Are the BID and Chamber flaking out?

The Village Council discussed the 3 am / 5 am issue last night, they have decided to have a formal vote on their stance at the next meeting.

One interesting concept brought up by Council Member Renita Ross Samuels-Dixon, was to have an outside consulting firm come in and assess the situation. She made sense in saying that we are all too close to the issue of whether 5 am bar closings should return, or whether we should keep the 3 am closings. An impartial outsider may see things differently.

Council Member David Collins brought up the obvious point saying that the Grove cannot support itself. The residents are not enough to sustain the commercial core. We need outsiders to come in and spend money, he called them regionals and tourists, regionals are those from Kendall or Pinecrest or Coral Gables, anyone outside the Grove, but within close range. David felt that while 5 am may have some impact, it may only be a very small fraction and something else needs to be done to draw people.

David is director of the BID (Business Improvement District), so that would be their job -- to get people here. David brought up the one hour parking grace period and many felt that not enough people knew about it. This may have been a good thing to place on the infamous billboard on US1.

Village Council Chairman, Patrick Sessions felt that the Chamber of Commerce and the BID need to step up and say how they feel about 5 am. He said he was "dumbfounded" on how neither group could make a decision and he asked for a decision.

David Collins took offense to this and left the dais. He said that these demands by Patrick were "outrageous" and that Patrick was "overstepping his office."

I do have to side with Patrick on this, if the Business Improvement District and the Chamber of Commerce have to decide whether to take the sides of businesses in the Grove or whether to take the side of a few complaining neighbors, both entities should close their doors for good, because neither is doing any business a service. Their job is to side with businesses and encourage anything that will help business. Not to avoid the subject for months on end.

The BID supposedly did a "straw poll" whatever that means, and the Chamber is currently polling its members by email. Polls are not needed. Action is.

The question to the Chamber and the BID is: "Are you in favor of more business and money coming into the Grove, which the change back to 5 am will bring? Or are you concerned more with the handful of neighbors who would prefer to change the Grove into a retirement village?" The answer is obvious. 5 am may bring five extra people or 5000 extra people, we don't know, but it's the duty of the Chamber and the BID to encourage anything that will bring even five extra people here to spend money.

The Village Council, which is an entity basically for homeowners, is in favor of 5 am coming back. The BID and Chamber, both entities for businesses refuse to make a decision, which is not helping the very businesses they represent.