POLITICAL LEADERSHIP CAN CREATE A BETTER CALLE OCHO FOR ALL

MY CALLE 8

As Communications Manager for PlusUrbia Design, I had the pleasure of organizing an incredibly successful community forum to create a vision for Calle Ocho in the heart of Little Havana.

Several elected officials attended and spoke.  Others, who were traveling or had conflicting commitments, sent representatives and have pledged their support.

For far too long, Calle 8 has really been Highway Ocho, a dangerous, three-lane, one-way speedway into downtown Miami.  It serves commuters, not the neighborhood.  It acts as if there is nothing worth slowing down for to enjoy in Little Havana.  The defacto highway ignores all the adaptive re-use, all the great local shops, restaurants, bars, cultural centers and more.

Present day Calle Ocho, and its twin SW 7th Street with three lanes of dangerous one-way traffic westbound to the suburbs, favors cars over humans. Economic prosperity, despite all the authenticity that draws 3 million visitors per year, will not return to Calle 8 until it is redesigned as a complete street.

Tomorrow, I will post a press write up about the event.  We hope you can forward this to other people in greater Miami who want Calle 8 to be as calmed and fun to walk along as Miracle Mile.

It might require the City of Miami taking responsibility for the core SW 7th and SW 8th Streets from FDOT, once the state agency has designed and made pedestrian-featured improvements.