Man, did newly appointed commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins step in it last week. Deep in it.
It’s not so much that she renewed a proposal to build a super controversial bridge over a canal on 87th Avenue connecting 164th Street with 163rd Terrace — and Cutler Bay with Palmetto Bay — just a few weeks after she was sworn into office on a wing and a prayer. It’s how she renewed it.
Hurriedly and dramatically, without the proper public notice, like she’s trying to rush it through, disguised as a countywide “connectivity” policy for better traffic engineering.
Yeah, right.
Appointed in December to replace newly elected Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Cohen Higgins used the COVID19 emergency, which allowed her to circumvent the appropriate public notice, to get an item on the agenda that has nothing to do with the pandemic. And, after a lofty, righteous speech about equity that has nothing to do with the bridge, she got her colleagues to approve a resolution that takes the $3.1 million project to the Transportation Planning Organization in late February.
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The quick blowback has caused her to change that TPO meeting to March. It would come back to the commission on second reading after that.
¿Pero que QUE? Palmetto Bay residents who have been against the bridge — a perceived threat to their quality of life through increased traffic — since at least 2003 and, some say, as long as 40 years, did a double take. When did that bridge to nowhere come up again? It was a surprise to everyone and lots of residents feel like they’ve been ignored or sandbagged on what is, arguably, the biggest issue for an entire village.
It was shocking enough to get Palmetto Bay Mayor Karyn Cunningham to call a special meeting Monday night where the village council passed three resolutions: One opposes the county commission vote, one asks the county commission to reconsider and postpone item until after March, and one added at the last minute that instructs Village Attorney John Dellagloria to put the county on notice that it could end up in court.
They should just pressure Mayor Danielle Levine Cava, who represented this district before she became La Alcaldesa and still has a couple of days to veto this, as she should, just because it was not properly noticed.
But, first, they heard more than 100 comments from residents who are overwhelmingly against the idea, by more than 3 to 1. They repeatedly reminded everyone that Cohen Higgins is their “unelected” county representative and called the move “political trickery.” Ladra counted at least 67 against and 19 for. I may have missed a few over the four and a half hour meeting.
Increased traffic, the changing vehicular patterns due to COVID, decreasing property values, and the safety of children, pedestrians and pets were the leading arguments for the anti group. They also contend that the real solutions are in mass transit, not bridges.
Current traffic north of 164th, more ease for first responders and getting out of the driveway in less than 20 minutes were the arguments used by the pro group. “Effective mass transportation could take years and maybe a decade or more,” said Jeffrey Rubins.
Each side — geographically located north and south of the canal — pleaded for consideration from the other.
“I’d like to challenge the folk who support the bridges to think about the people who live on the street that the bridges would impact,” said Betsy Stevenson. “It’s basically direct impact versus impact that isn’t direct.
“We all feel it. We feel traffic. But the people who live on [87th Avenue] would be living on the highway.”
Alvaro Pozo turned the table on her and asked people to listen to the studies that say the bridge will improve connectivity to U.S. 1.
“Should we also remember that the burden is being experienced by those of us in District 3? Is that happening today? Is there consideration for that,” Pozo asked, certain that traffic will go back to its pre-COVID levels.
“Is this bridge going to solve every problem in our neighborhood? Absolutely not. But it is a very good part of the solution,” Pozo said. “Are we all neighborly? Can we all take consideration for all of us? Not just 110 residents?”
Jose Lopez, like other critics, said the bridge would only push the bottleneck 20 blocks north to 141st Street, where 87th Avenue ends again. “If the people in South Dade didn’t know how to manage themselves in awarding building contracts… we should not be bearing the cost of someone else’s poor decisions.”
Cohen Higgins, who did not respond to several calls and messages through her cellphone, district office and her staff, did send an olive branch email on Friday to Cunningham and Cutler Bay Mayor Tim Meerbott, who, naturally, is on board with the bridge. Cutler Bay is south of 184th Street.
“During my campaign, I vowed to fight for real traffic solutions for the hardworking residents of South Dade and this is one of them,” she said in the email. “I have always been clear and consistent in my support of this project. I understand that there are varying points of view and it is important that my colleagues on the TPO are presented with both sides of this issue.”
Her idea of getting input is for each mayor to select four residents from each municipality to serve on a newly established “Community Connectivity Committee,” meet four times, virtually for COVID safety — “to engage in substantive, meaningful discussion in a respectful manner” — and submit “position papers” to the TPO members when it comes before them in March.
