from parking lot to pedestrian paradise: a tactical...

FROM PARKING LOT TO PEDESTRIAN PARADISE: A TACTICAL URBANISM

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Park in Paradise: A Tactical Urbanism Initiative

at a Town of Cutler Bay Commercial Center

Halina Rachelson

University of British Columbia


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Note to Reader

The following paper will explore the potential for a small-scale public space

improvement through a monthly event called Park in Paradise to trigger long-term urban

transformation in the Town of Cutler Bay, a suburb of Miami, Florida. I have asked for Karen

Bakker’s permission to report on an innovative sustainable solution in this location for reasons

that will be explained in the paper. I have provided visuals in an appendix to enable a better

understanding of where this monthly ‘tactical urbanism’ event would occur.


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In the fall of 2005, Hurricane Wilma hit Miami, causing extensive damage, especially to

my neighborhood of Cutler Bay. Despite the destruction, I still recall how on the day after the

storm, one of our neighbors with a backup generator invited the whole block to gather outside of

their driveway for some brownies and hot chocolate. This is one of the few instances I can

remember our community possessing this degree of resilience; I believe it is missing in our day-

to-day experience in South Florida suburban communities. As my neighborhood lies only a mile

from the coast, vulnerable to all that climate change could unleash, it becomes evident that we

will need to develop more of this adaptive capacity toward greater sustainability.

Encouraging local citizens, the business community, and municipal governments within

Metro Miami, a U.S. metropolitan area of growing political and economic significance, to take

on environmental sustainability as a prime issue has proven challenging. Since the 1980s, the

city has experienced intermittent surges of immigration composed of political and economic

refugees from the Caribbean, South and Central America. For most of these groups, priorities

have long been finding work and trying to gain a share in the American Dream, characterized by

ownership of a suburban home, preferably with a large yard, and a car. This, along with the

municipal government’s attempts to attract global investment to this rapidly growing port city,

has been one of many contributing factors to the city’s inability to keep up with an

environmentally conscious urban growth policy.

For this paper, I define environmental sustainability in the context of alternative land use

management. It involves recognition of the ecological limits in which our social and economic

systems are embedded, leading us to mitigate our human impacts on the natural environment,


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adapt for resiliency, but also add positive changes to benefit all members of the community and

future generations. Most importantly, with respects to suburban sprawl and urban development, I

see activities that promote environmental sustainability as being net positive; in other words,

they enhance the local ecology and urban fabric in a complementary way.

For the purposes of analyzing complex urban problems and finding solutions, I divide

sustainable urban form into dichotomies. My vision of sustainability in urban growth must

involve changes beyond the top-down, technocratic method that looks to technological fixes like

“smart homes” and electric cars as the solution. I find the dichotomies, “technical vs. behavioral

sustainability” (Trudeau, 2013, p 436) and “concentrated vs. dispersed” (Condon, 2008)

sustainable city design to be useful. The former terms resembles Miami’s current approach to

sustainability because it involves master-planned solutions that can be admired on a global scale.

The latter is more bottom-up, less consumption-based, and fosters creativity and engagement

locally. If Miami ever wants to offset its emissions and reduce environmental damage from its

built environment, its leaders will need to consider behavioral sustainability and dispersed urban

policy and design strategies, as these focus on the role of land use and public participation.

Due to its lush greenways, ample nature opportunities on both the coast and in the

marshlands, and 299 good air quality days yearly (Protecting Miami’s, n.d.), Miamians typically

ignore dendritic suburban sprawl as a factor that renders the city completely environmentally

unsustainable. Most parts of Miami are low-density neighborhoods characterized by a dendritic

land use system. These make road networks so convoluted and neighborhood zoning so use-

separated that driving becomes obligatory and walking, cycling, and transit use problematic

(Condon, 2008). This adversely impacts not only environmental, but also social and economic


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sustainability. If examined as a system, this low-density dendritic land use form is unsustainable

for many reasons.

Environmentally, frequent car use mandated by dendritic land use leads to suburban

dwellers having a carbon footprint three times that of urban dwellers (Durham-Jones, 2010) and

a higher amount of energy leakage due to the lack of shared walls single-detached homes have

(Durham-Jones, 2010). Even with fewer people inhabiting each acre, the low density contributes

to taking up more land and using more resources per capita, a correlation that has been tracked

worldwide (Speck, 2013). Exclusive of direct tailpipe emissions, which typically contribute to

25% of per capita emissions in the U.S., 40% come from indirect emissions (Condon, 2008),

often due to road construction, the manufacture of vehicles, and extraction of oil as the fuel

source.

