Tag Archives: Trolleygate

A Century of Coconut Grove Racism ► Soilgate Is Trolleygate Writ Large

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One of hundreds of thousands of Racist internet memes

Follow the bouncing ball: Trolleygate is modern day Racism, pure and simple. Furthermore, the Racism that allowed for Trolleygate is exactly the same Racism that thought West Grove was the perfect place for Old Smokey, an incinerator that belched carcinogenics into the air for 5 decades. Racism — which is a cancer on our body politic — may have led to actual cancer clusters in Coconut Grove. I’m here to prove that thesis. 

Let’s start here: It’s been a truism since the founding of ‘Merka that People of Colour have always gotten the short end of the stick. There is no disputing that. But that’s a thing of the past, according to modern day Racists, because we now have a Black president. We are now living in a post-racial society. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!! Right?

For an explanation on the pics used to illustrate this article, please read my essay Racist Memes and Blogging ► Unpacking the Writer

Not even close. While some Racism is less blatant than it has been in previous decades, one can find hundreds of thousands of Racist memes against President Obama, each more disgusting than the next. However, make no mistake: It’s still Racism. Racism doesn’t have degrees. Like being pregnant, a meme can’t be a little bit Racist. It’s either Racism, or it isn’t. The entire story of Coconut Grove depicts a Racism that continues to this very day, culminating in Trolleygate.

West Grove is a quiet residential neighbourhood that has remained predominantly Black since its founding in the late 1880s. It was settled by Bahamians who came up through Key West, at one time Florida’s largest city. The Black Bahamians who settled in Coconut Grove worked for The Peacock Inn and Commodore Ralph Monroe, among the earliest residents. As a nascent tourist trade flourished, more Black folk arrived to do all of the backbreaking work and menial labour that made it all happen.

That West Grove wasn’t razed is due almost entirely to the efforts of one man, Ebeneezer Woodbury Franklin Stirrup. E.W.F. Stirrup was one of Florida’s first Black millionaires and, at one time, the largest landholder in Coconut Grove. On some of the land he owned he threw up more than 100 houses with his own hands. These he rented, sold, and bartered to other Bahamians. That’s why, at one time, Coconut Grove once had the highest percentage of Black home ownership in the entire country, making it unique.

It’s for that reason and that reason alone that The Powers That Be were unable to dislodge the Black residents of Coconut Grove. Overtown, just up the road and the second Black neighbourhood in Miami, had I-95 rammed through the middle of what had been the Black Shopping and Entertainment district. However, Overtown was mostly renters with absentee landlords, who were happy to cash out on their investments. The same pattern took place in Paradise Valley, in my home town of Detroit, which was leveled for I-75. The same scenario played out all across the country.

It’s not as if the Powers That Be didn’t try to get rid of Black Grove. There were three separate attempts to get rid of the neighbourhood. In 1921 an urban renewal project called The Bright Plan, approved but never realized due to an economic downturn, would have created a golf course on everything west of Main Highway to Douglas and north to Grand Avenue. In 1925 City Fathers tried to get Miami to annex around what was called Coloredtown, instead of including it. Miami decided to annex it all instead, which led to the creation of Coral Gables, the city that Racism built. In the ’50s, long after the rest of the city had indoor plumbing, West Grove still used outhouses. Honey wagons were just a way of life long after every surrounding neighbourhood (read: White neighbourhoods) had an indoor toilet. In the ’50s. The city wanted to raze the entire blighted neighbourhood and start all over, but the high percentage of Black home ownership defeated the proposal. People, who in some cases were now the 2nd or 3rd generation in the same house, refused to sell. They knew better. Where could they go? They would be redlined out of any neighbourhood they wanted to buy into. It was better to stay put and bequeath their homes to their children and their children’s children.

Which is to explain why the neighbourhood has remained predominately Black. That and the fact that White folk tend not to move into Black neighbourhoods. I’ll now let Nick Madigan, writing in yesterday’s New York Times, pick up the story of Old Smokey:

MIAMI — When she was little, Elaine Taylor remembers rushing home whenever Old Smokey fired up. Clouds of ash from the towering trash incinerator would fill the air and settle on the ramshackle houses and the yards of the West Grove neighborhood.

Her mother, who took in laundry, would be whipping sheets and shirts off the clotheslines. Often, the soot would force Elaine and her mother to wash everything again, by hand.

Old Smokey was shut down in 1970, after 45 years of belching ash, but its legacy might be more ominous than mere memories of soiled laundry. Residents of the neighborhood, established by Bahamian immigrants in the 1880s, have become alarmed by recent revelations that soil samples there show contamination from carcinogens like arsenic and heavy metals, including lead, cadmium and barium.

Ash from the old incinerator is being blamed, and residents are asking why none of this came to light sooner.

Something that Madigan leaves out of his story — because it makes a simple story of soil pollution and subsequent coverup far too complicated — is that the coverup was only discovered due to Trolleygate, the story I’ve been following since January. The documents were discovered by the pro bono legal team researching Trolleygate while preparing its case against Miami, Coral Gables, and Astor Development. While that suit was thrown out of court for a lack of jurisdiction, the documents kicked loose during the research are still bearing fruit. Friday I wrote about an email from a City of Miami Zoning and Building Department official who said that Trolleygate did not conform to the Miami 21 Plan. Yet, after some undetermined jiggery-pokery, [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff managed to get the project approved anyway, despite the fact that it screws his owns constituents and rewards a developer in the next town over. But, that’s now a side issue to Soilgate, the discovery of toxic soil throughout Coconut Grove and greater Miami. [Coral Gables is now suing to get out of ever having to use the polluting diesel bus garage.]

The Racism that decided a Black neighbourhood was the perfect place for a polluting diesel bus garage — despite it not being zoned for it — can be seen as a parallel to the decision in the 1920s to build Old Smokey, the incinerator that polluted Miami. Miami needed an incinerator. Why not stick it as far away from the White folk as possible? Stick it in West Grove. Again from the New York Times:

Across the street from Old Smokey’s former site lies Esther Mae Armbrister Park and its playground. Down the block is George Washington Carver Elementary School, a once all-black institution that traces its history to 1899. Former students recall ash blowing in through the school’s open windows.

[University of Miami law] Professor [Anthony V.] Alfieri [of the Environmental Justice Project] said that the construction of Old Smokey “in the middle of a Jim Crow community” in 1925 exemplified the city’s pattern of neglecting the West Grove, an area that has never experienced the prosperity so evident in its neighboring communities. In a 1950 article in Ladies’ Home Journal, Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote that when the city installed a water and sewage system in Coconut Grove, its western neighbor was left out of the project, and for years residents continued to use wells and outhouses.

Old Smokey was shut down in 1970 after many years of neighbourhood protests and a successful legal battle initiated by the White folk of Coral Gables. Yet, 98% White Coral Gables learned nothing from that court battle. When it needed a place to build its polluting diesel bus garage, Astor Development chose West Grove. This is the neighbourhood that’s been given the short end of the stick since it was called Kebo by the original Bahamian settlers almost 130-years ago. Even if you attempted to argue, against all logic, that the developer was unaware it was a Black neighbourhood, the only reason the land was cheap was due to the last century of systemic Racism, that depressed every economic indicator you can name in West Grove, especially when compared to the rest of the 33133 Zip Code, now considered one of the most exclusive in the entire country.

