Last entry

The end of 2010 also marks the end of this year-long project to raise awareness about the unique, beautiful, and environmentally fragile island of Virginia Key, the 1,000-acre barrier island off the coast of the City of Miami.

This is the last entry in View from Virginia Key.

But this is not the last chapter in the history of the island. There are many more stories to be told, old and new. There is a wilderness within,  growing and evolving. There are many new places yet to be discovered and enjoyed.

Vigilance is still in order if the island is to continue to be ecologically restored and preserved for future generations to enjoy.

Even with a master plan approved by the City of Miami earlier this year, there is much uncertainty about the island’s future development or preservation.

Its wild spaces, scenic vistas and quiet places for reflection distinguish the island.  It is a place apart. And should remain so, free of the commercial clutter and cacophony of the bustling metropolis across Biscayne Bay.

And for those considering future "improvements,"  the eighteenth-century English poet Alexander Pope has this advice: “Consult the genius of the place in all.” The genius is in the water, the sky, the open spaces and that magic that happens among them.

Enjoy. 

(C) Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved.
For information on upcoming events and news about Virginia Key, join “Friends of Virginia Key” on Facebook.

Tracking the Great Black Hawk on Bird Count Day

The elusive Virginia Key Great Black Hawk may be spotted again today at the annual National Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count. 

The Great Black-Hawk of Virginia Key was seen and reported during the 2004-5 Virginia Key Christmas Bird Count, according to Robin Diaz, who wrote an excellent article on the life and times of this soaring bird that she describes as a “large (hawk) with short broad wings, short tail and long legs. The adult is black, while the juvenile is streaky brownish” usually seen near coastal mangroves. 

The annual bird count has been held since 1900 all around the country and is being held today in Miami Dade County with volunteers coordinated by  Tropical Audubon Society. The results provide statistics that can be used to gauge changes in the environment and the effects on bird populations. 

The statistics are also a window to the environmental deterioration that pollution, loss of habitat and climate change has wrought. 

Virginia Key is rich in bird life, from the 700-acre Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area to the tropical hammock and dunes.  

In March, Tropical Audubon volunteers working with representatives of the Florida Department of Environment Protection (DEP), to document the the birds that forage, roost, nest or even merely fly over the 700-acre wildlife area that includes submerged lands, two spoil islands, intertidal mudflats and bars and tidal swamp forests along Virginia Key’s northwest shoreline. That  part of Virginia Key contains the largest remaining portion of unaltered mangrove forest and unaltered, submerged lands. 

On that trip, ospreys, great blue herons, snowy egret, ibis, cormorants, anhingas and brown pelicans were among the many species found. A look was also taken underwater to document the health of the seagrasses - including Johnson’s seagrass (Halophila johnsonii), which the federal government lists as a threatened species.


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Winter Solstice Drumming on Virginia Key

Catch the rhythms of the sea at the full  moon drum circle .

Celebrate the winter solstice on Virginia Key this weekend at the monthly drumming circle that takes places at the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park. 

There are two opportunities to join the “Full Moon” drumming circles - either as spectator or participant, all are welcome: 

Nighttime drumming:  Sat., Dec. 18 from 6  to 9 p.m.

Daytime drumming:  Sun., Dec. 19 from 2 p.m. to sundown.

This year the winter solstice is Dec. 21, which will also be marked by a lunar eclipse . Astronomically speaking, the winter solstice takes places exactly when the Earth tilts farthest away from the sun. Many cultures associate it with rebirth - the beginning of a new year.   

It is also tied to the earth and its ritual and rhythmic changes -- which makes drumming the right ritual for an island that is wild at heart, a refuge and natural garden on land and sea. 

As one participant put: “This is the place were connections with the natural world happen.”

Enjoy!

If you go:  Drums and other acoustic instruments are welcome. Show your drums at the park entrance to get the park entrance ($5) waived. Directions: the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park entrance is just before the Bear Cut bridge heading south toward Key Biscayne. Turn left at the traffic light. More info: Historic Virginia Key Beach Park, 305-960-4600.


(c) 2010 copyright. All Rights Reserved by www.viewfromvirginiakey.com
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Port of Virginia Key?

Map of North Point of Virginia Key under review. In the past, the land was used as a deposit site for bay bottom materials produced by channel dredging operations of the Port of Miami.  

The North Point of Virginia Key, where bicyclists want to create a mountain bike trail, and which has been closed to the public for years, was once slated to be a new airport or port facility.  

The City of Miami purchased the land from the State of Florida in 1942. The deed states that “the lands are to be used by the City of Miami for the purposes of harbors and airport constructions and development.” 

It also had this proviso: should the area be used for any purpose other than harbor or airport construction, the state would automatically get the land back. 


