Health. “When patients come for care, their families will be able to stay on campus.” As for progress on the hotel, Ana Lopez-Blazquez, executive vice president of Baptist Health South Florida, says it’s under construction, with updates coming down the line as the hotel develops.

JOBS THE DRIVER: The growth of Miami’s economy is “driven largely by the live-work-play environment found in many urban pockets,” said the mid-year Avison Young Office Market Report. “More notably, employment growth continued to thrive. In the 12 months ending in June 2017, nonagricultural employment grew by 26,900 jobs and the non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.7%. While most recent lease transactions have been for 30,000 square feet or less, many Latin America-based firms and global companies are considering Miami as a regional headquarters site or initial footprint in North America. There is also strong demand for quality office assets outside Miami’s urban core, as market fundamentals drive historically high average asking rates and vacancy sits below pre-recession levels.”

NOTABLE OFFICE LEASES: “Miami Central is expected to come online with the next few months” as part of the new downtown train station that will house Brightline, the report notes. “Miami’s strengthening office market is expected to foster continued development and leasing activity over the next few years.” According to Avison Young, the most notable office lease transactions during the first half of this year were the renewal lease of 88,000 square feet by Bayview Financial in The Village of Merrick Park, followed by the new leases of 53,400 square feet by the University of St. Augustine in the Douglas Entrance; of 27,700 square feet by Everest Business Funding in the Davenport Building; of 23,900 square feet by Cosentino in 355 Alhambra; and of 23,500 square feet by Harvard Maintenance in the Citigroup Center.

ADDING PRESSURE: “Probably every elected official in Miami-Dade County has identified transportation” as the key issue to deal with in the next few years, County Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo Jr. told the Miami Mobility Fastrack kickoff session at county hall last week. “I have no patience on this issue, and I believe the time to act and move is now. I want to add pressure. Let’s act quickly and not keep talking on the subject.”

FREE ISN’T LOW ENOUGH: In talking about robocars and the future of urban mobility to the Miami Mobility Fastrack kickoff last week, Canadian software architect Brad Templeton – a strong proponent of driverless vehicles – noted that he had come to the county hall meeting on Metromover. “What impressed me is that there were people on it,” he said of the free downtown transit system. “I think the price may have had something to do with it.” Free or not, however, Metromover ridership was down 8.6% in June from June 2016 and year over Brad Templeton year has been down every month of 2017.

Esteban Bovo

WATER WORKS: First, Miami’s Downtown Development Authority (with a boost from Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado), established clean, attended bathrooms for downtown visitors and street people. Now, there may be cool water, too. Authority directors learned last month that board member Gary Ressler is working toward bringing six Woosh water stations to Flagler Street downtown. At the automated stations, pedestrians can rinse their water bottles and refill them with purified water for a small charge, encouraging them to reuse the bottles. Woosh has inked a contract with Miami Beach for about 25 stations, said Mr. Ressler, who is a principal of the Tilia family of companies. Woosh hires and trains local workers to maintain the system in each city where it operates, according to its brochure.

SEWAGE OUTFALL CONTRACTS: Miami-Dade County, which is under a federal consent decree because of lingering ocean sewage outfalls, last month in a single vote approved three $33 million, five-year engineering and design service contracts, each with two five-year renewal options. Contracts were with Brown and Caldwell, Black & Veatch Corp. and CDM Smith Inc.

WEEK OF THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2017

Zipcar, Metrorail fill a last-mile gap

By Gabi Maspons

Miami-Dade last week launched a one-year car-sharing pilot program with Zipcar at five Metrorail stations. Two parking spots at Coconut Grove, Vizcaya, Earlington Heights, Hialeah and Palmetto Metrorail stations are reserved for Zipcar.

“Transit riders can leave their cars at home, ride our system, and if they need a car for anything in between, there will be Zipcars available to reserve,” said Mayor Carlos Giménez.

“By adding Zipcars to our Metrorail stations, this option will help close that first and last mile gap.”

Metrorail riders can use any of the ten cars by adding Zipcar’s mobile app. The cars are available by the hour or day, with the cost of gas, maintenance, insurance, and 180 driving miles included. Once users download the Zipcar app, they can access more than 12,000 cars in the Zipcar fleet.

