Dade Two Years Late On $60 Million For Urban Renewal
MIAMI (AP) — More than $60 million earmarked for five mixed-use projects in Miami's Overtown community have yet to be dispersed two years after residents packed City Hall demanding to save the imperiled funds.
The city and Miami-Dade County approved the money. But shortly before they were to get going late last year, county officials balked, citing an old law that capped how much they had to pay.
The proposed developments would mix business and residences and are viewed as a way to help rebuild the mostly African-American neighborhood.
Overtown was once the Harlem of the South, drawing artists like Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole, who weren't permitted to stay in the Miami Beach venues where they performed.
Construction of freeways through its heart in the 1960s devastated the community.
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