We want a trolley, when do we want it? Now!
The City is using over $4 million in government stimulus money to start a trolley system for Brickell, Coral Way, Overtown and Allapattah. And it may even link to the Coral Gables trolley.When I suggested this, I was told I was out of line by many. But now that the City is building a trolley system, I see the City's cash cow/step child, Coconut Grove, is being left out. Shame. Story here.
posted by Tom Falco at 10:00 AM
YOU MAY NOT LIFT THE PHOTOS & TEXT. IT'S COPYRIGHTED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. YOU CAN HOWEVER SHARE A STORY ON SOCIAL MEDIA BY USING THE LINKS HERE.
For linking to this one story, just click on the time it was posted & just this story will open for sharing - only through social media. Not copying and pasting.
30 Comments:
How in the world could the city Of Miami even think about a trolley system that would not go to the Coconut Grove area, that's outrageous!!
Kent Tate GROVITE
What say you Sanchez and Regalado?
Oh, and Mr. Sarnoff, I know this one won't kill multiple grove businesses per year, like the last thing you pushed for (3am law, which you misled fellow commissioners about the scope of), but maybe you should represent your constituency a little bit instead of just yourself.
I love the idea of a trolley, but its really just a "cute" bus. The City already provides the Coconut Grove Circular bus route. My guess, is this route doesn't get as much use as bus routes in the areas where the trolley lines are suggested.
We need to use and take advantage of what we have in the Grove, before we start asking for more, more, more. We have resources in the grove which go un noticed and un used. Until local residents and visitors begin to use what we do have, we can't expect to get handouts from everyone.
The point of this Trolley is to bring people into the Grove from the Gables and Brickell, not to use our current circulator which takes people in circles around and around the Grove.
There should be some sort of proposed plan for a Grove trolley that connects with the Gables and Brickell. I believe there were talks of the Brickell trolley coming out to the Grove at one point. Also, I believe people said you were out of line for claiming South Beach stole your idea for a bus that connects the beach and the grove, not because you thought it would be a good idea.
Well I was kidding about them taking my idea. My idea was not for a trolley, but for a trolley to actually leave the Grove and pick up tourists from South Beach, like the South Beach trolley seemed to be doing with the Grove. That is the idea I said they got from me, not the whole trolley concept.
The Grove needs to emulate the success of the Coral Gables Trolley. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel (please excuse this same pun that was used during the bike rack debate). The Coral Gables Trolley is free, it circulates through the most important areas of the business district, every one knows about it and how convenience it is to use. The Grove needs a Trolley to bring passengers from the Metroail station on 27th Ave and possibly from 37th Ave as well. It needs to stop al all the most important Grove locations. We need to market the Trolley in all of our PR and advertising. We need to especially promote the use of the Trolley to the public during every event, festival, concert and major activity that takes place in the Grove. The promoters of those events also need to inform their public of the convenience and safety of the Trolley. Perhaps they can bring their bikes as well, if we offer them plenty of bike racks or bike valet service in the grove as we should. Lets encourage the public to arrive via the Metrorail and we will help get them to the Grove, keep them from getting parking tickets, car towed or broken into. Harry Emilio Gottlieb
Grape & Harry,
The current Grove circulator doesn't just go in circles around the Grove, but in fact connects to BOTH the 27th Avenue and 37th Avenue MetroRail stations, the latter of which being a connecting stop on the Gables Trolley route. I realize it ain't a cutesy pie faux trolley car and it ain't free, but at 25 cents it ain't bad either, especially since it's fully equipped to handle Harry's bike.
The options are to promote what already exists or to complain about what doesn't.
We don't want a connector, since we pay 80% of the bills in the City of Miami, we would like to be part of the "real thing" going up and won Brickell and into downtown.
Grape and Harry are right. make us part of the whole plan not the step sister as we usually are made out to be.
Concrete Manny only cares about the parts of the city that can have high rise and more and more and more development. He's over the Grove even though he lives here. It's about pleasing developers, not the voters and taxpaying public.
The Coral Gables Trolley is just that, for Coral Gables, it doesn't go to any other areas of Miami. Most trolley systems are local, they service a particular area. The Herald article indicates the proposal would operates routes in areas such as downtown, brickell and coral way, it does not indicate it would run a route through all of those areas.
You want a trolley that goes up and down brickell and into down town? You want a trolley to come from Coral Gables into the Grove? I also assume you want this service provided for free too.
What is the metro rail and Metro Mover? What is the Coconut Grove Circular Bus? Again, we have these services available at our disposal, they just aren't being taken advantage of.
Anon 11:24
Be careful what you wish for. Miami 21 is a BAD plan.
The trolly cannot be implemented without Miami 21. Miami 21 forces the new code onto you. I know that the trolly will take up an entire car lane. And that lane will NEVER be used for car traffice thereafter. Where in the grove is there a dedicated three lane road? the other option might be to remove more of the street parking, and changing the zoning and the pavement etc.
DO NOT FALL FOR THIS TRAP!
The notion that Coconut Grove pays the majority (80%) of the tax revenue of the City of Miami is without basis in fact and fosters an utterly specious attitude of "we pay the bills, we oughta call the shots" among the ignorati.
What is true is that District 2 pays the lion's share, but District 2 includes vast tracts of high taxable value residential and commercial property totally outside of Coconut Grove. In fact, Coconut Grove does not even contribute the majority of the revenue from the district since this comes from the Roads, Brickell, Downtown and the coastal condos to the north.