Zipcar offers three plans through its website: the occasional driving plan is pay as you go with no monthly commitment; the $7 monthly driving plan is pay by the hour or by the day; and the $50 monthly driving plan has seven hours of pre-paid driving discounted 10%.

The regular rate is $8.25 an hour or $67 per day, and new members

Mayor Carlos Giménez slips into a Zipcar to announce partnership.

have to pay a $25 non-refundable application fee. The most popular plan, the occasional driving plan, costs an additional $70 per year, based on Zipcar’s pricing guide.

With private transportation options taking off, the transportation department needs to rethink its approach, said Alice Bravo, director of transportation and public works.

“In order to keep up with these rapid changes, we need to establish partnerships with the private sector to offer new mobility options, such as car sharing,” Ms. Bravo said. “This is how we’ll shift from a private-car oriented county to a car-optional one.”

Zipcar advertises car sharing as

an innovative method that reduces traffic volume, reduces CO2 emissions by decreasing the number of personal cars, and says it increases the use of public transportation.

“We’re big fans of public transit,” said Vilaire Lazard, Zipcar general manager. “The two services complement one another, offering members greater connectivity and the ability to live car-free or car-lite. We’re excited to team up with Miami-Dade County to explore neighborhoods and communities that are beyond the reach of Metrorail.”

Details: http://www.zipcar.com/ check-rates/miami

Parking spaces to be parks for a day

By Catherine Lackner

Following a successful event last year, the Urban Impact Lab is once again organizing Park(ing) Day Miami, in which contestants vie to create the most imaginative mini-park in a parking space of their choice on Friday, Sept. 15, between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.

“The mission of Park(ing) Day is to call attention to the need for more urban open space, to generate critical debate around how public space is created and allocated, and to improve the quality of urban human habitat,” said a release about the 2016 event.

Last year, there were 10 registered competitors and six non­ competing mini­ parks throughout Wynwood, Downtown Miami, and Brickell, the release said.

Irvans Augustin and Marta Visiedo, partners in the Urban Impact Lab, expect the same number of participants this year, they said.

The prospect of better utilization of public space more than compensates for the temporary loss of parking spaces, said Ms. Visiedo, who is a director of Miami’s Downtown Development Authority.

“It’s just a few hours in a day, and it’s about greater access to open, public space, and making sure there’s a balance of how we allocate space,” she said.

“It changes how people engage with their city,” Mr. Augustin said.

“We’re not going to get rid of traffic or shut down roads. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to all the activity that happened during Biscayne Green,” when, as a demonstration project, the downtown authority repurposed an area on Biscayne Boulevard between Southeast Second and Northeast First streets in January.

The demonstration, which turned parking lots into colorfully deco-

FIU created a parking space park last year on Northeast First Street.

rated spaces with picnic benches, a playground, a dog park and other amenities, received almost 17,000 visits in 20 days, as tracked by sensors. Events included art displays, live music performances, movies, happy hours, yoga, soccer, bike rides and play dates.

Park(ing) Day Miami participants will choose parking spaces from a pre-selected Miami Parking Authority list, and then will create their mini-park. There are some restrictions, which are listed on the event’s website, and a small fee to enter the contest.

“Park(ing) Day is a annual opensource global event where citizens, artists and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spaces into ‘Park(ing)’ spaces: temporary public places,” according to the website parkingday.org. “The project began in 2005 when Rebar, a San Francisco art and design studio, converted a single metered parking space into a temporary public park in downtown San Francisco.

“Since 2005, Park(ing) Day has evolved into a global movement, with organizations and individuals (operating independently of Rebar but following an established set of

guidelines) creating new forms of temporary public space in urban contexts around the world.”

Details: www.parkingdaymiami.com.

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WEEK OF THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2017

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Absences slow county charter review

By Susan Danseyar

Chinese trackless trains like this aren’t yet manufactured in the US.

Transportation leaders look at trackless trains

By Catherine Lackner

A new trackless train that floats above movable rubberized strips may be one alternative to solving Miami-Dade’s transit problems, said Frank Guyamier, Miami-Dade County deputy engineering director.

“We want to show you nextgeneration technology, just to show you where we started and what’s in the future,” he told members of the Transportation Planning Organization (TPO)’s Transportation & Mobility Committee on Aug. 16.

