Find an alternative

The proposed hotel, at 300 feet and with 800 rooms, will be larger than virtually all other Miami Beach hotels.

Nothing in the immediate area, a sunny, open, low-rise neighborhood of human scale, approaches such a monolith. Indeed one of Miami Beach’s most prestigious synagogues, Temple Emanu-el, will be virtually next door. It will be a glaring encroachment on a section of the city that has always been local in character.

Why must voters be faced with a such an undesirable choice: no hotel at all or a zombie hotel? Can we not have a choice of something more in keeping with the immediate neighborhood? Think of the recent election on the future of North Beach — an attempt to enrich a single developer, who demanded ownership of the whole neighborhood in return for merely a promise that others might also prosper.

The proposed hotel is once again trickle-down economic theory at its worst.

Like North Beach, the current plan should be soundly rejected, in the hope that local politicians can then find us a more suitable alternative.

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Find an alternative."