The City of Coral Gables is negotiating the sale of a green area environment and the Doctors Hospital valet parking lot.
In this green buffer environment there resides wildlife including feeding manatees, an occasional alligator, ducks, turtles, herons, fish, among others. Boaters visit the canal that ends at the Pisano Ave Bridge by the University of Miami.
Some typical wildlife residents and visitors to the area for feeding, reproduction and rest are as follows:
A dense green buffer (shown here in part on the Coral Gables Canal near the University of Miami, abutting the Doctors Hospital parking leased from the City of Coral Gables) provides significant community, environmental and ambient benefits to residents and homeowners in the City of Coral Gables.
The many community benefits of the green area:
Provide wildlife habitat (birds, fish, reptiles, manatees…) diversity
Traffic calming and noise mitigation
Impeding views of car traffic, valet parking, buses and ambulances
Impeding view of Doctors Hospital buildings
Mitigate Doctors Hospital lighting
Wind and temperature mitigation in storms and hurricanes
CO2 capture
Favor canal users’ recreational boating and fishing
Bolster local property values
The City of Coral Gables is negotiating the sale of the parking lot land to Baptist Health (Doctors Hospital). This could lead to a reduction in the green environmental buffer for the local residents and visual invasion of Doctors Hospital into the quiet neighborhood.
It is hoped that the City of Coral Gables will fortify the residents by setting clear limits on future land use. Otherwise, this raises questions about the sale of the property.
The city should prohibit the construction of structures (buildings, walls..) of any kind on the land and guarantee the future maintenance and sustainability of landscaping just as dense and beneficial as the existing green buffer. A mechanism to regularly review the maintenance and sustainability of the green area should be considered.
CANAL ALONG UNIVERSITY BLVD VIEWED FROM PISANO BRIDGECANAL VIEW HOSPITAL AND PARKING HIDDENBIRD RESIDENTSFREQUENT VISITORGREEN BUFFER–LOOKING TO THE CANALGREEN BUFFER AROUND HOSPITAL PARKING LOT
Miami Congresswoman Donna Shalala, the former cabinet secretary of Health and Human Services and former UM president, told the Herald, “It is very difficult to open anything when you have community spread. We still have community spread.” She calls reopening large venues like Hard Rock Stadium “risky.”
It sounds like a big mistake, an error, a high risk activity to allow 13,000 into football games. Many will drink too much, talk too much, yell too much and many without masks controlled by the Hard Rock Stadium.
THIS IS SIMPLY AN EXPERIMENT IN COVID-19 COMMUNITY SPREAD. NOT A GOOD MODEL FOR UM STUDENT BEHAVIOR.
[The Vice-President of Student Affairs]…email said the university had received reports that groups of undergraduates were renting an Airbnb in the Keys and Miami Beach to “evade our mask, social distancing and curfew requirements. These selfish actions risk our entire U reopening plan.”
There is ever evidence that the arrogant, selfish students at the university are almost impossible to control, especially those who live off campus. The University of Miami is soon to have more than a few students with COVID-19.
Also residents of Coral Gables are in danger in places of intersection at supermarkets, pharmacies and restaurants.
Coral Gables Watch 