The Supreme Irony: Air pollution — emanating from a fake diesel-powered trolley bus or a giant incinerator — doesn’t abide by the Colour Line, of course. There appears be less pollution the closer one gets to Old Smokey’s former site. As the expression says, “What goes up, must come down.” It seems a lot of Old Smokey’s toxins came down in the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park. Coincidentally, or not, that’s right across the street from where [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff lives. The New York Times again:

“Everything is testing to be residential standard,” Mr. Sarnoff said, referring to contaminant levels permitted under environmental regulations.

That may not be the final word. A cancer researcher at the University of Miami said that she and several colleagues discovered a cluster of pancreatic cancer cases in the West Grove several years ago.

“That’s the little region that lights up,” said the researcher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the issue. Although she found the discovery “puzzling,” she said she did not pursue it because of a lack of funds. But when she read a newspaper article this year about Old Smokey that said its ash had spewed arsenic and heavy metals into the neighborhood, she said “everything started making sense.”

The researcher noted that no correlation could be established between the cancer cluster and the old incinerator without more research.

Institutional Racism could be the answer as to why so many people in Coconut Grove are now being diagnosed with cancer. Yet, despite this ugly history of sticking the Black neighbourhood with what the White neighbourhood doesn’t want, [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff, the City of Miami, and Astor Development all still think it’s appropriate for them to have played a shell game in order to get Trolleygate approved.

That’s nothing but Modern Day Racism, pure and simple.

Enjoy some videos of the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park from September 13, 2013, as the soil testing was occurring.




BLOCKBUSTER!!! The Trolleygate Smoking Gun Surfaces

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Ready for his close-up: [Allegedly] corrupt Miami Commisioner Marc. D. Sarnoff
at the Trolleygate Dog and Pony Show posing for the Miami Herald.

A whistle-blower on Trolleygate could blow down the house of cards carefully erected by [allegedly] corrupt Miami Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff. At least that’s what people who call Sarnoff the “Teflon” Commissioner are hoping.

I received a call from an anonymous tipster yesterday telling me of an email being circulated privately (but has since become public) that should have put a stop to the government operated vehicle maintenance facility*, aka Trolleygate, before the first bit of dirt had ever been turned on the project. The email, from Dakota Hendon in Miami’s Miami Building and Zoning Department, said, essentially, that the government operated vehicle maintenance facility being proposed for Douglas Avenue did not
conform to the Miami 21 Plan.

Who is Dakota Hendon? For one thing he helped write the book on the Miami 21 Plan [PDF], so he should know what’s allowed and not allowed. According to an online biography Hendon worked in the City of Miami Planning Department from August 2006 to September of 2010, when he moved to the City of Miami Building and Zoning Department. It was in this capacity he wrote to Francisco Garcia, the City of Miami Planning Director, warning that government operated vehicle maintenance facility being proposed was non-conforming. Yet, like all projects that [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff comes into contact with, no one really knows how this non-conforming project got approved, especially after the Zoning department tried to put the kibosh on it.

It just kind of happened. Just like how the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park and the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Traffic Circle just kind of happened, even though no one has ever taken responsibility for green-lighting those projects.

However, we now know who tried to stop Trollygate before it even started. On May 24, 2011, Dakota Hendon wrote to Francisco Garcia — City of Miami Planning Director — which included a helpful definition from the Miami 21 Plan:

Francisco,

We have a bit of a problem. The Coral Gables Trolley Station that I met with you and the applicant on a few weeks ago appears to not be an allowable use as we had originally anticipated. See the definition of Auto-related industrial below. I believe this is specifically an industrial use. At this point, they have already submitted for the Warrant and action needs to be taken to stop the application. Additionally, IDR was adamantly against the project in the specific location. 　Please call me to discuss at your convenience.　

Auto-Related Industrial Establishment: A facility conducting activities associated with the repair or maintenance of motor vehicles, trailers, and similar large mechanical equipment; paint and body work; major overhaul of engine or engine parts; vehicle impound or wrecking yard; outdoor vehicle sales, storage or repair; and government vehicle maintenance facilities. This includes auto related Uses not otherwise allowed within the commercial auto related establishment category.

The Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park and adjacent Traffic Circle

Speaking of the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park: This has not been a very good month for [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff and his doggie park. The residents are up in arms after toxic dirt was found polluting not only the dog park, but also that last sliver of land that Sarnoff decided to leave for the children, after carving out a full two-thirds of the park and turning it over to the dogs. Since the residents are also Marc D. Sarnoff’s neighbours, I imagine it’s made for some tense relations along Shipping Avenue.

IRONY ALERT: In what can only be the supreme irony in this entire story, the only reason it was discovered that the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park was polluted in the first place was due to the West Grove residents’ lawsuit against the government operated vehicle maintenance facility, which was thrown out of court last month. While expressing sympathy to the residents’ plight, Judge Ronald G. Dresnick ruled he did not have jurisdiction in the Trolleygate case.

However, part of the pro bono legal team that represented the West Grove neigbourhood was Zach Lipshultz, who is a graduate student at the University of Miami School of Law’s Center for Ethics and Public Service. As part of that case, he started documenting the apparent toxicity in several West Grove locations. Recently the City of Miami ordered them to be tested again and, just for good measure, included the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park, which had never been tested before.

As David Villano of Miami News Times notes, the Marc D. Sarnoff Memorial Dog Park is getting an immediate clean up after toxic dirt was discovered there, while the City of Miami has known about toxic soil at Armbrister Field and 3 other locations for years without taking any action whatsoever. I guess when you’re the commissioner, you just get toxic clean-ups, dog parks, and traffic circles, while the rest of the citizens of Miami can take a flying leap at a rolling donut.

But, I digress. [I’ll be writing more about the Coconut Grove’s tainted soil in an upcoming post. One Sarnoff Scandal™ at a time. Let’s just stick with Trolleygate.]

It’s all about these fake trolley buses from Coral Gables, the next town over

Coincidentally my anonymous tipster (who was the first person to ever tell me about Trolleygate and even coined the name) had contact with Dakota Hendon when he was still with the City of Miami’s Building and Zoning Department. I was told that Hendon was a helpful resource within the office, always friendly, and willing to explain and help navigate the red tape to obtain building permits. The next thing my anonymous tipster knows, Dakota Hendon is no longer
working for the City of Miami and the non-conforming government operated
vehicle maintenance facility was rushed the zoning process “faster than shit
through a goose,” to use one inelegant phrase thrown around.

Now that Dakota Hendon’s email is public, my anonymous tipster wonders whether this is why he no longer works for city and whether he was pushed, or did he quit. Here’s what’s known for certain: [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff shepherded this project from beginning to end, working the backrooms with Astor Development to offer a $250,000 ‘bribe’ to improve Armbrister Field, suspected for years of being polluted.

