City Commission - Regular Meeting

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Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the June 17th, 2026 meeting of the Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee. I'm joined by Vice Mayor Laura Dominguez, by Commissioner Tanya K. Bond, and by Commissioner Monica Matil Salinas. I'm going to pass the floor over to our staff liaison, Stephanie Ray Brooks, for this morning's announcements.

Good morning. Today's Public Safety Neighborhoods Quality and Life Committee meeting is a hybrid meeting. The members of the committee will be physically present at the commission chambers. Members of the public who wish to attend this meeting or provide public comment in person may appear at the commission chambers. Members of the public who want to participate or provide comment virtually during the meeting may join via webinar via Zoom. We also added a supplemental this morning with residents' comments for item number eight, and that is live on the agenda.

Thank you, Stephanie. We're going to take today's agenda in the order in which it was printed as usual, and as every committee meeting, we're going to start with a citizen's public forum where residents are given two minutes to speak on any issue, whether it's on the agenda or not. So residents wishing to speak, feel free to approach the podium. You'll be given two minutes to speak. Residents attending via Zoom, feel free to raise your hand on Zoom and you'll be afforded two minutes as well. Good morning, welcome.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. You do such amazing work. I'm so entertained by the depth of the commentary, the questions when I come in here. I did not know really how the public felt about having a bird bath on Belle Isle until I went out to ask. And inadvertently, my questions and my questioning them has created tremendous demand. I was feeding the birds this morning. I was just running out of the car to get that food in there. Oh, well, somebody approaches me. Well, when are we going to get the bird bath? Now they all want a birdbath. It's a sophisticated crowd. I'm willing to increase the amount that I can contribute personally to $3,000 from $2,000 at this point in time. And the only other question I have is, do you think, since this is number 57 on the roster, do you think that this might be heard for discussion today?

It's not on the agenda. The item on the agenda for today are those who are listed under items to be heard. and we take the agenda and the order that it's printed.

So as our, no.

Not today.

It won't be heard today. Thank you. I just wanted to let you all know Belle Isle really wants this small, charming thing for our wildlife. Thank you.

Thank you for joining us today. Johan Moore, good morning. You have two minutes to speak.

Good morning, Commissioners. While this is not on your agenda today, I did want to submit a few remarks based on Commissioner Fernandez's recent comments about budgetary matters and the need to address funding in an equitable way. I had a couple of specific remarks about the millage rate and general fund budget. And in particular, I would draw your attention to items three and four, while making it clear that I have absolutely no objection Quite the contrary to item 5, which includes a 3% cost of living adjustment for city employees. But I wonder why, I have a why and a why not. Why is the millage rate not being considered to be changed to a variable rate, which would fall more heavily on luxury properties? And that's my why not. And my whys are why a 0% increase in the city's health insurance premiums, but 10% increase for police and fire. And I hope we will get those answers at some point in time in the next however many months. And also item four, possibly of even more concern, an average 2% performance based merit increase in pay, apparently, except 5% for police and 4% for fire. These are not rhetorical questions, but I also understand that this is not on the agenda today. So I wanted to put those before the commission and almost more to the point before the public in hopes of getting clarity on some of these issues as we move into this being on your agenda, I hope, in the near future. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning. Welcome. You have two minutes to speak. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners, committee members. My name is Matthew Goldhanoff, and I was going to come this afternoon to speak on an item related to the budget, but then I realized that they had the Suttonick portion for this morning's meeting, which is so great. It gives the public another opportunity to connect with the policymakers of the city. I wanted to talk about the bicycle pedestrian coordinator position, which many of us fought for a couple of years ago, including champions that are sitting up on the dais right now of this position. I learned that it was being considered to be eliminated, not only be eliminated, but that it hasn't even been filled yet. It's been a number of years. Bicycle usage has grown tremendously. Micromobility usage has grown tremendously. And sadly, we've seen in the last couple of months a number of fatal and serious crashes involving all three of those groups. And I would just encourage the body here, as well as the entire commission, to not only retain that position in-house as an employee that can retain and grow institutional knowledge and make meaningful change in this city, but to fill it as well. And that is my comment.

Thank you. Thank you, Matthew, for bringing this to our attention. It certainly is important. Any other members of the public wishing to speak? Seeing none in person and none on Zoom with their hand raised, we're going to close the Sunday Citizens Forum and we'll move to item number one on the agenda.

Item number one is reports and updates. Monthly update on the status of the Fifth Street Pedestrian Bridge and the Modern Hotel Mirador Condominium Baywalk projects. This item is sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez.

Stephanie, apologies for interrupting. I'm going to ask to defer number nine.

So we can show item number nine as deferred. Good morning, David. You're here on the Fifth Street Pedestrian Bridge and on the Baywalk projects. Good morning, Mr.

Chair, Madam Commissioners. David Gomez, Director of Capital Improvements, here to provide the update on the Baywalk and the Ped Bridge. As you all are aware, the portion of the Ped Bridge that was covered under this update has been completed and open to the public. So that has been ongoing for several weeks now. And the update on the pedestrian bridge as of yesterday afternoon, the developer is in the process of receiving final reports from their consultant later this week. So we should have some direction or some determination next week. They are looking at multiple options and multiple variations on the construction of the bridge itself. So we should have more information for you next week. So, David, it was my understanding this bridge is pre-built. Portions of it are pre-fabricated, yes. The main structural portions, the beams that cross the MacArthur are scheduled to be pre-fabricated, yes.

Okay, and so now they're... they're looking at potentially rebuilding the bridge?

They're looking at any design option that will help them complete the bridge, whether it's changing alignment, changing foundations, changing layout. They're looking at what they can do to make it happen.

So FPL identified the landing spot for the power source to the city. And then once that was identified, the developer, was identifying or was trying to determine whether that was going to impact the foundations for the receiving end of the bridge.

That's 100% correct. Their first determination was whether or not it impacted the foundations. It does. So now the next step is to determine what they can do to work around that FPL.

And that is what the consultant is currently doing. That's correct. This isn't the city's consultant. No, no. This is the developer's consultant. So there's no taxpayer's dollars from the city of Miami Beach being spent on a consultant to try and to fix this issue between the developer and FPL. That's correct. Okay. And you said that that should be available by when?

As of yesterday afternoon, they told us they would have something, they would receive something this week and then deliver it to us next week. Okay. Commissioner Bond.

Thank you, Chair. David, I have a couple of questions, one related to what The chair was just asking about one related to the other end of the Baywalk, so forgive me, since it's not in the middle of Vice Mayor Dominguez's proscribed area. My understanding about the issue with the Baywalk at the southern end is that it is very close to power lines where nobody is willing to really take ownership of the location of the power lines. And so I'm pulling back to the 30,000 foot height. And this has been going on for a long time. And this is not a comment to say, oh, well, they don't need to build what they committed to, because they do. But my question is, if there is even a chance that in constructing the bridge as it is currently imagined, there is a chance that either we will knock out power for an entire section of our, very densely populated section of our city for even an afternoon, but it would likely be days or weeks before it got restored. That's a non-starter for me. And more importantly, is if there's even a chance that a single person's life would be lost, in construction of the bridge as it is currently imagined, that's an absolute non-starter for me. So why are we still wasting time talking about how this version of this bridge can be built in this manner when what I think we should be doing, and I know I'm just one voice. I'm not an engineer. I think what we should be doing is reimagining what that functionality could be. If it's an over-the-water extension of the pedestrian walkway, if it's a different kind of bridge that's built and engineered differently. Like, I understand the developer promised X. But nobody had done the engineering work at that point. So when X proves to be, to my view, an untenable safety risk one way or another, or God forbid both, move on to another plan. So can you address that? And then I also have another question.

Exactly to your point is why they're being so careful with the layout. FPL has determined with a pretty good level of certainty exactly where the line is. But because of safety factors and wanting to make sure that we don't have the incidents you described, there's a certain clear area that's required around the lines. So that's really what's impacting the foundation layout. If it were a matter of just move the foundation afoot and we could do it, but we're just too close to the line, so we're keeping that safety factor.

So when you say FPL has a pretty good degree of certainty, to me, that's an oxymoronic statement. Like, certainty is not pretty good. It's either certain or it's not. And pretty good is like, you know, everything is relative in hand grenades and horseshoes, right? What's that expression? So I don't want a pretty good certainty. I want ironclad certainty. And I don't know, from what I've been talking about with various parties, it doesn't seem like that certainty can exist.

They have provided a survey drawing of the lines, but FPL, like most utilities, will never guarantee that it is exactly where they're showing it. And because of the depth of the line, it's hard to confirm while we're doing the construction. So we have to build in that safety factor to make sure that we're not having the events that you described. The developer is looking at not only how, if it impacts the foundation, how it could be adjusted, but they're also looking at other alternatives. So they are examining or reimagining the potentials.

Okay, so because this has been going on for at least since I was elected and far longer because you guys have worked on it. So why are we still dithering around with this version of the bridge instead of saying, you know what, it would have been beautiful like this, but let's go to another plan. I mean, I know it's not our money, but it is our city's time, our residents' inconvenience. You know, let's go design something else that's beautiful and functional and doesn't put power supplies and lives at risk. I mean, it just doesn't seem.

And if I could add on that under future items on our agenda, we have item 49 from Commissioner Mattel Salinas to discuss the feasibility of replacing the planned Fifth Street pedestrian bridge with an overwater connection linking the Baywalk south of Fifth Street with a Baywalk north of Fifth Street. Commissioner, if you're ready to have that item heard at the next meeting, I'll make sure it gets placed on the agenda for the next meeting.

I'm ready. Let's do it.

Okay. And to your point, Commissioner, we are doing it on a parallel track. We're looking at multiple options.

Okay, perfect. So thank you for that, and Commissioner Mateo Salinas, yay. And then switching to the other end of the Baywalk, the property, Lincoln Bay Towers, talk to me about what's going on, because I'm getting sort of, I'm hearing from residents there that they are not being apprised of what's going on, that they are, they're not being included in the conversations, and as it directly affects their backyard effectively, It seems like they should absolutely be part of the conversation of what's going to be built there, how, when, et cetera.

I will need to follow up with you. 1450 Lincoln, which is Lincoln Bay Towers, has been in conversations with the city about that bay walk for a very long time. As a matter of fact, I think you helped us broker a deal with the layout, regarding the layout long ago.

That is now part- I don't think that was me, but so give the credit to someone who actually did the work.

That is now part of the development responsibilities of the developer for the 1250 West Avenue. And they have been As a matter of fact, I think just last week at the request of Lincoln Bay Towers, a meeting was canceled where they were going to go over the presentation of the proposed Baywalk. We are working with, through our Neighborhood Affairs Division and the developer, to have those conversations and present to them whatever layouts we can provide.

And are you meeting with the board first and then the full? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Okay, so conversations are moving forward. Thank you for that update. I appreciate that.

Thank you, Commissioner Bond. Vice Mayor Dominguez.

I met with the development I mean the team for 1250 yesterday and we went over the three pending areas of the Baywalk which was 800 West 1228 and 1450 and they're very close with the first two and with the third one they've met with the board of that building and they feel that they have and a rendering that could potentially get approved by that building. So I think it may be on its way. With the pedestrian bridge, and I know it's beyond our control, but I'm very disappointed because when this was first proposed, and Mark Samuel was on the commission, he was told by the developers that it would be done by Art Basel the following year, and then here we are years and years and years, and it just feels like, not us, but in general, it's dragging, people are dragging their feet and pointing fingers and making excuses, and we need to cut that out get this done, it's embarrassing what's happened with that pedestrian bridge project.

Thank you Vice Mayor and as we've discussed, David we've discussed, this shouldn't be a death by a thousand cuts and right now that's what it feels like is constantly going back to the drawing board, constantly you know, engaging consultants, constantly looking at redesign, when we almost know the direction that this is going in. The direction that this is going in is that it won't be realistic to complete this without engaging in some very serious public safety concerns and some very serious impact to essential infrastructure in our city? And do we feel it's worth to engage in those public safety liabilities and impact to essential and critical infrastructure, such as the power source to South Beach, if there are other options that could be pursued? So we're going to prioritize, Commissioner, Matilda Lena's item so that we can explore whether at this point it will be prudent to shift directions from the bridge over the MacArthur causeway and shift our Resources and our focus to doing this over the water What I want to make sure is that when we come back next month with that discussion that we do have analysis as it relates to the contractual obligation of the developer to fulfill it in that manner. If there are going to be fiscal impacts, who is going to bear those fiscal impacts, in addition to, obviously, the regulatory matters of building over the water. But from what I gather, we've already successfully built Baywalk over the water. When we see the advancement that we've done over the Baywalk over the past few years under the auspice of Commissioner Dominguez, who has been leading this effort ever since being elected, we have seen significant advancement from where we were at four years ago to where we were at today. Links that didn't exist before now exist over the water. So we've learned how to do this. Now we just need to shift focus, and if something isn't going to be realistic, we just need to be true to our public, to our residents and constituents. Something was promised. It's no longer feasible for reasons that were unforeseen, but now this is the new plan. Yes, Commissioner.

If I might add to that. I think also, you know, as beautiful as that rainbow bridge was designed to be, I mean, look at my shirt. It's like a rendering of the rainbow bridge. A walking rainbow. I know. I think the expression is like a unicorn farted or something. So, you know, whatever. But it's a beautiful design, and it would be really fun and cool. But there were concerns about it, right? It was a little bit complicated for people with bikes to negotiate. I know it was engineered so that it was feasible. It's a little bit complicated. There are concerns about safety at night. There are concerns about how hot it would get during the summer months. So it was not a perfect, perfect design. And those concerns were addressed and managed so that they weren't deal breakers. But if we have something else that could be equally functional, because at the end of the day, that is the most important thing, and also kind of addresses the concerns It'd be easier to navigate for people who are wheeling their bikes, because you're not allowed to use bikes on the Baywalk, but, you know, they're wheeling their bikes to connect to South Point or wherever. The safety issues are not as large for other reasons. And it can be designed to have a beautiful, you know, let's say a greenscape that is designed to, you know, enhance the beauty of the functionality. You know, Monica, I know this is your...

whole thing for next month but I at this point I'm like no longer fish or cut bait like let's cut bait and go get a different fish so so I think it might be appropriate for for next month together with Commissioner Mattel Salinas's item is once we know what that final report from the consultant from the developer says I want it to be on the agenda if it's not going to be feasible I think I think we need to clearly state on the record have an item on the on on our agendas part of this report for us to consider making a recommendation to the city commission to no longer pursue the bridge. That is ultimately what is going to happen. Let's just pull this band-aid, let's be transparent with our residents, and let's stop wasting the developer's time and our staff time, which is ultimately our staff time is taxpayer money. And let's just be ready at the next month to say the Public Safety Committee is moving to recommend that we no longer pursue the bridge and send that back to the full commission so that we can then focus all of our efforts into what could truly be the realistic path forward.

