A couple of days ago, the Miami Herald published an article entitled, North Miami Beach protesters rally against hotel by Greynolds Park. According to the article, “on Sunday, nearly forty protestors showed up at the proposed construction site to show their disapproval of a rezoning that the council approved last year to allow a development.”
I wonder how many of those “nearly forty protestors” are among the forty thousand residents who live in the City of North Miami Beach.
Two of the protestors interviewed for the article are Letty Dykes of BISCAYNE GARDENS and Kim Lumpkin of NORTH MIAMI. Not interviewed, but most likely in attendance was Good Old Charlie Brown, er, I mean, Baron, Flora and Fauna Expert/Tree Lawyer, of UNINCORPORATED DADE.
I couldn’t tell you how many actual North Miami Beach residents attended the rally because none were interviewed.
Oh, but wait! At press time the Save Greynolds Park Facebook Page got 1,720 “likes!”
Wow. I’m so impressed.
Then again, the Impeach Obama Facebook Page got 64,543 “likes” and he’s still the President.
Yeah, keep clicking those “likes.” That’s effective.
This whole scenario reminded me of this video by Penn and Teller who sent one of his “pals” to a WorldFest rally to collect signatures for a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide to help save the environment. Just watch.
As Penn Jillette asked, “Is passion supposed to replace common sense?”
Apparently, it does now.
First of all, most of the folks who are clamoring to “save” Greynolds Park don’t even live here. The ones that used to live here have long since left for greener pastures. So to speak. I’m guessing if they did live here and understood the myriad of problems this city is facing, they’d understand why we need to become a more progressive city. Much like the petition signers in the Penn and Teller video who never even bothered to ask what dihydrogen monoxide is, they have no clue that North Miami Beach is dying a slow death. We need ways to increase our revenue, and development of new income producing property is the only way to get off life support.
Residents – that’s “people who actually live here” for the uninformed – are crying out for more police protection and crime prevention. Our city is rife with crumbling buildings and infrastructure, and crime is rampant. On top of the fact that we no longer have a Gang Unit, thanks to lack of revenue (which is directly due to lack of new development), the dilapidated structures in NMB are nothing more than a welcome mat to the criminal element. The only way to get them out of our city is to revitalize our neighborhoods, bring in more revenue and get more cops out on the street.
Because of a rally call on the Save Greynolds Park Facebook page for activists to swarm the North Miami Beach City Council meeting last night, all two of them showed up. I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure one of them is the dude who’s been bogarting that joint since 1973. The Tree Huggers told the council that if they continued with their plans to build the hotel they would be destroying Greynolds Park.
This reminds me of the time resident Shizam accused the council of spreading AIDS because we have strip clubs.
Both declarations are nothing more than a combination of bizarre exaggeration and blatant fear mongering.
A comment posted on the Facebook page on Sunday, stated, “They already changed the zoning in the area so that the project and it’s giant towers (which don’t fit in with the area’s residential neighborhoods) can move forward. [Evil Keith] Donner further stated in the article that “these people are making it sound as if there is a nuclear winter in North Miami Beach.” This seems to be his futile attempt to paint actual concerned, regular everyday citizens as radicals, to divert your attention away from the facts. The facts are that one of the most fragile, historic and beautiful parks in the the U.S. will be severely damaged by the building of these towers. Traffic will be quadrupled along a two-lane city street (West Dixie Highway) which is already a bottleneck many hours during the day.”
Now how about some real facts:
1. The Hippies on the Grass are for the most part not residents of North Miami Beach. Development outside the south entrance of the park will do no more to destroy the “fragile, historic” Greynolds than the seven story condominium right outside the north entrance of the park that is home to lawyer Charles Baron, who hypocritically is suing to stop it.
2. In fact, I spoke with one of the builders of Charles Baron’s condominium located at 17890 West Dixie Highway, Miami, Florida 33160, which is NOT in North Miami Beach, and which was built in 1979. He told me that when Charles Baron’s condominium was constructed, they had to tear up and dredge the mangroves and then fill it with limestone in order to create a foundation for the building. Much destruction of the “fragile” ecology occurred so that Mr. Baron could have his air conditioned seven story condominium. In the case of this new proposed development, the site already has a foundation, so no further dredging will be necessary.
3. And, finally, unlike most of the protestors who live nowhere near North Miami Beach, I travel that area on an almost daily basis and I have yet to encounter a “bottleneck” of traffic. In fact, most of the time that area is completely void of traffic at all.
So much for their “facts.”
The fact is that we who live in North Miami Beach, and we who are affected by its lack of revenue and increase in crime, are desperate for solutions to our problems. Unlike those who already live in upscale, safe and beautiful communities outside NMB, such as the majority of the protestors, we are the only ones affected by the city’s heretofore no-growth policy. They can all go back to their gated, beautifully maintained and secure communities (that’d be you, too, Charles Baron) after their carefully staged protests are over. We get to stay stuck in the ‘hood after they’re all long gone.
