A relentless defender of Boulevard palms wins the big one

At first glance Sean-Paul Melito doesn’t look like a tree-hugger. There’s something about a man who wears a fedora that screams “street-smart” long before it does “activist.” So when you spot the friendly and loquacious 43-year-old hoofing it down Biscayne Boulevard, don’t assume he’s just another smooth-talking hustler. Melito is simply a guy enjoying a stroll among the gorgeous royal palms he helped save from the chainsaw.

Like many who have adopted Miami as their home, Melito would spend childhood vacations in South Florida. Even then, royal palms caught the eye of the young New York City native and would continue to amaze him after he relocated here, by way of San Francisco, in 2003. A couple years after making the move, though, he discovered that many of the beautiful palms he loved were slated for removal during the Florida Department of Transportation’s massive reconstruction of Biscayne Boulevard. The switch was part of former Mayor Manny Diaz’s “canopy campaign,” which sought to bring more shade trees to the city.

While no one denies that Miami could use more -- a lot more -- shade trees, the one street where the new vision seemed way off the mark was Biscayne Boulevard. This was the gateway that had welcomed millions of palm-seeking tourists for nearly a century. While not all royal palms would be eradicated, the plan was to intersperse them with live oaks and nondescript shrubbery. Live oaks are beautiful trees and, like the royals, they are native to South Florida. However, many believed these symbols of the Old South would detract from the tropical feel and uniqueness of Biscayne Boulevard, and that they’d also undermine the historic meaning behind the palm trees.

Just a couple months after the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 nearly wiped out the young city, Biscayne Boulevard opened to great fanfare. Armistice Day that year was filled with the usual solemn observances and festive parades that had marked the end of World War I over the previous eight years, but disaster-weary residents also ventured downtown to inaugurate what would become Miami’s grand thoroughfare.

Warren Manning, a nationally renowned landscape architect, designed both what was then known as “Bay Front Park” and the new boulevard with the expectation that generations would enjoy the distinctive landscaping. The “Big Blow” had ravaged the park, which only a year earlier had been created out of dredged bay bottom; the storm even stranded a number of ships on the boulevard itself. Downtown was cleaned up as best they could in time for the November 11 ceremonies.

A November 12 article in the Miami Herald that year describes how Biscayne Boulevard and its palms were dedicated to veterans of all wars. (It would later become an official part of the Blue Star Memorial Highway system.) Mayor Edward C. Romfh also declared a special Arbor Day would coincide with Armistice Day to help restore the beleaguered town. One newspaper photo shows a large United States map being filled with plants. The caption boasts that the depicted 48 states will “be kept green perpetually.” Sadly, that promise was not kept.

However, Melito set out to force the city to honor another arboreal obligation: keeping Biscayne Boulevard’s stately palms as a unique veterans’ memorial. Oddly enough, it was a January 2006 article from his hometown paper, the New York Times, that set Melito into motion. The piece reported on FDOT’s replacement plan, but what really riled Melito was Upper Eastside Miami Council member Robert Flanders’s description of the trees: They “look like telephone poles.” He could not let such an insult to Miami’s top symbol go unchallenged.

Melito noticed that Morningside community activist Elvis Cruz was featured in the same article. He felt an instant kinship with the perennial crusader and asked Cruz for advice on how to work the system to save the trees. After some research, Melito discovered their historic significance and knew where to focus his efforts for effectiveness. As he explains, “After all, Miami is so young. We have so little history. We must preserve what we have.”

With that sales pitch, he then collected signatures in favor of keeping the royal palms and presented them to Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, whose district encompasses the Boulevard. He also launched www.SavePalms.com in the meantime.

While it’s unlikely that any of the original trees planted are still alive, they have been repeatedly replaced so the same look has been maintained on the Boulevard for more than 80 years. BT contributor Jeff Shimonski believes “it is a shame to remove historical landscapes,” adding that the oaks “are great trees but we are planting too many of them.”

Melito’s efforts paid off when, on December 10, 2010, the Miami City Commission voted to designate Biscayne Boulevard as a “Scenic Transportation Corridor.” A number of private citizens and veterans spoke at the meeting in support of the palms. Their pleas were reinforced by more prominent Miamians: Becky Matkov, executive director of Dade Heritage Trust; Ellen Uguccione, Miami’s historic preservation officer; State Rep. James Bush III; and historian Arva Moore Parks.

It was made clear at the meeting that the live oaks and unidentified shrubs were inconsistent with the historic vision for the Boulevard. A week later, on December 17, Gus Pego, FDOT’s district secretary, informed state Sen. Dan Gelber that the official FDOT plan would be revised “to retain as many Royal Palms as possible and remove the shade trees and shrubs that were proposed.”

The victory was bittersweet, though, because the commission’s special designation and FDOT’s plan changes came much too late for the Boulevard construction work north of 36th Street. Today that stretch of roadway is lined with many fewer royal palms and many more oak trees. But the second phase of the project, south of 36th Street, is closer to downtown and thus more significant. There the royals will be preserved.

Now that Melito is part of the history he worked so hard to preserve, he says he hopes to continue his community activism, and perhaps add another feather to his cap. Or should that be another frond?

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