Take Back the Land is calling on supporters to attend the city of Miami Commission meeting on Thursday, July 26, 2007, beginning at 3:00pm. Miami City Hall is located at 3500 Pan-American Drive, in Coconut Grove. At the meeting, the Commission will vote on the fate of the Umoja Village Shantytown's land.
After promising to convey the land to the residents and organizers of Umoja, Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones is going back on her promise and putting the lot out for bid, a notoriously corrupt process in the city of Miami. We demand that the city keep its word, and convey the land to the Umoja Village.
Following the tragic fire which destroyed the Umoja Village, Miami Commissioner Spence-Jones contacted Umoja Village, met with organizer Max Rameau and resident John Cata, and offered direct conveyance of the land, without a bid process. She also agreed to provide immediate housing for former Umoja residents, and the deal was reported in the Miami Herald and Miami Times.
After intense debate, we called off our planned protests and accepted the offer. We met with potential partners and crafted a proposal, which we submitted to Spence-Jones, as agreed, and tried to confirm the item for the July 26th Commission meeting.
Instead, Spence-Jones unilaterally and without explanation, nixed the deal and put the lot out to bid. Miami's bid process is notoriously rigged and corrupt, as often reported in the media, giving politically connected developers the inside track to use this public land for a gentrification project.
This is the same kind of double dealing which got us into this mess in the first place. Umoja was a tremendous victory for this community, and will not be swept under the rug.
Show your support for Umoja by attending this meeting and demanding elected officials live up to their commitments and convey the land directly to the residents and organizers of the Umoja Village. If officials are able to continue to lie to us and get away with it, we will be forced to resort to more drastic measures to house people ourselves.
PLEASE CONTACT US if you want to attend. RSVP via email, takebacktheland@gmail.com or phone 305-757-3867.
Forward,
Max Rameau
Take Back the Land
a project of the Center for Pan-African Development
www.TakeBacktheLand.net
8 comments:
not really related. but isn't it convenient that the County Commission online webcast isn't on today?
Great to bring this up, what an real need in Miami. Just a side note what happened to the umoja village website line on the left side of the blog?
This is comical. A bunch of homeless people are demanding the City of Miami give them millions and free land to build housing. Isn't that how Miami-Dade County got in trouble?
No, actually City of Miami and Miami Dade are in trouble because small secret sects of rich people ask their lobbyists to obtain millions of our tax dollars thru questionable contracts, or have property re-zoned for development where it is expensive or unreasonable to service. Mostly, though the externalities of development and re-zoning are not taken into account. In the rest of the modern West building or planning for "social" housing is one of the chief concerns of local governments, it is also something we use to do here.
Poor people with no experience want the taxpayers money. Scary.
Is it less scary than rich people with experience building affordable housing? I trust poor people to create spaces that make sense for their community and lives than rich outsiders who care about their profit line- not the community. Doesn't it make sense that people from a community would make decisions about the way that community should develop?
God, some of you are awful...people who are rich get the money and perks all the time. Maybe, just maybe, these people don't want to rip us off. Maybe they want a home. Could they possibly do any worse than all the politico's in their hood lining their own pockets and then throwing crumbs at the needy. Shame on some of you for assuming the poor will rip you off more than the rich. give them a chance. And then if they rip us off...we haven't lost anymore than we would have by handing the money over to the usual suspects...that get the money over and over and over...ick
When Max Rameau's homeless who were squatting on 17th Avenue and NW 62nd Street were offered jobs none showed up two days in a row. Max's people just want handouts. Just like the disgusting people given money by Rene Rodriguez and Barbara Gomez-Rodrideuz. They should all be in jail. Now that would save the taxpayers money.
Why should anyone get no-bid contracts?
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