Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutSEOPW OMNI CRA 2005-01-22 MinutesLOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED Page 1 of 40 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED Description Date 1/22/2005 Location Overtown Town Hall Meeting Time Speaker Note 10:09:50 AM Commissioner Jeffery Allen The meeting will be starting momentarily, so if you will, please begin to take your seats. If there's any stragglers outside enjoying the continental breakfast, I would hope that someone would please escort them in. 10:19:32 AM Convene Present: Commissioner Jeffery L. Allen, Priscilla A. Thompson, City Clerk, Joe Arriola, City Manager, Chief John F. Timoney, James Villacorta, Assistant City Attorney, Ana Gelabert, Director, Planning & Zoning Department, Lourdes Slazyk, Assistant Director, Planning & Zoning Department, Jorge Cano, Deputy Director, Capital Improvement Projects (CIP), Charles Byrd, Assistant Director, Economic Development, Francis Mitchell, Assistant Director, Public Works, Daniel Rosemond, Assistant Director, Community Development, Kristopher Smith, Overtown NET Director, Otto Boudet-Murias, Senior Advisor/Economic Development, City Manager, Steve Wright, Policy Advisor, Commissioner Sanchez, Brian Clarke, Senior Advisor, Mayor, Cornelius Shiver, Chief of Staff, Commissioner Allen, Karen C. Cooper, Senior Assistant to the Chief Administrator, Brenda Lee, Special Aide/Office Manager, Commissioner Allen, Patricia Anderson, Special Aide, Commissioner Allen, Frank Rollason, Executive Director, Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), William R. Bloom, Special Counsel, CRA 10:19:56 AM Commissioner Allen This morning is a very important day for me because it provides me with an opportunity to address my constituents in our Overtown area and hear concerns of our citizens and constituents. However, 1 d like to take a brief moment of prayer, please, before we start, if you will. 10:20:26AM. Prayer Now, let me just, if I will, take perhaps a minute or two just to, if you will, reflect on a personal note as relates to me. I must tell you, this is a moment of grace for me. It truly is, and it's largely because, as a youngster, I grew up here in Overtown. I remember vividly file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED . Page 2 of 40 10:20:59 AM 10:23:50 AM 10:28:01 AM 10:28:31 AM Commissioner Allen Commissioner Allen Commissioner Allen Joe Arriola (City Manager) attending Dunbar Elementary, and of course, taking that trek, if you will, or walk to the grand opening of West Dunbar Elementary. It was my family's thought to continue with my entire teenage life in living in the Overtown area, but as a great many of you know, unfortunately, the construction of 1-95, in effect, dismantled the true character and nature of Overtown, so having said that, this area is dear to me. It's passionate. I find myself in a peculiar position because what I'd like to do is make sure that we continue the character of Overtown. We continue to make Overtown one of the better sections in District 5, and throughout the entire City of Miami, and to that end, I'm going to need your help up here to help me in my efforts, and that's why I decided to take this position, because I want to provide that leadership that our district needs. I want to provide the type of affordable housing that our district needs; improve the quality of life and a number of other areas that we will discuss throughout this town hall meeting. Now, before I segue to the agenda, I also want to tell you that I'm pleased and happy to see that the entire City of Miami departments are here. That's pretty unique and pretty outstanding, I would say, because it's a testament to the interest that they have for this district, and particularly, Overtown. [Introductions of City staff present.] At this point, we have a very voluminous agenda. I'm pretty sure everyone has a copy of that agenda. I'd like to take this time now, if I could, to have a comment from the Mayor's Office. Could someone do that? Just, please, give us a brief comment from the Mayor's Office; any issues that are significant that needs to be addressed with respect to the constituents of District 5, Overtown. I'll speak for the Mayor. On his behalf, he asked that we tell you how important this whole project and what we're doing here today is to him. He's been in office for three years, and overall, he's felt that this is the one area of the City that has sort of been abandoned for the last 30 years or so, and of the utmost importance has been to see the growth of Overtown, getting Overtown to where it belongs and where it deserves, so he's asked to just express this because he's sore about not being here, but he's really, really under the weather. Joe, if I may chime in quickly. A few more acknowledgements, if you will, because this is very file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELCTRONICALLY RECORDED • Page 3 of 40 10:29:40 AM 10:30:47 AM Commissioner Allen Mr. Arriola important. It just shows how we're one big, happy family here, with respect to the City in behalf of our constituents, and that would be from Commissioner Sanchez, who's the Chairman of our board. Steve White, the policy advisor, he's in the rear over there with his lovely wife. As you know, it's so very important that we all work in tandem as the entire Commission, as the initiative avails the Commission, as well as the balance of the City departments. OK, so at this point, if I could, I'd like to turn it over to Joe to give us your spiel from the City Manager's Office. I think that the City of Miami is at a real crossroads. District 5 has been at the tail end for too many years. We want to make sure that District 5 gets its fair share. The people in District 5 need it. Given the opportunity, we could rebuild and bring the right economic development, housing, and take care of those people. I was blessed that I don't need to work anymore, but I'm doing this because there is a tremendous need in this community, to get everybody involved in the growth and the business that's going on. I think we need to work together to create the beginning of the process. Nothing happens if we fight and complain and get nothing developed. It's disturbing for me that we go on and on and keep talking about things and I don't see things coming off the ground. I don't see development or job creation in this area. I could tell you that I know how to do it. I want to do it. We have the intention of doing it, but we really need to stop fighting and bickering. We know what we're doing. We have done it all over the City. We need to, once and for all, bring everybody in the City of Miami to an equal playing level. It's so upsetting when I see the constant bickering. We have the will and the desire and we have some resources to do it. We really need to stop the bickering and fighting and give us a little slack, and I promise you, we'll build it. You will not recognize District 5 in 12 months. I'm not talking five years from now. I'm not talking ten years. I'm making promises that the City of Miami will deliver, within the next 12 months, economic development in District 5, but all we need is a little peace so we can get it done. Stop listening to the rumors. There's not a single person in this room that can say that they wanted to meet with me and sit with me and talk to me, that I have not been available for them. If you hear a rumor or you hear something that's going on, please don't listen to it. Call me. I'm always available, file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS EI CTRONICALLY RECORDED • Page 4 of 40 10:35:58 AM Mr. Arriola day and night. I don't care, but what really kind of upsets the Administration is that we hear all the rumors and nobody comes to us to talk about the rumors, and people are saying that the Administration is not available. I'm saying, what administration are you talking about? My door's open. Karen Cooper will tell you that my administration is open, at all times, any day; Saturday, Sunday, day or night, but please give us the opportunity to prove to you that we can do this. We can do it. We will do it, but what we need is a little peace at home for a few months so we can get things done. 1.037:32 AM Commissioner Allen The City Manager understands my moniker for the district, that is "Prosperity Initiative," so today, he is very helpful with my office and seeing to my district that we put together a strategic plan, where -- and you guys are going to see this -- these dreams and this vision come to fruition, and of course, that includes affordable housing. Now, if I may, before we bring in our Police Chief, Mr. Timoney, I need to segue quickly back to our City Clerk, just so she could reiterate the ground rules for today's town hall meeting. Madam Thompson. 10:38:14 AM Priscilla A. Thompson (City Clerk) We have just a little bit of housekeeping that we need to take care of, so we can make sure we have an official record of this meeting. The first thing that we would like to call to your attention is the fact that, if you are going to speak, at each of the podiums, you will see a speaker sign -in sheet. We ask that you print your name and your address on that sheet. Once you come on to the microphone, you will also have to state your name and address for the record. Next, if there's any copy of any documents that you're reading into the record, or that you wish to have submitted to the record, you must make sure to give me a copy of those documents. If I don't have them, I cannot include them in the record, and that's it. 10:39:02 AM Commissioner Allen Introduction of Police Chief John F. Timoney. 10:39:22 AM Chief John F. Timoney (Police) Over the last two years, we've gotten crime under control. We are committed to this area. I live on 17th and Biscayne. I ride my bike over here on a regular basis, and so we are really familiar with the area and the community. We are making Overtown a safer place in which to live and to work. We also deal with the quality of life, which I know the Mayor is committed to and I agree, whether it's planting shrubbery, or flowers or paintings, and so there is a commitment, not just on the part of the City, but on the part of the file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELCTRONICALLY RECORDED • Page 5 of 40 Police Department to improve the quality of life for the citizens of Overtown. 1.0:41:02 AM Commissioner Allen Introduction of Kristopher Smith, Overtown Neighborhood Enhancement Team (NET) Administrator 10:41:23 AM Kristopher Smith, Overtown NET Administrator I would like to briefly touch on four areas that pretty much cover the important issues. One is the way the area looks. As you know, with Solid Waste and with the help of Code Enforcement, we've began to undertake beautification efforts. We need to do more. Call our office if you see any illegal dumping. It's very critical that we get our arms around illegal dumping and the waste that we see around multifamily buildings. We have an upcoming event in partnership with the CRA and the Black Archives, called the Red Velvet Arts Festival. I encourage you all to come out. We have the Gibson Park development underway. We're working with CIP to help strengthen the first source hiring agreement to have some efforts made to bring some jobs to the neighborhood. Make sure that you take advantage of the opportunity to be involved. 10:47:21 AM Commissioner Allen He's done a tremendous job as I've been appointed as Commissioner of District 5, and he's also been terribly helpful to me because he is the direct pulse in the community, and he's the best person that can give a full picture of the concerns of the citizens. We're going to segue to the presentations by the City of Miami departments, and this has to do with the prosperity initiative. Introduction of Jorge Cano, Deputy Director, Capital Improvement Projects. 