Tag Archives: Blacks

Unpacking Coconut Grove ► Part Six ► Still Building With No Building Permit

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The E.W.F. Stirrup House on Friday, August 24, 2012. Note
the used metal studs leaning against the building. Used
materials to build their chi chi Bed and Breakfast? How nice.

Another visit to Charles Avenue on Friday demonstrated beyond a doubt that (alleged) illegal work is still going on inside the E.W.F. Stirrup House. More troubling is the fact that there is still no Building Permit on display.

Earlier in the week I called the City of Miami to check up on my complaint about work proceeding without a Building Permit. I was told the file had been closed, but there was no other information available. When I expressed my concern, I was transferred to a Building Department supervisor. I left a detailed message requesting I be called back. I am still waiting for that return phone call.

Used metal studs.

I am also still waiting for a return call from Maurice Pons, identified
as the Chief of Inspections (Field) for the City of Miami Building Department. I left a detailed message during the week, expressing my concern about the (alleged) illegal work proceeding inside the historic, 120-year old E.W.F. Stirrup House and practically begged that someone get in touch with me so that I could be assured that an (alleged) rapacious developer was not (allegedly) getting away with something (allegedly) illegal. Begging didn’t help either.

The funny thing is, depending on your definition of funny: No matter who I am transferred to within the City of Miami phone system, I can NEVER get a human on the phone. They all have voice mail and they all studiously seem to avoid returning their calls. I have made dozens of calls only to get voice mail with no way to reach a human being. Of those dozens of calls, I have left at least 10 to 12 messages with various departments and City of Miami employees. I have yet to hear back from any of them.

The dumpster is fuller than it was earlier in the week and
the piles of trash are larger than they were earlier in the
week. All of this is just waiting to be picked up by this
weekend’s approaching Hurricane Isaac.

While on the same topic: I am still waiting for a reply from the City of Miami Office of Communications to my email of August 10, 2012. [See Unpacking Coconut Grove ► Part 6.1 ► An Open Email To The City of Miami] It was sent to “Press at Miamigov dot com,” an email address given to me over the phone by a recorded message when trying to get that department on the phone. One would think that, by now, I would have had a reply, even if it was to say, “Sorry, we can’t help you.” At the very least you’d think I would have received a acknowledgment that the email had been received. Oh, and again, there is no way to get that department on the phone or to return my calls either. It’s like falling into a black hole.

As a journalist of long-standing, I have had to call Mayors, Members of Parliament, Members of Provincial Parliament and city departments many times. I have never had this kind of trouble reaching someone by phone in my entire life. And, when I have left a message, I have always received a prompt call back. What the hell is going on at Miami City Hall?

RECAP: My complaint was closed with no other notations on
the file. Two City of Miami Building Department inspectors have failed
to return my phone calls, as have many other City of Miami employees.
Furthermore, the Media and Communications Department doesn’t respond to
Media and Press Inquiries. What the hell is going on at Miami City Hall?

This is just more proof that the owners
Grove Gardens Residence Condominiums
uses this property for unintended uses.
While at the E.W.F Stirrup House I
saw workmen carrying out piles of trash
and dumping them next to these doors.

I have been told many times, by many people far more knowledgeable about Miami politics than I, that the City of Miami Building Department is in the pocket of rich developers. It’s hard NOT to come to the same conclusion when I cannot even get simple answers to my simple questions from ANYONE in the Building Department or the Press Relations Department. What the hell is going on at Miami City Hall?

Meanwhile, there is continued evidence that (allegedly) illegal work is still proceeding within the E.W.F. Stirrup House without benefit of a Building Permit. Will anyone at Miami City Hall address this issue? Will anyone at Miami City Hall return my phone calls? Will anyone at Miami City Hall take any notice that a developer is (allegedly) doing whatever the hell he wants, despite the fact that he doesn’t even own the property, but merely has a 50-year lease on it? Stay tuned . . . .

Meanwhile, here are some more pictures taken yesterday which proves that (alleged) illegal work is still is ongoing inside the historic 120-year old E.W.F. Stirrup House without benefit of a building permit and that workers within the Grove Gardens Residence Condominiums (immediately behind the Stirrup House) are using the property to dump their trash.

These trash piles have grown since Monday. They will make good projectiles for this week’s approaching hurricane.
Everything in this dumpster will become a projectile if and when Hurricane Isaac hits.

Fresh sawdust outside the side door of the E.W.F. Stirrup House indicating work inside is ongoing.

This fresh sawdust has not even gotten wet, despite the fact that it rains almost every day down here.
The fresh sawdust trails under and inside the side door of the E.W.F. Stirrup House.

This pile of construction materials has also grown since Monday. Plywood makes a great sail in a hurricane.

These piles of trash, hidden behind the E.W.F. Stirrup House, away
from the prying eyes of City of Miami inspectors, have not grown.

This pile of trash behind the E.W.F. Stirrup House has not grown either.

This pile of trash has grown since Monday.

I don’t want to be anywhere near this plywood when Hurricane Isaac arrives.
This Reggae flyer is still in front of the E.W.F. Stirrup House. Hurricane Isaac will take care of it.

This Red Stripe carton in front of the E.W.F. Stirrup House is a new arrival. It matches my shoes.
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Unpacking Coconut Grove ► Part 4.1 ► A Photo Essay

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The room on the second floor in
which the (alleged) illegal
demolition was taking place.
Another angle, showing the 2nd
floor front room and the former
upper porch, now an interior room.

A quick visit to Charles Avenue confirmed the (allegedly) illegal demolition inside the historic, 120-year old E.W.F. Stirrup House has stopped. Whether that was due to my reporting them to the City of Miami Building Department, because of my weekend blog post called Open Houses and Broken Laws, or whether they just ran out of work to do, is something I don’t know.

