CRA Should Stop Giving in to Fear …
and Giving Away Public Money

Throwing money haphazardly to developers and business people not only distracts from the CRA’s main mission, but only creates a longer line for more handouts.

You can’t really blame Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones. The Lyric Promenade project, along with Crosswinds, promised to bring economic revitalization to Overtown, among the most impoverished regions within the city of Miami. The partnership, consisting of Carlisle Development Group and the Black Archives, would have poured $90 million into plans to build 160 condominiums, 150 rental units and a 149-room Hilton Garden Inn. Bonus: The development group would purchase Block 36 from the city of Miami’s Community Redevelopment Agency for $3.5 million.

But last October the hotel and development market went south and Lloyd Boggio, Carlisle’s co-founder and CEO, got jittery. And that made the CRA jittery, especially its chair, Spence-Jones. So they made Boggio a deal: Stick it out a little longer and the taxpayers will reimburse the application fee for, ironically, tax credits from the state of Florida. The deal lasted a bit longer — two months — and Boggio presented the CRA a bill for $10,285.75. It was approved last week by city commissioners, sitting as the CRA’s board of directors, by a vote of 2-1. Dissenting was Tomas Regalado, who argued, “That’s the cost of doing business — you snooze, you lose.”

Apparently that’s not the case when dealing with the CRA. Its stated mission is to eliminate blight and slum within Overtown, Park West and Omni — and the CRA has millions of dollars in property taxes, collected from those areas, to do that. Routinely the CRA hands out money to small businesses, developers and consultants with little rhyme or reason. A couple of years ago, an advisory oversight board stated that the CRA needed to stay true to its mission. The advice was ignored.

And the public-private partnership revitalization of Overtown remains elusive. Crosswinds, a $200 million mixed-use project, continues to be delayed thanks to lawsuits filed by residents affiliated with Power U Center for Change (which believes Crosswinds is city of Miami-government-sponsored gentrification that will not benefit Overtown) and Miami Arena owner Glenn Straub (who wants to bid on the city-owned land Crosswinds will build upon).

The SunPost thinks there was desperation to have something going within the CRA. They didn’t want to accept that the Lyric Promenade project was not going to happen. They wanted a victory. So they rewarded a developer for, basically, doing nothing. Boggio is a good businessman for getting that consensus. CRA officials aren’t.

And they aren’t really supposed to be. CRA officials should concentrate on fixing sidewalks and streets and providing essential services for their constituents — basically presenting an environment that would allow economic development to follow.

Throwing money haphazardly to developers and other businesspeople not only distracts from the CRA’s main mission, but only creates a longer line for more handouts.

The CRA’s $10,000 allocation isn’t an example of government being corrupt. It’s an example of government giving into fear and being stupid, and it will be taken advantage of every time. CRA officials, and Spence-Jones’ office, have to realize that — otherwise they may as well throw taxpayers’ money into a taxpayer-sponsored bonfire.