Getting to Marlins Park: The Transportation Thread

[MiamiHomer]

Then it went on to place emphasis on the "finding a place to park your car". That's going to be a disaster. If they are having problems with only a third of the attendance for these soft openings then i can only imagine when it's an actual game.

[Fish Tank Frenzy]

When I use to go to UM games at the OB and some had over 80,000 fans parking was never THAT bad. I am going to park in the same house I use to park for Canes games two blocks north of the stadium. Easy in and easy out to 836 west.

[Namaste]

Then it went on to place emphasis on the "finding a place to park your car". That's going to be a disaster. If they are having problems with only a third of the attendance for these soft openings then i can only imagine when it's an actual game.

I'm not sure if you're being serious about it being a disaster. There is more parking than was available at the Orange Bowl.

Fans went to the Orange Bowl. Maybe I'm not understanding your post.

[MiamiHomer]

I'm not sure if you're being serious about it being a disaster. There is more parking than was available at the Orange Bowl.

Fans went to the Orange Bowl. Maybe I'm not understanding your post.

Parking garages might provide more parking spaces but they confine cars into a tight area. That's where the issue is going to be.

[Namaste]

Ok. But the article makes it sound like there are 2 issues:

Getting to the stadium. Hugh RED X. Because getting to the stadium is no more an issue than it is in any other big city.

Finding parking. Another Hugh RED X. There is more available parking than when 45K used to go watch the Canes.

Leaving the parking garages WILL be an issue but the article does not focus on that.

[MiamiHomer]

The article actually spoke about people attending without pre-paid parking slots so the garages really do nothing for them.

[marlins02]

heading to the stadium the other night from biscayne was a lot simpler than i thought it would be considering i left this mans house at 6:45. the line on the right hand lane going southbound on 14th ave was ridiculously long to turn on to 6th street but i saw a sign that said prepaid parking on 3rd street and parked in less than 10 minutes.

ive brought this up before, i was under the assumption that on site parking was only for season ticket holders but ive been offered parking everytime ive bought tickets.

[Beef]

Also, people are freaking stupid. People will make it harder for everyone else by doing really dumb things. We will see what those things are. I'm with FTF. Walk a few blocks and things will be far more convenient.

[markus777]

Ballgame Express - Affordable safe bus transport to Marlins games.

We have started a new transport company to take fans to the Marlins games from points north ie Broward and Palm Beach County. It is called Ballgame Express and the website is http://www.Ballgameexpress.com Partners include the Miller Ale House chain, Hooters, AllStars and other top sports bar locations. Fans can park, dine and drink and then take the bus to the games. This is open to the public and fans can buy tickets and a bus pass online or if they have tickets just a bus pass. It's affordable and safe and the idea has been well recieved by everyone we have contacted. We will also be providing buses from communities like HOA's , churches, Little Leagues and anyone other organization that wishes to book a trip. If anyone has any questions please email us or call 888-956-2754.

[Party]

Residents around Marlins Stadium cry foul over broken promises

By Melissa Sanchez
The Miami Herald

About two weeks ago, Orlando Castro got an unpleasant surprise when he returned home after an evening English class: no more parking in front of his apartment building on Northwest Third Street. Neighbors who’d parked along the street had tickets on their windshields.

It was the latest issue on a laundry list of complaints from Little Havana residents who live near the new Marlins stadium.

Just weeks before opening day, many who live in the shadows of the gleaming stadium say they feel let down by promises that they’d somehow benefit from the taxpayer-subsidized project. .

“It’s been one deception after another,” said Castro, 55. “We had to swallow all that dust during the construction phase. Our neighbors who didn’t have work then are still unemployed. And now we’re not even allowed to park on our own street.”One recent evening, hours before an exhibition game between the Marlins and the FIU baseball team, Castro and a half-dozen of his neighbors griped about the lack of parking outside their two-story apartment building, at 1452 Northwest Third Street.

The building, like many on the street, lacks its own parking lot, so residents leave their cars on the street. Back in the era of the Orange Bowl, parking was prohibited on game days but allowed the rest of the year. Now they have 10 times as many game days to look forward to.

Residents said they expressed their parking concerns during community meetings with Marlins representatives and city and county leaders. But just a few weeks ago the County’s Public Work Department eliminated the off-street parking to a create a center turn lane that stretches from 14th Avenue to 16 Avenue. Next came the parking tickets.

“Instead of giving us residential parking passes or something, we got $28 tickets,” said Adela Otero, 57.

Otero struggles to make the $520 rent each month for a one-bedroom apartment she shares with her mother. She makes a living ironing clothes at home while her legally blind mother depends on a monthly disability check. They also receive food stamps.

