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As NewsHole[DOT]Info reported in early December, a new Trolley system is coming to Alton Road in Miami Beach.
The new commission explained the $750,000 a year expense as helping Alton businesses who are experiencing a dramatic loss in traffic as their store-front streets are being torn up, as part of a lengthy improvement project.
Well one former commissioner has come out criticizing the new plan. Former Commissioner Michael Gongora has questioned on social media why anyone would praise this plan as progress in mass transit when it really doesn’t address the island’s real issues.
“It would have been better to focus on connecting us to the mainland or simply increasing frequency of the South Beach local bus, which already does this route,” he wrote in an open post.
The South Beach Local runs on West Avenue, perpendicular to Alton Road. The walk between the two streets is negligible, but the idea is to deliver foot traffic to the business’s front door.
“We hope to mitigate the financial loss that some of these businesses have felt since the construction started by getting customers back on Alton Road and West Avenue,” said Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine in a statement.
Gongora lost to Levine in the last mayor’s race.
It was the only race on the beach NOT to go to a run off, although it featured the nastiest campaign.
It was the third place candidate, Steve Berke, who proposed an ambitious mainland-to-island mass transit system with his visually appealing Sky Link. He also failed to make it to a run off.
The trolley will run until the construction on Alton Road is completed in 2015, at a price tag of $750,000 a year. It will come out of a resort tax specified for transportation the city said.
It’s offered as a free service, so it will operate at a total loss for the city. The moral victory would come if they can bring any business to the owners of the area. They will do that with a finite amount of stops, nine, actually on Alton Road, the rest will be on West Avenue. The other 12 stops made by the trolley identically mirror that of the South Beach Local.
By comparison, the South Beach Local charges .25 cents a ride, which helps defray the cost of operating the route.
Starting February 3rd, the Trolley will run from 5th street to Lincoln Road from 8.a.m. To Midnight.
“It’s our service business corridor for residents,” said City Manager Jimmy Morales. “We’ve now made it easier for them to get around.”
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