Parts of Grove, downtown will change with new voting map
Miami has a new voting map with redrawn district boundaries after commissioners on Thursday approved a controversial plan that sparked concerns over weakening the vote of Black residents in Coconut Grove.
After several drawn-out hearings with no final decision, commissioners approved a redrawn map that shifts several slices of Miami into new districts.
The city redraws the voting map every decade after the U.S. Census to comply with the Voting Rights Act and preserve the five-person commission’s ethnic and racial balance.
The data showed that the city’s coastal district is now overpopulated compared to other districts. The city’s consultants, Miguel De Grandy and Steve Cody, presented various alternatives for how to balance the pop
Danil Medvedev signs tennis balls after defeating Andy Murray during the Miami Open tennis tournament at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on Saturday.
ulation of each district and evenly distribute political power.
The debate over redistricting this year stirred up political tensions on the commission, and mobilized residents who spent hours in multiple hearings pleading with the commission to keep the Grove intact.
“We have spoken. I hope you’re listening, and I hope you value our participation as a community,” said Linda Williams, a lifelong Grove resident, during Thursday’s meeting. “Please keep the Grove together.”
Williams and dozens of others who filled City Hall did not get their wish. Under the final approved plan, a sliver of the historically Black West Grove between U.S. 1 and Bird Road will be moved from District 2, represented by Commissioner Ken Russell, to District 4, represented by Commissioner Manolo Reyes.
Reyes had previously pushed to leave that section in Russell’s district, and in the 3-2 vote he and Russell were the ones who voted against the plan.
Neighbors had launched a “One Grove” campaign to keep the Grove in one district. Another section of the Grove, Natoma Manors, will move into District 3, represented by Commissioner Joe Carollo. He has owned a home in that neighborhood for more than two decades, which he purchased when he was Miami’s mayor. He is currently renting a home in Little Havana, inside current District 3 boundaries. Farther west, a piece of Reyes’ district in Little Havana will move into Carollo’s disrict.
To the north, swaths of downtown, Edgewater and Midtown will move into District 5, where Commission Chairwoman Christine King was elected in November. A few sections on the edges of Allapattah in District 1, represented by Alex Díaz de la Portilla, will move into District 5.
Along the Miami River in downtown, King’s district will hold onto property that could be developed into Riverside Wharf, a proposed lucrative luxury hotel and entertainment complex, while Díaz de la Portilla’s district will pick up more waterfront land farther up the river.
The vote dealt a political blow to Russell, who sided with the One Grove activists. After the vote, he said he was thankful to the community and called the outcome “unfortunate.”
“It separates AfricanAmerican voters from a vulnerable community that is already struggling against displacement and gentrification,” he told the Miami Herald. “It makes voting schedules and locations confusing where the alternative solution was simple and fair.”
Russell’s preferred alternative involved moving a piece on the west edge of Brickell into Little Havana, a shift that Carollo staunchly opposed. He and Díaz de la Portilla argued that the move would hurt the Hispanic vote over the next decade as Brickell’s population changes, a projection that Russell disputed.
“I do not want to change District 3 voting patterns, the types of people that are there,” Carollo said during the hearing. “I don’t want to do that to District 4., nor to District 1.”
Russell and Reyes’ opposition left King as a swing vote. Seeing the votes were likely not there to approve any of the other alternatives, she said she sided with Carollo and Díaz de la Portilla as a practical step toward completing the redistricting process while holding onto the Riverside Wharf property, which she described as a future “economic engine” in District 5.
“I feel like my colleagues were not going to compromise their stance on what was best for three Hispanic districts,” she said after the vote.
It was not immediately clear how soon the new district boundaries would take effect.
Joey Flechas: 305-376-3602, @joeflech