Is the next, um, neighborhoods committee meeting before it is before the next commission meeting in July.

And if you all want to have just a special meeting on that and just on that issue, um, I'm happy to accommodate it just because I do think this has just been lingering on for way too long. I think we all know what's going to happen and I think it's just, You know, it's just a bureaucracy, the steps over the steps and the consultants and the reports and the engineers that we just go through before getting to the final destination that I think we all feel in our gut, we know what's going to be.

All right. Agreed. I'm still hopeful that we can get that bridge done the way it was intended to be. And so until I hear the final verdict, I don't want to pull the Band-Aid because I don't like the under the water, under the MacArthur Causeway. I think that's dangerous.

Right.

The safety concern.

And I understand that. And so I just, you know, my concern is if the infrastructure, if our power supply to the city is going to be affected, And that supersedes everything else for me. So we can see, we can show this item completed for today and being brought back at our next meeting. If the committee wishes to have a special meeting once we get the report so that we know which direction this is going in, I'm happy to convene a special meeting. All right, great. Thank you, David. Let's proceed to item number two.

Item number two is the Monthly Updates on the Status of Ongoing and Future Projects Involving the Use of the Leonard Horowitz Color Palette for Art Deco Building Restorations in Collaboration with Barbara Hulanicki. This item is sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez.

Commissioner Dominguez, this is your item. Good morning, Mr. Chair, Commissioners, Frank Garcia, Facilities Management Division Director. At the May 13th Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee meeting, The committee directed administration to prepare renderings for the painting of the two beachfront restroom pavilions located at 6th and 14th streets respectively. The Facilities Management Division subsequently conferred with the Planning Department to select potential colors for the repainting of the restroom pavilions. The proposed renderings and color selections have been included in the memo for the committee's review, and I believe PJ can bring those up for us from the control room. Thank you, PJ. I'm trying to remember if this is 6th, it's 6th Street. That's 6th Street, yeah. As evidenced by the big block signage on top of.

And as we're looking at these items, this is in collaboration with Barbara Hulaniki and?

No, ma'am. These, the colors for these renderings were, came from our planning department. I personally conferred with our incoming planning director, currently our chief architecture and historic preservation officer, Ms. Debbie Tackett, and so she helped select these colors, and we put together these renderings. PJ next.

This item is Barbara Hulineke.

But I think at the last committee meeting, the committee, the staff sought feedback from the committee and the committee responded saying we were fine if they wanted to confer with planning staff instead of speaking with Ms. Wilanicki. That was the feedback that the committee provided.

Is she still getting her fee?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner, I should add that The total cost for this project currently stands at $8,400 for both restroom pavilions, exclusive of any consulting fees. Should the committee wish to engage Ms. Barbara Hulanicki to consult on these painting projects as done with projects passed, we can anticipate an additional $10,000 in consulting fees. For the other painting projects that she consulted on, it was $5,000 per.

And I think for the other projects, there were larger scale projects. And so perhaps it was beautifully done, and her input truly contributed to the outcome of it. These are smaller scale projects, and we have our in-house historic preservation officer providing guidance, I wouldn't want to more than double the cost when we have good feedback from our staff.

All right, so the item specifically says ongoing projects in collaboration with Barbara Hulaniki, so if something does not involve her, it probably shouldn't be mentioned under the Barbara Hulaniki item. And I believe that Economic Development is working on locations where we can do the Barbara Hulaniki, so that's what I want as part of the update for the next time.

Yes, ma'am.

And if it doesn't include Barbara, then don't bring it up because this item is specifically her collaborations.

And Madam Vice Mayor, I believe that this title appears this way on the agenda whenever this item was originated. I believe back in 2024. I think that may have been the title. And at the last meeting, staff asked the committee if we wanted to continue with these two with these two buildings with the guidance of Ms. Hulaniki and the committee provided the feedback that it was okay perhaps not to engage Ms. Hulaniki. just with these two bathrooms. That's not to say that for other lockers.

Right, and I picked up this item from a former commissioner. I'm now the sponsor, so making decisions when the sponsor isn't there to defend the item. I had a family emergency and was unable to attend, so maybe for the next time, if the sponsor's not there to defend it before slashing it, making large changes, defer it so that the sponsor can speak up on the item, like I'm doing now.

Okay, so would you like Ms. Hulaniki engaged?

Of course, of course. I would like her engaged. You already mentioned that these two smaller projects did not warrant her engagement and her fee. So my ask is, don't bring up items that are not going to have Barbara Hulaniki covered because that's what this item was intended to be, collaborations with Barbara Hulaniki. Check with economic development because I have heard that there are opportunities there and let's move forward with those.

Okay.

Any other comments from the committee? No need to modify the title if we are collaborating with Ms. Barbara Hulaniki.

Commissioner, would you still like to proceed with these two restrooms on Loomis Park?

Yes.

Can you, I'm sorry, can you pull up the renderings again?

PJ, can you give us a hand with, yeah, thank you. I think there's four such renderings if you want to scroll through those, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, is there a motion on the table to support these two renderings?

I'll make the motion.

Okay.

Is there a second?

Not officially on the committee. I'll second.

Okay. With that, let us show this moving forward. And colleagues, if there's ever an item on the agenda that you do not want to be heard, just let us know. We always try to be as accommodating as we can. Items only get placed on the agenda if the sponsor is okay with the item being placed on the agenda. And if the sponsor does not want an item heard, as we did today with item number nine, that the sponsor requested for it not to be heard today, then it will not be heard.

Absolutely, and when emergencies arise, flexibility is also appreciated.

All right, let's move forward with item number three.

Item number three is Discuss Reimagining the Traffic Pattern at the 63rd Street, Indian Creek, and Collins Avenue Intersection to Enhance Pedestrian and Micromobility Devices Operator Safety. This item is sponsored by Commissioner Ball.

Commissioner Abbott, this is your item. You're welcome to introduce it.

Thank you. Jose will go through the heavy lifting of this item because like everything Jose and I work on together, it's not easy. So I'll let him do the hard part of this. But the 63rd Street intersection where you go across 63rd Street and then either go north or south on Indian Creek or cross over to Collins is complicated and congested a lot of the time during or most of the time during rush hour, but even when it's not congested, it is not easy to navigate if you are on foot or on a bike or micromobility device just because of the way it was designed, which is car-centric for obvious reasons. So the challenge is, is there an opportunity to reimagine how it could work without negatively impacting traffic, vehicular traffic, but also enhancing pedestrian and micro mobility safety. So that's the challenge, and Jose will take you through where we are in this.

Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair, committee members, Jose Gonzalez, Transportation and Mobility Director. As Commissioner Bott pointed out, this is a challenging intersection in our city. It's one of several hotspots, choke points in our city because of the current grid, the roadway grid in our city. A lot of history, I just want to really briefly recap some of the history with regard to prior efforts and current efforts to look at this intersection in a comprehensive way and make some improvements. So this starts about two years ago, we actually asked FDOT to do a traffic study of that intersection to look at ways of improving the level of service. That study was completed by FDOT. They looked at a few alternatives, including the do nothing alternative, which is always an alternative for FDOT. They call it the no build or do nothing.

The other- That was just a factual statement. That was not an editorial comment.

Correct. I just wanted to clarify that for the record. It's a real alternative. It's called do nothing. The other alternative was to optimize signal timing to improve traffic flow. And the third alternative was to add a westbound lane on 63rd Street because, as Commissioner pointed out, currently if you're traveling northbound on Collins Avenue, and you make a left on 63rd Street, you cannot go through the Indian Creek Drive intersection. You can only make a right and go north on Indian Creek Drive or south if you make a left. So it's a key movement to go west. 63rd Street is one of the few east-west primary thoroughfares in our city. So it would be it would be beneficial to have 63rd Street punch through the Indian Creek Drive intersection so drivers can proceed westbound. And so that... That study unfortunately led to FDOT recommending that nothing be done at that intersection for the reason that for a new left turn, for a new westbound lane to be accommodated at the intersection.

I'm going to ask to pause because I'm not a voting member on this. OK. And to clarify, the FDOT study just looked at vehicular traffic impact, not pedestrian or micro mobility. So when they were looking at it, because we were looking at it like, yeah, it'd be great to improve traffic, but what the impetus of this was was really how do we make it safer for people walking and biking or scootering or e-biking along the way. So their study was useful. in some regards, but it didn't really address the fundamental issue that we are now talking about. They did the study a couple of years ago. We just started talking about it recently. So I want to just point that out to my colleagues on the dais and to anybody listening that it is useful to have the FDOT study, but it wasn't undertaken under the auspices of how do we make it safer for pedestrians and alternative traffic modalities.

that's correct and even when if we're only looking at vehicles the the dot study uh found that if a new westbound lane were to be included or accommodated on 63rd street it would be detrimental to traffic along indian creek drive traveling southbound approaching the bridge so a new lane would actually make things worse so that's why ultimately the the study found that doing nothing is actually better than doing something. at that intersection. So that was the first effort. That was two years ago. More recently, we've undertaken what we call the North Beach Traffic Signal Optimization Pilot Project. It's a pilot project that was endorsed by the City Commission. And what that is doing, it's looking at the network of streets in North Beach, including Abbott, including Harding, Indian Creek Drive, 71st Street, 69th Street. It's looking at that whole grid. and trying to see how to coordinate signal timing in a way that the entire grid flows better. Because what's happened over the years is that different efforts have focused on a particular corridor, such as Abbott Avenue. And so Abbott Avenue may be improved north-south, but it may adversely affect 69th Street going east-west. So they've been very isolated intersection or corridor specific evaluations. What we're doing now is looking at really that portion of North Beach which is so congested on a daily basis, particularly during morning and afternoon rush periods. We're towards the tail end of that pilot project. The next step is a key step which is bringing to the county the recommendations that we found to improve traffic flow, because as you all know, ultimately Miami-Dade County has jurisdiction over traffic signal control timing. So our consultant identified some improvements there from a network perspective, and we're getting ready to present those to the county, hopefully if they endorse it, for implementation. And then the whole area will flow a little better.

And just to give a little color commentary on that, for instance, everyone knows about the north-south Indian Creek crossing, 71st going up to Dickens, because everyone sat in that terrible traffic or knows somebody who sat in that terrible traffic. But for instance, going from the Carillon to Indian Creek can sometimes take 20 minutes. And that's three blocks. So that's not acceptable. So clearly something is amiss.

So the third and last effort that I'd like to briefly touch upon is something that is just getting off the ground as we speak, and that is to engage the University of Texas to do a comprehensive look into North Beach, and that would be a comprehensive evaluation that would look at all modes, not just vehicles, but pedestrian safety, bicycle safety, and micro mobility safety. And we are collaborating with our public works department. We reached out to several universities, had interviews with them, asked them questions. And they were all fantastic out of the universities, and I believe it was about four or five that we reached out to. University of Texas at Austin, you know, really, really shone through. We believe they've got the resources and the right approach for our city. They're not only going to look at this as a regular traffic study, as a traffic engineer would look at it, but they're going to look at it from a behavioral perspective. perspective to see how we can perhaps not just change traffic patterns within this area, but also behavior through different strategies. And they've done this work for other cities in the country. So we're excited about that. We still need to go through a procurement process for that. So right now, we're having the discussions with the preferred university. which is the University of Texas, and we're seeing how we can potentially move that effort along. So those are the three efforts that I wanted to touch upon focused on this area. So there hasn't been a lack of focus. But it is a challenging intersection. It is not an easy solution. Otherwise, it would have already been identified and implemented. And it's a balance. It's a careful balance because if you improve traffic, it may be at the expense of either including a bicycle lane or micro mobility facility. So it needs to be carefully looked at and we believe we have a plan to do that going forward.

Do you need anything legislatively from us to present the traffic findings, the traffic study findings to the county? Would it be useful to have something from the commission or are you just going to keep working your magic and keep us posted?

let us have the first meeting with the county staff and see how it goes if they're open-minded and open to changes because some of the changes are pretty drastic. Some of those signal timing plans for some of these streets up there have been that have been you know in place for decades and haven't been refreshed and there's there's so much more development now there's there's it's there's so much you know, uh, change in that area. And, but yet the signal timing plans have remained predominantly the same for many years. So we're going to have that conversation with County staff first. And then, you know, commissioner, we brief you periodically on this effort. We'll let you know how it, how it goes. And if we need a city commission resolution that has proven to be helpful in the past.

Um, what is your timeframe to, um, go to the County with these findings and the procurement for the, UT Austin vendor.

So with regard to the pilot project finding that's within the next 30 days as soon as we can get a meeting with them. So I think within the next 30 days we can have that first conversation with them and with regard to the university of Texas effort. Uh, my next step on that is to, to work with procurement to see what would it take to move forward with the university of Texas.

And my understanding is that there's federal grant money that we can use to defray the costs.

Is that, I'm, I'm not at the moment.

I can't think of a grant program, but I've been told that by somebody, but okay. Um,

But funding will be an issue, presuming that we can move forward with the University of Texas once we finalize the scope and the price proposal. Obviously, this is not something that's already cooked into our budget, so we'd be approaching.

I thought it was something that UT Austin had. We can talk about it offline. I thought there was something there that helped defray some of the net costs. Okay, so through the chair, if we can keep this here and just get an update in the next month.