Of course, the City is no longer in the business of running airports or ports. In 1945, the City of Miami transferred to Miami Dade County the ownership and operation of the airport; the operation of the seaport was conveyed in 1960. 


Today the North Point is considered an environmental gem, though parts of it must still undergo significant ecological restoration.  Most of the North Point, which is next to the state-designated Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area, is  zoned conservation under Miami 21, the City's new zoning code. 


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Take a lead from bicyclists

Cheers to the bicyclists who have apparently taken it upon themselves to open the North Point of Virginia Key -- forging trails in the backcountry of Australian Pine detritus where tons dredge material has sculpted a terrain of ledges and hills perfect to pop some wheelies.   

A story this weekend in the Miami Herald states a bicycle group with a little donated cash and a lot of will power, is carving out the bike trails. 

Maybe this will start a trend: 

Hikers will blaze trails. 
Park enthusiasts will plop down benches.
Kayakers will launch en masse - and proclaim the spot the public boat ramp.  

And a public park island will emerge. 

Cheers to the bicyclists.  Enjoy. 

And cheers to many others who find this island beautiful, rare and wild. And want to keep it that way. 
Take a lead from the bicyclists and forge your own path to parkland.


It may be the only way it will happen.

(C) 2010 copyright. All Rights Reserved by viewfromvirginiakey.com

Join on Facebook:  Friends of Virginia Key

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The island: a retrospective

 

Guest blogger Nick Ducassi visits "the island" on assignment for Viewfromvirginiakey.  

The invite was cryptic: "Everyone who should be there will be; we all will be."

Hipster catnip, no doubt. 

One of the  Art Basel Miami Beach 2010 events, "The Island" was a unique twist on the art gallery experience, scattering 17 art pieces in the sand, mangroves, and forest of Flagler Memorial Island. 

We step off into the sand.

The letters F-A-M-E, each bedazzled with light bulbs, sit strewn in the sand. 

First sign of life/art: Five folks in flowing white garb carry pink poles. We found the artist himself on the shore. He says the poles must always touch, and always move either clockwise or counterclockwise. You can jump in the middle of the circle, as my friend does, and cause them to change direction. An unbroken but everchanging chain of energy...or something like that. 

Pressing on, we find vinyls in the sand, televisions in the woods, and four ladies in tights, flanked by an amplifier, a DVD player, and a television. They dance, chant, and shriek in hellacious (and hilarous) style. Macbeth, anyone?

Sifting through some bushes, I come upon another art piece. 

Full garbage bags. Large Sheets of Cardboard. Boxes, lanterns, and what looks like plastic wrap. It's Trash. 

Now this is brilliant art. Except the trash isn't part of a piece--it's "the island's" staging area. Cheers to irony.

And through all this, I can't help but wonder...aren't we missing the point? "The Island" is cool because instead of white walls and air conditioning, it's a gallery made of sand and blue sky. But all anyone can look at is the "art."

Even when it unintentionally make a nice "tongue-in-cheek" art -- the staging area non-art piece comes to mind -- the real art isn't the shrieking witches or the vinyls in the sand. It's the sand. It's not the TV in the woods. It's the woods. It's the water. It's this ISLAND, people.

Blade Runner pops into my mind. 


@2010 Copyright. All Rights Reserved by Viewfromvirginiakey.com
On Facebook: join Friends of Virginia Key. 

An island where life imitates art (and visa versa)

island: a tract of land completely surrounded by water, and not large enough to be called a continent

deserted island: an island with no people

the island : an Art Basel Miami 2010 exhibit.

Maybe it takes some outsiders  - artistic ones at that - to remind us of what’s really cool about Miami. 

How about a lush, tropical island where no people live (officially) but wildlife abounds, that’s just off the urban grid. That would be Virginia Key.

But the (mythical) island created by the Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND),  a non-profit art organization,  seeks to emulate just such a vibe at Flagler Memorial Island during Art Basel this weekend.

Listen:  

they say that twin lovers were lured there once.¹

that they came on a boat of cloth.²

that they still hold hands on the bank.

a message:

"the earth seemed unearthly. we are accustomed to look upon the shackled form of a conquered monster, but there - there you could look at a thing monstrous and free." ⁱ

they say that their spirits remain.³

multiplied. infinite. ever moving.⁴

that she makes her way to the wilderness, deliberately⁵, and others, aware that they are there only - ghosts - ensuring the world does not fall apart....⁴

It’s part of a poem describing the art installation. The organizers told the New York Times they wanted to “create this feeling of being stranded on a deserted island that’s in unique contrast to the fanciness and luxuriousness of the fair.” 

The “off-the-grid spectacle” includes site-specific projects at Flagler Memorial Island by 15 artists creating art from natural materials, including sand, water and greenery. 