With regards to social sustainability, dendritic land use promotes the opposite of

complete communities that would enhance the human experience. More importantly, it has

become a public health concern as new research now indicates that a sedentary lifestyle, more so

than diet, contributes to increased prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease in the U.S.

(Durham-Jones, 2010). If there is no place desirable enough to walk to, people will more likely

sit at home or use their car for simple errands. In addition, based on personal experience, there is

a high level of social stratification based on income level, and a lack of mobility, which can be

emotionally distressing to some. Some urban critics claim that dendritic land use has also

deadened the landscape, leading to “disposable” and “impermeable” (Kunstler, 1996)

commercial areas that might otherwise promote a positive, interactive human experience.


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Economically, wasted time due to long commutes, especially visible in South Florida,

can be traced to the “drive till you qualify” (Speck, 2013) phenomenon marked by moving as far

from a job site as possible in search of affordable mortgage rates. When around half of the

county’s residents commute in cars for at least half an hour each day, more than the U.S. average

(Protecting Miami’s, n.d.), there is a time-related opportunity cost to society. Another cost is the

need for more infrastructure for fewer people as the landscape is spread out (Condon, 2008). In

addition, dendritic land use encourages big box development along its strip corridors, while

hurting small business (Condon, 2008). Cities that are attracting the most global investment, such

as Singapore, Vancouver, and Hong Kong, are the ones with rapid transit. Efficient transit

systems can only be designed cost-effectively for dense communities linked through

interconnected streets, not dendritic ones. Without these considerations, Miami might lose out on

global competition and local opportunities for ideas and monetary exchange within

neighborhoods stirred by “human scale connectivity” (Mehaffy, 2015).

The worst consequence of dendritic land use is that it contributes to an illusion of endless

resources and isolation from other members of our society, ultimately hurting our problem-

solving abilities. This is significant because if cities are leading to 90% of global population

growth, contributing to 80% of carbon dioxide emissions and 75% of energy use (Larson, 2012),

we must retrofit our communities away from carbon intensive land use. The dendritic pattern of

organizing our metropolitan landscape leads to challenges in suburban Miami, particularly in

communities like Cutler Bay, because it exacerbates the community’s vulnerability to climate

change effects, which will be hard felt. As Cutler Bay continues to grow with dendritic

development rather than with urban infill, it compromises the environment’s ability to reliably


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provide ecosystem services and our community’s preparedness in responding to natural disasters

and resource scarcity.

To build up this area’s resilience, environmentally, socially, and economically and

discourage further dendritic growth and encourage more urban infill over the long-term, I see

retrofitting in commercial areas of Cutler Bay as a potential solution. The area of my focus is a

large parking lot in front of one of the main commercial areas of Cutler Bay, the Shoppes at Old

Cutler. I found SWOT analysis to be useful as an evaluation tool recommended for sustainable

development (Roorda, 2012) because it helps in public space intervention by tapping into local

resources for a better community planning strategy (Project for Public, 2012). In terms of

strengths, the entrance of this strip shopping center is linked to a historically significant arterial,

and other intersecting roads currently experiencing locally financed green infrastructure

improvements based on the Cutler Bay Growth Management Plan (The Corradino, 2007). These

include bioswales, sidewalk expansion, tree planting, new bus shelters, roundabouts, and golf

cart road sharing. This indicates that local politicians do have an interest in enhancing the

commercial area for its sustainability benefits. Weaknesses include the area’s uniform zoning

and low density, so the incentive to walk and spend time here is lacking. Still, the area has many

assets including location and underutilized land, which would enable planners to increase its

average density with mixed-used four to six-story buildings (Steffen, 2011). Retrofitting pockets

at a time is essentially restoring “the good bones” (Steuteville, 2015) that maintain urban

connectivity. Moreover, the fact that Cutler Bay is situated 35 minutes from Downtown makes

housing still affordable. As changes in technology have lead to more “distributed and mobile”

workplaces as well as trends toward “shared workspaces” (Larson, 2012), it will be more


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attractive for new residents to choose this commercially zoned area as a future place to live.

