Imagine a Miami where:
-conservation and critical habitat are protected;
-streets become tree-lined boulevards and parkways;
-cultural and historical sites are protected, maintained and promoted;
-the public has equitable access to lakes, beaches and other major natural features;
-parks are models for sustainable development and,
-you can fish without a boat.
Those are some of the concepts that would flow from the principles behind the “Parks and Open Space System Master Plan” developed by Miami-Dade County Parks for all parks, public spaces, natural areas, greenways, blueways and trails in the county.
Everything, except the fishing part. That I added because it seems the right to fish should be an inalienable one in a waterfront community. Of course it’s not, particularly in the Biscayne Bay-Rickenbacker Corridor, where police are sometimes seen rustling people off the Bear Cut bridge.
It wasn’t always this way. A news photo from the early days after the Rickenbacker opened in the late 1940's showed people casting bait into the Bear Cut channel. And Virginia Key Beach once had a fishing pier. Now, even with a boat, you can’t go off fishing from Virginia Key unless you rent a slip there, as the only public boat ramp on the island was closed years ago.
People do fish off the old, now closed half of the Rickenbacker bridge. Officially, it's a fishing pier, though sometimes it feels a bit forlorn and forbidding -- particularly in the mid-day sun, when only a scrappy few try their luck amid the chipped concrete and weathered walkways.
Which is maybe why the City of Miami consultants came up with a spiffy new design for a fishing pier in the earlier version of the Virginia Key Master Plan (see artists rendering above). It was so fancy and outlandish it wasn't well-received, to say the least. One city board member said he felt he would need a tuxedo to go fishing there. Which may be why that particular rendering was never seen again.
Imagine a Miami where people can fish without a boat. What a concept.
Resources: See the Parks and Open Space Master Plan at
http://www.miamidade.gov/greatparksummit/library/OSMP_FINAL_REPORT_entiredocument.pdf