10:48:42 AM Jorge Cano, Deputy Director, Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) Police Precinct Project: An incredible project, nearly $1,500,000. This project never would have happened without the perserverance and the work and cooperation of the community. The Commissioner's office, the retired police officers played an instrumental part in raising funds, and City staff in helping put the project together. We already have a ground breaking of the police precinct next month. The black police precinct was built in 1950 to serve the Overtown black community. It's going to be totally restored, with a police museum, and most important will be the tutoring facility for the children of Booker T. Washington high school and several of the elementary schools in the area. I retired from the City of Miami Police in 1973. I had 20 years of service, and it's one of the most gratifying tours of duties that I have. About 20 years ago, we file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 6 of 40 10:51:12 AM William Calhoun began to ask kids about the City of Miami Police and they didn't know who we were. They didn't know that we were at 470 Northwest 11th Street at that time. They didn't know that we policed this area alone at that time. We figured maybe we're missing something, and what that was is our history. If we don't remember our history, we're destined to make the mistakes again, so we need to begin to school our kids on our history, and that's what this museum is about, the history of the City of Miami black policemen, the good and the bad, and the beginning through now. We're going to need the community's support because it's a community project, and it's not us alone; it's all of you. We're hoping that you all will participate in it. What we propose to have is that we're going to have pictures and tapes and those things for you to go through the museum and play, and it will be directing you to different items in the history. We're supposed to have tutoring sessions for our local schools because we have to understand that we have to put something back; otherwise, it goes dry. 10:54:41 AM Mr. Cano The next project that we have is Gibson Park. It's over $1,000,000 project that includes concession stand, and general renovation to the facilities. Right now, the project is going through the initial work. Within about a year, you will have a totally restored Gibson Park . We also have major projects in design; Athalie Range Mini -Park Number 1 and Reeves Park improvements, as well. 10:57:35 AM Commissioner Allen Explain source of financing for these projects. 10:57:43 AM Mr. Cano In November 2001, the citizens of Miami voted in favor of the Homeland Defense Neighborhood Improvement Bond, a total of $255,000,000, for everything from public safety, streets and drainage, parks and recreation and quality of life initiatives. The projects that you're seeing come to fruition right now are funded through this bond. 10:58:24 AM Commissioner Allen Thank parents who brought their youngsters to the meeting. Introduction of presentation by Planning Department. The Planning Department is currently working with the CRA in the implementation of the SD-16 special zoning district. The SD-16 is a series of special districts that cover Southeast Overtown/Park West. The community participated in the redevelopment plan process with the CRA and expressed a lot of their views and visions of what the redevelopment plan file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 7 of 40 10:58:45 AM Lourdes Slazyk • should be for Southeast Overtown/Park West. What we're doing with the CRA now is actually implementing some of the zoning changes in order to promote good urban economic development, based on the input received from the community in that process. The proposed amendments will also clean up some of the older obsolete language for the Overtown portion of this. The SD-16 includes design review, which is one of the most important components of good planning for the Southeast Overtown/Park West area. Through the design review process, we make sure that things are compatible with the vision of the neighborhood. These amendments are anticipated to go through the adoption process in the spring. They will remain in place until the regulated plan through the CRA is ready for adoption, probably in about a year or so. 11:01:00 AM Commissioner Allen Introduction of Daniel Rosemond, Assistant Director, Community Development. 11:01:15 AM Daniel Rosemond, Assistant Director, Community Development One of the things that I want to explainabout the Department of Community Development, by way of history, is that our funding comes almost entirely from the federal government, and so with that being said, the way that we undertake programs and the things that we want to do in the City of Miami has to operate within the boundaries, regulations and guidelines of the federal government, which, in many cases, we have found that the things that we want to do take time to be developed because they have to fall in line with the federal regulations. We',re working very hard to try to readdress the way that we approach things; to take a more proactive approach, a more hard approach to being able to hold people accountable to specific deadlines. We want to see some things come to fruition. I want to invite you all to our public hearing for District 5. It will be at Charles Hadley Park, and it's going to be at 6 o'clock on Monday, January 24. It's an opportunity for us to hear from you all on the record about specific programs and activities that are important to you. It's really, really important that we have your participation. 11:04:47 AM Commissioner Allen Introduction of Frank Rollason, Executive Director, CRA. 11:05:36.AM Frank Rollason, Executive Director, CRA It's good to see we got a pretty good turnout here today, and I know there's a lot of things on the agenda, so I want to go over some things from the CRA kind of quickly, and then I'll be available afterwards if anybody has any questions. file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 8 of 40 11:05:55 AM 11:06:04 AM ............. . 11:09:22 AM Commissioner Allen Mr. Rollason Mr. Rollason Could you sort of explain the boundaries, so we understand that this doesn't encompass the entire CRA? That's one of the things that I wanted to hit on. Up on stage is a map that shows the area of the Southeast Overtown/Park West CRA, and that is the district that has been set under Florida Statute through the County and with the City to identify an area that meets the conditions of slum and blight and needs to be redeveloped. The taxes that come from this area is what funds the CRA. We receive the County taxes and we receive the City taxes. Those taxes that are above the certain base line is what we receive on an annual basis to put into projects to help redevelop the area, called tax increment financing. In the past, the way the money has been utilized is, on a year-to-year basis, projects have been identified and funding has been tagged to those projects, and then the attempt is made to go through and get the projects completed, and then sometimes priorities change, projects are shifted and funding shifts. For the last couple of years, we've been trying to get a handle on the projects that have been hanging and have not been completed, and get them to some point of fruition, where you can see something happening, and those are the several projects I want to talk to you about today. The first project I want to talk about was started at the CRA before I came on board. After I came to this office a couple of years ago, we found that the project is not within the boundaries of the CRA. When the CRA was put together, it was done at two separate times. Southeast Overtown/Park West, on the northern boundary, borders the south side of 395, and then when the Omni was put in, they bordered the north side of 395, and it wasn't thought to put 395 in either one of the CRAs. As a result of that, when the parking project was brought to the light to put parking that was greatly needed in the Park West area underneath 395 for the clubs, the CRA got involved in doing that project, only to find that the area is not within the CRA, so we've done several things since then. Number one, the Department of Off-street Parking has picked up that project. It's under construction now, and by March or April of this year, that project will be completed and will provide in excess of 300 parking spaces underneath 395, which are greatly needed in that area, especially in the club district and the restaurant area on the lower side in Omni. The other thing that the CRA did, or that the Commission did, was that in file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELE TRONICALLY RECORDED Page 9 of 40 11:11:48AM Mr. Rollason the update of the Southeast Overtown/Park West Plan - - which the final action on that by the City will come before the City Commission either in February or March, before it's sent to the County for their approval - - is the boundaries were expanded, and what we did was, on one of the expansions, we put 1-395 with the Southeast Overtown/Park West area. Not that it will generate any money because it won't generate any taxes, but what it will do is allow us to expend funds to do improvements in that area. Another project that was hanging was the Grand Promenade. That area is going to be renovated on an interim basis because there are some brand-new plans for that area in the future. Two other projects that have been hanging literally for years in the Overtown area are Jackson Soul Food Restaurant and Just Right Barbershop. The project at Just Right Barbershop has broken ground. Hopefully, in a few short months, that entire barbershop is going to be redone and brought up to state-of-the-art. Jackson Soul Food Restaurant, which is a $700,000 project or so, we have a problem there. We talked about rumors and the Manager talked about rumors, where people are wondering why things are not happening. The reality there is we've got a problem with that billboard that's been put up on that parking lot next door to Jackson Soul Food Restaurant, and the CRA Board has taken the position that they don't want that billboard. There's not an awful lot that we can do about it because it's allowed by zoning, but it just so happens that there's a deed restriction on that particular piece of property that says that you can't have that, so until we get that billboard issue squared away, we're not moving forward with the construction on the restaurant. That project is on hold for the moment, although it's fully funded. What the Board has decided to do in the future is that they want to bond out the amount of TIF (Tax Increment Fund) that we receive, and what that means is that we will take a projection on the amount of taxes we're going to receive over the next 10 or 15, and the combination with the City, instead of using that money directly to do projects, we'll use that money to fund a bond, and we'll be able to provide a lot more money up front then we'd be able to do the projects year-to- year. What that does is that, when you go to sell these bonds or put your packets together, you have to have the projects identified and publicly state those projects so that the public knows what they're going. in debt for, and that does several things: Number one is it locks file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED ® Page 10 of 40 11:16:46 AM 11:23:47 AM 11:25:30 AM 11:26:50 AM Mr. Rollason Mr. Rollason Commissioner Allen William Bloom, Special Counsel, CRA those projects in, and number two, it keeps that money from being shifted from one project to another, much the same as the Homeland Defense. One of the projects that we're talking about doing in the Overtown area is water and sewer upgrades, and that's one of the primary things that the CRA should be doing to attract developers. We're also looking at trying to get 11th Street completely rebuilt, from Biscayne Boulevard to 1-95, and that's what's within the CRA. We want to do some work on Northwest 3rd Avenue, from 8th to 14th Street, and that has been a project that was discussed the last time we started talking about putting out bond. There's talk of a trolley on Northeast 2nd Avenue and we need to look at that, and I've been pushing hard to try to get it to go maybe a little bit further west in some areas. The Ward Rooming House is just about the last piece left that has any historical significance to the Overtown area. There isn't much left of the Ward Rooming House. We're in the process now of coming up with a plan to try to save the front area and put walls and a roof back on it so that it can get historical designation through the City's Historical Preservation Board, so we can go forward and try to get some money from the State to restore it. It's in such terrible shape now that it doesn't qualify to get any money from the State. Another program we have is with the National Development Council, and they have a fund called the Grow Miami Fund, and we have a lot of workshops in the Overtown area to make you aware that there is money available for businesses. I know there will be a question and answer period, and I'll be here to answer any questions you have pertaining to the CRA. Introduction of presentation by William Bloom, Special Counsel, CRA. In 1991, the City had an RFP (Request for Proposals) with respect to the Sawyer's