How We Need to Change (But Why We Don't)

Cultural Perceptions & Economic Realities 

To heal Miami’s urban ills, we must rethink sprawl. The only way us to convert sprawl to something more livable is to limit explosive outward growth for its environmental and social consequences. We also need to apply Jacobs’s fundamentals for healthy urban environments to our neighborhoods. We should also use existing methods which have led sprawling neighborhoods to become urban communities such Smart Growth or New Urbanism.

1. A New Zoning Code

What allows sprawl to win over traditional urbanism is our current method of zoning. In Miami we prevent the creation of mixed-use neighborhoods through the separation between residential and commercial neighborhoods. Looking at a map of Miami and its zoning regulations, one will notice that instead of small pockets of urbanism within residential neighborhoods, there are islands or strips of commercial neighborhoods far apart from each other, within residential neighborhoods (sometimes just one or two areas per "village"). A sensible solution would be to change our zoning method from Euclidian code to Form-Based code. Form-Based zoning attempts to regulate growth by focusing on the preservation of a truly public realm. It is a more organized zoning approach which specifically defines the relationship between streets and buildings, pedestrians and cars, public and private spaces, etc. as described by Miami21, a newly developed sustainable urban plan for the city. Because mixed-use neighborhoods are needed, Form-Based code would help create walkability, promote more public transportation methods, and bring things back to human scale. Also, Form-Based code emphasizes design and human needs rather than just profit and use. If this code were implemented, we would see less segregation between uses, less industry outside the city, and smaller streets. 

Residents in walkable, mixed-use, Form-Based code neighborhoods also become self-sufficient in that they support their local businesses and do not need assistance from their city mayor who lives half way across the city. If we would rezone our neighborhoods, the city could become more interesting with businesses and residences in the same vicinity. Variety creates substance. Pedestrians would “crisscross paths” and not use the same roads or sidewalks (Jacobs). People want to see other people interact as well as walk into stores and buy things. Having the same businesses on every corner would not be much of a change either. The area might see less driving, but not necessarily more pedestrian activity because these areas wouldn’t encourage more walkability.  

Some urban planners believe the best way to begin retrofitting would be to change the looks of the workplace. According to a New York Times op-ed columnist, Louise A. Mozingo, office parks, the “archetype” of sprawl, contribute more to resource consumption and have become the epitome of “pastoral capitalism”. They are one example of the warped interpretation of Jefferson’s agrarian castle besides residential suburbs. They are considered more unsustainable for their huge parking lots, spread out properties which take away opportunities for public transit, and exclusion from shops, homes, and which weaken their “participation in a larger public realm”. 

A local example in my neighborhood of an office park would be the former Burger King Corporation office in Palmetto Bay/ Cutler Bay (now a town hall), a secluded property located behind mangroves by the ocean. The Burger King Corporation recently sold its property to The Village of Palmetto Bay, which uses it as its city hall. Though this is a beneficial change, the center of lawmaking decisions for the community is separate from society. To retrofit this center, areas closer to this center should become more urban and concentrated (though much of the property is a public park). Transit links are necessary to bring more human activity to a former office park. Connecting office parks, the farthest out in the fringe suburbs, to metropolitan areas requires that governments cut funding for expansion—highway extensions which “subsidize the conversion of agricultural land for development, including corporate offices” (Mozingo).  Mozingo, a professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at the University of California, Berkeley believes these areas need to be renewed, not expanded and that reform begins with the workplace and transforming the large corporations’ properties into workers’ homes, shops, and restaurant. We would begin the invention of new neighborhoods centering on the “civic-minded” workplace. This would be necessary in reducing our vulnerability to climate change and post-peak oil and creating a more livable environment for future generations. 

2. More Public Transit Options

It is at the same time necessary to switch to a more transit-oriented design, rather than our current design which demands we drive. This would lower our oil consumption and pollution outputs on a national scale. It would also lessen obesity rates among adults and future generations. Millions of Americans in metropolitan areas are comfortable with using trains and buses, but it must become a norm in the suburbs as well. In the United States, using transit and thinking sustainably and long-term has not yet become part of our culture (hopefully it will soon). Tourists from American metropolises or other countries who visit Miami often wonder why the city’s only Metrorail does not stop in two important destinations, Miami International Airport and Miami Beach. This is the result of a the city’s taxi lobby which in 1985, when the elevated train system was built, had an influence in stopping further transit development (Duany 141).  This shows that effective political leadership is needed alongside effective regional planning. Fortunately, the Metrorail’s airport link has finally been opened and in service since the summer of 2012. The bus system, though fairly disorganized with no visible and not to mention, an inconvenient time schedule (often with service only during the daytime and weekdays), has made improvements with the newly modeled, hybrid Kendall-Cruiser. Nevertheless, more transit related improvements must be made in such a widespread city like Miami.

 As an example, in Cutler Bay, Old Cutler Road (a two-way street extending from Cutler Bay to Coral Gables) parallel to Cutler Bay’s Shoppes of Old Cutler (the main shopping center/ strip mall) offers no transit options; therefore there are also rarely any pedestrians on the road. In order to set up a convenient bus system, I looked at traffic patterns along the intersections of  four main roads in the area (Franjo Road, Old Cutler Road, 87^th Avenue, and Caribbean Boulevard) across the shopping center. I also took notice of the fact that this stretch of road and other surrounding congested routes are the ones without bus routes passing through. In my bus plan, I would include six routes (some of which cut across already existing routes). Though the imaginary "Cutler Bay loop" actually would pass through some residential neighborhoods, the other routes would stay on the roads with the heaviest traffic patterns during rush hour. The bus routes would all connect Cutler Bay to other villages or bring commuters to other main intersections which offer further public transportation opportunities (if you know Miami well, an example would be 152^nd St/ US1 or Cocoplum Circle). If a commuter would want to visit the local library, he/she could take the Old Cutler bus northbound. If he/she would want to go to Cutler Bay's closest mall, Southland Mall, he/she could take the southbound Caribbean Blvd. route. Cutler Bay residents need a bus system to quickly get them around in their area, and a convenient way to come into and leave their village as well. It would also help bring more walkability to the city hall area. This transit would however, need to be a more affordable and better replacement for the car, not just an alternative. Also, it would have to be navigable. The average Miamian used to using a car might have some difficulty understanding a map resembling the New York City subway and would be discouraged from using public transportation.