Two University of Miami students write about the ways in which West Grove residents are fighting to preserve and protect their embattled neighborhood.
Editor’s Note: Gianna Satchell and Kaia Bonner are students at the University of Miami. They researched and wrote this Community Voices article while enrolled in a “Reporting for Social Justice” journalism class at UM.
Imagine growing up in a predominately Bahamian neighborhood that – years later – you no longer recognize.
A neighborhood where colorful homes with sheltered porches and dollhouse shutters have been replaced by boxy structures with neutral colors and floor-to-ceiling windows.
A neighborhood where fewer neighbors look like you, or know your family. A neighborhood where property values are rising, and history is being erased.
Long-time residents of Little Bahamas in Coconut Grove, a neighborhood founded by Bahamian immigrants in the late 1800s, are living this reality – and pushing back.
In response to mounting development pressures and widespread displacement, area residents are seeking to protect their neighborhood by preserving local landmarks, hosting cultural events, and helping low-income neighbors repair their homes.
They are also challenging City of Miami zoning practices which, they say, have helped to fuel development and gentrification in their West Grove neighborhood.
All of these efforts are working together, residents say, to help preserve the history of their neighborhood and foster a renewed sense of community in the face of changing demographics.
According to an analysis of U.S. Census figures by the Center for Ethics and Public Service at the University of Miami, the neighborhood’s Black population dropped more than 40 percent between 2000 and 2020.
Meanwhile, average home prices have skyrocketed, rising by about seven percent in the last year alone, and development pressures have increased. All of which makes preserving the neighborhood’s heritage difficult, but not impossible, residents say.
Restoring the Ace Theater
Over the years, Grand Avenue – the area’s main commercial corridor – has undergone a dramatic transformation. The avenue was once home to many businesses like the Ace Theater that served the community, but today much of that history has faded.
Built in 1930, the Ace Theater served as a gathering spot during segregation. The theater showed movies that accurately portrayed the Black experience and allowed residents to feel represented on the big screen, which was a rare opportunity then.
Even after the theater stopped showing movies, the building served as a center of community life, hosting graduations and live performances.
A federal government initiative is helping to preserve that cultural heritage through the revitalization of the historic theater. Those efforts are being led by Denise Wallace, co-owner of Ace Development Company and a third-generation Grove resident, as well as Patricia Wooten, president of the Ace Theater Foundation.
In 2021, the National Park Service, through its History of Equal Rights grant program, awarded $398,199 to the foundation to rehabilitate this landmark. The program aims to restore the theater to its former glory and preserve a vital piece of Coconut Grove’s African-American heritage.
Affordable Housing
Although restoring a significant place like the Ace Theater can help preserve the community’s rich history, ensuring that people can keep and stay in their homes also helps to preserve the community’s legacy.
Rebuilding Together Miami-Dade is a nonprofit organization that serves low income and vulnerable homeowners. Its mission is to “repair homes, revitalize communities, and rebuild lives” in places like the West Grove.
“We want to really help keep people in their homes, helping with generational wealth, helping with people who maybe may not have the means specifically to stay in this neighborhood, where their families raise them,” said Samantha Pryde, the manager of programs and operations for the Miami-Dade County chapter of the organization.
The organization has made significant strides in West Grove, rehabilitating about 290 single-family homes and replacing over 104 roofs in the last five years, at little to no cost to the homeowners who benefited.
Still, development pressures are changing the face of the neighborhood. “A lot of modern architecture is being put up, which is sad to see because originally, the Bahamians settled in this area,” Pryde acknowledged.
That development brings an influx of new people into the neighborhood who often know little or nothing about the neighborhood’s history, unintentionally adding to the loss of neighborhood identity.
Pryde suggests educational initiatives to combat this. “I think having educational sources, maybe a museum, maybe in partnership with some of the businesses in the business district where people can educate themselves,” she says.
Bahamian Cultural Events
Cultural events can help preserve a neighborhood’s identity as well. The annual Goombay Festival is a prime example. This festival celebrates Bahamian culture, with people from all over the U.S. and the Caribbean in attendance.
Coconut Grove Ministerial Alliance (CGMA) secretary Christopher Hudson says events like Goombay are important – and the more the better.
“We need to start doing that more than just one week (during Goombay). We need to do it maybe every two or three, four months,” he said, to make the neighborhood a cultural touchstone for the Caribbean and Black community in South Florida.
Nerlande Joseph, a lawyer with the Community Justice Project — a nonprofit legal organization that collaborates with grassroots groups in low-income communities of color — emphasizes that education alone is not enough.
Joseph is working with community organizations like CGMA to challenge City of Miami zoning and land-use policies, and to advocate of behalf of former residents who were pushed out of the neighborhood because of those policies.
“Unless you know you are getting the residents who left, it’s not going to be the same type of culture. It’s not going to be that heritage of that Bahamian settlement of Black culture that we have seen,” Joseph said.
Anthony Witherspoon’s answer to the neighborhood’s changing social fabric is to double down on its Bahamian identity, in part by bringing an array of food trucks to a vacant lot on Grand Avenue – an initiative he calls Taste of Coco Bahamas. “We are currently going over some renovation ideas to bring in different types of demographics at the same time, highlighting the community, heritage and culture,” he says.
A Zoning Challenge
West Grove community groups are also pushing back against development pressures by challenging the City of Miami’s zoning and land-use practices.
Three organizations – GRACE (Grove Rights and Community Equity), HOATA (Village West Homeowners and Tenants Association), and CGMA – filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) alleging that Miami’s zoning and land use decisions have accelerated gentrification in the West Grove.
HOATA president Clarice Cooper hopes the complaint, which is being actively investigated by HUD, will confirm “the extent of the discriminatory practices employed by the City of Miami in housing in Coconut Grove that (have had) a long-term and negative impact on this underserved and neglected community.”
Cooper and others say families have been forced to relocate, fracturing the community’s historical and cultural fabric, in violation of the nation’s fair housing laws.
Community advocates argue that without stronger protections, Miami’s current policies will continue to displace vulnerable residents in favor of high-end developments. By appealing to HUD, the organizations hope to win some relief for low-income residents.
In the meantime, efforts by organizations like the Ace Theater Foundation, Rebuilding Together, CGMA, GRACE, and HOATA demonstrate that it is possible to preserve cultural heritage while still encouraging neighborhood growth.
Residents and community leaders emphasize that protecting West Grove’s historic heritage is ongoing. Sustained action, including affordable housing initiatives, cultural events, and educational programs, they say, will be essential to preserve the legacy of Little Bahamas.
