As rising seas threaten Miami’s luxurious beachfront, wealthy property owners are pushing inland to higher ground. The historically black neighborhood of Liberty City has been ignored by developers and policy-makers alike, for generations. Located 12 feet above sea level, Liberty City now becomes more attractive with each rising tide.
“The wall was there to separate us from the white people.”
At the heart of Liberty City is the Liberty Square housing projects, the first segregated public housing project in the South. The new documentary from Academy Award nominated filmmaker Katja Esson begins at the very moment when Liberty Square is being razed to the ground to make way for the “ New Liberty Square ”: a $300 million mixed income development.
The dramatic changes happening in Miami’s Liberty Square are a looking glass for contemporary issues of wide-scale significance: the affordable housing crisis, the impact of systemic racism and climate gentrification. Miami is experiencing sea level rise before the rest of the country. What is happening in Liberty Square is a prescient story of what is to come, and strategies put to the test here are being closely observed by the rest of the world.
“I have a difficult decision to make: whether I will stay or leave.”
MOMENTS OF THE FILM
