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Saturday, May 24, 2014

Just say "NO" to David Beckham

The land in question.
There's a "Protest David Beckham Stadium Plan" meeting Sunday morning, May 25, at Bicentennial Park at 9 am. While our county Mayor Carlos Giminez and City Mayor Tomas Regalado seem starstruck over the soccer star, the the voting taxpayers are not. The mayors want to hand over public land to sports billionaires again and the citizens are fighting back. The plan is to give the Beckham group land or rather a large slip of water downtown, right next to the American Airlines Arena. The plan is to fill in the slip, one of the last remaining accesses to water views, to allow a soccer stadium to be built.

Many feel that the land near Marlin's Stadium in Little Havana is the perfect spot for a new soccer stadium that will only be used 25 days a year, and not our precious waterfront.

The slip of water is city property and the parcel of land that is currently there that is being thrown in on the deal, is county property. FIND, the Florida Inland Navigation District spent millions of dollars recently to shore up the seawall, using taxpayer dollars. Now the whole thing is planned to be filled in to provide another stadium? Does anyone go to any of the stadiums we have now (other than the Heat games)?

Beckham and his group plan on spending their own money to build the stadium, but locals don't want it on waterfront property. The property was promised as a park to the citizens. 

Sunday's protest is being called a "breakfast." It will be a fun morning with frisbee contests, biking and other events to show the city and county mayors and others what the rea could be if turned into the long-promised park.

The main purpose of the event is to start drawing attention against the Beckham stadium creating a Wall Against our Waterfront before it goes up for vote on August 26. This should be the first of a multiple series of events to send messages to City Commissioners to stop this deal.

There is a petition against the plan called, "Stop the Proposed Building of a MLS Soccer Stadium on Biscayne Blvd at Museum Park," directed at the Mayors and District Commissioner Marc Sarnoff. You can see that and sign it here.

Beckham, who probably doesn't know any better, "is proposing to take away the park and replace it with a privately owned park hidden behind the giant cement walls of a Stadium and this is simply not logical," says the petition.  Come to think of it, Beckham probably knows exactly what he is doing, he knows how easy it is to make fools of all of us with the help of both mayors.

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18 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Let's remember who is at fault with the plan, it is the politicians in Miami who have created one of the most irresponsible and corrupt government systems in North America. The people of Miami are FED UP with them, they have no problem with Beckham, he has probably been lured in with the promise that he can get away with anything he wants here as long as he joins the exclusive gravy train. People of Miami are stuck in traffic from one job to another receiving some of the lowest paying wages in the nation sans any benefits trying to pay exorbitant rents or save their homes from crazy property taxes and banks.

May 24, 2014 4:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Of course this stadium like all the other stadiums do not have to pay property tax on top of it all. And enjoy other tax breaks as well. Another ridiculous situation. No one will go to an open roof stadium in the summer in Miami to watch soccer! I don't care who is playing it will not happen! How many stadiums does a City need ? Stop giving away our land Politicians to line your pockets and coffers ! Beckham go back where you belong. Your wife won't even live here so why do you want to put a team here that is destined to FAIL! It will FAIL wake up. Leave now. We need to clean house with City of Miami, New Commissioner, New Mayor what a joke!

May 24, 2014 6:27 PM  
Blogger Tony Scornavacca Jr. said...

The waterfront site for a stadium is a bad idea. It will obstruct the water view and it will not benefit many people. That would be like giving a waterfront City building to a film crew for a TV show. (Burn Notice?)

May 24, 2014 7:04 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This fight is directed towards Carlos Gimenez, Tomas Regalado and Marc Sarnoff and Audrey Edmonson. Beckham and his handlers just want $600 mil work of free waterfront park land. Who wouldn't? The stooges here are the two mayors and the local commissioners who should be protecting Miami's scarce waterfront park land. Instead they are giving it away.

May 24, 2014 7:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yep, what a horrible idea to lease land that is not being used to people that are going to bring in millions into the city. That would be like a TV show that provided me with a job for 5 years.

May 25, 2014 9:47 AM  
Anonymous Al Crespo said...