When compared to other U.S. cities and the national average, Miami displays one of the highest

startup formation rates (Protecting Miami’s, n.d.). Thus, the potential to innovate is high,

especially in response to threats, such as expected increases in Miami’s population and climate

change.

As Miami’s residents have been highly responsive to tactical urbanism, a bottom up

urban land use insurgency (Ocubillo, 2012), I see the best way to trigger larger scale infill to the

Shoppes at Old Cutler, would be to begin with a monthly tactical urbanism event. The weekend

event, Park in Paradise, would be inspired by concepts such as Park(ing) Day, Portable Parks of

the 1980s, Permanent Breakfast, City Repair (Ocubillo, 2012) (Lydon & Garcia, 2015) and

Miami-based DIY movements, which have swept up city support over the years. The event

would convert this parking lot into a car-free public space to gather local non-profits, artists and

musicians, and the business community for a day of workshops, entertainment, and discussion.

The intention is to take back a space normally allocated to cars for the people and provide the

message, pedestrians first. It would spark creativity and bring local vendors and bands closer to

their customers. Also, residents would have to cycle or walk or commute using the town

Circulator Bus to get to the event due to very limited parking and its goal of being net positive.

Since land use laws are the change potential to draw the community away from dendritic

development, it corresponds to my definition of environmental sustainability. Park in Paradise

could help transform a space to have less environmental impact in that cars are not used and

further sprawl development is prevented. Also, it provides the community with new hard (i.e.

gardening) and soft skills (i.e. communication) to adapt well to climate change effects and thus


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become more resilient. It also adds to the urban fabric through heuristic urbanism, a form of

collaborative grassroots urbanism intended on generating policies that inspire behavioral

sustainability change (Brozen & Loukaitou-Sideris, 2013). It is a form of urban acupuncture

(Rachelson, 2012) on “residual space” (Brozen & Loukaitou-Sideris, 2013), which involves

taking one part of the system, in this case the urban leftovers such as a parking lot, and

transforming it for the benefit of the entire urban ecology. My solution could stir the community

to demand increased density, transit, and zoning changes over time. Past local events which have

had an effect on policy through encouraging closing off streets and lots or building protected

bikeways, include first Friday food truck rallies, second Saturday art walks, and last Friday

Ciclovia bike rides. Miami is a budding creative city, and so, flexible “guerilla” or “pop up”

strategies to drive public space change are desired. When referred to as pilot programs, they are a

more affordable approach to public space transformation.

This monthly event might begin in the form of a street fair, with small-scale,

temporary installations using portable tables and chairs, food carts, information booths, and

empty space for art or music entertainment, and some mobile gardening beds. To engage the

public, I would invite local community partners, such as conservation organizations to contribute

native potted tree plants to provide shade and perhaps conduct gardening and compost

workshops to teach about urban greening strategies, as well as some local bands and owners of

local businesses. A parking space could be allocated to the local government to display their

posters of proposed land use changes. It is recommended to provide an art piece, as Whyte’s

theory of “Triangulation” claims such objects encourage strangers to converse with one another

(Project for, n.d.). Above all, these installations should avoid being energy-intensive in order to


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fulfill the mitigation condition and also be creative and informative to satisfy the net positive

aspect of environmental sustainability. In addition, when citizens are engaged in the

transformation of their surroundings, they form a stronger allegiance to their place, and thus, this

tactical urbanism project is likely to be reproducible in the long-term.

Environmentally, the sense of place and hands-on learning cultivated through engaging

with local non-profits and outdoor activities encourages behavioral sustainability. This is needed

to discontinue high carbon-producing activities such as driving and move to cleaner modes like

cycling and walking. To list a few examples, raised bed rain gardens might encourage the city to

tackle the impervious surface issue, vertical gardens hung outside of the strip mall to introduce

urban agriculture to address food security, and mangrove seedling planting on walls to re-

introduce the concept of ecosystem restoration. Additionally, as stated in OurMiami Reports, the

city’s roadmap for enhancing livability, though parks and nature-based activities represent two

thirds of tourism trips to the state, Miami Dade’s citizens believed in the need for more

neighborhood parks “by 2:1” and more “biking and walking trails and large community parks”

(Protecting Miami’s, n.d.). As future sea level rise could lessen shoreline opportunities, the need

for inland parks and public space is growing. Long-term, the project could spur interest in

building a denser community in order to preserve lands untouched by sprawl.

