Greenway magic
Neal Peirce
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MIAMI--Torn asunder by ethnic divisions, bedeviled by the machinations of its less-scrupulous politicians, this great American city has long cried out for a healing civic balm.
At last, hope has surfaced. A remarkable plan has been hatched to revive the long beleaguered, trashed and polluted Miami River--home to marinas and houseboats, yachts and tugboats, and legendary drug smuggling.
The principal tool for a better Miami: A new 5.5-mile-long pedestrian greenway that connects the remarkable mix of communities, ethnic groups, parks and housing that stretch from Biscayne Bay to Miami International Airport.
Complementing federally funded dredging to deepen the river channel and remove polluted sediments, the new Miami River Greenway seems to represent the opposite of isolated projects like ritzy gated communities. With a little luck, it might start to define Miami's amazing variety of peoples and economies as a powerful joint asset, not a nexus of friction and dissension.
How can such a tall order be met?
By watching for opportunities for collaboration, and then snatching them. That was the tactic of the Trust for Public Land, a nationally active conservation organization, when it took note in the late '90s of the government's intent to dredge the Miami River. Envisioning a greenway, TPL began contacting everyone from marine shippers to neighborhood groups to see if they liked the idea of a pedestrian and bike path linking the river's present and future attractions.
With Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, TPL even organized 20 Miami neighborhood and business leaders to visit Chattanooga, Tenn.--on their own expense--to see how one of America's once most-polluted cities was creating a greenway connecting major points of interest, including a "safe walk" through potentially perilous areas to benefit shoppers and children walking to school.
Such diverse Miami neighborhoods as East Little Havana and heavily African-American Overtown, on opposite sides of the river, became enthusiastic about the greenway. Overtown envisioned access to a cleaned-up river for fishing, boating, and walking to downtown jobs. Cubans were especially turned on by comparisons to the waterside access and recreation along Havana's Malecon.
Practically everywhere, says TPL's Brenda Marshall, residents said the first focus should be on Miami's economy and image by fixing ravaged stretches of the river passing through downtown. Yet residents universally accepted the idea of the greenway connecting their neighborhoods with other people and cultures.
The Miami-based John and James Knight Foundation stepped in last year with a $2.5-million grant to focus on greenway extensions into the ethnic neighborhoods. There's also widespread enthusiasm about a planned ecological education center at Point Park on the river. This was the site of Alligator Joe's Tropical Farm, Miami's first tourist attraction, from 1896 to 1913. It has lain fallow ever since. Now the original mangroves, marshes and hardwood hammock will be recreated in a center serving children from 22 nearby schools.
Several government-subsidized homeownership projects are planned--a sharp break with rental housing patterns of recent years and a real test of investors' confidence in a revived inner city.
Marine industries, including boatyards and docks with colorful freighters from Haiti and around the Caribbean, had to be convinced the new greenway wouldn't slice through their properties. In several sections the walk will divert onto nearby streets.
Still, watching freighters pass within yards is expected to add excitement to many stretches of the greenway. And advocates including Miami River Commission members Ernest Martin and Sallye Jude note with pleasure how many hotel and other commercial properties have already constructed riverfront greenways, or plan them.
Downtown hotels and Brickell Avenue area offices abutting the river are expected to be major winners. Indeed, the entire area, say backers, will almost surely be transformed into a sought-after "destination landscape" for tourists and local residents.
With more legitimate activity, it's claimed, drug trafficking will decline. (Irony: Gov. Jeb Bush last year ordered a local drug crackdown dubbed "Riverwalk.")
And there'll be many draws. Example: the recently discovered Miami Circle site where the river flows into Biscayne Bay. The 38-foot circular arrangement of limestone holes and basins dates back, according to radiocarbon dating, close to 2,000 years. The circle is attributed to ancestors of the Tequesta Indians. In January, officials announced a feasibility study to see if the site should be added to Biscayne National Park.
And just imagine, says the TPL's Lavinia Freeman, the possible introduction of water taxis, running on the river from near the airport through the city and out into Biscayne Bay, perhaps to Miami Beach. "The opportunities for linkages," she notes, "are phenomenal."
Phenomenal, too, is the idea that a simple greenway and river improvement plan could engender such support in dissension-racked Miami.
The secret is simple, and clear: creating a sense of a well-tended and loved place that connects a whole community.
Neal Peirce's e-mail address is nrp@citistates.com.
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