To the Editor:
In September 2021, Elizabeth Street neighbors, led by lifelong Grovite Miriam Wedderburn, submitted a traffic study request to the City of Miami to determine if our street was eligible for traffic calming in the form of a speed table, speed bump, or other suitable traffic calming device to improve pedestrian safety for the only residential street in Coconut Grove that is a straight pathway for cut-through traffic between two high trafficked thoroughfares — Grand Avenue and Bird Avenue.
Nearly five years and three District 2 Commission administrations later, Elizabeth Street is still awaiting action. Meanwhile, its advocacy efforts for traffic calming have not stopped.
During a meeting held in July of last year that was attended by several Elizabeth Street neighbors requesting traffic remediation and by District 2 Coconut Grove constituent liaison Javier Gonzalez, neighbors voiced concerns such as how some drivers traveling down our street view stop signs as only suggestions.
During the meeting, Mr. Gonzalez advised neighbors of short- and long-term solutions, but neither have manifested into actual results. Neighbors have done their part in communicating their needs to District 2 staff year after year. Now it is time that District 2 staff do theirs.
Adding to ongoing disappointment in constituent servicing is the revelation that a 2024 traffic study did not include Elizabeth Street between Bird Avenue and Shipping Avenue and Shipping Avenue and Day Avenue, though Elizabeth Street neighbors were among those who made the request for the study three years prior.
Adding to the collective disappointment is the fact that at the District 2 City of Miami Traffic Calming Study Little Bahamas/Center Grove public meeting held in March 2024, city staff and the city’s traffic study consultants assured Elizabeth Street neighbors that the area had been studied — only to discover later that it was not the case.
To make this right, the installation of an appropriate traffic calming device on Elizabeth Street should be included in the approved Center Grove/ Little Bahamas Traffic Calming project currently underway to prevent further delay of a long overdue action.
Miriam Wedderburn
Coconut Grove
