The Situation in Overtown

With the construction of the new Life Science & Technology Park underway, Overtown residents are growing increasingly skeptical as to whether or not this project was developed to help actual residents or to improve the actual area of Overtown through gentrification. As construction, which began in November of 2009, continues, more and more promises are simply not being upheld. This project was to create jobs for Overtown residents, according to the University of Miami along with Maryland based developer, Wexford Science & Technology. With an unemployment rate nearing 50%, the area has been stricken with crime and danger for years.

Overtown: A short history

Originally created through the Jim Crow segregation laws and named ‘Colored Town’, Overtown was a flourishing beacon for the black community of South Miami. It was one of the strongest examples of black entrepreneurialism in the country. Residents there opened up their own hotels, grocery stores, theaters, and nightclubs. The theaters were year round hosts to some of the top African American acts in the country, such as Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald. When the Jim Crow Laws were overturned, many of the wealthier residents moved out of the area, looking for communities with less crime. This, paired with the fact that I-95 was constructed right through the middle of Overtown in the 1960’s, displacing many of the residents there, destroyed the community.

What does Overtown want?

Residents from Overtown were told that this project would create jobs, mostly construction, for the community. Officially, no statistics have been released as to how many Overtown residents are actually receiving work. STAND and Power U, two student organizations fighting for Overtown residents throughout this project, state that only 8 workers on the construction are actually from Overtown. Jacqueline Menendez, UM's vice president of communications, says that the number is somewhere between 12 and 20 of the 80 or 90 workers each day. Keith Ivory of the Power U Center says that approximately 10 Overtown residents approach the site everyday looking for work, are told to leave a phone number, but never receive a call back. In an email blast sent to the University of Miami community, Donna Shalala, the school’s President, claimed that 34% of the workforce being used for construction is from Overtown and the surrounding neighborhoods. In an article written by Kyle Munzenrieder for the Miami New Times, that 34% is again mentioned, but Munzenrieder emphasizes that the language used by Shalala is covering up the reality of the situation. He writes, “The school claims that 34 percent of the work force comes from within several zip codes around the project, but critics claim only one of those zip codes actually covers Overtown.” The truth is certainly hard to find in this situation, but the evidence available makes one question University of Miami’s motives.

Gentrification

Overtown is located right in the heart of downtown Miami. Given its deserved reputation as a dangerous, crime-ridden area, Overtown creates a unique situation for the city of Miami. While growing in popularity over the last decade, it cannot be argued that unless Overtown cleans up its act, it will hold back the city in terms of economic development and potential. STAND and Power U have called out the University of Miami to sign an agreement for sustainable community benefits based on the new Life Science & Technology building. These benefits, courtesy of Power U’s website, would include:

• Guarantees that a certain percentage of the short term construction and long term professional jobs will be prioritized for residents of Overtown.
• Job training for those positions.
• A scholarship program for Overtown high school students to the University to study in fields related to the work at the Life Sciences Park.
• Green spaces for use as community gardens and safe recreational areas to address the food desert and obesity epidemic.
• Guarantees that public housing will not be taken over for use by the University.

The University of Miami, though, will not sign any agreement, but why? STAND and Power U argue that it is not in University of Miami’s interests to help the current residents of Overtown. Instead, these new facilities, to be finished in 2012, will increase property values around the area, forcing out the impoverished residents and encouraging wealthier, middle and upper class crowds. This project is not so much about helping Overtown residents as it is altering the image of Overtown itself.

Funding

Returning to President Shalala’s email blast to the UM community, she writes, “I also urge you to read our informational brochure “Life Science & Technology Park and the Community,” which provides an overview of the project and its impact on the community, including the $700,000 in grants awarded by Wexford to not-for-profits in the area.” This $700,000 she mentions is not without controversy. STAND, on their website, claims that $700,000 is the required amount that the school is forced to give based on the guidelines on which their funding was received. The Urban Research Park, the community development organization, is responsible for that $700,000 figure as they are the entity that allocated the money. In all, Wexford and UM received $8.3 million. To make matters worse, while Shalala is correct in that the money went to not-for-profit organizations, many of them went to organizations located in Wynwood, and not Overtown. How much can you make of this? Well, to be fair, if the not-for-profits located in Overtown were not good candidates to receive donations, and there were better suited organizations nearby, than an argument over which organization gets the funding does exist. But, this was a project for Overtown, to benefit Overtown. If that was truly the goal of the project, than how can one justify not giving this money to an Overtown-based organization?

Future of Overtown

This project is one of many new developments scheduled to begin construction in Overtown. Wexford and UM’s reluctance to sign the benefits agreement seems like an omen of greater injustices and controversies that will most assuredly follow. While it does not seem as though this was project was ever meant to actually benefit residents of Overtown, it is important to step back and view the facts without bias. Unfortunately, at this point, with the information available, the future of Overtown looks like one of major disappointment and resentment. Overtown will become home to wealthier residents as new infrastructure continues to be built with little consideration given to the current population.

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Power U official site: http://www.poweru.org/SCBA.htm

President Shalala’s Email Blast: http://www6.miami.edu/communications/dialogue/2010-2011/dialogue_03_24_11.html

Miami New Times Article: http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/04/university_of_miami_discipline.php

Miami Herald Article: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/21/1642196/overtown-activists-fear-university.html

STAND official site: http://www.standuniversityofmiami.org/index.php

History of Overtown: http://www.floridacdc.org/members/overtown/hist-his.htm