What Could Be Better! (?)

I'm not alone in feeling very positively about Biscayne Park.  My friends, some of whom have lived here for less time than I have, and some of whom have lived here much longer, feel the same way.  We're happy to be here, and we're happy with each other.

No neighborhood is perfect, but we have a nice enough balance of the advantageous against the disadvantageous.  We wish Arthur Griffing had made slightly more room for sidewalks.  But we manage.  Griffing, and his first customers, felt a church would be important, but a school would not.  Maybe some of us would choose both, some would choose neither, and some would rather have the school than the church.  And some may like it just the way it is.

We have above-ground power lines, which two Commissions ago refused to reconsider, and we don't have much in the way of illumination.  From time to time, we talk about making a correction to the lack of street lighting, and maybe at some point, we will.  It just takes...you know.

We have medians.  Lots of them.  That's an unusual and special feature of this neighborhood.  We're also conveniently situated in the northeast part of the county.  We don't have commercial entities, but it's very easy to access any that we want.  We have our own police department.  They're a very substantial commitment, and some have wondered if it's worth what it costs us.  We have consistently decided it most certainly is.  The Biscayne Park Police are a wonderful and sustaining asset to this neighborhood, and they happen these days to be award-winners, state-wide.

We have a park.  With a baseball field.  And basketball courts.  And children's climbing toys.  Kids and their parents from nearby communities come here.  And we throw bashes at various times of the year.  Our Halloween event is widely known and attended.  We're fun.  We're entertaining.  We're welcoming.  There has been consideration over the years of a tennis court, and a swimming pool.  But we've determined it's not really what we want, so we're happy with what we have, and who we are.

So what, in fact, could be better?  It's true we're happy to have our medians, but they're generally poorly developed, and many of them are spare and not well-kept.  Most of them feature mismatched trees and no real "understory."  Improving the medians takes resolve and...the same thing expanded lighting takes.

It doesn't look like it from the outside, but our log cabin could be better.  Parts of the inside are deteriorating from years of lack of maintenance.  The ceiling needs replacement, as does part of the flooring.  Toilets need replacing, too.  We re-roofed, but not with the proper material, and we could do better.  Fortunately, the roof no longer leaks, as it did, and we appear to have found out how the rats were getting in.  They now stay outside.  If we leave the log cabin alone, it will still look nice, from the outside, but it will continue to deteriorate until it's either impossibly expensive to salvage, or it's a tear-down.

Our eastern border has one big problem that translates into a number of complications.  The big problem is the train.  It makes a lot of noise.  Also, the track is more or less open to trespassers.  There's no meaningful border between the track, and whoever is on the east side of it, and us.  So noise comes into the Village, and so do mischief-makers.  These two complications of the train, the noise and the intruders, lead to part of the Village being comparatively undesirable, which depresses rents and property values.  That fact enables a less ambitious, devoted, and civically proud citizenry, which then encourages a vicious cycle.  So what we need, to make the Village better, is a barrier between the track and the eastern border of the Village.  This is a vastly bigger ($) project than increased lighting, the medians, or the log cabin, but it's a reasonable reaction to notable functional problems.  It's not what you do this year.  It's what you save for, and maybe do in sections.

We have a piece of sculptural art.  It belongs to the Village, and it could be part of a public art program, if the Village and its residents want one.  It was donated privately.  The Village is now in a position to accept a second piece of outdoor public sculpture.  At the same time, there is a move to paint an artistic mural on the street-facing wall of the handball court at the recreation center.  So there is practically a public art movement in the Park.  There is abundant sentiment and even scholarship that public art improves neighborhoods.  If we were to devote, and "invest," ourselves in such a program, it is undetermined how it would be funded.  Acquisitions could be "private," as were the first and second sculptures, and rely on dedicated residents to provide art and the money to buy it.  (It is as yet unknown, and even undiscussed, how the mural will be funded.)  Or the Village residents might wish to fund publicly, and universally.  To give you an example of the difference, say a piece of art costs $5000.  Paying for it will typically require investments of anywhere from about $100 to about $500 each from a small group of residents.  You can imagine that willingness, and ability, to do that might not be unlimited.  If the same purchase was funded by all the residents of the Village, it would cost each person about $1.50.

Finally, one thing that affects all of us, and that "could be better," is the condition of the Village in general, and the conditions of individual properties.  Some of us may simply be relieved to live here, because BP isn't as expensive at Miami Shores, but it's a tonier address than North Miami.  All well and good, but we can't forget that it's our Village, and we should have even more pride than relief to inhabit it.  It takes a little trouble, and a little money, but we owe it to ourselves and each other to provide an appealing, or interesting, or even just tidy appearance to our individual properties.

So there are many features of Biscayne Park that couldn't really get any better.  There are some that could.  And except for something like installing sidewalks, they're all accessible.  All they require is determination.  And pride.   And money.