Coconut Grove youth groups help clean up our islands

Announcement

Hurricane preparedness meeting for Coconut Grove, July 28th 2010

Wednesday, July 28th The Coconut Grove Village Council, Coconut Grove Net Office and Shell Lumber is inviting the community of Coconut Grove for an informational meeting on how to be prepared for a Hurricane as well as what to do during and after a Hurricane in the township of Coconut Grove.

The meeting will be held in the back of Shell Lumber located at 2733 SW 27th Avenue, Miami, Fl 33133. The meeting is being organized by Heather Bettner Coconut Grove Village Council Woman and Liza Gallardo-Walton the Coconut Grove NET Administrator.

Speakers will be:

Marcos Perez – City of Miami Police Department, Office of Emergency Management & Homeland Security

American Red Cross

Humane Society

Shell Lumber

Besides the informational meeting there will be refreshments served courtesy of Milam’s Market and Shell Lumber. Come out and see your neighbors and be prepared for this years Hurricane season.

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Arts

‘Cirque du Grove’ offers free fun for the Fourth

Will Soto takes a deep breath and perfects his footing trying not to look down at the dozens of people who watch him as he balances a slack rope and the 7 feet of air below his feet.

The energetic wire walker from Key West has been mesmerizing crowds from the Caribbean to Europe with his ability to walk the tight rope, the tight wire and what he calls “the hardest of them all” – the slack rope. And over the Fourth of July weekend, Soto brought his stunts to Grand Avenue and Virginia Street for Coconut Grove’s first-ever “Cirque du Grove: A Busker’s Carnival.”

“We wanted to create an all-weekend celebration for the Fourth of July,” said Richard Issa, special events coordinator for the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District, the producers of the free event that heralds Great Britain’s 1860s when “buskers” – performers and musicians – entertained audiences for tips or just to socialize.

“With new stores, restaurants and the new movie theater opened, we wanted to take this opportunity to invite people back into the Grove and show them all the great things we have to offer,” Issa added.
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Announcement

American Flags in Village West

As we celebrate this 4th of July 2010, we would like to thank the Coconut Grove Negro Women’s Club and the Ministerial Alliance for their generous sponsorship, which purchased and installed the 10 flags lining our Community. The American Flags, on 2 piece white spinning poles with a gold eagle, flying brightly between Jefferson Street and Grand Avenue to Margaret Street exemplify: strength, hardiness, valor; purity, innocence; vigilance, perseverance and justice.  These surely are the characteristics of The Grove (“Village West”). The same spirit was exemplified by our United States Armed Forces when it came time to protect and defend OUR right to pursue happiness through freedom of expression obtained by hard work and determination.
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Politics

June Village Council Rundown

The June Coconut Grove Village Council meeting focused on new developments, improvements, and changes in the Grove.

The most surprising change announced at the meeting was the resignation of CGVC Chairman Patrick Sessions who shocked the council with a prepared statement that cited unforeseen occurrences in his personal and business life as his reason for stepping down. However, Sessions also acknowledged conflicts between himself and city officials, which he felt had resulted in the unfair treatment of the CGVC and Grove residents, as another factor in his resignation.

“I am hopeful that whoever follows me will be able to mend some fences,” Sessions said. “I think the best thing I can do for the council and the constituents is to step down.”

Improvements at Ransom Everglades School and developments in the Village West were also brought before the council.
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Arts

Lack of Funding Causes Dance…Just Beautiful Dance Theater to Close

Dance…Just Beautiful (DJB) Dance Theater, which featured a child and adult dance company and offered adult dance classes, wellness classes and free dance classes to children, has closed due to a lack of community funding.

In an email to parents, friends and community members, Artistic Director Dennis James Breedlove wrote that DJB Dance Theater, located at 3686 Grand Avenue, would remain closed. Breedlove had been looking into other methods of funding or relocating but was unsuccessful.

“The company will not be re-opening its doors in Coconut Grove nor in the city of Miami,” Breedlove said.
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Politics

Open letter from Stephen Murray to Commissioner Gimenez regarding Affordable/Workforce Housing Project

Dear Commissioner Gimenez,

I would like to express my formal support of the proposed affordable housing project in Coconut Grove. After meetings with various stakeholders to discuss the plan, I now believe it is crucial that we as a community join together to back this project and allow it to go forward as soon as possible. Never before has there been such a viable, shovel-ready proposal that involves so many key community stakeholders (such as Thelma Gibson and the University of Miami). From my understanding, this proposal has been thoroughly vetted by Miami-Dade County staff and now eagerly awaits your approval.
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Sports

Sailing Camp scholarships available

The Coconut Grove Sailing Club is providing 15 sailing scholarships during the week of July 26 through August 6th.  The scholarship acceptance is based on the first 15 applications received which meet all criteria. A swimming test will be required on the first day of camp.

The Summer Youth Sailing Instruction Camp is for both sailing Club Members and Non-Members. Student Sailors will be classified as either Beginner, Intermediate, or Racing Level. A US Sailing Certified Instructor and several Junior Instructors supervise the classes. Campers must be between the ages of seven to fourteen years old. Camp will begin weekdays at 9:00 am and end at 4:00 pm each day and will be held rain or shine.
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Politics

Grove agency’s departure leaves questions, concerns, calls for audit

A neighborhood organization created 30 years ago to boost economic development in the West Grove has been missing in action in the community and is no longer receiving funding from its major contributor, the city of Miami.

