Three Miami parks are slated for upgrades as the city invests $2 million in improvements tied to its athletic and cultural history, from restoring a defaced mural honoring Black baseball icons to revamping a longtime Wynwood ballfield, with a new park near Marlins Stadium in Little Havana expected to open later this year.
Miami commissioners on July 24 approved $2.3 million in park investments, including a $2 million package for major improvements at Roberto Clemente Park in Wynwood and $217,500 to help restore a mural at Dorsey Park in Overtown. A new Little Havana park also took a step forward with additional infrastructure funding and a county agreement as it moves toward a planned winter 2025 opening.
In early June, a mural along the fence at historic Dorsey Park in Overtown was defaced with racist and antisemitic graffiti. The artwork, which honors Jackie Robinson and other Black baseball icons, was created in 2015 through a collaboration among local artists, community groups and students.
Miami police said the vandalism was being investigated as a potential hate crime. District Commissioner Christine King, who sponsored the restoration funding item, called the attack an insult to the community’s values and history.
The park itself was named after Dana Albert Dorsey, Miami’s first Black millionaire, who significantly contributed to the development of the city’s Black community and donated the land for the park in 1917. Originally created as a recreational space for the Black community during the era of segregation, Dorsey Park also served as a home field for Miami’s Negro League baseball teams.
Now, the city has allocated $217,500 from the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency to help restore the mural in partnership with local activists. Bruce Sherman, owner of the Miami Marlins whose home stadium loanDepot Park is just a few miles from Dorsey, also condemned the vandalism and pledged support for the restoration effort.
The bulk of the recently approved funding went to Roberto Clemente Park, also in District Five, where the city accepted a $1.2 million state grant and matched it with $800,000 in local impact fees to revamp the park’s baseball field and surrounding infrastructure.
Planned upgrades include new drainage, sod, fencing, bullpen and dugout improvements and the installation of a 1,560-foot exfiltration system around the park’s perimeter. The park, originally named Wynwood Park before being renamed in 1974 to honor the late Puerto Rican baseball star, also has separate improvements underway tied to flood mitigation efforts in the surrounding neighborhood.
The full project timeline, including design, permitting, procurement and construction, is expected to take about 24 months. The project is listed as “in design” and a second schematic design is under review by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
Lastly, commissioners also approved two items tied to the development of a new park under construction in Little Havana near Marlins stadium. One item allocated $130,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds to support ongoing work at the site. Another allowed the city to move forward with a utility agreement to connect the park’s restrooms to the county’s water and sewer system.
Scheduled to open this winter, the park is to include a baseball field with a 300-foot distance from home plate complete with fencing and netting, a multipurpose field, two soccer fields, a 28,000-square-foot recreation center with restrooms, a 1,700-square-foot playground, walking trails and a pavilion and performance space for community events.
As part of the design, Northwest Fifth Street is to be closed to expand the park’s footprint and create a seamless green space, along with a series of circulation loops that connect with the existing pedestrian plaza at the Marlins ballpark.
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