SustainLane 2006 US City Sustainability Ranking

Miami: Gateway of the Americas

Miami seems to face away from North America in more ways than one. Nearly 75 percent of its residents speak something other than English at home. There are numerous expat and immigrant enclaves-Hispanic, Caribbean, French, Finnish, South African, Turkish, Russian, Jewish, and others. Add to this some affluent northeasterners in search of sunbelt, and you get a peculiar, vibrant mélange of cultures.

Multinational businesses headquarter their Latin American operations in Miami, where plenty of international financial transactions take place. But economics goes one way, nature another. Behind its bejeweled seaside facade, a sprawling city maintains a precarious foothold on the edge of the Everglades swamp. This vast sheet of slow-draining wetland is the subject of an anxious public works effort-one of the most extensive in the nation-to urge water along networks of canals and levees so that the swamp doesn't swell into floodplain. Indeed, Miami, sandwiched between two intensely active hurricane regions, is more vulnerable to natural disaster than any other city in our study.

Miami receives high marks for superior air quality and decent transit options, but has an unfocused approach to sustainability. Known as the Gateway of the Americas, it has an opportunity to set the example for Latin and South American development. Currently, the city is developing a luxury skyline, despite the fact it fronts the coast of the most dangerous hurricane zone in the nation. If Miami wishes to make a statement about the future of the Americas, it might consider developing a comprehensive sustainability plan now to better shape the current transformation of its urban space.