Hello everybody! Our work continues. As many of you know, we went to the commission's meeting in the Miami Beach city hall on January 27. In this meeting, it was disclosed that they are planning to cut not 300, but almost 700 trees. In addition, they want to "trim" the natural canopy to gain more "ocean view". We already know what that means. If you have been to the park lately, you also notice that all of the vegetation next to the beach walkway, mostly seagrape, have been excessively trimmed to a third of their size (see pictures for before and after) without any city approval that we know of. Some branches that were cut off were 7-8 inches in diameter, some seem to have been burned, this is unacceptable. The commission decided that this project will not go to the Design Review Board (DRB) for approval until West 8 (the architecture firm) shares the complete plan with the community in more detail. However, West 8 is still seeking approval from the DRB showing only 30% of their plans. The local Miami community decided that our priority is preserving the North Shore Open Space Park as one of the last natural havens in this city, we all agree that they can upgrade the park without sacrificing the natural canopy. We are officially requesting an Environmental assessment and a tree survey from the city of Miami Beach (the goal of the survey is to provide useful information on the trees so that the right decisions can be made in the best interests of the community). If this does not happen, we are considering organizing a community event to perform an assessment and tree survey. We will keep you posted!