Walk development. The project consisted of Tots 55, 56 and 45. The developer was never able to establish that he had the financing, so there was never a lease executed, and ultimately, in 2000, the CRA/City filed suit against the developer; that suit is currently pending. At the same time, there's another project, Poinciana Village, where there was an RFP issued by the City. The developer of that project executed a lease and they developed the first phase of Poinciana Village, containing 64 units. The second phase of Poinciana Village was high-rise containing 91 units. The lease provided that there were certain file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED Page 11 of 40 • • 11:30:02 AM 11:33:35 AM 11:37:54 AM Commissioner Allen Reverend Mark Coats Earlic Crane conditions that had to be satisfied prior to the second phase being added to the lease, and the CRA determined those conditions were not satisfied and took a judgment action against Poinciana Village, seeking a termination and no further rights in phase two of Poinciana Village. In both instances, the developer of Poinciana Village and of Sawyer's Walk, Limited made a counterclaim against the City and the CRA. At this point, we are in settlement negotiations with Sawyer's Walk, Limited and Poinciana Village. This issue of Crosswinds has been a long-standing issue in this community. I will tell you this, since my appointment, I take upon myself to take a leadership role and make sure that any development that comes to the Overtown area will be inclusive of not only black Americans, but Overtown residents. Introduction of presentation by Crosswinds Development. We're happy that we have a Commissioner in the district who is true to his constituents. I was raised in Overtown and I've been getting my hair cut at Just Right Barbershop for the last 20 years, so I'm glad to see some things happening. There are a few reasons why I joined this team. It is good to see a group who want to come to an area that has been blighted for such a long time. As the Commissioner and others have said, Overtown has had many promises, many plans, but no projects. For once, I'm happy to see Ms. Sawyer's family be able to reap some of the monies that it should have reaped a long time ago, through the Crosswinds stepping up to be a part of the lawsuit settlement. The other reason I joined this team is because there are a lot of Overtown folks who have moved out of Overtown into South Dade, into Broward and the like, and this is a great opportunity to get sorne of us to come back in town to place our monies back in the places where we grew up. I'd like to invite to the mic, Earlic Crane, who is the vice president of Crosswinds, and he will further talk about the project. I'm especially excited to be here for a couple of reasons. One, we've been very excited about the opportunity to participate in the redevelopment of Overtown. It's a project we've been working on for a couple years now, and we're excited and committed to trying to get this project to work. Secondly, I come from Detroit, Michigan, where there's a lot of snow, so I'm always excited and look forward to spending as much time down here as possible. The company was founded back in 1971. It's a privately held firm. We've file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 12 of 40 been able to participate in a number of urban revitalization projects very similar to Overtown. Our firm does over 1,500 residential units a year nationally. We're one of the largest private held real estate development companies in the country. We do build primarily for sale single-family condominium/townhome and attached and detached projects. That's really our forte. We're one of the few full -service development firms that are privately held. Our national division is based here in Florida. 11:44:14 AM Commissioner Allen Introduction of presentation by Matthew Schwartz, Crosswinds Development 11:47:48 AM Matthew Schwartz I want to thank M.rs. Sawyer. I also want to thank the many people that actually planned this community vision for Southeast Overtown. I hope the next time we come here we don't show another rendering; we show an actual picture of what it looks like. If this project is approved by the City on this coming Thursday, we will begin construction probably a year from now. We will start in about six months or earlier at the sales office, but we're going to start community outreach to identify the residents that want to live in this development. 11:48:07 AM Commissioner Allen We made sure that we created market opportunities for Overtown residents, as well as formal Overtown residents, and job opportunities for minorities. To that end, we were also successful in negotiating an affordable housing component to this development; it's about 20 percent affordable housing units. We also were successful and managed to get 50 deeply subsidized units for Overtown residents who fall well below a certain median income. In addition to that, you can also see that we negotiated a first source housing agreement, making sure that the residents of Overtown and within the City get those employment opportunities, and they will be first in line to take advantage of it. We also created a construction employment training program with respect to this. That's going to be very helpful for those young individuals who are willing to move into the economic mainstream. Now, the net result of all of this is that it will create tremendous opportunities for citizens of District 5. This will enable us to become full-fledged members of the economic mainstream. I just want to say that this has actually been a very rewarding experience working for the Commissioner's office. We've been involved in several very difficult and very complicated negotiations to get to the point file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 13 of 40 11:50:56 AM Steve Bullock where we are today. I think that everyone will benefit from this particular development. I think you'll see that Crosswinds is going to provide an excellent project for the community, and the community itself is going to benefit, as the Commissioner has outlined, in terms of opportunities to actually purchase in the development as well as having job opportunities made available to the community. 11:51:39 AM Commissioner Allen We'II now open the floor for public comments and these comments can address any of the issues that are on the agenda. There is a three -minute time limit that is imposed with respect to the comments. 1.1:52:23 AM Ms. Thompson There should be a sign -in sheet at the podium. If anyone has come up and removed the sign -in sheets, please return them to the Clerk, please. 11:52:43 AM Commissioner Allen I was handed a note that Steve Wright, from Chairman Sanchez's office, will have to leave shortly, and again, we want to thank you for coming out and being a part of this. 11:55:30 AM Elsie Hubbard I am president of Town Park Village #1. My concern is that we went before the City Commission before Commissioner Allen came on board, and the City Commission voted for us to get funds from Model City to fix our project out there. That place is 34 years old. We have mostly senior citizens out there and they need help very bad. I want to thank the City Manager for all he has done for us. We go to the City Manager like he's over District 5. He has done so many wonderful things for Overtown. The children in Overtown don't even know who the Chief is because he very seldom come to Overtown. I'm not afraid anymore because, as long as the City Manager is there, we're going to get our share of what's due to us. I'm asking him to look into this project that you all voted on for us and make sure that we get the funds that you all voted on, and I really, really appreciate what you did for us and thank you very much. You're the most popular man in .Overtown. Thank you. 11:58:33 AM Roy Hardemon Commissioner, I want to thank you for conducting this hearing. I have some concerns. I heard the Manager mentioned bickering. I take that to heart because ever since Gwen Cherry got killed in Tallahassee, she was fighting to make sure that the African Americans owned something in Overtown, and the reason we keep going back and forth is because every time somebody represents us, they just happen to be another color. When I look at what we have gained as file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED Page 14 of 40 black folks in Overtown, we haven't gained too much. When are we going to be included? Crosswinds project is probably one of the best in the nation, but the only problem is that black folks are not going to be able to afford those homes. 12:02:16 PM Richard Knox, Jr. I'm representing different groups all the way from Carol City, all the way down south, and they told me to bring their complaints, so it's not me. Commissioner Allen needs to give himself an oversight group just to bring the complaints, since he's the only one there. One complaint is about the vacant HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) houses. 12:03:31PM Mr. Arriola The City of Miami has zero to do with those houses; that's the County. I agree with you, by the way, and I think it's an embarrassment, but we have nothing to do with it. 12:0425 PM Mr. Knox You're missing what I'm saying. I said I'm representing a lot of people. They're giving me their complaints. 12:04:32 PM Commissioner Allen Do you have those reduced to writing? 12:04::47.PM Mr. Knox My beef is about 7th Avenue, from 62nd Street to 46th Street. We've got a light at 58th Street that stays green for two minutes and red for 30 seconds. There are poles in the middle of the sidewalk and if you have a wheelchair, you can't get by on that street. 12:05:45 PM Commissioner Allen We have already put together a strategic plan that addresses all those issues,, so at some point, you will see the true fruition of it. Please provide your list to the Clerk. 12:06:42 PM Mr. Arriola In response to Richard, we have to concentrate on things that we can do things about. The HUD issue is a County issue. The traffic lights are a County issue. We have zero power when it comes to those things. We can put something together to address it to the County, but we really don't have anything to do with that. 12_:07_:1._8 PM Anthony Cutler My concern with Crosswinds is that on their brochure, it says the average income range is from $40,000 to $90,000, and in Liberty City, the average income for African Americans is $10,000 or less. You're coming in here and saying affordable houses, but who are these houses supposed to be affordable for? The people in this community have a right to take part. There should be something like a 40/60 split for affordable housing. I don't see these types of deals being negotiated in Overtown or in Dade County, period. We've got to start having more compassion for file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 15 of 40 human beings. The only way to empower the people in the community is to bring in more revenue, more income for these people's households, not relocating people out of the community. 12:10:43 PM Cornelius Shiver, Chief of Staff, Commissioner Allen The publication you have was put by Crosswinds, not b the Cityof Miami. y 12:11:17 PM Mr. Bloom There are 50 units, as a part of the package, that will be priced so Overtown residents will be able to afford it. 12:11:45. PM Mr. A. Cutler 50 out of 1,000? That's five percent. I'm talking about 40 percent. If you want to include the residents, 40 percent of that should be negotiated, not five percent. 