However, I have a small clue that my post has been read by the alleged rapacious developer. There is now a lock and chain through the double-doors in the wall that separates the E.W.F. Stirrup property from the Grove Gardens Residences Condominiums mentioned in my previous post. I have never seen a chain and lock on that door before. Maybe they think that’s how I get onto the property when I visit and thought this would block my way.

That looks formidable, doesn’t it?

This is the formidable lock on the front gate. The gap is large enough to squeeze through, but I’ve never done that.

Yet locks do not prevent me from taking pictures through a chain link fence.

The workers conducting the (alleged) illegal demolition of the
E.W.F. Stirrup House filled this dumpster before work stopped.

If I were in Great Britain I’d call this a skip, which is taken to the tip. In any language, it’s full.

Locks do not prevent me from taking pictures over the wall from the Regions Bank parking lot either.
This angle showed me a new pile of trash that wasn’t there on Friday.
This is the parking lot of the Regions Bank. The wall is chest
high and you can just see the E.W.F. Stirrup House in the background.
It’s not clear what that pile of trash is, but I’d lay money it’s non-conforming.
Note the height of the grass. I’ve seen the property cited previously for a lack of upkeep on the landscaping.

Notice from the City of Miami for code violations taken by author on August 26, 2009
Close up of notice from August 26, 2009. The property is in worse condition now than it was in 2009.
Also from August 2009. The property across from the E.W.F. Stirrup House with a similar citation.
This is the property currently being used to shunt cars in and out of the Coconut Grove Playhouse parking lot.
A new picture from yesterday of the same fence, with far more growth than for
which the property was cited in 2009 (above). Note how it’s impeding the sidewalk.
Back to the Stirrup property and yesterday. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to find
this pile of trash is also non-conforming. This is next to the padlocked doors seen above.
The mailbox at the E.W.F. Stirrup House at 3242 Charles Avenue
indicates the neglect as well as anything else.

Another view of the mailbox at the E.W.F. Stirrup House.
I have photographed this hole in the front of the E.W.F. Stirrup House before.
This is the first time I ever saw a creature come out of it.
It’s always a good day when I see a flyer for Reggae music.
This was on the sidewalk directly in from of the E.W.F. Stirrup House.
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When Whites Went Crazy In Tulsa ► May 31, 1921 ► A Day In History

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Otis G. Clark died last week at the ripe old age of 109. Mr. Clark was the last
survivor of the terrible Tulsa Race Riot on May 31, 1921, ninety one years ago
today.

The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 is considered one of the worst race riots in U.S. history, and yet barely anyone knows about it. This history was whitewashed, pun intended, and for decades it wasn’t taught in any Oklahoma history classes. Many people are unaware that during the riot Whites took up in planes left over from World War One. They dropped bombs on and shot at Blacks on the ground.

Otis Clark was just a young man of 18 when the Whites in Tulsa went crazy 91 years ago. According to his obituary at WashPo:

For years, few people dared to speak about what happened on the night of May 31, 1921, during one of the most deadly and devastating race riots in the nation’s history. Otis G. Clark, who was 18 at the time, had grown up in Greenwood, a thriving African American section of Tulsa.

During a night that history almost forgot, Mr. Clark dodged bullets, raced through alleys to escape armed mobs and saw his family’s home burned to the ground. He fled Tulsa on a freight train headed north.

He would eventually move to Los Angeles, where he was the butler in the home of movie star Joan Crawford. He later turned to preaching and was known as the “world’s oldest evangelist.”

Here’s a news report on Mr. Clark when he was just a young pup of 106:

The Tulsa
riot of 1921 began as so many of these other disturbances did: A White person
took offense at something a Black person is alleged to have done and Whites went crazy.

The Oklahoma
Historical Society has more:

Believed to be the single worst incident of racial violence
in American history, the bloody 1921 Tulsa
race riot has continued to haunt Oklahomans to the present day. During the
course of eighteen terrible hours on May 31 and June 1, 1921, more than one
thousand homes and businesses were destroyed, while credible estimates of riot
deaths range from fifty to three hundred. By the time the violence ended, the
city had been placed under martial law, thousands of Tulsans were being held
under armed guard, and the state’s second-largest African
American community had been burned to the ground.

[…]

Tulsa
was also a deeply troubled town. Crime rates were sky high, while the city had
been plagued by vigilantism, including the August 1920 lynching,
by a white mob, of a white teenager accused of murder. Newspaper reports
confirmed that the Tulsa
police had done little to protect the lynching victim, who had been taken from
his jail cell at the county courthouse.

Eight months later an incident involving Dick Rowland, an
African American shoe shiner, and Sarah Page, a white elevator operator, would
set the stage for tragedy. While it is still uncertain as to precisely what
happened in the Drexel
Building on May 30, 1921,
the most common explanation is that Rowland stepped on Page’s foot as he
entered the elevator, causing her to scream.

The next day, however, the Tulsa
Tribune, the city’s afternoon daily newspaper, reported that Rowland,
who had been picked up by police, had attempted to rape Page. Moreover,
according to eyewitnesses, the Tribune also published a now-lost editorial
about the incident, titled “To Lynch Negro Tonight.” By early evening
there was, once again, lynch talk on the streets of Tulsa.
The riot was on. Read more at:
The
Tulsa Race Riot
Tulsa
Race Riot of 1921
The Tulsa
Race Riot of 1921
Tulsa
race riot – Wikipedia
Watch these spaces for an upcoming post about the several Detroit Riots in an upcoming episode of “Unpacking My Detroit.” Or read Part One and Part Two.