BENEFITS OF THE GREEN BARRIER

August 28, 2020 Leave a comment

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 BRIDGE

CANAL VIEW HOSPITAL AND PARKING HIDDEN

BIRD RESIDENTS

FREQUENT VISITOR

GREEN BUFFER–LOOKING TO THE CANAL

GREEN BUFFER AROUND HOSPITAL PARKING LOT

Filed under Climate Change, Coral Gables, Environment, Florida

Endangered Green Area: Overview

August 18, 2020 Leave a comment

PARKING LOT AND GREEN AREA BUFFER ALONG THE CANAL

This is a satellite view of the Doctors Hospital (Baptist Health) parking lot leased from the City of Coral Gables showing the lot and the green barrier between the lot and the neighborhood streets (Granada, Carillo, Pisano).

AREA OF DOCTORS HOSPITAL (BAPTIST HEALTH) CITY OF CORAL GABLES–PARKING LOT—THE CANAL AND RESIDENTS ON THE RIGHT

The City of Coral Gables plans the sale of the parking lot and the green area to Baptist Health for an estimated $3.0 million.

The green buffer hides views of the Doctors Hospital building, traffic and parked cars from the area residents and supplies numerous environmental benefits.

It is worrying that Doctors Hospital will re-landscape the area with the subsequent loss of the environment and local property values.

The City of Coral Gables should require that no buildings or other construction (walls) be allowed on the property and that the green buffer be fully retained or significantly improved.

If the City of Coral Gables cannot ensure the permanency of the dense green buffer then the land sale may be questioned.

Filed under Community, Coral Gables, Environment, Government, Property Values

Our Brutal Capitalism

June 2, 2020 Leave a comment

  • No universal healthcare–growing millions of people with no access to healthcare and worse during the pandemic and the high unemployment of those depending on employer-based healthcare.
  • Concentrated wealth and income in the upper 10 to 1 percent of people.
  • Concentration of political power in corporations and high wealth groups.
  • Broken presidential voting favoring small, rural, poor states with undemocratic local voting and the electoral college.
  • Low minimum wages and declining value of median incomes.
  • Racially segregated education, healthcare, employment, housing and public services like clean water, internet access, clean air, equity justice.
  • Socialism (meaning government benefits and subsidies) for big corporations and the wealthy, and the free market competition and harsh capitalism for the workers, poor and underprivileged.
  • Unchecked monopoly power of large, powerful corporations.
  • Exploitation of undocumented immigrants in low-wage dangerous work.
  • “Great wealth flows from great power; great power depends on great wealth. Wealth and power have become one and the same.” (p. 10. Robert B. Reich. The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It. 2020)
  • Economic growth now mostly favors the rich.
  • Weakening social safety net of social security, medicare, medicaid, unemployment insurance, SNAP (food stamp) benefits…

Filed under Business and Commerce, Economy, Election, Environment, Finance, Health, Housing, Justice

Wildlife Along Coral Gables Canal, Doctors Hospital

February 8, 2020 1 Comment

Try to identify the several herons nesting in the trees and shrubs along the Coral Gables Canal beside the valet parking lot in front of Doctors Hospital. This is just one evidence of abundant wildlife that depend on the green buffer between the parking lot and the canal.

Filed under Coral Gables, Environment

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