12:12:02 PM Mr. Bullock There are actually two affordable housing components in the agreement. One is an affordable housing component that requires 20 percent of a project to be sold to individuals that are within -- between 80 and 120 percent of the area median income. Then you have, in addition to that, the 50 units that Crosswinds is going to donate to the CRA for the purpose of making those units available to individuals that are below that 80 percent level. Those units are designed to be made available to individuals who don't make the 40 to whatever the income was that was in the brochure. The individuals who are below that income level, those 50 units were designed for them, as required by the CRA for the purpose of making those units available to individuals who don't make that income now. What we have to keep in mind is two things: The Commissioner has been adamant about this agreement being beneficial to the community, from an affordable housing point of view and from a job point of view. In addition to that, we also have to be mindful of the fact that the developer needs to make his deal work in order for the deal to -- in order for him to be interested in doing development, so what we were able to do, in our opinion, was get the maximum amount that we could get from the developer in the negotiations and still make the deal work. That was our point of view. I mean, I would be as happy as anyone in this room to see 40 percent of development going toward existing Overtown residents. The fact of the matter is that development doesn't work. There is no developer anywhere who's going to come to this community and say, I'll give you 40 percent of my property and then I'll keep the 60 percent for profit. That's not the way file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • Page 16 of 40 12:13:29 PM Mr. Bullock developments work. The 50 units, for instance, that the developer is donating, that's cost out of the developer's pocket. The land has been valued, based on an appraisal, and the developer is buying the land based on that appraisal, so the land's not being given to the developer, and the reason why the developer has been willing to work with us to try to get the community some benefits is because they're paying for the land. 12:14:50 PM 12:14:55 PM Imeall A. Bappo Acococot, Incorporated's organizational chart is designed for the Overtown community as follows: Industry, sewing, garment construction, drafting, and garment and preparation for modeling, as well as other skill development. This program is designed to include all the residents in the above -named community who desires to become self-sufficient. This program will house 13 groups and 13 people per class The estimated cost for this training program is $830,000; $30,200 for one year and $276,000 at the time of execution. We estimate that we would be able to teach, train and place 104 to 208 people in permanent vocation or occupation. A one-year, one- time funding program that would be beneficial to the whole community. The overall cost is $273,000 to institute, maintain and successfully complete the program, per quarter. One year, 104 to 208 new self- sufficient people in the community. Acococot, Incorporated will appreciate all assistance that you can offer. If this program is not executed in Overtown, we will file an emancipation from the City of Miami because of what this young man say, the citizens of Overtown have not received the benefit from their tax and we have given everybody in the world our money to come up and go on, so we want our client to benefit or we're going to file an emancipation from the City of Miami. That way, we won't have to deal with individuals we're not familiar with. 12:18:15 PM • Commissioner Allen, I would like to say, in the words of the recent movie, "I've been waiting to exhale," and you constitute a breath of fresh air to me. I am encouraged by what is going on here. In spite of whatever is going on, we're getting heard and I believe that you're sincerely concerned about redevelopment of your, my and our community, and I applaud you for that. Thank you. Now, I have several things I'm going to say. You have a copy of the document that was put file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED Page 17 of 40 • 12:18:19 PM 12:21:30 PM Reverend Ralph M. Ross Reverend Ross together by several ministers in the Overtown area, so I'm not going to read it in its entirety. I'd like to simply indicate the are five points that we concluded with. One, that the redevelopment process follow the goals and objectives of the Southeast Overtown/Park West Redevelopment Plan of 2004; two, that the CRA and the City Commissioners use a transparent, open process in redeveloping Overtown; three, that you and the other City Commissioners agree not to entertain any pocket items or non -publicized emergency ordinances, resolutions or motions related to Overtown redevelopment; four, that no proposals to grant ownership, leasing of other City -controlled real property in Overtown be placed on the agenda of the CRA or City Commission without prior presentation to the community. Please be advised that religious leaders are willing to make our facilities available for such presentations. Five, that the major concern in all redevelopment proposals and plans be the affordability of housing for the present residents of Overtown. Commissioner Allen, we have faith in you and that you will be just in the exercise of your authority and power as our Commissioner of District 5. We also believe and trust that you will do what is right for the residents and institutions of Overtown. That is my.formal statement. May I have my other two and a half minutes for my informal statement? One of the things that has concerned me recently, there's a perception out in the community that I and the historic Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church is against Jackson Soul Food's development. I'm not concerned about Jackson Soul Food's development, but I'm concerned about the development of the historic Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, and that the things that are done in proximity to our church be done properly. That's all I'm concerned about. Now, let me just share this with you and I'm going to sit down. Now, you heard Mr. Rollason allude tonight -- and these are things that predate him -- allude to promises that were made to us -- and I'm not interested in enumerating them, but one of the ludicrous concepts that we have to face as a church is the misunderstanding of separation of church and state. Separation of church and state has to do with the Governor's religion and the Governor governs the state. Our church is a historic place. It has been registered through the State of Florida, and therefore, we qualify for any type of developments set aside for historic sites. file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 18 of 40 12:23:48 PM Reverend Ross This is the kind of thing that upsets me. We were told - - and this is not against Jackson Soul Food. This is about the historic Mt. Zion Baptist Church. We just heard a statement that Jackson Soul Food Restaurant and other areas -- and I hope to get everything that they could get -- have been offered 700 and some thousand dollars. We were told that we would get our parking lot, since it serves the people, resurfaced. That was a plan that was brought to us. We did not ask about that, and when it was time for it to be resurfaced, it was blacktopped and we were told -- hear me, please -- that we only have $5,000. Give me a break. 12:24:53 PM Commissioner Allen I understand, respectfully. We have togo to the other side, in fairness to the others. Thank you, sir. 12:25:00 PM Linda Watson The question 'I have for Commissioner Allen and the administrator is that Town Park Village was going to get a $200,000 grant to fix up the Town Park Village. This is the time that my apartment need to be fixed. I have talked with the administrator and he said that they are not giving us the money. Now what happened? Now we see it and now we don't, as you tell it in Overtown. They give money; the money doesn't reach; it disappears and go to another place. They said they was going to paint our building outside so it look good. It has not been done, so I hope next time the money don't disappear. 12:26:46 PM Commissioner Allen Let me quickly comment to your concerns because we have been addressing that issue. I'll turn it over to my Chief of Staff and he will speak specifically on that issue. 12:26:56 PM Mr. Shiver Ms. Watson, we have been trying to work with the tenants and/or owners of those units. One of the first things we're trying to do is to get an engineering assessment of all the needs. You know, some have mold problems, some have plumbing problems, and clearly, some have painting problems and electrical problems. We would like to believe that the electrical problems are the problems that are more conducive to health and safety standards and more important, but before any work can be done, we have to intially assess the amount of damages. When people promise you money and grants, $200,000, that means nothing if you have a $1,000,000 problem. 12:27:57 PM Ms. Watson I've been living there 33 years. My apartment needs to be fixed and I don't want the money to disappear in the future. file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELE TRONICALLY RECORDED Page 19 of 40 4110 12:28:48 PM Darrick Rudolph Overtown Optimist Club would like to thank you for helping us out. I also want to speak about redevelopment. The optimist club has decided to not only participate in sports, but also participate in the education part, and we're in the process of pushing that forth. Mr. Starks and the Recreation Department, they are marvelous. Whatever we need, they are always there to assist us and help us out. The Overtown Optimist Club asks for help. We really need y'all help because no matter what anyone say or think about us, we have been in Overtown for 11 years and we help with the kids, and by me being a product of Overtown, I know one of the major things that affect the kids is what we're doing. Another thing is the reason a lot of people in Overtown are so concerned pertaining to this Crosswinds project is due to the fact that otherr projects have came in our area and we were promised all things are not the same, you know, and I understand there's a lot of loopholes, but when it came down to these projects being done, the jobs were not there for our community, no matter how y'all say it. The jobs were not there, so Commissioner Allen, I ask you to really ask these Crosswinds people if they are going to be sincere. 12;31:33 PM Mr. Bullock On just one particular point, that one thing that we try to be mindful of when we're in negotiations with Crosswinds is the fact that a lot of promises have been made to this community that have not been kept, so these are the things that you will see in the summary that Commissioner Allen had summarized in connection with what Crosswinds is going to provide. There are penalties associated with the failure to honor the requirements, so in particular, with respect to the jobs, we receive that there is a total of 51 percent minority participation; 28 percent of that in general construction or property management goes to the black community. If Crosswinds does not meet those percentages, they have to pay a penalty to the CRA; $20,000 per unit, if I recall correctly, is the amount of the penalty that's set forth in the agreement, so they have accepted over and above doing the right thing to meet the requirements set forth in the agreement. Now, the same thing with the affordable housing component. That is a mandatory requirement. That's not a best effort requirement. In the past, you probably had some of that in arrangements with developers that were making promises to the community. This particular agreement is one where Crosswinds has obligated themselves to file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • Page 20 of 40 meet the requirements of the agreement, and if they don't meet them, they have to pay, in actual dollars, what they fail to meet of those requirements. 12:33:07 PM Mr. Bullock One other thing that I want to mention as relates to one of the other comments that we were making in the past about -- that the project not being affordable. One of the things that we're trying to do with this particular project is get some units that will be made available to the community and those -- and keep in mind, this is not a rental property; this is a home ownership project now, you know, so all these units will be sold. Those 50 units that will be donated by Crosswinds to the City, the City will then sell those units at an affordable price, but the money that comes into the City can then be used to do a better project. Now, I understand that most people in the community understand that we need more rental -- affordable rental housing in the community. Well, the rental housing component of this particular development or this particular transaction will be accomplished by those funds that will come to your community when those affordable units are sold, so there was discussion about all of the needs of the community being addressed and we tried to address all of those concerns in terms of this transaction. 