Historically Black Miami neighborhood’s bid for cityhood stalled by outdated map
Two years after staving off annexation, residents who want to see Brownsville become a city have hit a snag as it turns out parts of the historically Black neighborhood are not included within the boundaries of the area being studied to incorporate.
When the North Central Dade Municipal Advisory Committee was established in 2002 to explore creating a new municipality, the proposed map did not include much of Brownsville. When commissioners voted in 2025 to reestablish the advisory committee, the same map was adopted.
Brownsville Civic Association president Kenneth Kilpatrick said that when the advisory committee was first established, Brownsville residents had no interest in incorporating. That changed in 2023, when they learned a portion of their community would potentially be annexed into Hialeah.
While the advisory committee voted at its first meeting on July 29 to extend the boundaries to include all of Brownsville, Kilpatrick said the decision was a recommendation that must be approved by the Miami-Dade Board of Commissioners.
Now, residents of Brownsville have two options: They can submit a certified petition signed by 20 percent of electors within the neighborhood that are in favor of being added to the map, Kilpatrick told the Herald, citing a county ordinance on incorporation procedure.
The other option is to ask Districts 2 and 3 commissioners to cede their corresponding areas into the incorporation efforts, Kilpatrick said. Commissioner of District 2, Marleine Bastien is hosting a town hall to discuss the issue with constituents on Thursday at the Arcola Lakes Senior Center at 8401 NW 14th Avenue.
The Herald reached out to both Bastein and District 3 commissioner Keon Hardemon for comment, but Bastien’s office did not make her available for comment and Hardemon’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
What is included and what is not
Brownsville, which has more than 16,000 residents, has landmarks such as the Historic Hampton House, Georgette’s Tea Room House, Lincoln Memorial Cemetery and Marshall Davis African Heritage Cultural Arts Center. Its boundaries span 62nd Street to the north, State Road 112 to south, the Hialeah boundary to its west, and 19th Avenue to its east.
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Only a small portion of Brownsville — a section from 54th and 62nd streets between and 27th Avenue and the Hialeah border— is included in the existing boundary for the study, Kilpatrick said. Without extending the boundary, the same area that was under threat of annexation by Hialeah in 2023 remains at risk. At the time, Hialeah’s plan called for annexation of 0.24 square miles that included two trailer parks and an industrial area. Hialeah eventually backed off of the effort.
That attempted incursion by Hialeah into Brownsville mobilized the Brownsville Civic Association and three other communities to reignite incorporation efforts by petitioning the county commission to reinstate the advisory committee, which they did in January 2025. Since then, the Little River Farms and North Shore communities, which were within the boundaries of the proposed area, have joined in the effort. The advisory committee has held several meetings to explore the incorporation process and what it means for residents.
‘It gives you your own voice’
During a meeting of the advisory committee on Wednesday, more than two dozen residents who attended were in support of adding Brownsville in its entirety to the boundary map.
Some, like Samuel Williams, expressed frustration with the idea of still being vulnerable to annexation because the map doesn’t include all of the historic Black neighborhood.
“I’m concerned we’ll have a situation like Overtown or Little Haiti, where our culture, or a little of the history that helped shape Brownsville will get wiped away, unacknowledged or misused by municipalities that may not have our best interest,” said Brownsville resident Samuel Williams.
Yvette McLeod, a Brownsville resident who lives in the area that was nearly annexed and has been a staunch advocate for incorporating, said her concern is if the area remains unincorporated, their tax dollars will continue to go toward things that benefit other neighborhoods.
McLeod also emphasized the urgency of incorporating and said that many people get the wrong message about what becoming a city means.
“You have to educate yourself on what incorporation is about,” McLeod said. “It gives you your own voice. It gives you your voice within your city, that you can grow and expand your city. But when you don’t have a voice, you don’t have nothing.”
“We have a lot of seniors…we want to make sure that they get the best services that they have paid for,” Brownsville resident AJ McCullough said at the meeting. “We pay a lot of taxes and we don’t always get the best services.”
Despite her frustration that residents have to complete a petition, McCullough said it doesn’t deter her from pursuing cityhood. “It gives you a boost and a push to fight for what you know is right, and we just have to always fight for ourselves,” she said.
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An online petition has been launched with the hopes it will get traction. “We’re still planning for the actual ground game to see if we can get something established and moving,” Kilpatrick said.
But getting a petition signed will be tough, said Kilpatrick.
“We’ve been pushing back and saying, [a petition] costs money, that’s expensive, and we’re concerned about folks not wanting to answer the door because of the environment,” Kilpatrick said “There’s ICE and all this kind of stuff. What happens if they don’t answer? But for us, the most important aspect of it is we can’t afford it.”