And I appreciate you bringing this item forward. Over the past five years, there have been 175 accidents at this intersection.

May I speak, please?

Yes, of course. We always open up items to members of the public wishing to speak. So, yes, you're welcome.

That would be me. I'm Mayra Diaz-Baracavoli. Thank you for allowing us this time. I just want to add, I didn't realize this item was going to be on the agenda, but I want to add that Some years back, there was an overpass, you all recall, on 63rd Street. It was taken down. The conversations with FDOT in the city before that overpass was taken down included such things as no truck traffic going through Alton Road, heading westbound and then heading southbound on Alton to get to Julia Tuttle. that truck traffic was going to continue or go to Collins Avenue if they were heading southbound. Right now, if you are on Indian Creek heading southbound, you have four lanes of traffic. Two lanes go into 63rd Street, ultimately Alton Road. and then two lanes into Collins Avenue, which is a five lane road when you include the turning lane. And it is also a multifamily commercial zoned street. Alton is single family. It doesn't appear to us as Alton Road residents that we should have the same amount of traffic pushed towards Alton as you have going into Collins Avenue. So if you can include some of that into your study, because I think one lane would be more than sufficient, considering the zoning and the types of dwellings on each road. Additionally, I understand that there is timing on the lights that are monitored by Dade County. However, the timing on the lights that take you into 63rd Street when you're heading southbound, do not change that frequently. It's more of a continuous flow of traffic. At least it feels that way. And so there appears to even have more traffic going into Alton than you have going into Collins Avenue. So much so that in the mornings when you're by Mount Sinai, in the morning is when the traffic heads north or heads south on Alton, the cars line up sometimes four or five blocks before they get to the intersection by Sinai to eventually get into the Julia Tuttle Causeway. So if you could look at those items, the no-truck signage, unless you were servicing something on Alton, and the timing of those lights and the reduction of one lane heading westbound. Thank you.

Myra, how effective was that in the past when the no- Truck signage was that it was never implemented. It was never it was just talk.

Okay remember we were just Dealing with FDOT and saying this is what we want what we wanted what was agreed to ended up being differently Understood.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I see Trisha with her hand raised on zoom Welcome Trisha. You have two minutes to speak Good morning, Tricia.

Tricia, you are muted. If you could please unmute yourself.

Thank you. Hi, sorry about that. Tricia Hopkins, I've lived on Alton Road for over 30 years, and I have to agree with Myra that when that overpass came down, all of a sudden, every single 18-wheeler is on Alton Road. Heading southbound to get on to to Julie because model or going northbound and it is really a detriment to our neighborhood because they don't follow the speed limits and It's it's very difficult and it also adds to the problem. That's agenda number eight with the trucks coming through so I just wanted to agree with that that I don't believe that all those trucks should be coming from down or being sent towards us that should also be bearing on Columns Avenue. Thank you.

Thank you, Tricia. Any other members of the public wishing to speak on this item? If you're on Zoom, you can raise your hand on Zoom. Let me ask our staff, is this something that has been explored? Have you or do we even have the ability to limit these larger trucks from going down Alton Road towards 63rd Street?

It's not been explored in recent years. As resident Myra pointed out, it was, I think, a topic of discussion many years ago and then never got implemented. Quite honestly, it was many years ago before even my time. I can't remember. I don't know why FDOT chose to not implement the truck restrictions along Alton Road, but it's been many years, so we can revisit that with FDOT.

So if the trucks, are we talking southbound or northbound Alton, or both? Southbound from North Beach to, because they have to get on the Tuttle, so if we make them go down Collins, then they'll cross 41st Street, and so we want to now further back up 41st Street with semis and trucks heading out of the city. That's probably why would be my guess.

That may be why, but at the end of the day, 41st Street is a commercial road and it has more lanes than Alton Road. And they have also built-in speed control which Alton Road does not have. The built-in speed control are the school zones for Nautilus, Temple Beth Shalom, and North Beach Elementary School. You are only allowed to go at a certain speed in the morning, 20 miles per hour. We don't have that on Alton.

So I would support something on Alton Road, but I wouldn't support the trucks being forced to go down 41st Street, because 41st Street is at capacity right now, and it backs up all the way, you know, all of the condo buildings on Collins Corridor as well. They're impacted by that, and they can't move either.

And it's also very highly pedestrian as well.

But we can't move out of our driveways in the morning. And we understand. And our traffic by blocks.

But perhaps, as Commissioner Matos Salinas is mentioning, an alternative that could be explored as well is the speed. The speed of the vehicles. Because a lot of times the problems emerge from ways from Google that send these vehicles down certain streets and you can go faster on Alton Road as opposed to another street or of the same speed or you're not being limited by the speed, then they'll send you down that way. So I do think to the extent that we could look at the speed of a street like Alton Road where you have single family homes, I think generally any street that is primarily residential Outer Road, North Bay Road, streets like Prairie Avenue, LaGorge, Pine Tree. These are all primarily residential single-family homes. You have families living there with children. In general, we should be looking to have a lower speed limit in those areas. And perhaps that can encourage the behavior that we are looking for from these trucks as opposed to saying trucks won't be allowed to go down the street while I could see how from a regulatory perspective they might not be able to allow them but if everyone. regardless of the type of vehicle, is held to the same standard of a lower speed limit, that might perhaps yield some of the outcomes that you're looking for.

Commissioner, you're correct, but we have a 30-mile-per-hour speed limit on Alton Road. And as much as the police try to enforce it when they are allowed to be there, it doesn't work. They're going on an average of 60 miles per hour on a single-family residential street that has children and where people have to back out of their driveway to get to work, to get to school. It's a problem, and it hasn't been addressed. I understand the problems on 41st Street, but try to eliminate a traffic light that's in the middle of the streets. In the middle of a block, you have a traffic light between Royal Palm and Prairie Avenue. Why? to further stop traffic from flowing. You have a light on Royal Palm. You have one on Prairie Avenue.

That's related to pedestrian. That's related to pedestrianism. And so we need to accommodate for everyone. We need to accommodate for vehicles. We need to accommodate for pedestrians and bicyclists. So it's a balancing act. So we hear you. Thank you, Mayor. I'm going to recognize Commissioner Matos Salinas, then Commissioner Bond. So then we can take an action on this item.

Just Jose question, so implementing more speed tables on Alton Road, has that been assessed or?

That has been requested in the past. FDOT does not allow speed tables. They don't generally allow any vertical traffic calming along Alton Road. It is a state road. It's an evacuation route. These are not our rules. These are their rules. But they have what they will allow. They consider speed mitigation measures. and they have some strategies for speed mitigation, but traffic calming as we know it to be with the rubberized speed tables or rubberized speed cushions, they will not allow that on the state road.

We have requested, Commissioner Mateo Salinas, crosswalks. We also not raised crosswalks, just crosswalks with some signage. We also requested that there be a traffic light moved from the middle of 51st Street and Alton, crossing to the park on Fisher Park, to the end of the block. where you have intersections with 51st Street, people coming in from Pine Tree, LaGorge Drive into Alton Road.

Let me, if I may, just, because I don't want to lose track of this item, and your issue is very important, and I think perhaps we should send a referral to the committee to address the issue of the speeding and the traffic on this residential portion of Alton Road, because it is concerning. And I know we have had fatalities even there.

More fatalities than any other street on Miami Beach. But just to let you know, FDOT says there is not enough traffic on Alton or speed to warrant the crosswalks. or the traffic light at that intersection.

So, Mr. Attorney, let's work on a referral to put on next Wednesday's meeting to discuss the ongoing, on a regular basis, the ongoing issues that we have on Alton Road. Commissioner Ba.

Yeah, thank you, Mario, for elevating this with your institutional knowledge. You know, FDOT is complicated to work with. And my favorite, super favorite response from them is, we're not going to manage our everyday traffic because we're concerned about what happens during an emergency. Well, no, we're not talking about not having people using Alton Road to get off the island in an emergency. It's a totally different conversation. So to me, that is... It's a specious argument, but I don't have control over FDOT. So I've already, you know, thank you, Chair, for making the referral. I've already inquired to our attorney and to create a new item on this topic because it is super, super important.

And I yield to you. You can lead that. So I'll yield to you.

Great minds think alike. My point, though, is that, you know, we've looked at this years ago, and FDOT has its playbook. But we as a city have looked at it years ago and only had the options that FDOT has given us or not given us. The traffic patterns have changed. The volumes have changed. We have things that we can potentially do about limiting the size of trucks that come into the city or where and when they can go onto certain streets potentially. And that's kind of the stuff that I want to explore also. I mean, the vendors who come into the Miami Beach treat us as a big city, whereas actually we were not. We don't have very wide streets. Most places and a lot of the places where we do have wide streets, they're primarily residential, whether it's Alton Road or Collins, one way or the other. So I think it is a much bigger conversation. It's going to be pulled out of this item and be handled separately. So, it's going to take a minute because everything does. But between this and the item number eight with the flooding, they're quite interrelated. And again, you know, from where we might have last looked at this 15 or 20 years ago to where we are today and where we're going to be in five years, the volume of traffic, the type of traffic, and the intensity

traffic has changed dramatically so it definitely warrants a whole separate investigation and Commissioner Bond following up on that comment with the 175 crashes that we've had going back to to the location of 63rd Street and Indian Creek and Collins Avenue Jose do we have any idea on the type of vehicle that was engaged in these crashes are these These commercial vehicles that are engaging in these crashes, these regular cars from our residents or visitors, do we know the type of vehicle that is creating the safety situation at this intersection?

uh Mr. Chair I don't think it's any one vehicle in particular I don't have those crash reports we'd have to go through those crash reports to see if there is a type of vehicle which is contributing to these crashes but I'm not aware that it's that it's anyone at least When FDOT did their study two years ago, that was not found or that was not a finding of that study, that there's any one type of vehicle that is creating or causing an abnormal amount of crashes. And the last thing I want to say, just I'd be remiss if I don't mention that study from two years ago that FDOT did, we also asked for an additional crosswalk on the north leg of Indian Creek and 63rd because there is no crosswalk there. There's only three crosswalks. It's a four-leg intersection, but there are only three crosswalks. And they also did not support that adding a crosswalk on the north leg because it would be detrimental to the level of service, the operations, mainly for vehicles at the intersection.

Alex, anecdotally, I know that a lot of, I don't know if it's the majority or 20%, but I do know that a lot of the crashes at 63rd are overnight crashes when people are speeding around the suicide curve at high speeds, often under influence, not always, and lose control of their vehicles because it was happening like once a month there for a little while. So, you know, again, I don't know statistically if that's the majority, but I do know that's a significant part of the issue.

And thank you for that, Commissioner. There's two curves at 63rd Street. The specific location is when you're approaching the bridge. When you're going east, there's a curve when you're going east on 63rd Street.

No, it's when you're going north on Alton and making the turn to go across east. It goes from being a straightaway, which is, you know, and you're in your rented Lambo for the weekend or whatever, and you misjudge the curve, you misread the street conditions, you're not functioning at your best, and it's that curve that seems to be the one that causes the drama.

And so I just wonder, you know, absent a solution, because right now there's not a solution. FDLT has not provided us a solution.

That's correct.

the city doesn't have a solution it can implement as well. But what we do know is that at nighttime, which is what the pattern from our perception is that this is a nighttime issue at this intersection with this curb. Is it possible to close that intersection? Like if you know that the issue is at nighttime during certain hours, the late night, hours of that intersection, to have that intersection closed between the hours of 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. and make traffic stay on Collins or another route.

Well, that's the issue, is that there is no other route. And look, I don't take anybody's life or injury for granted or to minimize it. I'm not saying that every one of those loss was not a tragedy. And also, by the way, even if you don't lose your life in a car accident, I mean, I was T-boned by a truck going on 12 years ago. I still have the injuries. And I walked away from that accident. And so accidents have trauma in all different forms. For those people who have to navigate from North Beach to South Beach and back again, taking away one of the only two ways to get north and south isn't really realistic. Maybe what we could do and do a pilot program is on weekends where we know there are a lot of visitors coming into town, have a police detail station there overnight perhaps to catch speeders before they hit the curve. But that doesn't address the more ongoing issues of Listen, I take that southbound Alton road from my apartment down to City Hall all the time. And if I don't time it early enough, I'm sitting in traffic before I can even get to the merge to continue south. So there are so many complicated issues because we're a growing city. There's a ton of construction. There's a ton of road work. Every time I curse the public works project that's slowing us down. I'm like, oh, but thank God there's a public works project slowing us down. So it's a lot of competing issues, not least of which is that we don't have control over all of our roadways. And so things that we know make sense for the residents are not approved by the state and that limits some of our solutions. But it warrants a separate new look.

Commissioner, are you referring to the curve just to make sure? on 63rd Street that heads southbound onto Alton? Because that has been the one with the most crashes. And at one point, he'll remember because he was here, FDOT proposed and then took away from the table when they thought about it twice, the possibility of doing a traffic circle at that intersection which would slow down traffic. But then they took it back because they said that there wasn't enough land. I'm of a different opinion because there is land, maybe not owned by FDOT, but it is owned by the city.

Yes, there's that little park there.

Well, not just the park, but it's the area that goes from that curve into North Bay Road, that area there. Not North Bay Road, but the area before North Bay Road. Is city property and that could give them more of a radius for a more significant traffic circle So I think it look we're gonna have a separate item on this.

It's gonna be a long discussion there are multiple issues that need to be addressed that you know the accidents the the trucks going down what is basically residential road and traffic backups. So we'll start this process and we'll figure out how we can move forward.

May I speak for a moment? Laurie K. Davis. I've been on Alton Road at 5965 since 2001. So initially, FDOT wanted to sell the road to the city and the city declined. So we'll start with that. In my 25 years of dealing with FDOT, it needs to be speed enforcement. And FDOT says that and the city says, no, it needs to be Traffic calming but a really easy thing to start with I have never seen our police Enforce speeds below it has to be ten miles over before they start enforcing and I've been told that and then residents get all upset if they're given a ticket and they call the commissioners and they call the mayor so that's a really easy doesn't require meaning and Start ticketing earlier. And then that's the way we train. And I've never seen, we talk about that corner, I've never seen police enforcement on that 20 mile an hour. Not during the day. I know more happens at night. But nobody's going the speed limit. And they're not even being penalized until they're at least 10 miles an hour over.

