An Overlooked Issue Standing Between Miami & a World-Class Company Like Amazon

In case you haven’t heard, Amazon is in search of a second home.

We’re not talking about any old home though…  In the coming years, the Seattle-based tech behemoth plans to spend a whopping $5 billion to construct its HQ2 campus and hire 50,000 high-paying employees to grace its halls.

In what has become the Hunger Games for city governments, every major US municipality ranging from Denver to Pittsburgh and Tucson has thrown its hat into the ring offering up tax breaks, 21 ft. tall cactuses, massive advertising banners, and tear-jerking motivational videos to win over Amazon’s executive team.

Enter Miami, FL.

Not one to be left out, Miami also submitted a proposal last week.  As my home for the past three years, I’ve become deeply proud of the strides Miami is making as a global logistics hub and cultural intersection.

However, if we as the Miami community want to attract a world-class company like Amazon, there is one often overlooked thing we have to figure out now.  Not tomorrow, not three years from now, not when we finally sort out the city budget…  Now.  Today, October 22, 2017.

That thing is called pedestrian safety.

There is zero respect for pedestrians in Miami.

As an avid runner, cyclist, and public transit rider, I feel like I am signing my own death warrant every time I step out of the house.  On an almost daily basis, I am honked at, cursed at, and nearly run over IN THE MIDDLE OF CROSSWALKS…

Why Pedestrian Safety Matters

Why would a forward-thinking, world-class organization want to build their headquarters in a downtown environment where their employees cannot safely commute to work, bike, exercise, and walk with their families to the park?

The answer is they wouldn’t.  A world-class company would never even consider this possibility.

Companies like Amazon think in terms of fluidity.  They think about ways to create collisions among their employees and promote movement between clusters.  This entire strategy hinges on mobility, a word that cannot even be discussed without pedestrian safety.

How We Take Back Our Streets

I am here to tell you that the government is not the one to blame in this situation.

We as Miami citizens are the problem.

Until we develop the respect necessary to maintain safe streets, the vicious cycle we’re in will continue.  The more rambunctious our drivers, the more brazen our pedestrians will become, and the more injuries and fatalities we will sadly encounter.

The City of Miami could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars hiring even more police officers to babysit downtown crosswalks at rush hour, but would good would that do if drivers are not personally committed to respecting our streets anyway?

How many cyclists have to be killed on Key Biscayne?  How many running friends have to end up in the hospital from collisions with cars?

We have the talent, higher education institutions, lifestyle, and geographic location between hemispheres to attract the most influential of global companies.

It’s time we figure out how to move people safely on the ground.

Why I’m Writing This

I know pedestrian safety often doesn’t come up in boardroom discussions about economic development, but I can assure you it matters.

Walking around the streets was how business originally began, and I would argue it is more important now than ever as we struggle with ways to free ourselves from technology’s isolating effects.

I debated for weeks whether or not to post this in light of Miami’s Amazon proposal.  Though I ultimately decided it is a difficult conversation that needs to happen, and there is no better opportunity than the present as we work to attract hotshot new employers.

I do hope you’ll consider the respect our streets and our pedestrians deserve during tomorrow’s morning commute.

See you next Sunday at 8:30pm.  🙂