Virginia Key: a few words about ancient coral reefs, hurricanes and the whims of man.

Virginia Key: where did it come from and where is it going?

With the transient nature of our community, some might think that Virginia Key and all things on it - the Miami Marine Stadium, the Rusty Pelican restaurant, the bridges and roads connecting it to the mainland and even the Miami Dade County Water and Sewage Station, - came wholly hatched, without regard to the ancient natural forces that forged the island into existence and still exert their influence.

So here are few words about its geologic past.

Virginia Key is a sedimentary barrier island set between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay.

It was originally thought to be part of the Miami Beach/Key Biscayne land mass that was severed from the nearby Fisher Island and Key Biscayne. Over hundreds of years, hurricanes have opened the Bear Cut and Norris Cut channels.

The island’s sandy overlay rests on an ancient coral reef that lived 100,000 years ago when water levels were 25 to 30 feet higher than today. (Today, that coral rock reef meets the surface on Solider Key, the first of the Florida Keys.)

On Virginia Key, as the water receded, the coral reef became overladen with sand brought by currents from the north. Virginia Key and Key Biscayne to the south are formed of quartz sand brought by wave action and deposits from southward moving currents.

The island’s elevation increases three to four feet to create the beach dunes. Inland, Virginia Key’s coastal hammock rises six to seven feet above sea level. The variety of plants and animal communities on Virginia Key is directly related to changes in elevation and can be seen in the different ecosystems found within Virginia Key.

Virginia Key’s size and shape have been significantly altered by storm surges, land fills and shoreline development, including, of course, the creation of the Miami Marine Stadium basin lagoon.

As a relatively young island (in the U.S. Coast Survey of 1849, F.G. Gerdes stated it had only existed "ten or twelve" years ---after Florida became a U.S. Territory in 1821), it is considered a “mobile structure,” subject to the forces of nature and, of course, the whims of man.

Other sources for more info:
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/general/lib/biscayne_bay_bibliography.pdf
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/biscayne/info.htm
http://www.keyshistory.org/keysgeology.html

Jimbo's

The future of Jimbo’s fish shack on Virginia Key was not in doubt Friday afternoon, judging from the throngs of patrons hanging out, buying beers and enjoying the sunshine on weathered picnic tables overlooking the lagoon.

This, despite the City of Miami’s ominous warnings to clean up or get out and that the electricity was cut off after a fire erupted. Plus, there’s the matter of the $5 “parking fee- no exceptions” that was reinstated at the toll booth entrance to Virginia Key.

“We’re still in business,” said the gentlemen dispensing beers, a fistful of dollars in his hands collected from a group of construction workers who had stopped in after work.

The place is ramshackle and some like it that way. There’s no admission price. There’s no dress code. And there’s no one asking where you came from nor when you’re leaving. Hell, there’s not even a roof to the place. Most people just hang out on whatever piece of furniture they can find. Others are just happy to mingle around, taking pictures, admiring the cats and the found art.

Jimbo’s has been called “the last refuge from urban sprawl,” (http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/jimbos-place-flipper-tv-location/

Yes, Jimbo’s is still hanging on. And apparently thriving. So come out this weekend. And enjoy.

For directions and a map: www.jimbosplace.com


See also: Jimbo's Faces Uncertain Future, Miami Herald.
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/1402504.html

Photo Friday: hiking, bicycling, fishing on Virginia Key

Photo 1: Lone bicyclist on Arthur Lamb Rd, Virginia Key
Photo 2: Children peer over new boardwalk railing to see restored wetlands, historic Virginia Key Beach Park
Photo 3: Fishing on Hobie Beach, off the Rickenbacker, the scenic parkway road on the way to Virginia Key

Will the "Turn-dirt" crowd prevail on Virginia Key?

“If Miami thought it could get more on the tax roll it would construct a whorehouse in Bayfront Park.” Dan Paul.

Provocative, acerbic, combative, Dan Paul, who passed away this week at his home in Miami, started fighting for public parks and open spaces since the day he arrived in Miami in 1949. The man may be gone but his legacy remains.