So I will tell you that that is a very easy fix. And I'm going to have a chat with our chief about it. And I have sped in my life. I really enjoy driving quickly. And I'm not a race car driver. So when I get a ticket, I'm like, you know what? And by the way, I don't do it in the city. I'm not a crazy driver. But it's fun to drive fast. That's why people enjoy race cars and racing. But if you do something and you get caught, pay the ticket and get over yourself. If you get a parking ticket, you pay the ticket and get over yourself. For residents who are speeding and then get pissed that they get caught and cry to somebody on the commission, get over yourself. I have no sympathy for that whatsoever. If you don't want to get a speeding ticket, don't speed. It's very simple. Thank you. I have absolutely zero tolerance for that. So I can't speak for my colleagues, but that's my position on it.

Listen, and I... I hope no one ever thinks of calling me to help them with a police ticket.

It's not a thing that I would ever entertain.

It's not a thing that happens or should ever happen. Commissioner, I think Maida just asked you for clarity because there are two curves. There's the curve, and I want to make sure that the public, I want to make sure I myself understand correctly here. There's a curve when you're coming down Indian Creek and you turn right towards the bridge.

It's not that curve.

Okay.

It's the one from Alton going up or down. But it's typically, my understanding is it's typically going up Alton and taking, it bears to the right to go across going from west to east. It's that curve.

And those individuals, they're going to cross, their whole intent is to cross the bridge and then to continue on Collins Avenue or to go down Indian Creek. And if the issue is primarily in the evening hours.

Yes, usually it's super late night.

Super late night. That's not when we have our highest traffic congestion. If we know that that is when that problem occurs, I almost feel, you know, if we know there's a public safety situation, let's close from Indian Creek to the bridge during the late night hours. Because if this is happening on weekends, which usually is what happens from my just perspective based on the comments I see in my emails and in social media, this is happening late night and weekends. People are speeding through there. Then let's force them to go down the main corridor, the main commercial corridor, which is 41st Street, have them go down Collins Avenue. Those streets don't have these awkward curves that are creating the safety issue. And perhaps it might be prudent just to consider that schedule during weekends, between the hours of midnight And 5 a.m., I'm just throwing a number out there without seeing what the data represents. Perhaps we should go back to the data to make it more analytical. Say, you know, from the east portion of the bridge to the west side of Indian Creek, it's going to be closed. And you just can't cut through there. You have to go down 41st Street. You have to go down Collins Avenue.

The challenge is that sometimes, and I suppose we can coordinate this, so I'm not saying no, but just to put out there, I have gone north on Collins coming up from 41st, and there are nights when there's an event at the Fountain Blue or multiple events at the Fountain Blue and at the Soho House, so there are black cars lining up and blocking all that. And then God forbid you also, because this happened to me a couple weeks ago, there's also road work on Collins. So literally you had four lanes of traffic going down to one, and normally that wouldn't be an issue, but it happened that there was, there were multiple events going on at the same time, and it was ridiculous. It was like Thursday night at 10 o'clock when there should be no traffic at all. So it's an interesting idea to discuss. I am very sensitive to the idea of limiting. As it is, we only have two ways to get from north to south.

That I understand, yeah.

And that gets complicated because if one is compromised, then you're really stuck.

Sure.

Until we get our water taxi and we can just hop on the water taxi.

All right. I'm going to recognize Manuel and then we'll close this item to go to the next item. Good morning, Manuel. You have two minutes to speak.

Manuel.

Hi, good morning. Hi, this is Manny Corrales. I live in the 63rd Street in Collins area. And thank you, Commissioner Bob, for your interest in the traffic congestion in that area. So I just wanted to go back to Jose and his statement about previous FDOT studies of westbound traffic at 63rd Street. And while I understand that traffic would have to be stopped in the southbound Indian Creek lanes to allow westbound traffic, it seems like if the signals are timed correctly, IT WOULD NOT BE SUCH A BIG DEAL. I SUSPECT THAT A LOT OF THESE TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS ARE HAPPENING WHEN PEOPLE ARE GOING NORTHBOUND IN INDIAN CREEK AND HAVE TO MAKE A U-TURN TO GO SOUTH AND THEN TO GAIN ACCESS TO WESTBOUND 63rd STREET. I MEAN, THAT IS JUST A TERRIBLE SOLUTION. I CAN'T IMAGINE THAT FDOT AGREES WITH THAT. IT'S JUST A FREE FOR ALL. I'VE MADE VIDEOS OF THAT. and I've shared them with Commissioner Bott. Please look at that again, maybe more actualized study. It's a real concern. I think even a better solution would be just to allow northbound traffic on Collins to turn on 65th going west and then join southbound Indian Creek so that they can eventually go west on 63rd Street. I hope everybody follows what I'm talking about. Anyway, that's one thing. The second thing is also the loud horns and signals that are going off when the bridge opens. And honestly, at two in the morning, three in the morning, you can hear them going off. I have an app on my phone where I've been able to measure the sound, and it goes up to 61, 65 decibels, which at three in the morning, it's just really odious thing to have waking you up. So anyway, please don't give up on the study, and maybe something better can come out of this. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, Commissioner Mott.

So we'll continue this item to next month.

yes please okay commissioner if i could just ask you you wanted a referral uh for alton road uh to be drafted today so i just want to clarify what it's to discuss ongoing traffic problems on alton road caused by increased traffic and increased truck traffic

Just general, I mean, and I think Commissioner Mott is working on this as well, as was just mentioned. My concern is the residents are complaining about not only the volume of traffic that is going down Alton Road in this residential area of Alton Road, but the speed of the traffic as well. And I think it's those two things, the volume and the speed.

And the type of traffic also, the commercial vehicles.

Okay, got it. And who is the sponsor of that, Commissioner Bott? Yeah.

All right, thank you. We're going to move on to our next item.

There was a resolution passed by this commission. I'll send it to Mr. Rosenwald, and it talks as to all the issues of Alton that was sent to the state, but nothing happened. I'll send it to you, and it talks about all the issues there.

Myra, could you please copy me on that too? Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you. But then we're going to go to item number five. Wait, I'm sorry, item number four.

Item number four is discuss vehicular and pedestrian traffic conditions at the Miami Beach Convention Center. This item is sponsored by Commissioner Bond.

Commissioner Bond, you're recognized.

I'm turning into the traffic girl. Yeah, so this is an item that I'm bringing because as we come into work during the day, increasingly, Happily, we see the convention center being used more than it has been in years past, and that's only going to increase with the construction and completion of the hotel. I know that some of the traffic is because of the construction of the hotel, so I'm not even counting that as an issue. But right now, we have rideshares not being geocached so that they drop and stop and pick up wherever they want to. People are wandering across the cross streets, out of the side streets across, regardless of where the actual crosswalks are. There's confusion. I've seen people turn, making a left turn to go north on Convention Center Drive, not realizing that they are making an incorrect turn into oncoming traffic, a lane of oncoming traffic. It's just complicated. It's messy. It's only going to get worse. People trying to get from Convention Center Drive into the garage and getting backed up there because it's slow. I think we just need to do, now that we know what the scope is going to look like, I think we need to do a comprehensive review of this area of town center, of city center rather. and look at how to manage ride share, how to better mark the road so people know where they go, deal with the queuing of picking up or trying to get in and out of the garage, deal with people trying to cross from Pride Park or other parts on the west side of Convention Center Drive and just figure this out better. It doesn't seem to be as big of an issue on the other side of the Convention Center on Washington. So it's really, you know, you see people streaming towards the convention center in the mornings and streaming back out when the convention ends for the day on this side of the street much more than, this side of the convention center much more than you do on the other side. So that's the impetus for this.

All right, thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. So just very briefly, there's several factors that are contributing and creating the perfect storm, if you will, in this area of Convention Center Drive 17th and along Convention Center Drive not the least of which is the construction, the ongoing construction, which has reconfigured the lanes on Convention Center Drive approaching 17th Street. It constrained them as well. It's even more challenging now to make a turn if you're coming from 17th Street and you want to make a right turn. onto Convention Center Drive, or even if you're coming from the other side of 17th Street, turns are now more difficult to maneuver because of the constrained space as a result of the hotel construction. So that is certainly not helping the situation. As a result of that, we did something which is good for pedestrians. We implemented a diagonal crosswalk, which has helped pedestrian traffic. However, that diagonal crosswalk because a diagonal crosswalk is longer than a perpendicular crosswalk, requires more time for pedestrians, which means less time for vehicles to go through the intersection. So again, a delicate balancing act there, but we needed to do that diagonal crosswalk in order to accommodate safe pedestrian movements from the south side of 17th Street to the north side of 17th Street. Yeah, a lot of different issues. Right share is also part of the friction that's caused there along Convention Center Drive. One of the things that we outlined here that we could do going forward is try to establish some sort of a program in collaboration with our parking department and rideshare companies to identify areas that could be geo-fenced for rideshare pickup and drop off. It's been tried in the past. Sometimes it's successful, it's worked better than others. It's been tried more than once, but I think we need to really identify a real plan that will work for ride shares, both pick up and drop off. And I think that will help a lot of the friction there because I'm sure we've all got caught behind a ride share that just decides to stop. you know, on the one lane going southbound on Convention Center Drive to pick up and drop off. And then I myself have driven on the opposite lane of traffic to go around that right here.

And Jose, I mean, perhaps for the drop off, it might be difficult to manage because you just never know where a passenger will tell a driver to drop them off at. It might be mid-block or it might go to the destination. But most certainly for the pickup, if we work with the rideshare companies, at least on the pickup, you won't have mid-block pickups from the rideshare companies. So most certainly to the point that we can stop these mid-block pickups vehicles stopping, it might be helpful to explore that. In addition to, the other thing that is to me very obvious, that going southbound, you have a southbound lane, only one, with a northbound lane just to the east of it, and then the median. I think people got confused.

They did, for sure.

All the time you see people treating it like if it were two southbound lanes. And if the behavioral practice tells you that that is what people are reverting to, that's telling us that we're forcing on drivers something that doesn't come natural to them. And that tells me we're creating a safety situation if If this is what the design, the built environment is indicating to people, that that northbound lane is actually a southbound lane, I think perhaps we should be considering whether we should just convert that to be a southbound lane, because that is what the driver's reflex is telling them. Commissioner Bond, let me recognize Commissioner Matos Salinas who had some comments as well, and then I'll go back to you.

So thank you, Mr. Chair and, um, the sponsor. I'm not sure if this was your intent, but my understanding of this traffic issue is not the traffic that's crossing, not the pedestrian crosswalk and not over there on, um, what does that over there? The issue is when you walk out this door chambers and you look down, right where the convention center is, it becomes a mess because people are trying to turn left to get to the parking garage right here. Some people are trying to go straight to drop off at the convention center. Other folks are trying to go right outside to go to Lincoln road. That intersection downstairs has high pedestrian volume and high traffic volume and absolutely zero signalization, four way stops, stop signs. There's nobody there directing that three way intersection. So my suggestion to you would be when we have a big convention or sometimes we have two big conventions, which happened when Hydrox and the ThriftCon happened at the convention center at the same time, which created utter chaos down here. We're pre-prepared and we have some type of traffic specialist directing traffic at that three-way intersection so people can turn left, go straight, northbound, southbound, drop off, head out, park in the garage, but that intersection right downstairs, that's the problem, which I think, sponsor, Commissioner Bott, was that what precipitated this item?

It's all of this. So yes, and also, basically it's from Day down to 17th and everything along it. So all of the intersections, all of the friction points, all the people turning one way into the wrong way because the street doesn't clearly indicate, you know, as the chair said, people are used to thinking of it as a two-way street. So, yes, all of these things are issues.

And perhaps one of the things that you mentioned, Commissioner Matos Salinas and Mr. Director, I don't know if it would be possible, is signalizations. you know, having a traffic light, uh, at that, at that, uh, three point intersection, uh, perhaps might be something that we should consider because it doesn't commission mental salinas is on point that intersection gets chaotic. I don't know. I don't know if anyone has ever been injured there and they haven't. It's, it's a miracle because B between the volume of pedestrians walking towards the convention center and mixed with the amount of vehicles in that very small area, it's like they're all competing. They're all competing and there's no coordination.

Jose, this is a question for you since you're the traffic professional and I'm not, and you have studied this much longer than I have. Is a signal a better idea than to have a four-way, three-way stop there? Because I could also see where a signal might, if it's not timed correctly, back things up onto Dade. But there needs to be somebody managing that because Sometimes people need to turn left to head wherever they need to go and it's just really tough. So can we get a traffic management specialists down there, a traffic, what are they called? What are traffic people?

Traffic safety, public safety specialists. Yeah.

Whatever the people that we have on 41st street during rush hour, they need to be deployed right there when we have a high volume of events and mostly it's on the weekends. So it won't conflict with the Monday through Friday 41st street traffic, but they, they need to be there and they need to be making sure that the traffic flows safely.

Agreed, agreed. And so one of the things that we've done after that very chaotic conference was we're having now, and it's really a team effort, it's police, it's parking, transportation, and it's the Miami Beach Convention Center staff. And we're having meetings prior to major conferences to highlight those that we believe are going to be problematic. from just an activity standpoint, rideshare, pedestrians, cars, everything. And police is trying to proactively assign those public safety specialists to these hotspots along Convention Center Drive. And I believe you're referring to Convention Center Drive and 18th Street, the street that leads out of the garage here. Mm-hmm. So absolutely, there's no, you know, there's only a stop sign for 18th Street and there is a lot of activity, conflicting activity between pedestrians and cars and people that don't know. The street design itself, quite candidly, is a bit confusing, especially if you're not from here. So it's that confluence of factors. There has not, to answer your question, there has not been a localized study at that intersection to see if it warrants always stop control or a signal for that matter. There hasn't been. That's something that could be a next step. But in the meantime, something that I believe has helped is when there are public safety specialists there, either from our police department or from the Miami Beach Convention Center staff. it helps because at least they can sort of control.

