Hialeah wants to annex their neighborhood. They just want better roads and services

Verónica Egui Brito, C. Isaiah Smalls II
·5 min read

The Blue Bell trailer park in the Brownsville neighborhood has mobile homes of every color.

Green, pink, orange, blue — the 137 multi-colored units are spread across several acres of land along Northwest 37th Avenue.

Many of the residents of Blue Bell, which is located two blocks away from the border of Hialeah, are Hispanic, elderly and low income. The rent ranges from $600 to $800, according to property manager Salvador Castillo.

Most are Cuban. Others are Nicaraguan, Hondurans or Argentinian. They are plumbers, construction workers, housekeepers, truck drivers and retirees.

Many residents of Brownsville’s Blue Belle trailer park are unaware of the plan to annex that area by the City of Hialeah. The mostly Spanish speaking residence and local business owner voiced opposition to the annexation. The window dressing of a trailer home makes a clear statement to outsiders on Thursday, May 11, 2023.
Many residents of Brownsville’s Blue Belle trailer park are unaware of the plan to annex that area by the City of Hialeah. The mostly Spanish speaking residence and local business owner voiced opposition to the annexation. The window dressing of a trailer home makes a clear statement to outsiders on Thursday, May 11, 2023.

The Blue Bell is one of the two trailer parks that surround the industrial area that the city of Hialeah is seeking to annex in Brownsville. Last month residents of the historically Black neighborhood showed up to a Hialeah commission meeting to protest the proposal.

The neighborhood, home to many landmarks for Miami’s Black community, has been experiencing demographic shifts in the past decade as Hispanics have moved in and Black residents relocate to other parts of the county. And like the residents of Brownsville whose homes are not included in the proposal, the people who live in the two trailer parks in the annexation zone have opinions about the plan.

A map that outlines the proposed area of annexation that was explored by The Corradino Group for the City of Hialeah. The area in purple was removed from the original boundaries.
A map that outlines the proposed area of annexation that was explored by The Corradino Group for the City of Hialeah. The area in purple was removed from the original boundaries.

Residents and business owners are more concerned with the day-to-day issues that make living and working in the area difficult. They cite many issues affecting the area, and most expressed frustration with the county but don’t believe Hialeah will make any improvements. Flooding remains a huge problem. There are no street lights. Roads need to be repaved. And the encroaching noise and crowds from Hialeah’s Factory Town entertainment district are a nuisance.

“I’m good as I am now, being part of Miami-Dade County,” said Ruben Andiono, a 69-year-old resident of Blue Bell. “I don’t like Hialeah, I have never liked it. When I arrived to this country 25 years ago I lived there for a while but I do not want them to annex this territory.”

Andiono’s not alone. Several residents of Blue Bell, the neighboring Carley Trailer Park and local business owners not only had no idea about Hialeah’s annexation plan but want nothing to do with it altogether.

Carley residents like Oreste Moscote, 60, have an uncertain future. A truck driver who works in the area, Moscote doesn’t want a long commute for his job, something he sees as a real possibility “if they take all the industrial areas in the northwest of the county from us.”

“They want to erase the industrial area to build tall buildings,” Moscote said, laying the blame at Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo. “We have seen it in LeJeune Road. They are diminishing our working spaces. Where are we going to work then?”

Some of the 137 mobiles homes in the area that Hialeah is planning to annex from the industrial zone of the Brownsville neighborhood.
Some of the 137 mobiles homes in the area that Hialeah is planning to annex from the industrial zone of the Brownsville neighborhood.

According to the analysis made by The Corradino Group “the proposed annexation area would be part of the city’s plan to further develop a thriving entertainment district that would be close to the Leah Arts District to the north, Miami Casino to the south, and the historic market Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) District to the immediate west.”

Hialeah Councilman Jesús Tundidor contacted The Corradino Group to research the “feasibility” of the annexation, something that he still stands by today.

“This is step one of 300,” Tundidor said. He added that the Brownsville community’s response will be a factor as to whether or not Hialeah decides to annex the area but stressed that the city’s “detailed analysis” still remains incomplete. “What we received from engineering firm is very, very preliminary.”

Willam Zuazo, the manager of Coconut Grove Glass and Mirror, said he wasn’t notified about the plan and that no politician from Hialeah has come to his business to talk about the incorporation.

“I’m absolutely against any plan that Hialeah has to incorporate this area. We have enough, every weekend is loud music from Factory Town. The people fill the streets with garbage. They park their cars around our businesses,” said Zuazo.

The issue of flooding was consistently raised by business owners and residents alike.

“Every time it rains, the parking and the businesses are flooding,” said Greg Jiménez, the owner of Infinity Auto Electric, one of the 18 businesses located in the plaza a few blocks away the trailer parks. Hialeah provides water and sewage service even though it’s technically in Miami-Dade.

Sewage and water services in the area has street covers from the City of Hialeah.
Sewage and water services in the area has street covers from the City of Hialeah.

The businesses in the area fear that Hialeah’s annexation could generate an increase of taxes and licenses for his auto repair business.

“What can poor people like us do?” Jiménez asked. “Nobody has came to inform us about it, but if they annex and increase the taxes it would be worse. Now we are already suffocated.”

“Nobody cares about us, this has been happening for more that 30 years.”

That reality is even more bleak for residents like Mariela Tomé, who has lived in Blue Bell for 21 years. The 53-year-old housekeeper currently shares a home with her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. Like Jiménez, her main complaints are about infrastructure.

“In this neighborhood, there are no lights on the avenue, the road is damaged and on the street where I live, every time it rains, it floods,” Tomé said. She has little faith in either Hialeah or Miami-Dade.

“Mayor Daniella Levine Cava never has come to see us,” she said. “What would be different if this trailer park belongs to Hialeah or remains as it is now?”