What Could Be Done To Improve Miami (Coral Gables, Pinecrest: schools, tax)

[miamihurricane555]

Originally Posted by FlyMIA

I agree with a lot of that. But when I put in bold is already done. County and City commisioners have term limits. Now I do not know what Miami City commisioners get for pay but Dade County commisioners get $6,000 a year so they all have other jobs.
Not sure what the term limits if any are for the mayor. But mayors certainly need a decent salary and should not have a private sector job and honestly I think commissioners should be paid a decent wage and not have other jobs. It helps with corruption and making them only do things that deal with the county. A salary of $75,000 or so

I forgot to put that I wanted the local county gov to meat no more than 30 days a year so there salaries would be justified

[MoItaly]

As many said here, public transportation and mass transit need a huge improvement.

Landscape-green areas: yes, more can be done, make it more like Palm Bch Cty, which has a neater look.

Obviously, there are still rough areas in Miami, but gentrifying is not always the best thing to do. Creating programs to make some neighborhoods safer while maintaining the local diversity would be better. People want to gentrify all the so-so areas, but then they complain about Miami's real estate market being too expensive.

Too often when some areas have issues, somebody tries to change them, instead to make them better. What I am trying to say is - for instance - Overtown 15 years from now, might be filled with expensive condos and retailers. Then you will have another loss of identity in Miami. I would rather see Overtown becoming safer without losing its identity (I am just using OT as an example, it goes for other areas). Maybe becoming the area for blues and jazz clubs, sort of a today's NY little Harlem, without the drama of the Harlem of the 80's-90's.

Also, and that's a must, Miami needs to improve the port and attracts more business, import-export, to that area. the potential is much greater than what we see today.

Not having corrupted politicians of course would help a lot...but now we are dreaming, aren't we?

[miamihurricane555]

I would also like to see the Dolphin expressway widened to 6 lanes both ways(8 lanes if possible). I would also like to see more skyscrapers in Downtown Miami make it look like a tropical manhatten also repair the counties ageing drainage and electrical systems I'm tired of losing power in summer storms along with 2-3 inches of rain causing floods that wreck our cars and cause delays and of course the best improvement of all would be a clean county government.

[robertobaggio]

Bring MLS back to Miami and build a soccer specific stadium (20-25k seats) like the one in Houston near the American Airlines arena.

[miamihurricane555]

Originally Posted by robertobaggio

Bring MLS back to Miami and build a soccer specific stadium (20-25k seats) like the one in Houston near the American Airlines arena.

20-25k seats? r u serious we need a 40-50k stadium in here have u seen how quickly sun life stadium fill's up when friendlies r played there? when mexico played Colombia 55,000 people showed up there when barca played chivas an incredible 70,080 people were in attendance. Miami needs a stadium twice the size any other mls team has.

[straight shooter]

What Could Be Done To Improve Miami

Crack down on all illegal/money laundering businesses.

Increase mass transit i.e. extend metro rail

Halt suburban sprawl/cookie cutter neighborhoods and promote urban infill while leaving green spaces/parks.

[miamihurricane555]

Originally Posted by straight shooter

What Could Be Done To Improve Miami

Crack down on all illegal/money laundering businesses.

Increase mass transit i.e. extend metro rail

Halt suburban sprawl/cookie cutter neighborhoods and promote urban infill while leaving green spaces/parks.

As for the first part I would much rather legalize the black market than crackdown on it. part 2 I agree with
point 3 I agree with in theory put I'm just not sure how you propose to do that. The way I would do it is simply make the urban development boundaries Permanent so as they run out of room(they already are) the natural process is to build up in downtown and build vertically while preserving suburbia just not letting it's self run any deeper into the everglades

[straight shooter]

Your approach for part one is not a bad one, I guess we agreed that something needs to be done. For part three you idea is mine. Make the Urban Development Boundary permanent. Moving the line in some areas every so often is a joke and defeats its purpose.

[Alex =]]

I would get rid of tolls, I know the purpose of them are to suck dry tourist but locals are being affected as well.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by straight shooter

What Could Be Done To Improve Miami

1) Crack down on all illegal/money laundering businesses.

2) Increase mass transit i.e. extend metro rail

3) Halt suburban sprawl/cookie cutter neighborhoods and promote urban infill while leaving green spaces/parks.

Agree with 2) and 3). Progress is being made, though very slow. Rome wasn't built in a day, you know, and Miami has only about a century of history, a mere pittance, it is very early days.

Anyway, I believe it begins with 3) actually, then 2) could follow close by. But really they go hand-in-hand.


As for 1), which is actually a national and global problem, not merely a municipal/county one, I would make legal some of the major businesses that are the source of the so-called illegal/money-laundering, then regulate and tax them so that everyone benefits, at least a little, instead of just a few organized criminals and their protectors in the political system.

We do it with alcohol and, most notably, gambling. Why not a few others?

Originally Posted by miamihurricane555

As for the first part, I would much rather legalize the black market than crack down on it.

Part 2, I agree with.

Point 3, I agree with in theory, but I'm just not sure how you propose to do that. The way I would do it is simply make the urban development boundaries permanent so that they run out of room (they already are). The natural process is to build up in downtown and build vertically while preserving suburbia, just not letting itself run any deeper into the Everglades

So basically I agree with everything that miamihurricane555 says (except county-wide mandatory Spanish in schools at equal level with English, sorry).