Little Haiti's fight to preserve its history and roots

For years, there has been a battle to preserve the history of Little Haiti, as new developments transform the fabric of the neighborhood.

Local Haitians take pride in how they built Little Haiti in the 1970’s. But the area is constantly changing and now many are fighting to make sure the neighborhood does not lose it’s Haitian roots.

“This is something that can’t be erased. And not just that, this is Miami history, South Florida history, Haitian American history,” said Winnick Blaine, grandson of Viter and Maria Juste, considered as the founders of Little Haiti.

It’s an area that’s held a lot of names throughout the years.

According to The Greater Miami and Miami Beach Visitors Bureau, in 1869, the area was known as Lemon City.

Home to African Americans and Bahamians, they created businesses, schools, and the only US Post Office in the area at the time. Over the course of a decade, the area shaped and changed with the population and growth of other cities.

But in 1970, Haitians moved into the area, making Lemon City, Little Haiti.

And that happened, in part, thanks to the Juste Family.

“It means everything to me,” said Blaine, who explained that the vision of his grandfather "was to grow, to bring in tourism, but at the same time bring the locals here and everyone would thrive together.”

But that dream was short-lived.

“I think he would be somewhat proud but somewhat sad as well, because he would see a lot of his people got misplaced and got kicked out of the neighborhood.”

THE GENTRIFICATION

It’s called gentrification. And, it has transformed Little Haiti.

NBC6 has seen an increase in property values, and the displacement of poorer residents.

Walking through the streets of Little Haiti, Blaine shows what used to be a thrift store that moved to 54^th Street.

“They had to move out of here even though they were here for 4 to 5 years. But they had to go because the owner raised the rent,” he said.

The story, Blaine says, is the same throughout Little Haiti.

“I remember the furniture store on the corner, on 79^th street, there was a Haitian restaurant on the corner of 79^th street,” he said.

"Those locations and those store owners are not there anymore, they are long gone. The building has been torn down and rebuilt.”

It’s something that Monica Sorelle can attest too.

“When I moved back to Miami in 2014, I started noticing very small changes with the neighborhood, including who was coming in, what kind of businesses were happening, who was getting evicted, what was getting demolished and it really concerned me,” she said.

Monica sees the changes in the Wynwood area, that once was known as the garment district, then Little San Juan and later it became an area rampant with drugs and violence.

Today it’s a gentrified picture of colorful art, restaurants and more.

“Houses were being flattened around us every single day and turned into parking lots, people were being evicted, there is stuff on the street, it was a crazy time,” said Robert Colom.

“And we kind of decided that we wanted to say something about this happening.”

Sorelle and Colom created a film called ‘Mountains’, to call attention to this very issue.

And throughout filming they noticed things changing right before their eyes.

“We started noticing that buildings were looking different, streets were looking different and now it’s been another year, and it looks completely different. I was driving down the street the other day and we were talking on the phone, and we were like where is this building? And we shot at this building, we know the people who own the shop, and the building is gone and it’s right here on 2^nd Ave. A lot of things are changing really fast,” Colom said.

Sorelle remembers that “as we were making it. we were cognizant that we were creating an archive in a way because we were shooting this neighborhood in summer of 2022 as it was happening, and we were realizing that this might not be what it looks like in 5, 10 years from now.”

Some of those changes, as Blaine states, have been good, like how the streets look.

“This was kind of more ran down. A lot of the buildings you see now needed paint jobs; it was pretty bad. It didn’t look pleasant, like the way it looks now. A lot of trash, a lot of debris.”

But in other ways, it’s been detrimental.

INNOVATION DISTRICT

The Magic City Innovation District, is a master plan to create mixed use spaces in Little Haiti that consist of retail, office space, residential units and more.

It claims to provide $27 million in annual tax revenue, give $31 million to the Little Haiti Revitalization Trust, and create more than 11,000 jobs.

But it’s a vision that’s not necessarily wanted.

“What I would like to see is as they gentrify, bring in more Haitian business owners into the community, and let them start over again. Fund their businesses, and let’s turn Little Haiti back into Little Haiti, and have more business owners in the community,” said Blaine.

All through the neighborhood, there are sights of construction, new buildings and new homes.

But they come at a cost.

“Seeing your friends and family having to move out of the community or leave the community because the taxes went up. So that’s the sad part, seeing people lose what they have worked for so long, what they have built or are trying to build. Losing everything,” said Blaine.

He says those in this community weren’t informed on what gentrification is, or how to prevent it from happening.

“I was like I screwed up too, in my younger days I should have saved more money and done what I had to do to preserve some of these properties here in Little Haiti. Unfortunately, you live, and you learn.”

While he can’t change the past, he’s hoping to preserve what his grandparents built.

“I think my grandparents would have liked it. But knowing my grandparents they would have organized and would have gotten the right people to invest, and they would have been the ones to get Haitian business owners to go ahead and fill up these new buildings you are seeing in Little Haiti.”

Monica and Robert say that there are organizations and people who are trying to preserve Little Haiti’s culture and its people. Their hope is that the city helps those store owners and residents work to own their properties, so they keep the area’s identity alive.