In terms of economic sustainability, tactical urbanism is usually low cost because

partners share the expense; nevertheless, there would be ample extra funding opportunities. For

example, the Cutler Bay Strategic Plan includes the goal of funding more community activities,

especially in the direction of environmental education and senior citizen and youth engagement

(2014-2019 Strategic, 2014), so funding from the town government would be an option. In


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addition, the event could secure support from OurMiami Public Spaces Challenge, a competition

that funds urban improvement projects at a total of $305,000 annually. These would be needed to

compensate for any lost revenue to businesses. As the intervention is only a day long at a time,

permitting approval is not required for installations, leading to more cost savings. Eventually,

permitting would be required but creating a streamlined process and putting one agency in

charge would ease the approval process and reduce costs (Brozen & Loukaitou-Sideris,

2013)(Rodriques, 2011).

In terms of social sustainability, the purpose of the event is to establish ongoing

networks between residents, the town government, non-profits, designers and architects, the

existing business community and rising entrepreneurs. Long-term, public-private partnerships

could form, most needed for more permanent installations or actual land conversion projects. It is

said that such projects build “social capital” as well as “organizational capacity” (Bartram, 2014,

p 14) and bring in more foot traffic to build the customer base for local businesses (Brozen &

Lokaitou- Sideris, 2012). With regards to the health aspect, transforming an empty lot into a

public space provides local residents with a place they want to go to and where they might want

to stay. This might lead residents to walk more and spend more time outside.

Recalling my participation in a focus group for the Town of Cutler Bay and other

villages in South Miami-Dade County for the Miami Design Charette held for the public in 2014,

we agreed on Cutler Bay consisting of “sustainable” residential areas, linked to higher-density

mixed-use pockets of development along commercial corridors by transit and green

infrastructure. Thus, this team would be my first resource, given its experience in planning,

zoning, and permitting processes. The strength of my project is that it aligns with the Town of


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Cutler Bay’s goals, and thus I could expect its support to advertise it. However, even though my

project might help bring about positive change in the community, it contains plenty of

limitations. For example, it is unclear how Cutler Bay’s residents will respond. Cutler Bay

contains a different mix of people from the places in Miami where DIY has been successful in

influencing policy. The town government and business community may not see the potential for

long-term profit gains, even though I find them rather clear. There are also vested interests such

as Lennar Corporations, the development firm responsible for building many of Florida’s

sprawling “cookie cutter” residential communities, which may oppose the densification of this

commercial site. Nevertheless, the event being experimental, the first of its kind in South Florida,

and low risk by nature justifies it being the ideal step for influencing long-term urban land use

change.

The creation of local community as a result of designing a public space through Park

in Paradise Day could be self-reinforcing in terms of environmental, economic, and social

sustainability. In addition, if taken advantage of fully by all stakeholders, Miami could tackle the

dendritic suburb problem one repeat event at a time. Park in Paradise has the potential of

facilitating the conversion of an underutilized space into a collection of ad hoc outdoor living

rooms or so-called third spaces where residents might spend their time between work and home

could experiment and learn about nature and their place. Above all, they could prepare

themselves for living in an unpredictable world in which nature’s carrying capacity may be

surpassed. It will be essential to develop skills to adapt our communities for these changes and

restore the ecological functions of what is left.


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References Bartram, S. (2014). Grassroots Placemaking: Tactical Urbanism Offers Short-term Solutions to Longstandng Challenges in the Built Environment. Parks & Recreation. Brozen, M., & Loukaitou-Sideris, A. (2013). Reclaiming the Right-of-Way: Best Practices for Implementing and Designing Parklets. Transportation Research Board. Durham-Jones, E. (2010). [Video broadcast]. Atlanta: TedTalks. Kunstler, J. (1996). Home from Nowhere. The Atlantic Monthly, 43-66. Larson, K. (2012). [Video broadcast]. Boston: TedTalks. Lydon, M., & Garcia, A. (2015). Of Cities and Citizens: Five Tactical Urbanism Stories. In Tactical Urbanism: Short-term Action for Long-term Change (pp. 89-170). Island Press/Center for Resource Economics. Mehaffy, M. (2014). 5 Key Themes Emerging From the 'New Science of Cities' Retrieved March 13, 2015, from http://www.citylab.com/design/2014/09/5-key-themes-emerging-from-the-new-science-of-cities/380233/ Ocubillo, R. A. (2012). Experimenting with the margin: Parklets and plazas as catalysts in community and government. (Master of Landscape Architecture, University of Southern California). University of Southern California Phelps, B. (2015). Managing Tables and Chairs in the Public Realm. Retrieved March 13, 2015, from http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/bphelpsbna/1048431/managing-tables-and-chairs-public-realm Project for Public Spaces. (n.d.). Eleven Principles for Creating Great Community Places. Retrieved March 15, 2015, from http://www.pps.org/reference/11steps/


