Two Candidates, Two Views of Ultra

Former Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner, left, and Former School Board Member Raquel Regalado, right, candidates for Miami Dade Commission District 7. (Images provided by candidates)

The fate of the Ultra Music Festival may hinge on not just an upcoming vote by Miami’s City Commission, but also on how Miami-Dade County officials decide to react to the event’s troubled first outing on Virginia Key.

And that, in turn, may partially depend on who gets elected to the County Commission District 7 seat covering both Virginia Key and Key Biscayne. Incumbent Xavier Suarez is term-limited, and the two announced candidates have markedly differing views about Ultra’s future.  While the event site is under City control, the Rickenbacker Causeway is under the County’s jurisdiction and requires County-issued permits to operate, officials said.

For former Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado, the solution involves the County playing the role of honest broker to arrive at a deal that Key Biscayne, downtown communities, and event promoters can live with. Her opponent, former Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner, sees Miami’s decision to move the concert from Bayfront Park to Virginia Key as an unabashed mistake. “They had no business putting it there,” Lerner said.

But Regalado says simply saying “NIMBY,” or “not in my backyard,” is not a long-term solution.

“The City and the Village and the County have to work through to a viable solution,” she said. “I believe the role of the County is to find common ground.”

Lerner was critical of the way the County prepared for the event, which led to miles-long traffic snarls and tens of thousands of attendees streaming across the Causeway on foot when the bus transportation system experienced delays. “The County did a very cursory analysis, not a critical thinking analysis that should have been done.”

Lerner was not alone in her criticism of transportation planning.

Miami Dade County Commissioner Esteban Bovo asks questions about the Ultra Music Festival at a meeting of the Transportation and Finance Committee, April 16, 2019 (Key News/Tony Winton)

At a Tuesday meeting of the County Commission’s Transportation and Finance Committee, Chair Esteban Bovo opened a discussion of Ultra by calling it “a horror story” and a “nightmare situation.” Commissioner Barbara Jordan agreed. “Anyone hearing the plan about transportation for that festival knew it was going to be a failure,” she said, adding the County must have a more active role if the event happens again. “I don’t want the County to be caught under the bus on something that we did not have anything to do with in the decision-making process.”

Miami Dade County Transportation and Public Works Director Alice Bravo discusses traffic problems before the County Commission’s Transportation and Finance Committee, April 16, 2019 (Key News/Tony Winton)

County Transportation and Public Works Director Alice Bravo defended the review process, laying out the lengthy set of interagency meetings starting in December that led to a transportation plan being approved a week before the concert. She blamed first-night problems on attendees leaving earlier than planned, but also said she did not review traffic counts made after the event.

“Is there another venue, another possibility for this kind of event?” Bovo asked.

“It’s a delicate dance, but I think it’s something we should be engaged in now, and not just a couple of months before the event,” he said.