Lost World of Miami Marine Stadium

It’s hard to believe it now, given the condition of the Miami Marine Stadium - an abandoned shell on Virginia Key’s waterfront - - but this was once touted as one of our community’s preeminent entertainment venues.

"The Miami Marine Stadium is a unique public facility with few counterparts anywhere in the world...a masterfully designed waterfront outdoor stadium with full visibility...offering a beautiful skyline view of Great Miami and Miami Beach over the sparkling waters of Biscayne Bay."

That world lives on in the Florida Collection of the Miami Dade Public Library in a marketing brochure that, judging from the photos of the (modest) bikini-clad ladies, was circulated in the late 1960's.

“Days and Nights” the stadium pulses, according to the marketing materials that boast of a floating stage with acoustical shell anchored 30 feet from the grandstand, strategically placed loudspeakers that are part of “one of the finest outdoor sound systems in the country,” and a built-in concession balcony in the grandstand.

Virginia Key's sister community: Stiltsville

Viewed from the edge of Hobie Beach off Virginia Key, the houses on the far horizon appear almost as apparitions in Biscayne Bay.

But they’re not.

They are the seven remaining houses of Stiltsville, the quirky, beautiful, battered collection of wood stilt houses that rise from the bay bottom in Biscayne National Park.

Some historians believe houses started sprouting atop the flats of Biscayne Bay as early as the 1920‘s, originally as ice houses for fisherman plying deeper waters. Eventually there were as many as 25 houses out there, with some becoming notorious party houses, worthy of police raids.

In June 1980, Congress expanded Biscayne National Park’s boundaries to include the “community” of Stiltsville whose property owners had once leased the bay bottom from the State of Florida.

Today, the National Park Service, in conjunction with the Stiltsville Trust, maintain and operate the structures, which are made available to groups for special events and educational purposes. The Park Service indicates the ultimate goal is to rehabilitate the buildings for community meeting spaces, a National Park Service Visitor Centers, research facilities or an artist-in-residence program.

Learn more about the colorful history of Stiltsville and its denizens in a new documentary
“Stiltsville: Generations on the Flats” that premieres Sunday, August 22 at 7 p.m. and 11:30 p.m on WLRN - 17. It will also air again Wed., August 25 at 9:30 p.m. and Thurs., August 26 at 9 p.m.


Resources:

http://www.nps.gov/bisc/historyculture/stiltsville.htm

http://www.wlrn.org/stiltsville/

Public Park Should Open First at Marine Stadium site

The recently approved Virginia Key Master Plan envisions a restored and reopened Miami Marine Stadium but how long will it take to bring back the historic structure into operation and the public back to the waterfront?

Shuttered in 1992 after Hurricane Andrew’s winds whipped through the Miami Marine Stadium, the venerable stadium has sat unused, neglected and vandalized behind a sagging chain-linked fence ever since.

But that wasn’t the first time it closed.

In 1967 - a scant four years after its opening -- a Miami Herald photo showed the stadium behind a chain-linked fence with a “No Trespassing” sign. Apparently the place wasn’t making enough money from boat races alone to keep it open.

Under the headline, “An Insolent Sign,” the Herald lamented the public being shut out of valuable waterfront land:

The public has come to forgive the feasibility reports and the enthusiasm that generated the spending of $2 million for a stadium that was supposed to be filled each weekend with 6,566 screaming admirers of roaring motorboats...But it is impossible to forgive the hand-wringing at City Hall over past mistakes and the failure to allow the public to use this stretch of bayfront. .. Everywhere else along Rickenbacker Causeawy, the people of Miami crowd fender to fender and blanket to blanket to enjoy the waterfront. But not within the shadows of the moldering white elephant that is the Marine Stadium. There is nothing the public can do about the Marine Stadium being a profitless place, but there should be an effective demand to end the insult of that fence and locked gates.

A preliminary engineering study of the Miami Marine Stadium released earlier this year by Friends of the Miami Marine Stadium showed the concrete restoration costs to be between $5.5 - $8.5 million, exclusive of renovation costs for new seats, bathrooms, etc... Still unknown is the condition and costs of renovating the underwater concrete pilings that prop up the nearly 50-year-old structure.

Despite good intentions and a solid commitment from City Hall, it could take some time to finish the engineering studies, raise funds and complete the renovations.

In the meantime, the public is, once again, being shut out of its beautiful waterfront land.

Why not bring down some of those ugly chain-linked fences, plant some sod, install park benches and call the whole place a park?

