Lights along 36th Street near MIA haven’t worked for years. Residents can now weigh in
Residents of Virginia Gardens soon can weigh in about the non-functioning streetlights along Northwest 36th Street and the heavily trafficked intersections of Red, Ludlam and Milam Dairy roads.
Spencer Deno IV, the mayor of Virginia Gardens, said a meeting with all the key parties will be at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9, at Virginia Gardens Village Hall, 6498 NW 38th Ave.
“I asked for the meeting to be held at night, so we can take a drive,” Deno said.
Problems date to 2020
The issue of non-functioning streetlights along Northwest 36th Street has been going on since 2020.
“There are so many lights out,” said Deno. “Nonstop runaround. One agency says it’s the county, the other says it’s Florida’s Dept. of Transportation. And then some say it’s Florida Power & Light.”
Since 2020, Deno said he has contacted FPL, FDOT, Jose ‘Pepe Diaz, the Miami-Dade county commissioner at that time, and Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava.
“Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works staff will look into and address accordingly,” said a September 2020 email from Diaz’s office to Deno.
City of Sweetwater spokesperson Alvaro Zabaleta said Diaz, now the mayor of Sweetwater, followed up with the transportation departments at both the state and county level when he was a Miami-Dade commissioner.
“September 2020 is when COVID was peaking; we were undergoing a catastrophe,” Zabaleta said. “Mayor Diaz reached out to the proper entities and gave his best efforts to help.”
Levine-Cava’s office said the county has employed a new system that allows staff to pinpoint and assist in resolving jurisdictional issues on area roadways.
“Northwest 36th Street is a state road [State Road 948] and it is maintained by FDOT,” Levine-Cava’s spokesperson said.
Northwest 36th Street, which runs along the northern border of Miami International Airport, is part of FDOT’s District 6, which oversees 8,144 miles of public roads in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. Drivers, cumulatively, ride on those roads more than 30.8 million miles daily.
“FDOT is currently coordinating with our partners on this,” Cynthia Turcios, FDOT’s District 6 spokesperson, said last Friday. “As soon as we get more information, we’ll happily let you know.”
FPL said it has been in touch with the county over the repair issues.
“The inoperative streetlights along NW 36th Street between NW 42nd Avenue and NW 72nd Avenue are owned and maintained by Miami-Dade County, not FPL,” FPL spokesperson Shawn Johnson wrote in an email to the Herald. “We have been and will continue to be in communication with the county as they work to make the necessary repairs to these lights.”
Northwest 36th Street is also known as Doral, Virginia Gardens and Miami Springs boulevards. Deno said the non-functioning lights are stationed along major intersections, including at Milam Dairy Road (Northwest 72nd Avenue) Red Road (Northwest 57th Avenue) and LeJeune Road (Northwest 42nd Avenue).
Thousands drive on Northwest 36th Street
An estimated 69,000 vehicles travel daily along Northwest 36th Street between Milam Dairy and Red roads, according to FDOT. High-volume roadways are those with daily traffic counts of 50,000 or more, the Federal Highway Administration said.
Virginia Gardens, pop. 2,364, sits just north of Miami International Airport between Miami Springs to the east and the county’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, 7000 NW 41st St., to the west.
Lack of lighting on Northwest 36th Street has led to an uptick in transients and released prisoners from the correctional facility to wander about, Deno said.
“Virginia Gardens and Miami Springs are the closest communities to the airport with many hotels and visitors walking on the sidewalks,” said Deno. “It is a huge safety issue.”
Miami Springs, just east of Virginia Gardens, built an 8-foot fence along a five-block stretch of Northwest 36th Street in 2021, due to a surge in crime.
One local thinks the fence should be extended west.
“The fence would effectively separate the tourists and vagabonds from our residential side,” said Leo Bangert, 31, of Miami Springs, who lives off Miller Drive by Northwest 36th Street. “More importantly, it would help protect the assets of the owners on Miller, lowering crime.”
The Herald recently reported that police identified the body of a senior citizen who was found in a dimly lit alley off Northwest 36th Street and Miller Drive on July 4. Fermin Alvarez, 74, was found before sunrise with a “blunt trauma” injury.
Bangert, who works a night-shift security detail in Miami, often drives on Northwest 36th Street at night to Florida State Road 112. Last year, he totaled his car on the expressway, which he said also has non-working lamp posts.
“Lack of lighting leads to minimal visibility,” Bangert said. “It has been an ongoing issue.”
In 2022, Kevin Cabrera was elected as Miami-Dade County’s District 6 commissioner, the district that oversees this area.
“Our role has been to bring together key stakeholders from both the county and state levels to ensure that we finally resolve this issue,” Cabrera said.
This story was originally published September 6, 2024 at 5:00 AM.