This may just be a rumor, but . . . .

I took this photo at the Tree Vigil the Saturday night, so it's dark, but I wanted to show what nonsense it was that the Leandro Oña, the Chief of the Highway Division, was spouting to everyone at the Village Council meeting on Thursday night. He insisted that the large ficus trees had to be butchered so that they could decrease the size of the median to allow for a larger turning lane into the boat ramp.

If you look at this photo above, there are from 10 to 15 feet between the curb and the butchered trees. Isn't that enough to add a wider lane for traffic?

The rumor going around is that the trees were killed to make way for large pipes going under the ground. You see, there has been talk of putting a Bayside-type structure on the land that is either the Expo Center or as far away as the Chart House and Scotty's Landing and the pipes are needed for that eventual plan. I am in possession of the minutes from a 2009 Waterfront Implementation Committee meeting where a stanger came (a developer from out of town) and started talking of retail and parking lots on the waterfront. Many believe that the reason the trees were destroyed is because huge pipes are going underground there, to prepare that side of S. Bayshore Drive for the future plans. I may publish the section of minutes I have from that meeting next week.


Look at the image above, you can see the trees that were destroyed, look at their footprint -- huge! Now follow the red line. That is where the pipes will go down SW 27 Avenue under the ground, under South Bayshore Drive. And you'll notice that the trees were right in the path of the pipes.

It IS NOT the Waterfront Implementation Committee who is in favor of this plan, this is private investors and some local politicians. In 2009 the vice president for Real Estate aquisitions from a large corporate holding company came to the Coconut Grove Waterfront Plan Implementation Waterfront Committee and raised the possibility of putting parking closer to the retail he wanted to put on the waterfront near where Scott's Landing is located. The Waterfront committee shot him down, but the fact remains that the leases for Grove Key Marina, Scotty's and the Chart House are up for renewal in 2012.

At a Chamber luncheon a few months ago a woman none of us knew, spoke glowingly about the beauty of Coconut Grove's bayfront and the need for something like the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. We later learned that woman was the president of Panama Jack located in New York.


If you look at this photo, you can see all the space available for the turning lane, if indeed, they needed to widen the turning lane.