Bayfront Parkway 2012

Biscayne Boulevard. Welcome to Bayfront Parkway! – a vision of what Biscayne Boulevard could look like if the median was converted into a pedestrian friendly, linear park. Great cities have great parks. London. Boston. Madrid. Vancouver. San Francisco. Virtually every major city is known for a sophisticated network of urban parks that emanates from its downtown core. What is left of our great downtown waterfront parks are underutilized by local residents; separated from area residents and businesses by speeding motorists and scant crosswalks. What Bisycayne Boulevard needs is a road diet that reallocates car space, both in the form of travel lanes converted to on-street parking and parking lots converted to park space. This will not only provide a natural expansion of Bayfront Park – at a time of shrinking park budgets and ever growing needs for park space, but it will also help traffic calm the street and bridge the distance between the park and the growing population of residents and businesses along Biscayne from I395 to SE 1 Street. For five days Miamians will be able to get to experience what this space would be like if it were permanently converted into a park. From Tuesday February 29 to Sunday March 4, a coalition of partners will take over the parking lot between Flagler and NE 1 Street, and convert it into a grass covered park with moveable seating, food trucks, exercise equipment and more. There will be street performances throughout the five days, from spoken word to jazz shows, sponsored by Miami-Dade College. Our goal is simple – to activate this space as much as possible with the everyday activities of a typical park.