“This is not just an animation,” he said as a five-minute video (with Asian subtitles) showed the train performing various maneuvers through all sorts of terrain. “This train is actually functioning, and it gives you different parameters of autonomous vehicles that are out there throughout the world.”

Among its other attributes, the train can be arranged in almost limitless configurations of cars and shells, can have a driver or not, and has a tighter turning circle than a conventional bus or a train. It is guided by sensors that read coding within the rubber strips, Mr. Guyamier said.

“What’s the feasibility of these cars being available anytime soon in this county?” asked committee member Daniella Levine Cava, who is a county commissioner.

“It’s too early to tell,” Mr. Guy

said. “We’d have to contact them.”

The trains are not being manufactured in the US now, he said.

“I would say, at some point, we’re going to start some sort of a public process to invite people to bid,” said Francis Suarez, committee chair and Miami commissioner.

“My thinking has always been that we find a source of money, have a variety of modalities, and let the world compete for our business.

We get the best tech and the best price, marry those things together and make a decision.

“At some point we have to go out to the world and say, hey, we have one of the most unique regions and cities in the world and we want to bring the best and most efficient technology to move people.”

“The issue is going to be the money,” said committee member Bruno Barreiro, who is a county commissioner. “If we can do this without federal dollars, the entire thing changes. If you’re tagged with federal money, there are a whole bunch of hoops to jump through.”

“We’re competing against the rest of the US,” Mr. Suarez agreed.

A variety of funding schemes is being considered for all of the corridors slated for transit improvements, said Aileen Bouclé, TPO executive director. Public-private partnerships are part of the mix, along with state and federal funding, she added.

In an evening otherwise educational, tension cropped up at the Miami-Dade County Charter Review meeting Monday precipitated by a lack of public attendance, a lack of perceived staff compliance, and even a lack of enough task force members to make a quorum. The quorum issue prevented the panel from voting on substantive matters, so the meeting drifted toward personal feelings with an hour to go.

What started as a staff failure to provide a previously-requested flow chart of the division of government powers became for Vice Chair Maria Lievano Cruz an opportunity to ask whether anyone really cared about the review of the charter, which will recommend changes to be presented to voters, given what she said was sparse public as well as task force attendance.

She asked, “Were members of the public actually tuning into the live Facebook stream? Any emails sent in [indicating interest in the proceedings]?” Marlon Hill noted that the panel’s public outreach continued to be lacking. Luis E. Gonzales agreed that the 2012 task force had been better attended by the public.

Chair Robert Cuevas forcefully countered that while he wanted to encourage public participation and interest, the task force was nonetheless meant to be a representative body that had to make decisions on the public’s behalf.

“So far, we’ve made one decision [a motion passed Aug. 14 to keep a strong mayor form of government for now], so we don’t have much to bring to the public.”

Despite these disputes and losing quorum at 7:30 when two members left, the task force heard detailed presentations on the county’s budget-making, what the commission auditor’s role is, and the finance department’s duties and makeup.

Budget Director Jennifer Moon explained the difference between

budget and finance in Miami-Dade.

“Finance is the controller, the bond issuer; budget is anticipating what you’re going to get.”

The county has a huge budget in three volumes, Ms. Moon said.

“We try to have pictures and words and numbers so everybody understands.”

The budget process lasts 12 months, she said, with individual departments reporting their anticipated budgets over DecemberApril, initial estimated revenue coming in May, and final revenue estimates coming in July, just before submission of the final budget. In a flurry of activity before the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30, the proposed millage rate is set, notices are sent to taxpayers, and numerous budget hearings are held.

In answer to the panel’s question from the prior meeting, Ms. Moon said that if a budget were required earlier in the year, the office would have to essentially do two budgets –the second one in July – because the first one wouldn’t have precise enough information on revenue.

CommissionActingAuditor Neil Singh outlined his department’s role as the county’s auditors and analysts. “We meet with the finance committee from the commission to develop a work plan. When our work plan is finalized, it goes to the finance committee and then the entire [county commission] for approval.”

Mr. Singh said his department, when fully staffed, has 19 full-time employees who conduct research; do financial analysis; audit departments, projects and contracts; and provide budget information for the commission. Currently there are five vacancies, with only three budget analysts.

