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Coconut Grove youth groups help clean up our islands

Island E, located just off of the Sailing Club, used to be nicknamed “Dead Dog Island,” like some castaway’s nightmare or a pirate’s dream.  Needless to say, it used to be the type of island you couldn’t walk barefoot on, and you had to make sure your sleeves were thick enough for branch webs and mosquito colonies.  Now, you can easily beach your boat just in front of the wooden picnic table.  The table is one of many on the Island, one of sweet lunch spots near a coconut palm tree with a view of the glorious bay.  You can manage a walk through the native foliage, without the pesky exotic intruders clawing at your legs.  Now, you can admire the foliage that loyally belongs to Biscayne Bay and learn about them from the signs posted along the sandy trails.  This on-going transformation is being made possible by Ransom Everglades School, The Coconut Grove Sailing Club and the many volunteer groups and organizations that visit Island E.
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Grove crime update: Positive change, but there is still room for improvement

Residents, police officers and community volunteers all strive for Coconut Grove to be a safe and thriving neighborhood; however, crime in the Grove is as various and divided as the neighborhood itself.

“The biggest concern in all City of Miami NET areas is minimizing person crimes, such as battery and assault,” said Coconut Grove NET Area Commander Jorge Colina.

Overall crime percentages have decreased in the Grove. Assault and battery crimes had a 21 percent decrease with 37 taking place in 2009 and only 29 so far this year. Burglaries have also decreased 32 percent with 135 burglaries last year compared to 91 as of June 21.

In terms of crime, Coconut Grove also compares favorably to neighboring South Miami. According to the South Miami Police Department 2009 Annual Report, the city had four homicides and two rapes. For the same year, Coconut Grove had one homicide and two rapes. In the robberies category, South Miami experienced 42 robberies compared to 38 in Coconut Grove.

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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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Thelma Gibson – still giving in the Grove

Thelma Gibson remembers a time when news traveled through Coconut Grove by bicycle, not by Internet, television or even telephone. She recalls a community where everyone looked out for each other and Grand Avenue was a friendly place to socialize over an ice cream cone in the evening. Her memories come from a Coconut Grove much different from the neighborhood she still calls home today—one where her section of town was labeled “Colored Town”.

“Coconut Grove to me was a place where everybody was family,” said Gibson, 83. “A lot of us were from the Bahamas, and the Bahamians who came brought most of their relatives with them. We used to boast of knowing everyone.”

Gibson was born in Coconut Grove on Dec. 17, 1926, the sixth of 14 children, 11 of whom lived past infancy. She graduated from segregated George Washington Carver High School in 1944.

“All of the colored children – we knew our place and we stayed in our place,” Gibson said. “We knew we couldn’t go to the white schools, drink from the white fountains. But there was always a desire to make things better, to make things change.”
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Breakthrough Miami students help clean up a West Grove cemetery

The students, part of the Breakthrough Miami program, put a fresh coat of white paint on the graves and helped rake away leaves that had accumulated on the site over the months.

The program – which used to be known as Summerbridge Miami  -  is in its 17th year and is geared toward students from disadvantaged communities who want to get ahead in the school system.

Through after school tutoring, community service projects, extracurricular activities and a short summer program, the students are groomed for top high schools like DASH Academy, a magnet school in Miami’s design district, and MAST Academy.

The ultimate goal is to get the students into college.

“Most of these kids give up their summers for the three years they are actually in middle school. They are advancing their studies. When they come in as a sixth grader, they are doing eighth grade work,” said Jamael Stewart, a senior site director at Breakthrough Miami.

Founded in 1991 at Ransom Everglades, Breakthrough Miami is modeled after the original Summerbridge program established in 1978 at University High School in San Francisco

According to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics, only 7% of low-income eighth grade students complete a bachelor’s degree 12 years later, compared to 60 % of high-income students.

With a grant for $3.25 million from the Knight Foundation and the support of Ransom Everglades School, the administrators of the program say they plan to increase the number of students they serve from 300 to more than 1,100 by 2012.

Breakthrough Miami is currently looking for high school juniors, seniors and college students interested in teaching during the upcoming summer session, which runs from June 11 to Aug. 6.

The teacher internship application is online at https://www.breakthroughcollaborative.org/apply/app-2009-00bd.htm.

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Historic designation status of Ace Theatre could spark $2.3 million redevelopment plan.

Dorothy Wallace has spent 30 years trying to restore the Ace Theatre on Grand Avenue.

With the help of her daughter Denise Wallace, she is now trying to get historic designation status from the City of Miami’s Historic and Environmental Preservation Board – a move that would likely draw in part of the funds needed to reopen the theatre, a popular Saturday night hangout for blacks well into the 1950s.

Built in 1925, the theatre was bought by Denise Wallace’s father, Harvey Wallace, from Wometco Enterprises in 1979. Harvey had plans to build a five-story Bahamian Market Place, but died a year later. Denise hopes that with historic designation the theatre will receive grants to fund a $2.3 million project designed by Victor Morales, an architect with Cityscapes Group.

