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Press Clips

Miami Residents Organize to Expand Neighborhood Stabilization Program

Jul 27, 2010 at 10:40 AM
By Marcos Restrepo - Florida Independent - July 27, 2010 “The problem is big. Throwing money at it without a plan won’t work. We need a plan,” said Jordan Thomas, student and resident of Overtown — a historically black Miami neighborhood. At least 70 residents, activists, politicians and researchers met last Thursday evening at the Belafonte Tacolcy community center in Liberty City not only to learn more about the Neighborhood Stabilization Program — established in 2008 to stabilize communities that have suffered from foreclosures and abandonment and to create jobs — but to discuss how they will involve their neighbors in a process of community oversight so NSP funds get invested where and how they are needed. The event was organized by the Miami Workers Center, and it was the fourth in a series of community forums throughout the county where residents organized to bring jobs, education, housing and other benefits to their communities.
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Study tracks how stimulus affects race, poverty in Florida

Oct 21, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Nadege Charles - Miami Herald - October 13, 2009 An early look at a study to be released in phases over the next year provides a glimpse into how stimulus spending will impact Florida's poorer communities. Researchers from Ohio State, Florida International University and the Miami Workers Center will track racial biases of stimulus spending across four metropolitan regions - Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa and Miami-Dade.
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Not Stimulated! (Part 1)

Jun 03, 2009 at 09:42 AM

Gihan Perera - Huffington Post - May 28, 2009

In cities throughout the country, the stimulus has not been visible. It's early, but everything in the design of the Recovery Act means that it will make little structural difference for communities of color. Black, Latino, and Asian inner-city communities have been in recession since at least 2004. Whether the national economy can recover any time soon is a big question, but no matter what happens, local urban communities will stay in crisis for much longer.

Word From The Streets: Marlins Madness

Apr 03, 2009 at 12:57 PM

Hashim Benford - South Florida Times - April 3, 2009

The deal is done, and perhaps it was inevitable.

City and county officials have committed hundreds of millions of public dollars to build a stadium for the Miami Marlins. But we all know this is a bad deal for the public. We put up the money from our budget to see no return. There will be short-term jobs that will dry up after construction, and seasonal, long-term jobs at best.

The bottom line is that our elected leaders handed over public money to private interests, again. It’s not new for the politicians of Miami to enable corporate greed. Neither is it new for them to claim they are doing so in the name of low-income and working-class people.