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In reply to the discussion: Please stop about the pedestrian bridge collapse [View all]Awsi Dooger
(14,565 posts)The land was an airport when I was a young kid. Years later it was a two-year school only. Kids would go to Miami-Dade for their first two years and then transfer to FIU as upperclassmen. Finally it got approved as a four year university and really took off.
Decades ago I never thought of FIU bordering 8th St. The working reality was significantly further south than that. But as the university needs grew the land availability was in that direction. The other side of campus is used for the local Youth Fair activities, which is a major tradition so that area is kept relatively open.
8th St. is very high trafficked. It feeds the western suburbs in that central part of town. Miami is layered so that every 16th street is a major east/west thoroughfare. So 8th St (Calle Ocho) is huge, then 24th (Coral Way), 40th (Bird), 56th (Miller), 72nd (Sunset), 88th (Kendall), and so forth. FIU is crammed in there between Coral Way and 8th St.
FIU's problem is it really couldn't expand west because the turnpike extension is right there, yards away from campus. The east side is developed. South is residential. Only option was north, and eventually they ran into 8th St.
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