6 days ago
Why did Miami lose $60 million for a park that promised so much?
Thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill — passed with help from Miami's own Republican members of Congress — the city just lost $60 million in federal grant money that was supposed to pay for a park.
It wasn't just any park. It was a 33-acre expanse known as the Underdeck that, if successful, would have helped heal some of the damage to our community caused by construction of Interstate 95 in the 1960s, when the highway was built right through the once-thriving Black community of Overtown.
Overtown was never the same after that. Constructing this park — officially named the Rev. Edward T. Graham Greenway after after the former Mt. Zion Baptist Church pastor and civil rights activist — was an effort to right an old wrong.
That's especially important in a place like Miami, where we struggle with civic engagement. Reunifying land once divided in the name of progress would be a step in the right direction.
The park is supposed to be a key component of the Signature Bridge road project, that never-ending construction zone where Interstates 95 and 395 meet, north of downtown, that's been tying up traffic for more than six years — so far. We just learned from the Florida Department of Transportation that completion has been pushed back yet again, this time to late 2029, and the cost has risen to an estimated $866 million.
(When construction began in 2019, the Signature Bridge project — the one with those enormous decorative arches designed to evoke a fountain — was supposed to be finished in 2023 and cost about $800 million. Anyone want to bet on when it will actually get done and what it will cost by the time it is finished?)
It remains to be seen how much these seemingly endless road improvements actually help our famously bad traffic. Unfortunately, weeks of requests by the Editorial Board for more information from FDOT about the project were fruitless.
Even if the Signature Bridge isn't a game changer for Miami traffic and even if the 'iconic' arches don't really improve Miami's iconic skyline — we have our doubts — the park proposal felt like something different, something tangible for taxpayers who too often are sidelined in big government projects. The park was a reward for suffering through the road improvements.
The land, carved from reclaimed and forgotten property under roadways set to be elevated when construction is complete, could be a wonderful park. It would stretch from Overtown to Biscayne Bay and include a mile-long Heritage Trail. With this park, residents would have that all-too-rare thing in Miami: open space in the heart of the city.
Done right, it could have echoed the successes of the similarly named but unrelated Underline, a 10-mile linear park that has partially opened under Metrorail tracks south of the Miami River. That stretch, with native plants and a bike and walking trail, has been a real win for Miami-Dade County.
Just last year, prospects for the Underdeck park looked bright. The funding was included in a Biden administration initiative called called the Neighborhood Access and Equity (NAE) program, aimed at reversing damage done by highways built decades ago. It was part of a $3 billion 'Reconnecting Communities' program.
Then came the fervor among Republicans to undo all things related to former President Biden. The Big Beautiful Bill pushed by President Trump was passed. And so a park that could have been a rare and much-needed asset for Miami became another sad casualty of politics.
There is still a little hope. A spokesperson for the city of Miami told the Editorial Board that the 'unexpected loss of funding' poses a significant challenge but the city is 'exploring alternative funding options to move forward without delay.'
And Miami Commission Chair Christine King, whose district includes the park site, told the Board that she is 'committed to seeing this project through to completion, even if that extends beyond the expected 2026 finish date.'
South Florida, she said, has a strong track record of 'public-private partnerships coming together for the benefit of our community, especially in times of great need.'
'Giving up,' she added, 'is not an option.'
For some, the loss of a park we never had won't seem like much to bother about. But building a community is about more than roads and high-rises and sports arenas. It's about quality of life. It's about how the place makes you feel. And this park, for what it symbolizes and for the rare physical asset it could be, is worth fighting for.