Another long-time Sarnoff critic [who also wishes to remain anonymous. In fact, it’s hard to find someone willing to go on the record about Sarnoff because people are afraid of his vindictiveness. Many have told me stories of how he punishes his perceived enemies, something I witnessed for myself at the Trollygate Dog And Pony Show.] says this is a tried and true Sarnoff tactic: To offer something to one part of the neighbourhood to get them onside, in order to run roughshod over the rest of the neighbours’ objections, and while the various factions are playing off against one another, Sarnoff will do something like push through a government operated vehicle maintenance facility.

No doubt last month Astor Development and [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff had hoped that Judge Dresnick had the last word on Trolleygate. While the residents were decided whether they should appeal, the City of Coral Gables decided to sue Astor Development over its own government operated vehicle maintenance facility.

I don’t know if depositions are taken in cases like this, but here are some questions I’d like to ask if given the chance:

I’d ask Dakota Hendon:

1). Why he’s no longer working for the City of Miami;
2). Why does the written record end at his email;
3). Did he follow up with Francisco Garcia;
4). Who approved this project;
5). What contact did he have with [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff over this project;
6). What contact did he have with Astor Development.

I’d ask Francisco Garcia:

1). Why does the written record end with the email from Hendon;
2). Did he follow up Hendon;
3). Who approved this project;
4). What contact did he have with [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff over this project;
5). What contact did he have with Astor Development. 

Then I would ask some pointed questions of Astor Development:

1). How often did you meet with [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff on this project;
2). How many of those meetings were attended by community groups;
3). Who came up with the $250,000 bribe to Arbrister Field;
4). What assurances did you get from [alleged] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff that this building would go ahead as planned;
5). Whose idea was it to put shutters on the building to make it look more Bahamian;
6). What contact did you have with Francisco Garcia and/or Dakota Hendon.

Then, once I had the answers to those questions, I would call [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff to the witness stand and, UNDER OATH, based on the triangulation from all those questions above, see if he will admit to being a corrupt Commissioner. I say this because no one else can think of any other reason that [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff would go to bat for a developer from the next town over, to build a polluting bus garage for the next town over, that clearly contravenes the Miami 21 Plan, as evidenced by the city’s own Zoning and Planning Department official.

Who is getting what out of this project? Miami gets no tax revenue from this building and has been paying layers to defend it in court. It’s already a millstone around taxpayers’ necks. Meanwhile, the West Grove residents get all the pollution from this building, while the City of Coral Gables has denied them even the courtesy of a bus stop. Because: That might allow predominately Black West Grove to visit the lily White Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, the next town over, which is the purpose of these phony trolley buses in the first place. [Read more about Coral Gables in my series No Skin In The Game and see why I call it the city that racism built.]

Rampant speculation [in almost every conversation I have about Trolleygate] leads people to believe that somehow [allegedly] corrupt Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff made out like a bandit on this deal, because there is no other logical explanation for him selling out his own constituents the way he did in Trolleygate.

Read all my posts on Trolleygate here.
View all my videos on Trolleygate here.

* The reason I continue to use the awkward phrase “government operated vehicle maintenience facility is two-fold: 1) That’s what it is; 2). That exact phrase is one of the specifically prohibited uses along Douglas Road, according to the Miami 21 Plan.

Edited September 21, 2013: In my anger I used an expletive that I’ve excised. Also, a lawyer suggested I take out the word “bribe.” Instead I have surrounded it in ‘these quotes’ denoting the word is used colloquially and not legally.

Coral Gables Now Suing Over Trolleygate

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Almost finished: The polluting vehicle maintenance facility on August 26, 2013

The residents of West Grove woke up to good news this morning. The Miami Herald is reporting the City of Coral Gables is now suing Astor Development over the Trolleygate diesel bus maintenance garage. It was just last month when Not Now Silly was forced to report in the story West Grove Residents Lose ► Polluting Trolley Bus Garage Will Go Ahead:

The residents of west Coconut Grove had their hopes dashed yesterday when Miami-Dade County Judge Ronald G. Dresnick ruled that a polluting diesel bus garage will go ahead in their residential neighbourhood as planned.

What a difference a few weeks make. As the Miami-Herald’s Jenny Staletovich reports:

Coral Gables has sued the company building a controversial trolley garage for the city in neighboring Coconut Grove, saying the garage doesn’t comply with zoning rules in the surrounding historic black neighborhood.

And unless a judge rules otherwise, Coral Gables will walk away from the deal it struck with the developer, City Attorney Craig Leen said Wednesday.

Oddly enough the Coral Gables lawsuit [PDF] is based on some of the same grounds as the resident’s lawsuit that was rejected, but comes at it from a business standpoint, according to Ralf Brookes, part of the pro bono legal team that represented the community last month.

“We’re delighted to see Coral Gables has filed suit. Of course we agree with the city of Coral Gables that the intended use is not commercial and is a government vehicle maintenance facility is an industrial use. That’s what we have been arguing all along, but Judge Resnick ruled he didn’t have jurisdiction,” Brookes told Not Now Silly by telephone this morning.

The City of Coral Gables is alleging in its suit that Astor Development is not complying with the Miami 21 Plan and that, therefore, it is not obligated to go ahead with a second deal to convey Coral Gables land to Astor for a huge mixed use development. The Coral Gables suit is asking the judge, who will not be Resnick, to either rule the polluting diesel bus maintenance facility conforms to Miami’s official plan, or allow the city to back out of the contract allowing Astor to redevelop the land on which the current polluting diesel bus maintenance facility sits.

If the judge rules in favour of Coral Gables, what would happen to the building that’s almost finished? One community activist sees this as an opportunity for the struggling neighbourhood. An adaptive re-use of the building could include a farmer’s market or an incubator for small business opportunities. I see it as being large enough to become an artist’s’ cooperative, like The Rust Belt Market in Ferndale, Michigan.

Whatever the building becomes it is beginning to look like everybody’s predictions will come true: This building will never be used as a vehicle maintenance facility.

YouTube videos I took of the soon-to-be mixed use building on August 26, 2013. They show the relationship of this building to the quiet residential neighbourhood and the One Grove mural:

Go Home, Coconut Grove Grapevine, You’re Drunk!

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Tom Falco acting inconspicuous right in the middle of downtown Coconut Grove

Uh oh! I’m involved in another media bun fight with Tom Falco, writer-editor-grammarian of the Coconut Grove Grapevine. And, I didn’t start it this time. The last time we had a battle of wits, he came half-armed. This time he’s come completely unarmed — or unglued, you decide — and I almost don’t have the heart to finish this post . . . the operative word being “almost.”

