The Coral Gables Times

2 CORAL GABLES TIMES Thursday, March 1, 1962

City May Develop a New Plan Negro Slum Area Again in Spotlight

(Continued from page 1) a coming conference of the Ward School of Business to explore other avenues of slum clearance financing. City Manager L. W. Robinson Jr. was instructed to study the City of Miami Water and Sewer Board setup to determine its applicability here as a slum clearance board or authority. The City of Indianapolis is also to be contacted to determine how it has solved some of its problems without federal aid. Searle suggested a completely locally organized, financed and administered slum clearance program as a possible solution. "To my knowledge, nothing like that has been done anywhere in the United States," Searle told the commission. Commissioner Franklin Evans recommended that an over-all plan of renewal be studied. "You don't want a checkerboard plan," Evans said. "The ideal plan," said Commissioner C. L. Dressel Jr., "would be to look at it (slum area) as a vacant property and start all over." Their findings are to be brought up in approximately one month. The sudden move by the commission marks a dramatic change in approach by the City to the problem of slums. If wholesale renewal of the shacks in the Coconut Grove section becomes policy, as indicated Monday, it will mark a departure from the rehabilitation plan adopted in 1959. Meanwhile, the Commission turned thumbs down on a recommendation of the Planning Board to have a full-time inspector in the Coconut Grove section in connection with the rehabilitation program. The program itself, however, is to continue indefinitely.

No Liquor

Liquor stores will no longer be open Christmas. The City Commission Tuesday placed on first reading an ordinance requiring all liquor stores to close on that holiday, but dropped a previous plan to include Thanksgiving. Previously, store owners, by agreement with the City, remained closed on Christmas when it fell on a non-Sunday in exchange for extra opening hours before Christmas and New Year's.

Debaters In State Meet On Weekend

Coral Gables High will defend its state championship in debate this Friday and Saturday in this year's state tournament at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Competing against the best from other Florida high schools will be debaters Martin L. Goldberg, 2776 SW 32nd Ave.; Jan Faber, 2430 SW 25th, St.; Tim Ferris, Key Biscayne; and Rusty Barefield, 8250 SW 53rd Ave. Entered in the extemporaneous speaking division will be Betsy Lane, Key Biscayne. Gables High qualified for the state tournament when it recently tied for first with Norland High in the South Florida qualifying rounds at the University of Miami. During that tournament, Goldberg, one of the four debaters, was named "Best Speaker" when he achieved a perfect record — 380 points out of a possible 380. The Gables High team is coached by Mrs. Gloria Lane.

The Hovels Called Home in Our Town

(Continued from page 1) watering down, the program was finally implemented. Basically, it sought to make the hovels called homes livable by repair, installation of hot water, bathing facilities, new plumbing and electrical wiring. Has the program succeeded? Is it enough? Last week we took you to a shack-home selected at random and not yet visited by the rehabilitation program. This week we visit a rehabilitated area. Joe Thomas, the City's building inspector, led the way into the ghetto. Across Industrial Avenue from the incredible shack described last week was a row of shacks which had cleared most of the hurdles of the rehabilitation program and were about to be pronounced cured. Replaced boards stuck out conspicuously — given a different hue by a new coat of paint. Shiny electrical conduits and clusters of meters and switch boxes adorned outside porches. Most of the trash and litter had been cleaned from under and around the block-mounted shacks. Even dirt sidewalks were free of debris. Around the corner were two new CBS dwellings — replacing the only homes thus far condemned. Old-looking trash across and along the street from these new homes detracted from the dramatic improvement. I picked one of the newly rehabilitated homes at random and Thomas flashed his open sesame — his building inspector's badge. This turned out to be a rented home. The occupants were a young couple expecting their first child momentarily. If we had been appalled by the first home visited, the second was heartwarming. Order and cleanliness were evidenced everywhere in the newly-repaired and repainted home. No dirt, no trash, no disarray. A few doors down, we visited an aged couple — owners of their own home. Like many of the senior residents of the area, they migrated from the Bahamas in the 1920's when the Cables was largely a pine and palmetto-studded wilderness and cheap domestic and manual labor was in great demand to create a model city. While the rest of the city changed, this area remains pretty much the same as it was then, take away outdoor privies and add electricity and running water. Like the army's "temporary" barracks, the buildings grew more and more permanent as the years passed. "I think it's a very good thing," the 73-year-old grandmother said of the rehabilitation program. Her neat appearance and alertness belied her years. "We expected to fix it anyhow," she said, but at the same time she indicated she and her 81-year-old husband had not anticipated it would cost them nearly $1,500 to paint and put in a bathtub and hot water. Like the young, expectant mother, the old woman kept an orderly home. "I think it's wonderful," said another aged citizen we visited. "I think it's grand." For more than 30 of her 71 years, she had occupied the same rented frame duplex with her husband. She was grateful to her landlord who reduced her rent from $18 to $15 after her husband died last year. Thirty years ago, she said, she paid $3.50 for the same apartment. And now this was the first time she had hot water. New wiring has made possible other appliances. Off Dixie Highway, more than 200 families are jammed into a cluster of multi-story apartments. They have hot water and washing facilities, but they lack enough living room. Overcrowding offsets the other benefits. "This is the last area to be checked out," said Thomas. The battle here, he indicated, will be to curb occupancy by more than one family. Rehabilitation has improved conditions, yes, but has it fallen short of the mark? Can it do what renewal would do if done right? Next: City officials discuss the rehabilitation program. And we see how Negroes have obtained better housing elsewhere, describing the dollars and cents of it.

Before

THIS HOUSE WAS CONDEMNED AND TORN DOWN

—Times Photos by Raymond Lang THE HAPPY FACES OF UNWORRIED YOUTH

After

ON THE SITE of a shack, this modern home was built. Its present occupants pay $22.50 weekly in rent, a price beyond reach of most of the more than 500 families living in the area. Two working women and a working son contribute to the rent. Next week we shall show how similar housing can be built at less cost to the occupants.