BROWN / UMIAMI
ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH DISPARITIES
CLIMATE MIGRATION
Data compiled and analyzed by Carmen Johnson and Mia Mascone.
We look at Gentrification happening in West Coconut Grove and Miami-Dade County in the context of Climate Migration. As marginalized (black) communities get relocated southward of Florida, we explore the harms these communities face as climate change and natural disasters worsen.
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Scroll down below to look at infographics regarding migratory patterns as a result of Climate Change and Gentrification.
WEST COCONUT GROVE: A HISTORY
The history of Coconut Grove is one of new beginnings for the Afro-Bahamian community who migrated here.
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However, following the Jim Crow Laws in 1925, this integrated community was torn apart, and blacks were relocated into underdeveloped neighborhoods using "legalized" discrimination like redlining and zoning codes.
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As black citizens were denied equal access to necessities like proper sanitation and infrastructure improvements, they were home to several environmental hazards like "Old Smokey" which still physically and mentally harm the citizens of West Coconut Grove to this day.
As climate change worsens, black citizens are further relocated to poorer neighborhoods less prepared for flooding and other environmental disasters.
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CLIMATE GENTRIFICATION
In a case study of the Miami Dade county, climate gentrification is supported and theorized through the correlation of price appreciation of properties with incremental measures of higher elevation.
Secondly, the findings from this study showed that properties with lowest elevation had not kept up with price appreciation of higher elevation properties.
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The findings from this study demonstrate rising sea level and therefore climate change will affect the value and marketability of properties depending on their degree of climate vulnerability and exposure.
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Looking specifically at the West Coconut Grove community, it is demonstrated that because this neighborhood sits on higher elevation, it is therefore attractive for developers and encourages the destruction and displacement of the West Grove community.
GENTRIFICATION IN WEST COCONUT GROVE
Gentrification has been present all throughout Miami for the last century, however it has begun to deeply affect the West Coconut Grove community over the last decade. The historical and cultural hub of West Grove is considered one of the oldest neighborhoods in Miami.
Today, real estate developers are breaking existing zoning laws to replace the quaint original structures of West Coconut Grove with new multi-family properties.
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Zoning laws intended to prevent developments like these are rendered useless as developers find loopholes to squeeze extra footage to create higher returns.
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MAJORÂ USE SPECIAL PERMIT
Redevelopment and Displacement
Miami's population increases by an average of 2% per year.
In need of prime real estate at a cheap cost, developers exploit Major Use Special Permits to allow them to quickly build and sell real estate before climate change catches up to them.
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Major Use Special Permits are required by local governments for major development proposals, usually requiring the developer to give a "housing impact analysis". But these "assessments" only pertain to an increased need for housing and ignore the complaints of the residents who will be displaced by this development.
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Since 2005, Major Use Special Permits approved the demolition of 46 single and multi-family homes in a six-block area of the West Grove.
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The City of Miami extended the Major Use Special Permit to 2023 which will further limit development of affordable housing in the area and neglect the impacts of displacement on West Grove residents.
MIGRATORY PATTERNS OF THE WEST COCONUT GROVE COMMUNITY
Map of Miami Ghettos provided by Kulture Vulturez
This map shows various Miami Ghettos whose long histories and livelihoods are at risk or already affected by gentrification.
Members of West Coconut Grove had historically been displaced down South-Dade neighborhoods like Homestead, Palmetto Bay, Goulds, and other cities highlighted green.
These historically-black neighborhoods are at lower elevations and coupled with decades of underdevelopment, they are more likely to bear the brunt of environmental disasters much like several black communities in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
West Coconut Grove's Fight Against Gentrification
Grove Rights and Community Equity, Inc (G.R.A.C.E)
[Florida nonprofit community-based organization]
"A mission of not only halting and remedying the mass eviction, displacement, and resegregation of vulnerable black tenants and homeowners, but also to negotiate community benefits agreements in defense of, and reform municipal land use and zoning policies that imperil at-risk tenants and homeowners, and promotes thoughtful and equitable economic development."