In particular, his vision for a pastoral, accessible waterfront of “tree-lined trails, places to picnic, a pond for kids to sail their toy boats on, a tropical garden” is embodied in an amendment to the Miami-Dade County Charter he spearheaded: Article 7, which opens with this bold statement:

“Parks, Aquatic Preserves and lands acquired by the County for preservation shall be held in trust for the education, pleasure and recreation of the public and they shall be used and maintained in a manner which will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations as part of the public’s irreplaceable heritage.”

The “public’s irreplaceable heritage.”

If only those words would come into the minds of elected officials and other civic leaders who are charged with making decisions about development on what’s left of our community’s open spaces, including Virginia Key.

In a definitive profile of Paul in the Miami Herald (“The Human Wrecking Ball,” Oct. 13, 1996) by staff writer Linda Robertson, Paul described local leaders as having a “very bad habit of building in haste and repenting at leisure.”

Paul also addressed the local leaders habit of demolishing in haste, when he wrote on behalf of saving the historic Miami Marine Stadium on Virginia Key. In an Oct. 8, 1993 letter to the City of Miami Waterfront Advisory Board, Paul spoke frankly of the situation:

“....The Miami Marine Stadium as a facility has been an extremely successful building. This has been in spite of being grossly mismanaged and badly maintained by the City of Miami. Now the very people, who caused what damage there is to the Marine Stadium’s integrity (both as a building and as a revenue generator), are the ones who want to tear it down. ....It would be interesting to know if the City already has some favored business arrangement for that land....”

That land is still in question, as is the fate of the Miami Marine Stadium, as the City of Miami weighs alternatives and proposals for Virginia Key’s future.

Whose vision will prevail? Dan Paul’s, with his love of nature and egalitarian approach to our community’s waterfront lands, or those of the “turn-dirt crowd,” as he once described his foes.

A prescient quote from Elizabeth Pater-Zyberk, architect, town planner and dean of the University of Miami school of architecture, appears in the same Herald article that is as relevant today as it was in 1996, particularly when it comes to Virginia Key opens spaces and park lands:

“(T)hey are great land banks we’ll be grateful for one day. Giving it away to individual projects is an incredibly clever attempt to control very valuable land by people who don’t really need it.”

Virginia Key's "Endangered Lands"

“Virginia Key is a barrier island on Biscayne Bay with a spectacular but fragile environment.

This natural barrier island contains seagrass bed and intertidal sand/mud flats, mangroves and herbaceous wetlands, beach dune communities and coastal hammocks. These ecologically important areas provide habitat for hundreds of species of fish, marine invertebrate, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds and plants.”

Does that sound like the kind of place that should be placed for protection under Miami-Dade County’s Environmentally Endangered Lands (EEL) Program?**

The Sierra Club Miami Group, Tropical Audubon Society and the Izaak Walton League Miami Chapter think so. That’s why they filed an application in November 2009 asking for a biological evaluation of the island to determine which areas of the island might qualify.

A study is underway with teams of biologists already combing through the island. A recommendation and public hearings will be held in the next few months.

If approved by the City and County Commission (citizen support will be needed), Virginia Key (or at least its wilderness areas) may one day join more than 18,350 acres in Miami Dade County permanently protected from development under the EEL program, which is administered by Miami Dade County’s Department of Environment Management (DERM).

This is the second go-round for the Sierra Club Miami Group, which filed its original EEL application for Virginia Key in 1999, when the City of Miami was considering commercial development of parts of the island. That application resulted in a positive recommendation but the process of acquisition came to a halt after the City of Miami abruptly changed city managers.

The current EEL application asks the County to take a look at these areas of Virginia Key:
-The Marine Stadium area and water basin, which fronts the Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area;
The historic Virginia Key Beach Park, with its restored wetlands, dunes, mangroves and hammock lands and 2,500 feet of sea-turtle-nesting beaches along Bear Cut;
-The North Point, where significant dune and wetlands mitigation and restored areas abound amid manatee and sea turtle habitat.
-Portions of the Virginia Key Landfill, a 120-acre site now closed for public use that includes 15 acres of wetlands, a hammock on the northeast edge and mangroves on the western edge. Under EEL, portions of the lands could be restored, and enhanced to be used as buffer areas.
-The Beach, Hammock and Lagoon area, a 72-acre site with 5,000 feet of beachfront along Bear Cut, a 14.5 acre hardwood hammock and 4 acres prime coastal hammock, which is also manatee and sea turtle habitat.
-Shrimper’s Lagoon, an 8 acre lagoon with a channel to Norris cut, which is predominantly wetlands and a manatee protection zone.
-The Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area, the biological gem and heart of the island, with 460 acres of mangroves, marsh and tidal flats. This is a state-designated bird and wildlife preserve, bird-nesting area and manatee and sea turtle habitat area.

