Church Street Renovation Controversy Grows

The controversy surrounding the Church Street renovation continues to grow as more public records are uncovered, including the original federal grant application letter. This issue really began when Mayor Dyer’s destruction of Parramore continued with the grand theft of the historic Church Street bricks. Since then, City Hall has been pressured to return the historic bricks as property owners have rallied together with a petition against Mayor Dyer. Now many are also asking questions about where the money for this project really ended up.

Buddy Dyer and the City of Orlando have been ruthless in exploiting the demographics of historic Parramore for their own financial gain and to promote Dyer’s Venues projects. Dyer has been exploiting Parramore for over a decade. The latest evidence comes from a February 2004 letter from Buddy Dyer himself requesting $16 million in federal grants for the Church Street renovations.

As Dyer asks for money for the 1.1 mile street project, the federal grant application letter to Congresswoman Corrine Brown leads with the situation in Parramore:

“This predominantly minority neighborhood did not enjoy the renaissance experienced by the other downtown neighborhoods in the past two decades. It has struggled with intrusion of non-residential uses, low incomes, high crime rates, and very low home ownership. The City is working on special zoning regulation, housing and economic development efforts, and transportation improvements to address these problems holistically. Federal funding assistance will enable this project to proceed at an earlier date than is otherwise possible.”

But if this project was important to helping the Parramore community, then why did Dyer steal the historic bricks that were included in the plans? When this happened in December, WFTV Channel 9′s report stated, “The city promised the people of Parramore a beautiful brick-lined street from the Amway Center to the Citrus Bowl, but it doesn’t appear that that’s going to happen.”

The grant application letter is also interesting considering Dyer and his City Council over the last decade are responsible for allocating more than $1 billion of spending on non-residential Venues in the Parramore community. Dyer is the one responsible for refusing to put up crime cameras where property owners and businesses have requested them in the Parramore community. Dyer is the one who refuses to take any action on the fact that Orlando is the lowest paying job market in America. And let’s not forget Buddy Dyer’s puppet on the Council, Daisy Lynum, said the City planned to get all minorities out of Parramore. But let’s get back to the federal grant…

It appears in 2005, the estimated cost of the project was increased to $17.8 million. Not surprisingly, the City of Orlando is already over budget on the Church Street project. Over budget and yet still missing the historic bricks from the original plans. So where are the bricks and why did Dyer really have them removed?

But Dyer’s gushing about the historic African-American neighborhood continued in the grant application letter. Dyer even uses the area’s history which he is currently destroying with his redevelopment plans (think Tinker Field where MLK spoke, the eminent domain of the local church for an MLS soccer stadium, etc.).

The letter states, “The Parramore Heritage District, which includes the Church Street corridor, has a rich national history that includes popular African-American performers including Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Dinah Washington, Lionel Hampton, Bo Diddley, B.B. King and Ray Charles.”

Maybe Buddy Dyer should start investing in the people and history of Parramore. The hypocrisy of Buddy Dyer and the exploitation of Parramore by the City of Orlando in these federal grants is enough to make someone sick. Once again, sadly the real losers remain the people of Parramore because of Dyer’s destructive policies.