Directors/Alternates Present
Jorge Iglesias/Brickell Mar
Nick Dove/Brickell Harbour
Paul Lewin/Brickell Bay Club
Berdie Archer/One Tequesta Point
Janice Jones/The Palace
T. Sinclair (Tory) Jacobs/Brickell 25
Mac Seligman/Brickell Townhouse
Jose Maria Canerio da Cunha/Santa Maria
Melvin F. Frankel, Esq./Bristol Tower
Rafael N. Levi, MD, Salvador Ziegenhirt/25 Bay Tower
Bruce Cotton/2000 Brickell
Bruce Jay Colan/Two Tequesta Point
Herbert Bailey, Patricia Gutentag/Brickell Forest

Henry H. Taylor, Jr., Esq./General Counsel

Natalie Brown, BHA Communications Director

Also Present
Lt. Hector Mirabile, Officer Jeffrey Giordano/Miami Police Dept., Coral Way NET
Tony Wagner/Coral Way NET
Christopher Sedeno/Continental Companies
Stoney Welsh/The Palace
Patricia Castro/City of Miami NET
Michael Harned/Santa Maria
Gerald Marston/Wallace Roberts & Todd, LLC
Yvonne Oppenheim/25 Bay Tower
Robert Ayona/Brickell Forest
Clinton Forbes, Michael Moore/Miami-Dade MPO

The meeting was called to order at 6:15 p.m.

BHA President Tory Jacobs asked for a moment of silence in remembrance of those whose lives were lost in the Sept. 11th terror attacks.

Mel Frankel moved and Berdie Archer seconded that the reading of the meeting minutes of May 2001 be waived and the minutes approved as written. The motion passed unanimously.

President's Report
Next meeting: October 17, at Brickell Bay Club, 2333 Brickell Avenue, with Airport Director Angela Gittens as guest speaker. Plus, there will be a presentation on the proposed Watson Island development which is on the ballot for approval. And Albert Dominquez, Assistant Director of Public Works, City of Miami, will report on the progress of the Brickell Avenue median restoration project.

2nd Avenue Bridge ­ Oct. 8th due to close for two years while new bridge is installed. NET office and transportation folks will come up with info to help move traffic along.

Candidates Forum ­ BHA representatives urged to participate. Immanuel Lutheran Church at 7 p.m. tomorrow night. All mayoral candidates expected. Winton to speak on charter amendments.

Brickell Park ­ Still have an active Save Brickell Park committee as the current buyer backed off and the City opened negotiations with another buyer. The law firm of Shubin and Bass have been engaged by the Save the Park committee.

1900 Brickell Avenue ­ Expect ruling from Court of Appeals mid-October. Shubin and Bass representing BHA.

Brickell Neighbor hood PAC. Completing a successful fund raising drive. Thanks extended to all who donated; still time to give through form in BHA News or online at the website or by mailing a check to the Brickell PAC, 145 SE 25th Road, #1002, Miami, FL 33129. The PAC's endorsements are expected mid-October.

Street Banners. A resolution was passed asking the City to control the hanging of the commercial advertising banners in the residential area. It passed unanimously.

Police Report ­ Lt. Hector Mirable
The past four months there has been a 33% decrease in auto theft and a 27% decrease in burglaries. One homocide is recorded: the death of a prostitute which occurred downtown and then the body floated down to the Brickell area.

Officer Jeffrey Giordano spoke about the annual Thanksgiving and Christmas drive for Southside Elementary. Mel Frankel moved and Berdie Archer seconded that the BHA contribute a $500 donation as was done last year. The motion passed unanimously.

Security Committee ­ Mac Seligman
CPR Training Course ­ was in the newsletter. American Heart Association will provide free CPR course. Between CPR course and automatic defibrillator, can save lives. Anyone interested encouraged to contact Mac.

BHA News ­ was it distributed appropriately in your building? Directors asked to communicate with their managers to be sure it's happening timely and properly (door to door).

NET ­ Patricia Castro
Oct. 8th Closure start for Second Avenue Bridge (delayed from the original Oct. 1 date)
Oct 4 meeting ­ Downtown Miami Transportation Plan, NE 36th Street to Rickenbacker, Bay to I95. All urged to attend.