“We need consensus in terms of the direction we should go in,” he said. “The department needs to function as an independent department.

We need a level of independence to hire people who can prepare the

reports the [commission] needs.”

Deputy Mayor and Finance Director Edward Marquez said his department oversees the controller’s office, cash management staff and bond administration, among others.

Mr. Marquez said the county’s outstanding debt is $15.5 billion, of which $8 billion is general obligation.

“The biggest non-scientific risk is in the debt area,” Mr. Marquez said. “The finance director spends the majority of his time in the bond administration area.”

As for improvements, Mr. Marquez said security and salaries are continuing issues, but his primary goal is to have one common accounting system over all the departments in the county and install a countywide enterprise resource planning system.

During public comment, Maggie Fernandez disagreed with adding another department to the budget process, which had been proposed Aug. 14. “Let’s fix what we have,” she said. “The budget is complex – $7.4 billion. I would love a people’s budget review.” Ms. Fernandez noted as an aside that some members of the task force have missed three meetings (out of four) and said she’s “taking attendance.”

Jeanne Baker, a member of the ACLU of Miami and the Independent Review Panel Working Group, said in the City of Miami civilian oversight was put into the charter in 2001. “I would like this body to consider making civilian oversight part of the charter so it can’t be defunded.”

At the next task force meeting Sept. 11, members are to carry over the vote on charter changes addressing budget and finance and hear a presentation on procurement. Task force staffers are to provide a flow chart of the division of government powers.

Details: www.miamidade.gov/ charter/task-force-2017.asp

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WEEK OF THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 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

Jeter could turn the ultimate double play for youth academy

Pray that future Marlins owners were watching when New York Mets rookie Dominic Smith homered against Miami on Aug. 19. It could be pivotal not just to baseball but to our urban future.

The impact isn’t the Mar- Michael Lewis lins’ game loss or Mr. Smith’s first hit at his home park, Citi Field.

The importance is in keeping one promise of Marlins Park – which is costing taxpayers almost $3 billion including interest– by serving inner-city youth in a big way.

You see, Mr. Smith started at age 10 to attend Major League Baseball’s Urban Youth Academy in Compton, CA, a facility that opened in 2006 to help inner-city kids learn about both baseball and life, giving them impetus to advance. When he joined the Mets this month at age 22 he was the ninth graduate of that academy to reach the Major Leagues, where minimum pay is $535,000 each summer.

It must have been pretty good training.

And while most of the 2,500-plus kids aged 8 to 17 who train in that academy yearly will

never play pro baseball, all will have safe, organized after-school recreation while their urban community reaps the benefits of their training for adult life.

The early success of that California hub was in the minds of Major League executives and Miami-Dade leaders in 2008 when the Marlins were beseeching us to build a stadium at public expense.

After that contract’s multiple giveaways to the team, the public was to get one gift from Major League Baseball: the second Urban Youth Academy was to open here, run by the league at its expense. It’s in the stadium contract – but with no specifics.

The public was promised, however, that baseball would kick in $3.3 million and that the academy would open before Marlins Park rose.

In September the Marlins will end their fifth year in the county-owned stadium, reaping every penny of stadium revenue. We are still waiting for Miami’s Urban Youth Academy.

But Major League Baseball hadn’t forgotten the academies. While Miami waited, an academy opened in Houston in 2010. One opened in New Orleans in 2012. Cincinnati got one. One in Kansas City is rising and projected to open by October.

The league also hasn’t forgotten Miami – exactly. Miami Today called officials for years and kept being assured that an academy

was coming soon, and it might cost baseball more than the league promised.

“I don’t want to limit it,” Jimmie Lee Solomon, Major League Baseball’s executive vice president of baseball operations, told us in 2009. “We may be looking to expand things.”

“We have had an architect already design the facility so the process is moving along,” league spokesman Steven Arocho told us in 2011.

“We’re all over this like a cheap suit,” league executive Darrell Miller told us in 2014.

As we’ve heard over the years, all an academy needs is a site, permits, a plan, operators and money and it’s set to go.

To us, that means they not only haven’t gotten to first base but they haven’t gone up to bat.

In fact, they haven’t even arrived at the field.

It’s hard to convince us, however, that an organization that could bring a successful All-Star Game to Miami in July can’t even get started on a youth academy in the inner city over nine years.

