Brownsville residents appear at Hialeah City Council meeting to protest annexation

The Hialeah City Council was the scene of a verbal confrontation between Brownsville residents and city authorities over the proposal to incorporate the industrial area of the neighborhood.

Will Hialeah annex a part of Brownsville? What the plan says and how people are reacting

The Brownsville community, represented by more than 100 people, expressed their opposition to the plan, but before they could speak a man had to be escorted out of the premises by Hialeah police when he began to shout, “There is no communism here! Go back to Cuba! Go back to Cuba!”

Brownsville neighborhood rejects Hialeah’s plan to incorporate its industrial zone

The event occurred when the president of the council, Monica Pérez, announced that three people could speak in favor and three against. Later, she allowed anyone that wanted to speak the option, since it was not a point that warranted a vote.

Twelve residents of Brownsville addressed the council members.

Hialeah accused of gentrifying

“We came here to oppose the incorporation proposal,” said Kenneth Kilpatrick, president of the Brownsville Neighborhood Civic Association (BNCA). “Miami-Dade County for many decades has recognized the proposed industrial area as an economic recovery zone. Brownsville is opposed to any municipality taking advantage of any economic potential in the area before Brownsville does.”

Kilpatrick sees the annexing of the area as “a threat to our history, a traditional African-American community.”

Further, Kilpatrick said he saw Hialeah’s area of Seminola, which was primarily African-American, as “an example in which it seems that this community has been gentrified. We ask that you re-examine your proposal carefully and take into consideration the potential harm that this addition would cause.”

Mayor Esteban Bovo Jr. assured el Nuevo Herald that “Seminola is a neighborhood where people have bought, they have invested. The people who sold their houses were possibly African-American, but here there was no movement on Hialeah´s government, that I know of, against that community.”

Previously, council member Jesús Tundidor, sponsor of the incorporation plan, explained “we have good relations with Seminola....Hialeah is a very diverse place, I don’t see why (the ethnic and racial issue) would be a problem.”

Change the area of annexation

The presentation by Edward Ng of The Corradino Group, the engineering firm hired by Hialeah in April of 2022 for $23,500, showed a map modified from the initial plan, removing the single-family home zone and Brownsville Church of Christ (purple), which sit at the eastern end of NW 46th St and NW 33rd Ave., claiming it was “a mistake” to include it.

Tundidor said the “single family homes area was never meant to be included in the review of this analysis, it was strictly the industrial so we do apologize. It was never our intent to break up any type of community or break up any type of historical preservation heritage, we understand what that means.”

Bovo told el Nuevo Herald, “I think it was a mistake (include the residential area). From the beginning, there was not intention of taking possession of any land where people are living, that gets too complicated, because you have to hold a referendum.”

However, the mayor ruled out the removal of the mobile home area from the plan. “It is very difficult because where they are located is in the middle of the limits,” he said.

Pastor Harrell L. Henton of Brownsville Church of Christ, which was originally included in the area of incorporation, said he appreciated that the city removed the church and the single-family housing area from the plan but explained, “Brownsville needs all the financial gain it can get.”

Henton highlighted, “We are here because we are tired of the idea that anyone can take advantage of our community, we are tired of us not being appreciated, we are numbers and not families, not churchgoers, not fathers, not loving mothers! Councilors we are tired! After they incorporate the industrial zone, what comes next?”

Former District 108 representative Roy Hardemon said, “Brownsville is a 2.28 mile neighborhood, even though you took the houses out of the plan, taking the industrial area from us is like putting two chickens in a cage and not feeding them.” “Taking the economic zone out of the neighborhood will make us eat each other. I would like you to reconsider this proposal.”

“If Hialeah wants to become a county, maybe we want to be part of you as a county and not Miami-Dade, because it has not shown us respect, but we reject this plan,” Hardemon said.

For her part, Jacqueline Culver Simpson, a Brownsville resident, highlighted “in the presentation your talked about the voters in the area but not the property owners, nor did they talk about what the cost would be for Brownsville residents of this incorporation.”

Long term potential

The Corradino Group director explained if Hialeah goes forward with the annexation plan, it will cost the city $4,000,000.

Edward Robinson, a Brownsville resident who has relatives who live in the area where the incorporation is planned said, “In the long term if you do this you are not going to lose money, you are going to earn it because businesses generate taxes and lower taxes on houses, that’s why you don’t want the houses, you want the part of the businesses.”

At the close of the session after the residents of Brownsville had already left, Bovo said, “We have to focus on our mission, which is to provide services to the taxpayers of the city of Hialeah, as best as possible.“

For the mayor, the decision on incorporation should be based on “mathematics and logic and less on emotions. There was a lot thrown at us today, but we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be intimidated or threatened by anyone.”