** The EEL program is a tax-payer funded program in the tax-payer funded program created in 1990 to acquire, restore and maintain environmentally significant lands in our community. http://www.miamidade.gov/derm/program_EEL.asp

Virginia Key National Monument

(Artist rendering)

Virginia Key National Monument - why not?
That Virginia Key should be part of the National Park system is a matter of not if, but when. And how?

Lloyd Miller, one of the intrepid community activists who saved Biscayne Bay and its islands from the specter of an oil refinery, massive development and overseas causeways in the 1960's, might have asked himself the same questions. But he and others persevered. Today, residents enjoy the beautiful waters of lower Biscayne Bay and the necklace of emerald islands that is known as Biscayne National Park.

Details of the struggles are documented in his book, "Biscayne National Park: It Almost Wasn't," (LEMDOT Publishing). Miller includes this passage from President Lyndon B. Johnson's remarks at the signing of the Biscayne Monument Bill:

..."Biscayne National Park... is a unique treasure. On these islands grow trees that are unknown anywhere else...These are the last remnants of a vast forest which once covered much of Florida. In these waters are rare tropical animals which now will be assured a haven from destruction.

"The Biscayne National Monument...lies immediately south of the city of Miami, and it is within easy reach of millions of the families who live and visit in that area of the world. As our population expands and as our urban areas grow, it is not easy to preserve these untouched areas or to bring them into the public domain--- such as the islands of Biscayne Bay. First of all it take great courage. It takes great vision and it takes great effort and it takes a lot of toughness and a great deal of ability and a knowledge of the public interest and a dedication to it."

Lloyd Miller, Juanita Greene, James Redford and countless others had that dedication. And they succeeded. Will we?

National Park Service Organic Act

“…the fundemental purpose of said parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to convey the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner and by such means will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” August 25, 1916

A Virginia Key poem

Virginia Key
by Laura McDermottt

Crabless sand.
Each foot print erased
like the Roanoke Colony,
and the cries of Virginia Dare
drown with the tide.



This place can be
no one’s home
except
the granules of time.

----------------------------------------
"Virginia Key" was created at “The Poem Depot” at Miami Book Fair International by the Miami Poetry Collective
For more information on this and other poems, to to www.miamipoetry.com

Dare to write your own poem about Virginia Key. And share it on this blog with others. Haikus especially welcome.

Welcome to View from Virginia Key

Virginia Key

Welcome to your island.  Virginia Key is a 1,000 acre barrier island off the coast of Miami, Florida. It is publicly owned and largely undeveloped. 

The island’s history is rich with development schemes: A Port. A blimp base. A mining operation. A resort. A sports stadium. Most dreadful proposals haven’t succeeded. Some have, including placement of the County’s Sewer Treatment Facility. Another: turning a lake in the island’s interior into an unlined waste dump, the Virginia Key Landfill site. 

What will be the island’s future? That may depend on how vocal, how organized and how caring the community is going forward. Always it has been the public's passion for protecting Virginia Key that has saved it.

In October, 2009, the City of Miami Commission voted to defer approval of a proposed Virginia Key Master Plan which had met with disapproval from various civic, preservation and environmental organizations and two city advisory boards, as well as hundreds of interested citizens. Many of those who spoke out against various versions of the proposed plan objected to what they perceived to be intense commercial and recreational development of an environmentally fragile island. There were also concerns about the City’s commitment to restoring the iconic Miami Marine Stadium. 

The City of Miami Commission is scheduled to reconsider the Virginia Key Master Plan in May 2010. In essence, the island has received a reprieve. 

In the interim, this blog will serve to celebrate, educate and illuminate all things Virginia Key: past, present and future. And, hopefully, it will also serve as a community forum to discuss proposals and generate ideas. 

Please consider following this blog and joining it as we go forward together to a better future for Virginia Key.