Miami Prepares for 2013 March on Washington with a March of its Own

Miami Prepares for 2013 March on Washington with a March of its Own 

Story & Photos by José Pérez

As the historic milestone commerating the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington dawns in just days, leaders in Miami gathered to stage a pre-march against the backdrop of evidence that little has changed for Black America since 1963.

Dr Reverend Carl Johnson, pastor of the 93^rd Street Community Baptist Church which hosted the event, declared during the opening prayer for marchers that “we march for justice, jobs, peace, and freedom. Symbolically, we’re marching to tumble down walls.”

State Representative Cynthia Stafford acknowledged the contributions of people who participated in the 1963 march.   “You were marching for me when you marched for jobs, justice, and freedom.”

The march participants, who numbered approximately 200 people, began the procession with those at the front of the group singing “We’ve Come this Far by Faith” while only murmurs , good-natured laughs and Sunday morning gossip cascaded over the shuffle of feet at the rear.  The marchers paraded past abandoned houses and empty lots that dotted the landscape amidst proud houses and manicured lawns in North Central Miami-Dade County, many holding open umbrellas for relief from the strong August sun that was beating down upon them, some in their Sunday best, others in t-shirts and shorts, but all moving forward.

 

Goodwill Ambassadors from Miami-Dade County were passing out water at stations along the way to provide some relief for participants on a humid morning.

Also, PICO United Florida hosted a community prayer and march at Greater Bethel AME Church  in Overtown this week.  The event at Greater Bethel was a bon voyage ceremony for a tour that is scheduled to make stops and hold similar events along the way to Washington, DC in Sanford and Orlando, Florida, Atlanta and Durham, North Carolina.   The bus tour en route to this week’s March on Washington also pledged calling attention to ongoing civil rights and economic troubles for minorities in the United States.

Activist Ron Fulton, an uncle of the slain Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin, participated in the march at the 93^rd Street Baptist Church to fulfill a promise.  “I made a commitment a long time ago to do everything I can do to bring equal and fairness to our justice system and our community.  I’m hoping that this will be the start of civil rights and economic change.”

Speaking of the large divide between what he called the “haves and have nots,” Fulton expressed concern over possible backlash to any change that may come from entrenched sectors of the country. “It’s already dangerous because certain people don’t want to change.”

Algernon Austin, a researcher for the Economic Policy Institute, published figures that lends credence to Fulton’s statements. Those figures are sobering.  

Austin found that almost 50% of “poor black children live in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty.”

Additionally, wrote Austin, the same relative percentage of black grade school students (approximately 75%) attend “majority black schools” today as they did over forty years earlier.  Most of these de facto segregated schools are not on equal footing in terms of resources as schools with a majority of white students. 

 Austin’s research also revealed that unemployment figures for both blacks and whites have gone virtually unchanged since 1963, hovering at a 2 to 1 ratio.  The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) study also showed that the 2012 jobless rate for blacks (14%) is higher than the unemployment rate for the entire United States during the Great Depression (13%).

But having a job has not necessarily been good news either.  Austin’s work looked at how the past half century has not shown improvement for black workers in lower paying jobs.   The EPI report found that “after adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage today—$7.25—is worth $2.00 less than in 1968, and is nowhere close to a living wage.”

Signe-Mary McKernan and Caroline Ratcliffe of the Urban Institute found that “the average wealth of white families was $230,000 higher than the average wealth of black and Hispanic families in 1983. This gap grew to over $500,000 by 2010.”

It was in this context that the march was held in Miami as a precursor for the main celebration of the important civil rights milestone in Washington, D.C. 

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson and others pointed out that there are still battles to fight to achieve true equality and justice in the United States.  “We still need to fight and get together.”

Melonie Burke, a representative for Edmonson’s colleague on the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners, Jean Monestime, echoed that sentiment.  “It doesn’t stop.”

State Senator Dwight Bullard made the drive up from his home district in South Dade to join the rally held in front of 93^rd Street Community Baptist Church and offered contextual perspective.   “Let’s understand what we’re doing here.  We represent the manifestation of that dream so our commitment is to understand that our job is not done.”

Those comments about what Stafford referred to as a “dream deferred,” borrowing from poet Lorraine Hansberry, harkened back to the almost prophetic analysis of the 1963 march by Malcolm X.    In writing in his autobiography about the event and describing self-serving  individuals within the black community at the time (“the status seeker”) and the machinations of insincere whites in power at that time, X said somberly that “the black masses in America were--and still are--having a nightmare.”

