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Friday, October 04, 2013

Now they are calling it a resort?

Our Mayor, Tomas Reglado is calling the Grove Harour Waterfront Project a resort. His words: "Miami voters will have the opportunity to vote on November 5 on this project. The plan is to build a spectacular resort overlooking the bay, where it is now the old Scotty's Landing restaurant, right next to the building that houses the City of Miami. What we want is to bring visitors to this area of Miami, because those visitors bring more money and thus create more jobs," said Mayor Regalado.

I am shocked to hear the Mayor say this as he was against the Marlins stadium scam which promised the same thing in the way of jobs, which of course never materialized. And I'm not sure why destroying the Grove's waterfront in the name of jobs is so important when there are so many other areas of Miami that can accommodate this project, I mean if it's so important that they need to build it to create jobs.

The Mayor and others have been on Spanish radio pushing the Waterfront Project and I find this to be so offensive to the Coconut Grove community because they are pushing the people in other areas of Miami to vote for our neighborhood project. It's bad enough that this is even up for vote, but now the politicians are pushing the vote on outsiders who have no stake in the Grove? Why?

I am going to ask this again as I have in the past: What is in this project for all these people going out of their way to push it? What?

Vote NO on November 5. Vote against the Grove Harbour project before it ends up being a resort and casino and who knows what else. 

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17 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is truly a banana rebublic. Calling it a resort. The plan is not even close to a resort. You want a resort wait until Trump is done with the Doral golf course hotel and spa. PLEASE VOTE NO. And going on spanish and or english radio to encouage people to vote when the once affected live a in a small radious. Next thing they will be giving is free breakfast and or tshirts to other on voting day to vote yes. PEOPLE GO OUT AND VOTE NO

October 04, 2013 7:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You find it offensive that Mayor Regalado is promoting the project on Spanish radio because it's targeting people outside the Grove? You might want to rethink that line. Whether you intended it to be racist or not, the idea that people in the Grove do not listen to Spanish radio is absurd. Contrary to what some may want to believe, the Grove is not some last bastian for Anglophone Miami. We're a diverse village and perhaps you and the other opponents of the project would benefit from targeting people outside your own echo chamber as well.

October 04, 2013 8:18 AM  
Blogger F. said...

Tom:

As the previous post I find your line quite offensive. You have truly lost the respect I had for you and your blog.

You should look around the Grove a little bit better because there are quite a lot of Hispanics like myself who pay our taxes and support the Grove and LIVE in the Grove.

You should rethink your ignorant and shallow comment.

Regards,

FR

October 04, 2013 10:01 AM  
Blogger Tom Falco said...

Guys, Enough. If you think they are on Radio Mambi to persuade the Grovites to vote, you really have no clue.

October 04, 2013 11:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As someone who only speaks English I find it offensive that the mayor would only address the Spanish speaking portion of our community on this issue and leave those non-Spanish speaking members uninformed.
The two above posters can try and make this a race issue if they wish (I'm sure the players in this game would love to see the focus turn from the actual issues to the usual Miami finger pointing) but the fact is the Grove has many non-Latin residents as well. If you want to make this a race issue ask yourself why Regalado (a fine Irish name there) would address ONLY the Spanish speaking portion of the voters with this information and leave the majority of the people who actually live in the area out of the loop.

Speaking as a lifetime Grove resident we are THE most homogenous area of Miami with one of the most diverse mix of races in Miami-Dade. The mayor is being the one being racist by only addressing and sharing this bombshell admission of a "resort" when a large portion of Grove residents are not Spanish speaking.

Before you argue with me and start calling me a racist take a gander at this site.
http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html
Go ahead and zoom in on the Grove it's pretty easy to find. Just look for the area that mainly blue and green with a good salting of orange. Look at the disposition of the residents and then try to tell me again that the Regalado isn't the one who is being racist by addressing ONLY the Spanish speaking residents and bringing this new information to ONLY the Spanish speaking portion of our community. Do you actually think that Regalado is not aware of this information? Do you think that he is not purposely making his pitch to only a certain faction of the voters?. It's a slap in the face to ALL Grove residents and a purposeful racist attempt to keep as many people who live in the area out of the loop and panders specifically to only one portion of Miami's voters.

It's obvious that there are shills here who want to muddy the water with cries of racism and muddy the waters as far as the actual issues go. Ask yourselves this, why is Regalado only speaking to the Spanish speaking members of the voters? You don't find that racist yet you point your fingers at Tom and scream "racist" for pointing it out.

October 04, 2013 11:52 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Question is why the "resort" not being pushed on English language radio, what is the PR strategy behind the project? Is Latin Builders Association behind the project?

