Finding your place among the butterflies in Miami’s most unlikely park

If you plant, they will come.

The butterflies arrived first, drawn to the 30,000 wildflowers and bushes growing under the pillars of the Miami-Dade Metrorail line in Brickell. Then the ballet dancers, who found their footing on a green stage, dancing to salsa and Irving Berlin tunes.

“Did they install the butterflies too?” asked Miami City Ballet dancer Bradley Dunlap, who choreographed the dances that were part of the first public performance held in the “Brickell Backyard” of the new Underline linear park.

Actually, the butterflies, like the people, just came on their own. As soon as the construction fences were removed, the first half-mile of the project sprung to life, in a park created on former “dead space” under an elevated train line.

Along the landscaped paths, moms push strollers as skateboarders and bicyclists glide by. By nightfall, commuters exiting trains hustle home or stroll to meet dinner dates.

Residents can play on new basketball courts, rollerblade and just hang out where The Underline meets the Miami River as it flows toward Biscayne Bay. And at the other end of the half-mile segment, there’s a different place to linger – the “Oolite Room,” where milkweed grows amid the exposed rock ridge of underground Miami. Seating options include chunky squares of limestone laid out like a tropical Stonehenge.

“What everyone really asked for from The Underline was nature,” said Meg Daly, founder and president of the nonprofit Friends of The Underline. In more than six years of community feedback, a plea for flowers and native plants – greenery – always came through; so much so she even made the benches and bike racks green.

“Everything we’re doing here is about creating community,” Daly added. She’s delighted the new park has brought vibrancy back to an abandoned area.

Nowadays, she experiences a renaissance of activity outside her office windows. In one moment, a skateboarder might whiz by, or a bike rider, dog or little girl who has recommissioned the bike racks as a jungle gym.

“This is just one big experiment,” Daly says. “But in everything we do here, our focus is community.”

Or communities. As the path unrolls, so does the choice of activities along a promenade that features a half basketball court and fitness equipment, a dog-friendly patch and low, undulating walls that children have claimed as balance beams. A seawall over the Miami River has become an observation deck, where you can sit, letting your feet dangle over the water.

No one knows how the native coontie, yellow tickseed or red salvia wildflowers will survive, or how people will use the space. Or when. Experimentation is part of The Underline’s charm.

It’s a 24-hour operation, patrolled and cleaned by security and maintenance staff, and lit with LED and solar lights that create a safe space at night.

The build-out of the 10-mile, 120-acre, wheelchair-accessible Underline is expected to cost $140 million and be completed by 2025. The continuous path will run from the Miami River under the Metrorail line to South Miami. A combination of federal, state and local funds, including transportation and park impact fees, were cobbled together to finance it. Additional funds for maintenance will be raised from private donors.

Community and partner organizations will provide health and fitness programming, performances and even volunteers for weeding and planting the landscaped borders.

Although the inspiration for The Underline was the New York City High Line, an oasis created atop an elevated train track, the Miami project will have its own take, influenced by our environmental conditions and unique time in history in the face of climate change.

“I believe there will be an environmental return on the investment with carbon offsets,” says Daly. Why drive and burn fossil fuels when you can walk or bike the first and last mile on The Underline and get to your destination via transit in between, she mused.

There’s a lot of hype about this place, which has been described as: “transformational,” “defining” and “singular.” Daly hopes The Underline can serve as a catalyst to transform other areas of the city, including the north track of the Metrorail line. An Underline 2.0 or 3 or 4? Each should be different, designed to meet the needs and whimsy of the communities they serve, she said. Across the river, for example, The Underline 2.0 may evolve as a necklace of community parks instead of a continuous path.

“I hope this project catalyzes a lot of good stuff,” Daly said. “Everything here is intentional but we don’t know how people will behave, how they’ll connect.”

She looks forward to finding out.

“I love humanity. I love our creativity,” Daly said.

And that may be the essence of every successful public space – a place where everyone feels welcome and free to be themselves, even in the most unlikely place for a park, under a train line.

The Underline is a public-private partnership between Miami-Dade County Transportation and Public Works; Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces; and Friends of The Underline. For additional project information, visit the Friends of The Underline page at TheUnderline.org.