Before I lay out our latest skirmish, let me first clear up one thing, because this is a discussion I refuse to have ever again:

I have always considered every email sent to me as my property to do with as I wish. Most people know that I am a journalist before they write to me. Consequently, emailing me does not automatically confer confidentiality. Having said that, there’s loads of email I receive that get and deserve confidentiality. I have several sources guaranteed anonymity, as well as a few whistle-blowers who send me documents. They all know I’d never burn a source. I have exchanged email with Tom Falco, on and off, going back to 2009. He’s always refused to join in my campaign to Save The E.W.F. Stirrup House. That he did so with several off-hand remarks that I took as racial, still rankles. [But then, if you’ve been following
Not Now Silly for any length of time, you know that I see racism in almost everything. Maybe I was wrong about why he refuses to cover West Grove issues. Maybe if the West Grove could afford advertising in the Grapevine it would be a whole different dealie, but this parenthetical is already too long, so we’ll leave that for another time.] I even offered Tom Falco the opportunity to be an off-the-record source for my Coconut Grove stories. He declined to even meet with me to discuss it over coffee. Consequently, no confidentiality for you!

Put a pair of sunglasses on Mr. Softee and you would be able to tell them apart.

Not that I feel I need any further excuse for printing Falco’s emails, but just today he chose to print an email on his joke-of-a-blog that wasn’t even addressed to him; it was an email passed to him by a 3rd party. As far as I’m concerned, that makes Falco’s emails fair game.

And, because I simply can’t resist piling on, here is grammarian Tom Falco at his run-on best from today [sic throughout]:

He wanted tot talk on the phone or in person, I wanted a typed answer that I could copy and paste, as most things I write, Ron tells people that I get incorrect, so copy and paste is the answer I would like. So I can have a written copy to verify the answer.

I apologize. Those are the worst two sentences you’ve ever read, I know, but it’s the Internet Age. Nowadays everybody thinks they are a writer, which has devalued a reputable trade I spent a lifetime learning. But, that’s also another argument for another day.

Not only is it worth quoting Falco just for the lulz alone, but also because it proves what I have been saying. I’ve accused Falco of cutting and pasting the press releases he’s sent, which he turns into blog posts that will stroke the ego of his pool of potential advertisers. “I could copy and paste, as most things I write.” It’s like he’s not even trying any more.

Here’s a news flash, Tom: If you cut and paste press releases, you aren’t writing. However, when you’re cutting and pasting, your grammar improves dramatically. You might want to stick to cut & paste. 

Slightly more context: I need to introduce you to Al Crespo, of the Crespogram Report. Crespo is one of Miami’s best muckrakers. I wish I had his guts and his investigatory skills. I tried to get Crespo involved in the E.W.F. Stirrup House too, and he also declined. I never held that against him the way I did Falco. Crespo’s reasoning, which made sense, was (paraphrasing) “the developers got their hands on the E.W.F. Stirrup House fair & square.” However, to give Al Crespo’s due credit, he recognized sheer genius and The Crespogram Report linked to my Not Now Silly post Is Marc D. Sarnoff Corrupt Or The Most Corrupt Miami Politician? That one mention was worth 422 hits, which was much appreciated. However, as I admitted to him, I cribbed some of my info from the Crespogram Report.

The Trollygate diesel bus government maintenance facility
that I’ve been writing about since January

So, now that you’re all caught up: Last week Crespo sent an email to Tom Falco and CCed me on it. Here’s our full exchange as of a few minutes ago:

FROM: Al Crespo
TO: Tom Falco, Headly Westerfield
SUBJECT: TOM I THINK YOU NEED TO COVER THIS
Aug 17, 2013


——– Forward Original Message ——–
Subject:     My latest on Trolleygate
Date:     Sat, 17 Aug 2013 16:47:05 -0400
From:     Headly Westerfield
To:     undisclosed-recipients:;

West Grove Residents Lose ► Polluting Bus Garage Will Go Ahead

FROM: Headly Westerfield
TO: Al Crespo, Tom Falco
Aug 17, 2013
       
Tom doesn’t cover politics. He’s said so himself.

Tom doesn’t cover West Grove because I’ve tried to get him involved several times in West Grove issues and he has always declined.

BTW: Trolleygate was all Sarnoff’s doing. He screwed his own constituents by gifting them a diesel bus garage.If he were not term-limited, he’d never get another West Grove vote.
   
FROM: Tom Falco
TO: Al Crespo, Headly Westerfield
Aug 24, 2013
       
I will not bow to threats by Headly and his crew. I don’t cover events
that I am threatened to cover. That’t how they operate.

If you check the Grapevine, you will probably see hundreds
of stories that take place in the West Grove. You probably
have never checked once to make a libelous comment like that.
I suggest you do a search in the upper left box of the Grapevine
and see every Village West event I have attended and covered.

As for this past story, I was in the hospital for 8 days with
kidney failure. That is why i did not cover it.

Tom Falco
Editor | CoconutGroveGrapevine
www.coconutgrovegrapevine.com
The Daily News of Coconut Grove

FROM: Headly Westerfield
TO: Tom Falco, Al Crespo
Aug 24, 2013

What the hell are you babbling about?

Crew? I have no crew. I work alone. I am simply one guy, living in a different county, who found a house I wanted to save. I tried to interest you in the story. You declined to help me. To be fair, so did Al Crespo. However, that desire to save the E.W.F. Stirrup House has led to all my other reporting on Coconut Grove.

You can take the boy out of the newsroom, but you can’t take the newsroom out of the boy.

Threats? I have issued no threats.

Libelous? I suggest you first look up the word and then retract your accusation that I have issued threats.

Let me see if I have this straight: Because you have a totally whacked out conspiracy theory that I am working with some unnamed “crew” who “threatens” you to “cover events” that don’t seem to interest you, you will leave other perfectly good news items on the floor in a fit of pique because that’s how “they” operate?

Stamp your foot louder. They may not have heard it in Brickell.

I’m sorry to hear you’re not feeling well. Get better soon, so CGG can better serve the West Grove neighbourhood. It could use a voice with your readership. I do what I can, but I’m just one guy.

I doubt I will ever get an apology from Tom Falco. That’s about as likely as Falco covering issues and events of importance to West Grove residents. I alerted him to Trolleygate way back in January, so I’m not really buying his recent kidney troubles as an excuse. Falco made it clear the Coconut Grove Grapevine is no longer COCONUT GROVE’S ONLY DAILY NEWS, when he took down that rubric (after I criticized it many times) and replaced it with Daily updates on what’s up in Coconut Grove and beyond including Brickell, Coral Gables and Midtown Miami.

To be fair: Maybe Falco’s not drunk at all.  Maybe it’s the kidney meds.

Unpacking The Writer ► The Bearded Edition

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Every month, or so, I do another one of these blog posts about the inner-workings of being a writer, but all my regular readers know the unvarnished truth: It’s merely a clever way to induce you to click on one of the adverts on this page. I’ll wait…

Done? Good, because there’s so much to talk about this month.

CIRCLE THE DATE: First and foremost, there are only about 70 more shopping days before National Beard Month is once again upon us. As The Flying Monkey Squad turns its lonely eyes upon National Beard Month, the question on everyone’s lips is, of course:

How will Fox “News” Chief Washington Correspondent James Rosen be celebrating National Beard Month?


