Mega-Real Estate Speculation and Racialized Dispossession

Miami's Little Haiti

Bibliographic Data

ID4381652
AuthorsRichard Tardanico (0000-0001-6262-9742, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume49
Issue1
Pages21-38
Publication date2025-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Urban and Regional Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0309-1317 • E-ISSN: 1468-2427
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1468-2427.13283
OpenAlexW4405097659
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited43

This article contributes to research on racialized dispossession through the lens of popular responses to local/global conjunctures of urban financial speculation. How has a predominantly Black immigrant community, Little Haiti, confronted a surging variant of Miami's history of racialized dispossession-corporate mega-real estate speculation-since 2008's global financial crisis? I examine Little Haiti's confrontation with the proposed Magic City Innovation District, which is, in fact, no more than a large-scale, mixed-use commercial venture. Greater Miami's conjuncture undermined the community's capacity to resist or effectively negotiate with Magic City's partnership in three ways: a real estate hegemonic metropolis devoid of potent allies; the near absence of neighborhood-resident resistance leadership in a working-poor immigrant community; and a political fracture within Greater Miami's Haitian collective responses over the politics of patronage and accommodative versus contentious bargaining. By enveloping patronage practices within speculative imaginaries of inclusive, tech-led neighborhood and metropolitan prosperity, Magic City's partnership and local government reinforced that fracture and politically marginalized both the accommodative and contentious factions. I conclude by considering the dilemma of disenfranchised communities today when confronting racialized speculative intrusions. The article's empirical content draws primarily on my collaborative-community activism, city commission planning sessions and official documentation

Advertising · Business · Miami · Real estate · Speculation · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Urban Planning and Governance · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies · Finance

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