Resilient Cities in a Changing World AMPS | City, University of London Page 6 Community Discourse Long before mega-scale development projects were proposed for Little Haiti, community discourse in city commission meetings revolved around affordable housing, financial and social costs and benefits, (renewed) displacement, and climate change impacts. An advocate voiced the concerns of residents of Little Haiti and other ethnic enclaves who want to “keep their residence…to be City of Miami residents…the city has the obligation of helping them to keep those new constructions affordable.58 A resident expressed outrage over renewed displacement, “We are in a time where developers…are seeking to take an entire neighborhood from the people who have lived there; from the people who sought refuge from an island, and found a home, and made a way in this City.59 During the debates on the $1 Billion MCID, the community warned, “[T]he project risks deeply altering the housing affordability, its demographics and cultural heritage.”60 Four years after the approval of the MCID, I convened a community writing workshop and focus group on climate gentrification in Little Haiti on March 27, 2022. The resultant poetry and discussion revolved around themes of recurrent displacement, misalignment of institutional and community values regarding housing, and concern about the loss of place. The rooster is highlighted as a symbol of cultural identity. “Searching for a place to plant your seed, instead sprouting where the wind blows like a weed. This is all we've known, so we roll” (Workshop participant 1, female). “Whatever the solutions are…they are doomed to fail…because people do not share our values” (Workshop participant 2, male). “I notice all the roosters here, and I know that this is a beautiful location, and I hope that it stays here, and it does not get gentrified” (Workshop participant 3, female). Themes found in community discourse aligned with Pathway One: Private Investment Choices, as they expressed how the MCID threatened to accelerate housing costs and precipitate displacement, and with Pathway Two: Cost Burdens—Financial, Social, Cultural with references to housing affordability, cultural ownership and loss. IMPLICATIONS FOR CG PATHWAYS Scholars urge expanding the CG pathway-oriented theory into a more complex process embedding social, geographical, and environmental perspectives.61 As a result of this study, I propose expanding Keenan et al.’s62 CG pathways framework in Figure 2. Little Haiti, Miami provides evidence within community discourse for updating Pathway Two to reflect social and cultural cost burdens. The strategies advocated in the Miami-Dade Sea Level Rise Strategy have the potential to elevate the resilience of the Miami region while also exacerbating gentrification in some neighborhoods as noted in the updated CG Pathways framework. Related to Pathway Three, adaptation investments such as “expanding waterfront parks and canals” and “creating additional spaces for water” can lead to green gentrification or the transfer of vulnerability to other, less well protected areas.63 “Building on high ground near transit” has the clearest connection to the situation in Little Haiti (due to its location and relative elevation) and the potential to encourage climate gentrification under Pathway One of the framework. In this case Pathway Three impacts Pathway One. Raising the land and elevating structures may increase cost burdens for property owners that may also transfer to renters, or prompt an abandonment of flooding areas, promoting CG under Keenan’s Pathway Two. Furthermore, social and cultural costs, particularly for underserved communities, should also be noted. In summary, Figure 2 suggests an expanded concept of the CG pathways framework with three additions. Pathway Two now reflects socioeconomic (not merely economic) cost burden. Pathway Three includes resilience and planning intervention, an expanded concept that includes the previously depicted resilience investment. Finally, a connection is drawn between the public interventions of
