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/
No comments:
Post a Comment