Just like the idealistic but misguided hippies in the Penn and Teller video did, go ahead sign all the petitions you want banning water if it makes you feel good about yourselves for saving the spotted owls and Australian pines.
Then get the hell out of here so we can fix the real problems in North Miami Beach.
Of course, the Hippies on the Grass will cry that they have a First Amendment right to protest dihydrogen monoxide. They most certainly have that right. By the same token, I have a First Amendment right to point out how stupid they are for not knowing it’s water.
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
I spoke at last night’s meeting and utilized an aerial photograph of Greynolds Park and the surrounding areas, including the new hotel site to address the concerns of the “Save Greynolds Park” crew. I also requested that the City of North Miami Beach post the aerial photo on the city’s website so that the general public can actually see where the new hotel is to be built.
The property where the proposed hotel is to be built shares its entire property line with a multi-story apartment building on its west side and its east property line with the West Dixie Highway right-of-way line. Only the North property line abuts the Southeast corner of Greynolds Park. The proposed hotel is to be ten (10) stories in height (not 15 as mentioned last night) with the tower portion stepped back to the center of the property with a parking lot between the tower and the West property line. One of the concerns I heard brought up by the intelligencia that spoke last night against building the hotel was the statement of how the building shadow will impact the flora and the fauna of the park. The last time I checked, the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. Even with “global warming”, it still does that. This means that there will be NO shadow cast on Greynolds Park by the proposed hotel. It will cast its shadow on the apartment building to the West and West Dixie Highway on the East.
This is in direct contrast to the condominium where Attorney and Plaintiff Charles Baron resides. His seven story building abuts the ecologically sensitive Oleta River and since his condo building is directly to the east of the paddle boat lake, the building he lives in DOES cast a shadow directly upon portions of Greynolds Park. “Do as I say not as I do” would be an appropiate statement.
In conclusion, for all the very reasons why you stated our City needs developement, I firmly agree we really do need it. Meetings with the developer have already brought about a 50% reduction in size of the project to address any environmental and scale issues. This is another case where restrictive development can work with environmentally sensitive areas and I hope the project moves forward to fruition.
I understand we are close to the equator but not so close that the sun goes directly above us, it appears slightly to the south, casting a slightly northward shadow as the earth rotates.
I don’t know to what extent if any the park would be affected by shadow, however as mentioned elsewhere the area of the park directly adjacent to the property is heavily populated with large trees.This seems to give the light even more leeway as the trees rise about two stories high.
I wonder what ecological impact the building made in 1979 has had.
I am a resident of North Miami Beach, not a resident of Unincorporated Miami-Dade County pretending I live in North Miami Beach (and I can prove it by the color of my garbarge can). I grew up playing frisbee and pretending I was a hippee in Greynolds Park. I love nature, I love animals and plants, I love the color green and sky blue. I also don’t like crime, ugly buildings, cracked roads and paying one of the highest millage rates in MDC. I have studied the area of the proposed hotel site, which btw from what I heard has no site plan yet, so everyone calm the f%@k down. I can’t fathom how the Save Greynolds Park group nor the Professor on their facebook page can testify that a 10 story building is going to be detrimental to the native plant communities within its shadows. Exactly what shadows are we talking about? The area it will affect is already shadowed by the beautiful trees next to it that are in the park already. Greynolds park is a treasure, but the treasure is in the park not outside of it. I don’t believe this city council has any intentions of not doing what is right for this community and what will be just fine for the park. At least a proposed hotel would bring more visitors into the park that would appreciate all that is wonderful about it, and the residents can get much needed revenue to a city that would like to prosper, if you don’t mind.
And let’s not forget; they had their fund-raiser at the Luna Star Cafe in North Miami. These folks want NMB to “save” Greynolds, but they wouldn’t spend a dollar for a cup of coffee in our city.
That irony did not escape me. They’ve also met at North Miami’s Arch Creek Park and I believe at the FIU campus, also in North Miami. Apparently they couldn’t find a suitable enough place to meet in North Miami Beach. Idiots.
Mr. Lamberto, the shadows would not just be on the east and west sides as you proclaim because the sun’s location does move throughout the year. The earth is tilted on its axis and the sun is in the Southern Hemisphere during winter and Northern Hemisphere during the summer. This will cause shadows to be on angles not just directly east and west.
Another thing about Greynold’s park is its lack of use by the general public. More people use Haulover and Uleta parks so if these protesters want to show their support they should actually use the park and support it by paying the entrance and parking fees. Greynold’s lack of support shows in the unavailability of funds to maintain and improve it.
i for one would like to see this development come to fruition as well because we need the additional revenue. The NMB Chamber of Commerce has to use a Sunny Isles Hotel for a function because we don’t have a hotel in the city.