Parks Vie For Space In Miami’s Forest Of Condos

Many cities around the nation are trying to revive their downtowns, adding more apartments and condominiums — usually high-rises — to lure new residents.

But as urban dwellers grow in numbers, they need places to get outside. Yet, in many cities, like Miami, neighborhood parks can be hard to find. The Trust for Public Land ranks Miami 94 on a list of 100 cities when it comes to park acreage per 1,000 residents — just 2.8 acres per 1,000 residents, versus 4.5 in New York and 6.2 in Los Angeles.

The parkland ratio is even lower in the downtown neighborhood of Brickell, where about 30,000 people live crammed together in a forest of condos. The neighborhood sprang up practically overnight. Brickell was initially a financial district, a kind of “must have” address for Latin American and European Banks. But the residential population more than doubled in the past decade.