The plans, which could change, would allow for the creation of a new theatre and would include a small catering kitchen, a lobby bar and courtyard area; a second story with a VIP room and an area for community groups to meet as well as a bar and stage on the roof.

The family believes the design will preserve memories while serving the community as a successful business.

“It’s a silent relic. And I would love for it to give voice again,” said Denise Wallace, who remembers watching Tom and Jerry cartoons in the now gutted theatre.

Archival footage courtesy of: Beverly Counts Rodrigues

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Remaking Grand Avenue: What’s the deal on development?

About two years ago, a group of West Grove leaders viewed sketches of an 800,000-plus square foot shopping center touted by developers as “nothing short of spectacular”.

That project, the “Grove Village on Grand,” was proposed by Pointe Group Advisors, a real estate asset management company based out of Plantation.

“They presented a beautiful plan and a group of us walked with them to see where it would be placed. It looked really nice,” said Lottie Person, a recently retired member of the Coconut Grove Village Council.

“And most of the community was excited about one project,” Person said, referring to a Publix supermarket that developers wanted to build on Grand Avenue.

And then the community waited. For months residents thought it was not going to happen. Many complained that they did not know where the project stood.

“I don’t know what’s going on with Grand Avenue,” Person told a Grand Ave. News reporter in October.

“I’m just as confused as anyone,” Martin Zilber, former chairman of the Coconut Grove Village Council, also said at the time, attributing inaction in part to the downturn in the economy. “I would be surprised if anything in the next three to five years goes up just because of the economy.”

Residents long have been concerned that Grand Avenue was just a street for other South Florida residents and tourists to drive through on their way to CocoWalk and to other shops, restaurants and nightclubs in the Central Grove.

“The West Grove has been that way for some time,” said Sebastian Galvez, a West Grove resident who owns SoFlo Skate Shop on Grand Avenue. “The sidewalks don’t get cleaned; homeless people are still around; and there is still a ton of drug activity. Saturdays are great when they liven it up for the farmer’s market, but when they leave, they always leave it a mess. It looks like nobody takes care of the city.”

First signs of a spruce up for the thoroughfare began in 2005.

A $4.2 million facelift included the addition of benches on sidewalks and a narrowing of the roadway from four lanes to two and planting of trees in the median. Two years before that, Coral Gables attorney Julio C. Marrero purchased low-rise apartment buildings with plans of replacing them with mid-rise condominium complexes where units would start at $325,000.

But the beautification efforts and the demolition of buildings on the avenue brought cries of concern from longtime homeowners and renters who were afraid they would be adversely impacted with the influx of new, but not affordable, units. Neighbors who only pay $400 a month in rent in the affordable housing units said they were told that they might have to pack up and find a new place to live on little notice.

The buildings were leveled, leaving lots on six city blocks on Grand Avenue sitting empty, littered with “for sale” signs.

“Three years ago, everything kind of stopped,” said Galvez, who rents his store from Marrero.

“The whole idea has changed,” lamented Thelma Gibson, president emeritus of the Thelma Gibson Health Initiative, which is a subsidiary of the Theodore R. Gibson Memorial Fund Inc. The Rev. Theodore R. Gibson was a local civil rights pioneer who helped improve socio-economic conditions for Miami’s black community

Thelma Gibson had plans to build an educational center in her late husband’s name have been put on the back burner. Also a longtime civic and community leader from the West Grove, she applied for loans with two banks, but never got a response from one and was put on hold by another.

“It would mean everything to me to leave a legacy in my husband’s memory, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon,” she also said late last year. “Everything has come to a standstill.”

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Super Bowl brings football…and volunteers

More than a dozen people gathered in front of the Truesdell House Thursday to hear some good news: When the Super Bowl rolls into South Florida next year it will bring more than superstar athletes and football. An army of volunteers will come too.

More than 250 volunteers will flood Coconut Grove on Feb. 4—three days before kickoff—to revitalize five area homes. Working with Rebuilding Together Miami-Dade, current and former NFL players will donate time, money and materials for the day of community outreach.  Rebuilding Together Miami-Dade, is the local arm of a national nonprofit organization that fixes up the homes of low-income, elderly and disabled people. The organization has repaired 64 West Grove homes since 2006.

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Coconut Grove Village Council Elections

On November 3, Coconut Grove residents will go to the polls to elect their Village Council representatives. All nine spots on the advisory board are up for grabs as the current members’ four year terms expired this fall.

Two incumbents are not seeking reelection, current chair Martin Zilber and Village West activist Lottie Person. Person, who has lived in the Grove since 1999, said she wanted to give young voices an opportunity to be heard.

“Four years is enough for any one person. It is time to give someone else a chance,” she said.

The body was created in 1991 when the Grove was advocating secession. It communicates residents’ concerns over municipal services and development to the Miami City Council. While the council deals with issues affecting the entire Grove, Person is the only currently serving member representing the Village West.
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Discussion: What are the most pressing issues facing Village West today?

Let us know what are the most pressing issues in Village West today. What should the Village Council address first? Use the comments board below to voice your opinion.

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