Miami developer to build landmark oceanfront tower

The SkyRise Miami tower is pictured in  this artist's  rendering courtesy of Berkowitz Development Group, Inc. Credit: Reuters/Berkowitz Development Group, Inc.



(Reuters) - Paris has the Eiffel Tower and now a developer is hoping to give Miami its own eye-catching landmark.

Jeff Berkowitz plans to raise $300 million to $400 million, partly from Chinese investors, to build the 305-meter tall SkyRise Miami tower. It will feature fine dining, as well as a bungee jump platform, and a vertical "drop ride" that will send thrill-seekers plummeting 50 stories.

"This is going to become Miami's Eiffel Tower," Berkowitz said, estimating it will attract 3.2 million visitors annually.

The structure will have the shape of a vertical hairpin and will be open at the sides to allow hurricane-force winds to blow through.

The steel and glass monolith designed by Arquitectonica, one of Miami's top architecture firms, will have to go through the permit process with local authorities. It has the support of city officials, including Miami Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which must approve building heights and flights paths in and out of Miami International Airport, okayed the building project a few days ago.

Jeff Berkowitz is negotiating an agreement with South Florida-based General Growth Prosperities, the owners of the waterfront shopping center in Miami where the proposed tower will be built.

The project started three years ago. In 2011 and 2012 developers and architects made several trips to Toronto for wind tunnel testing to ensure the tower can withstand the hurricane-force winds that sometimes hit Miami.

Tishman Construction, builder of both the original and new World Trade Center will serve as general contractors. Montreal-based gsmprjct°, which designed the observation deck atop the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, once the world's tallest building, will handle the one that will sit on the SkyRise tower.

Berkowitz  is planning a three-city tour of China in the coming month to attract potential investors. The plan is to tempt potential investors with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service's EB-5 visa program, which offers green cards to people who invest $500,000 and $1 million and create or save 10 jobs in two years.

adapted from Reuters

Shocking Road Safety Ad Goes Viral (video)

"Mistakes", the latest road safety ad by the New Zealand Transport Agency, uses powerful imagery and emotion and has a grim message for drivers who love speeding.

The 60-second video of the ad campaign has gone viral on the Internet, which is exactly what the agency hoped for.

"Mistakes" aims to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from road accidents. National media manager of the transport agency, Andrew Knackstedt, explained that the ad targets regular drivers who drive "comfortably" fast, usually going beyond the speed limit.

The hard-hitting road safety ad features two drivers both making mistakes while driving. The ad explains that when people drive, they share the road with others. The speed drivers choose should consider the possibility of errors along the way.

New Zealand's Transport Agency got their point across as hundreds of people left comments and expressed their support for the powerful campaign. Others who have watched the video felt scared because it could happen to them in real life if they're not careful.

According to Mr Knackstedt, 20 per cent of fatal and serious injuries from vehicle accidents in New Zealand are caused by speed. The thought-provoking ad will run for two years.

The New Zealand Transport Agency and the Auckland Council are investigating road safety improvements, including a discussion of plans to protect pedestrians and cyclists.






                             Here's the SHOCKING ad

 


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Aarticle dapted from "International Business Time - Australia"

Chemical spill in West Virginia (video)

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Cuba to Privatize State Taxi Firm

                                             A man drives his Soviet-era Russian Lada taxi in Havana.

HAVANA — Thousands of Cuban state taxi drivers will soon lease their vehicles and work on their own as part of a reorganization of the country's taxi service aimed at improving efficiency, according to rules published on Wednesday.

In 1968 Cuba nationalized all retail business and fixed all prices. But in an attempt to stimulate the stagnant economy and reduce bureaucracy, it is giving some of it back in a form of legal private enterprise.

Drivers will become self-employed and lease a vehicle from Cubataxi - the official state taxi company - at a daily rate, according to the resolutions published in the official Gazette.

“Cubataxi will be downsized. The idea is to eliminate irregularities in the service and reduce inflated administrative payrolls. Cubataxi drivers are notorious for not using their meters” said Debora Canela Pina, a transportation ministry specialist at Cubadebate, an official on-line news site.

The new system is based on a pilot project that began in 2010 at a single garage in Havana. Thirty of the more than 2,000 state taxi drivers in the capital began leasing their vehicles instead of working for a wage and a small percentage of the tips.

The reorganization will improve service and 60 percent of taxis, many old Russian Ladas, will be replaced by newer models.

Outside the Havana Libre Hotel, two Cubataxi drivers said "We hope our new status will prove beneficial. Besides, we have no choice but to accept it or lose our jobs".


“We will pay 595 CUC (Cuban Convertible pesos) for the car and then after a month 39 CUC plus 40 CUP (Cuban pesos) a day,” Elio, one of the drivers, said at the time.

The drivers will be responsible for maintaining their taxi and gasoline, but will be able to buy parts and services from the state-company at reduced prices.

