Have a Seat is a project run by Urban Health Partnerships Inc. that aims to install 35 transit benches to better the transit experience for Little Havana residents who ride the City of Miami trolley and the Miami-Dade County bus. Currently, right-of-way constraints disable many locations from having a bench to wait for the transit services.
“We’ve heard from Little Havana residents that there is a need for a better public transportation system, including more amenities at transit stops,” said director of transportation engineering and planning, Laurie Fucini-Joy.
The plan is to identity 35 possible locations for the "Have a seat" benches in two steps. The first step is outreach to find out if residents can detail specific locations where benches are needed. The second step is virtual fieldwork, to identify measurements for the desired locations, which Fucini-Joy hopes will continue in person after COVID-19.
Urban Health Partnerships Inc. needs to gain approval from the City of Miami for all "Have a seat" benches, which the City of Miami’s Department of Resilience and Public Works will install and maintain.
The City of Miami showed support for installing and maintaining these benches through a resolution that was approved with the sponsorship of Commissioner Carollo on Feb. 24. The summary of that commission meeting can be found here.
Further support comes financially from 2019 Public Space Challenge, a program of the Miami Foundation with support from Target. Other financial support comes from District 5 County Commissioner Eileen Higgins and District 3 City Commissioner Joe Carollo.
Residents who want to suggest a location for a bench can reach out to the community outreach and training coordinator Jesse Cosme at jesse@urbanhp.org or 786-224-2309. You must be able to provide a location for where the bench should be.
For further information, visit the project website.
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