As Miami Grand Prix begins, Miami Gardens residents still split on race and noise

Cousins Janice Marshall and Suzanne Eshun are split on Formula One’s debut in the Miami area.

They live on opposite sides of the Florida Turnpike, their homes within three miles of Hard Rock Stadium. A die-hard F1 fan, Eshun couldn’t wait to attend her first race. Marshall, on the other hand, was preparing for the worst, cautious after two decades of living near the stadium.

“I had a concert at my home in my backyard” during Jazz in the Gardens at Hard Rock Stadium, said Marshall, referring to the city’s staple event from March. “I sang along with every Mary J. Blige song. It was like I had a concert here in the backyard.”

As Miami Grand Prix weekend begins, there’s still not a consensus among residents of Miami Gardens, where the race is taking place. Traffic along with potential noise and air pollution remain concerns for some, while others, like Eshun and her husband Gabby, remain focused on the positive aspects of the nearby event.

“The stadium is a place that has events all the time,” Gabby said. “It’s not like they’re bringing something completely different.”

“It will generate money for the city,” Eshun added.

SEE PHOTO GALLERY: Miami Grand Prix Day 1

The Miami Grand Prix wasn’t always supposed to be in Miami Gardens. Initially, the race was planned for Downtown Miami — that is, until residents disrupted plans for a track along Biscayne Boulevard. The race was subsequently moved to Hard Rock Stadium where it faced further opposition from Miami Gardens residents. Several lawsuits were filed, with a judge most recently ruling not to block the race over concerns about noise.

“It is not based on any current Formula One noise information,” Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Alan Fine said in late April.

Fine did allow for representatives of both the residents and the stadium to conduct their own noise measurements to potentially assist their future arguments. Brenda Martin-Providence, a Miami Gardens resident and frequent critic of the race, told the Miami Herald that she’s taking the “wait and see” approach when it comes to the race.

“We are doing what the judge says,” Martin-Providence added. She wasn’t aware of any plans to protest the race.

With practice beginning Friday at 2:30 p.m., residents had their first opportunity to hear how loud the cars can get. Inside Marshall’s home, located just under a mile from the stadium, there wasn’t much of a change in sound before and after practices began, according to measurements taken on the Decibel X app. The app showed a slight increase from 42.2 to 43.7 decibels after the trials started. Marshall was surprised.

“I hear more from the turnpike highway where people are doing Formula One-like racing with their own cars,” Marshall quipped. “If it stays like this, it’s not going to be as much of a headache.”

By 6 p.m., however, something had changed.

“The noise level has definitely increased,” Marshall said in a text. “I give it a 1-2 when you were here. Now a 6.”

There’s no way to know how loud the race will actually be until Sunday when it will take place. Some residents were also concerned about traffic as more than a quarter of a million people are expected to participate in the weekend’s festivities.

This story was originally published May 6, 2022 at 6:43 PM.

C. Isaiah Smalls II

Miami Herald

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C. Isaiah Smalls II is a sports and culture writer who covers the Miami Dolphins. In his previous capacity at the Miami Herald, he was the race and culture reporter who created The 44 Percent, a newsletter dedicated to the Black men who voted to incorporate the city of Miami. A graduate of both Morehouse College and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Smalls previously worked for ESPN’s Andscape.