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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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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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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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Grove Day and Movie Theater Mark the Rebirth of Coconut Grove

On June 5, Grove Day and the opening of the Paragon Grove 13 movie theater will mark the “rebirth” of Coconut Grove.

Grove Day was created by the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District (BID) as a way to provide entertainment, art, music, food and fun around the opening of the new Cocowalk theater. The day is part of a larger effort to bring families and locals back to the area.
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Coconut Grove Village Council Meeting Rundown for May

UPDATED

The May Coconut Grove Village Council Meeting included updates from community leaders, discussions about new developments and changes with Coconut Grove Sailing Club membership and information about an event to honor Grove peacocks.

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Gibson center would house elderly, offer classes

The proposed Gibson Community and Educational Center aims to provide affordable housing and an educational center for the Village West area of Coconut Grove.

It’s a collaboration among the University of Miami School of Education, the Theodore R. Gibson Memorial Fund, the Coconut Grove Collaborative, Inc. and Pinnacle Housing Group. Plans call for 54 units of affordable housing for the elderly, an educational center and a place where the community could come together.
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Farmers’ market serves up more than organic veggies

Coconut Grove’s Organic Farmer’s Market is held every Saturday — including holidays — from 10 to 7. The Grove’s Farmer’s Market is known for fresh and organic produce, alongside vegetarian and vegan dishes from Glaser Organic Farms.
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Time, bar patrons, please

For most bars in the city of Miami, “last call” has been 5 a.m. for many years.

But in June 2008, the city’s alcohol sales law was revised with a clause prohibiting businesses in the Coconut Grove central commercial district from selling alcohol past 3 a.m.

That could change on March 25, when the Miami City Commission votes on whether or not to allow bars throughout the City of Miami to apply for permits allowing them to serve alcohol until 5 a.m.

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UM students: Don’t blame Grove’s decline on closing time

While establishment owners and residential leaders spar over a mandatory 3 a.m. bar closing time in the Grove, an online survey of some of the Grove’s best customers – University of Miami students – suggests the area’s decline in popularity may not be only due to the change from the previous 5 a.m. closing time.

The unscientific poll, taken by 112 UM students on Facebook, found that 79% of students end their partying between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Only 12% of the students asked were aware of the actual time Grove establishments close and 58% said they often consider other party locations over the Grove.

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Grove community reacts to 3 a.m. closing time

It reads “Same A.M.” The small sign refers to the closing time of bars in the Coconut Grove area: 3 a.m., unlike that of most other establishments in Miami that close at 5 a.m. or later. The sign’s faded teal and orange letters are a testament to the conflict over a city ordinance that was passed in 2008 to change the closing time.

Some of Coconut Grove’s most popular establishments are reporting that the enactment of the ordinance is directly related to a decline in business.

“I’ve worked in the Grove for a while now and that 3 a.m. curfew has killed us,” said Ray Tabares, assistant manager of Chicago’s Steakhouse, located on Commodore Plaza.

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