Do Miami Beach residents want Metromover? A new poll enters the fight
The survey comes from a county transit board that has long championed a 'Baylink' transit line connecting downtown Miami to the Beach. Conducted by Bendixen & Amandi, a Miami polling firm, the survey found 79% of Miami Beach residents support a mass-transit link to the mainland. While 40% of residents surveyed weren't aware of the $1 billion Metromover proposal, the plan had the 'strong' support of 67% of those who knew about it.
The Citizens' Independent Transit Trust paid $22,500 in transportation dollars to fund the poll of 400 Beach residents about the Metromover proposal that the Miami Beach City Commission voted to oppose in early 2024. The vote followed harsh pushback against the county proposal, with Miami Beach residents of a luxury condo tower off the potential elevated transit system chanting 'Stop the Train!' at a 2023 town hall in South Beach.
'The vocal few have been very active,' said Meg Daly, a member of the county's Citizens' Independent Transportation Trust, an oversight board for Miami-Dade's half-percent transportation sales tax. The board held a May 14 workshop on the survey results, which Daly called 'very strong' and demonstrated to her that the average Miami Beach resident wants Metromover even if they're not rallying for it. 'A lot of people don't show up and speak up,' she said.
Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez was the sponsor of the 2024 resolution urging Miami-Dade to pursue a rapid-transit bus line to the Beach instead of Metromover. In an interview this week, he said the survey results seem to miss some of the complexities of the debate — including concerns that a Metromover line would likely bring the kind of looser zoning rules that the county can impose around some transit lines.
'Of course we all want public transportation,' Fernandez said. 'My concern is about the upzoning it could potentially bring.' He cited Miami Beach's uphill battle against residential towers now authorized by Florida's Live Local law and said the city wouldn't want to face another zoning problem in South Beach's historic neighborhoods.
Keith Marks, president of the South of Fifth Neighborhood Association, said the survey failed to present a full picture of the potential downsides for a Metromover extension from downtown Miami to where the MacArthur Causeway meets Fifth Street in South Beach.
'People are not against mass transportation,' he said. 'When they hear about the cost, the disruption and where it's gonna go specifically, they are not in favor of it.'
The survey found that while most Miami Beach residents aren't using public transportation now, 65% of those polled said they'd likely use a Miami to Miami Beach Metromover route once built. Nearly half said they'd likely use it a few times a week, and 13% would use it daily.
Even if it's ultimately approved, Miami-Dade remains years away from that possibility, with the latest Baylink effort already well behind the schedule the county's mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, laid out when she announced the effort in late 2022. At the time, the county was pursuing a $1.3 billion monorail line to South Beach under a plan championed by the prior mayor, Carlos Gimenez. In ditching the monorail plan for the proposed Metromover extension, Levine Cava cited rising costs from the monorail proposal and the advantages of extending a transit system that already runs throughout Miami.
She and Commissioner Eileen Higgins, chair of the county's Transportation committee, announced the shift to Metromover in a joint video and promised a County Commission vote by 2024. That hasn't happened, the latest missed target in a Baylink effort that Miami-Dade started pursuing in the 1980s.
In a statement, Higgins, now a candidate for mayor in the city of Miami, said the original timeline was delayed as Miami-Dade answers questions from Florida's Department of Transportation, which controls the MacArthur Causeway and other roadways around the project. 'I look forward to the State approving this project soon so we can get residents moving,' she said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Fed Officials Signal Possible Interest Rate Cut: Is the Time Right?
