NEIGHBORHOOD: Downtown Miami

For the past few years, Freebee Shuttles have operated in the urban centers of Miami, where population is dense enough that advertising revenue from the shuttles can pay for their operation, like Downtown Miami and South Beach, but now Miami-Dade transit is allowing transit dollars to be used to subsidies the expansion of Freebee into cities where there isn't a large enough population to justify trolley service, reports the Miami Herald. And Uber could be next.

YotelPad Miami, the combination condo and hotel tower coming to Downtown Miami under the Yotel brand, has released updated interior renderings of its 231 residential units. (The building will also have 222 traditional hotel rooms) The close-to-micro-unit condos are characterized by their compact and efficient square footages (somehow they squeeze two bedroom units into 700 square feet, for example) and for having zero rental restrictions. Short term, long term, you name it.

For years, Brickell has been the center of growth in Greater Downtown Miami. However, in the next five or so years, there’s a good chance all of that could change and move to the heart of Downtown Miami, just across the Miami River. Here’s why:

When you're in the mood for an exciting nightcap, a dinner with a view, or a party in the clouds, try out one of these urban hotspots in Miami. These are Miami's ten most spectacular rooftop bars, restaurants, and lounges.

Miami’s bay walk, extending along the edge of Biscayne Bay from Edgewater to Brickell, through the heart of the city has been in the planning stages for decades. Yet, with plenty of false starts, this great civic amenity designed to ensure public access to the waterfront is still nowhere near completion. At times, the city's dream of a completely interconnected bay walk connecting and opening Miami’s urban core to the waterfront appears tantalizingly close to completion and, at others, completely dead in its tracks.

The Yotel hotel chain is known for its amenities that combine futuristic technology with a certain amount of cuteness. YotelPad Miami, a combo hotel/residential Yotel under construction just introduced its own techy thing: three robot butlers named Lulu.

Park(ing) Day, the annual event when urban activists around the world turn parking spaces into public parklets, is almost upon us. This year, Park(ing) Day is on September 21. In previous years, Park(ing) Day has been pretty successful in South Florida, but last year, Park(ing) Day happened to land immediately in the wake of Hurricane Irma. So, it will be interesting to see how many urban parklets are created this year.

The Big Bubble recently took a ride on the Brightline, the new-fangled high speed train running between Miami and Palm Beach. Going from Miami to West Palm took about an hour and fifteen minutes, and was a comfortable ride through the urban cores of three counties.

The huge new Brightline MiamiCentral train station terminal—a pun on Grand Central, which in the minds of Miamians it clearly evokes—is opening this weekend. Technically a terminal, because all trains end here, it is massive, with enough overhead platforms for both the Brightline intercity rail line and Tri-Rail, which will make its downtown Miami debut here. Check out our gallery of photos inside completed terminal below, interspersed with renderings, and a video.

Wednesday Miami real estate news update: