Morningside Park Revamp in Pitched Battle

On any given bright and sunny day, Morningside Park is teeming with families enjoying picnics with panoramic vistas of Biscayne Bay. Workout warriors go through their paces on the soccer field and basketball, tennis and beach volleyball courts. Nature lovers stroll through the 42-acre green space’s menagerie of trees and plants, including a patch that contains 126 species of palms from around the world. Trucks hauling small boats weave through the park’s winding loop road to a ramp offering one of the few public places in the city to launch a vessel.

But when torrential storms or a king tide roll through, the City of Miami-owned public park can turn into an impassable swamp for days.

Three months ago, city planners unveiled a significant revamp for the property that proponents, led by U.S. Senate Democratic primary contender and Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell, believe will solve the beloved park’s flooding problems, mitigate the impact of sea-level rise and relocate a public pool that has sat empty since 2016 due to neglect. The pool has also been a source of contention among warring factions of neighbors, some of whom have been accused of racism because they support moving or eliminating the public amenity altogether.

Completed in 1953, Morningside Park’s pool had been the most accessible community pool for residents from less affluent neighborhoods like Little Haiti and Liberty City.

On Feb. 10, the Miami City Commission will vote on a resolution sponsored by Russell to rescind a previous decision prohibiting the relocation of the pool to another area of the park. He told the Biscayne Times that moving the pool is a lynchpin of the city’s proposed master plan for renovating the park.

“If we don’t [rescind the previous resolution], then I don’t see how this pool ever gets rebuilt,” he said. “It is not only more expensive to rebuild it in the same location, but it is also impractical to have the pool on the water’s edge. Why should we expose it in such a direct way to future storm surges if it is not absolutely necessary?”

Loud & Angry Disagreements

On Nov. 28, 2021, 70-80 people came to the Morningside Park’s community center at 5215 NE 7th Ave. for a 55-slide PowerPoint presentation by staffers from the City of Miami Parks & Recreation Department and the Office of Capital Improvements. Russell and Miami City Commission Chairwoman Christine King were in attendance.

According to city staff, tearing down the existing pool facility and rebuilding it in the same location would cost more than 51% of the current structure’s value, as it would need to be built at a higher elevation since it’s located in a flood zone. They say it would be much cheaper to place a new pool at a different location, specifically, closer to the park’s baseball field and courts on the north side.

During a December Zoom meeting of the Morningside Civic Association, master plan critics viciously clashed with board members over their vote to support the city’s efforts. Opponents doubt the pool will actually be rebuilt in another location if the previous resolution is rescinded. They also questioned other aspects of the proposed plan aimed at combating the threat of rising seas.

Elvis Cruz, a historic activist who has lived in Morningside for 44 years, told the Biscayne Times that a majority of the park’s users don’t believe it needs a huge redesign. The proposed master plan would ruin what the public loves about it, he added.

“The redesign effort began as a racist attempt to eliminate the basketball court, the pool and the loop road,” Cruz said. “The park just needs better maintenance and a seawall along the shoreline. New facilities can be added without disrupting or losing what we have.”

To address flooding and sea-level rise, the city proposes the creation of a living shoreline that would incorporate existing oolite limestone blocks acting as a breakwater. Rows of coastal plans would slope upward to a new six-foot seawall to further slow the flow of ocean water onto land. The presentation also showed mangroves acting as a buffer, but that component of the plan has since been removed.

The city also is calling for eliminating a portion or most of the two-lane loop road near the entrance closest to the bay. It would be replaced by a 15-foot-wide paved baywalk atop a berm elevated by roughly four feet of soil above the existing ground level. To accomplish that, a six-foot-wide walking path with trees that provide shade for picnics must be removed. The road winds around the park providing users with easy access to parking and picnic sites with grills.

Removal of a palmetum, a grove of 189 palms near the middle section of the park, is also stipulated. The city plans to finance the makeover with funds from the Miami Forever Bond and federal American Rescue Plan stimulus money. The Nature Conservancy, which supports the proposed master plan, has committed a $400,000 grant to the project.