This weekend in Washington, D.C. marks a second chance for the leaders and people of the United States to get it right and realize the dream made famous by Martin Luther King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

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‘This is our struggle’ – Homeowners take on County Hall, Developers

‘This is our struggle’ – Homeowners take on County Hall, Developers
story & photographs by José Pérez

The battle between homeowners and developers in the North Dade community that surrounds the old Westview Golf Course continues to escalate with litigation pending and stakeholders taking sides.  At issue is an amendment to Miami-Dade County’s Master Plan that was approved by the Board of County Commissioners in December.     For first-term County Commissioner Jean Monestime, who voted in favor of the amendment and whose district includes Westview, and developers Rosal Westview LLC, the plan makes good business sense bringing the promise of economic development to approximately 200 acres of empty and fallow golf course greens and fairways.  Longtime homeowners, however, see the initiative as a well-monied plan to bring warehouses, semi-trucks, and pollution to their front lawns.

After both an administrative challenge and a civil law suit were filed by homeowners last month, each side has hunkered down into trenches of silence with only attorneys and allies speaking about the case.   Monestime, for example, replied to a request for an interview from the South Florida Times via a message from an aide saying that the commissioner would not comment on the matter because of the pending hearings.   So, how long will the relative silence last?    The hearing for the administrative challenge to the Master Plan amendment is tentatively set for the week of April 10, 2013.  That hearing could be pushed back further because the developers have effectively jumped into the ring on the side of Miami-Dade County – after the April date was scheduled.  

The interim between now and April or whenever the State Administrative Tribunal finally hears the case does not look like it be quiet on all fronts.   The local chapter of the NAACP has taken notice of what is going on with Westview situation as part of what newly-installed President Adora Obi Nweze feels is a series of attacks on residents and homeowners in Miami-Dade on the part of developers.  “We are very concerned about the number of Black neighborhoods being affected,” Nweze says.  “We are watching the movement.”

In fact, both Nweze and attorney Greg Samms, a member of the Golf Park Homeowners’ Association, confirm that the NAACP is supporting the homeowners of the Westview area.   

Hoping to level the playing field, the homeowners have reached out to stakeholders like State Representative Cynthia Stafford.    “As a resident, I would be very concerned if a warehouse was going to be built near my home,” says Stafford who spoke about the serious problems that occur “when you change the character of a neighborhood.”   A protégé of Carrie Meek and – thanks to recent redistricting – the legislator that represents the Westview residents in Tallahassee, Stafford’s biggest concerns are the environment, infrastructure, and what she calls “peace and enjoyment” as but a few examples of the “myriad of issues that come with the changing of the character of a neighborhood.”

The worries about the environmental impact are shared by residents, the NAACP, and the elder statesman of local architecture and planning, Ronald E. Frazier.

Frazier says that planners and developers can “draw a pretty picture on a plan” but those plans do not always match the reality of how those plans are executed.   He points that while Rosal Westview’s plans call for buffering and other measures to mitigate negative impact on the residents, “that does not stop carbon dioxide, the volume of traffic noise, or the glare of security lights.”  

The big question about the future of the Westview area for Frazier is – regardless of which decision is handed down when all is said and done – “will [the area] be stabilized by this?”  This question about the future of Westview as a healthy middle class neighborhood is raised often.   If people are forced to leave their homes, Frazier asks, “what kind of negative impact will that have?”  Nweze adds that the proposed change will almost certainly result in “property values going down.”

“It is dashing oil and hot water on the American dream,” she says.

In an interview before the legal challenges were filed by the homeowners, Robert Kemp, who has owned his home facing the golf course for forty years, echoed that fear.  “We are afraid we are not going to get a return on our investment,” said Kemp. “Some people can’t move – we have to fight.”

“My professional opinion,” says Frazier, “is that this is the worst instance of spot and incompatible land use and zoning that I have ever seen.”  

A longtime resident of the Westview area, United States Congressperson Federica Wilson expressed her views on the issue via a written statement.   While validating the concerns of her neighbors, Wilson appears to regard the change to the use of the old golf course as a fait accompli.   “The developer was able to secure the change in the zoning laws that he sought,” in spite of what she called an “impasse” between the residents and Rosal Westview.  

Wilson charged the parties responsible for any changes in the Master Plan with making sure that the neighborhood’s standard of living is protected and it also “benefits from the financial gains that accompany” those changes.  

But there will be at least few more months, if not more, before any one knows what those changes will be.

“Everything is on hold,” says Samms, until all legal actions are “resolved.”

“We won’t succumb to the county commission’s outrageous decision.” Still, as plaintiffs in the administrative challenge and the civil suit in circuit court, the burden of proof will be on the homeowners.

Miami-Dade County Attorney Dennis Kerbel says that the homeowners “will have to show that the amendment is not in compliance with state law.”

The fight is a hard one for people like Kemp and Samms.  Samms is the only lawyer among them and all are trying hard to keep fighting what they believe is a good fight.   “We’re willing to dig in and fight as long as we have to,” declares Samms. “This is our struggle.”

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