12:34:12._PM Andrea Fleming I'm a member of Power U. I'm sure you have heard of us. We would like to be involved in the development of this community benefit. I'm concerned about the homeless that live around the area that you're going to be doing all these projects. What's going to happen to them? Also, the affordable housing. Yes, there's 50 units, but as a resident and a mother also, I would like to know why can't we have more than 50 units? Why have other people from outside coming to us instead of getting other people living in Overtown? With all due respect, just to let you know, we are more than 20 percent here in Overtown, and I think we should have the opportunity to be able to be a homeowner. As I was saying, it would be good, at least, that all of us could work together as a community for this. Why did you have to get a developer from outside and not one from Miami? 12:36:34 PM Mr. Arriola Honestly, in 30 years, we haven't had an offer. The truth of the matter is that we don't have anybody from Overtown with the capabilities of developing a project of this magnitude. That's the truth. We're talking saturation details, field training, monitoring the police implementing to help us with this problem. In regards to the Overtown housing, I would file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • Page 21 of 40 1237:23 PM LaPrincycsessAzatta Bess like to know, will any foreign governments be requested to provide cash assistance to the low- income buyers in the absence of sufficient funding from federal, state government? Also, since the lack of income is the primary obstacle of those that will be displaced to home ownership with this project, what steps will be taken to ensure the income of our residents who will become homeowners? Also, what will the minimum or maximum mortgage payments be? Will the units be available to those investors or will it be restricted to the residents? 12:38:48 PM Commissioner Allen Those are good questions, and of course, I'll yield to the City Manager. We're also looking at other avenues in terms of providing additional financing, if you will, to allow many more families to purchase these units. Of course, I've been in meetings with the Mayor, as well as the City Manager, so that's something that we're working on diligently. We have a means and a way to address that issue, and we will address that issue. Now, with respect to the second question, let me turn to Assistant Chief Fernandez. Of course, he can address the concerns with respect to police issues. 12:39:16 PM Chief Fernandez We're constantly training our officers. The officers of Overtown are working very diligently and effectively in the Overtown area. The arrests have increased by 28 percent in that area for the entire year, so certainly, our indications are that the activity, not just an arrest, but also community involvement have increased in the Overtown neighborhood. Our training component is one of the best in the country. We continue to enhance it. It's a continuous training program. 12:40:53 PM Ms. Bess OK. Just to add, one Sunday, I couldn't go to church because there was 14 year old body that was right near my place. Thursday, I got off work early. At 11 o'clock, three shootings -- the shooting, the fighting all times of the night and there's no police in sight. I think this is a great time for us to really -- just like the City Manager alluded to earlier for bickering, but I think for us to get past the bickering, we have to have respect, and I think in the last seven or eight years in Miami, it's really been the worst period for black people in Overtown and Little Haiti. I think Commissioner Teele, he was one of the worst things that ever happened to the City of Miami, and I want to just say, for us to go through this hearing process, we have to do several things: First of all, just off the top of my head, I could think of $100,000,000 that was either stolen or extorted by City Commissioners, former City file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS EECTRONICALLY RECORDED Page 22 of 40 12:41:28 PM 12:43:30 PM Dr. Leo Casino Dr. Casino Managers, Odel and Humberto, Teele, but I'm saying, what we need to do is, the City, that you need to -- and we, as the citizens -- is to make sure that we recruit every damn dime that was stolen, the money that CRA gave out. The CRA, under Teele's leadership, they gave out thousands of dollars to the adult bar right off of Biscayne Boulevard. They gave thousands of dollars to a nightclub, which no blacks attended, so a lot of the CRA development, it's really never benefited us. Instead of attracting high-tech jobs, going out to different computer firms, bringing in the high-tech industry -- because it's a myth and a lie to say that we can't be trained, because we're just as intelligent as the rest of this community, and so I'm saying what we need to do is be fair. Stop treating us like we're inferior because this is our country, too, and there can be no peace in Miami if we're continually being ripped off, and just because Art Teele was black, it didn't make it any easier to see us being ripped off the millions of dollars that he expunged; the limousine that he rented to ride up and down Second Avenue, like he was a -- what's that -- the head something in charge. Well, anyway, I'm saying that we need to go into the books and make sure every penny that was stolen, every penny that was misappropriated goes right back in the community. I'm seeing a lot of the same usual suspects get these grants -- I mean, City contracts. Holland & Knight. I mean, we don't have any black attorneys that we can give contracts to? We got to go to the same white attorneys? Another thing that kept me involved in politics in the City of Miami -- because, you know, I worked all over the country. I no longer work. I don't need to make money in Miami, but I was involved with the Church of Divine Mission on 910 Northwest Second Court, and I remember when Reverend King was laying on his bed, how Art Teele used to come and beg him to sell the church to the City, and he refused, and he had me to promise on his death bed that I wouldn't let the City steal it, and wouldn't let Art Teele steal it. The City stole the church. You can't continue to steal -- and a lot of the development, a lot of the land was stolen from people in Overtown. We've got to talk about will we recruit the money that was stolen? Will we return the Church of Divine Mission that Art Teele stole? Will we look at the land grabbing that took place in Overtown? Because we couldn't go to Little Havana, we can't go over to the file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • Page 23 of 40 1244:55..__PM Dr. Casino , white sections of town and do what y'all did to . Overtown. Y'all came in and raped Overtown, so answer about that $37,000,000 that Art Teele expunged and about all of the money that all of the other people stole? Can we get that money back? 12:46:13 PM Mr. Arriola I First of all, there is no secret here that Commissioner Teele and I were not the best of friends. The truth of the matter is that it was not only Commissioner Teele; you mentioned a whole bunch of people. I mean, two out of the last three City Managers ended up in jail. I mean, no secret about that. I mean, the main reason I'm doing this is because I was embarrassed as a community network to see this garbage going on. I think we need to look forward. I don't know how much we could recuperate. I don't know about that particular case you're talking about. I can assure you one thing: Under my administration, nobody's going to steal a penny, and if they do, they're going to jail, and I guarantee you. 12:47:22 PM Marie Wims I just want to thank the City of Miami and I want to thank our Commissioner. We need help below 14th Street. That's where everything's happening at, 14th Street, and they go back downtown, not 14th Street to 20th Street. Let's do something good on the other side of 14th Street. 12:48:21 PM Reverend John Cox First of all, I thank you, Commissioner Allen and Mr. Shiver, for the work you did with protecting us all from exposure to toxic waste dredged from Wagner Creek. With regard to the affordable housing matters presented here, I have a number of questions that I need to have answered; if not today, then in a future conversation. Help me understand this. First of all, what is the figure that you're using? What is the Miami -Dade County median income, Miami -Dade County, including Vizcaya, Fisher Island, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove? What is the median income that you're using? 12:49:18 PM Mr. Arriola I'll get it for you, but the reason Miami was the poorest City in the nation -- and we actually rose up to be the fifth poorest -- is because you don't have rich areas, except maybe some sections of the Grove. I'll give you the median income. It'll be based strictly on the City of Miami. 12:49:47 PM Mr. Cox I'd be interested in how it affects the median income of District 5. I think this may have been answered, but where the subsidies are coming from for the 50 units at Crosswinds that would be deeply subsidized, and file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED i • Page 24 of 40 would they be permanently subsidized or once sold, can they be turned over? 12:50:03 PM Mr. Arriola No, they won't be able to. The whole point of this is to reinvest the money that we're getting to subsidize even more units, cascade it down to bring down the cost of the other units. 12:50:54 PM Mr. Cox And one more thing is, I'm not understanding how units that are sold to Overtown residents, the descendents of former Overtown residents presently living in Miami Shores and Miami Lakes can be counted toward the affordability portion. 12:51:57 PM Mr. Arriola The issue here is that we're going to give preference to people that are former or current residents of Overtown. 12:52:26 PM Commissioner Allen Exactly. We're going to bring in a number of community -based organizations to assist us in that, as well. 12:52:39 PM Mr. Cox I'm distressed about Lot 16, where homeless people sleep at night. In a plan that the City adopted at a Commission meeting, I believe last month or the month before, I'm concerned about the groups in the plan. Two of the four groups that were identified as the indoor feeding sites, an alternative to Lot 16, are not firmly committed yet. Also, in the current arrangements, those people were fed at no cost to the City. The cost was assumed by the church. With the new plan, the funding is only in place for the first year. What's going to happen five years from now? 12:53:32 PM Mr. Arriola One of the most important things that this administration is looking at is homelessness. This is the top issue, and funding is not much help. We need to find a more permanent solution, and one of the most embarrassing things, that I've ever seen in the district of South Florida is that there is no money for the homeless in the bond issue. I mean, that kind of shows you how the homeless issue is dealt with because we don't want to talk about it and it's pushed back. Well, I can assure you, it's not going to be that way with me, and we're working very hard on the homeless issue. I'm glad that you have this kind of meetings. Thank you for letting -- if anybody in here from Overtown know that -- because I'm sorry that this auditorium is not full with Overtown residents -- it would be excellent if they could, but I want to say something and I'm probably the only one that's -- or maybe not that is file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 25 of 40 12:55:02 PM 12:57:07 PM Rosa Green Ms. Green really for the Crosswinds project and any other project that's going to change the quality of life for the people in Overtown, and let me just tell something with you. I know they're talking price. We might not be able to afford it, but you have to begin somewhere and I'm a living witness that perhaps I can't afford it either, and I am, I will tell you this, a retired teacher who really start teaching late in life. I got the degree at age 50. This is America, and you can go back to school at any age and be able to accomplish the degree and get education so you can make a decent salary. No, you will not be able to live hardly anywhere working at Burger King, Winn Dixie, and all those other places, and these young people in Overtown, they don't want to work. They say they don't want to work and that's the reason, because if you making 5, $6 an hour, you can't hardly buy anything. See, when I grew up 75 years ago, people didn't want so much. The husband went out and did the work and the wife was able to stay home, but now even two salaries can't hardly make it, but let me just say what I come up here to say, and I want to talk quick -- briefly, because I know I have only about what, two and a half minutes? And while I have the opportunity, I want to talk first about the people that we let most -- and I believe in giving anybody a chance because we don't know what Commissioner Allen is going to do. We can only go by what he tells us and what he does, but