Leave the slip alone?

Interesting story in Eye On Miami about the FEC slip of water that is next to the American Airlines Arena. That's the slip to the left of this photo, next to the Arena and Bicentennial Park, now called Museum Park.


County Mayor Carlos Gimenez and City Mayor Tomas Regalado want to fill the slip in, they say it it to "add green space." They insist it's not to accommodate soccer star David Beckham and his plans to start a soccer franchise in Miami, which many are believing is what will happen if the slip is filled in. Beckham is interested in putting the stadium at the Port of Miami, now, called Port Miami. (Museum Park, Port Miami, Zoo Miami, names change often in the county). The slip doesn't look wide enough to add another stadium, but if you take away space from the park, as they have done already with museums and such, it would work.

Is this a good idea or not? Being downtown and just the fact that they have put museums and other buildings in the park does not lead me to believe that this will be just green space in a prime spot in downtown. It's taxable land that anything built on the site, whether it's an arena or condo, will bring more money to the city in the way of taxes.

To be fair, the whole area there is fill, just the one slip was left untouched. Not sure why, but why not leave it? Instead of making it green, how about leaving it sea green?