To get a study for that intersection, because it's only going to get worse when the hotel opens. People are going to be coming in and out, employees, you know, there's going to be a lot more traffic. So what do we need to do to get a study? Can we make a motion from this committee to, you know, send something to commission to to study that intersection and what capacity is and what would be best there.

Do you need direction from that if you do?

I think we, depending on the price of the analysis, which isn't too much, we may be able to absorb it from our operating budget and do that analysis. It's not a complicated intersection.

But let me ask you this, because this directly ties to the activation of the convention center. and the Convention Center operates as an enterprise fund. And perhaps this is something we can partner with the Convention Center that has its own revenue generating activities and has its own funds that need to be spent related to Convention Center activities to address this. One of my questions actually, just listening to this conversation, when we have the public safety specialist there on Convention Center Drive on 18th Street, is that being paid for by the Convention Center?

I don't know, Mr. Chair. I don't know. I don't see police here. I'm not sure who funds that. Who funds the public safety specialists when they're out there for a conference controlling traffic?

So that's something we can follow up on that. I think that should be answered by the appropriate person. from the police department. I'm not sure if the officers that we have here are the right individuals to answer that question, but perhaps we can just follow up with an answer on that. Certainly, if we are pooling police resources for convention center-related activity, that means that our residents don't have those police services where they need it. and it should be paid for by the Convention Center. Commissioner Bond?

Commissioner Bond Yeah, I totally agree with that. And that's probably a larger conversation, like, depending on the scale of the Convention, if they — because I wouldn't imagine that every single — well, maybe going forward, every single event in the Convention Center hopefully will need that, but it should be part of the fees that they are charged to manage — to get access to our Convention Center. A separate thought, we have been talking with Will about talking to truck drivers and truck operators about loading zones. There's this whole process now where there's education and they have to sign a thing and there's a phone number and if the drivers are not adhering to the rules of the loading zones, then in addition to getting fined, they can get reprimanded by their jobs or whatever. I know it's a little bit more complicated with rideshares because it's not as tightly cohesive a pool of employees. They're not employees. But maybe we can also, in addition to talking to Waze and Google Maps and all the other things about making, having people go around into different areas when they're trying to go north and south, maybe we can also talk to them, to the rideshare folks about having part of the onboarding, because I know there's virtually no training, but having part of the onboarding be that you can only pick people up and drop people off in certain areas of the convention center campus. When you request a ride, the driver is shown exactly where you can go and where you can't go, and so maybe you request a pickup. The option to be picked up right where you're standing is not shown on the app, You have to walk over, like when you're at an airport, you have to walk to a certain section of the terminal, a certain level, whatever. So maybe we can start working on that with them.

I think that's very common sense. Thank you for bringing that up, Commissioner Montel Salinas.

So I want to close the loop on what I said earlier, but I also just want to address Commissioner Bott. I actually don't agree with that. I think people should be allowed to be dropped off and picked off where they want, even if it's in front of the convention center. And if they are requested to walk, then it's just pushing the traffic into another area. And so where do we push it? Do we now block another street or another intersection? Do we push it towards Palmview? So I actually would not be supportive of that. But anyway, back to my point, because I want to close the loop on this. You will be doing a traffic. You're going to look into your budget to see if you can do a traffic study at that intersection to see what would help the traffic flow right there.

at 18th and convention center drive funded by the convention center. That's correct.

But that, that is something that you will be looking into and okay. Cause I just want to make sure that they, we have your commitment that you're going to study that because it has something, it takes forever, you know, to study and then to figure out the options and then to implement it. And I really hope something is implemented before the hotel opens. So I just want to close the loop on that. And then if you need, you know, let us know if you need something legislative or an additional budget, which hopefully you don't because you know, enterprise funds. So I just want to have your commitment to that, right?

Yes. Commissioner will take just for to memorialize this. We'll take a resolution to the city commission accepting the moving forward with a traffic study at that intersection to see what the best type of traffic control device would be.

Okay, great. And in the meantime, when there is two different conventions happening there, you'll have the traffic specialists down there to conduct traffic to help that smoothly?

That's correct. And that's more coordinated between our police department, Major Feldman, and the Miami Beach Convention Center staff. They have their own, as a matter of fact, their own transportation division there in the Miami Beach area.

And to the extent that that burden can fall on the convention center. You know, the convention center is managing the facility, bringing in these revenues that need to be reinvested into the convention center. You know, I don't want to move resources and swarm personnel from where we might be needed if the convention center has the ability to have its own traffic management people on the street guiding that because, you know, The convention center traffic people, their focus is only the convention center, the police department. We're pooling them all over the place. So to the extent that that's possible, that'd be great because Commissioner Matos Salinas is right. That right there, Commissioner, is the heart of the issue. And you've really identified that together with Commissioner Bond on the issue of of the west side of Convention Center Drive. What do you need in order to explore? Can that be as part of that traffic study that you're doing? Is that a separate issue exploring whether we can reconfigure that westbound Convention Center Lane into the two of them being southbound as opposed to one being southbound and the other one being northbound?

So that would require a much more intensive traffic analysis, feasibility study of a redesign, in essence, is what I'm hearing.

If the roadway were to be... But how is that a redesign?

Well, the western half of the street, west of the median, those two lanes, instead of operating one in each direction, they would both operate... southbound right because to the east of the median the two lanes are operating northbound so it would be designed as a more conventional street with the median in the middle but the street is not being redesigned i mean the built environment already yeah it's just rescribing the the the built environment already kind of tells people

that that is the configuration of the street, except it's not. The striping is actually what's making it confusing.

Correct, and we're saying the same thing, but in engineering terms for Miami-Dade County, for example, which would have to approve the new design and the new signalization and the new traffic flow, because it's a change of traffic flow, so Miami-Dade County would need to approve that. But isn't this one of our streets? It would require a design.

Yeah, isn't that a local Miami Beach street?

It is, but even so, when any street, to change the directionality of any street, if it's a two-way, make it a one-way, or change the direction of a lane, that does require a traffic analysis and Miami-Dade County approval. And they'll require a set of plans to permit.

So there's three takeaways from this conversation. Commissioner Bond, you've requested for the study and the analysis of the rideshare pickup drop-off areas. We're also requesting an analysis into the configuration of the west side of Convention Center Drive. And in addition to the comments raised by you, Commissioner and Commissioner Matos Salinas about that intersection on 18th Street and Convention Center Drive and engaging some sort of study to see what is the appropriate mechanism to better address the safety and the flow, whether it's lighting or staff there or stop signs. Is there anything else with this item that we're missing?

I don't think so.

In the meantime, I wonder, we have the parking spaces that are on the east side of City Hall fronting Convention Center Drive. I don't know if it would help with traffic if we temporarily, while there's that lane reduction there, if we temporarily remove those parking spaces on the east side. of City Hall reposition the bike share station to be able to accommodate more of the volume of the traffic that's being backed up. I don't know if that's something that can help mitigate the situation there. I'm putting it out there because I know That area there is truly a choke point right now.

And thank you for pointing that out, Mr. Chair, because it was one of the options that we included in the memo. It was an idea that came up in discussing with the Miami Beach Convention Center folks, police department, parking, transportation. It was just an idea. It has not been looked at in depth. But at least while the hotel construction is occurring, there may be some value in repurposing that parking as a southbound lane.

And I would, how long do we anticipate having the lane closure fronting City Hall as a result of the construction? Good morning, Thais.

You have to push the little button.

Good morning. Thais Vieira, the project liaison for the hotel. That lane closure will remain in place until about March, I believe, of next year.

March of next year. Okay. Yeah.

Around that time.

And, and Jose, how long would it take us, uh, you know, I don't want us to do an experiment, uh, of this exercise of removing the parking and the bike share station. If it's going to take us six months and then the public only benefits from the relief for three months. So how, um, how long will it take us to, to go through this exercise?

So it's hard to give you an exact timeline at this moment because it doubles in the details sometimes. So it sounds like an easy-to-do concept. We're going to try to keep it as easy, as simple as possible. But we do need to take at least a preliminary look at it to see if there are any complications or if it's easy, very easy, and quick to do.

OK. I think it's worth exploring. Because that is a challenge there.

I think we just should do it because So our Basel so that lanes gonna be closed during our Basel so, you know, I think we should just Provided there's not any huge complicated road blocks that I think we should just do it.

Let's just take the risk Okay, I was just gonna say something about the ride share the And maybe I misprocessed the information, so correct me if I'm wrong. You're not talking about getting rid of any of the micromobility resources?

What do you mean?

You're not talking about getting rid of the bike share or anything like that?

Well, just possibly repositioning it. Okay, but not eliminating it.

Okay, but just moving it to a different location.

Maybe we can move it further, closer, you know, 10 feet closer into the City Hall property area. or, you know, reposition it somewhere in that vicinity. But I'd like to encourage Jose just to see the feasibility of it, because to Commissioner Matos Salinas's point, if come Art Basel, you know, that lane closure is still there, then the problem is just going to get . . .

MS. Yeah. No, I just want to make sure we're not taking it away without popping it in someplace else, because we've got so many other items where we're talking about let's increase the ride share, not the ride share, the micromobility, the bike share. because that eliminates cars off the road entirely. So just want to be mindful of all of these, you know, like 14 plates in the air without dropping all of them to try to effectuate the right answer.

Thank you, Commissioner Bond. Are there members of the public wishing to speak on this item? Seeing none in person, none in Zoom with their hand raised, Commissioner Mattel, Salinas, and then we're going to move on.

I just have one more quick comment. Could we look at maybe taking that city bike station and putting it somewhere inside Pride Park?

That's what I was wondering, too.

We could. There's already a city bike station in Pride Park. It was installed there maybe less than two years ago, as a matter of fact. But we can look to see if we can add on to that one or another location within Pride Park.

Or even on the City Hall property, if you just move the bike station 10 feet closer to City Hall, we have that big plaza there.

And we already have a bike share station that takes up parking spots in front of City Hall. And we have this giant plaza that doesn't get used very much. So it might make sense to do that for both of them.

All right. Perfect. Thank you, Jose. Thank you, Commissioner Bott. With that, let's move to item number five.

So we're keeping it here and getting updates, yeah.

Well, I believe Jose was mentioning about sending an item back to commission for the traffic light study.

Okay.

Traffic light study, the lane redesign on the west side of Convention Center Drive. I don't know if you need direction on the portion of Convention Center Drive north of 18th Street where we currently have the lane block and the ride share. So, you know, is there a motion?

No, that's good. That's good.

All right. We can show that by acclimation. I'm sure that Stephanie got the intent written down. All right, item number five.

Item number five is discuss the maintenance of existing crosswalks along with the need for installation of additional crosswalks in North Beach. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Dominguez, Vice Mayor Dominguez, and co-sponsored by Commissioner Baum.

Thank you, Stephanie. Commissioner Dominguez, this is your item.

My aide lives up in North Beach, and he's my eyes and ears up there. And upon further review with the city administration, we found that about 40% of the crosswalks are in bad condition. 65% of the street signs are in bad condition. And so this is an opportunity for us to make those areas better. Sadly, we've had some fatalities up in North Beach. at intersections, not indicating that it's a result of the crosswalks entirely, but anything that the city can do to make it safer for residents and visitors is important. When looking at the recommendations from staff for this particular item, It did state that there would be areas of improvement. I think that overall the cost would be about $200,000. What I want to hear specifically is which areas and in what order are the improvements recommended, and is it for streetwalks, for crosswalks, for both?

Thank you, Commissioner. Is that your question?

So, okay. Good morning everyone. Good morning commissioners. I'm Kara Boyles. I'm the assistant director for public works and the city engineer. I just joined the city about six months ago. So thank you. Um, so as you know, I'll give a little brief summary that we kind of looked at this in two ways. We did some critical immediate needs and then we also looked at the coordination effort that would be needed obviously because we have multi jurisdictions, uh, in the north all across North beach. So, um, There were eight critical locations that were prioritized, crosswalks that were prioritized for restriping. And we handled those in-house. Six of those have been completed. There were two remaining that were adjacent to 77th Street near school. And so those should be happening either this week or next week now that school is out and we're able to perform that work without any disruption. In terms of new crosswalks and signage, yeah, there are a considerable amount of projects happening in North Beach in which we are coordinating with FDOT in terms of highlighting and replacing, restriping sidewalks. sorry, crosswalks, as well as signage along those corridors. So those corridors, I know that our transportation team is very involved in those projects as well. Those corridors are 71st Street. In fact, as soon as FIFA is completed, triple-r project will take place along 71st Street and so those improvements all the crosswalks and signage will be replaced there first a little bit later on in 2028 there will be some improvements on Collins Avenue from 20 I'm sorry 75th to 63rd and then a little bit even further in 2029 FDOT will revisit Normandy between Bay Drive and Rue Versailles and will also do similar improvements in that section. That area of Normandy Drive was originally scheduled to happen earlier, but we coordinated with FDOT to delay their project for water main replacement that Public Works is doing along that same section.

So by 2029, how many of those 65 bad crosswalks, I think it was 65, will be done? Will we then be completed with fixing all of the bad crosswalks and bad street signs?

They would not all be addressed. So I know that part of the funding request to $200,000 is for I believe additional striping in the future. Is that in your budget? I think the 200,000 is in transportation's budget. Part of that is, a good example is that we have some crosswalks that are more decorative in nature in North Beach. So you have like the, sort of like a brick paper crosswalk with the concrete headers that outline them. And what we are doing in terms of the other eight critical ones that I mentioned earlier, we can do that through our push button contractors. So we have a line item pricing and we can do that, but we do not have that sort of striping pricing in our push button. So we would have to do something more specific with a contractor in order to address restriping those concrete headers that align those decorative ones. So that's part of, I think, what that funding request is for next year?