We never heard a peep from the Miami Marlins themselves about the academy once they had a stadium contract in hand. They just left it to the league, which is based in New York, to do the job.

So we come to soon-to-be Marlins owners, who are taking on a franchise that has been less than a community builder. One of the newcomers’ major jobs is not just to win games but to win the minds and hearts of Miamians and even government, which now

avoids doing anything more than law requires for the franchise.

We’re sure that Derek Jeter, one of the great players of his era who is to be at the team’s helm after a sale, probably this autumn, will with his partners recognize the need to totally reverse the team’s image.

The easiest and quickest fix would be to join with Major League Baseball, which will revel in an ownership change, and get this academy built, open and running.

If cash is a problem, it will be the best PR ever for the team to chip in with the league – a step present owners never took.

Mr. Jeter could show up at the academy often and talk to kids to whom he would be the ultimate role model. Image what that would do for the academy, the inner city, Miami as a whole and his own investment. It’s the ultimate win-win – and Mr. Jeter is clearly a winner.

That’s why we’re hoping his ownership group was watching Mr. Smith’s first Citi Field hit.

The youth of the black community, which is about 19% of our population, have drifted away from baseball. The league set up these academies to win that group back across the nation. Meanwhile, the academies benefit their areas in countless other ways.

The Marlins can play a key role just in going to bat for an academy. In the process, they can keep one promise of an ultra-costly stadium deal. It’s a great double play.

Planning trip from want to plenitude in Miami-Dade transit The issue at our surface transportation crossroads is not just money, it’s technology. What? When?

Where? How? We are all aware that technology has greatly affected our quality of life. Humanity has from in- Maurice Ferré ception been affected by dependency. One way to describe the accelerating quality of all human life is by looking at our decreasing dependency and our increasing availability of plenty.

Futurists refer to the impact of converging technologies in further accelerating our trip to plenitude.

Plenitude is much more than all our material needs fulfilled. But, for this column, let me focus on the fulfillment of Miami-Dade County’s transportation needs. How can we go from where we are to where we need to go in transit quickly, safely, inexpensively, conveniently and comfortably, with choices?

In cool San Francisco, from Aug. 13-15 nearly 1,350 futurists met at the Singularity University Summit to discuss how converging technologies are affecting our lives and the likely direction we will take.

The range of topics from the impact of convergent technologies was mindboggling: medicine, pharmaceuticals, water, weather, education, artificial intelligence, robotics, nano technology, housing, cities, transportation, manufacturing, space mining exploration and more.

Moore’s Law is no longer a theory but an accepted law that in computer chips and technology, every two years capacity doubles and costs are halved.

What is outstanding is that now the claim is that this law is true for all things that have numerical sequences. So if enough data is

The Writer

Maurice A. Ferré has been a member of the Florida Transportation Commission since 2011. He was mayor of Miami from 1973-1985, a Miami-Dade County commissioner from 1993-1996, a MiamiDade Expressway Authority board member from 2005-2017 and a county Transportation Planning Organization board member from 2011-2017. available, one can predict the respective fall of price per unit and the increase of potency in many products.

Up until the invention of the steam engine and electricity, growth was measured by mathematical progressions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Now, we must look at growth and costs in geometric progressions (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64).

Serial entrepreneurs and scientists meeting in San Francisco believe that there are now 15 general areas where the world is seeing progressions converge into exponential growth and maybe disruption.

Transportation is one of these.

The consensus at the Singularity University Summit this year (http://suglobalsummit.helpscoutdocs.com/search?collect ionId=&query=Transcript+SU+Summit) was that although the exponential growth curve may bring disruption and increase stress in society, it also brings opportunity.

In modern Miami-Dade we must change comic book reality in focusing on transit issues to tackling complex problems with complicated analytical solutions. This includes small moves, carefully thought out, that can make big differences. Another way to say this: slight variations in our assumptions may have vast impacts on the future.

Kodak controlled 80% of the photographic paper business in the world. It owned many of the patents for modern technology in photography. Kodak’s as-

sumption that it had ten years to evolve took the company to bankruptcy in two years.

Blockbuster’s past success made operators sure they could survive and declined mergers with Netflix three times. They too went bankrupt in two years.

