Community Venues Update Meeting for Parramore Area

On 11-10-08 a meeting was held by The City of Orlando to update the Parramore area residents and businesses on the status of the Community Venues being designed and contructed in the Downtown area. Those projects are the Citrus Bowl Renovation, The Dr. Phillips Orlando Performing Arts Center and the Orlando Events Center. All three projects are very exciting and will bring jobs to Orlando.

Much of the meeting delt with the MBE and WBE compliance that has been and is being obtained by the Developers, Contractors and Consultants. The "BluePrint" Employment program that is a partnership between the City of Orlando and Workforce Central Florida was explained. My understanding is that through this "Blueprint" program potential employees that are either residents of the Parramore area, homeless or "exoffenders" are targeted for filling the jobs on these Community Venue Projects.

Businesses located inside of the Parramore are recieve no benefit in the bidding opportunities unless they are MBE or WBE. My understanding is however that if there are no "local"(Central Florida) vendors but the prices and all other factors being equal, a City of Orlando business will get the project above a business outside of Central Florida.

Ramblings of a Frustrated Parramanian "Parramore district Business and Property Owner"

A while back (quite a while back) there was a move to compile and circulate a list of “undesirable” tenants. Some “rights” group protested and the project quietly went away as far as I know.
While it would help us landlords to network and avoid re-circulating bad tenants, the unfortunate reality in the Parramore area is that if we were to eliminate prospective tenants on the basis of prior evictions, “near evictions” (they leave before the Sheriff gets there), bad friends or even criminal records, we would probably be out of business in very short order.
Soooo. What to do?
Bad tenants do depreciate community and property values. On the other hand Parramore, is not yet a desirable destination for “better qualified" tenants. I guess the answer is either go forward or backward.” Forward”-get the enforcement agencies, (the police and Code) to make the area safe and secure. Also get the Downtown and CRA agencies to do a better job of promoting the area. In other words “gentrify” the area. (From Wikipedia) Gentrification, or urban gentrification, is the change in an urban area associated with the movement of more affluent individuals into a lower-class area.[2] The area experiences demographic shifts, including an increase in the median income, a decline in proportion of racial minorities, and a reduction in household size.[3] More households with higher incomes result in increased real estate values with higher associated rent, home prices, and property taxes. Industrial land use can decline with redevelopment bringing more commercial and residential use. Such changes often result in transformation of the neighborhood's character and culture.[4]Gentrification can result from urban reinvestment efforts by local governments or neighborhood groups, which directs money to invest in deteriorating city infrastructure, offer incentives for redevelopment, improve access to housing loans for low-income mortgage seekers, assist lending to first-time home purchasers, and improve rental properties.[5] These efforts have been linked to reductions in local property crime rates, increased property prices, increased revenue to local governments from property taxes and increased tolerance of homosexuals.[6] Grassroots efforts for existing residents to guide or oppose gentrification generates community activism.[7]The process has a human cost to the neighborhood's lower-income residents. The increases in rent often result in the dispersal of communities whose members find that housing in the area is no longer affordable.[8] Additionally, the increase in property taxes (due to increased property values) may sometimes force or give incentive for homeowners to sell their homes and move to less expensive neighborhoods.
All this is easier said than done. The other choice is “Backwards” or do nothing, it will spiral and slide down with no effort at all. Forward is very, very hard. Backward is very, very easy.

Aida Martin
Midtown Realty of Orlando Inc
925 W Central Blvd
Orlando Fl 32805
407 481 0900 off
407 246 0119 fax
407 222 0930 cell

Secretary of the Downtown West Property Owner's Association

Last week I was advised of a group of guys with criminal histories had been hanging around at a building I own, and disturbing the peace . The investigation was probably at the request of my employee. I will now give the tenant ( who has passed a criminal history record check) the statutory seven day notice to stop. Of course, if they do not stop I will evict, which will cost the equivalent of several months rent. (This would teach a smart landlord to stop being cooperative with law enforcement fast). In order to prove the bad guys were invitees of the tenant I may need Roy to go to court with me, costing O.P.D. his time and tax dollars. Of course, when I serve the seven day notice the tenant will claim he did not know the bad guys or was afraid to approach them or call O.P.D. While I greatly appreciate Roy's efforts and call ,it has again made me think how we must find another way to approach this. We must find other methods to attack this problem . The simple truth is that law abiding landlords in a low income areas, operating under the Florida landlord and tenant act, can not and will not spend thousands to enforce loitering or disturbing the peace laws thereby further damaging the neighborhood, tax base and society. As much as the property owner wants to improve his property and therefore his investment he quickly will learn that cooperation with law enforcement can lead to bankruptcy. Soon the landlord will simply look the other way. The code department was issuing tickets to tenants for a while for such problems. The tickets in conjunction with neighborhood cameras may be the solution. Unfortunately we do not have money for enough cameras in Parramore because we are giving millions to a developer to construct an eleven story condo project at Parramore Ave and Church St., that no one (except the developer) wants or needs! Ops there I go again! As you may know the clerk of court has recently raised the cost of each eviction by several hundred dollars thereby making this problem much more severe. If any of you have any ideas how we could work on this problem, please advise.

Minutes of the Downtown West Property Owner’s Association 1-24-08

The first meeting of Orlando's Downtown West Property Owner’s Association was held on this date to discuss the formation, name and goals of the Association. The Property Owner’s present were Martin Holdings LLC, Haygood Brothers Inc., Philip T. Cowherd, Trustee and Lucky 888, LLC.

The name of the Association was agreed to be Downtown West Property Owners Association. It was discussed that Rick Fender would acquire the available web site www.downtownwest.org for the Association.

The Downtown West POA would be a Not For Profit Corporation.

The goals of Downtown West POA discussed included but were not limited to the following:

To provide a unified voice to improve the conditions for the property owners in the Downtown West POA membership area as described below. In the short term the Downtown West POA would work toward increasing Public Safety including reducing crime from drug dealers and other criminals. We would work on code enforcement as needed to enhance the safety and beauty of the area.

Stop the expansion of the Homeless Coalition and work on moving the homeless coalition out of the downtown Orlando area.

Downtown West POA will monitor all City of Orlando, Orange County and Florida State business dealings and where they affect our property owner member’s interests the Downtown West POA.will work toward influencing those decisions in the best interest of the Downtown West POA’s members. Orlando's Property Owner’s rights protection is a high priority for the Downtown West POA.

Geographical area represented by this Downtown West POA.- Downtown Orlando bounded on the North by West Colonial Drive, on the West by Orange Blossom Trail, on the South by Gore Street and on the East by Hughey Avenue.

The Downtown West POA would work toward helping protect the area’s businesses and land owner’s property values.