Black Grove Kept Intact In 3-Way District Split

Miami FL

03 March, 2022

5:56 PM

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By Bianca Marcof, Miami Times Staff Writer, the Miami Times Mar 1, 2022 After concerned residents filled Miami City Hall Friday to oppose the city's redistricting proposal cutting Coconut Grove into three districts rather than remain as one, it appears the historic neighborhood is on its way to being represented by multiple elected officials for the next decade, while keeping its Black community intact. The newest proposal is a revision of the map that was presented last month by the city's redistricting consultant, attorney Miguel De Grandy, which residents argued would weaken the Black vote. The first redrawn map divided Coconut Grove in two and moved a portion of West Grove into Commissioner Manolo Reyes' District 4, which is majorly comprised of Hispanic voters. Now, the new map splits the Grove into three districts – District 2 (represented by Commissioner Ken Russell), District 4 (Reyes) and District 3 (Commissioner Joe Carollo). Four of the five Miami commissioners in attendance gave their preliminary approval; Russell opposed. While this new proposal looks to keep the Black community together, it still has Grovites up in arms over proper representation from three commissioners and a potential dilution of power for Black voters. Wearing slogans on T-shirts such as "One Grove" and "One District," residents from all over the city took to the podium to plead with commissioners to keep the historic community that predates Miami whole. "There is a crisis that we're in the midst of right now with this redistricting," said Joseph Brown, councilman of the Coconut Grove Village Council. "We're stronger together than we are apart. This crisis has also brought stakeholders out from many different communities, many different organizations, and now we stand in one voice." "You will be changing (those in the Grove's) voting habits, you will be changing the years in which they vote. The community in which they have gathered for political actions have now changed," Jessica Saint-Fleur, an organizer of Engage Miami in Little Haiti, told commissioners. "What is the point of moving people around when they will only get more confused on who their commissioners are?" Every 10 years, district boundaries are redrawn after the U.S. Census Bureau measures population growth in order to guarantee equal voter representation so that no one district is much bigger than the others. From 2010 to 2020, Miami's population went up from 399,457 to 442,241. The revised map submitted by attorney and lobbyist Miguel De Grandy shows the following adjustments to the Coconut Grove districting map: District 1, Alex Diaz de la Portilla – Green District 2, Ken Russell – Orange District 3, Joe Carollo – Blue District 4, Manolo Reyes – Yellow District 5, Christine King – Purple (Screenshot of City of Miami Commission Meeting) When the original plans were presented at a Feb. 7 meeting, Russell urged De Grandy to keep the West Grove together, which De Grandy said was possible with changes to other districts, but other commissioners did not support the motion. Nonetheless, this revised map does just that, but chops up Coconut Grove further to keep the historic Bahamian community together. "We are not entitled to stay together. There is no right of the Grove to stay cohesive. It is the wish," Russell said Friday about coming to terms with the redrawn lines. "What I've been telling people is, if we have to, we must accept that the Grove would be split up. If there is no way to legally equalize the districts without going to the Grove, we should accept that gracefully as residents in the City of Miami." The revised map finalized Friday will be shared and discussed with constituents at various neighborhood meetings, where input will be gathered for potential final tweaking before a 10 a.m., March 11 commission meeting. Russell stands by his request for the Black community to remain intact without further changes, even if the rest of Coconut Grove is divided. The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.