Damian Pardo’s Morningside sidewalks in Miami — a $93 million mistake?

Residents mourn the city’s removal of an old oak tree
Morningside neighbors aren’t just angry about Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo’s pet sidewalk project and the 75-year-old oak tree that was cut down without warning — they’re lawyering up.
Residents of the historic bayside neighborhood sent a formal legal warning to City Hall Wednesday, telling Mayor Francis Suarez, the city attorney, the city manager and Pardo himself — as well as cc-ing a bunch of county officials — that this concrete crusade for sidewalks could cost taxpayers up to $93 million under Florida’s Bert Harris Act, which protects property owners when government projects wipe out their property values.
That’s right. A sidewalk project that could bankrupt the city. Because in Pardo’s world, Instagram posts and civic club meetings count as “proper notice.” Pardo said in his social media in July that there had been “extensive outreach” on what he calls the “sidewalk safety project” — because inserting that middle word helps sell it — and that it would be focused on pedestrian safety and “tree preservation.”
An independent appraisal sought by homeowners says the project could slash property values by 10%–30% across 200 homes in Morningside — an average 20% haircut that translates into tens of millions in lost equity for residents.
But wait, it gets worse.
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Three of the impacted homes are in the Morningside Historic District, where the city’s own laws require heightened review. The current design shoves sidewalks within feet of bedroom windows, rips out swale vegetation and increases flooding risk. Great planning, right?
“This Project will deprive owners of the privacy they have long enjoyed, will remove vegetation which has been a great amenity to the area, and in general, will destroy the character of the entire neighborhood,” wrote attorney Kenneth G. Oertel in the letter. “This Project is completely opposed by a majority of directly and many indirectly affected residents in the Morningside community; it is unnecessary and a waste of public funds.
“Properties along the proposed route will suffer permanent loss of privacy and parking, and in some cases, the sidewalk will encroach their residence within inches of their windows and habitable living spaces. The affected residences will no longer benefit from swale vegetation and hedge buffers, both of which currently shield children, pedestrians, and drivers from conflict zones. The elimination of these elements heightens risk to pedestrians and exposes homeowners to decreased utility, increased noise, and greater intrusion. The proposal also introduces new elements of risk by creating unmarked crosswalks.
“When a governmental agency considers a public works project, it often undertakes a cost-benefit analysis. In this instance, the “benefits” are non-existent; the cost implications are monumental. I wish the City to reconsider whether this Project is justified,” Oertel wrote. “The unwanted work combined with the potential liability to the City appears to be risky and one-sided.
Translation: More legal bills for the taxpayers.
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Then there is the fact that the city didn’t even bother sending direct legal notice to property owners. Instead, they relied on flyers, social media and the Morningside Civic Association (MCA), a volunteer group with zero legal standing to bind residents.
“While the Morningside Civic Association is a non-profit Florida corporation that exists to promote the general betterment of the community, it is not a homeowners’ association and does not have authority to make binding decisions on behalf of individual property owners,” the lawyer states. “The directly affected residents, those whose homes, driveways, hedges, and swales abut the proposed sidewalk routes, were never given formal legal notice or engaged in a proper consultation process, despite being the parties who will suffer the most immediate and measurable losses.
“Instead, the City relied on the MCA for outreach, which effectively bypassed the homeowners whose property rights and values are at stake. This failure of notice and engagement undermines the legitimacy of the process and compounds the exposure the City now faces, as the sidewalk project threatens to degrade the historic character of Morningside and substantially reduce property values for directly impacted.”
Ladra would go a step further and say the MCA served as a convenient go-between. Or so Pardo thought. Because he made it evident that he doesn’t care what the residents think when city crews came and ripped out the old oak tree on Northeast 50th Terrace for no good reason while the homeowners were away. The homeowners and their neighbors were devastated.
The suspected 75+ year-old live oak was chopped down last weekend after the city pushed through conflicting permits. First, an arborist report on June 2 said the tree was healthy but had to go to make way for the proposed sidewalk. Then, three weeks later, a new permit magically declared the same tree “sick” — a claim Pardo himself promoted on Instagram.
This tree here does not look sick. But the photos of the discarded tree parts are absolutely sickening.

“I never saw this removal posted online, nor was a large, green Intended Decision poster placed on the tree to notify the public and to allow for an appeal,” wrote Morningside activist Sandy Moise to the city Monday, requesting the arborist’s report. “Furthermore, Commissioner Pardo did not include this tree when on June 24, 2025, he posted the Tree Removal Permit Updates on his Instagram.”
Moise said the residents had previously voiced their opposition for removing this specific live oak to Pardo and Charles Alfaro, the assistant director of the city’s resiliency and public works department. “They claimed their sidewalk project was removing, ‘just one tree.’ We asked for a root bridged to be used instead of removing this tree, or to install the sidewalk around it.”
She had written already to Florida’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Wilton Simpson to ask for the state’s intervention in another case where the city removed a perfectly healthy state-protected Mahogany. So, this is not an isolated incident. It’s a pattern, she says: The city has falsified tree conditions on Intended Decision notices — claiming disease or poor condition when both the city’s arborist and independent arborists confirm they are healthy. It removes trees without following the public notice pattern. And last, but most egregious, the city actually causes mechanical harm to existing trees through maintenance practices, including weed-whacker scarring on roots.
Another tree was cut down in July after the city said it had been hit by lightning twice in a year. So, then, why not get a permit? Think about it. Because that would eliminate any chance for the public to appeal or for an independent arborist to inspect the tree and recommend preservation options. Which is exactly what they did.
Oooops.