I certainly believe and I hope and I know that more can be done for the people that live in Overtown. I was raised in Overtown. I came to Miami at the age of 13 from Ocala, Florida. I was not born there; I was born in Georgia. I'm a Georgia girl, but I came here and most of the people that lived in Good Bread Alley -- and I'm not ashamed to say that because that's where we had to live, or either lived in somebody's rooming house, so if you were able to get a house, then you had made a step up already, OK. Just because I live in Overtown, it doesn't mean that I have to sell drugs, use drugs, if I have really any respect and dignity for myself, so everybody that lives in Overtown don't do those things. We have a very young population over there, and some of those kids have babies. As I always said, children having children, and they don't have anyone to teach them. You can't do what you don't know, and so we got to look at those things and have somebody get in those offices. A very few people are here today from Overtown, OK, so you don't always have to get an file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED Page 26 of 40 • 12:59;12 PM 1:01:13 PM Ms. Green Harris Millman agreement. Just ride through Overtown and look at the streets, look at the sidewalks, where the grass is growing. They say that the wooden house over there on the river was one of the oldest houses in Miami. Now, let me tell you guys something, that wooden house used to have signage up there that it was a slave house; that the slaves used to sit on that porch and be bought and sold, and now they're saying it's one of the -- do not distort history. History has been distorted and don't try to keep that history from the black population, OK, and then somebody go talk to somebody and see if we can get a movie theater. We had six in Overtown. Well, they don't want you in those other centers and we need some of those things in Overtown. Don't put $600,000 into an expressway, 395, or a park -- Domino Park and no other park. Now, I don't mind having some Dominos, but not $600,000 worth, and get those cinder blocks -- I never seen anybody landscape with cinder blocks, other than in Overtown. Give the cinder blocks to finish building the senior citizen home and get them off of Overtown. Don't plant no more flowers that land is contaminated, and anybody need any greens from over there that they got planted could easily end up dead. Harris Millman. I'm with Haven Economic Development, a nonprofit. We partner with HUD on homes that are distressed. We also receive funding from the. City of Miami for our education programs. I want to thank the City for assisting us. Last year, we hit over 900 education programs or with individuals to obtain homes. In reference to the funds available, there's more than 50 units available in that project because the City of Miami has made available, under the CRA program, approximately 30 to 80,000. Plus, since this property is also located in Dade County, there's another up to 30,000. Plus, since it's also in Dade County, there's another $5,000 available through MMAP (Metro Miami Action Plan). If you add up just the basic numbers, that's close to $65,000. The problem with home ownership is not necessarily the affordability. A lot of it is, does the person have the creditworthiness? Have they been educated? And that is a major problem, so the lender -- why are you going to lend money to someone when they have a history of never paying the money back? A lot of the people within the CRA programs and in the local NET offices know about assistance and how we work with different communities. Good afternoon. My name is Tama Twynette. I live in file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 27 of 40 1:04:41 PM Tama Twynette Overtown. I am here because of -- I want to address the Commissioner. There is a lot of deceiving that's going forth here today. I have brought evidence to prove to you that the City employees are not doing their work performance. It starts from the NET Office, where I have met personally with Kristopher Smith, OK. I met personally with him. His boss, that is a white woman -- she's not even here today, OK. This is a colored community. We should represent ourselves. We have the ability to represent ourselves. We're bringing all the white people in and telling us, as black people, that we are incompetent in representing our own community, OK. 1:06:00 PM Mr. Arriola May I interrupt you for a moment? Excuse me. Kris Smith -- 1:06:20 PM Commissioner Allen Stop it, guys. Stop it, stop it, stop it. Listen, listen, listen. Joe is -- let me explain to you. The City Manager, the -- Kris Smith is within the department of the City Manager. The City Manager runs all of the departments, so what he want to do, firstly, is to say a word with respect to that, and then you can continue with your point. Just let him make a comment because you've made an allegation, and in fairness, he should be allowed to make a statement. Go ahead, Joe: 1:06:56 PM Mr. Arriola Kris Smith follows the head -- the Director of NET, Director of NET to the whole City, not only for Overtown, for Little Havana, for Coconut Grove, the whole works happens to be African American, so please don't go there with me, OK, because not only are you lying, but you're insinuating things that are not true. 1:07:18PM Ms. Twynette I met with him, sir. I met with him, personally, OK, so you better not take that from me. I have pictures to show you that he's a deceiver. 1..:07:27 PM Commissioner Allen Let me go ahead and go to the next issue, and we're going to address that, OK? What's the next point because your three minutes are about to expire. 1:07:29 PM Ms. Twynette The next point -- OK, the next point is the smart -- no, the South Florida Smart Group that is connected with this man here. His name is Phillip E. Bacon. He is the Executive Director of Overtown Civic Partnership. This is his work. This has been like this for the last five years, OK, and all of these pictures I brought you to show you that the South Florida Smart Group, this is all their property. They are not doing their jobs also. We want black people in our community to say -- we know how to work our community, and not having file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 28 of 40 these white people come in here and take over the community. 1:09:46 PM Carl Hawkins Mr. Shiver told Ms. Watson that he was on the project, as far as money -- and the other people -- that he's looking into -- supposed to be doing an inspection. 1:10:36 PM Commissioner Allen OK, sir, let Mr. Shiver give you the background, if he could. 1:10:51 PM Mr. Shiver What I was saying -- and I'll clarify it -- there are three multifamily units in Overtown that have serious problems. We are trying to address all three at one time. The sensible and most logical thing to do is first find what the problems are; second, do an assessment; try to put a dollar amount on what it will cost to correct those problems. Now, the three -- each has to have a priority. These are things that we're currently trying to resolve. Once we do the engineer assessment and include a dollar figure to each category, then we're going to go -- simultaneously, we're trying to find a funding source. Whether the City has the resources to fund all of the problems is something that we have to wait and see. The last thing I will say, so we can move on, is we believe that these multifamily units have fallen between the cracks in the sense that there are monies for rehab of single-family homes, but there are no monies specifically set aside to rehab or build these multifamily units of these kind, so it's a very unique problem that this Commission is committed to trying to resolve, so I can't give you a time frame, but I can give you an assessment of the process by which we're dealing with the problem. 1:12:27 PM Mr. Hawkins What happened to the $200,000 that the woman mentioned? And stop giving me this Steppin' Fletcher answers, man. 1:12:46 PM Commissioner Allen Let me say something to you, whenever you speak to this $200,000, apparently that's something that happened some time ago. I'm not privy to that,. so I wouldn't be able to correctly answer you now. I will say this, we have met with these respective groups who were affected and they've come to our office, not on one occasion, but some occasions, and we are addressing their problem. As my Chief of Staff has indicated, we're conducting now an engineering analysis to address the problem, so the $200,000, at some point, maybe we can give you some explanation as to that, so thank you. So the person -- no, no, no, no. I didn't get my three minutes, so -- don't -- you keep Steppin' Fletcher me, file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • Page 29 of 40 1:13:26 PM Mr. Hawkins man. Stop doing that. So at the same time, you've been doing it for six months, we got to wait another year or what? 1:13:39 PM Commissioner Allen We have met with the respective groups on several occasions. My Chief of Staff has just mentioned it to you, so we'll address the issue, OK. We have met with groups on several occasions, so we're addressing the issue. 1:13:52 PM Mr. Shiver $200,000 was allocated, but it was allocated, I think, to BAME (Bethel African Methodist Episcopal) or some CDC (Community Development Corporation) to do some assessments and the work was done. 1:14:05 PM Mr. Arriola Let me address that. I really feel bad. Let me say something. The $200,000 that was promised and all that kind of stuff, if you recall, Commissioner Teele got up and he says, you know what, I'm going to take $200,000 from such and such program. I'm going to take that money out and I'm going to allocate it to this program. Now, everybody got up and applauded and you know, you have a right to be angry. Those $200,000 did not exist; he made it up, like he made up three quarters of everything he ever said in his life, OK. Listen to what I'm saying, I will show you that the money he spoke -- and we'll go back through the records -- never existed. Having said that, you still have a problem, and I understand you have a problem. Obviously, we're made aware of this problem today. Come and see me, and let the young lady come and see me and I will take care of you, but I'm going to tell you something, that $200,000 that he promised you was BS, and he Tied to you, OK. 1:15:28 PM Mr. Hawkins Well, you tell us -- Commissioners, you tell us how you are going to settle this? 1:15:39 PM Commissioner Allen We will address these issues. That's under the City Manager's jurisdiction. OK. Let me turn to the next speaker, and thank you, sir. Thank you, sir. Good afternoon. I want to thank you for putting this forum together. My name is Haneef Hamidullah, Executive Director of Brothers of the Same Mind. I want to say this, Crosswinds, I appreciate it, you know, the opportunity to come in and do some development. What intrigues me is to see brothers in the front of it, of the management. I just want to say that a lot of people talking about the people coming back. Let's go to reality. We need to find housing for our urban black professionals. We need that, and I think that's what the squabble is file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED Page 30 of 40 i • 1:1.5;54 PM. 1:19:49 PM 1:23:38 PM Haneef Hamidullah Wayne Davis Demas Jackson about. What they're trying to accomplish in District 5 is to make space for the urban professional so we can build the tax base that we had here 40 years ago, so I understand the principle. We can bicker all day, but somewhere down the line, we're going to have to stop being afraid to provide an opportunity to come in and then, as the opportunities develop themselves, I guarantee you this -- because nobody shut down more projects than I do, so I'm saying, we will monitor this; we will make sure -- and we do this free. We don't get no money from the community. The community don't come out and stand with us when we find these kind of areas, so my position to the community, which I was raised up here, let's give someone a chance to move some dirt. Let's give somebody a chance to put some walls up, and let's give them a chance to get our urban professionals out of Atlanta, Georgia, out of Broward County, and everywhere else and move them back here. First, I would just like to thank the City Manager. I heard what he was saying about the homeless issue, and I know of his dedication and I applaud him. I also work with the Homeless Assistance Program. Secondly, Commissioner, you know that the issue is not basically homelessness, but there's a big problem with drugs, you know, and I applaud the people that talk about having development in the community and all this, but the problem is, most of these kids that's out there using the drugs or selling the drugs, most of them are minors, juveniles, you know. The problem is, once they are caught with the drugs, they go to jail or a juvenile facility. They have an infraction against them, you know. Most of the juveniles, after they get this infraction, they say, well, hey, why should I go to school now? I can't get a job because I have an infraction against me, and that is one of the greatest problems. I'm just asking this. This is just a suggestion. Can we consider some kind of movement for these ex -offenders? I need help. Every morning at 4 o'clock, I'm up trying to prepare to work. Last week, I had 36 people who came, came in there, who wanted to eat. I didn't have seats for them. I had the Heat come over. I have the University of Miami football team. I don't have the space and I don't have the room to cook, and I'm asking y'all to consider -- the City Manager, all y'all working trying to get me straightened out for the last three years. I've been talking for the last three years and my project has not been completed, hasn't file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 31 of 40 started. Let me say it again, that this was supposed to have been finished. 