NOVA
(Photo: Miami Herald)
A friend of mine sent me a Miami Herald article dated February 13, 2014 and entitled, Nova Southeastern breaks ground on $80 million research center, which reported:
“On what is now a parking lot at its main Davie campus, Nova Southeastern University will spend the next two years constructing a six-story state-of-the-art research center — complete with wet labs, a technology incubator, and a new IBM supercomputer nicknamed “Megalodon.”
The ambitious project, at a cost of $80 million, is but the latest example of Nova’s big-time research aspirations: Already recognized as a “high research” college by the Carnegie Foundation, NSU aims to become an even bigger research player within the next five years.”
My friend also commented:
“Meanwhile, they leave their facility in NMB to rot. I think we need to tell them to shit or get off the pot already. This is SO TYPICAL, every organization seems to keep their “liability” property in our city so they can balance their taxes on assets everywhere else. I think that this unused campus should be first priority in the strategic planning sessions. THEY NEED TO BE PUBLICLY SHAMED.”
This got me thinking about all the crappy properties in North Miami Beach, many of which are in my own neighborhood. So I decided to tour the vicinity by car, as well as virtually via Google Maps, to showcase how we here on the other side of the tracks live. Prepare yourselves, folks. This isn’t pretty.
For starters, here’s a picture of the mausoleum-like structure that houses the NMB Nova campus:
While this doesn’t look that awful (ahem) from the photo, it’s nothing compared to the campus proposed in Davie (yes, it really, really, really is Better in Broward).
Just around the corner from the Nova campus, however, things get considerably worse.
For starters, right on Northeast 19th Avenue and 167th Street, a property owned by Universal Management Group, Inc., whose principles are none other than the Cherubin brothers of North Miami’s Biscayne Landing fame. This property once housed a gas station and is now a vacant eyesore.
As I reported on September 9, 2011, the Cherubin brothers came before the North Miami Beach Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) board to ask the city to buy this property and lease it back to them so they could build a hotel. Fortunately, the board didn’t take them up on this “generous offer.” However, the property still sits. Unused. Undeveloped. Undesirable.
Speaking of undesirable properties, rather than give you a narrative, I’ll just give you a visual pictorial of things around town (near where I live) that make you go “huh?”
Let’s get this party started.
No Tour da ‘Hood would be complete without a visit to North Miami Beach’s infamous Mavericks High School, where the lucky NMBPD Officer of the Month has his very own parking space.
Yeah, I was joking about that.
But the view of the city from here is no laughing matter.
Thank you for joining me on the Voters Opinion First Annual 2014 Tour da ‘Hood. Y’all come back now!
Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”
The city is a dump. Sorry if that offends but i’ve been working in this city for nearly 20 years and the city needed renovation back then and still nothing has changed. A little improvement on Biscayne but most of that belongs to North Miami. If you drive around long enough, you’ll find blue tarps still on roofs from Hurricane Wilma. Like you said, Broward is better.
I moved here from North Miami on July 1, 1989 and, aside from a couple of improvements – Mischon Field for one – for the most part things have not changed. I’m glad you said what you did about North Miami, because I’m already persona non grata in NMB for saying nice things about our neighboring city. Glad I’m not the only one around here who gets it.