FACEBOOKERY: One of the (many) reasons I joined in on the facebookery in the first place (when I was still writing under the performance artist nom de plume of Aunty Em Ericann) was to see whether writing as a different character would free up my writing style. After a decade in the Citytv newsroom, I felt my writing had gotten staid and pedestrian. Assuming the identity of a character was incredibly liberating. Now that I am back to writing as Headly Westerfield again, I feel a
freedom with words I never had before, which is now reflected in every word I write. Even this one.

COMING SOON: Which is why I can announce that Not Now Silly will be serializing excerpts of my book in the next couple of weeks. Some of my most faithful readers have been curious about all the documents I have been collecting. That’s so I can more accurately describe the protagonists/antagonists of the book and, more importantly, the times in which they lived. There’s been recent, rapid progress and I’m excited to be able to unleash it on the world. You’ll be surprised at where the research took me because I was surprised. So, please stay tuned for that. I’ll be posting it just as soon as I am able to format the parts of the book that are ready for publication. The graphics have been ordered and I’m awaiting delivery of that, too.

AN AUGUST MONTH: The month of August has been exciting at Not Now Silly for another reason as well. I got two of my highest hit counts ever on days this month — one almost twice my previous all-time high. That makes this month on track to set a new record as well. It didn’t hurt that Reddit picked up one of my Trolleygate stories, as did Curbed Miami. However, to my eternal delight, Curbed also linked to one of my stories about the historic, 120-year old E.W.F. Stirrup House, currently undergoing Demolition by Neglect. Saving this house and restoring Mr. Stirrup’s legacy has become an obsession. People are starting to take notice of the E.W.F. Stirrup House and that can only be a good thing. I have made an exciting new connection recently, which I also hope to report upon soon.

Meanwhile my Top Ten Posts for the same period looks like this:

FIRST PAST THE POST: These are all essays I’m extremely proud of. I’m pleased they are getting this kind of devoted readership on Not Now Silly and being shared on the innertubes. If you like what you’ve read, feel free to use the SHARE buttons at the bottom of every post. I always appreciate the added readership.

CH-CH-CHANGES: I will be making a slight change to Not Now Silly over the next couple of days, one that (hopefully) you might not even notice. One complaint I’ve received (more than once) is that the colour scheme makes the links hard to find. I’ll be tinkering with colours to make links more obvious. However, that’s the only negative feedback I received from the format change in April, which pleases me. I like the current minimalist look, so I’m not going to tinker with it too much.

JUST DO IT: If you’ve gotten this far without clicking on an advert, shame on you. That’s the only money I get for all these words that you obviously enjoyed so much that you’ve made it this far down the page. Clicking on an advert costs you nothing, but it puts a few cents in my pocket . . . and I do mean few.

So, click on an advert. Do it for the children. Do it before you’re too busy celebrating National Beard Month.

West Grove Residents Lose ► Polluting Bus Garage Will Go Ahead

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Indefatigable Coconut Grove community activist Laurie Cook leading the protest

The residents of west Coconut Grove had their hopes dashed yesterday when Miami-Dade County Judge Ronald G. Dresnick ruled that a polluting diesel bus garage will go ahead in their residential neighbourhood as planned.

Prior to the hearing about 50 resident of the Grove gathered in the 100 degree heat for a public awareness campaign on the courthouse steps, until they were kicked off the steps and made to use the sidewalk. Then everyone gathered in courtroom 4-2 at 10:30 a.m. to hear oral arguments.

[This was the coldest room I have ever been in. After we all came in sweaty and clammy from the heat, everyone was immediately chilled to the bone and remained that way until the hearing ended at 1 p.m. Meat lockers are not kept this cold. It must be so the law won’t spoil. The court clerk had what appeared to be a blanket pulled over her shoulders. The lawyers were the only ones not disadvantaged by the cold. Now I know why they all wear suits.]

The meat locker called Courtroom 4-2. Can you see their breath?

The legal arguments went on for nearly 2.5 hours and when it was all over the judge ruled — to make a long story short — that he really didn’t have jurisdiction to issue the residents an injunction to stop the polluting diesel bus garage based on the several legal arguments presented.

To make a long story long: The judge decided he wasn’t going to rule on the Plaintiff’s Constitutional arguments, which were about prior neighbourhood notification (where residents only have 15 days to file a protest) and how one gets word a project has finally been approved. Those approval notices are posted every 2 weeks on a hard-to-find area of the City of Miami’s web site. [I’m net savvy and I’ve never been able to find it.] Furthermore, as I learned in court from the plaintiff’s lawyers, 49% of West Grove residents do not have access to the internet. And, even if they did, they would be required to keep checking the city’s web site every 2 weeks — 26 times a year — in case a building permit has been issued on a project of local concern. It’s a lot like that opening scene of the Hitchhiker’s Guilde to the Galaxy when a work crew arrives to demolish Arthur Dent’s house for a highway bypass. They tell him that he had every opportunity to protest the highway because he could have always gone to City Hall to see the plans:

“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

Another Plaintiff argument the judge rejected was that the Coral Gables Bus Garage would be a “government vehicle maintenance facility” which is specifically EXCLUDED by the Miami 21 Plan for the Douglas Road corridor. That argument didn’t fly for 2 reasons, as I understand it. * Defendants argued that the bus garage is currently owned by Astor Development and, therefore, it’s not government operated yet. Only when Astor Development signs over the bus garage to the City of Coral Gables would it become a government vehicle maintenance facility . . . or, maybe not.

The other argument from the defendant seemed far more arcane to me, but the judge bought it. Lawyers for the defendants argued that under the Miami 21 Plan a commercial gas station, or tire repair place, would be allowed on that site and these places could provide minor repairs. Therefore, it came down to the definition of “minor repairs” versus “major repairs.” Furthermore, defendants argued, a gas station or tire garage would have similar environmental and noise impacts on the neighbourhood. That might be so, but those businesses do not start their day at 5 a.m. and run to 11 at night. Their hours would be limited to whatever the Miami by-laws allow, as in any city, and 5 in the morning to 11 at night would not pass muster. Regardless of those details, in essence, the judge ruled that it appeared to be merely a by-law violation if (when?) major vehicle repairs are done in a place where only minor repairs are allowed.

Nor was the judge swayed by the safety arguments of the plaintiffs. The design of the diesel bus garage, with bus parking and bays in the rear, requires the buses to enter on Frow Avenue and exit on Oak Avenue; both are residential streets, without sidewalks, upon which thousands of children walk to school — to say nothing of all the other residents, some of whom are elderly and infirm, just like in any neighbourhood.

None of the safety or environmental issues — those that most concern the residents — mattered to the judge because those arguments were not legal arguments. Legal arguments are the clauses and subclauses of the written law and the precedents the lawyers can cite for the judge to rule one way or another.

