EMERGENCY HEARING SET, CRA CONTINUES TO HARASS CHURCH

The battle to save the Historic Mitchell Rooming House continued today and over the weekend.  In an attempt to raise awareness of the issue, activists placed banners depicting the Michell Rooming House in all its glory with the caption "Save Historic Overtown".  The Apostolic Revival Temple held its potentially last service on Sunday, which was covered by WSVN Channel 7 News.  Inside the service, the Pastor reassured his church that the demolition of the building would not be the end of the church. "What is important here is the word of God," said the Pastor, "we need to submit to the word of God, and it will lead us." he said.

Meanwhile the City of Miami Community Redevelopment Agency continued its harassment campaign to force the church to move out.  "Mr Villacorta, the Director of the CRA, telephoned over the weekend to say the electricity would be cut off, but I keep calling FPL and they say they have received no cut off order." said Pastor Allen of the Temple  "the CRA also said I need to move out by Monday but we still have received no eviction notice from the City and they have not began closing off the sidewalk and securing the site so we don't know what to believe," he said. 

Early Monday morning the police were called to the site when the banners depicting the historic building were vandalized by City of Miami CRA employees at the behest of the CRA Director, Jim Villacorta.  "I asked him with what authority he was destroying the banners and he told me he had all the authority he needs.have them removed." said Pastor Allen."  Local activists were shocked that historical photos put up to to inform the community of the preservation issue were destroyed by City of Miami employees.  "how can the government vandalize private property and violate our right of free speech in this day and age," said Bradley Knoefler, member of the group.  The group plans to file charges and potentially request a restraining order against Mr. Villacorta.

On the legal front, the request for an Emergency hearing on the demolition order was agreed to by Judge Manno-Schurr today and will be held at the Dade County Courthouse room 1105 on March 2 at 9:30AM.  Any person involved or concerned with this issue is invited to attend.

The local media interest in the story continues to increase, with a report airing on WPLG local 10 News, CBS 4 News and live report from WSVN Channel 7 News.   The news reports continue to claim based on information from the CRA that the two properties are one building, even though they are two separate folios and very different structures.  Knoefler also criticized what he called the CRA spin campaign of misinformation. "here they are wearing gas masks to try to scare people and they use the same two developers who want to build there in all the news reports, referring to them as 'local businessmen' and 'concerned resident". he stated. "At least tomorrow the facts will come out."

On another note, evicted residents began moving out of the building Sunday night located just down the street at 1000 NW 10th st, also slated for demolition, and the CRA began targeting the historic Thomas law building across tha street from the Church.  "The Overtown I knew is around eighty five percent gone", said 67 year resident Rosa Green, "if they keep it up at this rate we'll will never be able to recover."