Unpacking Grand Avenue

A vote Thursday at Miami City Hall could be the lifeline West Grove needs to pull itself out from under decades of poverty and systemic racism. District 2 Commissioner Ken Russell will introduce a motion at the Commission meeting to finance a $25,000 “Finding of Necessity” study to create a West Grove CRA or expand the boundaries of the OMNI CRA CRAs are designed to attack city blight and reduce slum conditions in neglected areas. To pull this off a trust is created, ...

CLICK HERE for a full gallery of Housing for All protest pics Two gatherings in Coconut Grove on Saturday morning were as different as Black and White.  On Grand Avenue Thaddeus Scott and William Wallace were waking up in tents. This to protest a lack of affordable housing and the deplorable living conditions in West Grove. Less than 3 miles away, Grove 2030 was sponsoring a charrette on the practicality of Coconut Grove seceding from the City of Miami. There was no breakfast waiting for Scott and Wallace in their empty lot on Grand Avenue, but Grove 2030 put out a great spread ...

Looking east along Grand Avenue with the sun rising over Biscayne Bay This is Part Two of a series about Grand Avenue in Coconut Grove. The car creeps west very slowly along Grand Avenue at well below the posted speed limit. It’s 5 in the morning. There are no cars to impede at this hour. Very few people are even awake at this hour. In the Center Grove, those moving along Grand seem to be working folk. They’re either headed to work, or finishing an overnight shift. In several of the restaurants along this stretch, people are washing the floors, making them ...

This 1885 watercolour by Winslow Homer is called “A Garden in Nassau”. Ironically it was used 14 years ago for this Grand Avenue Vision Plan. Read more about it below. This is the start of an extensive series on Grand Avenue in Coconut Grove.  There is a humanitarian crisis currently happening on Grand Avenue.  Yesterday a number of residents in a blighted building along Grand received eviction notices. The biggest problem they have is that there is no place to go. One couple I’ve spoken to, with several children, has been looking for a new place for months in order to escape their ...