2010@ Copyright. All Rights Reserved View from Virginia Key
Art: "the island." Courtesy of Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND).

MiMo on Virginia Key

The Miami Seaquarium is MiMo  central on Virginia Key.
MiMo stands for Miami Modernist Architecture, a term landscape architect Randall Robinson and Miami Beach interior designer Teri D’Amico coined to describe a style of architecture from the 1950s and 1960s. (see info and link to the Nov. 28 MiMo Festival below).

The Miami Seaquarium, with its Buckminster Fuller-designed geodesic dome (19
60) and the historic Miami Marine Stadium, distinguish Virginia Key as home to a small, yet remarkable collection of institutional mid-century Modern architecture, according to Miami Architecture (University Press of Florida), a new book co-authored by Robinson.

The entry on the Seaquarium explains how it came to be:

..the Miami Seaquarium was one of a network of attractions constructed to exploit tourists’ thirst for exotic flora and fauna in this outpost of ‘subtropical America. It was also a major thematic attraction, designed to bolster tourism in Miami and to increase toll revenue on the Rickenbacker Causeway. ...The construction of more advanced aquatic theme parks in the intervening years, such as Sea World near Orlando, makes the Seaquarium’s 1950’s vintage plant seem quaint today. However, when completed it was one of only three large tank oceanariums in the United States and a technological feat of marine architecture and showmanship. 

LEARN MORE ABOUt MiMO:
The inaugural MiMo Festival takes place Sunday, 28, 2010. This "living art" festival includes a walking tour, art mural installations and performances throughout the day. 

@All Rights Reserved by Blanca Mesa, View from Virginia Key.

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Beware of Dragons On Virginia Key This Weekend

The Miami Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival takes place this weekend  in the Miami Marine Stadium basin.  Colorful 40-foot-long boats carrying 20 paddlers each will race down a 250-meter and 500-meter waterway as part of the team sport that has its roots in Ancient China. 

The public is invited at no charge to watch the races 10 a.m.,  to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 13 next to the Miami Marine Stadium, 3601 Rickenbacker Causeway, on Virginia Key. Look for the fluttering flags posted on the chain-linked fence surrounding the closed stadium. 

Eco-challenge: Save money on parking fees and bike or walk over the Rickenbacker Causeway. The money you save can be used at Jimbo's!

Dragon boat racing, is one of the fastest growing water sports in the U.S., attracting millions of participants worldwide, according to enthusiasts who also herald its uncanny ability for team-building.

 @2010 All Rights Reserved by Blanca Mesa


Also on Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key

Love, concrete and a stadium

It was a love of concrete that led to the Miami Marine Stadium. 

In a recent article in Modern magazine titled “Brute Force,” the Miami Marine Stadium’s architect Hilario Candela recalls the hold-your-breath moments during the stadium’s construction. 

It was like “making a dessert mold,” Candela recalls of the creation of the cantilevered roof we marvel at today.  

In the  article, Miami Beach-based writer Rebecca Kleinman,  documents Candela’s early love of concrete:

...Candela is drawn to concrete’s honesty and rawness. In the mature years of his career he could properly be classified as a member o the brutalist school but with a twist. He always incorporated Caribbean design staples for controlling sunlight and capturing breezes, such as covered walkways, bruise soleils, and plazas.

The American Institute of Architects has posted a remarkable slide show, "Study and Sculpture," of the Miami Marine Stadium  where you can see the construction progress from scaffolds to opening day. 

@2010 All Rights Reserved by Blanca Mesa

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Also on Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key 

Two centuries plus 740 species = one new hammock

Recreating a tropical hammock on Virginia Key -- where the removal of exotic, invasive species has left a moonscape-- is no casual gardening project. 

“This is as rigorous a restoration as I can do,” said Gary Hunt, a volunteer who has been planning the Nov. 6 TREEmendous Miami planting project at Historic Virginia Key Beach for two years. 

You could say, however, this has been in the works over the span of almost two centuries.  

The species list used to select the 740 native trees, shrubs and ground cover plants that will be planted by volunteersis based on the records of plant explorers going back to the 18th century, most notably  the  work of John Kunkel Small.   

Small was one of the first American botanists to explore Florida, beginning in 1901. For nearly 40 years, Small returned to collect specimens and photograph natural landscapes. He recognized early on how Florida’s unique natural treasures were being systematically destroyed and wrote about it in his seminal work, From Eden to Sahara -- Florida’s Tragedy. 

South Florida is one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America - with more than 1,400 species of native plants. And yet...the unparalleled disturbance and destruction of critical habitats has brought an alarming loss of species, according to the Institute for Regional Conservation (IRC), a private, nonprofit dedicated to the protection, restoration and long-term management of biodiversity. 