However, what the residents of west Coconut Grove were reminded of, as if they needed further reminding, is that “the Colour Line is the Poverty Line is the Power Line (Ambalavaner Sivanandan, 1923 – ). If this were a White neighbourhood this never would have happened; not because the residents would have successfully won an injunction in court. It would never have come to court because had this been a White neighbourhood the property values would have been such that Astor Development would have never found cheap land to buy in West Grove. Those 9 decades of Systemic Racism are described in the several previous articles on Not Now Silly under the rubric “No Skin In The Game.” People tell me they are shocked at what the series reveals.

* I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on television. I only had few minutes to debrief Ralf Brookes, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, before he rushed off to a depo, as he called it. If I misunderstood anything I will provide corrections once my bone-headed errors are pointed out to me.

No Skin In The Game ► Part Four

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The One Grove mural in Coconut Grove

On the same day I was posting about the upcoming court hearing for Trolleygate, a news article came across my transom that dovetails with that story nicely. Tell me if this doesn’t sound familiar:

A nearly all-White town refuses to install bus stops that would make it convenient for Black folk to get to their community. While this fight is between suburban Beavercreek and the nearby city of Dayton, Ohio, it could almost be coming from Coral Gables and Coconut Grove.

The brouhaha in Ohio began a few years back, when the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority decided to add three bus stops in Beavercreek. The Bevercreekians said, ‘No fucking way‘ and started enacting legislative barriers to any new bus stops in the community, which oddly enough, don’t apply to current bus stops, like heat, air conditioning, and a high-tech camera system. According to Think Progress:

Many in the area argue that their opposition boils down to a simple reason: race. According to the 2010 census, 9 in 10 Beavercreek residents are white, but 73 percent of those who ride the Dayton RTA buses are minorities. “I can’t see anything else but it being a racial thing,” Sam Gresham, state chair of Common Cause Ohio, a public interest advocacy group, told ThinkProgress. “They don’t want African Americans going on a consistent basis to Beavercreek.”

A civil rights group in the area, Leaders for Equality in Action in Dayton (LEAD), soon filed a discrimination lawsuit against Beavercreek under the Federal Highway Act. In June, the Federal Highway Administration ruled that Beavercreek’s actions were indeed discriminatory and ordered them to work with the Dayton Regional Transit Authority to get the bus stops approved without delay.

Beavercreek, though, isn’t particularly keen to do that. The city council voted most recently on Friday to put off consideration of the matter until later this month. They are weighing whether to appeal the federal ruling, or perhaps whether to just defy it altogether. Appealing the ruling could cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, according to a Washington D.C. lawyer the council hired. However, non-compliance with the ruling could cost Beavercreek tens of millions of dollars in federal highway funds.

Fake-trolly that won’t be stopping in Coconut Grove

Oddly enough, White Coral Gables has refused Black Coconut Grove a bus stop outside the polluting government vehicle maintenance facility that it has foisted upon their neighbourhood. When it appeared the bus maintenance facility was a fait accompli, some residents asked for a bus stop at the very least. They were turned down flat.

Keep in mind these are the FREE diesel buses to take shoppers up and down what Coral Gables likes to call Miracle Mile, the exclusive, high-end shopping district. Of course, it might affect the businesses bottom line and Coral Gables property values if too many Black folk were able to get Coral Gables conveniently. It’s better if they walk a half mile to one of the Coral Gables fake-Trolley stops than to give them a bus stop in their own community.

The more research I do into the history of Coral Gables, the more I see that its progress and development over the years is due to almost a century of systemic racism. I make that case in my previous chapters on Coral Gables:

No Skin In The Game ► Part One
No Skin In The Game ► Part Two
No Skin In The Game ► Part Three

Click here to read all my stories on Trolleygate.

Trolleygate Update ► The End Of The Line?

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Artist rendering of the Coral Gables’ diesel bus garage designed in a Bahamian style

Circle the court date: August 16th. 

At times it seems the wheels of justice turn ever so slowly. I posted An Introduction to Trolleygate just over 6 months ago. I followed up a few days later with The Trolleygate Dog And Pony Show, which documented the joke of a public information meeting conducted by (allegedly corrupt) Miami Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff.

Ironically that was the very same day a lawsuit was launched by residents of Coconut Grove asking for an injunction to stop the neighbouring town of Coral Gables from building its polluting government vehicle maintenance facility in their residential neighbourhood. Ironic because it allowed Sarnoff to wriggle out of answering any of his VERY ANGRY constituents questions, since the issue was now in front of a judge. However, that didn’t stop him from presenting his Dog & Pony Show, during which I watched a masterful performance by (allegedly corrupt) Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff.

Diesel bus disguised to look like an old-timey, non-polluting, trolly bus

In late February I documented Coral Gable’s Modern Day Colonialism and Trolleygate and in March I spoke to plaintiff’s lawyer Ralf Brookes for An Update On Sarnoff’s Trolleygate aka Astor’s Trolley Folly. In fact, I’ve been the only journalist who has been covering this story on an ongoing basis. That may be why I was sent the notice of hearing for August 16, 2013, along with the pleadings from both sides in the dispute.

My source tells me this hearing should decide all matters and the judge will issue a ruling one way or another. Either Coconut Grove gets stuck with a polluting government vehicle maintenance facility, or Astor Trolly LLC will have to find another location for this building; a facility promised to Coral Gables so that Astor Development (another tentacle of the same company) can develop the site of the current government vehicle maintenance facility in order to make millions of dollars for itself and Coral Gables. [This paragraph was massaged slightly after being published for clarity.]

Neighbours opposed to the polluting diesel bus garage are calling for a protest on August 16th on the courthouse steps at 73 West Flagler Street for 9 a.m.with the hearing set to begin at 10.

It will be interesting to see how the court rules. I’ve been told off the record by several someones-in-the-know that this building will never be used as a bus garage. That would be welcome relief to the economically poor, minority neighbourhood trying to stop it, but it then begs the question:

What will happen to the building, which is almost finished?

THE DECISION IS IN! READ:
West Grove Residents Lose ► Polluting Bus Garage Will Go Ahead

Pictured below: 
Unveiling the One Grove Mural on March 3, 2013. immediately across the street from the polluting Trolleygate garage:

Marc D. Sarnoff: Trolleygate Hypocrite Takes A Bridge Too Far

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I couldn’t help but laugh at a recent quote from Emperor Marc D. Sarnoff, Commissioner of Miami’s District 2. 

Marc (along with Mayor Tomas Regalado) is suing the Florida Department of Transportation over a “signature” bridge that the city thought it was getting before FDOT changed the design. Sarnoff thinks FDOT participated in a classic “bait and switch” getting approval for the “signature” bridge before switching to more mundane and cheaper design.


“The people of Miami were promised a signature bridge, along the lines of those found in other major cities including Boston and Tampa. Miami taxpayers pour millions into state coffers and it’s time that the politicians and bureaucrats in Tallahassee stop spending our tax dollars in other parts of the state and instead make good on their promises to build our signature bridge,” said Commissioner Sarnoff, whose district encompasses Downtown Miami.

The polluting diesel bus garage being built to please Marc
D. Sarnoff’s newest developer friend: Astor Development.