Henry Ford opened his first auto plant in Dearborn, MI, in 1908. By 1913 almost all the coach companies in the Midwest had closed. Disruption. What got us here will not necessarily get us there. What if steel on steel trains become operationally unsustainable, financially, five years after Miami-Dade spends $2 billion in extending Metrorail?

On Aug. 24 in the commission chamber at Miami-Dade Government Center downtown, an offshoot of Singularity University met to begin a process for helping MiamiDade in its quest to improve public mass transit. A new non-profit organization, based on Singularity University principles, began what they call an Awakening, for a 16-week “sprint” to conclude with two practicable and doable mass transit solu-

tions to our current transportation gridlock.

By next week, all can see the process to be used and ongoing progress at www. fastrackinstitute.org.

In hot Miami, Mobility Fastrack Awakening was attended by almost 250 people.

Some came from Orlando, Broward and Palm Beach, but the majority were from Miami-Dade. From 9:30 a.m. to midafternoon Aug. 24, we heard and discussed how new technologies could be the answer to our 40-year-old quest: how can we move forward by getting a substantial number of surface travelers in Miami-Dade to use public mass transit rather than use their vehicles, saving time and or money by using transit? Today, fewer than 4% of our local travelers use our public transportation.

Yes, we are going into a world of plenitude. But this requires an effort from us to substitute logic for fantasy, tomorrow’s technology for the soon-to-be-obsolete systems. More on new technology and Miami Mobility Fastrack’s 16-week effort soon.

Letters to the Editor

Shift ‘signature bridge’ funding to Brickell tunnel

Here’s an idea: take that $800 million allocated for building that “signature bridge” over Biscayne Boulevard and put it to paying for the Brickell tunnel. I-395 still works unless there is an accident along the MacArthur. On the other hand, crossing the Miami River downtown rarely happens without delay and frustration.

DC Copeland

Just wait for cars to fly

This is all going seem like a huge waste of money when cars start to fly.

Alan Leon

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WEEK OF THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2017

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9

Next major step in transforming School Board Station area

By John Charles Robbins

The north end of the Metromover’s elevated track ends at the School Board Station in the Omni neighborhood, at 50 NE 15th St. Much of the surrounding land has remained vacant, dormant or underdeveloped for decades.

That’s all changing in a big way as The Melo Group works to transform the area, encouraging other development in the growingArts and Entertainment District and bringing much-needed workforce housing to the urban core.

The latest venture from the Melo family of developers is Miami Plaza, a mixed-use residential building planned for an assemblage of parcels just north of the Metromover station.

To be allowed the density it hopes to achieve, Miami Plaza LLC (a Melo affiliate) is requesting a rezoning of 1502 NE Miami Place, 1512 NE Miami Place,1523 NE Miami Court and 47 NE 15th St. Miami Plaza is proposed as a 36-story building with 437 apartments, about 7,000 square feet of retail and a parking pedestal for up to 523 vehicles.

The Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board on July 31 recommended the rezoning. The city commission will make the final decision.

Iris Escarra, an attorney representing Miami Plaza LLC, mentioned changes in the evolving neighborhood in a letter to the city as part of the rezoning application.

The changing conditions and recent redevelopment near the Miami Plaza site warrant the proposed rezoning, she wrote, citing the Canvas Condos, a 37-story 513-unit residential mixed-use development.

Ms. Escarra said Miami Plaza is to rise in an emerging area of the city.

“Residents are trending less towards urban sprawl and seeking out residences with pedestrian-friendly accommodations. Moreover, Downtown Miami, Edgewater, and other emerging areas within the Omni (Community Redevelopment Area) point to the need of maximum use of every parcel available. Residents want to live, work and play in neighborhoods without the need for their own personal transportation,” she wrote.

The Miami Plaza site is within the Miami-Dade County Transit Me-

‘The rapid growth of the surrounding area supports and demands the zoning change to a higher transect zone designation promoting growth along major thoroughfares.’

Iris Escarra Melo’s Miami Plaza would add 437 apartments in a 36-story building just north of the Metromover station.

troBus, Metromover and Metrorail systems, with stops nearby, she said.

“The rapid growth of the surrounding area supports and demands the zoning change to a higher transect zone designation promoting growth along major thoroughfares.

