Teaming up for the common good, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and the Urban Land Institute hosted a panel discussion and breakfast today at the Hilton Miami Downtown Hotel. Former Pittsburgh mayor Tom Murphy and current Charleston, S.C. mayor, Joseph Riley, spoke of their personal experiences in transforming their downtowns into desirable, walk-able destinations focusing on a “human scale.” Creating parks, restaurants, cafes and homes to entice people to get out of their cars to walk, shop, eat and live downtown is critical to creating the human scale. “A downtown is the heart, it is where the public shares their citizenship with one another — it is the resident’s public living room,” Riley said.

Joined by Eugenie Birch, co-director of Penn Institute for Urban Research, and moderator Bernard Zyscovich of Zyscovich Architects, the group concluded that great progress had been made in the last 10 years in downtown Miami, especially with the addition of downtown housing. However, they said, new improvements are quickly needed, such as renovating Bayside Park into a tropical version of Central Park in New York City, and restoring at least a 10 block stretch of Biscayne Boulevard into a properly divided and landscaped thoroughfare (think Commonwealth Avenue in Boston or the Ramblas in Barcelona). These developments, and more, can transform our downtown into a world-class destination