Yeah, at 5 am maybe. My son lives in Gables Ponce. Just getting across Le Jeune by Havanna Harry's is sporty on his way to class.
I know you are one of the guys that will get this.
Coral Gables was the first planned community in the US. The streets were laid out by George Merrick 100 years ago. Downtown Coral Gables was designed to have a tiny area, one mile long and a few blocks wide.
For most of the last 100 years (including when I was in school in the 80s and 90s), downtown Coral Gables had a couple of tall buildings (one is a hotel), and then a bunch of 2 and 3 story buildings. The number of people coming INTO Coral Gables and going OUT OF Coral Gables each day was relatively balanced and normal (except for US 1).
But for the last 20-25 years, everything has changed. Lots of shorter buildings in Coral Gables have been torn down and replaced with taller buildings. At the same, the roads are essentially the same as they have been for 100 years. Even the City of Coral Gables website now brags about the tens of thousands of people who drive INTO Coral Gables each day to work. We know full well that all the jobs in Coral Gables are not filled by people living within the city borders who ride bikes to work.
Bottom line, Coral Gables has evolved from the sleepy Coral Gables that we knew when we were in school, to an overcrowded downtown that is a traffic disaster for 260 weekdays each year. Furthermore, the tens of thousands of cars that flood into Coral Gables each morning do so within a window that is about 1 to 1.5 hours. Now you contrast that with 6 weekends per year, where the window of arrival is around 4 hours. Where you can park a bunch of people at UM (or the students are already there) and run shuttles. ****, Disney shuttles tens of thousands of people into its theme parks 365 days of the year. AND, because we are talking about 6 special event weekends per year, you can use police to help direct traffic, something that is generally unavailable for the daily commutes into Coral Gables.
Bottom line, Coral Gables is no longer the town it once was, and it is no longer possible for the residents to act SHOCKED at all of the traffic. It exists. It sucks, but it's manageable.
And for the record, I have already expressed my preference for 2 locations along NW 7th Street, just north of Coral Gables, which would have access to the 836. You'd have to work with City of Miami instead of City of Coral Gables, and that is usually an easier proposition, though it is hard to ignore the fact that Ruiz's law partner is the Vice Mayor of Coral Gables.
At any rate, this is a fun an interesting conversation to have. It's nice to have options again.
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