The character of the surrounding areas has evolved to consist of more liberal commercial uses and higher scale multi-family residential uses which has served as a catalyst in the revitalization of the area and stimulated economic growth and jobs in the Omni (area) and surrounding neighborhoods,” Ms. Escarra wrote.

As they have for their nearby residential projects, the developers are willing to file a covenant that declares that at least 14% of the dwellings at Miami Plaza will be designated workforce housing.

Workforce housing is generally defined as attractive and affordable for middle-income service workers, such as police officers, teachers and nurses, near their jobs.

City officials have praised the Melo family for its investment in and commitment to the urban core, in particular for delivering on promises to provide workforce housing.

Hugging the Metromover station on the south is Melo’s Square Station project, now under construction.

The twin 34-story towers built to a connected pedestal providing 946 parking spaces are rising on what

Hailing the Best of

MIAMI

was vacant land between Northeast 14th and 15th streets, abutting the Metromover station.

Square Station is to have about 355 residences in each tower, along with about 15,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.

In July 2016, city commissioners approved rezoning the property for Square Station and praised the developer for promising to bring much-needed workforce housing to the area.

In a covenant with the city, the company promises that 96 of the 710 apartments – about 14% – will be reserved for workforce housing.

Earlier this year, commissioners also approved the rezoning of 1336, 1348, and 1366 NE FirstAve., 50 and 58 NE 14th St. and 1335 NE Miami Court, allowing increased floor area for Art Plaza.

That Melo project is designed as twin 36-story towers offering 667 residences, 15,000 square feet of

commercial space and parking for 886 cars.

The evolving neighborhood includes The Melo Group’s Melody Tower, a 36-story mixed-use residential building at 245 NE 14th St., across the street from the Adrienne Arsht Center for the PerformingArts.

Along with providing 497 rental apartments, Melody has about 8,500 square feet of ground floor commercial space and a landscaped plaza with public art.

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MIAMI TODAY

HEALTH UPDATE

WEEK OF THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2017

Miami’s medical tourism market: the rules are different here

By Gabi Maspons

While Miami has made a science of marketing its world-class beaches, hotels and retail locations, promoting Miami as a medical destination for tourists has a different set of rules. Local health centers and the convention and visitors bureau are finding new ways to market Miami as a global health care destination.

Medical Tourism is a unique brand of tourism because it’s not always appropriate to use the same advertising channels, said Rolando Aedo, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“When people call our 800-number, we don’t tell them about medical procedures they can have done, but we have collateral materials in different languages if people request that information, and we refer them to the professionals,” Mr. Aedo said.

Though the bureau doesn’t actively advertise Miami’s hospitals, it promotes Miami as a medical destination by hosting meetings and conventions.

“When people come for medical care, their families stay at our hotels.

They eat, drink and shop here, so it impacts our industry even though it doesn’t seem like it would,” Mr. Aedo said.

The bureau has dedicated staff charged with bringing more visitors and tourists to Miami and attracting people for meetings and conventions, Mr. Aedo said.

“The future is very bright for medical meetings in Miami,” he said. “Our health care excellence, our geography and the remodel of the Miami Beach Convention Center provide great opportunities to bring people here.”

The convention center is to open next September, and the American Health Information Management Association, a medical tech conference, is to be the first held.

The bureau sends staff to the World Medical Tourism Conference each year and runs miamihealthcare. org, a website dedicated to medical tourism, with visitor information on places to see, where to stay, things to do, events, special offers and a trip planning feature.

Baptist Health has the same

Miami’s medical tourism growth is largely organic, said Mario Mendez, Baptist Health chief medical officer.

The convention bureau refers its medical tourism callers to those in health care, said Rolando Aedo.

approach as the bureau when it comes to promoting Baptist internationally: “We proactively sponsor medical conferences, bring in speakers and interact with medical schools in the region,” said Mario Mendez, corporate vice president and chief medical officer at Baptist Health.

Medical tourism growth in Miami is largely organic, Dr. Mendez said: “Baptist has been growing its footprint here for about 20 years by expanding and acquiring private hospitals. We have world-renowned centers of excellence in orthopedics, cardiovascular medicine and cancer treatment.”

It was natural for Miami to promote itself as a medical destination

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because of its location and medical infrastructure.