Small conservation projects, like the replanting of the tropical hammock on Virginia Key, are critical  to the protection of the rarest plants in the region, according to the IRC. 

The plants selected for Virginia Key provided by the Citizens for a Better South Florida nursery come from seed sources collected by City of Miami biologist Juan Fernandez. Fernandez has already restored a 13-acre maritime hammock on the island, which is  considered the best example of this forest type in Miami-Dade County, according to a recent biological study of Virginia Key conducted by Miami-Dade County’s Environmentally Endangered Lands Program. 

With the help of dedicated volunteers, the strangler fig, sea grape, cocoplum, pigeon plum, saw palmetto, wild coffee and myriad other species found in Fernandez’ restored hammock will soon be proliferating throughout the island, creating habitat for songbirds and butterflies as well as wonder and joy for the rest of us. 

@2010 All Rights Reserved

Subscribe to View from Virginia Key for latest articles on ecology, history and explorations of the island.

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Study, Part 2: How Virginia Key fits into Biscayne National Park’s “Story”

A good visitor center tells a story.

In the case of Biscayne National Park -- which is considering placing a northern visitor center in the Virginia Key area -- it would be the story of its inception.

Biscayne National Park was created in 1968 to protect “a rare combination of terrestrial, marine and amphibious life in a tropical setting of great natural beauty.”

What makes it special is the “interplay of the mainland, Biscayne Bay, keys, reefs and the Florida Straits...The land is filled to overflowing with unusual trees, ferns, vines, fowers, and shrubs,” according to the National Park Service brochure.

Biscayne Bay, which is within the park’s boundaries, is home to brilliantly colorful tropical fish; its shallow waters filling with light.

These are, of course, characteristics it shares with Virginia Key and the surrounding waters of the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve.

Two locations on Virginia Key -- one near the Miami Seaquarium and the other next to the Miami Marine Stadium -- were recently examined by Bernadette Rabb, a graduate of Florida Atlantic University’s Urban Planning Department, as possible sites for a Biscayne National Park Visitor center.

According to her report, these are some of the reasons either site on Virginia Key would be an attractive location for a National Park Visitor Center:

(Virginia Key) has many similarities to Biscayne National Park’s protected areas in that it is an ecological land flourishing with vegetation and life...The Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve is the bay area around the island..that eventually meets up with the waters of the protected areas of Biscayne National Park.

Virginia Key is a place that has history and ecological significance. Most of the properties located on the island have cultural, historical or ecological significance and environmentalists argue that these areas and the rest of the island should be preserved. On the island there already exists a 700-acre state-designated Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area...Virginia Key Beach Park, once an African-American beach, is now listed in The National Register of Historic Places....

The report also comments on the historic Miami Marine Stadium, an icon of modern architecture that is part of Miami’s mid-century architectural heritage. The siting of a visitor center near the stadium would not create much additional environmental impact since this land has already been developed. In addition, its waterfront location with an adjacent marina would provide ideal access for marine tours.

In conclusion, the report states: “The island that is already appreciated by nature lovers seems like a good place to represent Biscayne National Park.”

Good for lovers, fishermen: Miami 21 guidelines for city’s waterfront.

When it comes to planning codes, it turns out the City of Miami has created the very model that all Florida communities should follow, according to the Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association, which just awarded Miami 21 the Award of Excellence in the Best Practices category.

Consider it a kind of "Design Bill of Rights" for the public, which should come in handy when the City puts together plans for reviving the Marine Stadium basin waterfront on Virginia Key.

For example, the best practices that should be followed for public waterfronts, according to Miami 21, ( “Appendix B: Waterfront Design Guidelines”) state that public access waterfront walkways shall:

Feel public: No one should feel as he or she are intruding on private property...
Be usable: Young and old, handicapped and joggers, lovers, fisherman, business and men and women, everyone should find the waterfront usable...
Provide visual access. The attraction is the water...enhance maximum visibility to the water.
Enhance visual quality. Parking and service areas must be completely screened...Materials, color and forms should complement the natural shoreline environment.
Connect to other public areas.
Take advantage of waterfront setting. Where practical, boating and fishing activities should be incorporated into waterfront designs.... Boat access from the water to the land is encouraged.

The guidelines go on to talk about meandering shorelines paths, natural shorelines and borders of native plants. In this idyllic landscape, even the public benches are required to have backs.

Best of all is the recommended signage: “All public access waterfront walks shall be marked with the standard “Public Shore” sign.

Miami 21 represents the “Miami of the 21st Century," according to the City of Miami Planning Department website, which states: "The Miami 21 Zoning Code is a Form-Based Code guided by tenets of New Urbanism and Smart Growth principles. For more info: www.miami21.org.


@All Rights Reserved 2010

On Facebook: Friends of 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.”

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.