Activist Fights Overtown Development Project, Wants More Benefits for Local Residents
Categories: Business
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| A rendering of the Plaza at Lyric, part of the redevelopment project |
"If you're going to take these properties and make hundreds of millions of dollars, you've got to give something back to the community," says Edduard Prince, the activist.
The project will amount to a substantial overhaul for struggling Overtown: four new affordable-housing developments, three of which will also include retail spaces, as well as comprehensive refurbishment of existing housing units.
"These new developments will help to... drive the demand for goods and services," said CRA Executive Director Clarence Woods. "Small businesses and retailers will create an environment where more jobs will now be available in the community."
Woods's proclamation came after the agency closed on a $60 million loan with Wells Fargo on August 22. But that announcement came only after months of squabbling: In late 2013, county officials argued that an existing law capped its financial commitment to the city for the project, and for months the funding was delayed while the city and county sparred over commitments.
Prince filed a complaint against Woods and the CRA in July, alleging a breach of fiduciary duty because the agency contracted outside developers for the project. A magistrate recommended it be dismissed earlier this month, but Prince tells Riptide he plans on appealing. Prince isn't opposed to improvements, he says, but he thinks the new developments will lead to gentrification and higher rent prices. And he's concerned current Overtown residents will end up getting squeezed out.
"The face of Overtown is going to change, which is progress," he says. "But you have to give something back to these people that you're pushing out."
Prince doesn't expect any legal victories; his real motivation is to stir more conversation about how the project could better benefit current Overtown residents. "The purpose of these lawsuits," he says, "is for the community to have some type of benefit." Woods did not respond to a request for comment by Riptide.
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Lets skip over the fact that these people our fighting over money that was taken from others by force.
Can you tell me what retailers are going to be successful with "affordable Housing" overhead?
Well it is a Government project to develop housing and business so we all know it will fail miserably
Corporations buy properties, either let them languish or demolish them. A few years later it is designated impoverished. Then like saviors, the same developers come in and are given carte blanche. We are told how lucky we are that they are interested in developing in this neighborhood, like it wasn't the plan all along. Developers have raped Miami with the help of OUR representatives. Then we are told some radical wants to halt progress. There was a deal that these developers were to hire a certain amount of local people and they didn't. WAKE UP MIAMI!
Mr. Prince sounds like the perfect person to take on Keon "Hardly Around" Hardemon in the next election.
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