According to public records provided by the city, the Urban Empowerment Corporation, whose mission was to create jobs and provide affordable housing in the community, has been without funding since September.

“The services that they were providing were not up to par,” said Lillian Blondet, assistant director of the city’s Department of Community Development.

More than a year ago, the city began receiving complaints from residents that the UEC office at 3672 Grand Ave. was closed. City officials called some of the businesses that were created by the UEC and housed at the organization’s headquarters, but many were no longer in operation, said George Mensah, the department’s director. By June of last year, the UEC office had closed completely, he said.

In September, former City Manager Pedro G. Hernandez formally wrote the UEC’s executive director, Cecilia Holloman, to clear up issues the city had with the organization, which received more than $500,000 from the city from 1998 to 2001 and 2007 to 2009.

“The city understands the need to support small businesses and to provide technical assistance through local agencies such as UEC,” Hernandez wrote. But in the letter, he itemized the city’s concerns, which ranged from the agency’s closed doors to discrepancies the city had noted with the UEC’s monthly budget figures.

However, it was a lack of UEC’s productivity that led to the city’s decision, Mensah said.

“We didn’t think it was appropriate to provide funding to an agency that was winding down,” he said.

Holloman, who had been a consultant to the city of Miami and a consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Training and Technical Assistance Center, took over in January 2007, said she did not want to comment about the status of the organization

“I don’t have anything to say about it,” she said in a brief telephone interview in May. “UEC is not in Coconut Grove.”

Some community leaders are asking why.

The Coconut Grove Village West Homeowners and Tenants Association passed a resolution at its March meeting calling for an audit of the UEC, said Jihad Rashid, the association’s second vice president and former interim director of the UEC. The group sent its request to Mensah, Blondet and several commissioners including Marc Sarnoff, Rashid said.

David Alexander, the UEC’s first executive director, and community activist Thelma Gibson, back the tenants association’s call for an audit.

“I really don’t know who the group is anymore,” said Gibson, a former UEC consultant when Alexander headed the group.

The organization, originally known as the Coconut Grove Local Development Corporation, formed in 1980 as a nonprofit set up by the Miami City Commission.  Alexander served as executive director for 15 years, followed by Rashid as an interim director, then by the late Yvonne McDonald, who took over in 1999 through the end of 2006.

UEC board chairman and developer Manuel Alonso-Poch said he was outraged that Rashid and Alexander were questioning the agency’s integrity.

“It’s galling for them to be asking for account,” Alonso-Poch said. “They were not part of the solution but part of the problem.”

The organization often has been plagued by internal squabbles and has come under city scrutiny.

When McDonald took over from Alexander and Rashid in 1999, the group had a net operating loss of $259,000 in 1998 and $148,000 in 1999, according to a September 1999 audit.

In 2000, the Miami Commission turned down the group’s request for $750,000 after learning the agency sold a building it owned at 3671 Grand Ave. for $16,000 – one-fifth of the $90,000 it paid in 1994 to buy it. And in 2002, Miami Commissioner Johnny Winton said he could no longer support city funding of the organization, citing the group’s lack of productivity in building affordable housing.

The only large-scale accomplishment by the nonprofit has been a single-family development, the Grovepoint project, said Coconut Grove Village Council member Renita Samuels-Dixon. Grovepoint’s 32 single-family homes were built along U.S. 1 under Alexander’s direction.

City officials say they did their best to monitor the UEC and won’t be investigating funds already given to the organization, with the exception of the 3659 property the UEC purchased for $160,000 in 1994, possibly with the help of a $120,000 city grant, Mensah said.

The project, which was slated for a mix of commercial and residential units, did not materialize. Instead the UEC sold it in 2008 for $750,000.

“If the city gives them the money to secure the property, then that comes back to the city,” Mensah said.

For her part, Village Councilwoman Samuels-Dixon does not fault the UEC if it was not able to make progress in the Grove.

“In recent years, it’s probably been struggling to identify its market,” Samuels-Dixon said.

“You look on Grand Avenue and it’s blighted,” she added, “but you can’t blame that on the UEC.

Still, accountability is called for, Samuels-Dixon said.

“What’s important to me as a person from the community is that we at least know how much public money was provided and from that how much was used.”

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Letters to GrandAveNews.com

On being stopped by the cops and other grievances

I am a part-time U.S. census worker. On Saturday, May 22, I was walking from the 3400 block on Day Avenue, where I had parked my car, toward McDonald Street to look for addresses that I had to do in my census binder. Two Miami-Dade police officers passed me headed in the same direction.

As I approached Indiana Street, the two officers stopped in the middle of Day Avenue and turned around as I passed. I crossed 32nd Avenue (McDonald Street) and started looking at my papers to see where I wanted to start. On the corner of Gifford Lane and Day Ave, I saw a police car behind me. I said to myself, “I know he isn’t following me.”

The officer exited his vehicle and stated over his radio, “I have her now.”

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