“Miami is the port of the Americas. It’s close to home, there are no language barriers and similar cultural influences” for many of the patients traveling to Miami for care, Dr. Mendez said.

While medical marketing is less conspicuous than travel brochures, Miami’s health centers still believe the heat plays a role in attracting patients.

“No one can beat our incredible weather. If you go to Ohio or Minnesota in the middle of the winter and your flight is canceled, you’ll never go back,” Dr. Mendez said.

When asked about how Baptist Health has an edge in Miami, Dr. Mendez said, “We have one of the most robust international programs in the country, so most of our competitors are not local.”

When patients go to Baptist for medical care, they don’t need to look far to find any specialty, he said: “We cover every specialty available, and only refer out major trauma to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson.”

The rise of international health insurance has expanded the scope of medical access and changed how people are paying for care when they travel to Miami.

“When I first started in the business side of health care in the early

Business development can mean sending doctors to conferences, said UM’s Eduardo de Marchena.

’80s, the majority of patients were cash-paying,” Dr. Mendez said.

“Today, about 82% of patients are commercially insured with the same plans we have, though some wealthier patients are still self-paying.”

While commercial insurance has allowed more patients to access affordable international care, some executive offerings don’t take insurance. The International Medicine Institute, or the IMI, at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine offers out-of-pocket executive physicals, marketed to companies with new leadership.

“We spend half a day doing a complete workup from top to bottom and provide a full report,” said

Marianna Finizio, assistant vice president of the IMI. Dr. Mendez attributes part of Miami’s medical tourism growth to the University of Miami’s Medical School.

“Though it was a desire of every medical system here, UM ushered in a lot of it in the last 15 years,” he said.

The international program at UM has a synergistic, three-pronged mission to research, educate, and provide clinical care.

The educational and research components help to promote UM as an international destination for patient care, Ms. Finizio said.

The academic mission helps feeds into clinical care because “the physicians who have come through our program have widened our bandwidth as they go into their own specialties and represent us,” Ms. Finizio said.

While the IMI has research and academic goals, clinical care remains a primary focus.

“We’re the only academic medical center in South Florida, so we haven’t been particularly robust in our marketing,” said Eduardo de Marchena, associate dean of international medicine at UM, “but we keep our prices competitive with other institutions and patients keep coming to us because of our relationships in education and research and because our doctors are so well known.”

UM markets patient care just as Baptist Health does: “the most organized form of business development is sending our doctors to local and regional conferences,” Dr. de Marchena said.

As for future plans, the University of Miami is continuing to grow its international patient care by investing “in highly innovative and impactful programs to attract international patients,” said Edward Abraham, dean and CEO of the medical school.

“There are about 7,000 international patients that come here every year,” Dr. Abraham said. “It could be far more if we expand our unique portfolio of clinical services.”

Medical tourism marketing may not be as overt and extravagant as campaigns to promote other Miami attractions, but local health care centers are strategically growing and hosting events to position Miami as a global hub for clinical care.

Mount Sinai plans emergency center to capture business that flows north

By Katya Maruri

By this time next year, Mount Sinai Medical Center aims to open an emergency department with 24 bays in Hialeah to recapture medical traffic that now goes north into Broward County.

“We expect to open the emergency department by fall 2018,” Steven Sonenreich, president and chief executive officer of Mount Sinai Medical Center, said. “The 63,000-square-foot building will sit on four acres of property and will be located right off the Palmetto Expressway and south of Palmetto General Hospital at 6050 W 20th Ave., Hialeah.”

The emergency department, which will be owned by Mount

Sinai Medical Center and built to accommodate 30,000 patient visits on a regular basis, Mr. Sonenreich said, will be similar to what the hospital has achieved at itsAventura primary and specialty care location.

“The first floor of the building will be the emergency department and the second and third floors will have physician office spaces and offer other diagnostic services,” Mr. Sonenreich said. “In regards to staffing, we are looking at hiring approximately 100 employees and 15 to 20 board-certified physicians.”

“People value Mount Sinai physicians whether they are in Aventura or Hialeah,” Mr. Sonenreich said.

“We expect the new emergency department to be a very successful and great citizen in Hialeah.”

‘We expect the new emergency department to be a very successful and great citizen of Hialeah.’

Steven Sonenreich

24

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