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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/69cc430dac0df.image.jpg\")
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A resident sits on the curb along Northwest 18th Avenue.<\/p>\n
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)<\/p>\n
Following the McDuffie Riots \u2013 protests in response to the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating death of Arthur McDuffie in 1979 \u2013 the avenue faced decades of economic hardship and disinvestment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A native of Liberty City himself, Hardemon is determined to restore the 18th Avenue corridor to its former glory as a center of culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was born in Liberty City, I was raised in Liberty City, and I still reside in Liberty City,\u201d said Hardemon. \u201cWhen I was growing up, people were largely encouraged to do well and leave. That’s not something that I was interested in doing. I wanted to be able to come back to our community, sow my own seeds, and then make the community a better place for me and my children to live in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2006, Northwest 18th Avenue received an official designation as “Broadway Avenue\u201d to reflect the corridor\u2019s cultural legacy and its role as a mainstay for music, creativity and community life. In recent years, several steps have been taken to encourage the revitalization of the area, including the opening of the 305 Hip Hop Museum by Harewood and the proliferation of infrastructural improvements under Hardemon\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/69cc4bd70766d.image.jpg\")
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Trina is one of the many artists after whom a street along Northwest 18th Avenue has been named.<\/p>\n
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)<\/p>\n
Those infrastructural improvements include drainage, water and sewer upgrades, roadway pavement restoration, traffic calming measures, and sidewalk improvements.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have a lack of investment from the government and you don’t have a financial incentive for business owners to invest into the space, it usually goes into decline,\u201d said Hardemon. \u201cWhat our responsibility is as a government is to help change that, and we do that by creating an incentive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Incentives include financial motivators, land transactions and most recently, signage. In 2025, legislation introduced by Hardemon co-designated 24 streets and terraces along Northwest 18th Avenue with names inspired by local music artists, iconic songs and well-known lyrics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/69cc4c54e51dd.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
DJs featured at the event included Bo The Lover and Pure Funk DJs.<\/p>\n
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if we change how we feel about these areas, then largely the areas will begin to change themselves,\u201d said Hardemon.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The residents of Liberty City are ready for change. Despite the economic hardship they have endured, the community culture of the area still thrives. The 18th Avenue Coming to the Jam Block Party drew hundreds of residents from surrounding neighborhoods, including resident Cynthia \u201cShorty\u201d Dowell, who has lived in the area since 1991.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/69cc4b2b8e76a.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A group of women relax at the 18th Avenue Coming to the Jam Block Party.<\/p>\n
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in Liberty City every Friday,\u201d she said. \u201cI call everyone here my 18th Avenue fam.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the event, Dowell spent her afternoon dancing and chatting with friends along the avenue. For Dowell, 18th Avenue isn\u2019t just a commercial thoroughfare. It\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/69cc44674013e.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
18th Ave. Market is a grocery store serving the Liberty City community.<\/p>\n
(Elisabeth Campbell for The Miami Times)<\/p>\n
But the development isn\u2019t over yet. Harewood said his primary goal \u201cis to put a supermarket on 18th Ave.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to do my part as far as saving my community,\u201d said Harewood. \u201cI grew up in this community. I\u2019ve lived my entire life in this community\u2026 I just got to stick to the mission, and the mission is to make my community better than it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Hardemon, it\u2019s about serving the area\u2019s residents and the county as a whole.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 18th Avenue Coming to the Jam event was really an introduction to the projects that we’re making on 18th Avenue, but there’s still more to come,\u201d said Hardemon. \u201cWe still want to make greater investment in the park space, to give children an opportunity to actually recreate. We also want to ensure that many of those vacant lots that are there actually have development on them, and so we need to partner with people in the community to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hardemon hopes to involve his community in the revival of the area as much as possible. He hopes to create a buzz around the nation for Liberty City, giving it a reputation of rich Miami history, as well as food and music culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to ensure that 18th Avenue returns to being an entertainment center in Miami-Dade County,\u201d said Hardemon. \u201cWhat [the block party] was about was showing people that we can, in fact, have a great time on 18th Avenue\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday, March 28, ushered in a new era for the development of Northwest 18th Avenue, one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[97563,97568,225,227,226,24585,41806,97566,97565,97567,97564,97569,97562],"class_list":["post-213715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-305-hip-hop-museum","tag-arthur-mcduffie-riots-impact","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news","tag-keon-hardemon","tag-liberty-city","tag-liberty-city-block-party","tag-miami-music-history","tag-miami-neighborhood-revitalization","tag-miami-street-renaming","tag-miami-dade-county-development","tag-northwest-18th-avenue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}