An Increasing Sense of Urgency

Russell told the Biscayne Times that he trusts the professionals from the parks and capital improvement departments working on the master plan are providing the best possible solutions to fixing Morningside Park’s pool and flooding dilemmas.

“They don’t have a dog in the fight,” he said. “They are making decisions based on their expertise on park layout that will make [Morningside Park] the safest, most enjoyable amenity for residents.”

The science shows that relocating the pool a couple of hundred yards makes sense, he added. He also noted that eliminating the pool from its existing location would open up sight lines to Biscayne Bay.

Morningside Civic Association leaders agree with him. At a Dec. 7, 2021, Miami City Commission meeting, several of the association’s board members gave the Morningside Park master plan their seal of approval. Rachel Furst, the association’s president, said its board passed a resolution supporting the city’s plan.

“It’s [42] acres on the bay that needs investment,” she said. “We have watched as other parks have been improved and renovated. It is time for Morningside Park to get some attention before it is under water.”

Neil Robertson, another association board member, said the new shoreline would improve drainage and defend against sea-level rise. He also claimed the shuttered pool was a “public hazard” and “mosquito breeding ground” that “wastes at least an acre of public land.”

“I often have to pick my way around soggy ground,” Robertson said. “You can’t have a family picnic in a pond.”

Russell told the Biscayne Times that there’s absolutely a sense of urgency to start moving on the park’s improvements.

“Other neighborhoods have moved forward with resilience plans for their parks while Morningside has fallen behind because of this internal conflict in the community,” he said. “Morningside has languished. We have to make the hard decisions that not everyone is going to be happy about.”

Seeking Transparency & Understanding

During a mid-December afternoon surveying Morningside Park, Cruz again opined that the proposed master plan goes against the will of the majority of people who use the park.

“They want to remove or harm existing amenities the public has enjoyed since 1953, for no good reason,” he said. “Are they trying to purposely suppress the public’s use and enjoyment of the park? That’s what this plan would do. It’s wicked, sinful and a horrendous waste of tax money.”

Cruz is not dealing in hyperbole. In a 2017 survey of park users by the Morningside Civic Association, a majority of the 150 respondents favored improving bay views and waterfront access. However, 61% said they opposed building a new pool in a different location and 58% said they preferred to keep the current mix of open field and athletic uses, as well as leaving the loop road as is. A year later, a grassroots group of Upper Eastside residents submitted to the city clerk a petition to keep Morningside Park the way it is that was signed by 2,100 people. 

Eileen Bottari, who lives in Historic Palm Grove in the Upper Eastside, agrees that Morningside Park does not need a major overhaul as shown in the proposed master plan. She attended the November meeting

at the community center.

“There was a strong majority of people that have told the city that they want the pool repaired and restored to its former glory,” she said. “They did a straw poll because Russell wanted to see who was in favor of eliminating the loop road and everyone was in favor of keeping [it].”

Bottari says residents want to maintain the historic integrity of the park and don’t want to place a wide cement path across it.

“People say it’s not necessary,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with the roads.”

Other residents also voiced their displeasure with the master plan and a perceived lack of public input during the December Zoom board meeting of the Morningside Civic Association. Morningside homeowner Doug Broeker said the association should hold a public forum where supporters and opponents could share all the facts and attempt to reach a compromise.

“Let everybody speak their mind,” he said. “But also work toward understanding what the issues are.”

Lisa Marion, another homeowner in Morningside, said she was not happy with the plan and the way it has been presented.

“I think the plan needs more work,” she said. “I am very disappointed ... we did not have a neighborhood meeting to discuss it. I am hoping we can move into 2022 in a more positive manner.”

Rene Contreras, the association board member running the meeting, dismissed the criticisms. He said the city already presented its plan during the public meeting in November.

“Either we support the city and get this fixed or this will never happen,” he said. “Since I moved here in 2019, nothing has happened.”

This story has been updated from its original posting to correct the date and number of individuals who responded to a Morningside Civic Association survey about Morningside Park.