living in THE CITY BEAUTIFUL OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2020 Renovated City Parks Marlin Park, 6540 Marlin Drive Catalonia Park, 807 Catalonia Avenue Sarto Park, 241 Sarto Avenue Majorca Park, 937 Majorca Avenue James T. Barker Park, 1047 Venetia Avenue WHAT’S INSIDE: Community Recreation Programs, Events, and more… A Magazine for City of Coral Gables Residents P R ODUCE D BY THE C ITY OF C ORAL G ABLES Your City Government from City Commission Raúl Valdés-Fauli, Mayor THE MAYOR Vince Lago, Vice Mayor This year for our City, much like the rest of the world has been unlike any other. The Jorge L. Fors, Jr., Commissioner tragedy of the lives and livelihoods the pandemic has claimed won’t be forgotten. These past Pat Keon, Commissioner months I’ve been especially inspired by the commitment, resilience and adaptability of Coral Mayor Michael Mena, Commissioner Raúl Valdés-Fauli Gables’ public servants – not only our frontline police, fire and sanitation workers, but our entire team who’ve continued to provide essential services to businesses and residents despite so many challenges. Peter J. Iglesias, City Manager Contact Mayor Valdés-Fauli [email protected] Since this is a Community Recreation focused publication, I wanted to highlight our parks and Miriam Soler Ramos, City Attorney 305-460-5220 recreation team. The lockdown demonstrated that parks have never been more essential to the Billy Y. Urquia, City Clerk or visit health and well-being of our families than during these times when outdoor spaces have been coralgables.com/mayor identified as the safest places to visit. During this difficult time, it is especially great to see the creativity and hard work of this team. Fortunately, playgrounds are once again open, but in the months prior while they remained closed our City took on the challenge of providing outdoor play through innovative technology. For example, we partnered with Actionbound to safely explore and play scavenger hunts in our parks. Today through the end of the year, Magical Park at the War Memorial Youth Center is open providing children with the very first digital playground in the U.S. using Geospatial Augmented Reality. This is a great concept to motivate tech savvy families to play outdoors. living in The Community Recreation team has also continued to offer programs for our seniors. While THE CITY BEAUTIFUL the Adult Activity Center remains closed, they are offering a large selection of virtual exercise OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2020 classes and support group forums via the ZOOM platform to keep our seniors engaged, active Renovated and healthy. City Parks We’re also excited that our beloved Salvadore Park will be expanded to offer activities for children of all abilities. The existing playgrounds at Salvadore and Jaycee Parks will soon be Marlin Park, 6540 Marlin Drive Catalonia Park, 807 Catalonia Avenue replaced. And, it’s great that we continue to make improvements to our parks such as the recently finalized pedestrian upgrades at Majorca Park. Construction at Maggiore Park and Sarto Park, 241 Sarto Avenue Lamar Louise Curry Park are scheduled to begin soon. The City of Coral Gables has been and will continue to be committed to supporting our community by improving accessibility to parks and exploring innovative and engaging Majorca Park, 937 Majorca Avenue James T. Barker Park, 1047 Venetia Avenue programming. To prioritize the quality of life for our residents, we are proud to announce that WHAT’S INSIDE: Community Recreation Programs, Events, and more… we are well on our way to fulfilling the goal of having a park within a fifteen-minute walk from A Magazine for City of Coral Gables Residents SECTIONS P R ODUCE D BY THE C ITY OF C ORAL G ABLES any location in the city. I hope this message finds you and your loved ones well and that you can soon visit one of the Update from Mayor On the Cover 62-parks, open spaces and facilities in our city or participate in one the many activities or Special Events Newly renovated City Parks. and Commission 3 8 programs offered. Our team is eager to welcome you. Message from Community Publication Team Mayor Raúl Valdés-Fauli Appointed Officials 4 Recreation 11 Community Recreation Department and Office of Communications Contact Information 7 Bike Tours 32 Update from Mayor Update from Mayor and Commission 4 City Commissioners City Commissioners 5 and Commission The well-being of our community is a top I am optimistic that this spirit of collaboration New Normal priority. And, never has this been of greater will continue and help us develop programs The coronavirus has changed our lives in so many importance than during these unique and and solutions to help our business community ways. Simple pleasures like meeting friends for challenging times. Throughout