Graffiti News

What Miami voters decided on 18 August 2026

Miami voters approved a plan to restore Miami Marine Stadium on 18 August 2026. WLRN reported that more than 68% voted yes. The referendum allows the City of Miami to enter a management agreement with a private company for the abandoned venue on Virginia Key, across the water from downtown.

The Associated Press reported before the vote that the city will retain complete ownership of the stadium and the land around it, collect revenue from events to fund repairs and upgrades, and pay the operator a management fee. The total cost of the project has not been determined. Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo told the Associated Press it will not be borne by taxpayers at all.

The stadium was a landmark long before it was a wall

Miami Marine Stadium opened in 1963 as the only powerboat racing venue in the United States. It was designed by Hilario Candela, a Cuban refugee in his late twenties at the time. The Associated Press describes the 6,500-seat building, with its massive cantilevered roof and its view back across the water to the city, as a masterpiece of midcentury Brutalist architecture.

Elvis Presley filmed "Clambake" there in 1967. Gloria Estefan and Jimmy Buffett performed on a movable, floating stage. President Richard Nixon and Sammy Davis Jr. appeared together at a 1972 campaign rally. Residents gathered for Easter sunrise services and for celebrations of Our Lady of Charity, a representation of the Virgin Mary honoured by many Cubans and Cuban Americans. Candela went on to design buildings across Miami and led the community effort to save the stadium until his death in 2022.

Thirty years of paint on a National Register building

The stadium closed in 1992 after suffering serious damage during Hurricane Andrew. It has been fenced off ever since, and, in the words of the Associated Press, covered in graffiti — including through the years after it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. Ken Detzner, then Florida's Secretary of State, called it "one of the state of Florida's most unique architectural and historic resources."

The pattern is familiar anywhere in the world. A large concrete structure with broad flat surfaces, no caretaker, and access mainly by water or over a fence becomes a de facto public canvas. Miami Marine Stadium met every one of those conditions for more than three decades, which is why photographs of its painted interior have circulated far more widely than photographs of the powerboat races it was built for.

Not everyone in Miami wanted an event venue there

The restoration had opposition worth recording. Ernesto Cuesta, head of the Brickell Homeowners Association, told the Associated Press that his group supports preserving a historical landmark but that members worry about how noise and traffic from a large-scale event space would affect residents across the bay and nearby wildlife. He said he would prefer a park with more green space.

On the other side, Emi Guerra, co-founder of Breakwater Hospitality Group, which is working with the company selected to partner with the city, told the Associated Press: "When it's something that's historic, you have two options: restore it or let it rot." Guerra argued the site's skyline view could make it a destination comparable to Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.

What the vote does not settle is the paint

Nothing in the published reporting says what happens to the painted surfaces. Project architect Richard Heisenbottle told the Associated Press that renovations will have to include modern amenities and accessibility requirements, and that the galvanised steel rebar used in the original construction has protected the concrete from serious deterioration. Completed construction documents have already been permitted by the city.

So the building's future is decided and the surface's future is not. This is the point cities almost always reach when they bring a ruin back. Is thirty years of paint damage to be undone, or part of the record of what the building has been? Anyone who tells you that question has an obvious answer has usually already picked a side.

The practical lesson is to photograph the wall you have

Walls disappear without notice. Once a decision is made — restoration, demolition, a fresh coat — there is no time left to document anything. If there is a long-abandoned building near you, or a wall scheduled for work, the useful moment to photograph it is now.

You can check what is already recorded near you on the Wallscape map, and see what people have posted recently in the feed.

Sources: Associated Press, WLRN