FYI Miami: October 5, 2023

Bellow are some of the FYIs in this week’s edition. The entire content of this week’s FYIs and Insider sections is available by subscription only. To subscribe click here.

ADMIN BUILDING FUNDED: The Miami City Commission last week authorized $285 million in special obligation bonds for costs of a new government headquarters. A few weeks prior, the commission unanimously declared the city’s intent to relocate its administrative building to the former Melreese Golf Course for $250 million. The increased funding is partially to come from a terminated $18 million municipal payment plan with Oracle Credit Corp. that was allocated to set up a new cloud system and software. The move comes nearly a decade after officials declared the current office tower within the Miami Riverside Center at 444 SW Second Ave. “functionally obsolete” in 2015.

METROMOVER TRAIN REPLACEMENTS: Metromover, the free fixed-guideway county transit serving downtown and the Brickell Corridor since 1986, is in need of a full replacement of its cars, Josiel Ferrer-Diaz, chief operations and maintenance officer for the Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works, told the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust last week. “With such an old fleet of cars we need to move forward, so in the upcoming years you’re going to see more items come before you for a continuous replacement,” he told the trust, which oversees spending of the half-percent voter-approved sales tax for transportation improvements. In July, Metromover had 635,954 passenger boardings, which was up 24.2% from July 2022 but down 30.8% from 728,814 in July 2019, the last July before the onset of the pandemic.

HEADS UP, BUS RIDERS: More than 400 members of the new Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust Ambassadors program will hit the streets starting Oct. 16 to alert bus riders to the major changes coming in the new Better Bus Network county bus alignment, Linda Morris, county transit’s chief of planning and scheduling, told the trust last week. They are focusing on 10 locations where bus services are going to change markedly under the highly touted new bus alignment, she said, concentrating during morning and evening rush hours to hit the most possible people who may be confused by the changes, which are to begin Nov. 13. The Ambassadors are all volunteers who are regular bus users and have received special training in the program.

MEDICAID ROLLS FALL: Enrollment in Florida’s Medicaid program dropped by more than 105,000 people in August, continuing decreases after the end of a federal public health emergency stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. Enrollment totaled 5,254,460 in August, down from 5,360,069 in July.