Gables leader: I sounded alarm over trolley garage in 2011, was ignored
Months before Miami approved a controversial Coral Gables trolley garage in the predominantly black West Grove over neighbors’ objections, homeowners contacted a Coral Gables city commissioner looking for help.
The commissioner, Ralph Cabrera, said last week he passed the request along to his city manager and asked him to respond. He never did.
“I was sensitive to what was going on,” said Cabrera, who is running for mayor and has long favored firing City Manager Pat Salerno. “I felt for these people and I thought wow, this is not fair.”
Residents in the neighborhood, which includes a slice of Coral Gables, have been fighting to stop the 12-bay trolley garage being built in the 3300 block of Douglas Road, next to a historic neighborhood.
They have long complained that Coral Gables officials ignored their pleas to address the matter. They and other residents in the Grove argue the project violates the city’s Miami 21 zoning code that calls for development that would “complement the character of the entire community and promote the history of the Island District.” Along with staging a rally at the site Saturday, they started a petition at www.change.org.
Read more here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/11/3178143/gables-leader-i-sounded-alarm.html#storylink=cpy
