Managing Growth in a Climate of Urban Diversity

Development pressures have forced many of South Florida’s poorest new residents, many of them immigrants, to locate in a narrow, inner-city core area along the east coast. Now, with South Florida literally running out of land, political forces are encouraging redevelopment in this urban core area. Politicians and developers have sought to redirect growth to save the Everglades environment, resulting in new policy recommendations that neglect the experiences of a multicultural population. The recommendations for physical redevelopment are assessed in the context of demographic changes in the past decade to document the impact of the proposed population resettlement. Suggestions are made to improve the likelihood that physical redevelopment will be an effective policy.