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Johnson also wrote Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to ask her office to review the plan to see if the city had violated any interlocal agreements regarding traffic calming and to provide assurance that further construction activity will be suspended until the proper process is followed. “The actions of the City of Miami, as led by Commissioner Pardo and Public Works, reflect a disturbing pattern of government overreach, misinformation, and disregard for statutory obligations,” she said. “Miami-Dade County leadership must intervene to ensure that resident rights, environmental protections, and lawful governance are respected.
“This is not simply about one tree. It is about a pattern of disregard for the law, abuse of power, and erosion of public trust.”
The county’s chief operating officer, Jimmy Morales, said he would forward it to the regulatory department to follow up.
It is hard to trust the government when there are so many shifting stories. The city says the tree was sick when it clearly was not. Pardo also the tree removal was a mistake. But only since it was supposed to be cut down later. “It certainly shouldn’t have happened now,” he said on an Instagram post, feigning uprise. It was a longterm plan. Is that supposed to make us feel better?
Pardo and Ralph Gonzalez, the city’s arborist, scrambled on social media to promise the tree will be replaced with other two or three native trees that will provide “similar or better canopy” — in the “near future.” Key word: Future. Like maybe in 15 or 25 years, when they’re fully grown?
“We understand the gravity of the situation,” Gonzalez said. “And our top priority is replacement of this missing canopy with two or three Floria native species of equal size if not greater.”
Residents call it deception. And Ladra has to agree — nothing says “greenwashing” like killing a healthy century-old oak for a sidewalk that nobody asked for and that residents are actually fighting against.
The contradictions don’t stop there. Court transcripts show the city’s own engineer admitting that sidewalks could be built by the road — but that option was “too expensive.” Yet City Hall keeps claiming safety is the reason for pushing concrete closer to homes. Pardo, meanwhile, boasted about his “innovative” use of MCA meetings and door-to-door chats as public notice. Neighbors called that a flat-out lie.
Jessica Johnson, one of the residents now leading the charge, summed it up: “Because of Commissioner Pardo’s poor planning, lack of proper notice, disorganized communications, and failure to follow statutory requirements or basic standards of care, residents are terrified and feel unsafe in their own homes. The sloppy and sacrilegious killing of this century-old oak tree is symbolic of Pardo’s policy in Morningside.”
The Bert Harris Act gives residents the right to compensation if government actions wipe out their property value, even without a constitutional taking. That means if Pardo keeps pushing, the city could be on the hook for tens of millions in damages — all while destroying one of Miami’s most historic neighborhoods.
This isn’t a sidewalk project anymore. It’s a sidewalk scandal. And it could become the most expensive concrete pour in Miami history.
It’s also becoming part of Pardo’s quickly growing negative legacy, along with the election year change, the giveaway of the Olympia Theater, the change to the tree ordinance, the gentrification of Coconut Grove, the deafness on the Downtown Development Authority and the vote to dissolve Bayfront Park.
“Miami’s beauty has always been rooted in its foliage, tree-lined streets, and Biscayne Bay. Morningside, founded in the 1920s by James H. Nunnally and embraced by families like the Burdines, was built as a tropical retreat with Mediterranean Revival homes and a canopy of legacy trees,” said resident Brian Hollenbeck. “For generations, residents have protected that character.
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“Now, Commissioner Damian Pardo is stripping that away — cutting down protected trees and bulldozing front yards under the guise of so-called ‘safety walkways’ that have never gone through proper permits, historical review, or mitigation. He lives just blocks away, yet never notified his neighbors. Instead, he’s pushing a project that looks more like a developer’s land grab than public safety,” said Hollenbeck, who supported Pardo in the 2023 election
“With his election shuffle, the Watson Island deal, the Olympia giveaway, and now this, Pardo’s actions reek of backroom deals and a disregard for transparency. He has lost the trust of the very community he claims to represent, and residents are no longer tolerant of this version of the City’s mismanagement.
“We will hold him accountable.”
“As your elected official, I welcome criticism and accountability,” Pardo posted on the platform formerly known as Twitter in July. “However, spreading false claims or personal attacks doesn’t help move our community forward.”
Pardo did not answer multiple calls from Ladra to his cellphone and district office. He did not respond to texts sent over several days. His chief of staff did not answer calls and texts Thursday. Pardo hasn’t responded in weeks, since Political Cortadito took a stance against the cancellation of this year’s Miami mayoral and commission elections, which he had pushed for.
He also did not answer a question about why his home in Morningside, at 421 NE 51st Street, which is a stone’s throw from Biscayne Boulevard, is suddenly gone from the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser’s property search website.
That doesn’t feel transparent or accountable.
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