Summary of the Issue:

Where is Bicentennial Park? How large is it?
    Bicentennial Park is a city of Miami park that is located in Downtown Miami just south of the I-395 expressway and east of Biscayne Boulevard. The park consists of a total of approximately 30 + acres of City owned upland. It includes approximately 2,600 feet of Biscayne Baywalk and FEC (Florida East Coast Railway) slip walkway with views of downtown Miami, the Port of Miami and Watson Island.

 When was it created?
    Following the 1972 Parks for People Bond issue. Designed by Ed Stone and Associates, the park contained berms that cut it off from the street life and lacking adequate security, view corridors, or people living nearby it became a haven for the homeless and an unsafe space for many people in future years.

 How has it been used?
    This parcel of public land has been misused since the inception of the park in 1976. It was used as a baseball field for Miami-Dade college until the irrigation system was cut and not replaced. Then it was used for cars to race trough in the Grand Prix, whose promoter eventually went bankrupt and never returned the roadways to green. From the early 1990s it was used as an encampment by the homeless until the Marlins tried to take it over in 1999, at which time the Urban Environment League rallied public to stop the takeover and redesign the park.

 How was the public process been heisted by the museums?
    In an effort to make it a “premier public park” in February of 2004 more than 350 participants came together in a design workshop in the Omni to discuss the future of Bicentennial Park. It was the largest such gathering in the city’s history. The stated outcome of the charette by participants as captured on videotape by the UEL were that:
• The park remain mostly green;
• Natural improvement include large shade trees, benches, meandering pathways with lighting, lush South Florida landscaping;
• Play areas for children including a carousel and interactive fountains;
• A historical plaque walk be created;
• Play fields for adult sports;
• Places to swim and places interact with the bay including kayak rentals, small kiosks for drinks and snacks and views to the ocean.
• 25% of the tables said they wanted two museums but drew them no larger then 1.5 acres and described them as very modest in size.
• There was consensus that Bicentennial Park should remain a traditional green “passive park” with limited commercial activities as Bayfront Park with its amphitheatre and shopping complex was already the active, high-density, high use part of our water- front.
The words passive, natural and quiet were the words used most often. Participants said it was not important that the park had to “pay for itself” with commercial events. Participants expected a quality natural park as part of regular city services.

 
How did the museums assume the overall direction of the park?
The museums used the design workshop to takeover of as much of the park as they could. They first tried to get eight acres each but the city finally constrained them to only four acres each. Two bond issues (a city one in 2001 and a county one in 2004) were worded in ways that never mentioned Bicentennial Park itself and many voters had no idea they were voting for such a massive takeover of public space. The Urban Environment League, (as a condition for support due to the large amount of funds going for historic preservation that was lumped into Bond Issue # 8) created an agreement in October 2004 between the museums, the city and the county for a steering committee to include a wide variety of neighborhood groups in future planning for the park. It never happened.

 How is the dichotomy between a passive park and an active park used to rationalize the commercialization of public space?
    Mayor Diaz and others frequently call for “active parks” and the assumption is that “passive parks” are not people friendly places for kids or various kinds of fun activities. The dichotomy is wrong. Look at other parks in our country such as the waterfront park in Portland Oregon, parks in Europe and across the world. These are places that are well designed with plenty of trees, places to walk, play sports, see beautiful gardens and other small scale public amenities are hugely popular and create important alternatives to our televised and internet dominated world of spectacle. Parks do not need to become theme parks to be popular but they do need to provide security, amenities, be well maintained and programmed for different interests.

 Why not have more buildings in the park?
    The recently completed City Master Plan states that “Miami’s financial difficulties in the last two decades exacerbated the tendency common to many municipalities to look at park land as “free” land for municipal buildings and other activities. Miami’s relatively small amount of park land has been diminished over the years by the siting of buildings for other municipal uses as well as other activities. For example:
the loss of acres of Lummus Park for a police stable
the loss of bayfront parks for bayside
the American Airlines arena has seriously eroded public waterfront land.

What is wrong with the Cooper Robertson Plan promoted by the city?
    The Cooper Robertson Plan (the firm hired by the city to execute the design) finally showed the public its plan in March 2007 and there has been only one public meeting so far. Their plan uses far to much acreage, more than twenty acres, for museums, restaurants, undefined “auxiliary” buildings, maintenance buildings, ingress and egress roads, underground parking entrances, hard surface promenades, and “open green space” with no apparent use, with just 4-5 acres dedicated to landscaped areas. This is not what the public asked for.

Common Sense Miami has taken on the project of once again championing the people’s wishes in relation to Bicentennial Park. Common Sense Miami is a new organization that is organizing residents to assure greater fiscal responsibility, sensitivity to good planning and green spaces in our city.