Last night’s City of Miami bike summit was a great success. Mike Lydon made an excellent presentation about the future of cycling in Miami, and the different facilities we have to look forward to in the future. He spoke to a packed house of cycling advocates and government officials who helped make the plan possible. I’ll let Mike and Felipe talk about the plan and some of the comments made by the audience (most of which related to getting the word out that bikes have a right to share the road), but I want to mention a few words about the underlying conversation related to Miami 21. The opening remarks were made by City Commission Chair Joe Sanchez, a cycling advocate and longtime supporter of Bike Miami and the Bicycle Action Plan. His remarks were noteworthy because he spoke mostly about Miami 21, and his decision to vote against it.
Stressing his support of the plan, he said his ‘no’ vote came from concerns that the height restrictions on Biscayne and Coral Way proffered by Commissioners Regalado and Sarnoff were bad planning (very true) and could open the city up to unnecessary litigation (also true). He went on to say that the plan was not dead and negotiations on these issues were moving forward, and he hoped to reconsider the matter soon. He was vague about when the vote would happen, but I was pleased to hear him hopeful that it would happen in the near future. (My guess is that he will want the vote to happen before the election.) While I still think that he could have procedurally handled the matter in another way, I am glad that he is working on fixing the problem.
It didn’t go unnoticed that once Joe left (about 5 minutes into the presentation) Mayor Manny arrived and also gave a few words on the plan (and Miami 21). He assured us that he is not giving up on Miami 21, and will continue to be an advocate even once he leaves office. We are all lucky to have had him as Mayor. (PS. He stayed through the entire presentation!)
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