We are very concerned about the plan of the City of Miami, the Collins Center, and the Overtown CRA to demolish two historic properties located at 1020 and 1024 NW 2nd ave. A demolition order has been issued and the City plans to destroy these buildings next week. One of the buildings is occupied by a local church of 13 years, who will then have no location to provide services to the community.
The underlying motivation for this effort are the plans for the Collins Center, who owns nearly all of the properties on the surrounding block through their land trust, to assemble properties for another large new development, as they have done for the past ten years. The Collins Center land trust, created with funding from the Knight foundation, is now the second largest property owner in Overtown, after the City of Miami CRA. The stated purpose of the land trust is to "ensure that current residents aren't dislocated once real revitalization efforts begin"
In 2001, the Knight foundation staff asked leaders of the Collins Center for Public Policy, the Local Initiatives Support Corp. and the Trust for Public Land, each of whom had received Knight grants, to collaborate on improving housing, home ownership and the physical character of Overtown. A total of $8.3 million in grants were issued to the three organizations for this purpose. The Foundation's own analysis states:
"Six years after the first Knight checks were written, Collins and LISC have so far had limited success. The best symbol of this seeming inaction so far is Sawyer's Walk – also called Crosswinds, after Crosswinds Communities, the Michigan-based developer brought in to spearhead the 1,000-condominium project. From its inception, this proposed housing and retail development has been mired in public controversy"
The southern part of Overtown has been largely demolished, with few of the original buildings remaining. Most of the property is owned by the CRA and the Collins Center, who have promised large development projects for years but have not completed one project to date. Our concern is that this strategy of demolition and land assembly is now moving northward up NW 2nd avenue, where the few remaining buildings of the original Overtown remain.
F.S. 163 pt III, which governs the Community Redevelopment Agencies, stresses revitalization of existing properties to prevent forced gentrification by destroying existing buildings and replacing them with new developments that will displace current residents. HUD guidelines state that federal dollars be focused on renovation of existing properties for the same reasons.
Given the above, it makes sense to raise the following questions:
- Why does the Collins Center continue to purchase land which they never develop? If they have sufficient funding (from the Knight Foundation) to purchase land, why don't they use that money to develop the properties they already own?
- Why would the Knight Foundation continue to fund an organization which by its own admission "has had limited success" and may be working contrary to the Knight Foundation's own stated goals?
- How did the City of Miami determine that the properties located at 1020 NW 2nd ave,1024 NW 2nd ave, and 163 NW 11th st are "unsafe structures"? 1024 NW 2nd ave is fine apart from a leaking roof and occupied by a local church. 163 NW 11th st is structurally fine and secured, but has no roof. 1020 NW 2nd, is definately unsafe but simply needs to have the collapsed roof removed and stabilized structurally - but it can be saved.
- Why would the CRA allocate $46,502 for the demolition of these properties when the same funds can be used to repair the roof at 1024 NW 2nd and remove the collapsed portions of wood from the fire at 1020 NW 2nd?
- Why is the City so urgently trying to move forward on the demolition? The owner, Reverend Nevin who has been hospitalized for the past eight months, literally got out of his sickbed to beg the City not to demolish the properties. The Overtown Community Advisory Board passed a resolution from the community requesting a 30 day stay to allow the community and the owner to mobilize in order to save the properties. The Black Archives and various community groups have also requested a stay in the demolition order in order to complete their documentation of the historical nature of the buildings.
- What is the position of the District 5 appointed commissioner on this issue? Given the temporary nature of his appointment, it is understandable that he would not take a strong position either way. However, giving an extra 30 days to one of the few remaining African American property owners in the neighborhood to save his historic building is not too much to ask and has been requested by the community as noted above.
Its time to finally redevelop one of our most historic communities FOR REAL this time. The cycle of demolition, land assembly, and big developments that never are completed needs to stop. We need to redevelop our neighborhoods "one lot at a time" as has been highlighted and embraced by our new Mayor. If the present trends continue, Overtown in a few years will consist entirely of vacant lots "waiting" for public monies to fund mega-projects that may never be built. We can then kiss any sense of the grand history of this neighborhood goodbye.
there is nothing historic about those buildings, but i agree the resulting vacant land shouldn't be "assembled," rather redeveloped "one lot at a time."
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