{"id":2158,"date":"2023-09-03T13:28:54","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T18:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/?p=2158"},"modified":"2023-10-13T09:46:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T14:46:48","slug":"miami-beach-cuts-funding-for-bicycle-pedestrian-coordinator-in-proposed-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/miami-beach-cuts-funding-for-bicycle-pedestrian-coordinator-in-proposed-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite Budget Increase, Miami Beach Axes Bicycle-Pedestrian Coordinator Position"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Despite an <a href=\"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/miami-beach-proposes-11-6-increase-to-427-million-general-fund-budget-total-budget-828-6-million\/\">11.6% increase<\/a> to a record $427 million in Miami Beach&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamibeachfl.gov\/city-hall\/office-of-budget-peformance\/budget\/\">proposed<\/a> FY2024 operating budget, funding has not been renewed for the bicycle-pedestrian coordinator position\u2014a point of contention during last year\u2019s budget negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last September, the city&#8217;s Transportation, Bicycle-Pedestrian Facilities Committee passed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamibeachfl.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/LTC-377-2022-TPBPF-Committee-Motion-Transportation-Department-Bicycle-Pedestrian-Coordinator-Position.pdf\">motion<\/a> urging Miami Beach to fund a full-time bicycle-pedestrian coordinator role. They argued the position is needed to improve infrastructure and safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although some commissioners initially resisted increasing the city staff headcount, they ultimately approved the bicycle-pedestrian coordinator on a temporary, one-year consultant basis in the FY2023 budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the Transportation Department had initially requested $88,000 for the role, $100,000 was eventually allocated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, in the FY2024 budget, that funding has been eliminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This decision comes despite recent high-profile changes that advocates say a dedicated coordinator might have prevented\u2014like the removal of automatic pedestrian signals in residential neighborhoods and the placement of a barrier on Ocean Drive that obstructed nearly half the bicycle lane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At a time when dozens of new <a href=\"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/miami-beach-proposes-11-6-increase-to-427-million-general-fund-budget-total-budget-828-6-million\/\">positions<\/a> are being added in the proposed FY2024 budget, it is perplexing to supporters why funding has not been renewed for the bicycle-pedestrian coordinator role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, after last year&#8217;s contentious funding battle, the Transportation and Mobility Department did not submit a request to continue funding the bicycle-pedestrian coordinator position in their FY2024 budget proposal. Nor has the department&#8217;s headcount increased, despite nearly 60 new positions being proposed citywide for the coming fiscal year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite an 11.6% increase to a record $427 million in Miami Beach&#8217;s proposed FY2024 operating budget, funding has not been renewed for the bicycle-pedestrian coordinator position\u2014a point of contention during last year\u2019s budget negotiations. Last September, the city&#8217;s Transportation, Bicycle-Pedestrian Facilities Committee passed a motion urging Miami Beach to fund a full-time bicycle-pedestrian coordinator role. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2158"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2177,"href":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions\/2177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betterstreetsmb.com\/bsmb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}