MIAMI – Residents gathered near Miami’s Morningside Park on Wednesday to oppose a new redevelopment plan, saying it destroys vital green space and trees.
The project, known as the Morningside Park Shoreline Improvements, officially broke ground on Wednesday. However, some residents near the park, located in the neighborhood of the same name in the city’s Upper Eastside area, feel the project is not what they expected and are questioning whether it will change.
“This is gorgeous — why would you want to screw this up?” asked longtime Morningside resident Elvis Cruz.
Cruz and others are protesting the nearly $17 million planned Morningside Park upgrade. He calls it a bait-and-switch.
“Here’s the before, here’s the after,” Cruz said. “You’ll notice that the after keeps the median — it keeps the trees intact, and it puts the baywalk where the baywalk already is, with the seawall next to it, but they didn’t do that. They changed it.”
James Torres, president of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance, referred to the project as “unnecessary overdevelopment.”
“At the end of the day, the issue here is the integrity of this park,” Torres said. He is calling for the park project to be paused.
However, Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo said the project will not be paused and suggested the protest is political.
“There is nothing new here,” Pardo said. “The plan in 2021, well before I came into office, already had a 15-foot baywalk — that is the code in the city of Miami.”
Pardo emphasized the goal of climate resiliency to prevent the park from flooding. He mentioned that a tree study was conducted and said while some trees will be removed, they will be replaced and additional trees will be planted.
“We’ve already done all the talking and all the processing and all the forums and all the surveys and all the polls — we’ve been doing that work for years, and intensively, the last three months,” Pardo said. “We know that this community wants to see progress, number one, and good communication, number two.”
The construction fence will block access to the bayside section of the park for the next year and a half, the expected duration of the construction.