Church Pins Hope On Downtown Growth

2 December 2006 - 5:00am

The historic Trinity Episcopal Cathedral looks to downtown Miami residential growth as a way to fill its half-empty pews.

"At dusk each Wednesday, and before every 10 a.m. Sunday service, a cascade of bells rings out from Trinity Cathedral's campanile in downtown Miami.

With downtown development fast encroaching upon Trinity Episcopal Cathedral from all sides, Dean Douglas McCaleb hopes the cathedral's bells fulfill their historic purpose -- to attract newcomers to his church at 464 NE 16th St., where the pews are rarely even half-filled.

'My sense is, down here the whole cathedral district is changing. We don't want to be swallowed up -- we want to be the jewel in the crown,'McCaleb said. 'It's an exciting time in the life of the cathedral.'"

Source: The Miami Herald, November 29, 2006
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All of that only scratches the surface of what's wrong with this study. The idea that complex urban development patterns and human behavior can be meaningfully studied according to one primary criteria — density — is wrong from the start.