1:25:19 PM Mr. Rollason . Mr. Jackson and I have had this conversation many times. His project is ready to go, OK. The billboard and the issue was raised by Reverend Ross of that billboard that's in the parking lot that we sold to Jackson Soul Food or to another company that's run by Jackson Soul Food, same people, and that seemed to become an issue. The direction there was to go back and try to resolve the issue with the billboard before we went forward with the construction on the restaurant. What Mr. Jackson says is true; it's two separate properties. One is the issue with the billboard on the parking lot; that there's a deed restriction on that, but his primary restaurant is also involved in that mortgage on that piece of property, and so it's -- we want the billboard down. We've tried to meet with the attorneys that represent Mr. Jackson. We haven't been too successful in that area. Mr. Jackson and I talked just, what, yesterday or day before, right? And I told Mr. Jackson that he needs to put the pressure on his legal counsel, bring him to the table so that we can sit down and try and meet some kind of resolution. I think there's a way to resolve it. We've talked about a couple of ways to resolve it, and as I told Mr. Jackson, the ball's sort of in his court. We made the overtures to meet; we're directed by the board to meet, and we have not been able to get his attorney to come to the table and sit down and see if we can work out something. 1.:26:56 PM Commissioner Allen OK. Thank you, Frank. OK, Mr. Jackson, so you can see here that we're working diligently to try to resolve the problem. 1:27:13 PM Mr. Jackson We want to upgrade Miami, and Commissioner, I need to hire at least nine people. 1:27:31 PM Charles Johnson Commissioner, my name is Charles Johnson. I want to thank you for coming over for this meeting. I was born and raised in Miami and I am an alumnus of Booker T. Washington Senior High School. We invest in the Poinciana Village. We've been investing there for years, and projects coming to the Commission are overdue. We have some things that we need to discuss with you and if we could get an appointment to go through some of those details, that will be appreciated. OK, certainly will. You could get together with Brenda Lee. She'll be more than happy to schedule an file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 32 of 40 1:29:02 PM 1:29:16 PM Commissioner Allen Rene Walker 1:30:22 PM 1:33:13 PM Mr. Arriola Willie Williams appointment, and thank you very much. And by the way, my parents were also matriculated through Booker T. Washington, so Booker T. Washington is dear to me, as well. My concern is, I've been living on 7th Avenue and 20th Street for over 30 years. I'm concerned with the homeless program in the southeast area of Overtown, but the answer is not moving that shelter over to the northwest section of Overtown. That is not the answer. The answer is not there because this is what's going to happen to our porch. We have four schools surrounding the area. We have two elementary schools. Dunbar Elementary School is only half a block away from the expressway right here. You know what's going to happen. This is going to be, you know, occupied by the homeless people, and that is not a safe environment for our children in Overtown. Let me give you some good news. Within the next month or six weeks, the University of Miami and the City of Miami are announcing the famous location for Camillus House. It's going to be turned over to create an economic engine there. As a matter of fact, we have had -- we are going to -- the land that we were going to use for our police training academy, we are going to give it to the University of Miami for that whole piece to be turned into a research area. It's a pleasure to see that we have a town hall meeting here, thanks to you, Commissioner Allen, and staff, and Joe Arriola, and Chief Timoney, I see you every now and then riding on your bicycle. Listen, we've been in Overtown for 55 years. My concern is, I'm looking at the young people that come to my shop. I've been cutting their hair for quite some time. I have many of them calling me right now on my cell phone saying, why aren't you at work, but this town hall meeting was very, very important to me, and to address Commissioner Allen, to let him know that we need to have a vision for our young people that comes to fruition. We need to create more businesses in the Overtown corridor and we're asking that you be mindful that you can use me and my property to create more businesses in the community. I have in mind that I wanted to one day build a 15-, 20-story condominium building, and the bottom floor would have nothing but businesses for the Overtown people, businesses for them on the 2nd floor, a movie theater on the 3rd floor, office space, and so forth, and then have condominiums on the top. That's been a dream of file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • Page 33 of 40 1:36:42 PM 1:38:32 PM Mr. Williams Del Bryan mine for many years, and I'm hoping that I can get the support to make this a reality. We do not need for others to come and just, you know, rape this community, just take what the people deserve from them. We need your support, not only with the businesses, but we need support with the youth. Ever since Kris has been here, he's been doing a great job. People before him, you know, it was a mess, but Kris came in: He has stepped up and done his job. Not only him, but it's been changed since Chief John, he been here. You know, it's been a change, and I'm looking at the progress as well, but I still -- I do want to see more black officers in the neighborhood. I want to see that, so give them an opportunity to come and be a part of this community, as well, and again, in closing, I'm looking for great advantages in Overtown, and I thank Frank Rollason. Ever since Frank's been on the job, my progress, you know, has been moving forward, so again, Frank, thank you for taking the job and making the barbershop a reality. Before I go into what I need to say, I just really want to go back to the comments that this lady made earlier. That is not an accurate position of Mr. Kris Smith. He's a good administrator, very sensitive, very responsive, and he shows sensitivity to this community that others had not before. I have the privilege of serving on the Overtown Advisory Board as the Vice Chair, and there are many, many problems here, but the good thing is, one of the things that this project is really offering is an economic opportunity. What we want to do is help to get residents here ready; that they could take advantage of the jobs and the business opportunities, and he spoke to that, and I'd like to endorse what he said and take it even further. While we didn't say this here this evening, but technically, there's no reason why practically all of those units could not be sold to people who look like me. There are resources. We want to encourage you to put that information out there and help us make that more a reality so that we get as many persons who want to make the choice to live here to live here, and of course, we go through and help to restore other areas. We're going to hold your feet to the fire to make sure that this is done and that every opportunity for anyone who chooses to move here and those who need the additional assistance, that that is made available to them, and those who will get the employment from this, if they would like to move forward, then we want to be sure file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 34 of 40 1:42:47 PM 1:43:45 PM Commissioner Allen Sharon Frazier - Stephens that they get some priorities by working to this to obtain their own dream of home ownership. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. If I may refer back to something I said earlier today. I have been working diligently in the Mayor's Office and the City Manager, we've been crunching in terms of bringing -- trying to find gap financing for the homeowners in Overtown, so we are addressing it and we're putting together a program currently as you speak. I come to you on behalf of the children of Miami -Dade County. I come from the Miami Norland Feeder Pattern and those who -- like Mr. Johnson said -- do not understand what a feeder pattern is. A feeder pattern is a high school, an elementary school, and a middle school feeds into those schools. I was also raised in Overtown. The thing about it is that for me going through the school system from Douglas Elementary through Booker T. Washington and being a graduate of Miami Senior High, I have seen both ends. What we're talking about is economic empowerment. I just started my own business. It's called Touched by Angels. Another thing is, too, we, as young black women and young black men, mothers, father, parents, I'm calling out to find out what the City's going to do about these inner city schools. We need more parental involvement. We need programs to get these parents out and get them involved with the schools. When I went up in 2001 to talk with the Commissioner of Education I was told that the children who did not pass both portions of the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) would not get a high school diploma. I got back and the people laughed, but you know what? I invested in a computer for my daughter. Now, she's at Miami Norland Magnet Program. She has a 3.5 GPA (grade point average) in honors classes. We, as the parents, must invest in our children, but the City, if you start with this development, make sure there's a program in the community that could help our children. I've been living in Overtown for 28 years and I was born and raised here in the City of Miami, so I have some strong roots here in terms of my family, and we've taken a good, hard look at some of the issues that have been plaguing us, this community, for years. I challenge the leadership of this community government and the developers that's coming here and especially contractors. We need to come up with a comprehensive plan in order to include the entire file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED Page 35 of 40 ® • 1:46:08 PM Charles Cutler community in the total economic development process in this community, because based on the new initiative that's going to take place here in this area, it's a great program, and there's been a lot of opportunity, and I think that we need to find a way to include black America into the mainstream, because we miss an opportunity to be carried over into the mainstream, then we're going to continue having problems and I think that the best thing that this community is tied into is two things; it's tied into our youth and it's tied into the challenge that we have with some type of economic parity, and I think that with the leadership that we have now, I think that we're moving in the right direction. The City Manager, he's been doing a good job. The Commissioner, he's been doing a good job, and I think that we should work hard, and 1 know it's not going to be easy because there's a lot of obstacles that's in our path, there's a lot of prejudices that we have to overcome, but I think that if we stay focused and if we stay dedicated to our mission, I think we'll be able to accomplish our goals. 