A FREE PARKING BUILDING!!!!!!
SIMPLE. NECESSARY.
TAKE A LOOK AT THE FALLS, DADELAND, AND EVEN MERRICK PARK (YOU JUST HAVE TO GET YOUR PARKING TICKET VALIDATED BY NORDSTROM, SO IT'S FREE).
THAT'S IT IN A NUTSHELL.
These buses are a waste of money. Miami's public and private sectors lack a longterm perspective and commitment to the city's citizens or as Floridian elected officials call them: consumers (maybe because everyone down here has resigned themselves to the fact that it will all be washed away someday?).
A well-structured and dedicated 2% yearly investment in infrastructure by the city would result in an entirely different Miami in fifty years. Above all, if this city wants to grow, it has to shrink. Incorporating towns may have provided Miami with a population, but it certainly did not provide it with a community.
How is it that European cities with a population of 200,000 to 250,000 (Rennes, Freiburg, etc.) have transportation networks that make Miami look like a developing country? Why not invest in above-ground trams!
I don't know why I bother complaining. This city is paradise lost.
agree with anon 11:24. we have a pretty elaborate public transit system. and the grove circulator is no different than the gables trolley.
1. grove circulator to 37th avenue stop to get the gables trolley - Coral Gables problem solved.
2. grove circulator to the 27th ave metro rail to get to brickell - Brickell problem solved.
3. grove circulator to metro rail to gov't center stop to bus to south beach - south beach problem solved.
why would we spend millions and then continue to subsidize something year over year to re-create the wheel?
I agree wholeheartedly with Anon @ 221p. The answer isnt a trolley or a free bus system. Those things sit in the same stupid traffic as the rest of us auto drivers. The thing that Miami needs desperately is an above-ground rail system (since a subway is impossible). And Im talking about one that takes you to places you want to go to, unlike the Metrorail. It baffles me that there isnt a railway that goes to the airport. That is ridiculous! It also is hard to comprehend why there hasnt been any movement on connecting the core of Miami with the core of areas like Ft Lauderdale, Boca, and WPB. Yes, there is the Tri-Rail but Im talking about the CORE, not having to drive to the middle of nowhere in order to take a train up north.
Until Miami officials can come up with an affordable form of effective mass transit that doesnt involve the automobile, this city will continue to struggle due to its urban sprawl.
The problem is our tragic Miami culture of favouritsm, nepotism and corruption. There is no justice. Some people are very content because they have not seen better. Grape, you continue exposing and questioning them.
The truth of the matter is that our city is corrupt and since the Grove cannot have any major building projects where major developers can profit, we are being punished. Think about this at election time. Ask those running for office why we are being left out. We are part of the city of Miami just like Brickell, Alapattah and downtown.
Anon 4:05, elections are the only time for hope, unfortunately people turn into zombies at the ballot box. That is the reason why commissioners at Dade county have not been voted out for fifteen years. Think about it that means since Clinton's first term the same commissioners are at the helms in the principality of Dade county. I don't think even God can clean this filthy place up. God left Dade county and the devil is in charge.
For sure the following controll Dade commission: Seijas, Souto, Moss, Sorenson, in office since 1993 or 1994. Edmonson was appointed. Also Sosa was appointed by Marco Ruvio. Barreiro has been there eleven years. Don't know about Jordan but she is ancient. The devil would do a better job.
*roll eyes*
No big projects?
The majority of everyone here would be opposed to a BIG project. Grove Harbor anyone? And if you drive around Miami (in my opinion) the Grove is one of the crown jewels, a small village that has a neighborhood town feeling to it. With minimal crime, clean streets and actual bricks on the sidewalk. Thats cool!
Why are some of the people here trying to compete with other parts of Miami? Grape has the right idea however I think some of the people here misconstrue what he is trying to put out there.
Or maybe I am? Fact of the matter is I like the Grove, and I like Brickell, and the Design District etc. For what it is. Dont lose your identity.
Oh and the answer to the solution is not always new blood. (ex . Diaz)
Agreed the answer is not new blood, the establishment is rotten to the core, it needs to be uprooted and replaced with the means of democratic election void of fraud.
All of the above is why Harry should run for Mayor. Sanchez and Regalado are more of the same. Come on Harry Jump in and run. Grape can be the co-Mayor. Step up to the plate City of Miami needs you!
Bottom line: A trolley is sexier and more fun than a bus called a "circulator."
Harry and Grape seem to be people who actually have integrity. Just look at Grapevine's work, and how they carry themselves. City of Miami's top job qualification is: A Charlatan with lots of cousins. Harry and Grape do not qualify, there are lots of desperate people in Miami who do qualify.
DID YOU KNOW that on weekends you can't get into the Gables on weekends via public transportation. Just try to catch a bus from U of M's normal day route. No go
They make it so difficult to get there on weekends ever wonder why? The above example is just one instance.
last I heard Harry is supporting Regalado...(at least that is what I have read here)
"DID YOU KNOW that on weekends you can't get into the Gables on weekends via public transportation."
Anon 8:43,
While your regular weekday bus along Ponce may not run on weekends, there are easy enough ways to "get into the Gables". Just board that big shiny thing that whips by on those elevated tracks and get off at Douglas Road, where you will find regular service up to Miracle Mile.
Post a Comment
<< Home