It’s Not Just The Miracle Mile Steetscape. What Happened To Giralda In The Discussions?

March 31, 2011 Leave a comment

The Miracle Mile Streetscape Project is really the Miracle Mile & Giralda Streetscape.  This is obviously more ambitious than Miracle Mile alone and explains the higher cost compared to earlier ideas and probable eventual increased cost and probable untimely execution of the project.  The suggestion that you can do an extensive renovation along Miracle Mile and Giralda without disturbing business is not convincing.

Filed under Business and Commerce, Coral Gables

Coral Gables’ High Tech Parking Means High Tech Fees and Revenues

March 31, 2011 Leave a comment

The pay and display system usually dramatically increases parking revenues for the city (you are right, you pay more).  These systems generally require a much large minimum.

For example, South Miami’s system makes you pay $1.50 minimum, not 25 cents or 50 cents, for a brief stop.  Of course, the next guy pays $1.50 again.  These systems sometimes double parking revenues for cities.

Forget about the exciting technology, you will end up paying more parking fees.

The city will replace some 800 of the quaint, old-fashioned parking meters on Biltmore Way, Alhambra Circle, Ponce de Leon Boulevard and downtown parking lots with 80 solar-powered pay-and-display stations.

via Gables parking going high tech – Coral Gables – MiamiHerald.com.

Filed under Business and Commerce, Coral Gables, Government, Taxes and Fees

Louis Vuitton on Miracle Mile?

March 26, 2011 Leave a comment

Executives of the French brand known for its trademark handbags and accessories said this week they will leave the Bal Harbour Shops at the end of June and move to Aventura Mall where they will eventually more than double the size of their store. Also on the agenda: opening a second store in the burgeoning Miami Design District by 2014.

via Louis Vuitton moving to Aventura Mall, Design District – Business – MiamiHerald.com.

This counters the many unrealistic expectations about the future of Miracle Mile, except from the property owners who would like to have taxpayer subsidies.  Miracle Mile will never be much more than it is now, even with new shrubs, sidewalks and thoroughfares, even with a pile of subsidies from the taxpayers.  Miracle Mile will never be a Dadeland Mall, a Merrick Park, the Design District and surely not Aventura Mall.  The adjacent Museum has apparently failed from the start.

Then what is the justification for spending a risky $16 million of city debt on this street, eliminating parking, cutting down the existing trees…

A task for the new commission of the city of Coral Gables is to bring this project into a realistic perspective.

Filed under Business and Commerce, Coral Gables, Property Values

AT&T Wireless Asleep With The Air Traffic Controller at Reagan National?

March 25, 2011 Leave a comment

I just experienced AT&T Wireless services at Reagan National Airport, the same night that the air traffic controller fell asleep on the job.  AT&T Wireless was as asleep as the controller–couldn’t call and phone downloading slow enough to make it worthless.

Filed under Business and Commerce, National

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