We need to tap into our “Spirit of Miami” to become more resilient | Opinion
Last month, former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre was presented a Lifetime Achievement award as an Urban Warrior by the Miami Center for Architecture & Design. Here is his acceptance speech:
The great American architect, Louis Kahn would ask his students at the school of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, “What does a brick want to be? What does an arch want to be?” He concluded that good buildings had a spirit. In creating spaces there was always a defined genius loci, the spirit of place.
It is time for this community to redefine Miami’s spirit of place.
Unlike London, New York and many other cities, Miami did not originate as a crossroads of commerce. Miami was and still remains a fluke.
We are here because Henry Flagler accepted Julia Tuttle’s offer for land in exchange for bringing the railroad from Palm Beach to Miami. That flawed decision by Flagler eventually took him into bankruptcy, especially after the Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC) was wiped out by the Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. Flagler wanted his FEC railroad to succeed. It did succeed as a real estate venture, but not as an operating railroad.
The incorporation of Miami, as a city 122 years ago, was done with very little good planning. Flagler’s engineers, at his instructions, laid out a skimpy Miami with narrow streets and even narrower than normal sidewalks. It was the attempt to create a seaport on the mainland of Miami that really was the radical change that made the Miami of today. Government Cut created Miami Beach and all of the spoil islands that are now so important to our community.
In other words what is today part of the beauty of Miami, Biscayne Bay, our Central Park, was created through the destruction of the mangroves that is now Miami Beach. What was once protected by sand dunes and mangroves is now under siege by nature. We are concerned that most of what has been built in Miami will also be under siege by nature within a mere 20 years.
Within 50 years, scientists warn that the oceans could rise as much as 6-feet. We must act immediately to mitigate global emissions to prevent a further warming of our climate by the projected nine degrees Fahrenheit. Some disruptive technology could be found between now and then that could save, maybe not Key Biscayne, but at least Brickell Avenue and a major portion of the downtown area.
This non-planning, thoughtless destruction of nature and its consequences still remains in our DNA. One of my main tasks, when I became Mayor in 1973, was to help establish new park areas along the embankment of land created by the dredging of Government Cut and the cut south to the Miami River. To do that, we had to begin with the demolition of the Miami Library and a popular outdoor amphitheater. Then came the demolition of the Miami Bayfront Auditorium. We added almost 17 acres of land, which is now Bayside.
Subsequently, the city of Miami started creating for the first time a Bayfront Master Plan.We have yet to conclude what the spirit of Miami is to be. Miami’s spirit lies in embracing her diversity and her density and incorporating it into planning for her infrastructure, mobility and growth, to create a resilient future.
Miami-Dade County has unbelievable powers under the Florida Constitution with Home Rule that have never been used. We must rediscover the governance powers of our Home Rule Charter.There have also been advancement in the rethinking of many of Miami-Dade’s basic planning issues under resiliency initiatives. Miami and Miami Beach have also joined in.
We are not alone in this quest. The city of Orlando issued a Request for Proposal for July 2019 to develop a “comprehensive and strategic Smart City Master Plan and Roadmap.” They start with an inventory of past planning efforts. In addition to its own Smart City Strategic Master Plan, Miami-Dade should join Broward and Palm Beach to do a regional assessment. It’s time for a truly encompassing Smart City Strategic Master Plan to literally lift up our community.
Maurice Ferre is a former Mayor of Miami.