By Armando V. Pomar

Hostess to this event celebrated in  South Beach is the former Miami Beach Mayor Matti Bower.

This week’s presentation featured the City of Miami Beach Director of Public Works, Jose (Joe) L. Gomez, PE., F. FES.

Engineer Gomez’s presentation tackled the issues of public policies and projects by the Public Works Department under his direction and remedies taken at the Park View Island.

Present at this meeting was the President of the neighborhood Park View Island Association, Omar Jimenez presenting the needs and concerns of the community and announcing steps taken during the upcoming weekend, extending an special invitation to join the Annual Park View Island Spring Cleanup, taking place on Saturday, May 21st @ 10:30 AM – 1:30 PM.

Mr. Omar Jimenez, President of the Park View Island Association expressed the following during his interview and conversation about the Association and his leadership:

Park View Island is centrally located on 73rd Street in North Beach, just 4 blocks from the Beach, One block from Nobe Town Center boundary, and across the street from the Nobe Community Garden, North Shore Park, and Tennis Courts. Park View Island is a small community made of 2 large Condominium buildings, several low scale apartment buildings and a row of townhomes that lines the perimeter of the island facing the Intracoastal Canal. Across the canal, the Townhomes face newer multimillion-dollar developments such as Iris on the Bay which was completed in 2017.

Omar Jimenez is a Cuban-born American, who grew up in Dublin, Ireland when his parents emigrated during the Cuban ‘Special Period’. He received all his education in Ireland and is fluent in 3 languages. In 2012, Omar moved to South Beach, and some years later became a NoBe resident. «I saw the potential North Beach had when not many wanted to live here yet», he purchased his first home on Park View Island, seeking a quieter life and a better sense of community from South Beach. He created and is currently President of the Park View Island Sustainable Association due to many ongoing resident concerns going unresolved.

The association’s mission is to improve the quality of life for current and future generations by rebuilding a bridge of cooperation with city administration and working with residents to bring the same services to park view island residents that are afforded to many other similar neighborhoods in Miami Beach. «we’re not asking for special treatment, we just want to be treated the same as many other neighborhoods in Miami Beach», said Mr. Jimenez. Some of Park View Island’s streets are not ADA accessible at all, there are no sidewalks, forcing all residents, but especially children and elderly residents to share the streets with speeding vehicles. As more residents have moved in over the years, parking has also become a big issue for residents.

In March of 2020, a No Contact Advisory was placed on the canal surrounding Park View Island after a sewer line break on Lincoln Road caused a major sewer line break on 72nd St. It leaked 593,000 gallons of raw sewage through the neighborhood, which flowed into the canal and then poured into Biscayne Bay. Now over 2 years later, the no contact advisory is still in place, without being lifted once throughout this same period.

This has really diminished the quality of life for Park View Island Residents. One of only two amenities on the island, the Kayak Launch located on 7300 Dickens Avenue was closed by the city indefinitely. If this was the worst part, things wouldn’t be so bad, however, two years on residents are faced with little to no resolution and testing by the Miami Waterkeeper, a chapter of the Surfrider Foundation that has been sampling the waters around the island weekly for close to a year, shows 89% of samples taken over this same period have resulted in abnormally high and toxic levels of Enterococcus bacteria in the body of water around Park View Island that exceed federally accepted standards.

The No Contact advisory is simply not enough to keep residents who are not familiar with the potential dangers from getting out to enjoy these waters. Residents chose to live here and purchase homes here to enjoy the ‘Island life’ and most are water enthusiasts, taking to their kayaks and paddleboards often as a form of unwinding after a long week of work or spending quality time with family. This is no longer something Park View Residents can enjoy without feeling like they are playing Roulette with their health.

Given the ongoing issues, Omar is still confident Park View Island has a bright future. «We are on the doorstep of the newly established Nobe Town Center, we are hopeful City Hall will step in and take the correct steps to fix these serious temporary issues», Mr. Jimenez tells El Vocero News, «Community is my passion, I grew up working with people and serving the community, one day I hope to run for Local Office and be part of the Miami Beach Community for many years to come».

We are hosting our annual Spring Clean Up this Saturday, May 21st from 10:30am – 1:30pm. At the first annual PVI Spring Cleanup, we had over 70 Volunteers, gathered over 600lbs of trash, and awarded 25 local students with community service certificates. It was a great day of community building and fun for the entire family. This year we are anticipating a larger number of residents and locals to participate as we have grown since this neighborhood association was created in 2020. If you would like to join and find out more about this Miami Beach Community the invitation is open to all.