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Project for Public Spaces, Inc., & UN Habitat. (2012). Peacemaking and the Future of Cities. Retrieved March 13, 2015, from http://www.pps.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/PPS-Placemaking-and-the-Future-of-Cities.pdf Protecting Miami's Parks and Natural Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2015, from http://ourmiami.org/stories/protecting-miamis-parks-and-natural-resources/ Rachelson, H. (2012). Lerner on Urban Acupuncture. Retrieved March 13, 2015, from http://sustainandurbanize.blogspot.ca Rodriques, I. (2014). São Paulo Transforms Parklets into Public Policy. Retrieved March 13, 2015, from http://thisbigcity.net/sao-paulo-transforms-parklets-into-public-policy/ Roorda, Niko. Fundamentals of Sustainable Development. New York, NY: Earthscan, 2012. Print. Speck, J. (2013). [Video broadcast].TedTalks. Steffen, A. (2011). [Video broadcast].TedTalks. Steuteville, R. (2015). 'Good bones' are the key to good urbanism. Retrieved March 13, 2015, from http://bettercities.net/news-opinion/blogs/robert-steuteville/21396/‘good-bones’-are-key-good-urbanism The Corradino Group, & Bell David Planning Group, Inc. (2007). Town of Cutler Bay Growth Management Plan Volume No.1 Goals Objectives and Policies. Retrieved from http://www.corradino.com/cutler_bay/Cutler_Bay_Growth_Management_Plan_Vol1_Adopted_2008.pdf Trudeau, D. (2013). New Urbanism as Sustainable Development? Geography Compass, 7(6), 435-448. Xiao, Q., & Mcpherson, E. (2011). Performance of engineered soil and trees in a parking lot bioswale. Urban Water Journal, 8(4), 241-253. Retrieved March 13, 2015, from Taylor & Francis Online. 2014-19 Strategic Master Plan (2014). Town of Cutler Bay.


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Appendix

Figure 1: Current Land Use Map of the Town of Cutler Bay; Shoppes at Old Cutler will be the site of the Parking Lot to Pedestrian Paradise Project (Image Source: Current Town of Cutler Bay GIS; Land Use map : http://tcbgis.cutlerbay-fl.gov/portal/)


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Figure 2: Official 2020 Future Land Use Map: Town expects to plan for mixed use in current commercial zoning area. The community is otherwise surrounded by low- density single detached home development but is also in relatively close proximity (if scaled using bus transit) to medium density development and recreational space. This land use map indicates the need for a public space improvement intervention to dissuade low density, uniform development and encourage more mixed-use development expanding beyond this small subdivision of the Town of Cutler Bay. (Image source: http://tcbgis.cutlerbay-fl.gov/docs/maps/LandUse2020Map11x17.pdf

Figure 3 The anticipated long-term changes that could be made to the planning structure of the community through this event.


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Figure 4 and 5 Shoppes at Old Cutler is currently and expansive, largely underutilized parking lot. For Park in Paradise, individual parking spaces could be converted into spaces allocated to various partners (i.e. gardening, native planting workshops, a sitting area, a band’s “performance stage”, a space to paint on or display art, bike parking and repair stations, etc.). The bus stop pictured is less than minute walk from the parking lot, making Park in Paradise accessible for commuters taking the Circulator bus.

Figure 6 and 7 The sidewalks have been expanded to be accessible enough for cyclists and pedestrians trying to access the public space (Park in Paradise) and the road speeds are around 25 mph, slow enough for electric-powered golf carts to share the road and access the event.


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Figure 8, 9, and 10 Current land use changes mandated by the Town of Cutler Bay as well as Park in Paradise can further bring about switching from the automobile, the dominant mode today, to more sustainable transportation modes, such as cycling, walking, and electrically-powered golf carts. These modes were all captured in photos on and around the site for Park in Paradise.

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