Too late; the horse is out of the barn

Maurce Ferré

When I was growing up, Maurce Ferré was the mayor - for 12 years, sort of like if you were a kid in the 1930s and '40s, Franklin Roosevelt was the president for most or all of your youth.

Ferré has an opinion piece in the Miami Herald, where he regrets his part in the over-building of Miami. I have always resented him for that. He was always a kind and gentle man, but he tried to turn Miami into New York City. That's how I felt as a kid and I feel the same now. 

I know, it's progress. I don't like progress when it's masked in over-development. 

Now Ferré is asking for the protection of the little green space we have left in Miami. He fears that the Miami waterfront will become carnival-like and the Mayor and City Commissioners will open it up for development. I think they did that when they voted to approve the Soccer complex in a city-owned park. Our local parks, Peacock, a city-owned park in particular, is taken over by a private school these days. The glass house in the park is a private restaurant.  

Ferré regrets the building of The Chart House here in the Grove; not the fact that it existed inches from the waterfront, but that it was built as a fortress and was not open to the waterfront. That section is blocked today due to more construction in the area. Right on the water's edge. 

He's concerned about development in that green space next to American Airlines Arena, which could have become the soccer stadium at one time. He also wants to protect further building in the parks, including the park newly named after himself.

He says, "What is as alarming as the 'Amusement Ride Ordinance,' is the fact that on April 18, the city has allowed the Bayfront Parks Trust to put out an RFP that could bring major commercial development, not only to the slip, but to the green area adjacent to the slip in the Maurice A. Ferré Park."

Too little, too late. He should have thought of this all in 1973.