Key Takeaways A weak July jobs report has more Federal Reserve officials saying the time might be right for interest rate cuts. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said data suggest the economy is slowing and that the Fed may need to act in the 'near term,' which could be as soon as its September meeting. While officials are still keeping an eye on inflation, San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said the risks of a quick decline in the labor market mean that the Fed should act inflation remains stubborn and concerns about the labor market rise, several Federal Reserve officials are now saying that interest rate cuts may be imminent. That's a change in tone from last week, when most Fed policymakers voted to leave their influential interest rate unchanged for the fifth time this year. Fed officials had been content to wait and see how tariffs were moving through the economy, but the July jobs report raised concerns that the economy wasn't as strong as previously thought. In a series of public remarks this week, Fed officials said that the weakening in the labor market could prompt them to cut interest rates sooner rather than later. 'Wage growth is coming down. We've seen the jobs number and consumer spending is cooling. All of that suggests the real underlying economy is slowing,' said Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari in a CNBC interview. 'That means in the near term, it may become appropriate to start adjusting the federal funds rate." While Kashkari said that weakening jobs data could force the Fed to act, he maintained his projections that the central bank will enact only two interest rate cuts this year. The Federal Open Market Committee, which has kept rates steady throughout the year, has three more meetings scheduled for 2025, with the next interest rate decision coming on Sept. 17. Weak Labor Report Alarms Fed Officials The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported weaker job growth than expected in July and significantly revised the labor market additions reported in June and May. Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook said the revisions were 'concerning' and that officials must follow labor market data more closely over the coming months. 'These revisions are somewhat typical of turning points, which speak to uncertainty,' Cook said. Meanwhile, Atlanta Fed President Rafael Bostic said while the recent labor report raised worries, it wasn't enough for him to change his position that the Fed would only need to cut interest rates once this year. 'Those revisions were quite large, and I think it really reflects some of the churn and the turbulence in the economy,' Bostic said. 'It really did cause me to think a little differently about how well we're doing relative to our maximum employment mandate.' Fed Officials Still Eyeing Sticky Inflation Fed officials still have inflation on their mind, as well. Inflation measures have shown prices have remained above the Fed's target of 2%. Economists are still watching for the impact on prices from tariffs, but San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly didn't see a long-term threat to the economy from tariffs. However, a sudden rise in unemployment could require a quicker response from the Fed, she said. 'We know that once the labor market stumbles, it tends to fall quickly and hard,' Daly said. 'All this means that we will likely need to adjust policy in the coming months.' Read the original article on Investopedia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Fed to Cut Rates Ahead? Growth ETFs to Play
San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said lately that the Federal Reserve may need to cut interest rates in the coming months due to a weakening labor market, despite near-term inflation pressures from tariffs. Labor Market Losing Momentum "The labor market has softened. Additional slowing would be unwelcome, as once it stumbles, it tends to fall quickly and hard," Daly said in a speech in Alaska, as quoted on Yahoo Finance. Recent data shows the U.S. added only 73,000 jobs in July, with the unemployment rate rising to 4.2%. Prior job gains in May and June were revised downward, dragging the three-month average to just 35,000 — an indication of slowdown in hiring. Tariffs to Raise Inflation Temporarily? While Daly indicated that tariffs will push inflation higher in the short term, she doesn't expect the effect to be lasting. Daly noted that underlying inflation, excluding tariffs, has been gradually falling and should continue to do so with the ongoing restrictive monetary policy and a slowing economy. Powell and Williams Offer Caution Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week emphasized that no decision has been made about a potential rate cut in September, pointing to the need to closely monitor the impact of tariffs. Meanwhile, New York Fed President John Williams said the job market remains 'solid' but admitted the downward revisions in hiring are concerning, as quoted on Yahoo Finance. Time for Growth Stocks? Growth stocks perform better in a low-rate environment. Low rates reduce the cost of borrowing, often needed to finance the expansion of companies. Lower rates reduce the attractiveness of fixed-income investments like bonds, leading investors to seek higher returns in the equity markets. Growth stocks, with their potential for high returns, become more appealing to investors in this environment, driving up demand and, consequently, their prices. ETFs to Buy Against this backdrop, below we highlight a few top-ranked growth-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that can be tapped, if the Fed starts cutting rates soon. Vanguard Growth ETF VUG – Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) Invesco S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF RPG – Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) Invesco Large Cap Growth ETF PWB – Zacks Rank #1 Vanguard S&P 500 Growth ETF VOOG – Zacks Rank #1 iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF IVW – Zacks Rank #1 Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Invesco S&P 500 Pure Growth ETF (RPG): ETF Research Reports Invesco Large Cap Growth ETF (PWB): ETF Research Reports Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG): ETF Research Reports iShares S&P 500 Growth ETF (IVW): ETF Research Reports Vanguard S&P 500 Growth ETF (VOOG): ETF Research Reports This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Fed will likely need to cut rates in coming months, Daly says
(Reuters) -Citing a slowing labor market and her assessment that tariffs pose only a short-term threat to inflation, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly on Wednesday said she believes the U.S. central bank will need to cut interest rates soon. "Inflation, absent tariffs, has been gradually trending down, and with a slowing economy and ongoing restrictive monetary policy, should continue to do so," Daly said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Anchorage Economic Summit, adding that while tariffs will boost inflation in the near-term, they likely won't do so persistently. Meanwhile, she said, the labor market has softened. "I would see additional slowing as unwelcome, especially since we know that once the labor market stumbles, it tends to fall quickly and hard," Daly said. "All this means that we will likely need to adjust policy in the coming months." The Fed decided last week to keep short-term interest rates in their current 4.25%-4.50% range.