this pandemic I prosper. a drink, going to a movie, or spending a day at have worked hard to ensure that the City of Coral We worked closely with the BID and our the beach are distant memories supplanted now Gables helped our residents stay safe and our Economic Development Department to develop by activities routinely described as the “New businesses succeed. a unique program to encourage outdoor dining by Normal.” Well, it may be new, but wearing a I would like to highlight some of the important instituting a special permitting program allowing mask, social distancing, and obsessively washing Vice Mayor policy decisions we made in this respect. When restaurants throughout the City the ability to use Commissioner my hands to the tune of “Happy Birthday” Vince Lago testing was limited, Coral Gables established a parking spaces, sidewalks and private spaces to Patricia Keon played twice seems far from normal to me. I’d free testing site for residents which provided expand their capacity. I am happy to report that rather think of this time and these important Contact results in 48-hours. Since April, those 65-years more than 60-restaurants have taken advantage of Contact new social behaviors as a “Necessity Now” rather and older as well as the disabled and homebound this opportunity. than a “New Normal.” I say that because I am Vice Mayor Lago Commissioner Keon with symptoms can request no-cost testing by our While COVID-19 has prevented me from having confident that science will soon produce effective [email protected] [email protected] The levels of carbon dioxide and concentrations Fire and Rescue Department in the comfort of the face-to-face interaction with you, please treatments and a proven vaccine that will allow 305-569-1833 their homes. Residents can call 305-460-5401 to 305-569-1817 us to return to the “Good Ole Normal” we were of nitrogen dioxide have fallen by more than 25% know that my virtual door remains open. You in major industrial areas and places like Venice, or visit inquire and confirm eligibility. or visit all so accustomed to. All that said, the human may contact me via email at vlago@coralgables. Italy are seeing clear water in their canals for the coralgables.com/lago Our businesses, most especially small businesses com or call me at 305-569-1833 to set up a time coralgables.com/keon experience of “Necessity Now” has revealed some extraordinary facts about the resilience of first time in decades. That’s not to say that we are the lifeblood of our community. Concerns so that we can meet virtually. I eagerly await the must stay indoors and stop driving to save the regarding the resumption of operations and their opportunity to once again meet in person. nature. The most telling of which is that parts of the natural world seem to be faring much planet, but it does demonstrate that the initiatives future viability led me to propose the creation This fall, Florida’s Governor lifted many of the we take no matter how incremental they may be of a Business Recovery Task Force. This group better while humans “duck and cover” from restriction previously in place. Regardless, we are COVID-19. Satellite imagery and simple local can and do have a lasting effect on the world we worked closely with the City’s administration and not out of the woods and I strongly encourage live in. It’s up to us collectively to decide if that our partners including the Coral Gables Chamber observations have shown air and water pollution our residents continue to observe CDC guidelines dissipating across the globe. effect will be positive or negative. of Commerce, the Business Improvement including wearing masks and maintaining social District (BID), the Coral Gables Foundation, distancing to protect not only themselves, but the the University of Miami and restaurants and many in our community that are vulnerable. retail establishments on ways to reignite the Stay safe Coral Gables. economy. While the future remains uncertain, In Coral Gables we pride ourselves on the neighboring Coral Gables residents. Last year high quality of our first responders and public I voted against another proposed property for safety. Our new public safety building, slated for this firehouse (at Cartagena Circle) despite the completion in late 2020 will make emergency need for a new station in this area, for a variety This year brought many unwelcomed changes When I sponsored a resolution last year to responses quicker and more coordinated by of reasons, including the $4 million price tag, to our way of life and it is easy to reflect on the implement technology that would allow residents consolidating our City’s command center for and the fact that it was located in a residential negative. But during these times, it is important to virtually participate in commission meetings, emergency operations.