PROUD TO JOIN RAISSA FERNANDEZ TO HIGHLIGHT UNIVERSAL DESIGN DURING A NACTO WALKSHOP TOUR OF LITTLE HAVANA

THE EVENT WAS PART OF DESIGNING CITIES 2024: MIAMI-DADE

I was thrilled to join Raissa Fernandez of Healthy Little Havana for a tour highlighting walkability, transit and mobility for all this week.

It was part of the National Association of City Transportation Officials annual meeting, hosted in Miami this year.

The NACTO Designing Cities Conference brings together 1,000 officials, planners, and practitioners to advance the state of transportation in cities across North America.

Healthy Little Havana is a local nonprofit that actively co-designs -- with other residents and partner organizations--  a dynamic Community Action Plan that addresses the root causes of poor health and health inequities. 

Currently HLH focuses on: housing, healthcare access, education to employment, and food and public space.

Led by Raissa, our tour had more than two dozen top professionals from across the U.S.

We highlighted:

Sidewalks too narrow for people with disabilities – that ironically cover more than a city block adjacent to the accessible entrances to a city services center and performing arts hall.

The three-lane, one-way couplets (Flagler westbound/SW 1^st Street eastbound, SW 7^th Street westbound/Calle Ocho eastbound) that are very dangerous to cross for people with disabilities, children and elderly residents.

The lack of shade canopy in East Little Havana. The transit stop where the group joined the tour – has zero shade despite hosting two (bus and trolley) major transit shelters.

The threat of over development that is both robbing Little Havana of its rich architectural heritage, but also shrinking the supply of affordable housing in one of the most rent-burdened cities in America.

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Today, we celebrate the built environment by focusing on our collaborative work with PlusUrbia Design.

The Miami-based planning firm started shortly before this blog launched.

For the past year, we have been proud to be affiliated with PlusUrbia and its dedication to design a better world.

This past week, PlusUrbia has been featured on TV, radio, websites and print articles.

The news has been a proposed re-design of Calle Ocho -- to make it safer for wheelchair users, transit riders, pedestrians and bicyclists.

Check out PlusUrbia's facebook page at:


https://www.facebook.com/plusurbia

(the photo is PlusUrbia's Juan Mullerat conducting a TV interview about our vision of a better Calle Ocho.

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO PRAISES PLUS URBIA DESIGN'S MOVE TO MAKE CALLE OCHO SAFER FOR PEDESTRIANS AND WHEELCHAIR USERS

Reimagining Calle Ocho: Urban Designers Want To Take It Back 

 

Change may be coming to Calle Ocho.

In the 1960s, the street running through the heart of Little Havana was transformed from a small neighborhood road to a one-way, three-lane highway intended to alleviate traffic flowing downtown. 

As a result, cars have reigned supreme, taking away the pedestrian-friendly atmosphere the street used have.

Urban design firm PlusUrbia has decided it's time to bring that atmosphere back. The firm just released a plan for Calle Ocho that seeks a return to the two-lane, two-way street it used to be. The plan also includes an expanded sidewalk, a bike lane, and a bus lane.

“The key word here is options. You need to provide options for mobility, not just for the car,” says Juan Mullerat, the director of PlusUrbia.

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has also been looking into redesigning the area. Ivette Ruiz-Paz, spokesperson with FDOT, explains that in addition to goals like developing a pedestrian-friendly area and improving safety, they also seek to improve access to Brickell.

“FDOT is studying the area because of all the growth in Brickell and West Brickell. The trouble is that FDOT views improvement as just more cars: faster, wider, one way,” says PlusUrbia communications manager Steve Wright, “our vision is, it’s not like we’re anti-car, but the vision is: share things.” 

Wright and Mullerat both live within several blocks of Calle Ocho, and approached this project as concerned community members seeking to improve the status of their neighborhood.

In addition to concerns with safety and accessibility, they also credit the street’s unfriendliness to pedestrians with taking away from the neighborhood’s personality. 

Wright, who moved to Little Havana because of the fame and character of Calle Ocho, says every so often a local shop goes out of business and a chain gets put in. “Developers say ‘Look, it’s a highway. Put highway-like development on it.’ Pretty soon the character that drove everyone there will be gone.”

The firm is quick to point out this proposal is by no means a final plan, but instead a jumping off point for creating more discussion around how to create the best possible Calle Ocho.

“What we proposed is not the final or the best solution. Call it an appetizer to see if we can get people out there and really put our minds together something to make Calle Ocho more of a destination instead of a pass-through highway from the turnpike to Brickell,” says Mullerat. 

The plan has received comments from community members already, and PlusUrbia is awaiting to hear what FDOT will say. There is precedent of the agency working with private firms before, and Mullerat is hopeful FDOT will take into consideration community needs and concerns when deciding how to proceed with Calle Ocho. 