My concern is that they got to this condition to begin with. So when different departments are implementing things, is there a line item for maintenance so that things don't get too beyond repair or critical like we have in the situation?

The ongoing operations and maintenance of anything that we construct.

the corrective action would be to add that to the next push button contract so that we have it going forward.

So let me, so let me ask you because you've, you've mentioned a number of the, of the larger intersections that are part of larger projects. And I think one of the benefits, of this item that Vice Mayor Dominguez has brought forward, perhaps some of the other areas that perhaps aren't as prominent, aren't as large, you've highlighted, it seems, I counted them, I thought it was closer to 50, but then you also have a lot of really faded signs with, you know, even children crossings for schools that are completely faded. Clearly, you know, that's very concerning. So we're talking about, you know, even smaller streets, Normack or Bonita Drive or, you know, smaller, more localized areas of Dickens Avenue. that truly go into the neighborhoods. To me, it seems like this is one of our basic core services, making sure that when people walk out of their homes, they have safe sidewalks, safe streets with the proper markations to be able to know that they're safe and so that cars don't create dangerous conditions for them. If the funding were to exist, which I believe something like this, the moment is raised to our attention that you have unsafe conditions and bad stripings on crosswalks, we should prioritize its repair. Once funding is made available, how long would it take to repair these crosswalks?

A crosswalk could be striped in one day, so. immediate response that we can give to something like that?

So I would say, again, just given the amount of concerns we have received over the past several months related to pedestrian safety, the catastrophes and the loss of life that we have seen recently in North Beach associated with people walking and just trying to get from point A to point B and being hit by vehicles and losing their lives. We can't let those lives be in vain, and we can go back and make sure that other people are kept safe, even if these intersections weren't the direct cause of that, but it's the call to action to make sure that our pedestrian crossings are safe Madam Vice Mayor, if you were to consider a motion trying to find within the surplus that we have in the current fiscal year, to find the $200,000 to be able to restripe and improve these conditions and ask the finance committee to consider that as part of the surplus dollars that we have in this fiscal year. I'd be happy to support you because number one is making sure we have safe streets, we have safe sidewalks, and that we create safe crossings for our residents.

I think that's perfect. I would also be happy to support you in that as well. The thing that didn't get covered in this item, Jose, you and I have talked about, and I know it's not directly our purview, but the street signs indicating what street number you're at. the green and white signs. Going up Collins is where I've noticed them the most, but I'm sure they're throughout, where they're really terrible. And I think the feedback we got from, I can't remember if it was the county or the state, is that they're having a supplier issue or some nonsense. So we don't know if we'll ever see updated replacement street signs. And it's literally to the point where you can't read what intersection you're at. It's not even about public safety like the stop sign or the striping. It's like you don't know where you are. It's not like you don't know you are. You can't tell where you are. And I would like that to be included in this effort for those signs that are particularly egregious, to do a survey of them, which I think you had done already on one of our walkthroughs, and to find out where they are with the vendors. And if they're not someplace you know, we're going to see the signs replaced in our lifetime. Then let's add it to this pot of improvements because it's, it's it, you know, if you need to call the police and I say, where are you when you look up for the street sign and all of them are completely off, then, um, that doesn't work.

So, and I believe commissioner bought as part of vice mayor Dominguez, this item, the estimated funding of $200,000 included for included the efforts to improve the crosswalks and the signage maintenance. So I believe based on the memo that we have here with Commissioner Dominguez's item, the $200,000.

But did that cover the street signs, like the label? I don't know how you would call those.

No, essentially that's just striping. With regard to signage, we try to forward those to Miami-Dade County. Ultimately it is their responsibility. uh if it's a traffic control sign if we're talking about traffic control so what do you call the green signs with the white numbers telling you where you are is that a traffic those are internally illuminated street street names whose purview does that fall under ours or theirs it should be miami-dade county but because they were not being very responsive then we went to dot what we've noticed is that commissioner some have been replaced not all of them but some have been replaced. And by the way, it's a citywide issue. Mid-Beach, I've seen them in Mid-Beach and North Beach, not so much in South Beach, but in Mid-Beach also along Collins Avenue, some of them are in deplorable condition. You can't even read the number.

Right, so that's a life safety issue. If you call the police and they say, where are you? so we can come help you. And you're like, I don't know. There's a big building next to me, but somebody just hit me. That doesn't help. So how do we call that out specifically? And I don't want to exclude if Mid-Beach has the same issue. I mean, does it need to be a separate item? Can we fit it into this? Like, how do we...

I mean, ultimately, it's a policy decision. It's really the county's responsibility to...

The county isn't doing it, so you had to go to FDOT. FDOT did some of them, so how do we now...

If it's the city commission's will to basically take that task on, then it would need to be budgeted.

And how much would it cost, roughly?

I can get that for you. I don't know what each sign would cost to redo.

Would it be better for us to make it a separate item or put it into this one, which generally covers street signs?

I think it might be prudent to make it a separate item.

Separate just in case.

And perhaps there needs to be a sign assessment. I think at some point there was a citywide sign assessment that may have been done. I don't know why that seems to be.

There's a way finding. I think that was a different. But we did at least in North Beach assign, you know, what do you call them, illuminated?

Internally illuminated street name signs.

Okay, that's a mouthful. Internally illuminated street name signs. There's got to be a better name. The green signs. Let's just call them the green signs. So, like, we have it in North Beach. Let's go do a citywide survey, determine what's missing, and figure out what it's going to cost, and then go through the process again, give the county and FDOT the right of first refusal within a reasonable amount of time. And if not, it's like when you have a landlord and they won't fix your fridge. You just fix the fridge and deduct it for the next month's rent.

Commissioner, I'm pretty sure we've done that. Surely we've done that for North Beach as a result of our walkthrough. I'm pretty sure we did that for Mid-Beach as well, developed a list, sent it to the county. The issue is that they're not giving us an anticipated deadline.

Let's find out what they have done so we can cross this off, what still remains. And if they don't give us an anticipated deadline or completion date, then we'll go to FDOT. And if they say we're not doing it, then let's figure out how we're going to pay for it and get it done. Because it's ridiculous. We've got literally the entire world. OK, I take that back. It's not literally the entire world. We don't have 6 billion people in Miami Beach this week, although it feels like it. But we do have the eyes of the entire world on Miami Beach. And we have tens and hundreds of thousands of visitors over the next couple of weeks. And for us to not have the fundamentals of street signs look like where we know what we're doing, because we clearly know what we're doing, but it looks ridiculous. And people are looking up, trying to figure out where they are. Let's make it a separate item.

So why don't you send that to the committee so that we can work on it, get the feedback from staff, and make a proper recommendation at that point. So if you want to place that on the agenda, just bring it back to this item. Again, Commissioner Dominguez highlighted the very real situation that without clear marked crosswalks, pedestrians are unsafe. And and you know the lack of these safe crosswalks they contribute to injuries to collisions ultimately to to to fatalities and uh and she's she's worked with the administration uh in evaluating the need for the installation and the maintenance and the improvements of these of these crosswalks and then and to fund this very essential public service that is goes to the very core of safety for our pedestrians. There is a need of $200,000. And so I think Commissioner Dominguez was willing to make a motion requesting that the city commission consider the funding of it and perhaps sending that to the finance committee.

Yeah, I think it has to go to commission first. Okay.

All right. So I'll be happy to second that motion. Are there members of the public wishing to speak on this item? If you're on Zoom, feel free to raise your hand. If you're in person, feel free to approach the podium. Seeing none in person and none in Zoom, we can show this item adopted by acclamation.

And it was a positive recommendation to go back to the Commission for $200,000. Was there anything else?

No, I'm writing a referral. Okay. Separate referral.

a citywide assessment that Commissioner Bott is going to work on a referral for on the signs, citywide on the street signs. And that is, as the Commissioner mentioned, yet another important public safety issue. Okay, with that, we're moving forward to item number six.

Item number six is discuss the potential extension of the six-month pilot program for bicycle and micro-mobility devices storage at large-scale events on public property. This item is sponsored by Commissioner Fernandez.

I'd like to make a motion to move this item.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I just want to make sure, as we move this item forward, and I see we have Frances from our Tourism and Special Events Department joining us. I just want to make sure, because we tested this, and I feel that at the beginning, the test, perhaps it wasn't as widely embraced, because perhaps there wasn't the right structure being communicated to the events of what were some minimum standards. to be implemented. And so Francis, if you could walk us through the item, tell us what the administration is proposing so that we can move forward.

Yes, good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Francis Vallecio, Interim Director for Tourism and Culture. As you mentioned, we did have a pilot program previously We presented the results in March of this year of the first iteration of that. As you mentioned, it was not highly used at the events that did have it. It was only three events because of the category has to be a large-scale special event on public property. From that, in discussion when we presented in March, Discussion in this committee the direction was for us to work with transportation because transportation has been doing a lot in more micro mobility More in public spaces for anybody to use regardless of a special event. So what we are proposing now is almost like a multi-tier approach where we still would have the requirement for large-scale special events to have a space in this in this extension of the pilot program but we will also communicate additional spaces that transportation will advise us so giving any attendee more options but we also are going to include a requirement for the event to give us a to provide us samples of how they are advertising this, because we didn't have that last time. So they may have provided the space, but we don't know if they let their attendees know that this was available to them. That's going to be another approach of having more communication needed. In working with transportation, we also are looking at adding, trying to see if Google will have the ability to add these to Google Maps, more of the permanent side. of the micromobility parking spaces. So as mentioned, it's a multi-tier approach. One change I did want to note when we originally wrote the memo, it mentioned to include with FIFA events. Clearly, some of those already took place. So if we do extend it, it would probably capture the same events, but with these tweaks.

Thank you, Frances. One of the things I noticed was that during last year's Art Week, there was, for example, everyone loves the installation on the beach behind Faina. And that obviously draws a large crowd. And so there were people trying to go to that on their bicycle. Yet once they got there, the facilities were not available. And so I'm trying to understand what would be the discrepancy there? Because to me, that is the perfect example of an event that should have these facilities. You're drawing in large crowds. And so we want to encourage you, especially if you're a local, rather than getting in your car, hey, jump on a bike. Jump on a bike because the event now is offering you that facility. Why would it be that an event of that nature wouldn't have had to abide by this regulation?

Yes, and I had a feeling that would come up because of previous conversations. So we had the team look at it and it looks like what they report as attendance was 1,000. That may be per day, but it doesn't really capture what they're bringing in, which is clearly more than 1,000. So that's one that we do have on our radar that we would capture in this because what they bring in over the matter of days is way more than 1,000 people.

And so how do we address that? So are we looking at attendance as the aggregate over the multiple days of the event?

That's how most events report their attendance. Usually it's in the title scope. They usually report over 10,000. In Faena, we realize they... They're probably underreporting.

Okay. All right. So in this policy, as this policy moves forward, how are we fixing that?

It would definitely be over the course of the days.

Okay. And is that currently reflected in how it's written that we're looking at the aggregate? of the days and so if you exceed $5,000, 5,000 attendees over the course of the many days of the event, then at that point you have to abide by the policy?

That's how we would write it. If we get a favorable recommendation today, we would take it back to commission and that's how we would write it for the memo.

Okay. And so I just want to go through a number of other recommendations that have been shared with me. Making sure that the bike ballet be at the entrance of the event, which seems to be common sense. Apparently different events had different placements for the bicycle ballet. But I think to the extent that we want to make it easy for them to be identified, It should be somewhere near the entrance. Is that being addressed?

Yeah, and so to make the difference, I would imagine, so as an example, Seafood Festival, their entire event takes place on the spoil, so they did have the space closer to that. Untitled and Scope, the event takes place on the beach, and they have their their site plan that they use basically every year. So their spaces were on the spoil area as well. So if that's the will of the body that it be as close as possible they would probably have to redesign something on the beach side.

I think it's important for the success for it to be because for it to clearly be as close as possible. to wherever the public perceives to be the entrance of the event. People usually, they'll drive their bicycle to wherever the entrance is.

The only difference is somebody would have to walk their bike longer to get to the site.

And I want to make sure that we are continuing to make the bike valet service free. Okay. What requirements are we placing on these events to include the availability of this bicycle storage infrastructure on their websites, on their social media. I know in the past, for example, with Art Deco Weekend, years past, they implemented this. and it was promoted everywhere. You would see people, because it was promoted, people knew about it, and so they were going to the event on their bicycle, and it was being checked in. What requirements are we putting on this?

So that's one item that for sure would be different from the first iteration where we will request samples of their marketing of how they are promoting this, because I think that was a failed opportunity in the first time that even if they provided the space, people probably didn't know about it.

Okay. How about wayfinding? So once people get there, like to your point, sometimes not all events have the same layout, so you have unique circumstances. Wayfinding.

Sure. We can definitely include that. All of this and in past discussions with event producers, specifically in the Production Industry Council where there's representatives from all of you sitting on there, one item that came up was a cost and liability. So all of these items, I mean, simple sign may not cost much, but all of those would add to their, cause they're, they're not collecting on, on any parking fee or anything like that. So they're just offering this service.

Okay. All right. Commissioner Matos, Salinas had made a motion. If any of these were not included, I want to make sure that it's included in this. Before this goes back to Commission, I would want to make sure that we go together to the Production Industry Council and make sure that we get whatever other feedback they may have before we go to Commission.

That would definitely be helpful. And in that discussion, we could also discuss the timeframe. Last time we did it for six months. But we can have that discussion.

I think, well, I would want to adopt the recommendations that we have as another six-month pilot in the event, you know, in the implementation of these documents. this updated framework in case we need to tweak anything. Again, we have the opportunity to change whatever may need to be changed.

I'll work with your office to schedule.

Great. Is there comments from the deus on the item? Members of the public wishing to speak on the item? Seeing none in person, none on Zoom, we can show this item adopted by acclamation, and we can move forward to item number seven.

Okay. Item number seven is explore the potential implementation of a blue light safety and emergency communication system along 41st Street. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Bott.

Commissioner Bott, I love this item.

