Parks Vie For Space In Miami's Forest Of Condos

The skyline of the northern Brickell neighborhood in downtown Miami. Its residential population has more than doubled in the past decade.

Part I  

Part II 

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: And I'm Audie Cornish. And now to another addition of the NPR Cities Project.

(SOUNDBITE OF THEME)

CORNISH: Today, efforts to put more green space in urban areas. Many cities these days are trying to revive their downtowns, adding more places for people to live - apartments and condos; usually high-rises. Those city dwellers need places to get outside but neighborhood parks can be hard to find.

Kenny Malone, of member station WLRN, is standing by with a perfect example of this in downtown Miami, Florida. Hi there, Kenny.

KENNY MALONE BYLINE: Hi, Audie.

CORNISH: So we're talking about the quest for parkland. But the first thing I think when I think of Miami is beach. And isn't there plenty of access there people?

KENNY MALONE, BYLINE: We've got loads of beautiful beaches. There's no denying that but this is a different kind of outdoor recreation space. People go to the beach and they get exhausted. It's not the place where you want to play baseball. It's not the place where you want to go see an outdoor movie, necessarily. So what we're talking about is a different kind of green space, and not necessarily a tourist destination, but a place where the locals, for the residents.

CORNISH: And tell us where you are right now. You said you're in downtown Miami?

MALONE: I am standing in the Brickell neighborhood of downtown Miami and I'm the on the edge of a vacant plot of land, sun-bleached dirt. You have views of a couple of palm trees or two but for the most part, barren. And yet, park advocates say this could be the Central Park for the Brickell neighborhood. And that's important because Miami ranked 94th on a list of a hundred cities by the Trust Republic Land on park acreage per resident.

In Brickell it's even worse where people live in a condo forest. There are 30,000 residents here. It used to be a financial district that was a sort of must-have address for Latin American banks. It's become a residential hub. And it's raised an interesting paradox, that the more people who want to live here, the harder it is to make it livable in certain ways, for sure.

CORNISH: So what kind of effort is really out there to create places where people can get outside?

MALONE: Yeah. Well, there are varying efforts. Advocates say that parks are about quality of life, that they break up the monotony of a densely developed area and provide places for people to exercise or just a gathering spot. So what kind of park is part of the question. And to learn more about that I met with a guy who wants to see this very spot, where I'm standing, become a huge park.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Please hold on, the train is approaching. Fifth Street.

(SOUNDBITE OF A DOOR OPENING)

MALONE: Craig? Hey, man. I'm Kenny.

CRAIG CHESTER: Hey, nice to meet you.

MALONE: Good to meet you.

Craig Chester is a blogger and a part of a small group of park advocates called Brickell Green Space. Now we're looking down at that plot of empty plot of land from up high on a metro mover station. And behind us are 40 and 50-story condo towers, modern and sparkling white.

CHESTER: Until some of these giant condo buildings reach the end of their lifecycle, which will happen in my lifetime, this is really the last hurrah for undeveloped, raw, scrub parcel here in Brickell.

MALONE: The spot would be big enough for soccer fields, baseball fields, a full-sized dog park and a view of the Miami River. There's nothing like that in Brickell.

CHESTER: Yeah, I mean, I just love to come here after a day of work for a little bit of rest, an oasis, if you will, in the center of a very busy, bustling, vibrant place to live.

MALONE: Put me in Craig Chester's shoes 10 years from now. You get the park, what is Craig Chester using the park for?

CHESTER: Maybe there's live music in the band shell. Maybe there's a small urban farm where people are tending to some of their herb gardens or vegetables. Maybe there's a dog walk where people are running Spot and Fido around.

MALONE: Chester's group has a few hundred signatures on an online petition that supports a park in this location. It's next door to a billion-dollar mixed-use development that just broke ground. Maybe, he says, Brickell Green Space could convince that developer to buy up the vacant land and build a park. After all, he says, parks add value to neighboring real estate.

CHESTER: We feel like we could find some private interests to really make this happen. And it's not that unfathomable.

MALONE: From a hundred feet above, looking down, this would undoubtedly make a great park. But the view is a little bit different down on the ground here.

