FYI Miami: October 10, 2013

BRICKELL RAIL BOOMS: As Brickell Avenue’s residential and construction booms continue, Metrorail boardings at the Brickell station are also growing. They rose 21.1% in July, the latest month with full data, according to Deputy Mayor Alina Hudak, with 903 persons on average getting aboard Metrorail in Brickell each day. Other big gains for the system were at Dadeland South, where train boardings rose 13.9% from the prior July with an added 884 persons daily, and at Dadeland North, where a 10.1% gain added 573 riders daily. Overall, the Metrorail system gained 8.5% in ridership. Still, that and a fractional percentage gain in Metromover use couldn’t overcome a 2.7% drop in bus ridership, the system’s biggest component by far, and overall system riders fell 0.3% from the prior July.

CULTURAL GAINS: As the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center enters its third performance season this month, it showed an attendance rise from the first season to the second of 65%, according to a report to county commissioners from Lisa Martinez, senior advisor in the office of the mayor. The first season attendance was 38,272 and the second season had already registered 58,419 attendance weeks before it ended, the report says. The two-building center on Southwest 211th Street in Cutler Bay operates under control of the county’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING: Miami commissioners are to discuss today (10/10) at 5 p.m. three measures that would help affordable housing developer Richman Group of Florida build three multi-level affordable housing projects in Brickell. Before building, the developer is asking the city to declare the lots at 1026 SW Second Ave., 144 and 152 SW Eighth St., and 850 SW Second Ave. brownfield areas. Brownfield sites, according to city documents, are sites where expansion, redevelopment or reuse might be complicated by actual or perceived environmental contamination.

CITYCENTRE CONNECTION: Miami commissioners are to act today (10/10) on Brickell CityCentre’s request for city easements for its almost 10-acre project along South Miami and Brickell avenues. Developer Swire is requesting, according to city documents, a temporary construction easement, an aerial easement and a subsurface and maintenance easement along Southeast Sixth Street between South Miami Avenue and Southeast First Avenue to connect the north and south properties of the project.