Gentrification Threatening to Destroy Little Haiti, Community Leaders Warn

[Jefferson23]

12/3/2015

As the art world descends on South Florida for Miami Art Week, there's no doubt the glitterati are shifting their gaze to Little Haiti. Everyone from New Times to the New York Times has written this year about the Caribbean neighborhood's shift as galleries flee rising Wynwood rents.

This morning, a coalition of community activists, business owners, and residents had a message for developers: Little Haiti won't be the next Wynwood if they can help it.

"In the midst of this beautiful international art bonanza, in Little Haiti a different story has emerged," said Marleine Bastien, executive director of Fanm Ayisyen nan Miyami, which organized the demonstration. "This is the story of business and homeowners being pressured and threatened one minute, sweet-talked the next to sell their homes. They're being offered two, three times the property of their homes to get out. Gentrification is here, baby."

Under a beating December sun, Bastien and her allies issued a list of demands on behalf of the neighborhood, ranging from the creation of an official Little Haiti cultural district to placing curbs on developers through a sustainable growth plan.

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/gentrification-threatening-to-destroy-little-haiti-community-leaders-warn-8091560

[awoke_in_2003]

1. For some reason

White people want to make every place look like every place else.

[Jefferson23]

2. It's a real problem, indeed. n/t

[LiberalElite]

3. That's it!

That was the result of the "redevelopment" of Times Square, NYC. Of course, one liked it when it was full of porn and crime, but TPTB sanitized, homogenized and corporatized it to the point - I don't know why anyone thinks it's worth seeing. They threw the baby out with the bathwater.

Exhibit A: Madame Tussaud's. It's in London already. Why do we need this in NYC?

There is hardly anything uniquely NYC there anymore. Plus, it's too damn bright! (In the nighttime!!)

[Mika]

4. When I read this story I thought of this from Lame Deer Seeker of Visions...

The Green Frog Skin (American money)

https://books.google.com/books?id=e6GbyF8Zbu0C&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=green+frogskins+lame+deer&source=bl&ots=xnlRqpBjnm&sig=We490sFCvdkn5trYpvKDJnV_kGI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjsp-2Kl8rJAhXClx4KHSi2B_UQ6AEIHjAB#v=onepage&q=green%20frogskins%20lame%20deer&f=false