IGNORING THE EXPERTS AGAIN

        Everyone who cares about Coconut Grove should be visiting Dinner Key regularly.  Big changes are taking place that will last a lifetime.
    Five years ago we got blueprints for a waterfront plan ("The Sasaki Plan"). Experts showed us the best way to transform our shore line.   The City of Miami did nothing for years but is now doing its best to create buildings that ignore the plan. 
   
The Sasaki Plan told us to keep the popular Scotty's Landing restaurant.     The city is planning to tear it down and replace it with a Shula's Steakhouse. 
      Thankfully, City of Miami voters get to decide this in the November 5 election.
   
We are not so fortunate with the Dinner Key dockmaster's office.   
The plan told us to keep the facility as it is.   The City is now building a four-story monster to replace it in the middle of what was to be green space and a marina parking lot.  Go see it rising yourself. Computer simulation of the dockmaster McMansion now being built.

     The edifice for the guy watching over a bunch of boats takes up as much room as a city block.
      When you see it you will look at City Hall (just north) and ask, "Have they lost their minds?   
Did they spend too much time digging in Blanche Park's toxic dirt*?"

    We don't need this or the multiple retail shops the City plans to bring to our bayfront. 
       Shula's rendering...it could be our own Bongo's on the Bay.

     Everyone needs to become more aware of the City's misguided efforts.  When they are, voters will reject the City's Grove Bay proposal on the November 5 ballot. 

    Aren't you tired of getting scammed by the City?
    Don't let them pour more concrete on our precious, public waterfront.  Say "No!" on November 5.

                      ______________

*Earlier this month we learned that Blanche Park, across from the residence of Grove city commissioner, Marc Sarnoff,  was once a dumping ground for toxic materials.   This week we learned that 
Merrie Christmas Park and the 175-acre Melreese Golf Course suffered the same fate.  Similar to the Sasaki Plan, the City has ignored the advice of waste disposal experts for years.
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THIS MORNING 
     I just got back from the free tree give-a-way in Virrick Park.   I got in line behind a shirtless young man.  A moment later I heard him say to me, "I know you."  I looked up, it was him again, and I replied, "Yeah.  You're the guy who stole my bike".   As he smiled and I thought, "At least he's not stealing trees".
(If your read the bike story last year, you know I got lucky and got my bike -and my wife's bike- back)

FREE YOGA TUESDAYS 
       Starting this Tuesday, free yoga classes will be offered in Peacock Park from 6 to 7 p.m.   The
six-month project is sponsored by the Grove's Dharma Yoga Studio and the B.I.D.