The need for waterfront parks is just as great - if not greater - today as it was in 1967. Bring it on.


Resources: http://www.marinestadium.org/

The "Petrified Forest" of Biscayne Bay

In solidarity with the "Pachanga" Kayaking Meetup group that launched off Virginia Key this morning, enjoy this virtual tour of the fossilized mangrove reef found offshore of the Bear Cut Preserve. (see the Untamed Science video link below.)

The Fossil Reef is actually the fossilized remains of an ancient black mangrove forest that once extended along the shoreline for miles. This is believed to be the first reported occurrence of the fossilization of mangrove roots. The area was exposed by Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Radiocarbon dating indicates the age of the rods to be between 1000 and 2000 years.

“Key Biscayne’s Petrified Forest” is home to small marine animals and plants found in inter tidal zones. See sergeant major fish swimming and barnacles and anemones attached to the surface of the reef. The offshore seagrasses support octopi, sea horses, snapper, blue crabs, spider crabs, sea squarts and queen conch.


Attention landlubbers:
You can also see the fossilized forest from land through the Fossil Reef Trail that winds its way through the 163-acre Bear Cut Nature Preserve in the northern part of Crandon Park. Start at the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center. The walk/bicycle trail takes you through a canopied walk of strangler figs and sea grape trees where you may encounter birds of prey, including hawks, kestrels and ospreys perched on the larger dead trees. Look for smaller songbirds among the shrubs and wading birds in the wetter areas, including egrets and herons. The 30-minute walk ends with a wonderful payoff - a boardwalk with great views of the fossil reef as well as the shoreline of Virginia Key.

Photos: Fossilized Roof Reef, Fossil Reef Trail in the Bear Cut Nature Preserve

Resources:
http://www.untamedscience.com/biodiversity/article/fossil-reef-near-miami-fl
http://www.biscaynenaturecenter.org

Q & A on Virginia Key: What it is, why it matters and what you can do about it.

Why do locals care so much about the future of Virginia Key? Why is this place significant?

Virginia Key is a 1,000 acre barrier island that at its heart is a wilderness, just steps from downtown Miami. People care about it because it is the last great green space in an urban area that is short on public spaces and urban wilderness, and spectacular waterfront parks, in particular.

Have local organizations and residents been working together to help plan the future of this area? What has happened so far?

Most recently the City of Miami Commission approved a new masterplan for Virginia Key in July 2010 that is much “greener” and less commercial than previous versions proposed. It also envisions the restoration of the historically designated Miami Marine Stadium.

Local organizations and residents have been working to help shape the future of Virginia Key for several generations but efforts heated up again about five years ago with the City of Miami began a master plan process, hiring a consultant to develop a new master plan.

Which organizations have been involved?

Miami Neighborhoods United (MNU), Sierra Club  Miami Group, Tropical Audubon Society, Urban Paradise Guild, Historic Virginia Key Beach Park Trust, Urban Environment League, Surfriders, ECOMB (Miami Beach),, Miami Rowing Club, Izaak Walton League, Dade Heritage Trust, Friends of Virginia Key, Windsurfers of Virginia Key, Citizens for a Better South Florida and many more groups and individuals. 


If someone wants to get involved now, what can they do?

They can contact any of the groups above or work on their own by contacting city and county officials, the mayor of Miami Tomas Regalado. Or they can start their own group, Facebook page, write letters to the editor of local newspapers, start a petition, design a poster, create a flyer, post photos, whatever they are inspired to do to raise awareness. Anyone can make a difference. 

How can they start the process?

Visiting the island is the first thing anyone should do. Often people just drive by the island entrances off the Rickenbacker and assume there’s not much beyond the Marine Stadium area. In fact, there are natural sandy beaches, tropical hammocks, estuaries and marshes, underwater archaeological sites, hiking and biking trails, mangrove islands and the surrounding waters of the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve teeming with life. 

Beyond that there are websites, Facebook sites and blogs and the City of Miami planning site. 

Which Websites/blogs have more information?

Friends of Virginia Key, Historic Virginia Key Beach, Friends of the Miami Marine Stadium on Facebook.

www.viewfromvirginiakey.com is a blog with articles on history, events and opinion pieces

www.virginiakeymasterplan.com is the website developed by the City of Miami’s planning consultant, EDSA. There you can see various versions of the plan developed over more than five years at different public meetings.

http://ci.miami.fl.us/planning/pages/master_plans/VKey.asp is the City of Miami’s Planning Department website.

Each of the groups that have been working on the issue have their own websites, Facebook sites with more information.

