MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Concern is growing in Coconut Grove over proposed redistricting.
A new map would split the Miami neighborhood and potentially impact historically Black West Grove.
“We are historical we have two churches in the Grove, that are 126 years old. We’ve been here all this time,” Melanie Jenkins said.
Jenkins feels blindsided by the prospect of Coconut Grove being divided into three districts.
“Nobody has come and talked to us, nobody has said anything, they just said OK this is going to happen,” Jenkins told CBS4.
West Grove has ties to African-Bahamian settlers and has historically held together a strong Black voting block. Jenkins isn’t the only who wants to see another option that doesn’t break-up the community as it is now.
“Unifying neighborhoods for a common voice that makes a lot of sense to me,” Mel Meinhardt resident.
The redistricting is being done because of the 2020 Census.
“So we have to make it equivalent to each district according to law,” Commissioner Manola Reyes explained.
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Commissioner Reyes would be picking up a portion of Coconut Grove, a move that some see as breaking up a historically Black neighborhood, but he said, that is misinformation. He pointed to data that it would not interfere.
“West Grove you see is the one that is Bahamian and Afro, this here mostly, I would say closer to 90% Hispanic and White,” he said.
He also pointed out that neighborhoods have been divided by the Census before, including Flagami. However, Commissioner Ken Russell believes there is an option to draw up new districts, differently.
“They don’t have to do this, the consultant has been very clear on the record this is a policy decision, we don’t have to draw the line below US 1, we don’t have to take a chunk of the West Grove of the North Grove,” Rusell said.
However, even a few streets could mean a lot to Black community members.
“West Grove’s Black population which has been decimated over the decades so they are a voting block that needs to be protected,” Russell added.
Russell now has to convince his colleagues that they can adopt a different map.
“Well that’s what we were informed if there’s something different I’m willing to wait,” Commissioner Reyes said.
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All of the commissioners will meet again March 11.