If anyone knows anything about “bait and switch” it’s Emperor Sarnoff, who went on to say, “They are actually lying to organizations that may not know better.” Kind of the same way that Marc D. Sarnoff lied to his constituents, hoping they wouldn’t know better?

The constituents of District 2 were BAITED with the PROMISE that Marc D. Sarnoff would be THEIR Commissioner, which is why they voted him back into office. They didn’t realize that, once in office, he would SWITCH his allegiance and become the Commissioner for a Coral Gables Developer instead. However, that’s what he did when he worked behind the scenes to help Astor Development sneak a polluting diesel bus garage into the residential community of West Grove in the middle of the night.

Meet the Hypocritical Commissioner of Bait and Switch: Marc D. Sarnoff.

No Skin In The Game; Part Two

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A panorama of the Coconut Grove Village Council.

As we ended our last exciting episode (Part One of No Skin in the Game), I was leaving the Trolleygate protest in Coral Gables — just as the protest signs were arriving. I was running to cover the Coconut Grove Village Council meeting, at which Trolleygate would be an agenda item. In hindsight I made the wrong choice.

During the drive I tried to place what I had seen into a context that I understood. That’s when I decided to call this blog post No Skin In The Game. Nothing better explains the understandable apathy on the part of Coral Gables about Coconut Grove’s problems. Coral Gables is 98% White and both literally and figuratively has no skin in the game.

It may only be 3.5 miles from Coral Cables Congregational Church to the Coconut Grove Sailing Club, but it might as well be several galaxies away. The neighbourhood changes 3 separate times. From the conspicuous opulence of Coral Gables; through the blighted area of West Coconut Grove; past the non-conforming, polluting, Trolleygate diesel bus garage on Douglas; east along across Grand Avenue; where another imaginary line separates West Grove from White Grove, the exact spot where property values pick up again. It’s visually obvious without using Zillow.

The only clue there was once a place called
Paradise Valley, aka Black Bottom, is this sign.

In other words: Coconut Grove, considered one of the most exclusive Zip Codes (33133) in the entire country, has had an historic Black enclave, surrounded on all sides by White folk, for the last 140 years. This area has been marginalized by racism over the years, the same racism that affected your part of the country during the same period. It has been allowed to become blighted, the same way that Black areas in your part of the country have been allowed to fester during the same period. It has been encroached upon by The Powers That Be — Trolleygate is just the latest, most nakedly obvious example.

TO BE FAIR: Coconut Grove was not encroached upon by The Powers That Be like Overtown, where I-95 was jammed through the middle of the neighbourhood, cutting one side off from another. Nor was it was encroached upon by The Powers That Be like my hometown of Detroit, where only a sign remains of a once vibrant Black residential, retail, commercial, and entertainment district. The people of Overtown and Paradise Valley were mostly tenants with absentee landlords. They had no skin in the game.

Black Coconut Grove always had some skin in the game. This is entirely due to E.W.F. Stirrup. Mr. Stirrup was Black. Had he been White his house would have been restored by now; like The Barnacle, Commodore Munroe’s estate just a block away. It is now a State Park. However, Mr. Stirrup is also the reason West Grove still exists. There have been a few attempts to tear down the entire neighbourhood over the years. All have floundered due to the high percentage of Black home ownership — the highest in the nation. That is directly attributable to E.W.F. Stirrup, who thought that home ownership was important for growing Black families. All the more amazing because it came during a period of racial discrimination. The Powers That Be could only screw with West Grove around the edges. Black Grove had too much skin in the game.

During the 4 years I have been researching Charles Avenue I have been asked many times by White residents of Coconut Grove why I even care about Black Coconut Grove. Some are just curious. Some can’t believe that anyone would care about those people. One person used the expression “no skin in the game” and knew it was a clever racial pun. It echoed through my head ever since, but this drive from Coral Gables to West Grove to White Grove put it into context. It all depends on what skin you have in the game, and what the game is.

Taking questions about treeremediation along SW 27th. Yawn.

That’s the state of mind I arrived in, late for The Coconut Grove Village Council meeting, which was already in progress. I slipped into the back row of a sparsely attended meeting. More apathy on display. No one seems to have any skin in the game.

There were almost as many people on the executive council as observers in the room. The residents were getting an update from the City of Miami on the redesign of SW 27th Avenue, including its new, radical, peanut-shaped traffic calming circle at Tigertail Avenue. There were questions from the councilors about how traffic circles work (Really?) and questions from the residents about tree remediation. Yawn.

The MEGO factor [My Eyes Glaze Over] kicked in almost immediately. The only topic I care about is Trolleygate. Besides, I already knew the Coconut Grove Village Council was a paper tiger. This presentation was merely a courtesy from the City of Miami to keep Coconut Grove in the loop, the exact opposite to what happened when Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff quietly slipped a polluting diesel bus garage into West Grove. He said he purposely didn’t inform the Village Council because it just slows things down.

Panorama of SW 27th Avenue presentation.

By the time a project has reached this “presentation stage,” the fix is already in. People can jump and shout all they want. The Village Council can vote unanimously against a project. But . . . but . . . but . . . the Village Council only has an advisory roll and the City of Miami, more likely as not, is going to ignore what the residents of Coconut Grove want and do what Emperor Marc D. Sarnoff wants.

That’s why I tuned out and started writing a children’s parable instead.

George Merrick, founder of Coral Gables, in front of Coral
Gables City Hall, just like Coconut Grove never had.

Okay . . . okay, kiddies, sit down right here and I’ll tell you a little story about the founding of a town called Coral Gables. It’s not the kind of story you can find in the history books. Believe me, because I’ve tried since the first time I heard it about 3 years ago. I promise to keep trying, but this ain’t the kind of thing that gets written down.

However, kiddies, I have now heard pieces of this oral history more than once, from more than one source, which lends it some credence. Call this the Alternative History of Coral Gables and stop fidgeting, Tom.

FADE TO BLACK – FADE UP

Once upon a time there was a sleepy little village called Cocoanut Grove, with what appears to be an extraneous “A”. Cocoanut Grove had a small tourist trade in the Peacock Inn. Commodore Monroe built his house nearby and, immediately south, created Camp Biscayne, a rustic camp that attracted incredibly wealthy people, who wanted to camp and boat and fish and pretend for a week, or so, that they were living in earlier, halcyon times. Camp Biscayne was so exclusive that one can find its guests lists in online searches. So exclusive were all these nascent tourist attractions, they needed Black folk to do the hard work. Consequently, right beside this tourist trade grew a Black enclave, of mostly Bahamians. E.W.F. Stirrup (documented on many different pages on my blog), through hard work and industriousness, wound up becoming the largest landholder in Cocoanut Grove and one of Florida’s first Black millionaires.

In the early ’20s the movers and shakers of Cocoanut Grove saw dollar signs in developing Cocoanut Grove. To that end they hired some architects who put together what became known as the Bright Plan. It was elaborate, like every real estate development reaching for the brass ring. A Cocoanut Grove City Hall was envisioned for where Cocowalk now sits. It would have been magical, children. Imagine: Cocoanut Grove City Hall would have been at the end of a long boulevard with fountains down the middle, all based upon a Mediterranean design. City Hall would have been a short walking distance to the golf course, which would have been located along the streets both north and south of Charles Avenue, stretching all the way to Douglas. In fact, that would have included a fair chunk of what would later become known as Black Grove.

