First business-residents liaison meeting a success
The business-residents liaison meeting went well last night, about 30 people attended.
There were people there from the Village Council, merchants and restaurants and of course residents. Ron Nelson was present, representing Commissioner Sarnoff's office and Dave Collins was there from the BID. Everyone got to talk; Adam Weirich, Village Council member, who headed the meeting, with Sue McConnell, gave everyone a chance and he balanced the complaints by asking what people liked about the Grove. It was a nice, intelligent conversation.
The main concern was noise. And Cabana One was the main culprit. People don't want them to go out of business, they just want them to follow the noise ordinance laws. It seems that not only residents complain, but many hotel guests do, too. The Sonesta has had to comp many guests because they can't sleep and don't enjoy their stay. They in turn, don't return.
The parking lot near Yacht Harbor, on Grand Avenue, is a concern. Many loud partiers hang out there late at night, they continue to drink, they fight, they play loud music and they are just plain loud. One suggestion was to have off duty police guard the lots.
It came down to the fact that everyone at the meeting loves the Grove and they want everyone to succeed. Marketing is needed to draw more people away from other areas like South Miami, Mary Brickell Village and Coral Gables. We are competing with them for the same visitors.
posted by Tom Falco at 12:30 PM
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13 Comments:
"...Marketing is needed to draw more people away from other areas like South Miami, Mary Brickell Village and Coral Gables. We are competing with them for the same visitors."
I respect your passion for the Grove but I think this is the wrong way to think about it. You are focusing on increasing the Grove’s share of the pie, but a more effective strategy is to make the pie itself larger. Instead of taking an adversarial stand point, another approach might be to actually work with these business districts (South Beach as well) to try and figure out ways that each can market it's strengths in a cooperative fashion.
The path of territorialism and parochialism has produced some pretty bad results for Miami.
It would be impossible to work with the surrounding areas because they are in completely different cities and really couldn't care less about what happens in coconut grove. The first thing we have to do is remove the 3am liquor cutoff which is the one major thing that is restricting the Grove. Business decreased automaticcally that they that was passed. This has affected EVERY merchant in the Grove, not just the bars. This is the reason that has caused even time tested businesses to close in the last 9 months. Ask aournd....even Cocowalk is having financial issues.
Anon 3:39 is right on the effect the Marc Sarnoff curfew has had. EVeryone has done worse, and it got that way before this recession.
On to the Grape's comments, how can we have more people here, and have less noise/less complaints? I don't think it's possible for many of the complainers to ever be satisfied. If we're an area that's vibrant with heavy traffic (foot or otherwise) there will be noise. People will laugh and talk and carry on - read: enjoy life, and those that choose not to do so will sit home, angry and isolated and react with anger.
To anyone who's ever complained about the noise in the grove: you have apparently never lived in a city, and well, ya do now.
We want people to laugh and talk and have fun, we do not want people to be awakended at midnight by loud music. There is a quality of life standard that we must all respect. Obviously you are not affected by it; if you were you would be speaking up also.
The Group that pays the highest Property Taxes in Coconut Grove should have the loudest voice here. Ask some of the Club and Restaurant owners where do you live?? My bet is Not Coconut Grove. Ask the crowd of Drinkers that come into the Grove to Rip it up and then leave back to their own homes.Not the Grove Sorry. Coconut Grove is made up of Mellow cool residents, who worked hard to afford to call Coconut Grove their Home. Yes we want the business to make $$$, But we also want to be able to live and sleep here too.
Who pays the most taxes? I assure you that the business owners do. Im not saying that we should tear up the grove. We should bring back the 5am licenses and then focus on law enforcement. This is nonsense. What if someone sleeps from 8am to 4pm. Does that mean that I could we should stop selling at those hours also?
Most business owners do not own their own property - they rent. Most property owners do not live in the Grove - some live in other countries. What do they care as long as the rent checks come in. And we don't consider the Grove a City, it is a village and it is definitely not an ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT! If you want to party all night long, go downtown.
The ill-informed commentors talking about "most business owners" are simply making it up. Also, to whomever said loud music at midnight, get over it or move to a retirement home. If noise at midnight on a Friday or Saturday is that much of a disturbance to you, then its over, just go. Also, be careful no to slip in the shower or otherwise break a hip.
Anon, 7:12 am - do you believe that you pay more in property tax than a renting business owner pays in sales tax? I think not. Not even the same ballpark. So, if you want control to he who pays the most in taxes, its definitely the businesses.
That however is beside the point. I cannot imagine who these complainers are or where they live. They must all live in hotel rooms at the sonesta, because I cannot think of any other residence having any noise issue whatsoever. IF you chose to live on Grand ave (or otherwise within 1 block of center grove), and thought it was a quiet street, you're daft.
What???? Sales tax is collected from the customers by the merchants - big difference.
Just in the Sonesta Hotel Condo their are over two hundred luxury Suites all paying between $4000 to over $13,000 for the Penthouses in property taxes each! Do the Math Jackass. Which I doubt you are smart enough to figure. Next we have Yacht Harbour, Grove Towers, Mutiney Bay all within a open window away from the Noise. So we are talking Millions of dollars we all pay to Miami Dade. The business in town come and go, not us, this is our home big boy. So go back to your Dull no where condos or rentals, and leave us to enjoy our beautiful bayfront properties that we pay for with our high taxes in sweet Coconut Grove. Have to go now, I want to take a moonlite cruise on my Donzi.
Let's not be nasty here. Most of our residents love the Grove (or why would we live here) and would like to see it thrive. Yes, the bar scene does bring people and their money, but it also brings drunks, traffic and noise (and unfortunately lots of trash in the streets). I don't think the people who want the liquor hours extended want the Grove to become a party central for the kids who can't afford South Beach, and I don't think the people who want the noise level down are ready for a retirement home. Let's shoot for balance.
Mary Brickell closes its bars at One AM. Maybe we should follow their idea. Then let the heavy drinkers go to South Beach till Five AM And get totally Wasted.The police are waiting for all them on RT 395.
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