Santa Monica and Miami Seaside are every cities of round 90,000 residents. The world thinks they’re paradise and flocks to their solar and sand.
However behind their glamorous facades, the success of those cities has bred new city woes and acrimonious debates amongst residents in regards to the tempo of “growth.”
It doesn’t matter that they’re on reverse coasts: one a famously liberal city in a deep blue state, and the opposite a little bit of a purple island in a sea of deepening crimson. In each cities, two very completely different visions for the longer term are in competitors.
To simplify, at one pole are the slow-growthers. They’re saying, “Whoa, maintain up! Life’s spinning uncontrolled. Site visitors’s loopy. Housing costs and rents are by the roof. Cash-grubbing builders don’t care about residents. Crime is rearing its head. This isn’t the bohemian seashore scene we keep in mind. Cease constructing a lot, respect our cool historical past, and protect what we’ve.”
On the different finish are the modernizers. They’re saying, “Dudes, it’s time to step up our sport! We want larger and higher constructions to accommodate our folks, take care of rising seas, encourage work/stay density so folks shed their vehicles, and sophistication issues as much as encourage tourism, enterprise, spending, and jobs. And we’d like these growth taxes for brand new infrastructure, public security, and inexperienced house.”
Contemplate the latest expertise of legendary architect Frank Gehry, who has managed to stroll into the crossfire in each cities.
An actual property reversal in Miami Seaside
In Miami Seaside on July 20, 2022, Gehry and famend developer Steve Ross, each of whom expressed love for the place due to lengthy household histories there, teamed as much as suggest two glitzy new towers. The towers would substitute a four-acre particles heap the place the famed however dilapidated Deauville Seaside Resort from the Nineteen Fifties sat till courts ordered it to be imploded.
Ross was keen to spend an astonishing $500 million to buy the lot from the non-public proprietor. He requested no cash from town, and as a substitute projected that his work would supply $6 million to $7 million a yr for the following three many years in new tax income to enhance this uncared for a part of city, in addition to an identical quantity for the entire metropolis. As America’s largest inexpensive housing proprietor, he additionally threw in a pledge to dedicate himself to that essential want within the space, and to provide $12 million in money for “public advantages” of town’s selecting.
At age 93, Gehry personally got here to the public listening to. After an hour’s debate, town fee supported Gehry and Ross, 5-1. Mayor Dan Gelber pronounced the provide a miracle that had landed at their doorstep. A required citywide referendum three months later appeared perfunctory.
Thaddaeus McAdams—WireImage/Getty Pictures
Jeffrey Greenberg—Common Pictures Group/Getty Pictures
However then got here a blizzard of flyers and emails circulated by the lone fee dissenter and historic preservationists, blasting “billionaires” and “land grabs.” They attacked the design as being out of sync with the neighborhood and sure to trigger auto Armageddon—though a number of close by buildings are taller or larger, and the proposed 175 lodge rooms and 125 condos for largely part-time residents would seemingly produce much less site visitors than the bygone 540-room lodge.
Some mentioned the outdated lodge was “iconic” and expressed outrage it wasn’t rebuilt. Defenders of the brand new undertaking countered that the Deauville was designed by a middling architect of the Nineteen Fifties, and its alternative could be by one of the revered architects of the final 100 years, who promised to pay “homage” to the outdated lodge in his design. They argued that it might be an enchancment for atypical residents as a result of Gehry’s new vertical towers would permit a 200-foot inexperienced house between them, which might afford sightlines and entry from the road to the seashore that had by no means existed earlier than.
Briefly, the case for the event appeared overwhelming.
However within the referendum on November 8, 2022, 53% of voters turned Ross and Gehry down.
Many thought the outcome a fluke, the results of poor marketing campaign techniques, or shrill voices drowning out measured ones in Trump-era fashion. And 53% was hardly a landslide. However the message of opponents undeniably resonated.
Now the emboldened slow-growthers are calling for even stricter historic preservation within the metropolis (3,000 constructions have already got historic designation, which makes it more durable to switch or rehab them). And, within the title of stopping congestion, they oppose decreasing the minimal dimension of flats that may be constructed. Modernizers counter that such restrictions will as a substitute forestall the constructing of desperately wanted inexpensive housing, which in flip will worsen site visitors if native employees can’t stay close by.
