Miles of Urban Walkway

Landscape architect Charles Flink first arrived in Miami almost two decades ago to help design the Miami River Greenway, an urban path along the banks of the Miami River that runs from downtown Miami to the Civic Center.

Flink revisits the project in his new book, “The Greenway Imperative: Connecting Communities and Landscapes for a Sustainable Future,” featured in this year’s Miami Book Fair. He tells the greenway origin stories of communities as varied as Miami, Las Vegas and Grand Forks, North Dakota.

The Miami River Greenway presented unique problems, however, from the community’s lack of awareness of the river to the challenge of making the project relevant in a diverse, multicultural space. Via verde didn’t always resonate with residents, he recalls in the book.

Luckily, Flink started his project soon after the discovery of the Miami Circle, a roughly 2,000-year-old limestone formation constructed by Tequesta Indians on the banks of the Miami River.

“The Miami Circle catalyzed community action and drew attention to the river,” he said.

With community support, the site where a Tequesta village once stood was preserved as a public park and National Historic Landmark. The Trust for Public Lands hired Flink to connect the park to Miami with a greenway. 

“The Miami River is the most unique river in all of North America,” Flink said. “It’s just crazy, with the nuttiest mix of river uses. It’s a working river with residential areas, nightclubs and shipyards.”

Miami was named after its river, a relatively short and narrow waterway that winds through one of the nation’s most densely packed urban centers. Unfortunately, at the time the Miami Circle was discovered, the inaccessible river was largely forgotten. Riverside parks were empty. The river was dying, its waters dark and oily from decades of pollution, growing shallower and suffocating under an accumulation of toxic sediment. The river was a conduit for freighters, a cesspool for waste, a frequent crime scene and a marine business depot of boatyards and fish markets. But it was definitely not a destination.

The Miami River Greenway has changed that. Today, the Greenway is 65% complete, with 6.5 miles of walkways alongside parks, luxury condos and modest apartment buildings, as well as restaurants, historic sites, boatyards and marinas. It winds its way through Little Havana, Overtown, Spring Garden and a canyon of luxury towers on Brickell as it approaches Biscayne Bay.

It’s not contiguous or complete; access points aren’t always obvious but, where it exists, there is public access. Future segments await funding or private developers that will build sections abutting their property, according to the Miami River Commission, the nonprofit advocacy group that has spearheaded the greenway development.

As the city grows and development crowds the river banks, maintaining public access is key to holding onto the vision of a wide public walkway, Flink advised.

“In urban areas, there’s a temptation to hand over land to private developers,” he said. “But when you privatize river walks, it changes the entire fabric of your city.”

Flink would also like to see cities begin “connecting the dots” between sustainability and resilience by employing river parks. Creating living shorelines, for example, could help absorb floodwaters as sea level rises, create wildlife habitats and bring nature back.

In Arkansas, a 36-mile greenway is protected green space that doubles as a Monarch flyway, for example. Greenways can also connect biologically diverse landscapes and improve water quality.

“There’s a great level of awareness about the loss of biodiversity and how humans are contributing to the sixth extinction,” Flink said. “Greenways are a great way of getting involved and doing something about that in your own community. It lets you learn about nature in nature.” 

The Miami River is the city’s oldest natural landmark, though it’s now engulfed by a hardscape of asphalt and concrete. In spite of its environmentally distressed state, it is still a place of manatees and seagulls, trees and birdsong. And Miami Circle Park it is a great place to experience the life of an ancient river where the Tequesta once lived, a place with a connection to a much wilder, natural Miami that still lives in the roiling waters.

“The Greenway Imperative: Connecting Communities and Landscapes for a Sustainable Future” is one of several environmentally themed books being featured at Miami Book Fair Online, streaming free Nov. 15 – 22. Sign up at www.miamibookfaironline.com. 

Other environmental titles:

• “Poisoned Water: How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation” by Candy J. Cooper and Marc Aronson

• “Superman’s Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What We the People Can Do About It” by Erin Brockovich

• “Tossed to the Wind: Stories of Hurricane Maria” by Maria Padilla

• “Seeking the American Tropics: South Florida’s Early Naturalists” by James A. Kushlan

• “After Life as a Human,” stories of Florida’s remote Dog Island, by Laura Valeri

• “Words Whispered in Water: Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina” by Sandy Rosenthal

• “Under-Earth,” an apocalyptic graphic novel by Chris Gooch