PETER ZALEWSKI: Unfortunately, you know, Miami is a frontier town where the dollars drive everything.

MALONE: Will you introduce yourself before we move on?

ZALEWSKI: Yeah. My name is Peter Zalewski. I founded a company in 2006 called Condo Vultures.

MALONE: Maybe you can explain why it's loud in the background. It's probably not the reason people would expect during a housing bust.

ZALEWSKI: We're standing under the shadow of a construction crane, which for the longest time was thought to be an extinct type of creature down here in south Florida. But it's suddenly re-emerged, just like the American bald eagle.

MALONE: Zalewski analyzes the real estate picture in south Florida and he offers this reality check: 11 more towers are slated to go up in downtown Miami. During the recession, foreign money has poured in and this lot, Zalewski says, was just purchased but not by developer Craig Chester was hoping for. It was snatched up by Colombian investors for $28 million.

ZALEWSKI: So, that's effectively $256 a square foot. And what does that mean in layman's terms? I wear a size 12 shoe...

MALONE: So, theoretically, if this were a park and Zalewski went for a stroll, he'd take a step, $256. Another step, $256.

ZALEWSKI: Two hundred and fifty-six dollars. I could not imagine a better park for greater downtown Miami than this site we're standing at right now. Unfortunately, for dogs to run around, and people to play Frisbee, and mothers to push their babies in strollers - just simply too expensive. It's not going to happen.

MARIA NARDI: Well, I don't think anything is often impossible.

MALONE: It may be possible but it's not in the county's park plan. Maria Nardi is with Miami-Dade County Parks and Rec. She brought me to a different, smaller potential park site in Brickell.

NARDI: We are adjacent to 7th Street, underneath the Metrorail. And this is an area that...

MALONE: In part because of the extraordinary cost of land in this area, the county is looking to make parks out of land they already control. In this case, that means directly under an elevated train, on a parcel that's only big enough for, say, a small amphitheater.

NARDI: And I mean, people playing the guitar. One person playing a guitar or reading a poem, whatever it might be.

MALONE: Let's go see one more site where there is a brand-new park, within the scope of what Brickell can afford.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHILDREN)

MALONE: I'm standing here with...

ILEANA NORTON: Ileana Norton.

MALONE: ...and...

MELISSA BARTOLINI: Melissa Bartolini.

MALONE: You're holding a 2-month-old.

BARTOLINI: I am, yes. (Foreign language spoken)

MALONE: And you're holding a 4-month-old.

NORTON: A 4-month-old Miles.

MALONE: Is that Miles?

(SOUNDBITE OF AN INFANT)

MALONE: You like this park?

We're a mile away from Craig Chester's vacant land at the opposite end of Brickell. This site took years to come together and $4 million, including a huge donation from a private developer.

What was it like before this park was here?

BARTOLINI: I think it was just an empty lot. Right, Ileana?

NORTON: Yeah.

BARTOLINI: Just an empty lot - just an ugly, empty lot.

MALONE: Now it's a small park. When I met Norton and Bartolini, they were standing in a post-modern playground where thee merry-go-round looks like a crash-landing UFO. They were chatting away like old friends when I butted in. But it turns out...

NORTON: We live in the building complex across the street, but just met here. So it's a nice - I think it will be a very nice way to meet people that, you know, you otherwise would not even know, living in your own building complex.

MALONE: This may be the reality for a place as expensive and densely developed as Brickell. When Miles and Santiago get big enough to swing from this jungle gym or spin around this crash-landing UFO, there's room for that here in Brickell. But when it's time for T-ball and peewee soccer, the boys will probably have to go in search of greener, bigger pastures.

At 1814 Brickell, Kenny Malone for the NPR Cities Project.

CORNISH: You can follow the Cities Project on Twitter @nprcities. And with Isaac bearing down on the Gulf Coast, we'll be discussing cities and the environment today in a Twitter roundtable discussion.

We've been covering the idea of resilient cities. We're joined on Twitter by several urban planning writers and experts. They've been thinking about how cities can prepare for environmental disasters and the effect of climate change.

Just follow the hash tag nprcities and tag your own tweets the same way. And if you're not on Twitter, you can see the conversation as it takes place at our website,

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