"It’s impossible for me to tell you that every tree will be saved."

Bike lanes are a tough sell in Coral Gables. That’s putting it lightly.

In 2004, the city known for its more than 38,000 trees approved its first bicycle master plan, but the plan’s initiatives “basically withered on the vine,” said Assistant City Manager Ed Santamaria.

A decade later, the city tried again. A recycled version of the first plan was passed in 2014, calling for 27 miles of new bike lanes, sidewalks and crosswalks.

Since then, it’s mostly been more of the same: City officials bring a proposal, neighbors are outraged, and the City Commission scraps the idea. That’s what happened in 2018 with an effort to add bike lanes on Riviera Drive after residents voiced their opposition at a commission meeting.

Now, there’s a new proposal on the table: to add bike lanes and extended sidewalks along a 2.3-mile stretch of Alhambra Circle from Coral Way to the University of Miami.

Judging by the initial response of many residents — including fear that it could mean the loss of trees — this plan could have the same fate as its predecessors.

Read more at the Miami Herald