Thank you for the love. I actually happen to be driving through Surfside earlier this week or last week and it seems that they've just installed a blue light camera and so it might be worth, not a blue light camera, a blue light security posts. It might be worth having a chat with them to see what they did and if we can learn anything from them about how they made their selection, who their vendor is, and all that stuff. So this is something that we've been talking about for a while. There didn't seem to be appetite among some of my colleagues, not those here, but some of my other colleagues, for doing this on the beach walk, but I think that which I'm not giving up on yet, but here on 41st Street, given the population, it would make a lot of sense to proceed with this. The one thing that I did wonder about is if we needed cameras at every single cross street, because I think maybe like every other, I'm not sure. You guys are the police and public safety experts. I will defer to you. But that was my one question. And I would definitely go for option 13 in this case, not 13, option one, because there is power already on the street and it should be relatively easy to tie into that. But again, I'm not a public works person, so I could be wrong on that too. So why don't you educate us?

Good morning, Mr. Chair, commissioners, and staff.

Eric Garcia, Major Eric Garcia, Police Technical Services Division.

Yes, so we're here today to discuss what the expectations are, get some guidance and some advice from the committee on locations, quantity, and the type of funding that we, how we're going to fund potentially this project. So happy to discuss the options with you, Commissioner. So your question initially was about cameras on each intersection. So this call box project does not contemplate.

We're not talking about cameras, we're calling.

I'm sorry, I misspeaking. Call box, I misspoke. Sorry, I didn't mean to give everybody a heart attack.

No worries. Yeah, so obviously there's nine intersections that we looked at from starting at Pine Tree and going all the way to Alton. Didn't consider Collins and Indian Creek unless we can obviously add those if that's something that you give us guidance on. And again, nine intersections. I don't know that necessarily we need one on every intersection. That's up to what your expectations would be. There's also, as was discussed in an earlier item, there's also two mid-block crosswalks that might potentially also be an ideal location for an emergency call box if you want to consider those as well. So 41st Street is actually undergoing a major construction reconstruction project. Potentially, this type of service can be included in that project. That's something that potentially we can discuss or can be looked at as part of that 41st Street reconstruction project. Aside from that... Just a couple of decisions that need to be made regarding power versus, like you said, hard wire versus solar. Solar has some limitations, especially being in a tight corridor as it is.

Mayor, let me ask you. Does the department feel that there is a benefit to the community with the installation of the proposed blue light communication system?

So we're never going to say no to something that potentially can incrementally increase safety. So we're going to support the decision of the committee and the commission, whatever that would be.

So through the chair, if I may?

Yes.

I've spoken at length with Chief Jones about this, and he is very supportive. My challenge to you all would be taking a look at these I think it's nine intersections and let's identify five where it makes most sense. And having lived in this neighborhood for so many years, I would suggest that Sheridan Avenue and Pine Tree is kind of around there. The Walgreens there gets all kinds of shady folks wandering in, often without pants because they have been released from Mount Sinai and they're in their hospital gowns and holding their plastic bag and My heart goes out to them because that's not a way that anybody should be released back out of the hospital. But that's a thing. So that Walgreen's situation and where the CVS is. And so I would look to you for some guidance to tell us where the most likely areas would be. I remember that there was always a drama with the Burger King that was there and kids running back and forth across traffic when they're not supposed to be. I know that's a different issue than, but let's put some, let's not just go blanketing the entire street. I don't think it warrants that. The other thing about Pine Tree is that that is a nexus of people who observe the Sabbath and would not be walking with their phones. Same thing with, on the other end, whether it's Garden Ave or Jefferson, but somewhere in there, maybe Meridian, same thing where you have families wandering after dinner for a lovely stroll on Friday night or Saturday. So let's, you guys, I mean, Chris Mitchell's out there all the time. So let's get Chris giving us his input on where the best places would be. And let's start off with five and see how they work. I mean, ideally, we don't need more than five.

And I just want to jump in because I agree with everything that you have said. You know, why I believe this is a good addition is because, you know, unlike... any other part of the city, we have a high concentration of individuals in this area of the city who are walking around without their cell phone. And God forbid they have an emergency, communicating with police and law enforcement then becomes challenging. And so I agree with Commissioner Bott's suggestion for the police department to identify, strategically identify Let's not just say every intersection for the sake of saying no, but strategically identify which are those best locations where this can be placed that can better enhance the safety of the residents and the pedestrians in that area. So I'm happy to support this item and with the direction to staff for when it goes back to the full city commission for it to go back with an identification of those locations that the police department has identified to be the most critical. And I would also say, in addition to Chris Mitchell, who is out there all the time, our neighborhood resource officer is very familiar with the needs of that area. Haasi is very familiar with the unique character and the needs of the area there. So I'd encourage that Haasi be a part of that conversation. The timeline for CIP to be able to include this as part of our 41st Street capital improvements project?

The 41st Street project will be advertising under the ITB in the next weeks, if not days. But what we can do is we can add an ad alternate with a brief description on what the potential could be, and that way we can get some pricing in the process.

Okay. All right. Great. So, yes.

If you could also just reach out to Surfside and just learn what they've experienced and who they're using and why they made that decision. And before it comes to commission, I'd like to be briefed on what the locations are and why they were chosen, please.

The challenge and implementation, as you all know, is DOT permitting. It's their right of way, so they're going to have to approve locations.

But if they're included as part of wayfinding and other infrastructure, this might be easier. And I'd be remiss to imagine we have Captain Sanchez here, who is the captain of the area. So I think we have all the right people available to help a strategic decision. Is it a luxury and an amenity? It is. but it's also a very unique area of our city. And I think if the technology is there to enhance the safety of our residents in a very unique setting, then we should be exploring it. So thank you, Commissioner Bob.

Thank you.

Commissioner Matos Salinas, no. All right, are there members of the public wishing to speak on this item? Seeing none in Zoom, none in person, we can move forward to item number eight.

Item number eight is discuss take action regarding the blocking of flooded portions of the outermost lanes on Alton Road from 43rd Street to 63rd Street during flooding events to prevent homes from being swamped by vehicles driving through flooded portions. This item was sponsored by Commissioner Bott.

Commissioner Bott, you're welcome to introduce your item.

Well, we talked about it a little bit tangentially earlier today. This is an item that I'm bringing because it's been an issue that is getting increasingly dramatic over the last number of years. I've witnessed it in some form, I think every year I've lived here 23 years, but it has gotten exponentially worse over the last five or ten years, but certainly the last five. And now that I'm in a position to hear residents' concerns more than anecdotally, I've heard from so many residents up and down Alton Road who are, you know, somebody had just refinished the floors of their home and they were flooded. Somebody had literally saved up for years to buy himself his dream car, took possession of it on Friday, a vintage something or other, and on Saturday it was totaled. And, you know, I know these are first world problems, right? This isn't like, you know, where we're being swept away and our children are being lost. But these are people who've worked very hard to be able to feel safe and secure in their home that their home will not be damaged through weather. And we live in a first world, and we should be able to fix this. And we are working on infrastructure projects that will help mitigate this. But even if we fund them yesterday, it will take years before they actually, effectually change. So what can we do in the interim that will help people live in homes that are not inundated with flooding. One friend literally had to put his dog on his kayak to take him out to go to the bathroom because they couldn't get out of their home. I know one of our colleagues on the commission the first year we were elected was out catching fish in people's front yards and putting them back into the waterways. The stories are insane. And so it's not good enough to say we can't do it. And I know there are impediments to doing it one way or another way, but we've got to find a way while we are working on the infrastructure to slow the roll, literally and figuratively. It is illegal, my understanding is that it is illegal to go over a certain speed when there is flood water. So we need to figure out enforcement. We need to figure out, can we stage vehicles? And I know FDOT is terribly concerned about what happens in an emergency, but I can tell you, that nobody is speeding through to get off the island during a flood. Like we're all hunkering down trying to keep ourselves dry. So we've got to cut through the various narratives and figure out what we can do. So this is the beginning of the conversation. I want to put this out here for everybody. This is the beginning of the conversation. This is not the entirety of the conversation. So with that, I will turn it over to the experts in the room.

All right. Good morning again, commissioners. So as you mentioned just kind of gives a little more of that context right. We do have the existing tool of the state law that says vehicles must slow down and not create wakes in the event of flooding. But enforcement of that would be a challenge. I wanted to mention you mentioned.

Before you, I'm sorry. Anne, I'm not the expert on that. I know. So let's have this as a conversation as opposed to a presentation per se because I think things are better and more productive that way.

Let me allow Captain Sanchez to occupy that podium and we'll obviously recognize you because you are a key component. You are a stakeholder who is directly affected by this. Captain Sanchez, welcome. Thank you.

So talk to us about, I know you have to introduce yourself and do all the things properly, but I'm jumping the gun on that. Talk to us about enforcement, because I know you guys are strapped. We've all been here during these rain bombs or whatever, like the perfect storm, literally and figuratively. I know the police department, sanitation, public works, everybody is flat out trying to literally and figuratively bail out the city. Is there a way without going to extreme measures of Alpha Bravo and and spring break type staffing chaos to anticipate that these storms are coming and be able to identify officers on key roadways. Like, we know Alton's going to be a disaster. We know parts of Collins are going to be a disaster. But it's not as onerous on Collins because there are no single family homes that are getting flooded. So it is on you, the driver, to proceed with caution. And that seems to be OK. So we know Alton Road in particular is a nightmare. We know where the hot spots are. I mean, I lived in Bayshore on Sheridan 34th, and the whole neighborhood would flood, but my little part of the street wouldn't. So we know it varies. So talk to us about staffing and how you could intercede before things get crazy.

Okay, so good morning to everyone and thank you for jumping the gun and not shooting the gun.

I won't do that, that's not my jam. That's your jam.

Predicting when a weather event would occur. is quite a challenge. The professionals don't get it right. We do our best to anticipate.

No, but we do know, like the city knows when we're hunkering down. Like sandbags go out, the resident alert goes out.

So in a major flooding event, such as post a hurricane or a major storm that we are expecting, we have closed down streets for downed power lines, downed trees. situations that would stall vehicles which would then create a public safety hazard which prevents emergency vehicles to then be able to traverse prior to that for a an unforeseen weather event where we get weather that rolls in and we do get flooding, it is very difficult to implement and to staff a full lane closure for an extended period of time or for an extended distance.

But what if it's not a lane closure and it's the equivalent of a traffic thing? I mean, I wouldn't suggest the motorman because they're on my motorcycles. That sounds really unsafe. But at certain points along Alton Road, you have officers out there telling people, directing traffic. You cannot go. 30, 40 miles an hour on Alton Road, you have to go 15 because of the conditions.

But let me ask this. Because not all rain events are the same. Correct. And we're talking about very specific type of rain events that generate a certain amount of volume of rain. Or it says, because the cars are... No, the cars are not getting stalled with every rain event. We're getting cars stalled during the larger rain events. They actually usually happen around June, July, August. And I know that because in August when we're away on vacation, we're getting phone calls. And people, it's unfortunate, their cars literally... just stuck and you have elderly people. One year we had elderly people trapped, trapped in a car on Alton Road. And so I'm just wondering, Madam Engineer, do we know the category of these weather events that generally cause this type of flooding? Or is that something that our Department of Emergency Management might have access to?

Yeah, they may know that number better than me. I don't know what it is. I mean, it's going to, it can be, it's a frequency issue. It's also a duration issue. So you could get a long lengthy storm that could be destructive, right, and happens over the course of an extended period of time. But you can also get those quick hit frequent storms, just the intense storm, and that could lead to conditions as well.

Because what would be, what might be helpful to know is, okay, typically we see this type of rain accumulation and flooding and vehicles getting installed in the rain with this type of weather event. Usually these can be predicted and usually I know our Department of Environmental, our Department of Emergency Management tracks these and sometimes at times we'll get notifications about it and perhaps when we get those notifications, what might be prudent is is to send out a text alert, to send out an email alert, and maybe even social media, and just alerting individuals, avoid out on the road. Once we know that that type of rain event is coming, it's not closing the lane, because I also think you need to deploy police resources during those rain events to different places, and so you might not be able to commit to keep a police resource there. But the communication, if people know at that point that with this type of weather event, to expect the level of flooding that could cause their car to get stuck, then perhaps they will seek an alternate route.

So if I might jump in on this also, I think it's not even just about the cars getting stuck. I mean, that's bad enough. And I always joke that I lived in Boston and had a convertible.

The home's getting destroyed.

that I had a convertible in Boston, but I have an SUV in Florida because I, you know, I don't want to risk getting stuck in a flood, and it happens all the time. With an SUV, you don't have to. But the converse flip side of that is that people who are in SUVs are able to navigate the roads and drive the normal speed limit, and that's the issue, right? So it's, I think education and awareness is good and important. I'm always a big fan of that. I think it also needs to be explained that it doesn't matter if your car can get through. It is illegal to go above a certain speed limit. And I think the police department PSAs are off the chart right now. They're so good. And so we should do one about this and deploy it every time that we're predicting the rain to remind people that not only are you being kind of a jerk as a neighbor and a community member, but you're also running the risk of getting caught and getting a pretty nasty traffic ticket. So I think that's all very good. I would like to see, and I'm not talking about closing a lane, but I would like to see how we could implement when we know a certain weather event is coming, because we do get enough notice. not all the time, but mostly, that we could implement an extra couple of traffic details along the Alton Road corridor, not to take away from life safety stuff that's going on around the rest of the city, but if we get 48 hours in advance, DEM sends us things saying we're anticipating this, sandbags, this is going to be closed, whatever, then we can say, all right, we're going to need a couple of extra folks working a couple extra hours, how are you guys? Work your magic. I know it's not that simple. I'm not being an idiot and I'm not being cavalier about the fact that people also want to be home taking care of their own families. But I do think it's a thing that we need to try to investigate because if this were only once or twice that this had happened, that'd be like, okay, well, that really stinks and I'm sorry, but it's now every one of these, not everyone, but multiple events every year and that is no longer just something we can say so sorry for you. Lori's gone now, but she was here. I think she's replaced her floors multiple times. And she lives in a house that is a little bit elevated and a naturally occurring berm, and it's up some steps. So it's not that her house is getting flooded. Her house is getting swamped by...

Her house did get flooded. And Lori, unfortunately, had to leave. But her house.

But my point is that it's not that the waters are rising that high naturally. It's that the water is pushed up that high by cars. So that's what I'm saying, the distinction. Because she's up pretty high. So, I would also like to see if we can do a little analysis of cross-referencing let's say the last five years of the DEM warnings on weather events where the city gets mobilized and the reports of flooding from Alton Road so that we can get a better understanding of When does it happen? How often does it happen? Are there any commonalities that we can identify to trigger a particular response in addition to whatever else we might be doing?

And I want to put it for the record, this is something we're going to be facing at least for the next five to 11 years. Five to 11 years, because you have 2031, you have the FDOT project that's going to be racing roads and working on drainage and stormwater issues starting 2031. That's on the southern part of this corridor along 43rd Street to 48th Street. They don't get all the way up to the northern end. 57th Street and Allison Road till 2037. So there are infrastructure improvements on the works, but in the interval. So there is light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe not as quick as one would hope, but there are solutions in the way. But in the meantime, we do need these temporary solutions. Myra, you've been patiently waiting

To chime in and then I'm gonna recognize Trisha Thank you commissioners So your question as to how often this flooding into the homes occur It doesn't just occur when we have the 200 year storm or a hurricane or the warning of a hurricane it happens also in as was said, when there is a rainfall that happens very quickly or happens over a period of days. A couple of weeks ago, we had a rainfall. Some of the homes were flooded. And it's not just caused because the storm sewers cannot take in all that water. We are talking about the original storm sewers from 1926 or something, and they're clogged inside so water doesn't really flow through as easily, and it cannot be stored in those storm sewer pipes. But it happens all the time. And it happens not just because it's a big rainfall. It happens because the vehicles going by Alton on the outer lane and on the innermost lane are going fast enough that it causes a wake, and that wake pushes the water into the homes. As an example, Commissioner Fernandez, you were there in the 200-year storm, which was a couple years ago. That's the only time I have seen in 45 years cars stalled and left abandoned on the road where even the tow companies could not move them out. So the issue here is not the cars being stalled. Um, the issue is the water being pushed onto the homes inside the homes from just a simple rainfall.

And the, and the, the reason might, uh, are you, I mentioned the cars stalled because the water is going into, into the homes that's affecting you, but you need to put it, you need to message it in a way that captures the attention. of the driver. You want the driver to disengage in a certain activity. Well, they need to know, well, just avoid that area. Don't even go there.

And thank you. That would be very helpful.

Yeah. And that's where I would love to see the overlap of the data. Okay. Which were those storms where we had the worst flooding, where the homes were getting affected the most, when we were having the cars stalled? What type of weather event was that? so that then we can push out the text messages, the emails, the social media, everything, telling people, okay, you can't go there. In addition to the enhanced traffic enforcement on speed and all that, but I think we need to correlate, okay, this big weather event, what was it, so that when we see it coming again in the future, we can proactively communicate and not just tell cars to go slow no discourage the cars from going from from entering that area during that type of storm and that's I think it's gonna be yield the best results while we wait in the interval for the FDLT improvements which are coming and that is that is good news they they are coming but in the meantime I think in the meantime

People are having to leave their homes for a month while mold remediation, water removal is being done. Drywalls are removed and replaced, and cars are emptied of 50 gallons of water from one of my son's cars. The other one also had the same thing.

And not for nothing, but all of that causes damage to our environment, right? Like, you don't want stuff coming through your car into our bay, basically. It's bad enough that we have streets that have cars driving on them and with that stormwater runoff going into the bay. So I know that everybody is stretched super tight because of FIFA. I've got that. And we're asking for people to do some more work to correlate data. We are entering into our summer rain season. I don't want to break anybody, but if there's any way that we could get the correlation between the storm information and the reports of flooding going back at a minimum three years, it would be better for five years, and come back to the Commission with a plan of how we could work with DEM, have the data to illustrate, and have some kind of a staffing protocol that can be activated. to enhance having officers on Alton Road to manage traffic effectively. If people are speeding, ticket them because it's illegal and we have that tool. So they're pretty low hurdle improvements and I would love for them to come to the June meeting if it's possible. knowing that you guys are all already beside yourselves, so that we don't lose another two months, and then we are in recess in August, and then all of a sudden the rain season is mostly over, and we haven't been able to effectively change. If it's possible.

I don't know if they'll be able to do it.

That's why I want to have this conversation.

Commission, with all due respect, this issue has been before this city since... for the past 20 years. And I understand, I know you all just got here basically, but these homes are being affected. There are people that are elderly and people that are challenged. They cannot get out of the homes.

That is specifically why I'm asking my friends and colleagues in different departments to exert themselves even harder than we are already asking them to during FIFA. If they can carve out a handful of hours or if they've got interns in their departments to do some of this research and then put together a preliminary staffing plan. It doesn't have to be ironclad, but, like, yes, we can do it, and here's kind of how we'll do it, so that we can have this conversation in June. And if you need to massage it and figure it out from there, that's not an issue. But I don't want to lose another six weeks.

And, you know, to build upon the communication plan, I believe that the communication aspect of it staffing is great once the vehicles are there and I think a lot of times with staffing you might not always be able to rely on the staffing being there because sometimes you need to move your resources but but communicating and trying to discourage the behavior of the people going there I think I think will be very helpful I we need to move to one final item before we adjourn today but Trisha has been patiently waiting Trisha welcome you have to miss to speak

Tricia?

Thank you. First of all, I would like to say I appreciate the education and awareness. I think that that is a good next step. A couple things, though. You know, we talked about how fun it is to drive your Lamborghini down Alton Road, and it's fun because it's fast. Well, as Ms. Bott pointed out the SUVs are fun too. The people bring their big vehicles, you know, the Teslas and the G wagons and all these vehicles that are made to go through that type of water. And they think it's fun and it's fun to go fast. So that's part of the problem. And I do think education might help, but frankly, people don't follow the rules very much anymore as we have found with the speeding on Alton Road. Anyone that lives on the golf course is getting flooded both from the back and the front. The waters are raging through in any type of water event. They're raging through from the golf course to Alton Road. So they're going between our houses to Alton Road. um this this creates that the water's coming from both ways and the wakes are in just what was saying damaging cars i had flooding for the first time ever in my home um and the continuation of this is horrible it's not just it's it's also king tide activated because that major event where everyone was stuck for hours on alton road including me was it didn't recede until the tide went down. And so it also is triggered by the tide. So that's something else you're going to have to look at and take into effect with it. From a standpoint of, if you know that the ground has been saturated already, well, of course it's going to be worse. If you put up, you can use those new electronic signs to start to educate the people as well. I would suggest that changing that fisher park light to when there is a an event like this to so that it is going off so that it slows the people down might be helpful as well um you know we would appreciate anything that you can do just as also an aside the storm water or the sewer drain that runs along um the golf course side you guys are doing a great job of getting everything pumped out i see the the vehicles all over town pumping out the sewers and storm drains around the city but everybody forgets about the golf course drains because they're hard to get to the manhole access is you have to go down one of the swales at like 52nd street is where you have to go and you have to go on grass and you can't do it when it's the grass is wet so if it's not done when the grass is dry we're out of luck, you know, all of these things. And, you know, you say 19 or 2037, my goodness, I've been waiting for this for 30 years already. So it's just discouraging.

Thank you, Tricia. And you have our commitment that we're all committed through Commissioner Mott's leadership to show and yield improvements for you. So with that, Commissioner Bott, you made a motion to try to get this through the June meeting?

I can't make a motion.

You can't make a motion. So, your request is to try to bring this back to the June meeting. Female Speaker 1 Yeah.

And I would just say, also, one of the things that we should be mindful of is that every time this happens and a car gets totaled, that raises that resident's premium on the cars to the point where they may not be able to get car insurance. And the same thing with home insurance claims. So, it's not just that it's an inconvenience, because it's a huge inconvenience, but it also, I mean, it's going to eventually affect where people can afford to live. So, again, I know I'm being a little bit exigent on this, pushing you guys to come back in June, but I want to get this going. Because I know it's going to take time once we come back in June to tweak and get it all up and running. But I'll be here to do anything I can to help you guys come back for June.

Yeah. And also, I want us to think outside the box. Again, I don't want us to overly rely with, on police on this specific issue. I don't want us to say and prescribe police have to be stationed at these locations just because during these situations you have a lot of emergencies that are happening. You have a lot of public safety situations. So I also want to give police some flexibility and perhaps they can give us some guidance as to how they feel this can properly be handled together with our fire departments. So with that, we can show this unanimously adopted, and hopefully we'll have something for the June meeting. Karen, you had something to state? I'm looking at our mic.

Mr. Chair, I just want to clarify. You're talking about bringing it to next Wednesday's commission meeting?

Is there any way we can with the supplemental?

I mean, I think we can, we'll do our best. At least an update.

An update with the analysis. I was going to say, I think the biggest challenge would be just doing the administrative documentation and getting it through, but I think that as long as we have the right data, you know, it's a matter of getting it graphed and see what the trend looks like, and, you know, that's the important task you want to hear about.

And we can do it as maybe a discuss and take action or something, but... Like, I want the conversation to start in a commission meeting so that we're like, okay, we don't have the full details on X, but on A, B, and C, we can press play and go. So that's what I'm trying to get us to.

And I think, Kara, I think what you're seeing, and David, you're seeing all of us realize this is a very last-minute request for next week's meeting from this commission. So I think we'll be understanding if you can't get us the most thorough information, but at least we can get the ball rolling.

It's a discussion. Yes.

Okay. All right. We can show this item closed, and we're now going to item number 10.

Item number 10 is discussed, adding a resident empowerment and accountability on development dashboard, read dashboard on the city website to include information on both proposed and improved developments, projects in Miami Beach. This item was sponsored by Vice Mayor Dominguez and co-sponsored by Commissioner Ball.

I'd like to move the item.

So last year, it became evident that I... that more transparency was needed and an easier way for residents to find items on our website in one location would serve everyone well. And I had many meetings with the planning department, Tom Mooney and IT and the clerk's office, on how we can get this done, and I appreciate all of the work that went into this in getting this completed. So now we have a read dashboard, which is resident empowerment and accountability on development. One thing I will request, and I'm just gonna pull up my notes real quick. Let's see here. because it has all of the columns that I've been looking for, so development orders with the development agreements, if applicable, naming and column with the project information, it's more user friendly right now, the name of the applicant, the company, summary of the project, the direct link to the application if somebody wanted to do a deep dive. I'd also like to add pending live local applications on the dashboard. So the code already requires notice to go to neighbors once a project is approved and the notice is provided to neighbors within 375 feet as well as neighborhood associations. But for pending applications that are not yet approved, maybe we can have them listed and included in the status of a project. I think that would be helpful to residents as well, because as of late, I have been getting a lot of calls from neighborhood associations asking about live local pending, and I think that would be helpful. allow for more transparency.

And to build on that, if I might, just pending applications slash litigation, because I think there are eight pending applications that are currently being litigated.

I'll run that by the city attorney's office later to see if, unless Rob has a quick answer on it, if we need to advertise litigated items.

We would have to discuss that internally. Yeah.

Let's discuss that after.

Okay. Yeah, we can definitely include a column for pending live local.

Okay.

And you'll make that part of the recommendation as part of this motion?

Yeah, that would be amazing. We don't need to bring this item back. We can meet offline. I just wanted this item discussed at neighborhoods so that residents that really follow our commission meetings closely know that we do have something available in my next newsletter. I'll include it so that residents know, and we can close out the item as long as my colleagues don't have any other additions, suggestions, or questions.

Great. I think, Vice Mayor Dominguez, I think this is one of these transparency elements that our public deserves, and you've prioritized that. I know, Commissioner Abbott, when you were on the planning board, and we were both serving on the planning board, we would talk a lot about How great it would be if a platform like this existed where you could see not just what's being built in our city, those development agreements that the city was a party to, what is being approved, what are the public benefits. It's a matter of transparency and it also helps the community better understand what is being projected. A lot of times we only think about those projects that are currently being discussed and those projects that are actively under construction. But then there's that period of time between a project being approved and a project breaking ground where you still have an active development agreement. And we are looking at the big picture of the city. And when you're considering independent zoning applications or independent zoning legislation, you do want to consider. You do want to consider what are those previously approved development agreements that are going to be intertwined and part of that puzzle piece. So, Vice Mayor Dominguez, this goes to the heart of transparent urban planning. And you've prioritized it for a while now, since last year. You've been working hard on this. And I think our community is going to be better served by this, Commissioner Batt.

I also want to echo everything you said. I love this item. Commissioner Dominguez, Vice Mayor, sorry, Vice Mayor Dominguez. Laura. Laura, my fave. Love calling you Laura. I also want to recognize that the late, great Mark Samuel was the President of MBU when Residence Right to Know was born. brought up to the Commission and adopted this legislation and then tweaked over the many years to make it as robust as it is now. following in those footsteps, Herb Frank, also the late, great Herb Frank, who was one of the founding members of Miami Beach United, really championed this idea. And it was a real mission for him to try to get this kind of a very resident-friendly dashboard built and used. And I'm sorry that neither Mark nor Herb are here to see the product of Laura's labors and it's a labor of love and this is why MBU is an important organization, has been an important organization and will continue to be because it advocates for residents to understand how to advocate for themselves at City Hall. So between Residents' Right to Know which is enshrined in how we do business now and this dashboard which is so important and all the resident connect stuff that came out of all the residents right to know advocacy it's you know it's it it's a number it's a thing that we should all take stock and be proud of and take a moment to reflect because it's not every city that makes itself available to residents to find out what's going on all right wonderful seeing no other comments from from for the day is

Vice Mayor Dominguez, thank you again for your leadership on this. I think it's going to help the entire community just be better engaged and better informed as we talk about the planning of the future of Miami Beach.

All right.

With that, is there any other business for the good of the order? No? Okay. We can show this meeting adjourned. Thank you, everyone.