City Paves Way for Revitalization of Historic Northwest Community

In February, we marked Black History Month and paid tribute to the generations of African-Americans, their struggle with adversity to achieve equal rights in American society and recognition for the contributions that they have made to our nation’s progress. In Fort Lauderdale, we hosted the Sistrunk Parade and Festival in honor of the occasion. Black history, after all, is American history and Fort Lauderdale history. It is our responsibility to pick up the mantel and continue to strive towards a more just world.

One thing that we’ve been undertaking in Fort Lauderdale is the effort to revitalize the historic heart of the black community, the Northwest area. This had been the vision of later leaders, such as longtime commissioner Carlton Moore, who engineered new and creative ways to fulfill this vision.

In 1995, the city created a redevelopment area that encompasses the Northwest as well as Progresso Village and Flagler Village and has been spending specially designated tax money there to make improvements. Our strategic redevelopment plans are focused on expanding economic opportunities and fostering a vibrant environment for businesses and residents.

The dramatic growth of Flagler Village has brought in additional tax revenue that has allowed the city to pick up the pace of work in the Northwest and we have many successes to show for it.

One area of significance has been to nurture affordable housing.

For instance, the city gave $7 million toward the construction of Six13 that consists of 142 units of workforce housing and 8,300 square feet of retail space. Other housing efforts that have been funded include a 90unit tower offering affordable senior housing and a new home for the Pantry of Broward, a mixed-use housing and commercial project by Wright Dynasty, a planned 100-unit affordable senior housing project by the Housing Trust Group and Mount Hermon AME Church, and the West Village project for 455 rental units and more than 17,000 square feet of commercial space.

The city also has been helping expand commercial and office opportunities in the area.

We assisted in the completion of the Sistrunk Marketplace, which retrofitted an old warehouse into a food hall and the Pharmacy, the site of an old pharmacy that now partially serves as headquarters for Florida Prime Acquisitions.

Hoover Canvas Products, a local business for the past 70 years, received $1.1 million in assistance to increase their manufacturing output and hire more workers. The Fuse Group received $420,000 for the Provident in the 600 block of NW 9th Avenue to turn a deteriorated building into Class A retail space. The Blue Tree Café has since decided to locate in the building.

And, work is underway on Thrive Progresso, where warehouses that were once used for auto repair and paint shops are being rehabbed into office and retail purposes that have a distinctive artsy theme.

The creation of additional amenities has been another focus of the city’s redevelopment efforts around Sistrunk.

New restaurant ventures such as Smitty’s Wings, the B&D Trap Restaurant, the Jamaican Jerk Shack and Donna’s Caribbean Restaurant received grants to help with their construction and opening.

The Jack and Jill Elementary School opened with $2.5 million in city aid. The campus at 1315 W. Broward Blvd. includes early childhood education, after-school programs and a summer camp. They are focusing on children of high-need working families who are fighting to break the cycle of poverty.

Other grants have gone to the Omegas In Broward and the Robert Bethal American Legion Post 220 to modernize their buildings.

Of course, the crown jewel has been the new L.A. Lee YMCA-Mizell Center.

This long-sought project opened in late May and could not have happened without the city’s assistance. We gave the Y a long-term lease of public land at $1 a year and pledged over $10 million in community redevelopment funds to cover about half the cost of construction.

The facility provides a new level of service to surrounding residents with a focus on youth development, business growth, community outreach and athletic activities. It’s a magnificent place with an outdoor swimming pool, a gym with a basketball court and wellness center, a child-care center with after-school programming and a black box theater for performances.

Beyond just assisting with the construction of the Y’s new home, the city has provided $1 million to Broward College so it could offer free community workforce education and training at the facility.

We hope that with the city-financed improvements, Sistrunk will experience a rebirth as a bustling and exciting place for people to live and work while remaining true to its rich and important heritage. We are well on the way to accomplishing this goal.

In closing, there have been troubling developments at the state level that strike at the importance of Black History Month.

We have witnessed efforts to kill an optional Advance Placement African American Studies curriculum. When outrage erupted, the push was changed from outright eliminating the AP curriculum to diluting it through the elimination of critical components.

This follows on the heels of the Stop WOKE Act that restricted the discussion of diversity issues in public schools, colleges and workplaces. As a society, I believe we need to allow students to learn about issues surrounding race, equality and diversity so we can learn from the past and be able to think critically as citizens.

That is how we progress as an inclusive and accepting society. And this commission is prepared to act when necessary to push back any attempts to turn the clock back to when discrimination and social injustice were once acceptable. That will not happen again.

Yours,

Dean