ChuckE Law - Community Lawyering in Miami

Miami Today --- Week of September 11, 2008 584 people at a ballgame prove folly of building a stadium For the 455th consecutive time last Wednesday afternoon, 96-year-old Fenway Park in Boston sold every seat for a Red Sox game, tying baseball's record. At the same time that Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka was throwing his first pitch before 37,373 paid customers, Florida Marlins pitcher Chris Volstad was throwing one at 21-year-old Dolphin Stadium before 584 fans — counted by the players themselves. That's all you need to know to understand why government's frenzy to waste half a billion dollars to build a Marlins stadium is off base. . . . The Marlins want us to build a retractable-roof ballpark because, they say, bad weather cuts ticket sales. But last Wednesday was clear in both Boston (37,373 at the game) and Miami (584). A great day in both places, but people showed up in only one of them. . . . Elected officials still can rally. The county must sign five more ...

The Tampa Tribune September 26, 2008 Fla. Gets Big Cut From Foreclosure Grant To Prevent Blight By SHANNON BEHNKEN TAMPA - Florida will get more federal money than any other state to buy up abandoned, foreclosed homes as part of the Bush administration's foreclosure relief plan developed this year. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development department today said Florida is getting $541.4 million - part of a $3.92 billion payout to states and local municipalities with neighborhoods particularly hard-hit by foreclosures. The money will be used to acquire and redevelop foreclosed properties so they don't contribute to blight. "To those areas trying to recover from the effects of foreclosure and declining property values, help is on the way," HUD Secretary Steve Preston said. "Clearly, the intent is to put this money to work in communities with the highest need and to have a meaningful impact." State and local governments can use their neighborhood stabilization g...

South Florida Times 9/26/2008 Word from the streets: Who's on welfare now? By Sushma Sheth For years, the rich have condemned and criminalized women of color who survive dire poverty with a little cash assistance from the government. But now, big business wants to cut the welfare line. In the last two weeks, multi-billion dollar banks, investment houses, and the largest company in the history of the world collapsed into financial crisis. The very architects for our current recession and the source of our affordable housing crisis are falling victim to the very systems they created. Instead of facing due process or criminal conviction for the pain, havoc and loss they inflicted on hundreds of thousands of Americans, they are getting paid, big. That's $700 billion, so far. We are paying $2,000 each (man, woman and child) to the very corporate entities that set the trend to cut school budgets, raise our property taxes, eliminate our jobs, and foreclose on our homes. With the f...

While people in Miami are truly hurting, losing their jobs and their homes, our leaders are wining and dining with super-developers who want those same leaders to give them the right to turn downtown into a "Miami WorldCenter" and a "high end" gambling destination. The Miami Herald, Fri. Sept. 26, 2008 Developer wants casinos in Miami Beach, downtown Miami BY MARY ELLEN KLAS AND MATTHEW HAGGMAN meklas@MiamiHerald.com The developer of a massive project in downtown Miami is quietly considering a campaign to amend Florida's Constitution to allow Las Vegas-style casinos in the city and open the door for a similar casino at Miami Beach's famed Fontainebleau Hotel. A political committee financed by Marc Roberts, who along with Art Falcone is developing the 25-acre Miami Worldcenter, has spent more than $850,000, hired 13 petition gathering companies and has lawyers working to write an initiative for possible placement on the 2010 ballot. . . . According to draft...

The American Prospect February 1, 2008 The Year of the Organizer By Kelly Candaele and Peter Dreier | The Obama campaign's commitment to the principles of community organizing has proved decisive to their primary victories so far. It has also brought new voters to the political process who could make the difference for Democrats in the general election ... Full Article | web only

In Miami-Dade County there were over 4,700 tenant eviction cases filed during the first four months of 2008. This is 1100 more than during the same period last year. If this rate continues, almost fifteen thousand families will have been threatened with being summarily tossed out of their homes by the end of the year. And this number does not count many of the tenants who are evicted as part of the foreclosure process, or tenants who are illegally locked out or move when an eviction is threatened. Nor does it count the home owners who are evicted through the foreclosure proceeding. While there has been a lot of attention recently on the foreclosure process, with some judges going so far as to summarily halt foreclosures to force the lenders to talk to the home owners, landlord tenant cases operate below the radar. For reasons that go back as far as medieval feudal society tenants have always possessed few rights when compared with owners. While at first glance that might seem to...