Parks Vie For Space In Miami's Forest Of Condos

[M II A II R II K]

Parks Vie For Space In Miami's Forest Of Condos


August 28, 2012

By Kenny Malone



Read More: http://www.npr.org/2012/08/28/160129...rest-of-condos

Many cities around the nation are trying to revive their downtowns, adding more apartments and condominiums — usually high-rises — to lure new residents. But as urban dwellers grow in numbers, they need places to get outside. Yet, in many cities, like Miami, neighborhood parks can be hard to find. The Trust for Public Land ranks Miami 94 on a list of 100 cities when it comes to park acreage per 1,000 residents — just 2.8 acres per 1,000 residents, versus 4.5 in New York and 6.2 in Los Angeles.

- The parkland ratio is even lower in the downtown neighborhood of Brickell, where about 30,000 people live crammed together in a forest of condos. The neighborhood sprang up practically overnight. Brickell was initially a financial district, a kind of "must have" address for Latin American and European Banks. But the residential population more than doubled in the past decade. That's raised an interesting paradox — the more people want to live here, the harder it can be to make certain aspects of urban life actually livable. Advocates say parks are about quality of life. They break up the monotony of a densely developed area, they say, and provide places for people to exercise or simply gather.

- In Brickell, some residents hope to transform a vacant lot into a new urban park for the area. But there are varying visions of what kind of park the area needs. Blogger Craig Chester is part of a small group of advocates called Brickell Green Space. The group would like to see an empty plot of land beside a cluster of modern and sparkling 40- and 50-story towers transformed into a large park. "Until some of these giant condo buildings reach the end of their life cycle — which won't happen in my lifetime — this is really the last hurrah for undeveloped, raw, scrub parcel here in Brickell," Chester says. The spot would be large enough for soccer and baseball fields, a full-sized dog park and a view of the Miami River. Currently, there's nothing like that in Brickell.

- Looking down from 100 feet up, at a city Metrorail station, the plot does look like it would make a great park. But down on the ground, the view is a little bit different. "Unfortunately, Miami's a frontier town where the dollars drive everything," says Peter Zalewski, who analyzes the real estate picture in South Florida. He says, despite the economic downturn, development in Miami is booming again. "We're standing under the shadow of a construction crane, which for the longest time was thought to be an extinct type of creature down here in South Florida," Zalewski says. "But it's suddenly re-emerged, just like the American bald eagle." And with that picture, Zalewski offers this reality check: Eleven more towers are slated to go up in downtown Miami, he says.

- "I could not imagine a better park for greater downtown Miami than this site we're standing at right now," Zalewski says. "Unfortunately, for dogs to run around, and people to play Frisbee, and mothers to push their babies in strollers, it's just simply too expensive. It's not going to happen." "Well, I don't think anything is often impossible," says Maria Nardi of the Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department. "It may be possible, but it's not in the county's park plan." Nardi is standing at a different — and smaller — potential park site in Brickell, underneath a Metrorail track. "This is an area that the parks department is looking at to convert into a transit-oriented park," she says. Partly because of the extraordinary cost of land in this area, the county is looking to make parks out of land it already controls. In this case, that means directly under an elevated train, on a parcel that's only big enough for, say, a small amphitheater.

.....

A site plan Brickell Green Space commissioned of the park it hopes to see built in downtown Miami. The space would include tennis courts, open fields and a jogging loop.






The skyline of the northern Brickell neighborhood in downtown Miami. Its residential population has more than doubled in the past decade.

[ardecila]

Weird to be demanding a park in a neighborhood with so many open sites. The recently-developed blocks are pretty intense, granted, but the heart of the neighborhood is Mary Brickell Village, which is pretty low-scaled and open.

It's also weird to be demanding three tennis courts when there are already seven courts immediately to the south.

[bobdreamz]

^Those tennis courts no longer exist. They are part of the massive three city block $1.3 billion dollar Brickell Citi Centre project currently under construction. In fact if you look at the skyline pic posted above and look to the open space on the left that used to be the Brickell Tennis Club that was sold to Swire Properties of Hong Kong.

The site in November 2010 :


pic by QuantumX

Rendering of the project :




pics by QuantumX

Aerial view of Brickell Citi Centre U/C & the land available for the park renendering posted above on the upper right corner :


pic by Viper1165

Unfortunately the city of Miami is having budget problems again so there is no money to purshase any land for parks. There are a few pocket parks in the Brickell area but nothing huge & the cost of land is way to expensive. Besides the residents of Brickell have a public walkway along Biscayne Bay or the can just cross the river into downtown and use the 33 acre Bayfront Park.

[ardecila]

Ah, too bad. That tennis club had a cool clubhouse.