“This law will benefit us because the driver will have total control of his taxi and its maintenance,” said one driver, Alejandro Perez.

adapted from VOA

Brazil airlines and World Cup tickets

SÃO PAULO— The latest chapter in the fight between Brasilia and the domestic airlines began last December when Gleisi Hoffmann, President Dilma Rousseff’s chief of staff, said "The government is considering allowing foreign companies to operate on domestic routes during the World Cup because ticket prices are very high"

Games will be played in 12 cities and tickets on some segments are now selling for as much as $1,200. Some fans will watch games in four or five different cities, tourism officials say. The hot England-vs.-Italy match, for example, will take place in Manaus in the heart of the Amazon basin.

Ms. Hoffmann talked about “abuse” in pricing, and said the obvious solution was more competition.

Last week Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras, Brazil’s third-biggest airline, said that it will charge a maximum price of $420 per leg of any travel during the month long event. By capping prices, the company will lose about 20 million reais in revenue.

Azul plans to cancel about 20% of its 900 daily flights during the June 12-July 13 soccer tournament because of a drop-off in demand from business travelers during the competition.

Azul will ask civil aviation regulator Anac to allow them to add about 300 more flights between the 12 host cities during the league play round of the competition, and to add another 300 flights during the knockout round of the competition, when fewer cities host games.

Viracopos airport, where Azul has its hub, is undergoing reforms to double capacity. Mr. Neeleman, Azul CEO, is confident that construction will be completed on time.








adapted from WSJ and The Globe and Mail

A 7-dollar Renoir (video)

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For Messi, the Best Medicine Is Time

Reuters

Lionel Messi training at the Argentine national team's headquarters in Buenos Aires 

  Welcome back, Lionel Messi, when you are good and ready.

Your 50-day absence is the longest separation since you arrived at Barcelona at 13. In exchange for your quality, shown even at that age, the club agreed to pay the medical bills to help you overcome growth hormone deficiency.

The management, the medics and the players sharing your time at La Masia, Barcelona’s academy, knew what was coming long before you lined up in the first team alongside Ronaldinho, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta and Carles Puyol in 2005.

You were 17 at the time. Your progress at Barça and with Argentina’s national team since has been a continuous story of growing delight.

Your 16 trophies with Barcelona came with the most intense, at times the most beautiful, soccer most of us may ever see. Your 91 goals during 2012 broke the record set four decades earlier in Germany by Gerd Müller.

He was a goal machine. You are so much more — a winger, a striker, a playmaker, anything you want to be. Your four Ballons d’Or for the world player of each year from 2009 to 2012 could become five when the award is announced Jan. 13.

There are only three men in the frame: Cristiano Ronaldo, Franck Ribéry and you.

This despite your injury layoff, much of it spent in retreat in Rosario, Argentina. You returned to training on Thursday, with the team’s first game of the calendar year coming Sunday against Elche.

The hamstring tear on Nov. 10 was the last of several muscle ailments that you said had come because of bad luck. But medical experts who have had hands-on experience with you have said the breakages may have been caused by your body’s being pushed beyond reason.

If we count your 427 games, and 338 goals, for Barça alone, it would sum up a lifetime achievement packed into a career possibly only now at halftime. You also have 83 games and 37 goals for Argentina, against opponents far bigger and more physical than the 5-foot-7, 150-pound body you possess.

Most of them are not quick enough to catch you. But they try. And all your quick bursts, all the twisting and turning, the darting movements you use to escape being caught and to emerge, magically, with the ball, put pressure on the sinews.

Sales and marketing people cannot get enough of you. You and your father, Jorge, were summoned to court in September, followed by allegations that your father had used foreign bank accounts to launder money.

The drawback of fame, perhaps. But one might only imagine the calls on your time, the distractions, the sycophancy, the line of multinational companies seeking to buy into your image. And the commitments that you undertake for your charitable foundation.

Clearly, you take pride in financing a youth setup for your original club, Newell’s Old Boys, and in donating 4 million Argentine pesos, about $611,000, to a children’s hospital in Rosario.

Barcelona has not fallen apart in your absence. Neymar has grown somewhat into your space. Pedro signed off 2013 with a hat trick. And the team leads the league.

Other clubs may covet you. Manchester City’s owner might spend what it takes — and City’s director of soccer, responsible for recruiting players, is your old friend from Barça, Txiki Begiristain.

But first things first. The next big challenge for Barcelona is the Champions League, against Manchester City, in February. Beyond that might lie Bayern Munich, now coached by your former mentor Pep Guardiola, and the team that put you out of Europe last year when your hamstring problems were just beginning.

You have the skills to be up there with Diego Maradona, even with Pelé. But because you turn 27 in June, this could be your best shot at winning the World Cup, as they did.

Come back carefully. Think of your own words when the injury struck last November: “There’s no need to look for things that don’t exist,” you said. “I’ll play all I need to do — when my body says it’s O.K.”

In a season elongated by the World Cup, please, do not let eagerness push you too hard, too soon.




From The New York Times

Cubans can shop for new and used cars (video)

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