North Miami’s only bayfront park is awash in garbage

This park is pretty. This park is also pretty ugly. Let me explain. Any park on Biscayne Bay enjoys a privileged position, and this one peers from its relatively modest perch in the City of North Miami across the causeway toward one the wealthiest communities in the nation. The island of Indian Creek Village ranks number eight among the highest-income places in the U.S., as of the 2000 census.

Anyone who has driven east over the Broad Causeway, where NE 123rd Street mutates into 96th Street and the Bay Harbor Islands, has seen Indian Creek and its lush golf course and impossibly large mansion. Reverse the direction across the bridge, back toward the economic reality of NoMi, and take the first left to arrive at North Bayshore William Lehman Park.

This small patch of green features mature mangroves and other fine shade trees, but its primary draw was destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Wilma. The long wooden fishing dock and walkway that used to snake into the bay has been reduced to a cramped outlook in one corner. People still come here to fish, but no longer are they surrounded by water on all sides.

What they are surrounded by is not so pretty. Looking down from the dock into the water, you see a slightly submerged but fully visible wooden plank, perhaps ten feet or more in length, that appears to be part of the former over-the-water walkway. Although the City of North Miami spent $28,000 this year to clean up the remnants of the destroyed walkway, it looks like they missed a large chunk.

Surrounding this plank is a grotesque collection of floating garbage.

Where did all this litter come from? It appears that most of it washed ashore from the bay, which means it could have come from anywhere in the bay or the ocean. Except for the submerged piece of walkway, the litter speaks as a general indictment of the pollution in Miami’s waterways. It’s gross, and it places North Miami officials in a dilemma.

They have been responsible to the larger environment by maintaining the mangroves at the shoreline instead of clearing them to obtain open vistas. But the trees’ tangled roots are all tangled up in trash. It’s a Baynanza 911 emergency! (Baynanza is Miami-Dade County’s annual volunteer cleanup of Biscayne Bay, although it does not typically address small parks.)

North Miami’s capital-improvement plan includes restoration of the park’s walkway, but those funds may not be released until 2013. In the meantime, a clean-up crew is needed to address the shoreline’s litterama.

The skeleton of the boardwalk remains in place, and this collection of concrete beams just above the water gives the impression that an art installation is taking shape. Sitting atop one of the beams closest to shore is a lone coconut.

The landside portion of the park offers about as much as one could expect in a small space. The nicest element is the shade offered by mature trees. Another nice touch is the doggie-bag dispenser that actually contains bags.

Curiously, the park has two entrance signs of two different designs, standing on either side of a small parking lot. One appears to be the more standard NoMi sign in off-white with green trim, whereas the other features white letters against rustic, dark timber bound by rope. Both are attractive, but the timber-rope assemblage is more quirky.

Another quirk is the square concrete slab in the middle of the grass. Perhaps it served as the floor of a previous pavilion, but now it looks lonely. It could use a picnic bench and a colorful umbrella as a pick-me-up.

The park’s size makes it a neighborhood amenity, although its location on the bay makes it a rarity worthy of a pit stop. Unfortunately, construction along 123rd Street makes getting there a chore, and one element on the street makes it nearly impossible.

The sidewalk between the park and 123rd Street comes to an abrupt dead end inside a traffic barrier, just before the causeway begins. This situation is unfortunate, as safe strolls along the causeway should be encouraged. Instead this obstacle course requires a hop over the traffic barrier, and anyone on wheels or with any impairment of movement will be stuck.

Despite such drawbacks, the name of the late Congressman William Lehman is not disgraced here. But there is a lesson for every visitor young and old. Do not throw your trash in the water. Do not think that a little trash in the big ocean will disappear. No, it doesn’t disappear. It becomes vomit on our shoreline.

This little park with the big name, North Bayshore William Lehman Park, needs some TLC. A storm quickly destroyed the park’s boardwalk, and now its shoreline is slowly choking to death. The boardwalk can be rebuilt, but the polluted water under it is more like Humpty Dumpty. It’s not chipped. It’s not cracked.

It’s shattered.

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