Over the past two years, two major projects took shape in Morningside, aiming to address critical community concerns: restoring the tree canopy and enhancing public safety. Initially led by key neighborhood advocates, both efforts took unexpected and increasingly controversial turns once the City of Miami began to take control of their planning and direction.
In a neighborhood that serves as an oasis amid city life, where trees are central to its character, both projects placed those very trees on the chopping block, threatening the removal of healthy canopy cherished by the community for decades.
Recent updates on these projects reveal the city’s troubling resistance to protecting its tree canopy and pursuing environmentally resilient solutions that balance sustainability with the consensus of the impacted community.
Abandoned Medians
A project to revitalize Morningside’s long-neglected medians, while preserving the resilient trees they’ve sustained for decades, was initially set in motion by dedicated community leaders. But when the city took over, sidelining local input and bypassing formal processes, the effort unraveled as a failure.
In 2016, Sandy Moise, a community leader and member of the Morningside Civic Association’s Tree and Medians Committee, conducted a detailed assessment of the neighborhood’s medians and trees on behalf of concerned residents. She found years of neglect and damage caused by city maintenance. Tree trunks were hurt by weed whackers, roots were cut by mowers, and trees were left exposed because of erosion and poor landscaping. After nearly 30 years, the medians were mostly bare, with weeds replacing grass and tree roots left unprotected.
“Several of us were concerned about the way the city’s ground maintenance was harming the trees,” said Moise, “We’ve seen lawnmowers run into them, knock them sideways, or slant them, and they never straightened back up.”
With clear evidence of the issue, Moise kickstarted a neighbor-led effort to upgrade four Morningside Avenue medians with native, shade-tolerant plants that act as barriers to protect the trees on the medians. She also wanted to convert the medians into ecological habitats that support the local wildlife.
“We wanted to make sure native plants provided pollinators for bees, leaves for caterpillars, and some berries for birds,” she said, and added how native plants provide a longer root system that helps absorb water and mitigate flooding. They also serve to filter glutens and toxins from stormwater before they enter the bay.
Moise also emphasized that native shade-tolerant plants are low-maintenance because they require minimal to no care, fertilizer or pesticide and can survive during the dry season.
“We took it a step further and researched plants that are on the state’s endangered and threatened list and encouraged the incorporation of some of these plants so it could also have a conservation purpose,” said Moise.
Getting the City of Miami to collaborate took many years, until finally, in 2018, they responded by stating that the medians would need to be adopted and cared for by locals to upgrade them, said Moise.
Nearly nine years later, after building community partnerships, securing agreements, and presenting the design plan twice to the Morningside Civic Association, the project was finally moving forward. However, during a meeting intended to gather community feedback on the project’s final presentation, the city's landscape architect revealed plans to remove trees, even those in healthy condition, to allow more sunlight to reach the medians, as they were planning to incorporate non-native plants.
“We clearly communicated that no healthy trees should be removed, only trees that might be dead or damaged,” said Moise. “Our main purpose was to protect trees and reduce maintenance-related harm.”
Despite reassurance from the city that they would keep healthy trees, city crews arrived on May 10 to cut down two trees in front of Moise’s home, but she stopped them. Later that day, crews removed three trees on the median on NE 6th Court, between NE 60th Street and NE 59th Street, and one on NE 6th Court just south of 59th Street.
Intent on removing the two remaining trees, the city posted notices claiming they were in poor condition. When Moise contacted officials, believing it to be a misunderstanding, she was told she’d need to file separate appeals, each requiring an unprecedented “advertising fee” that totaled over $3,000. Yet, no such fee is mandated under the city’s tree ordinance.
Moise filed a formal complaint questioning whether the city had secured proper permits before removing the trees, noting that no removal notices were ever posted. In a delayed response to MCA president, Mark Supino, the city issued permits dated prior to the removals, documents Moise contends were backdated to falsely imply prior approval.
Still unsure whether the trees were in “poor condition,” community advocates brought in an independent arborist, whose evaluation confirmed that both trees were, in fact, healthy.
Topping it off, local environmentalist Elvis Cruz obtained the city’s arborist reports for the two remaining trees, which confirmed that they were not being removed due to poor condition. They were, after all, just accommodating the new site enhancements.
“How many trees are being cut down that are healthy, but considered in poor condition when they are not?” Moise said, adding, “Who ensures that the city is not violating the code, and when they do, that they mitigate in the same manner that a private owner needs to mitigate?”
Rather than addressing clear inconsistencies, the city abruptly canceled the project in an email from Commissioner Damian Pardo to Supino. The email asserted that despite having fully funded the project at a cost of $76,951 to the City of Miami, it was called off due to a “mischaracterization of the city’s efforts.”
“Although these medians started as an intention to protect our beloved trees from further harm, they would have been a beautiful upgrade to our neighborhood, providing not only beauty, but essential environmental benefits,” said Moise.
Given that Pardo is a Morningside resident, Moise had hoped his involvement in the project would prioritize protecting the neighborhood’s trees.
“We thought his involvement would result in some mitigation and the maintenance of healthy trees as well as keep moving the project forward,” she said. “But unfortunately, that was another disappointment.”
