FYI Miami: October 26, 2023

Bellow are some of the FYIs in this week’s edition. The entire content of this week’s FYIs and Insider sections is available by subscription only. To subscribe click here.

COUNTY TRANSIT USE GAINS: Miami-Dade transit ridership was up more than 30% in August from August 2022, the latest figures from the county show. Bus ridership was up more than 38% from last August and was more than 15% over the level of August 2019, before the pandemic. While Metrorail ridership was up 9% from August 2022, however, it still was almost 20% below August 2019. Metromover use was up 29% but was still 11% below August 2019. Overall rides on system during the month were nearly 4% above the pre-pandemic comparison month in 2019. Ridership is likely to get a jolt of energy when the county shakes up bus routes and schedules on Nov. 13 in a long-awaited plan to encourage more people to use the buses.

NORTH DADE ARTS CENTER: Without discussion, Miami-Dade commissioners OK’d shifting $5 million approved in a $2.9 billion county general obligation bond package in 2004 for a 485-seat Florida Grand Opera Theater to instead fund a North Dade Cultural Arts Center in Miami Gardens. The legislation says the opera project was to rise beside the Adrienne Arsht Center but that the opera has moved to Doral, the site is now a residential tower and the opera has no contract to build a theater. The Miami Gardens Community Redevelopment Agency aims to construct a cultural arts center to serve North Dade “with world-class productions and performances,” the legislation says.

FARM USE CHANGES: Commissioners are asking Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to hold a charrette that would formally define the Redland area’s boundaries and consider allowing expanded agritourism and “other appropriate uses.” The resolution by Danielle Cohen Higgins, which passed 12-0 without comment last week, notes that agritourism uses now don’t include construction of buildings to accommodate the public, so those structures can’t get exemptions when land is considered reserved for farming. The resolution requires the mayor to report in six months on the charrette, recommend changes that could influence the character of development in the area, and recommend possible alterations in the comprehensive development master plan, county code or zoning regulations to accommodate changes to the farming area.

FIU AND BAPTIST ALLIANCE: Florida International University’s alliance with Baptist Health South Florida is in final discussions, said Juan C. Cendan, dean of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. In April, FIU announced the alliance and was expected to finalize it by this summer. The alliance seeks to aid in amplifying the university’s health related education.