Brandishing signs reading “Don't take the bribe” and “Don't ruin our bay views,” residents threw a monkey wrench into a carefully planned news conference led by City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
Suarez and The Nature Conservancy announced a new project on Jan. 27 to strengthen a stretch of shoreline along Biscayne Bay against the impacts of climate change such as floods, shoreline erosion, pollution and sea-level rise.
Bianca Marcof for Biscayne Times
Temperince Morgan, executive director of The Nature Conservancy, told protestors the project would serve the community.
“There are some that believe that Miami will be completely underwater,” said the mayor. “There are some that believe we’re going to have to retreat or that there’s going to have to be a retreat strategy where people are actually going to have to abandon their homes and start moving inland, and we’re not going to allow that to happen. Whatever the technology is, whatever the final improvements become, my guarantee to the people of Miami is that we will not do nothing.”
Bianca Marcof for Biscayne Times
City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez announcing a climate resilience project in partnership with The Nature Conservancy.
The “bribe” accusation leveled by demonstrators refers to a $400,000 grant awarded by the Chubb Charitable Foundation to the city and TNC to design nature-based solutions to protect Morningside Park and the surrounding neighborhood. The announcement follows two years of collaboration with the environmental agency that’s been dedicated to implementing natural solutions to reduce risk from coastal hazards.
Sea-level rise is not in dispute, so why such strong opposition? The devil is in the details. Lead protester and unhappy resident Elvis Cruz explained that the news conference was the first time the plan was publicly revealed without prior community meetings to receive input from homeowners. According to him, the grant effort was initiated months before the public found out about it by a whistleblower.
Cruz believes a three-foot-wide seawall should be put in place instead of the planned 60-foot-wide berm topped by a coastal habitat, because the former wouldn’t block the waterfront recreational green space residents enjoy. And it would still meet the goal of the plan: Protecting the park from storm surge and the rising sea level.
“We don’t want to lose visibility across the park and we don’t want to lose recreational space,” he said. “We need some sort of vertical barrier – the concrete seawall – that they spoke so poorly of even though they’ve been installing them all over town, that is the lesser of two evils. It’s only three feet wide as opposed to 60 feet wide.”
On TNC’s website, conceptual drawings depict a potential project restoration plan that would strategically plant mangroves and native vegetation along the water’s edge, adding a “vegetated berm to decrease flood risk to the park and surrounding community.” There is no specificity as to the size of the berm.
Alan Dodd, the city’s chief resilience officer, said Miami hasn’t settled on a final design yet. It’s entered into an agreement to start a design process that addresses higher elevation with more green elements, possibly mangrove trees and features that would not include concrete.
Suarez and District 2 City Commissioner Ken Russell tried to address residents' concerns in the moment.
“It’s a community conversation that, as you can see by some of my good friends who are here in the audience, is not one that is easy to settle,” said Suarez. “There are a variety of different voices on how to best achieve the goal and those voices are important. And those voices need to be heard and incorporated into the designs of how we make sure that we create a Miami that’s here forever.”
Bianca Marcof for Biscayne Times
“This plan is not complete,” said District 2 City Commissioner Ken Russell at the protest. “And the community will be included as this plan moves forward.”
“I’ll call these neighbors park activists proudly, because that’s what I was before I ran for office,” said Russell. “They want this done right and they’re concerned that the current plan is not my promise to them. And as I stand here with the mayor, this plan is not complete and the community will be included as this plan moves forward.”
Russell added that those opposed to the project have made their point clear and he was sure everyone will ultimately land on the same page after the city works more closely with residents to finalize a design.
Cruz said he hasn't met with the mayor yet, but has spoken to Russell. Both agree that some sort of vertical barrier is needed to protect the park from bay flooding, but disagree on how best to do that. For now, said Cruz, they “agree to disagree.”
“It is my belief that a strong majority of area residents would not want their view and recreational open space harmed as much as it would be by the plan,” he said.
Last year, thousands of fish in the Biscayne Bay were found dead, the result of low oxygen conditions. Weeks later, high water temperature, low tides and dissolved oxygen caused severe algae blooms in north Biscayne Bay.
Bianca Marcof for Biscayne Times
A view of Biscayne Bay by the boat ramp at Morningside Park.
There's no doubt that multiple issues, including pollution, are plaguing our waterways as reported by the Biscayne Times for years, most recently in our November cover story “A Dying Biscayne Bay.”
Losing a $400,000 grant would be a wasted opportunity the city is unlikely to risk. The rough start will need smoothing over to achieve the desired result.