District 2 could be kept whole under new Miami redistricting map
Miami Commissioner Manolo Reyes did the right thing Friday when he told the city’s consultant on redistricting to put the part of Coconut Grove moved to District 4 back into District 2, where it belongs.
Maybe it was for the wrong reasons, but it was the right thing to do.
“I don’t like to be where I’m not welcome,” Reyes said at Friday’s special meeting, after the public comments, which was the second time dozens of residents went to City Hall to oppose cutting Coconut Grove into three districts. The map that was approved on first reading in February has a part of West Grove in District 4 and an awkward little carve-out with Commissioner Joe Carollo‘s house in it given to District 3.
Read related: Miami redistricting cuts Coconut Grove into three rather than add districts
Nobody in the Grove wanted to be divided into three districts and have three different commissioners.
“I know you will have to find the population someplace else,” Reyes told former State Rep. Miguel DeGrandy, who has worked on the maps with Palmetto Bay Councilman Stephen Cody. “If you could do that… That part of Coconut Grove is going to stay in tact.”
He took it personally. Commissioner Ken Russell, who fought for his constituents’ wishes, told Reyes not to. “I know you are a strong, good person and will represent anyone in your district,” Russell said. “But I very much appreciate it.”
Read related: Miami’s Joe Carollo attacks Ken Russell to deflect his conflict in redistricting
In the audience, some of the Grove residents mouthed the words “thank you” and at least one blew kisses. When Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla got into it with Chairwoman Christine King over a piece of the Miami River they both want, Reyes told the Grovites that he wasn’t going to change his mind.
Russell told DeGrandy to restore the other part of Coconut Grove also, giving District 3 a more northern part that is far more contiguous to Carollo’s district already. So it may be that Coconut Grove stays whole.
But Ladra is not letting her guard down and would advise the Grovites to stay vigilant. This is Miami, we don’t know what might happen on March 24, when this comes back.
Manolo Reyes listens to residents and gives up the Coconut Grove addition added by Ladra on
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Christine King should vote for black people and IF King listens to the many dozens of black people who spoke and wrote E-mails King should vote to keep the Grove, all of it, intact. AND King should vote NO on the POS Melreese Fleece Scam.
There is little doubt Reyes took this personally as ‘not being wanted’. While many may have expressed that sentiment, others in the room repeatedly talked about how difficult solving local issues would be with three commissioners. For them, it wasn’t personal. The Neighborhood Conservation Districts (NCD-2, NCD-3) overlay the Grove and limit things developers can do, so that neighborhood character is preserved as well as Greenspace, parks, etc. Developers HATE it, and therefore, so do developer-bought commissioners like Carollo and ADLP.
The way they wanted to split the Grove and rush a vote (per Carollo and ADLP edicts) down to 3 things:
ADLP was blatantly trying to slide the Wharf District away from King (where it resided before and she didn’t realize it was being moved to his district, even though no people numbers were involved).
Carollo and the Natoma area in the Gove is all about his house.
Grovites are activists and vote at 60%, vs. 10-15% in the other districts. Issue that come up they want to steam-roll through often run into the juggernaut of those nasty ‘activists’ in the Grove that see through a lot of the sleazy things ADLP and Carollo want to do. Breaking up the Grove, for them, is a good thing.
A temporary win. We’ll have to see if we can get it across the finish line on the 24th. We all need to support Commissioner King in retaining the wharf in her district and not letting ADLP take it away. Like us Grovites, she wants to ‘keep her district whole’–and since no people moves are involved, there is no reason not to leave it as it was.
Reyes should also loudly and often state he will vote No to demolish Melreese Park in his district AND Ken Russell should support Reyes and vote NO as well. The proposed Melreese lease is a piece of crap, which is to be expected since disgraced commish Marc Sarnoff worked on it. Sarnoff was the swing vote who voted Yes on the Marlins scam. Taxpayers got screwed.