The email also stated that the three organizations: the Miami Women’s Club, the Miami Beach Garden Club, and the Urban Paradise Guild, were each prohibited from adopting a median, by saying the city would be open to collaborating with “any other individual or entity that would like to carry the project forward.”
“This was not an accident; it was a deliberate response to accountability,” said Moise. “And it sends a chilling message to any resident or organization who tries to partner in good faith with the city,”
“It’s about a government using its power to punish civic engagement and silence dissent. That’s not democratic. It’s not transparent. And it’s not acceptable.”
INTRUSIVE SAFETY
Pedestrian safety in Morningside has taken on new urgency. Some link it to last month’s tragic three-car crash near the Shenandoah neighborhood that left one man dead and two others injured, as well as ongoing concerns about speeding.
“We’ve been discussing traffic calming devices for pedestrian safety among the MCA for more than five years at our monthly public Zoom meetings,” said Rachel Furst, District 5 board member at the MCA.
Last summer, city officials turned their attention to high-traffic neighborhood corridors for new sidewalk installations — zeroing in on the busy intersection of NE 50th Terrace and NE 5th Avenue, a critical route for pedestrians.
“Fifth Avenue is one of the neighborhood’s main arteries,” said Furst. “Just off that avenue is a Montessori preschool, where children regularly walk to and from school. And 50th Street is a key route to the public park, with people coming from Biscayne Boulevard to access it. The road is narrow, making it dangerous for pedestrians to walk along the shoulder.”
Over the past year, Pardo’s office has led a sidewalk project designed to run nearly 30 feet from the road, through the grassy swale between the street and residents’ yards. The plan would require removing mature trees and reclaiming green space that homeowners have maintained for decades, but that belongs to the city.
During a June 10 community meeting, the MCA voted 9 to 1 in favor of the sidewalk installation, with Moise having abstained from the vote. Even then, with the project not yet fully conceptualized, the city estimated its commencement before August of this year.
Brian Hollenbeck, one of the impacted homeowners, condemns the project for excessively intruding on his property and calls foul on the voting process, which only really involved the MCA.
“I was never provided any formal notice about this project,” he said, adding how he became aware of the plan only a few weeks ago. “The MCA is acting like an HOA, but they don’t have that power.”
The sidewalk would remove his privacy hedge, leaving his bedroom and living room windows exposed. It would also endanger his 80-year-old mango tree, valued for its shade, storm protection, and heritage, while damaging his sprinkler system and custom paver design, resulting in nearly $200,000 in irreversible losses.
“How do you tell a family who’s cared for their property for decades that their trees and privacy are gone because of a vote they were never invited to participate in?” he said. “They claim to have gone around and talked to people, but not one person I've spoken to was aware of this project.”
Hollenbeck said he went door-to-door along the street where the sidewalk was planned and found that none of the homeowners were aware of the project. After explaining the details, he said every resident he spoke with expressed strong opposition.
While the city left flyers with QR code surveys and presented the plan at several MCA meetings, Hollenbeck argues this minimal outreach fell far short for such a consequential project. Hollenbeck criticized the city’s timing, pointing out that conducting outreach during the summer, when many residents are away, and relying solely on MCA meetings for communication is disingenuous.
“Any assertion that the MCA board discussions constitute adequate public notice is misleading and does not satisfy the city's obligation to inform impacted residents directly,” he said.
Another impacted homeowner, who requested anonymity, said they only learned about the project weeks ago and are fiercely opposed to it.
“They are saying I would have to remove my fence, which is not encroached and is within my property, cut down the landscaping I paid for, which is more than 60 palm trees, and remove my irrigation system” that said. “It’s a lot of value destruction on my property.”
With the sidewalk introducing massive amounts of concrete into the neighborhood, while slashing tree canopy, both impacted residents express environmental concerns over the city’s refusal to conduct any environmental or community impact assessments.
“Flooding is not an issue on my street because the landscape swells absorb the water,” said Hollenbeck, “But with the sidewalks, it will probably keep my driveway flooded since they don’t have a drainage system or gutter plan in place.”
Up to this point, homes have managed to handle their runoff; however, with the project’s added pavement on streets with no curbs or drains, the risk of flooding increases.
“It’s unacceptable for the city to approve this work without proper assessment or a plan to reduce the impact, especially since Miami-Dade’s Tree Protection Ordinance requires permits for tree removal, even in public areas,” he said.
Hollenbeck was informed by Bradley Mills, a staff member in Pardo’s office, that the project does not require formal environmental or community impact assessments since it is a standard city construction.
The Biscayne Times reached out to Miami officials overseeing the sidewalk project for comment, but did not receive a response in time.
As of now, the city asserts that the project remains in the design phase, and additional opportunities for community input will be available as the project progresses.
Moise advocates for alternative safety measures, such as four-way stop signs, which can be more effective in the long run.
Meanwhile, MCA has responded to community backlash by contacting city officials and urging revisions to the plan that would reduce its impact on homeowners. Their recommendations include shifting the sidewalk closer to the street instead of property lines and adopting a zig-zag design to preserve mature trees and maintain the existing canopy.
The public can attend MCA’s meetings virtually or in person, held on the second Tuesday of every month.