The bottom fell out of the swampland market soon after the Bright Plan was put on paper. It’s all depicted as laughs by the Marx Brothers movie “The Cocoanuts,” which takes place in Cocoanut Grove. But for some it probably wasn’t all laughs. Some people would have lost money.

It’s interesting to speculate, no pun intended, how much E.W.F. Stirrup might have profited had the Bright Plan gone ahead and how much he may have lost when it stalled. He still died a wealthy man, mind you, and did it in a time when Jim Crow laws and discrimination made the achievement all the more incredible. The Bright Plan was never implemented, except for one building: 200 feet from Mr. Stirrup’s front door is the Coconut Grove Playhouse. Had the Bright Plan ever come to fruition, it would have been a
game-changer for Cocoanut Grove.

However, this fable is about how Coral Gables, called one of the country’s first planned communities, was created. I’m still getting to that. If Tom doesn’t keep interrupting, I could get back to our story, kiddies.

Everyone should read this book. ~H.W.

A few years after the Bright Plan died, Miami started sniffing around to annex Cocoanut Grove. Some of the same boosters from earlier saw benefit in being swallowed up by Miami. Some did not. This is often as it always is. According to this alternative oral history one faction of boosters suggested annexation of everything BUT Black Coconut Grove. This thinking, especially in 1925, was not unusual at all. Across the country one can find many instances where communities purposely did not annex the Black areas at the same time the White areas were annexed. The infamous 8 Mile Wall in Detroit is a physical example of this at work. The book “Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism” by James W. Loewen was instructive in helping me understand how annexation often left out Black neighbourhoods as communities grew and why all ‘Merkin cities look the way they do. But, I digress again.

For whatever reasons The Powers That Be in Miami ignored the racially inspired boundary proposal. Miami wanted it all, so Miami took it all, annexing everything to the bottom of Cocoanut Grove, including the odd little Black enclave in the middle of it. In our alternative history, that’s when Coral Gables became a viable idea in the minds of some people. There were enough . . . okay, I’ll keep calling them boosters for the purposes of this story . . .  BOOSTERS who didn’t want to live near those people in Coconut Grove. What better way than to start your own town from scratch? You can keep out anyone you want. To this day Coral Gables proudly proclaims on its web site it is 98% White. That doesn’t happen by accident.

When Coral Gables incorporated as its own town — one of the first planned communities in the country — it claimed all the land surrounding Coconut Grove, ensuring that the Grove, and Miami, could not grow beyond its borders.

Was George Merrick racist? Not a single
one of my sources mentioned him
specifically, or anyone else..

However, and here’s the ultimate irony: Just like elsewhere in the country, the people of Coral Gables didn’t do their own hard work. Are you kidding? They could hire people to do that, as long as they went home at night. [See: Sundown Towns] The Biltmore (described in Part One of No Skin in the Game) f’rinstance had a large Black staff as did all those mansions in Coral Gables.

One of my sources for these oral fables is a 73 year old gentleman who has lived in the same house on Charles Avenue his entire life. He tells me of a time when Black folk wandering around Coral Gables would be stopped and asked for their “papers.” Papers consisted of a letter from your employer: “Mrs. Jones is our housekeeper/nanny/cook” or “Jim Smith is our handyman/chauffeur/gardener.” If you could not produce your papers you would be arrested for vagrancy.

JUMP CUT TO PRESENT

The Trolleygate item suddenly comes up on the Coconut Grove Village Council agenda. I put my phone on record and drop it in front of Pat Sessions, who drones on for a while. It only takes a minute to realize that he knows less than I reported a few weeks ago about where the case stood. It’s a good he said nothing new because I have now learned that my fancy phone shuts itself off after a few minutes and doesn’t save the recording when it does. Clearly I need a new app, but I digress.

However, Sessions did say that Astor Trolley LLC (a limited company created to spare Astor Development LLC from any adverse consequences due to Marc D. Sarnoff’s Trolly Folly) is now claiming the parcels of land Astor slapped together in blighted Coconut Grove are worth $3 million. It’s just another way West Grove has been fucked with around the edges and another land grab by another developer. Everything I learn about the east end of Charles Avenue makes me see another massive land grab by another developer. But I digress and that truly is another story for another day. Let’s get back to our happy little story of the founding of Coral Gables.

These stone streetsigns are on every corner in Coral Gables.
The White stones are for loading and unloading.

SLOW FADE BACK TO BLACKS JAILED FOR VAGRANCY – FADE UP NARRATION

Picking right up where we were in our little morality tale, boys and girls. It’s hard not to see Coral Gables as one of ‘Merka’s first redlined communities. It’s the town that racism built. It never had any skin in the game because it could keep out any skin that didn’t conform.

Another source told this author about Coral Gables (paraphrasing):
“Growing up, you see those White stones, you know you was going in White
areas. Parents and friends would warn you stay on this side of the White stones.”

Coral Gables was a reaction to Coconut Grove in every way. Coconut Grove had a Black enclave that could not be shaken loose. It could not be shaken loose because of E.W.F. Stirrup and his legacy. Stirrup created a community unique to this country because it had the highest percentage of Black home ownership in the country.

So, you see kiddies, you can’t really tell the story of Coconut Grove without also telling the racist history of Coral Gables, the town next door. Coral Gables never had any skin in the game.

FULL FADE BACK TO PRESENT – COCONUT GROVE VILLAGE COUNCIL MEETING

Sessions doesn’t think there’s anyone who thinks the Coral Gables Trolleygate diesel bus garage will ever open as a bus garage. This echos the sentiment of Edward Harris, from Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez’s quoted in Part One of this story. However, as the CGVC goes on to other topics of less interest to me than tree remediation, I reread an email from one of my sources who claims there is a massive land grab going on at the eastern end of Charles Avenue, which includes the E.W.F. Stirrup House. My source tells me it will be turned into a mixed use condo/retail/theater/parking/entertainment extravaganza that will put Cocowalk and Commodore Plaza (combined) to shame. How many people on the Coconut Grove Village Council are aware of what’s happening right in front of their noses. Maybe it’s no skin off their nose, to mix skin metaphors. Maybe they have no skin in the game.

Who has skin in the game and which game do they have skin in? Because there’s a lot of money being made by some people at the expense of others in Coconut Grove.

IRONY ALERT: I literally — and figuratively — have no skin in the game. I’m not a
Miami resident. I’m not speculating on land in Coconut Grove. I’m not
Black. I have merely identified an injustice and want to right it. For
all these reasons, and because I listen to both the residents of West
Grove and White Grove, I am trusted with confidential information and
off the record conversations. Having no skin in the game can be a
benefit as well.

Feel free to feed me any info. I know how to keep my sources private. And, thanks to everyone who read Part One and Part Two all the way to the bottom. You’re my kind of reader.