Ruiz-Paz says of FDOT's timeline that they expect to have "short term pedestrian improvements" put into place within the next two or three years.

Mullerat sums up the project in a single line: “This is the heart of Miami — we better get it right.”

LINK TO STORY:

http://wlrn.org/post/reimagining-calle-ocho-urban-designers-want-take-it-back

LINK TO AUDIO CLIP:

https://soundcloud.com/wlrn/sets/newscasts-friday-july-17-2015

MIAMI ABC TV AFFILIATE WPLG LAUDS PLUS URBIA DESIGN'S CALLE OCHO OF THE FUTURE

Little Havana business owners call for pedestrian friendly Calle Ocho

Local urban planning, design firm rolls out redesign for Southwest Eighth Street 

 MIAMI -

One of South Florida's most famous streets could undergo a major makeover thanks to a plan rolled out by a local urban planning and design firm.

It seems ironic that the iconic Calle Ocho, South Florida's biggest pedestrian street party one weekend a year turns back into a three-lane roadway the rest of the year. After all, the internationally famous street in little Havana has become a tourist destination.

Bus loads come from near and far.

"Business is exploding. It is amazing, and the hotter it is outside the better it is for me," said Suzanne Batlle, who owns the Azucar Ice Cream company.

Batlle agrees that the road needs to be more pedestrian friendly.

"Certainly for walking traffic, and we have a lot of that and it is only going to get more and more," said Batlle. "They don't realize people are going 50 miles an hour down this street."

Juan Mullerat runs an urban planning and design firm out of a small Coconut Grove office. He lives near Southwest Eighth Street and wants to see little Havana become safer for pedestrians, and more traffic friendly for shop owners.

So on his own, pro bono without a client, and any monetary stake in the outcome, he instructed his staff to come up with a comprehensive urban pedestrian plan for Calle Ocho.

"Right now it works as a highway," said Mullerat, owner of PlusUrbia. "It wasn't intended to be a highway. It turned into a highway before (State Road) 836 was created."

Fifty years ago, the street was a two-lane two-way street. In his new proposal, it would revert back to that with a dedicated bike or bus lane.

"Southwest Eighth Street is a state road. It is not a city road," said Miami Commissioner Frank Carrollo. "Unfortunately it is a big bureaucracy, but little by little we are working toward making it pedestrian friendly."

Carrollo said he and his office have been working since 2013 to find a solution to Eighth Street's pedestrian problem.

"We are going to add crosswalks and we are going to enhance them," said Carrollo.

Carollo said the Florida Department of Transportation is conducting a study to determine if Calle Ocho should return to its roots as a two-lane two-way street, but that conclusion is three to four years away.

Mullerat said that is too long and he wants the community to have more input.

"The whole idea of this is to get everybody else's opinion and to get a plan everybody is comfortable with," said Mullerat.

LINK TO VIDEO CLIP:

http://www.local10.com/news/little-havana-business-owners-call-for-pedestrian-friendly-calle-ocho/34204756

NEXT CITY INSPIRED BY PLUS URBIA'S TAKE ON A BETTER CALLE OCHO

Miami Designers Counter Florida DOT With Their Own Plan for Little Havana Corridor

Calle Ocho in Miami’s Little Havana is a car-centric, three-lane road in close proximity to I-95 — but it wasn’t always that way. In the 1960s, a two-lane road served as a more traditional neighborhood main street. Urban planners at design firm PlusUrbia want that version back.

According to Curbed, the Florida Department of Transportation’s current study of the road inspired two local designers to draw up their own plans to convert Calle Ocho’s main stretch into a multimodal core.

PlusUrbia Design proposes to turn Calle 8 back to its original self — reversing 50 years of disenfranchising neighborhoods and commerce with blight left in the wake of a corridor turned freeway.

With developers eying Little Havana, the National Trust for Historic Preservation recently noted that the community’s “scale and character [are] threatened by zoning changes and lack of protection for its many historic buildings.” The National Trust put Little Havana on its “2015 Most Endangered” list.

PlusUrbia’s Juan Mullerat and Steve Wright live nearby, and their vision is a street that’s more accommodating to walkers than drivers, and includes a wide sidewalk and a dedicated bike lane.

“The neighborhood wants a calmer, more pedestrian-friendly street. We just put it on paper,” Mullerat told the Miami New Times of their pro-bono (unsolicited) effort.

LINK TO NEXT CITY STORY:

 https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/miami-design-florida-dot-little-havana-calle-ocho

 

MIAMI NEW TIMES LOVES PLUS URBIA DESIGN'S REDESIGN OF CALLE OCHO

WHEELCHAIR USERS COULD SAFELY CROSS SW 8TH STREET IN MIAMI

Juan Mullerat argues that Calle Ocho is Miami’s most historic street, but sometime between now and the 1960s it was transformed into a three-lane highway to absorb the brunt of the city’s growing east-west commuters.

