FYI Miami: January 2, 2025

Below 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.

SPENDING DISPARITY: Miami area residents on average use larger percentages of their annual expenditures for housing and transportation than the nation as a whole, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Moreover, while average Miami area spending is below that of the nation, Miamians are spending more total dollars on housing and transportation that the average US resident, the bureau found. In 2022-23, Miamians spend an average of $26,661 on housing as opposed to $24,868 nationally. At the same time, we were spending an average of $14,424 on transportation while the national average was $12,736. On the other hand, we were lower than the nation in both percentage of spending and total dollars spent for food ($8,183 vs. $9,665 nationally), healthcare ($4,246 in Miami vs. $6,042 nationally) and all other items ($17,864 versus $21,861 nationally). 

TRANSIT ENGAGEMENT: The Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust, which oversees county transportation tax use, kept its own spending on track in December when it OK’d some of the tax funds for its own community engagement. Asked to approve up to $725,000 over five years, the trust found the maximum cost shrinking by $100,000 as it voted. The deal with Avanza Advertising LLC replaces an earlier accord with Wragg & Casas as part of a three-way engagement team. The trust also uses its staff and the county’s Communications & Customer Experiences Department to link with the community. Among aims are to check that spending of the surtax money leads to positive user experiences and that facilities, services and vehicles are safe, clean, well-maintained and run efficiently and effectively. Other aims are to increase the use of alternative transit modes ranging from transit to carpooling, bicycling and walking. Among potential parts of the contract are production of a major event focused on the state of the trust and the surtax as well as recruiting volunteers as mass transportation ambassadors.

CUTTING THROUGH CONCERNS: Though the Coral Gables trolley system carries more than 1 million people a year and is growing, the city’s mass transit operations are not where residents focus their greatest mobility attention, says the man in charge. “Probably the number-one thing that gets talked about within our city – that’s requests from our residents – is traffic calming,” Matt Anderson told the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust last month. “We are a cut-through city. We have a lot of cars that travel within our city.”

HOLIDAY GAS GIFT: Average gasoline prices in Miami fell 12.6 cents per gallon in the week before Christmas to $2.98, according to GasBuddy, 10.7 cents per gallon below the month prior and 15 cents below a year earlier. Meanwhile, the national average price rose 3.1 cents per gallon to $3.01, which was 9.2 cents lower than a year earlier.