I've posted photos of this morning's rally on the Boulevard on the Crespogram Report.

May 25, 2014 11:43 AM  
Anonymous Jack said...

I wonder how many of the green park lovers have been to the slip to sit and admire the concrete lined empty area of water. The published plan would bring thousands of people closer to the bayfront, in daylight, than anything else that site has to offer.

May 25, 2014 3:45 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The commissioner has a problem with Ultra Music festival but pour concrete and fill up the bottom of the ocean, no problem captain.

May 25, 2014 5:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you're opposed to the stadium, you should also support the demolition of the Miami Marine Stadium.

May 25, 2014 6:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Makes no sense equating building a soccer stadium on new fill trucked from the Everglades with preserving a stadium built over fifty years ago. Makes no sense rebuilding the top of a Key Biscayne bridge and then tearing it all up because the 70 year old pickings were ignored. But, access to the tennis tournament was at stake so voila - money wasted.

Right now construction crews are hard at work repairing the Bear Cut Bridge on Key Biscayne. The 70-year-old bridge everyone agrees should be replaced is instead getting a $31 million dollar makeover.
Dr. Atorod Azizinamini, the chair of the civil engineering department at Florida International University and a world-renowned bridge engineer surveyed the work with CBS4 in April 2013. He said then, “You may have been better off to just build a new one.”

When CBS4′s David Sutta dove below the water line of the Bear Cut bridge in April, he discovered giant pieces of concrete that had fallen off the pilings, pushed away from corrosion inside. Many pieces longer than your arm were all over the ocean floor.
The quick fix that Miami-Dade politicians signed off on was something called jackets. It is essentially pouring more cement around compromised pilings. It’s a well-known industry practice but not expected to last for very long.
The other plan county engineers moved forward with was much more controversial. They chose to keep 70-year-old pilings in place with a new roadway on top.

“This brand new bridge was built on 70-year-old pilings,” Miami-Dade Commissioner Juan Zapata said. “So those pilings have already reached their life expectancy. So as soon as that upper part, the superstructure is built on the bridge, we are going to start now planning to replace that bridge completely.”

May 26, 2014 12:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The point about the Marine Stadium is that we can't wring our hands about filling in the man made FEC slip at the end of government cut when the Marine Stadium sits square in the middle of mangroves in a less disturbed part of the bay.


There are further comparisons that can be made between the Marine Stadium and the play house. The Marine Stadium seats way less than 10,000, so I'm not sure how it's going to make money. The Playhouse too has a problem with making a potential profit due to limited seating, but is arguably a more historical site as it sits in a commercial area, and does not have an environmental impact.

Sorry, I went on a tangent, but I think we need to have an open conversation about what constitutes as historical and/or environmentally sensitive.

May 26, 2014 10:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You guys are against this but then you were also against tearing down the expo center to allow for public waterfront access? I'm starting to feel you all are opposing things just to oppose.

May 26, 2014 10:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Downtown has 30,000 new residents. They need and deserve open green space. Who is fighting for their rights?

May 27, 2014 1:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anon 10:44 You're so right, opposing just to oppose, useless pea brains! And they all invoke the name Sarnoff! Anon 1:41, those 30,000 new residents you ask "Who is fighting for their rights?" This world now has about 7-Billion folks riding on spaceship earth representing who knows, 1-Million separate religious, ethnic, special interest groups. Let them represent themselves and if not they'll slip away & under without notice. Jobie Steppe

May 27, 2014 8:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Miami has five commissioners. Each is supposed to represent the neighborhoods and issues within their districts. Sarnoff has not been representing the people. Strangely absent?

May 27, 2014 10:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@10:44

You've figured them out. There is absolutely no consistency with the opinions of the Grove old guard.

May 27, 2014 8:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

@8:39 pm. The issues have very little similarity. One involves an existing structure in the Grove used as a film studio and the other involves foreigners wanting $500 Mil in free waterfront park land on Bicentennial Park to build a 10 acre structure.

May 28, 2014 3:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why isn't Marc Sarnoff speaking up to protect Bicentennial Park? It appears he wants the FEC slip filled in?

May 29, 2014 10:02 AM  

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