October 04, 2013 11:52 AM  
Anonymous Alfest said...

If this is going to be so good for the Grove then I would assume it would hurt Brickell, Midtown and other Miami Points of interest. If tourist are suddenly going to start spending their money in the Grove then that will take away from their spending elsewhere. The Mayor is smart and we should do the same. We should push this as a bad move for the rest of the Miami tourist/businees districts. Get them to vote NO!! Let's face it, there are many more voters outside the Grove that will make or break this issue. They need to think about the negative effects this new project may have on them. I Still wonder what will make this different then Bayside? Why would someone from Downtown drive here to shop or eat when they can do all in their own neighborhood.

October 04, 2013 12:07 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Totally Agree with Tom! People in the Grove and of any RACE in the GROVE are not listening to Radio Mambi! Only 33133 should get to vote on this project since it is directly impacting 33133. I find this development of calling this a RESORT and pushing it on Radio Mambi super offensive. I am still upset we can't oust Regalado! Too bad Suarez wasn't viable!

October 04, 2013 1:42 PM  
Anonymous Dexter said...

I'm glad i kept my "Banana Republic" T-shirt. Knew it would come in handy again............

October 04, 2013 2:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hate to tell all you literary types that anglophone is not a word.

October 04, 2013 3:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's an article about the interview:
http://radiomambi710.univision.com/noticias/article/2013-10-02/alcalde-regalado-revela-detalles-del-proyecto-the-harbour-en-radio-mambi?refPath=/miami/

Where the "resort" part came from:
"El plan consiste en construir un espectacular centro turístico frente a la bahía, donde actualmente se encuentra el viejo restaurante Scotty’s Landing, justamente al lado del edifico que alberga al Ayuntamiento de Miami."

Depending on the Spanish dialect, "centro turístico" doesn't necessarily mean resort. In some places, it does translate to resort, but around here it usually refers to a tourist attraction. Also, from the article its unclear if he said that statement or if the person who wrote the article tossed that in. Anyone have a recording of the interview? Its often best to hear these things from the horse's mouth rather than depending on an article that someone ran through an online translator.

PS - I'm against the project and am not an employee of the city.

October 04, 2013 4:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you are for Grove's harmony why not invest west of 32nd Avenue instead of ruining the water views?

October 04, 2013 8:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"If you are for Grove's harmony why not invest west of 32nd Avenue instead of ruining the water views?"

The water views were ruined once the navy and Pan Am started constructing a sea plane and flying boat base in the 1920's and 1930's, and developers started to build condos in the '80's. There are no such things as time machines.

October 05, 2013 10:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

When the Pan Am / military base was built there wasn't much of anything between here and Viscaya. The land in between was bought by private individuals and developers and turned into homes and apartments and condos.
For that matter almost the entire waterfront from downtown Miami to Pinecrest is owned by private individuals.
You are right about there being no time machines and that is exactly why this is so important NOW. This is the last stretch of open waterfront property south of downtown Miami so no wonder these developers, investors and politicians are so adamant, aggressive and serrupticious about this fifty year lease. Everyone involved will make $$$ and the thought (in their minds) of wasting this opportunity by creating an open parkland area for the residents of the Grove and Miami at large is inconceivable.
They are finding out that "that word does not mean what you think it means".

The whole reason that it's important that this doesn't turn into another mall (with a 50 year lease) is because we, that is everyone who lives in Miami, have no water access left. This is our last chance to guarantee that we, our children, and anyone who comes and visits our rare and unique area, can walk to the waterside and enjoy it.

Or perhaps the ones pushing this project are right. Perhaps what the locals really want and need is a souvenir store where we can by an overpriced t-shirt with Coconut Grove printed on it. Perhaps what the tourists from Germany or Japan or Argentina really want is a steak dinner at Shula's and not a walk next to Bay that is unique in the world.

10,000 miles for a steak at Shula's.
Yeah, that's the ticket!

October 05, 2013 2:07 PM  
Blogger Sledge said...

"I am going to ask this again as I have in the past: What is in this project for all these people going out of their way to push it? What?"

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

That's what, for a few people to benefit.

CI

October 05, 2013 3:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The mayor did not say that. That's a poor translation that was reformatted as a quote. I'm against the project and against misinformation - for both sides. It's irresponsible journalism to make up a quote.

October 09, 2013 11:31 AM  
Anonymous RV said...

Let's stop calling Scotty's Landing the "old Scotty's Landing". Enjoy it while it's still here.

October 09, 2013 1:26 PM  

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