HomeMy WebLinkAboutSubstitution Memo from City AttorneyCITY OF MIAMI
OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY
MEMORANDUM
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Commission
FROM: Victoria Mendez, City Attorney sm"NC�- k=u---
DATE: Setpember 6, 2022
RE: Substitution of PH.5 on the September 8, 2022 City Commission Meeting
Agenda — Codesignation of "Ruth Wolkowsky Greenfield Way"
File No. 12414
Item PH.5 on the September 8, 2022 City Commission meeting proposes to honor
the contributions of Ruth Wolkowsky Greenfield to the City of Miami and the Greater
Miami community by codesignating Northwest 7th Street Road from North River Drive to
Northwest 9th Court, Miami, Florida, as "Ruth Wolkowsky Greenfield Way". At the
request of the family, the Legislaiton is being substituted to include the designees maiden
and married name as part of the codesignation.
Attached.
cc. Arthur Noriega V, City Manager
Miriam Santana, Agenda Coordinator
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City of Miami
Resolution
Legislation
City Hall
3500 Pan American Drive
Miami, FL 33133
www.miamigov.com
File Number: 12414 Final Action Date:
A RESOLUTION OF THE MIAMI CITY COMMISSION, BY A FOUR -FIFTHS
(4/5THS) AFFIRMATIVE VOTE, AFTER AN ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARING,
CODESIGNATING THAT PORTION OF NORTHWEST 7TH STREET ROAD
FROM NORTH RIVER DRIVE TO NORTHWEST 9TH COURT, MIAMI,
FLORIDA AS "RUTH WOLKOWSKY GREENFIELD WAY"; FURTHER
DIRECTING THE CITY CLERK TO TRANSMIT A COPY OF THIS
RESOLUTION TO THE HEREIN DESIGNATED OFFICES.
SPONSOR(S): Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, Commissioner Christine King
WHEREAS, Ruth Wolkowsky Greenfield was born on November 17, 1923, as Ruth
Miriam Wolkowsky in Key West, Florida, and moved to Miami, where she was raised, at the age
of six months; and
WHEREAS, while growing up, she was unaware of the pervasive segregation of the
time, except when visiting her grandparents in Spring Garden, across the railroad tracks from
Colored Town, now called Overtown, a strange other world, in which black people had a servile
role, doing laundry for white people; and
WHEREAS, Ruth began studying piano at age 5, studied with Mana-Zucca, who moved
from New York to Miami, graduated from Miami Beach High School in 1941, studied for two
years at the University of Miami, then obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees in music at
the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; and
WHEREAS, while studying with the renowned pianist Artur Schnabel, Ruth broke racial
taboos by dating a classmate who was a young black man from Jamaica; and
WHEREAS, she returned to the University of Miami again to teach piano; and
WHEREAS, in 1940, Ruth left Miami for Paris, France, in order to study composition with
Nadia Boulanger, the teacher of successful composers including Aaron Copland and Astor
Piazzolla; and
WHEREAS, in Paris, Ruth married Miami attorney Arnold Merwin Greenfield, a graduate
of Harvard Law School that enjoyed painting and cooking and listening to his wife play the
piano. Her maid of honor at the small Paris wedding was a black pianist, Lois Towles from
Arkansas.; and
WHEREAS, Upon returning to segregated Miami, Ruth wanted to do something about
the lack of integration in this community and the South and so, motivated by her friendship with
school principal Mary Ford Williams, whose son, James "Jimmy" Ford, a Juilliard School
graduate, had found doors to Miami's music establishment and competitions closed to him, in
1951 she founded the Fine Arts Conservatory, one of the first fully integrated schools for music,
art and dance in the South; and
City of Miami Page 1 of 3 File ID: 12414 (Revision:) Printed On: 9/6/2022
File ID: 12414 Enactment Number:
WHEREAS, during the early years, the school moved between black and white
neighborhoods, holding classes in such locations as private homes, a Masonic lodge, the Young
Men's Christian Association ("YMCA") and the most notorious location, a storage room for
caskets that reeked of formaldehyde, in an Overtown funeral home; and
WHEREAS, on May 9, 1953, Ruth's Fine Arts Conservatory student, 15-year-old James
Ford performed at an otherwise all -white recital at Miami Memorial Library thanks to Ruth's
having alerted Jack Bell, a Miami Herald columnist who wrote about the issue; and
WHEREAS, by 1961, the Fine Arts Conservatory had raised enough money to buy a
small run-down house in the vicinity of Northwest 60th Street and 7th Avenue that served as its
permanent headquarters, until it closed in 1978 and eventually expanded to six branches
throughout Dade County; and
WHEREAS,. Prominent community leaders, including Mary Ford Williams,
Congresswoman Carrie Meek and Dorothy Graham, continued to steer talented students to the
school; and
WHEREAS, Ruth also continued to teach for 32 years at what is today Miami Dade
College, Florida's first integrated college and founded Miami -Dade Community College's
Lunchtime Lively Arts Series in the late 1970s and made it all -encompassing (including music,
theater, and literature) with a wide-ranging list of artists performing that included Isaac Bashevis
Singer, Dick Gregory, Odetta, The Ink Spots, Virgil Thomson and Gwendolyn Brooks. In the fall
of 2011, the college rededicated its Wolfson Campus auditorium in Greenfield's honor; and
WHEREAS, in 2013, director Steve Waxman released a feature documentary,
"Instruments of Change" about Ruth and her history with the Fine Arts Conservatory that
included Miami personalities Eduardo Padron, Marvis Martin, Garth Reeves, Carrie Meek,
Judge Wendell Graham, Judy Drucker, and Charles Austin; and
WHEREAS, the City Commission wishes to honor Ruth Wolkowsky Greenfield's
numerous contributions to the City of Miami by co -designating Northwest 7th Street Road from
North River Drive to Northwest 9th Court, Miami, Florida, as "Ruth Wolkowsky Greenfield Way";
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF
MIAMI, FLORIDA:
Section 1. The recitals and finding contained in the Preamble to this Resolution are
adopted by reference and incorporated as if fully set forth in this Section.
Section 2. By a four -fifths (4/5ths) affirmative vote, after an advertised public hearing,
the City Commission hereby co -designates that portion of Northwest 7th Street Road from North
River Drive to Northwest 9th Court, Miami, Florida, as "Ruth Wolkowsky Greenfield Way".
Section 3. The City Clerk is directed to transmit a certified copy of this Resolution to the
Departments of Police, Fire -Rescue, and Solid Waste; the Miami -Dade County Department of
Transportation and Public Works; and the United States Postal Service, and, if a State of Florida
road, to the Florida Department of Transportation, District Six Secretary for sign installation
within the newly designated roadways.
Section 4. This Resolution shall become effective immediately upon its adoption.
City of Miami Page 2 of 3 File ID: 12414 (Revision:) Printed on: 9/6/2022
File ID: 12414 Enactment Number:
APPROVED AS TO FORM AND CORRECTNESS:
City of Miami Page 3 of 3 File ID: 12414 (Revision:) Printed on: 9/6/2022