Reimagining Liberty City: From concrete grid to sponge neighborhood 

This essay was written as part of a Ph.D. seminar called “Theorizing Infrastructure” for Florida Atlantic University’s graduate program in comparative studies. An overview of the course by professor Stacey Balkan and other essays from students can be found here.

By Olawale Oladokun 

Miami’s Liberty City was the location of the American South’s first public housing project, built between 1934 and 1937. It later became an example of climate gentrification and predation on the marginalized. Liberty Square’s higher ground plays a huge role in triggering investors’ interest and has culminated in the gentrification of the predominantly Black neighborhood. 

As developers target higher-ground communities such as Liberty City for redevelopment, residents are priced out instead of being relocated. What could have been done to avert this? I dream of a nature-friendly Miami that operates pro-ecological architecture in sharp contrast with the conventional model that relies on heat-trapping and water-repelling concrete surfaces. In my mind’s eye, I see the wonders of a beautifully designed, eco-friendly built environment – the Miami of my dreams. 

I envision a community designed using biomimicry – nature-inspired water absorption systems – to create a “sponge city.” The houses are built with permeable pavements that let stormwater infiltrate rather than run off. With their green roofs and bioswales designs, urban heat and water management are effectively managed. Right in the heart of Liberty City would be a tidal park that floods safely and also stores excess water in crisis periods, doubling as a community recreation area in dry seasons. 

The homes in my dream community are reimagined as modular and elevated to adapt to increased flooding risk. They are built with solar tiles, reflective surfaces and bioclimatic ventilation systems that reduce energy dependence and emissions. I envision homes designed as stacked multi-generational units that promote familial resilience and avoid the density traps of public housing towers. These designs allow residents to remain physically and culturally grounded, reinforcing place-based identity while adapting to environmental shifts. 

I envision all land in Liberty City being transferred to a community land trust – a nonprofit entity that holds land in perpetuity on behalf of residents. Why? Because speculative land markets are the engine of climate gentrification. When land values rise due to new infrastructure, legacy residents are often priced out. A community land trust allows long-term affordability by disconnecting land ownership from market speculation and, through that, foster democratic decision-making and prioritize housing and community needs over profit. This model reframes land not as a commodity but as a “commons.” 

The creative blueprint also factors in social infrastructure for climate resilience. Solar-powered indoor sanctuaries, called Cooling Commons, would be built to act as public shelters during heat waves and gathering places during calmer times. Similarly, Climate Culture Centers that archive, exhibit and empower Afro-Caribbean and African American cultural memory would be built to resist the cultural erasure that gentrification brings. This would be also fortified by public storytelling installations and oral history gardens that allow residents to narrate the story of their survival, past and future. Here, climate infrastructure becomes not just physical but symbolic, rooting Liberty City’s future in its historic legacy. 

The limited and disconnected public transit in Miami, which isolates low-income communities and deepens economic inequities, would be a thing of the past. In the city of the future, networked, elevated solar-powered trams and protected bike superhighways would offer clean, affordable transportation out of flood zones and into opportunity hubs. The linking corridors double as evacuation routes in climate emergencies. Transport hubs are built as mixed-use nodes – housing co-ops, clinics and green tech labs – to overcome the isolation of Liberty City by ensuring that it is integrated without being absorbed by speculative real estate pressures. 

I envision Digital Commons, which guarantee equitable access to data, power and mitigate technological inequality that deepens the marginalized communities’ climate vulnerability. Public buildings also host digital literacy training centers for all ages, while civic tech platforms enable real-time participation in infrastructure decision-making such as flood sensor mapping and budget tracking.  

I believe this vision is the future of mitigating the climate crisis. 

Banner photo: Another photo of the Liberty Square housing project taken during a HUD tour in 2017 (HUD, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons). Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here. To support The Invading Sea, click here to make a donation. If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe at ncrabbe@fau.edu.