There is only more to come. Several massive residential high-rises are planned for Brickell, including two towers under construction in Brickell Key. But the census paints a diametrically opposite picture of Miami's black neighborhoods, where many residents appear to have abandoned the city entirely during the '90s. And there is little on the boards to suggest the trend will soon be reversed. Counting all those who identified themselves as black on the census form, either alone or in combination with another race, an option available for the first time in the 2000 Census, the city lost 18 percent of its black population.
City officials say the extent of black population loss was unexpected.
Community leaders, however, were not surprised. They say many Model City residents and Haitian immigrants left their deteriorating city neighborhoods for burgeoning suburbs and smaller municipalities in North Miami-Dade County. All one has to do is ride up in North Miami and other places where 10 years ago you saw few people of color, if any at all, and many of those areas are now colored in,'' said T. Willard Fair, longtime director of the Urban League of Greater Miami. Little new housing has been built in the meantime to make up for the loss or lure new residents. Those who could afford to have moved to moderately priced and welcoming new developments just north of the city or into older homes formerly occupied by white non-Hispanic retirees, Fair said.