A Santa Monica love fest
In distinction to his Miami Seaside expertise, Gehry took half in a love fest in Santa Monica, 2,700 miles away. On July 14, 2022, he appeared earlier than town council to be topped with approval for a excessive profile mixed-use undertaking on Ocean Avenue. The measure engendered nary a destructive phrase both on the listening to or from the broader public. As a substitute, members of the council crowded round Gehry for photos, predicting thrilling rejuvenation for a drained stretch of downtown and an iconic new landmark for town.
So what was Santa Monica’s secret sauce that produced kumbaya?
To some extent, it was simply exhaustion. Gehry and the developer, Jeff Worthe, had made their proposal 10 years earlier than. Within the ensuing time, slow-growthers and modernizers jousted over approval, not not like the standoff in Miami Seaside. The unique request for a 250-foot, 22-story tower was sliced right down to 130 ft and 12 flooring. But in the long run Gehry and Worthe nonetheless bought 120 lodge rooms, and a second tower of 100 residential items.
To attain this, proponents discovered to speak early and infrequently with native stakeholders and provide beneficiant and particular “neighborhood advantages,” together with many extra inexpensive housing items, a metropolis cultural museum incorporating two historic Santa Monica bungalows, public pathways, photo voltaic power, and the like, in addition to new tax {dollars}. They usually acknowledged that goals of the opposite facet ought to be handled not simply as an afterthought however as a core a part of the proposal.
Former Santa Monica mayor Sue Himmelrich says, “Present me a undertaking that’s turned down, and I’ll present you a bundle of neighborhood advantages that’s too small.” Metropolis councilman and slow-growth chief Phil Brock, 69, in rotation to be mayor subsequent yr, says, “In contrast to a few of my outdated pals who solely take heed to music from our school days, I take heed to all the brand new stuff too. Gradual progress doesn’t imply no progress. I’m keen to compromise.”
It might be straightforward to hope Santa Monica has discovered the magic formulation. However the course of is commonly sluggish and grudging. And now town is going through tug-of-wars over different tasks like changing parking heaps into residential buildings, and the way forward for 227 acres when the native airport closes. Some see answered prayers for sorely wanted housing, others see congestion and vanishing facilities. Most see protracted clashes.
Future battles loom
In Miami Seaside, pissed off modernizers are amping up. Businessman and former mayor Phil Levine says robust management and real-world pragmatism are wanted to combat “phony populism,” as a result of “we will’t change into a metropolis of no. Capital is fluid and can transfer elsewhere.” He warns that Gov. DeSantis might search a state regulation guaranteeing industrial house owners the suitable to change their non-public property as they see match within the face of sea degree rise and a housing disaster. Levine says NIMBYs ought to notice they’ll in all probability discover different effective however cussed preservation boards “on the backside of the ocean with the continent of Atlantis.”
Mockingly, the battle in each cities comes at a time once they have an historic alternative to re-establish their glittering manufacturers with new generations, for the renewal communities want.
Downtown Los Angeles is beset by a homelessness disaster and post-COVID distaste for workplace towers, and firms need to relocate. What youthful cohort wouldn’t be interested in new dwelling and dealing areas in a cool beachside city?
And South Florida, with its balmy winter climate, finds itself a rediscovered promised land for not solely chilly Northeasterners however entrepreneurial younger folks and firms from throughout. Miami Seaside, solely one in all many potential locations within the area, may very well be extra enticing if it handled these hordes not as exterior invaders, however as energizing recent blood, spirit, and, sure, cash.
The excellent news is, proponents of each sluggish progress and modernization are activated by love of their communities. But when they’re to keep away from changing into a microcosm of the deadlock seen on our nationwide political stage, they should acknowledge one another’s good intentions and get to compromise rather more cheerfully and rapidly.
If not, residents might by no means get pleasure from their cities the best way the vacationers do.
Mark Bisnow, a former writer, lives in each Miami Seaside and Santa Monica.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary items are solely the views of their authors and don’t essentially replicate the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
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