"All Ways Lead to Hialeah" Hydro-Illogical High Prairie Park

"All Ways Lead to Hialeah" Hydro-Illogical High Prairie Park

From the City of Hialeah’s website:

http://www.hialeahfl.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=385&lang=en

 “Hialeah, incorporated in 1925, has a long and proud history. One of the city's most important and nationally well-known historic sites is the Hialeah Park Racetrack, built in 1925.  Hialeah Park is an important part of Hialeah's future as well.  After a short period when the Park was closed to racing, Hialeah Park reopened in November 2009 with quarter horse racing and is currently undergoing a multi-staged full restoration.  Exciting plans call for the construction of an entertainment complex to include a hotel, restaurants, casinos, stores and a theater. Just as Hialeah's past is an important part of its future, so is a new, recently annexed three square mile area, "Hialeah Heights," to be developed soon into a beautiful residential and commercial area in the northwest part of the City.”

My Backyard canal

Hialeah is 20 to 30 ft from the Biscayne Aquifer

  

Hialeah’s population size as of 2013 surpassed 224,000 residents and is growing. It is also an inland Miami city that sits at a very low sea level, closer to the aquifer. As a result, Hialeah always floods during storms when large amounts of water attempt to quickly recharge the aquifer and naturally flood the prairie. The 2014 Hialeah or “High Prairie” is one covered in asphalt, cement and a never-ending series of deep canals carved across its 20 square miles. So far, Hialeah controls its flooding potential through the use of the most complicated part of the canal system in the South Florida region. When I encountered Payne's Prairie for the first time, I imagined how similar Hialeah must have been before the canals led to its development.

Hialeah as High Prairie 
(filmed on a quadcopter and GoPro)

"All ways lead to Hialeah" a slogan used during the city's early stages of development in the 1920's seems more applicable now to its connectivity to water. Hialeah is in danger of being the first inland South Florida city to experience never-ending floods and saltwater intrusion due to the rise in sea level . Water coming from the Everglades as well as through the Biscayne Aquifer will keep testing Hialeah's flood control system until it can no longer recover. Even with substantial evidence of Hialeah's death in the near future, the public and political attachment to nostalgia, jobs and their effect on the present pushes the city to pursue the re-opening and development of the Hialeah Park.

Hialeah interactive Sea Level rise

One of Hialeah Park’s high features is the Audobon wildlife refuge located in the center of the 1+ mile horse racetrack. This artificial refuge contains large numbers of “Hialeah Flamingos”, originally Cuban birds that were imported by park owner Joseph Widener in the 1930’s to serve as backdrop for the horse races. The flamingos are commanded through sound to perform “the Flight of the Flamingos” during the races, in which the large mass of birds fly around the perimeter of the racetrack's large man-made pond, which also floods. 

  Hialeah Park is Back?

The city along with the park's owner, private investors and the Seminole Tribe of Florida have moved forward with the park's redevelopment. With the predicted quick rise in sea level, redevelopment and restoration of the Hialeah Park is illogical and temporary. What will flooding be like in the renovated Hialeah Park, and how will the rise in sea level effect the "Hialeah Flamingo" habitat?