41st Street is Main Street in government vs. the people battle

Community news isn’t just local: some has broad, even national, implications. Our report last week on a meeting to revamp Miami Beach’s 41st Street should resonate wherever government decides what an area should be like. The tensions are similar.

As our web headline said: “Miami Beach hypes aesthetics, residents just want the parking.”

Planners showed a finished $500,000 design in a $10 million conversion of the major roadway also called Arthur Godfrey Road into an “oasis,” with beautified sidewalks and new trees to become a pedestrians-first area and “a living room for residents.” In the process, the plan is to cut down parking.

Those living in the area, however, said they’d like more parking, not less, and a supermarket.

Our point is not who’s right and who’s wrong. Both sides make good points. What echoes over and over, however, is the disconnect between government aims and the public’s desires.

That’s because they come from different starting points. Government “experts” look for what ought to be. The public looks for what it wants and needs. It’s no wonder the two pictures that emerge seldom match.

Moreover, the definitions of success also diverge. Governments seek to change the game. The public usually feels victory is improving on what it already has, which is mostly measured by improving quality of life. Again, it’s hard to succeed in both simultaneously.

In the Miami Beach case, consultants call for an oasis; the public calls for a functioning business district, not “a living room for residents.” Planners want us out of our cars taking a beautiful walk, but we prefer to drive and pick up the groceries.

Part of citizen discontent across this nation is that governments try to get us to do things we never asked for and don’t want. Government might be right or wrong, but it seldom brings the public along with it, leading to the kind tension we see along 41st Street. When governments claim they are acting based on the “will of the people,” that’s often myth.

“They” are trying to change us, force us to do things we don’t want to do – you hear it not only in Miami Beach but about Tallahassee and Washington.
Miami Beach is far from the only area example of this disconnect.

As we also reported last week, another “oasis” in a busy roadway is planned for the middle of Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami, which also happens to be US 1, a national highway. A landscaped teahouse is planned for the middle of the boulevard, removing two blocks of scarce public downtown parking lots. (No, I am not making that up – I couldn’t.) The public screams for parking, government cuts a deal for a “quaint teahouse” instead.

The public, of course, is not always right and frequently does not prevail. As a photo hanging in our offices shows, a hundred years ago downtown Miami’s bayfront was totally parking lots. Today it has two vast waterfront parks. If government hadn’t converted parking to parks, Miami would be far different – just as it is likely to become as the city just voted to allow billboards to hover over those same parks. Residents probably opposed removing the parking lots 100 years ago just as much as they did allowing billboards now. But governments had the last word both times.

When governments do seek support, who do they heed in the guise of “The Public?” In the case of 41st Street, planners heard the strong opinions of a past mayor and some residents who opposed their aims in favor of parking and a supermarket.

Was that the voice of the people, or voices of a few objectors? The majority don’t feel strongly and seldom speak out. Objectors are disproportionately heard and thus have the most impact. As a minority they can deter perfectly valid plans – as perhaps the 41st Street plan is.

This frequently happens with transportation plans. The South Dade Transitway is a classic case. The loud opposition voices seek trains, the loud support voices favor the current high-speed bus plans. So, should it be trains or buses? That has been the fight.

But most commuters care less about transit mode than about speed, price, frequency, comfort and convenience. The mode that meets these aims is the “right” one because the riders win.

That’s why, despite the opposition, the 41st Street planners are not necessarily wrong. After all, who can be against their aim: a beautiful and safe street that feels like it fits into Miami Beach? This might, in fact, be the best plan ever devised.

But it doesn’t please residents who spoke out. Are these outliers, the few who oppose a plan, or do they represent broad public sentiment? Governments face that question again and again. In a representative democracy, not everybody gets to prevail, and louder is not proof of numerical support.

So, what is the tipping point between heeding the voice of the people and overriding public desires? We may find out along 41st Street.

Whatever the city ends up doing, however, it’s very hard to take away what people want most – in this case, parking – and still expect support in the next election. Ordering what people detest is hard to sell as “the will of the people.”

That’s why Tallahassee and Washington should be thinking about the 41st Streets of this nation.