Taking back the Grove meeting last night

So it seems that the concept of "Reclaiming the Grove" which I brought up here and here last week has caught on. Some activists had a meeting last night. The 45 minute meeting went well. Here you can see Tony Scornavacca, Jr. (who arranged the meeting, at left) and attorney Lowell Kuvin, who is well-known for suing Coral Gables successfully. Others at the meeting included Javib Camayd, from Flavour, Harry Emilio Gottlieb and Matt Heitzenroder to name a few. Matt took the above photo.

Javib offered Flavour as a meeting spot for their next pow pow which would be good since this one was outside and the weather wasn't so great. Also, I am hoping future meetings will be on weekends, when more people can attend. They are hoping to have once a week meetings.

So many people showed up for the post office meeting that time with Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen because it was midday on a Saturday and more convenient.

The meeting last night was mostly a meet and greet since many did not know each other before, but things are in the works and of course there was the usual talk of un-annexation from the City of Miami. Things are still up in the air, because no one is sure legally who votes -- all city residents, the Grove residents or the City or County Commission.

Harry made three excellent points:

1. He suggests starting a petition which asks people if they would like to secede, to get various organizations to support this and demonstrate how everyone will benefit if the Grove becomes independent.

2. Do what renters do when they are not getting the landlord to fix things. Withhold funds until they do. Place Miami taxes in an escrow account until a court forced the city to do what is right for all of us.

3. Claim that Coconut Grove was illegally annexed back in 1925 in the first place. Why should a city that is 25 years old then the one next door agree to be annexed by the upstart? Determine how this annexation took place. For years everyone has said that it was illegally accomplished when most of the Grove residents where out of town in the hot summer time. (Aren't most things in Miami done this way?) Determine how many people lived in the Grove and Miami at the time. Determine how many people actually voted to annex the Grove. What was the logic to this? He proposes that the Grove was illegally annexed and that like an Indian Nation we have been cheated and we are still our own city. We want restitution and our independence returned to us.

They want to set up a trust fund and collect $300 from a bunch of people to raise around $1 million.