Kicking off a panel discussion on what will happen when Cuba opens up, Pedro A. Freyre, a Cuban-born Miami attorney, cited lyrics from the old Bette Midler tune: ``Only in Miami is Cuba so far away.''

Freyre, an attorney at Akerman Senterfitt law firm, told a meeting of the Urban Land Institute in Miami Beach on Thursday that Cuban Americans have been ''waiting 50 years,'' but change is in the air. Most visibly, of course, Fidel Castro has yielded the presidency to his brother Raúl.

''The thing about Cuba that excites me is you feel that potential,'' Freyre said. ``I've never been to a place with so much pent-up energy.''

So what will happen when Cuba opens up? Panelists tackling the well-worn topic from diverse professional perspectives predicted change will likely come in unpredictable and incremental ways.

Frozen in time, the city of Havana with its tattered architectural treasures is well positioned to emerge as a 21st-century city that is free of sprawl, said panelist Andres Duany, a principal of Duany, Plater-Zyberk & Co., a Miami architectural firm. He lived in Cuba until age 10 and has returned to the island numerous times.

Poverty, ironically, has kept a wealth of colonial buildings from wrecking balls in Cuba. Although many of the islands' structures are decrepit, they remain standing, Duany said. And scarce automobile travel and a centralized government that controls where people live have kept the island largely free of sprawling suburbs disdained by urban planners.

''Cuba can be retrofitted into the 21st century,'' Duany said. ``It has the possibility of leaping ahead to the 21st century.''

Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund, a New York-based group focused on architectural preservation, expressed frustration the U.S. trade embargo has prohibited her group from pursuing projects to protect the island's many irreplaceable architectural jewels.

''This is something that is viewed [by the U.S. government] as something that would benefit Cuba in a direct way,'' Burnham said. ``We would hope for reconsideration.''

To Jorge A. Sanguinetty, president of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy in Washington, D.C., Cuba holds ''tremendous economic opportunity because of 50 years of accumulated need.'' Housing stands out as a primary need among the island's more than 11 million residents.

Still, the focus on lifting the U.S. embargo misses a key point, he added: The Cuban regime's tight economic controls are a kind of ``internal embargo.''

''You can't do anything on your own in Cuba, unless the government approves it or orders you to do it,'' said Sanguinetty, who served in the Cuba government before leaving the island in 1966.

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@