“I’m driving down it down and I don’t see anybody walking, just cars,” Mullerat tells New Times on his commute home. “I think the solution is in the back of everybody’s mind. It’s not visionary. It’s removing a highway and putting a real street where it’s supposed to go.”

Mullerat is the director of PlusUrbia, a small design firm in Coconut Grove. After the Florida Department of Transportation announced plans to redevelop roadway designs of Calle Ocho from NW 27th Avenue to NW First Avenue, his team began working. For the last few months, Mullerat and a team PlusUrbia designers tackled the “Highway Ocho” problem pro-bono, trying to return Calle Ocho to the calm, pedestrian-friendly main street it was 50 years ago. They released their proposal yesterday.

Mullerat has spoken with the Calle Ocho Merchants Association, the Little Havana Association, and the Shenandoah Association. Mullerat lives with his wife and daughters three blocks away from Calle Ocho. His colleague, Steven Wright, leaves nearby too. Mullerat stresses that their design is a sketch of all the ideas the community seems to already agree on. “The neighborhood wants a calmer, more pedestrian-friendly street. We just put it on paper,” he says.

Some time in the 1960s that 7th Street and Eighth Street became one-way and an extra lane was added to them. “Back in the '60s all cities around the country were traffic-oriented. The interest was to move as many cars as fast as they could to alleviate traffic,” Mullerat explains. “Over the years, Calle Ocho became a dangerous street for pedestrians.”

The plans include returning Calle Ocho to be a two-way, two-lane street, as it was originally. They also extend the sidewalk to comfortably fit passersby and add a bike lane and bus-only lane. Parallel parking on both sides of the street will be available, too. However, to compensate, one driving lane will be removed. “We want to try to get better streets, to walk down Calle Ocho with a stroller and be comfortable, and see bikes and trees when we walk to see its quality retail, and not just go in my car,” Mullerat says.

Mullerat also stresses that his firm has no stake in the project. Even if the FDOT accepts their proposal, they don’t receive any money. “At the end of the day, it’s an FDOT project. Our stake is literally zero,” he says. “I live three blocks away. I want my main street. Calle Ocho is the center of Miami why not support it and let the street become better. That’s our stake.”

Whether or not the FDOT accepts PlusUrbia’s proposal, Mullerat fears that FDOT won’t take the opportunity to bring real change. “There’s an effort out there to make better streets. We just want to make sure they are better. I would hate for the powers that be to just put a couple of trees and benches and call it a day,” he sighs.

Link to Miami New Times story:

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/urban-planners-turn-calle-ocho-back-to-two-lane-pedestrian-friendly-street-7756355

CURBED LOVES PLUS URBIA'S VISION FOR CALLE OCHO

HIGHWAY OCHO NO MORE

The Florida Department of Transportation is currently studying Little Havana's main street, SW 8th Street, also known as Calle Ocho, along with the accompanying SW 7th, going from I-95 as far west as SW 27th Avenue, as part of all the new West Brickell development. Both SW 7th and 8th Streets are now three-lane high speed thoroughfares. Juan Mullerat and Steve Wright of design firm PlusUrbia both live blocks away. Frustrated with the early results they have seen from FDOT so far, PlusUrbia has put together its own proposal that would return Calle Ocho to being a calmer, local main street, like it was 50 years ago.

Originally a 2-way typical American main street, Calle 8 was transformed in the late 60s into the highway we know today. A few years later, the nearby Dolphin Expressway (I-836) was completed. Despite the opening of an elevated east-west speedway into downtown, Calle Ocho's prime stretch between 27th Avenue and I-95 was never converted back into the quaint main commercial core of Little Havana.

The Florida Department of Transportation is currently studying the SW 7th and SW 8th Street corridors. Early meetings have shared FDOT scenarios that seem to be more concerned with vehicle movement than people movement.

PlusUrbia, with strong ties to Little Havana, wants to unlock Calle 8's potential by proposing the restoration of the original two-way traffic. The Miami-based urban design firm has created images of a 21st century Calle Ocho with multimodal transportation alternatives such as dedicated bike and transit lanes, comfortable wide sidewalks and additional safe crosswalks in a vibrant urban setting.
"Calle 8 should be for all Miamians to enjoy, not only to drive through. Popular opinion will rescue SW 8th Street from half a century of destruction as "Highway Ocho".

Link to Curbed story and comments:

http://miami.curbed.com/archives/2015/07/15/calle-ocho-little-havana-fdot-renovation-plusurbia.php