Tony Wagner ­ Coral Way NET
Several complaints about MadFish House and food courts. A clean up crew being sent. Monitoring it. Several abandoned cars. Has weekly newsletter update from his office; can send electronically. BHA needs to get the NET's email addresses.

Question about the empty lot across from Santa Maria that is overgrown and with homeless people there. City maintains the lot, mows it. Tony will send an inspector.

Brickell Streetscape Committee
Chair Paul Lewin brought forth the committee's work with Wallace Roberts & Todd on possible enhancements to Brickell Avenue. The committee met with Commissioner Winton to discuss funding the enhancements outlined in the proposal and said he'd help locate funding.

Gerry Marsten of Wallace Roberts & Todd gave the report for the group, saying there were three possible approaches: Modern, Art Deco, or a "Coral Gables/Vizcaya Historic Miami Look" which the group thought was most appropriate as a theme. The challenge to Wallace Roberts & Todd was "Can you make our neighborhood look like a neighborhood?"

The firm approached the project with three design considerations in mind as needing to be addressed:
1­ No entrance or exitno boundaries. ­ Important to define the neighborhood
2­ Consistency ­ something unique and repeated says "neighborhood"
3­ All properties set separate from street and considered separate ­ like the street doesn't belong to the people on it.

Pedestrian Lighting ­ says something different. Says people walk here.
Proposed to be next to the sidewalks and at cuthroughs at the medians. Could be funded through environmental design grant funds for crime prevention.

Entry Gateways, with three options. There are issues of territories and property rights and Brickell being a U.S. highway to overcome. This will require some effort on part of BHAwould need some easements.

Integrating the properties and street to look more residential. Street doesn't say people live here. The Gables gazebos say that people come out and interact with each other. (Although that probably doesn't happen.) It's an opportunity to tell people there are public meeting spaces here. The only good one is in front of UTD Tower. It isn't particularly nice, but the others are really bad. Opportunity in front of Immanuel Lutheran Church"Micro-parks"Art in Public PlacesShelters underwritten by Patrons. "The private properties on both sides of the road gesture to people, "We have a public side."

Design guidelines for consistency. Could go to City to try to become a district, but takes a lot resolve. Maybe we can try voluntarily.

The Committee recommends pursuing the ideas set forth and that the BHA seek funding using the "grant ready" plans Gerry Marsten has drawn up. The committee feels the plan is doable and got a favorable reception from the City.

To give all directors time to review the plans distributed, Mel Frankel moved to table the vote on the committee's recommendation until next meeting. Herb Bailey seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

The question of sidewalks in disrepair came up. Tony Wagner said there is a bond issue planned for ballots in November but in the meantime the BHA through Mr. Wagner can set up a meeting with Public Works to do a walk-through and identify the problem areas.

Brickell Traffic
Clinton Forbes and Michael Moore from MPO are working on County-wide plan. The Transportation Planning Authority for Miami-Dade County, MPO is trying to reach out more to the community and find out people's needs, ideas for transportation in the coming 20 years. Their public forums haven't generated a lot of attendance, but the MPO wants to listen to what folks have to say.

Why a long-range plan? Picks up where the five-year transportation plan leaves off and there is a federal requirement that we update our plan every three years. To make plans, the MPO looks at socioeconomic data, motor vehicles, population, employment and other factors, using models to evaluate demand levels and test different solutions. They are in a constant mode of gathering information. They have 150 projects in the draft plan. Comments are urged from all; forms were distributed to facilitate input.

Bruce Colan said there is one issue surpassing all others for Brickell and Downtownthat of the Brickell Bridge closures and the traffic disruption that causes. The Coast Guard has said they will change their policies about openings for pleasure craft which is about a third of all openings. Also, the timing of the lights on Brickell hasn't been addressed for years.

New Business
In light of the recent terrorist attacks, background checks are recommended for security personnel at all buildings.

Berdie Archer moved and Mel Frankel seconded that the BHA donate $500 to the NY Firefighters Relief Fund being collected by the Miami Firefighters Benevolent Association. Passed unanimously.

Meeting adjourned, 7:30 p.m.