What else should you know?
There is a movement to have Virginia Key become a part of the National Park system, as an extension of Biscayne National Park, whose waterway boundaries are just outside the island where they meet with Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve.

Or, perhaps include Virginia Key and Key Biscayne corridor as part of a National Recreation Area.  Biscayne National Park has been seeking a site to build a northern visitor center on Virginia Key for many years and has identified several sites on Virginia Key, including Miami Dade County land leased to the Miami Seaquarium. Another site suggested is the  area around the Miami Marine Stadium. Tour boats could dock in the adjacent marina.  

Miami Artist To Open Studio Featuring Biscayne Bay's Endangered Species

“Today, the biggest threat we face is a lack of connection to one another and to our natural world.” Xavier Cortada.

Xavier Cortada, the ecologically-minded Miami artist, who once organized mangrove plantings on Virginia Key as part of an art installation, will celebrate the opening of his art studio on Miami Beach at 7 p.m., Saturday, August 7 at ArtCenter South Florida, 924 Lincoln Rd, Studio 201, Miami Beach.

Featured works include the Endangered World: 80.15:W (Biscayne Bay’s longitude) series of drawings of 17 threatened and endangered animal species that find refuge within the federally protected waters of Biscayne National Park in Biscayne Bay.

Susan Gonshor, Chief Park Interpreter at Biscayne National Park will be a featured speaker at the art studio opening, which takes place during South Beach's Gallery Night walk.

Biscayne National Park’s 173,000 acres stretch out between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, punctuated by a string of small islands - semi-tropical “keys.”

The park’s boundaries stop just short of the state-designated Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, which surrounds Virginia Key.

Ecologically, Virginia Key shares many of the same characteristics of the barrier islands currently found within Biscayne National Park. At the island’s center is the 700-acre state-designated Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area (CWA), established to protect shorebirds, herons, and egrets that forage within the site, as well as sensitive and or endangered species such as the American kestral, osprey, bald eagle, and peregrine falcon. The CWA’s beach dune communities are essential sea-turtle nesting areas and its mangrove forests provides undisturbed spawning areas for many species of fish and invertebrates, including several threatened and endangered species.

Biscayne National Park could be expanded to include Virginia Key and the southern portion of the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, which is home to several federally listed endangered turtle species, including the green, hawksbill, leatherback, Atlantic ridley, and loggerhead and the federally listed American crocodile.

Biscayne Bay’s seagrass ecosystem provides habitat for at least 512 species of fish and more than 800 species of invertebrates, including more than 150 species of shrimp, crabs, and lobsters. (All this diversity is due in large part to the Bay’s overlap of the Atlantic and the Caribbean marine provinces.)

If you go: Xavier Cortada Studio, ArtCenter South Florida, 924 Lincoln Rd., Studio 201, Miami Beach.

Resources: www.cortada.com
http://www.nps.gov/bisc/parknews/xavier-cortada-to-mount-major-installation.htm

Photos: Xavier Cortada's "Reclamation Project" on Virginia Key; mangrove seedlings growing in the restored wetlands at Historic Virginia Key Beach Park.

@All Rights Reserved 2010
On Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key

Dancing on Bear's Cut Beach, Virginia Key 1918

Though the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park celebrates its 65th anniversary today, the area of Virginia Key officially designated in 1945 as a “colored” beach” actually had been recognized for decades prior as a recreational area for African Americans.

It was known as “Bear’s Cut,” now the name of the waterway that divides Virginia Key from Key Biscayne.

In fact, a 1918 survey map shows the location of a “Negro Dacing Pavilion” at the site of the current day Historic Virginia Key Beach Park.

The late City of Miami Commissioner Athalie Range, who was instrumental in creating the Virginia Key Park Trust that spearheaded the 2008 restoration of the park, recalled visiting the island during the Depression:

I’m among the very few who remembers the 1930’s. Where there was not a Virginia Key Beach, there was a place on the island which was called Bear’s Cut. And, this was the only place that blacks could actually go to swim, or were permitted to go to swim without interference from the law or others who saw us there. These were the days early on when fishermen who went out to make their living would take families or small picnics, church gatherings over to Bear’s cut for a picnic.

At the time there were no facilities - fresh water, bathrooms, picnic tables or lifeguards - and no way to get back to the mainland except with the same fishermen who would return at the end of the day.

By the 1950’s, the park was in its heyday, where weddings, baptisms and church picnics happened, and day cabanas and rental cottages were available, as well as a new dance pavilion, recalling the turn of the century structure marked in those early survey maps.