In the neighborhood immediately around the park, the average household income is $20,103 per year, according to the latest census tract data. “It’s a poor neighborhood. A lot of people are out of work and their unemployment has run out,” Otero added.Last week officials from the Miami Parking Authority (MPA) agreed to waive the parking tickets and hold a community forum next Thursday to discuss possible solutions to the residents’ parking woes. And on Friday, the county’s Public Works Department said it would shorten the new turn lane by more than a block, restoring many of the lost parking spots.

“Obviously somebody overlooked off-street parking,” said County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, whose district includes Little Havana. “Those were technical, departmental issues, but they’ll be corrected.”

One problem down, perhaps. But it’s not the only one. On Tuesday night, Alonso Ramos sat with his head in his hands on the steps of his apartment on Northwest 14 Avenue, a block south of the Seventh Street intersection. As traffic for an exhibition game crawled by, a tow truck backed into the building’s parking lot to remove a car that had taken Ramos’ assigned spot.

“For the past two months, I’ve come home each night after work to find that same car in my spot,” said Ramos, a painter whose hands were covered in white splatters. “Today I just lost my patience. I hated to call the tow truck, but it’s not like anybody is helping me pay my rent.”

Moments later, a woman in a Marlins employee shirt bolted out of the stadium, screaming that the car was hers. She made it just in time to avoid a $142 fee. A Marlins spokeswoman said that all employees have free parking near the stadium.

Of course, a few residents can say they’ve benefited financially from the stadium. For the most part, they’re homeowners like Manolo Linares who has converted his front yard into cheap parking for game goers.

Linares, who has lived in the same pink-trimmed house a block west of the stadium for the past 30 years, said he’s happy to make some extra cash, just like he did in the Orange Bowl days. On Tuesday night, he collected $5 from the drivers of 13 cars, including a BMW and an Audi.

“I’m retired, and the extra cash is useful,” he said.

But his will be a rare example because close to 95 percent of residents in this neighborhood are renters, not property owners.

The exhibition games last week gave another group of residents a bitter taste of what’s to come. Maria Campos is one of close to a thousand seniors who live in a complex of three public housing developments along Northwest Seventh Street, directly north of the stadium. She said it was nearly impossible for residents to get into or out of the complex because of stadium traffic and police blockades. It took some residents close to an hour to get home.

“It was incredible, you couldn’t get out or receive a visit from a family,” said Campos, who heads a residential association at Robert King High Towers. “We were like prisoners here during exhibition games...I don’t know how we’re going to survive when the Yankees come.”

A few blocks away, Rebeca Duarte was asking whether there’d be an opportunity to sell gallo pinto or tejadas to Marlins fans. Duarte, who sells the traditional Nicaraguan foods during Carnaval on Calle Ocho, said she visited the Marlins offices a few months ago to inquire about getting a stand inside or outside the stadium.

“They told me my only option was to get a kiosk on the property and that it would cost a fortune,” she said. “Outside I don’t think they’re allowing street vendors, at least that’s what I’m hearing.”

Assistant City Manager Alice Bravo said she’s analyzing the possibility of creating a special vending district.

“We’re getting our facts together still. Right now, it’s the status quo: Somebody with a license can vend in the public right of way,” she said.

Some residents say it’s difficult to make a few bucks selling snacks under the status quo. At least, that’s the story of Felipe Morales, who gets by on Social Security and food stamps.

The 69-year-old lost his catering job about a year ago. He looked for work elsewhere, including the stadium, but found nothing. In October, his daughter bought him a food cart to sell hot dogs to neighborhood kids. But the city license that came with the cart expired weeks later and he can’t afford the $1,200 annual renewal.

For now, his only extra income — about $18 per month — comes from selling empty cans he finds in the street for scrap metal.

“If I could earn $20 or $25 each night selling snacks to baseball fans,” he said, “that would be a huge relief.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/1...#storylink=cpy

But his will be a rare example because close to 95 percent of residents in this neighborhood are renters, not property owners.

And how exactly is this going to stop people from charging again?

[Beef]

Also, that bitch that kept parking in that guy's spot sounds like a bitch.

[Party]

Here is the map I posted a couple months ago with the Miami Trolley route and stops in orange. It makes too much to use the courthouse parking lot as satellite parking.

[Bobbob1313]

Here is the map I posted a couple months ago with the Miami Trolley route and stops in orange. It makes too much to use the courthouse parking lot as satellite parking.

You mean the green lines? That's where I parked.

[Fish Tank Frenzy]

Im going to park on 8th Terrace in between 15th Ave and 14th Ct. It is just north of the stadium and getting on to the 836 is a breeze. It is literally a 5 minute crawl to get to the stadium from there. To get out I take South River Dr to 17th Ave where I can get on to the 836 with little or no hassle.

[nacho marlin]

for fanfest i took the metro from palmetto station to civic center, the orange line was rite outside the station and it was only a 10 minute ride to the ballpark, i I took it and it was great!...If only more people did this there wouldnt be so many parking problems.