1:48;23 PM Irby McKnight I want to start by saying thank you for holding this meeting, and for the City staff people who came here today, that our community, again, thank you, and I'm thanking you because you didn't call in sick. I know you're paid to be here, but you could have called in sick, but the fact that you didn't do that, thank you. I want to start by saying that the pace of development has accelerated, while nothing is happening with redevelopment. Y'all need to think about that. There is development going on as we speak, but there's no redevelopment happening. The two are not the same thing. One of the City sponsors $5,000,000 in projects, and Empowerment Trust has another $30,000,000 in projects in this neighborhood, and Miami -Dade County has another $38,000,000 in this neighborhood, and Black Archives have $5,000,000 in this neighborhood. That is a lot of wealth, but when you go by these sites, you will see that people are being redeveloped. It's people are being redeveloped at these sites, and by that, I mean they are working. They don't have monies. They'll be able to live in Overtown because there's nothing ongoing that you can rent; you have to buy. It's a hundred and plus dollars a square foot to build. You could do the math and see. However, upon taking a closer look at the people on these sites, where you see the Lyric Theater, small site, and the Empowerment Trust site, those people don't look like us, so there are redevelopment going on, but it's just file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • Page 36 of 40 1:51:08 PM 1:52:22 PM 1:53:15 PM Mr. McKnight Mr. McKnight Stephen Porter not for us. If you continue to allow this to happen, then Mr. Arriola is right; within five months, you can change the face of this community because all of y'all will be gone. The face will have changed. Think about it. If you're not getting a job, then you can't pay the mortgage, and if you get the subsidized apartment in one of the condos, you can't even pay the taxes. These things are very real. Now, I'm going to say this and, that is, you better watch it in Overtown. Hands off. Back off, brother. Don't think that we are asleep here. We just look sleepy because we're poor, but we're far from asleep. I have taken photographs at these work sites to show who the people are that are employed on the sites, when you tell us that this development will help us. Commissioner Allen, I would like for the attorney to provide to you the resolution creating the Overtown Advisory Board, and Mr. Shiver, we will go over that because I know you're busy, and it's very simple. It's just one page, three paragraphs and it has no words that have 20 letters in them. Very simple. In closing, I want to say that, Mr. Attorney and Mr. Manager, the former governor gave us, the low-income community, the necessary tools to pull ourselves up out of poverty by our boot straps. Whenever we find the straps, somebody is waiting to cut them off, so we went back to the federal government and they gave us Section 3 that talks about this development when federal dollars are used. If this code is being enforced in Overtown, then why ain't nobody in the area working? I will ask the City Attorney to please let the Commissioner know what those requirements are, and then I'll say to you that last week, I asked Federal HUD to please help me, in case you ignored me here today. First, I'd like to mention, we talk a lot about economics in our neighborhood; that City of Miami and Overtown Youth Center are partnering to provide free tax preparation to anyone in Overtown, so we'll do tax credit schedules and all that sort of thing. The second thing would be to the Police Chief, and the two concerns I just want to mention. I know that you've worked on 7th Street, around the corner of 6th Avenue and 7th Street, the old post office. We still have an entrenchment of drug dealers there at -- I appreciated when Kris Smith said earlier, "We've got to take back our corners," but this summer, when they came out with AK-47s, that was something else and we had to file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 37 of 40 - get volunteer church mission teams back inside and down by our building. We continue to hear about some violent acts a couple blocks away that another Overtown Advisory Board Member mentioned. We've worked and we would be happy at Touching Miami With Love, to continue to work with your officers to help break that up, but the moment the squad cars ride by, the guys come right back out. Third, someone did mention the Lummus Park project, with the horses, and I remember reading about that in the paper, since I live across the street from that, and it had mentioned about the resident input that they've had. I wonder which residents because I -- 1:55:39. PM Mr. Arriola We had four town hall meetings, and that was advertised, and we must have got several hundred people. 1:55:44 PM Mr. Porter Fair enough. I'm concerned that -- I've heard that up to a third -- a quarter to a third could end up being a parking lot. 1:55:56 PM Mr. Arriola You never -- you see this -- and I'm so glad I asked you. It has nothing to do with this. You know -- that has nothing to do with this. 1:56:01 PM Mr. Porter Wait. Before you say that, that came from a NET Administrator, who also had concerns, so I don't think that was just hearsay in the community; it's one of your staff. The final issue is simply, the first Mr. Cutler who spoke raised a very legitimate concern, Commissioner, and that is simply about the median income of Overtown, and so when we look at the studies, it's $12,053, so when I look at the glossy that Crosswinds gave, which has your office name on it -- 1:56:56 PM Commissioner Allen Well, I need to tell you, it shouldn't have my office name on it, OK. I instructed them to strike my name from that, so if they're out there, make sure you strike my name, Crosswinds, from that document. I didn't approve of it. 1:57:02 PM Mr. Porter But having said that, even if I look at this with a deep subsidy, we're looking at over two times, on the bottom line, what median income would be. As it goes through -- and I suspect it will -- I hope future projects will be more sensitive to the income thresholds of people in our neighborhood because I think it's great to repeat over again and again, we need affordable housing, but how we define affordable is a condition. 1:57 38 PM Commissioner Allen We are providing subsidies, and maybe that's a misunderstanding, and that's important, and please file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks OfficeSHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 38 of 40 listen closely to Joe in this regard. 1:57:47 PM Mr. Arriola Let me say this to you, unfortunately. The family that makes $12,000 a year is not going to afford a home, not only in Crosswinds, but nowhere else in Miami. I mean, that's the reality of life. You make $12,000 a year, you're not going to be a homeowner. Now, that doesn't mean that you don't deserve a roof, and I think that one of those things that the Commissioner was talking about, after the subsidies that we are going to create is maybe we should go into, real, real low income rentals, which is something that is affordable for somebody that makes $12,000 a year, but the issue for anybody that makes $12,000 a year to dream of owning a home, particularly to keep it up, let's be honest -- I mean, I feel terrible, but the truth is, they can't. 1:58:57 PM Mr. Porter • What you're saying is logically true but doesn't change the fact that -- 1:59:00 PM Mr. Arriola If you take Overtown, you do these things, and you create nothing but very, very, very low income rentals -- families who make $12,000 a year or less, I don't want to think what's going to become of Overtown, OK, and that's the concern. What you need to create in Overtown -- and I think you'll agree with me -- is where we're giving young, prosperous young people in the area, and then you create different levels so Overtown could maintain itself and spurt the growth. The problem is, we cannot only be thinking of the $12,000 people. We got to be thinking of the 30 year old, well-educated folks that make 50, $60,000 that we want to be there because, believe me, if you're only have subsidies, you're never going to have the rebirth of Overtown that we're looking for. 2:00:09 PM Commissioner Allen Many of you have the wrong impression. All African Americans do not make below $12,000. There's a lot of African Americans who earn income and who are looking forward to living in this area, OK. I'm encouraging many African Americans to start moving back into Miami, and a great many of them want to come here, and when they do come, we will also be able to provide them with subsidies to help pay the mortgage. OK. My question to the City Manager is, you spoke to the Parking Authority and you spoke to Police Department, and so far, the Parking Authority has ignored you. You told them that night -- 1 took care of that that night. Today, the cars are still there. That is file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\_SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 39 of 40 2:00:41 PM Karen Cartwright not parking for Jackson. Jackson needs to utilize their own parking. Furthermore, the City of Miami does not lease around Jackson because that's the County. There is no enforcement of the parking. The next question I have for you is, what are you going to do about all that trash in the back of the Miami -Dade County Women's Detention Center? I'm not going to let it go. 2:02:39 PM Mr. Arriola By the way, you know, you recall my complaint to them, I asked to give us the contractor to clean that thing. They won't even give permission to do that. 2:02:44 PM Ms. Cartwright No, but some -- OK. Since you can't charge them, we need to do something about it. 2:03:59 PM Emmanuel Washington, Sr. First of all, I just want to thank the panel for your patience and listening to everybody. I got a few things I want to share with you, just to make a statement about. I'm a resident, 47 years, living and born and raised here in the City of Miami. I'm the executive director right now of the Overtown Community Optimist Club. I'II be speaking to you about that. I will also speak to you something in reference to the concerns -- the volunteers that I've worked with that we will touch bases on, but before we do -- before I get to any of that, I just want this panel to know that the members that are here today, there's a young man whose name is Tavares Lee. This young man, 16 years old, was killed just a couple days ago. He played football for our program, basketball team. Played all sports that we do in the Overtown Optimist Program, and l just want to -- in the process of a robbery, he was killed. As a matter of fact, one of my other 15 year olds who was with him, he played 150 pound team, was also shot in the leg. We don't know if he's going to lose his leg or be able to use it again, but it did happen, and I just want to come and share that today because that's part of the reason that the Overtown Optimist exists. Very little support is given but for the most part, parents sort of envisioned that they needed something for their children to do to keep them out of trouble and today we have the Overtown Optimist. As a matter of fact, in 2004, the 100-pound football team won the national championship. I want to thank you, Commissioner Allen. I want to thank Manager Joe Arriola because I was speaking with him about everything that's going on. They have assured us that they are going to give their 100 percent support. They realize the good things that we do, the Optimist Club, file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006 LOG OF PROCEEDINGS ELECTRONICALLY RECORDED • • Page 40 of 40 2:06:25 PM 2:09:28 PM Mr. Washington Commissioner Allen for the kids. I thank Mr. Kris Smith, who responded in helping me put things together. Ms. Karen Cooper, Karen Cartwright, Barbara Rodriguez, Father Davis, all the Police Department, and of course, Frank Rollason, we really appreciate him, and all the parents and people who have been involved. Most of all, I want to thank you guys for your vision, your vision for our children. We promised Booker T. Washington that we would be out of here by 2, so as I close, I want to thank everyone for coming out. Before I do that, I would be remiss if we didn't thank the principal here at Booker T. Washington, as well as employees of the Department of Communications, who were'recording this. We need to acknowledge you guys. I want to thank you guys. Thanks to everyone for coming out. Produced by FTR Log Notes www.FTRGold.com file://Z:\CityHall\Clerks Office\ SHARE\Minutes by Section\Overtown Town Hall Meetin... 8/24/2006