Cunningham and Meerbott have until Wednesday to provide the eight names to the commissioner’s Chief of Staff Natalia Zea, who did not respond to several emails seeking more information all day Tuesday.
“The CCC will allow our community to come together to speak to each other – not at each other,” Cohen Higgins wrote. “It will allow for the exchange of relevant facts and perspectives, in hopes of educating and reducing disinformation. It will provide a structured forum for the public to be heard.”
Um, the commission chambers on a properly noticed item would have also provided a structured forum.
One South Palmetto Bay resident asked for Cunningham to appoint at least one pro-bridge homeowner to the committee. But opposed residents say that would stack the committee against them since all four of the Cutler Bay residents are likely to be in favor.
Cunningham also questioned the new commissioner’s “efforts to double back and kind of create some kind of community input.” She said she couldn’t see position papers from residents on extreme sides of the issue as community input. But she will provide the four names and said Monday that the first one of those is Village Manager Nick Marano, who was hired in December.
Councilwoman Marsha Matson remembers working with former Miami-Dade Commissioner Katy Sorensen — three commissioners ago — to oppose the bridge. “This is something I campaigned on when I ran two years ago and something that I have opposed for 30 years,” Watson said. “It would completely change Palmetto Bay.”
Ladra would say it already has, pitting neighbor against neighbor in what seems like a completely unbridgeable divide.
Former Councilman David Singer said it has been that way for at least 17 years, since the incorporation of Palmetto Bay and its first vote against the bridge. A survey he did in 2017 showed the community almost evenly split.
He himself is against a single bridge on 87th Avenue, which he says won’t resolve anything. He says there needs to be several bridges so that people have options to get onto an improved U.S. 1. But, he said, the village’s southernmost homeowners have a point and are not getting any love.
“There was no empathy from the council for the residents of District 3. And they really do have serious traffic issues there,” Singer said.
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“Going forward, we need to keep at the forefront that we are neighbors,” said Vice Mayor Leanne Tellam. “I’ve seen this subject divide people and while you can’t always get what you want, at the end we need to respect each other and the democratic process.”
She also said that she would be willing to consider a referendum vote so that the residents can be the ones who decide — which sounds like the best idea so far. But, like others, Watson took “great exception” with the way she learned of the county commissioner’s move.
Cunningham said the timing was wrong.
“During this time of covid people are already stressed out and this just adds more unnecessary stress,” Cunningham said. “One of the biggest pieces for me is this pitting of town against village, neighborhood against neighborhood. That hurts the soul, right?
“I have a great relationship with Mayor Meerbott. This just happens to be one of the items we don’t agree on,” Cunningham said, adding that the village is interested in both a short term and long term plan.
“South Dade has been sorely neglected over the last few years,” she said. “Downtown Miami is becoming less affordable and so, naturally, folks are moving to where housing is more affordable. Unfortunately, the jobs haven’t been built in South Dade yet so you still have people making that daily commute North.”
She and others say there are better options and that the county should be looking at the problem holistically. “Look at the region in its entirety and not just two cities. We really need better solutions that are better fit for South Dade.”
Even if it’s a good idea, the way that Cohen Higgins tried to slip this by has everybody up in arms. One man who identified himself as a service man named Joseph something, sounded downright disgusted.
“The community as a whole should be ashamed of how we got here this evening. When I served overseas, I carried ballots for the Afghan people so their voice can be heard in a fair and balanced election. I was denied that right in this election,” he said abut the appointment of Cohen Higgins, “and on top of that, the first item to be brought is a detriment to the community with no four day notice.
“This project, it will empty traffic into my street. It’s dangerous to my community. I am anti bridge to nowhere. I am anti corrupt politician and I am anti bandaid solutions.”
Todd Levy, who lives on 141st — “literally at the tip of the spear of what will occcur” — thanked whoever put the notice about the meeting in his mailbox.
“It was completely under the radar.”
Not only did Cohen Higgins piss off a lot of her constituents, but commission colleagues — who are also getting some blowback for supporting her on her “district item” — are going to have to revisit this again at the TPO and when it comes back to the full commission.
This public notice controversy won’t go, um, unnoticed in the future.
Danielle Cohen Higgins earns distrust with surprise revisit to 87th Ave bridge added by Ladra on
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