WEEK OF THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2018
A Singular Voice in an Evolving City
WWW.MIAMITODAYNEWS.COM $4.00
ILLUMINATED 30-ACRE PARK PLANNED UNDER SIGNATURE I-395 BRIDGE DOWNTOWN, pg. 11 CRIME’S DECLINE: Reported crimes in unincorporated Miami-Dade County have plunged this year from the first eight months of last year, down 12.5% for violent crimes and 8.2% for non-violent crimes through Aug. 31, the Miami-Dade Police Department reported last week. The decline was almost across the board, though a rise in cases of fondling raised forcible sex offenses 2.9% (rape reports fell 3.9%). Homicides were down 7.1%, robberies were down 16.6%, aggravated assaults fell 13.4%, burglaries were down 17.9%, larcenies fell 6.9% and motor vehicle theft decreased 6.4%. The figures don’t include crimes reported in municipalities that have their own police forces.
The Achiever
RULES FOR SHIPWRECKS: The City of Miami is seeking new rules to deal with derelict ships and vessels. The city commission on Sept. 13 approved on a first reading an ordinance to establish a process for the Code Enforcement Board to remove, destroy and dispose of derelict vessels. The proposed legislation says a number of derelicts in, on and under the city’s public waterways and on the adjoining shoreline pose potential hazards to navigation and commercial and recreational use of waters as well as to the environment. State law grants the city authority to provide for the removal and disposition, including destruction, of derelict vessels. The purpose of the vote is to add a new article to code “to promote the public safety, health, and welfare of the residents of the City and the tourists and guests visiting or vacationing in the City by reducing or eliminating the threats posed by Derelict Vessels…” The proposal includes details regarding the Code Enforcement Board, a hearing setting forth purpose and findings, definitions, a procedure for removal or relocation, hearing date scheduling, and hearing procedures. E-VOTING FOR FLORIDA?: A newly proposed constitutional amendment seeks to give voters the choice of casting ballots on the internet. An Orlando-based political committee called Florida For Change filed the proposal with the state Division of Elections, according to the division’s website. The earliest the proposal could go before voters is 2020. But Florida For Change would have to submit hundreds of thousands of petition signatures and get the ballot wording approved by the Florida Supreme Court. Groups that placed initiatives on this year’s ballot were required to submit 766,200 valid signatures. Florida For Change had not raised any money as of Sept. 7, a finance report shows.
Lloyd DeVaux
Photo by Cristina Sullivan
President and CEO expands business at Sunstate Bank The profile is on Page 4
Marine Stadium plan ‘going forward,’ not ready By John Charles Robbins
Flex park ideas don’t make big splash, pg. 22
The architect hired to bring Miami Marine Stadium back to life says his team is “going forward nicely” with restoration. Richard J. Heisenbottle offered a status report during a Sept. 20 community workshop on the Marine Stadium Flex Park, the land and shoreline hugging the iconic concrete stadium on Virginia Key. “We are in the design-development phase now,” Mr. Heisenbottle told a crowded room at the Miami Rowing Club, next door to the flex park. He said the design plan will be turned in to city officials for review in about a monthand-a-half. That is not in line with a timetable provided by the city’s Office of Capital Improvements to Miami city commissioners in February, which shows design development was to be done by August. Listed under the heading “Schedule of Work” were Phases II through V including: Design development completed by August 2018; construction documents completed by December 2018; permitting completed by June 2019; and bidding and award completed by December 2019.
Listed under Phase VI – Future it says construction is to be completed by November 2021. The report also has a schedule for a companion project, a maritime center next to the stadium. The city owns much of the barrier island. Its plans to develop the area have created suspicion and animosity among Key Biscayne residents and officials. Rickenbacker Causeway is the only road in and out of the village of Key Biscayne. For many years village leaders have fought development of Virginia Key for congesting traffic and limiting public access to the water. The city closed the stadium in 1992 in the wake of Hurricane Andrew. Talk of restoring the facility was just that for years until November 2016, when the city commission approved $45 million in bonding to borrow money for stadium renovation and other improvements. The restoration advanced in January 2017 when the commission hired R.J. Heisenbottle Architects for architectural and engineering services related to the stadium. The flex park is being developed separately. The city hired Civitas Inc. to design the park.
After about six weeks of working on general concepts for the space, city officials and Civitas representatives held the first public meeting on those ideas Sept. 20. Concepts ranged from a carved out swimming cove to a fitness hub to a resilient green space, and beyond. Presenters got a lukewarm response from residents, several of whom were critical and skeptical. One woman said it was hard to envision the best concept for the flex park land until the stadium is restored. She called the stadium the beating heart of the island. “Everything should be secondary to the stadium,” she said. Also discussed was the impact of the city licensing use of the flex park and the historic basin each February for the Miami International Boat Show. The boat show is an obstacle to what could be done with the site, some said. Designing around the boat show infrastructure was cited as a challenge in the Civitas presentation, but designers said they are working hard to make all the pieces work together. The Heisenbottle firm earlier had presented a report that a restored stadium could host Jet Ski competitions, beauty pageants and more. The report lists five categories of uses: marine; sports and fitness; community; education and nature; and entertainment.
Labor force drops with joblessness Miami-Dade’s labor force and persons at work both have hit their lowest levels since March 2017 even as joblessness here fell, US Bureau of Labor Statistics data unveiled Friday show. August’s county workforce was 1,361,811, well down from the record 1,403,411 set in May. Employment meanwhile fell to 1,305,499 from the July level of 1,336301. But because the total number of workers was falling, even a drop in the number of people at work left unemployment, at 4.1%, down from July’s 4.3% Meanwhile, Florida’s unemployment held steady from July to August at the 12-year low of 3.7%, according to the state Department of Economic Opportunity. The August estimate represents 375,000 Floridians out of work – 8,000 fewer than in July – from a 10.2 million workforce. The mark kept the state below July’s national unemployment rate of 3.9%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Florida is one of 15 states below the national unemployment average and during the past year created 222,000 new jobs, trailing only 394,500 added in Texas and 348,900 in California. Many of Florida’s new jobs are tied to leisure and hospitality, an industry that has grown by 54,600 positions in the past year. In Miami-Dade, in contrast, leisure and hospitality jobs are down 600, or 0.4%, in the past year to 140,800 jobs. In construction, on the other hand, Miami-Dade is vastly outpacing the state’s job growth of 7.7% in the past year. Construction jobs here are up 14% in a year to 53,800, though that August figure was below the 54,300 total in July. The county also is growing at above the statewide pace in education and health services jobs, up 3.1% in a year to 187,200 jobs here, above the pace of the state’s overall 2.3% gain. Miami-Dade’s fastest job growth over the past year is the 16.5% gain in manufacturing jobs to 48,800. As a whole, the state’s gain was 4% in the 12 months.
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