đ Cars on Ocean Dr, on Washington Ave, on the "Pedestrian" Promenade. Cars Everywhere.
An Ocean Drive resident wonders in amazement at the stupidity of bringing cars back to the street.
A CITY COMMISSION MEETING WILL BE HELD THIS THURSDAY, JAN 20. PUBLIC COMMENT WILL BE HEARD AT 8:30 AM & 1:00 PM.
CLICK HERE to join the Zoom meeting.
CLICK KERE for instructions on how to participate in-person, virtually or in writing.
Some important resolutions and discussion items:
Item R7 T: Commissioner Alex Fernandez wants to pass a resolution to return Washington Avenue to its pre-pandemic configuration by removing the protected bike lanes and parklets, essentially reverting the street into a four-lane highway.
Item C4 B: Commissioner David Richardson would like the neighborhood committee to discuss the protected bikes lanes on the Venetian Causeway because of concerns raised by bicyclists.
Item R7 O: A resolution about the Pedestrian Promenade on Española Way, for some reason, there seems to be an obsession with âmaintaining one lane of vehicular trafficâ on a *cough* pedestrian *cough* promenade.Â
Item R9 M: Commissioner Samuelian would like to discuss the effects that reopening Ocean Drive to cars will have on our quality of life.
Youâve heard us at CFMB speak ad nauseam on why Ocean Drive should stay open to People and not cars. This week, for a fresh perspective, weâve brought in Clotilde Luce. Clotilde hosted daily shows for international broadcasting and has written extensively about world cities. Now she focuses on our city, teetering on the edge of a super dumb decision. She lives on Ocean Drive.
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Wow! It looks like the City of Miami Beach, including some people you might have voted for, will soon begin to RE-ruin Ocean Drive. Yes... re-ruin!Â
By putting cars back starting January 24th, the City pulls a self-harming PR disaster U-turn on real progress we, residents, are seeing along our most famous mile.Â
Because â and this is an inconvenient truth for some business owners and the politicians they influence â it was long before Covid and years before viral videos of girls fighting that South Beach residents began avoiding most of Ocean Drive. Trying to walk from 5th to 13th street, you could barely inch between the sidewalk tables and umbrellas blocking any views other than that of 4000 calorie mojitos, with competing sound systems blasting from every cafe.Â
Ride-share vehicles clogged the curb, cruising revving cars owned the street.Â
To actually see the famous Deco buildings you had to cross the street and look back. For tourists taking photos, big bling SUVs competed with such glamorous gems as the Breakwater and the Colony. The revving engines, boom-boxes and exhaust fumes added nothing to the local economy and drove away residents.Â
But then.. and this is all very recent... after the City removed cars to help save jobs and restaurants as both Covid + DeSantis hit, the âexperimentâ has ended up proving thereâs a really positive and do-able shortlist of smart policies we should not put in reverse. Why would the City now slam the brakes on what its own experiment ended up improving?Â
A mile of pedestrian perfection.
Itâs been easy to compare what âworksâ and what doesnât out there on Ocean Drive. With cars gone + restaurants back up on the sidewalks leaving the whole street beautiful and uncluttered, thousands of happy, well-behaved folks of all shapes and backgrounds are out there strolling. Itâs totally safe standing in the street to take selfies, pictures of the park and our famous Deco, while deciding on where to go for drinks. Bikes, baby strollers and joggers share the road. With both cars and the cage-like restaurant installations removed, Ocean Drive 2.0 offers a unique luxury that not even the Promenade des Anglais or Las Ramblas can compete with.Â
So dear fellow walkers and bikers, itâs time to urge City Hall and the City Manager to not just talk the talk, but walk the walk.
Can the City seriously pay lip service to âsustainabilityâ, health, environment, safety, community, yada yada, and then pull this crazy U-Turn on Progress? If so then we, Miami Beach, will truly deserve some major PR snark on social media.Â
In conclusion, here are base-line, low-cost, tourist-friendly choices for our most famous mile:
Friendly safe = good PR for the City
One recent improvement derives from friendly cops we see quietly patrolling out there. They make eye contact, theyâre not just in emergency mode. I liked the new vibe of police I talked to, nice female and male officers in an open little golf cart, peacefully moseying up and down Ocean. These are far better âopticsâ than recent problems along our most famous promenade.
Keep restaurants on the sidewalk. Liberate the street. The City could experiment with letting the restaurant fenced areas back on the street on weekends, but the game-changing friendly /trendy freed-up space would resume 5 days/ week.
Long overdue noise enforcement will make a huge difference in re-branding.
Healthier noise levels send a message of a rebranded, open-air, friendly, Ocean Drive. And since Code Compliance is notoriously ineffectual responding to complaints, our nice patrolling copsâ oversight could include stopping to have a friendly chat with bars to bring the decibels down to levels written into but never enforced by Code.
The street today feels liberated â and even residents (who vote!) can again smile on our most famous mile.Â
Just imagine shoving cars back in here!Â
Really? Starting January 24th, our trendy pedestrian-friendly progress will screech to a halt?Â
Even one lane of cars back here, from a PR point of view, looks terrible and will force pedestrians to jam closer â Â just as all the data points to more virus contagion.
Sustainable and healthy are very trendy in world hospitality.
Rebrand what is offered. Encourage pedestrians, and âslow foodâ, and slow biking.
Morris Lapidus was famous for saying âthe car doesnât buyâ when he created the first pedestrian shopping street in the country, Lincoln Road.
Please do not put progress in reverse. Â
Rebrand what is offered.Â
Encourage walking, âslow foodâ and slow biking
No cars
Drop-off hotel guests on corners, in cleaned-up alleysÂ
Restaurant tables on sidewalksÂ
âŠexcept on weekends?
Real noise enforcement on weekdays
70 decibel limit on street musiciansÂ
Police allowed to talk to cafes if bad noise level
Police in pairs, in golf-cart or strollingÂ
Speed limits on bikes and skateboards
WHAT WE ARE READING
Miami Beachâs Ocean Drive Revs Up for a Car Comeback [Bloomberg CityLab]
The South Beach strip banned vehicles during the pandemic, slamming the brakes on its famous cruising scene. Now traffic will return â but some pedestrian-first changes will be permanent.