Yesterday, the new pedestrian bridge over Tamiami Trail by FIUâs Modesto Maidique campus abruptly collapsed, crushing eight cars stopped underneath at a red light (Miami Herald). At least six people are dead, and there might be more people still buried in the rubble. Rescue workers said they don’t expect to find any more survivors (Miami Herald).
Itâs especially shocking because the 950-ton span was only lowered into place on Saturday and everyone â including us â pointed to it as an example of infrastructure innovation. The bridge was built using a new-ish technique called âaccelerated bridge constructionâ (if you want to know all the engineering details, read that excellent story from the Miami Herald), which eliminates the need for major road closures and traffic diversions. Construction wasnât finished at the time of collapse.
The bridge was built to provide a safe pedestrian crossing over the mega-busy, six-lane Tamiami Trail (aka 8th Street) that separates the campus from Sweetwater, where many of the students live. The Miami New Times reports that the two construction companies hired to build the bridge have a bad safety record. The Miami Herald has all the background deets on the companies.
Weâll keep you posted as we find out more about what went wrong. Let us know what questions we can help answer. Just hit reply to this newsletter.
A group of Miamians built on the energy of Wednesdayâs #NationalWalkoutDay by gathering more than 100 students from across Miami to talk about gun control.
âWeâre starting a revolution. Weâre the ones starting it, but itâs not ending with us,” said student Carlos Cordova.
The event was hosted in the Liberty Square community center so that students from that area â who live with and see gun violence on a regular basis â could talk with students who donât see gun violence as often.
âThe media coverage they [Parkland] got is not the media coverage we get when lose a black male in this community,â said Janai Altenor, a 15-year-old Norland Senior High student.
The âWalk it, Talk Itâ event was organized so that the students â from high schools including Norland, Edison, Miami Northwestern and Marjory Stoneman Douglas â could share their thoughts on the stateâs new gun control law, and specifically, the plans to arm some school employees.
The students nearly unanimously agreed that they didnât want teachers to be armed because teachers might take action when there isnât a real threat.
Read more on the talk and how to get involved here.
Old news. FEMAâs flood maps â which are used to determine things like property insurance needs and rates â wildly underestimate flood risk across the U.S., including in South Florida. FEMA estimates are actually three times lower than the real number of Americans facing a flooding threat, according to a new study from the Nature Conservancy. Miami-Dade County is in the middle of updating its maps, and in the meantime, FEMA says to not rely on them too much. Um… (Miami Herald)
Enough. After Parkland, locals called on their city officials to enact gun control laws. But city officials canât do much â their hands are tied by a state law that bans local governments from passing their own gun laws. Maybe not for much longer, though â City of Miami commissioners passed a resolution asking the city attorney to give that law a good once-over, and if she finds anything flawed, the city plans to sue for the right to pass its own laws. (Miami Herald)
Oops. Beloved local independent cinema organization O Cinema is in a dispute with Miami Beach over not paying certain taxes and some permit issues. O Cinema says itâs a misunderstanding and theyâll sort it all out, but Miami Beach wants to have a bigger convo about what should happen next with the historic Byron Carlyle Theater, which O Cinema has been using since 2014. Whatever happens there, it wonât affect O Cinemaâs Miami Shores and Wynwood locations. (Miami Herald)
Ahoy! Some people think of Miami as all speed boats, all the time, but Miami is also a low-key sailing hub, and as Miami Sailing Week ends, this Miami New Times piece has the download on the history of the sport here, which has been around longer than the city itself. And when winter sets in up north, Biscayne Bay becomes the training ground for the worldâs best sailors â meaning that you might be looking at a future Olympian next time youâre cruising by in your motorboat. (Miami New Times)
#MiamiFamous. Something about the prototype of the US-Mexico border wall in Tijuana might look familiar to Miamians. The âworld peaceâ section is done by none other than local artist Renda Writer, as part of his World Peace Mural Tour, which has already hit more than 50 cities and just keeps going. (Yahoo!)
Stay safe out there this weekend.