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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSubmittal-Elvis Cruz-ArticleSubmitted into the public record for item(s) SR.1 on 05-13-2021, City Clerk Neighbors object but Miami renames park for developer I Miami Herald Miami renames a little park for a big developer. Critics say move 'disrespectful to history.' BY LINDA ROBERTSON APRIL 09, 2021 10:20 AM, UPDATED APRIL 12, 2021 11:15 PM It's a long name for a small place: Jose Milton Park at E. Albert Pallot Green Space. But Miami commissioners didn't hesitate Thursday to rename the cozy bayfront park on the Upper Eastside in honor of Milton, the late Cuban -American real estate developer and landlord who already has prominent remembrances in the park — a 5-foot-tall plaque embedded in granite and a 20-foot- tall M monument made out of giant dominoes. Commissioners voted unanimously and without discussion to approve the renaming on first reading despite objections from some people who live in the community. They wanted the park to remain named after the late Al Pallot, founder of Biscayne Federal Savings and Loan and a civic leader. The last thing they wanted was another reference to Milton, who built three apartment buildings in the neighborhood and whose family paid for a controversial redesign that replaced lots of green grass with pavement and made the outsized M the centerpiece of the park. "Once upon a time, Albert Pallot Park was a beautiful open space waterfront park," Upper Eastside activist Eileen Bottari wrote to commissioners, urging them to leave the name alone. "Now we have a park that has been covered with an obscene amount of cement and turned into some kind of pavilion to give adoration to a greedy developer. A large monstrous 'M' was constructed on the water's edge, painted red and white, and electrically lighted up every night at the taxpayers' expense." Jose Milton's family paid for a redesign that replaced lots of green grass with pavement and made an outsized domino sculpture the centerpiece of the park. The Milton family has defended the $2.5 million in improvements to the park, including a playground and baywalk, which they funded in exchange for apartment project approvals. They also paid for the $485,000 domino sculpture. The park is located two blocks east of Biscayne Boulevard at Northeast 38th Street and just north of the Julia Tuttle Causeway ramps. Peter Ehrlich, leader of the Urban Environment League and Scenic Miami, equated commissioners' action to "selling naming rights to waterfront parks." "It is disrespectful to history and it is disrespectful to residents," Ehrlich said. "Worse, commissioners just voted to change the name to a well-connected speculator." Geoffrey Bash, a homeowner on Northeast 39th Street for 20 years, spent hours at city planning meetings giving neighbors' input on refurbishment of the park only to be disappointed by the outcome in 2020. A treeless 30-foot-wide paved slab that was supposed to be a meandering shaded path along the seawall is as hot as a griddle most of the year. The Milton monuments were built larger than proposed. The baywalk halts at the park's edge rather than continuing north behind the Milton apartment building as planned. ?&12- S,Jbrni -F1zi I- CIV, Ay S G'u z -fi�l'e. Submitted into the public record for item(s) SR. on 05-13-2021, City Clerk "The community was not involved in this renaming, which is to be expected because Mr. Jose Milton never did anything but ignore this community and the issues caused by his apartment buildings," said Bash, who takes particular exception to the part of the inscription on the plaque that says, "This park, the surrounding community and his developments in South Florida remain a testament to the permanence of Milton's vision and the contributions of his extraordinary life." "Anybody can put words on a plaque, but this is a public park, not a private memorial, and I would call some of those words a misrepresentation of the facts," Bash said. It's not the first time a naming in tribute to Milton has generated dissension. Milton, who died at age 83 in 2013, founded J. Milton and Associates, which has developed more than 50,000 apartment and condominium units since 1963, when Milton left Cuba and arrived in Miami with only a bag of possessions and started over as an architect and builder. Milton was sued by the U.S. Justice Department in the 1980s and 1990s for racial discrimination against Black renters. Those cases were settled, the second with Milton paying a then -record $1.2 million in damages and penalties to the government. He admitted no wrongdoing. In 2015, Miami -Dade County commissioners voted 7-4 to name the 9500 block of Fontainebleau Boulevard in west Miami -Dade Jose Milton Way after heated debate about Milton's reputation as a landlord. Commissioners Audrey Edmanson and Daniella Levine Cara lamented a "pattern," of discrimination. A lawyer who sued Milton asked if the commission had "lost its mind." Other commissioners argued Milton shouldn't be judged on what his employees may have done in the past. Two weeks later, a new lawsuit was filed alteging raclel discrimination against prospective Black renters at a Milton property in north Miami -Dade, which Milton's sons denied. Commissioners immediately rescinded the naming of the street. But by 2016, the lawsuit had been dropped and commissioners approved naming a new tower after Milton at Jackson Memorial Hospital West, which had received a $10 million donation from the Milton family foundation. Six months later, county commissioners reversed their original reversal and passed a resolution sponsored by Javier Souto to create Jose Milton Way. Souto praised Milton as a developer, philanthropist and "tireless" parks advocate. Mayor Francis Suarez sponsored the Pallot park renaming. "My father loved that community and for years he wanted to do something special with that park," Joseph Milton, Milton's son and company CEO told the Herald when the park was being refurbished. He didn't return two phone calls Thursday. "Yes, controversies happened during his career. But he did great things for Miami to remedy the consequences of those controversies. How do you correct your mistakes — that's what makes the person."