The Miami times. [volume] (Miami, Fla.) 1923-current, 1950-03-11
THE SPECTATOR
BY ELLIOTT j. PIEZE
LOCAL LANDLORDS IN LAST
DITCH FIGHT

A last ditch fight in an all out
effort to keep the present extra
high rent scale in effect in the Ne.
gro section of Miami, is probably
the best description that can be
made of the recent moves made by
a. number of landlords controlling a
major portion of the rental apart
ments in Miami's downtown Negro
section.
The fight is directed against a
proposed federally sponsored low
cost housing project to be built for
the use of rent paying tenants of
the Negro section of Mani, and in
which well appointed apartments
will rent at a price range, far be-
low the scale now being charged by
the local landlords. In other words,
the houses in the project will rent
for prices that the average wage
Garner can afford to pay out of his
meager earnings and yet have some
thing left with which he may take
care Of the other necessities of life.
That of course. would mean that
practically all of the recently built
apartment houses i'm this section,
which are now renting at prices
ranging from $500 to $500 a
week, might suddenly become vacant
and the tenants which formerly &C.
cupied them might move into the
federalIy sponsored lOw-cOst housing
project, where the rent will be far
below that scale. And that's exact
ly what the landlords don't want.
In an effort to stop the low cost
housing from becoming reality,
local landlords mustered their forces
this week, and on Monday appear
ed before the County Commission,
to discourage the approving by that
body of the proposed project. After
a heated battle of words, the Coun-
| ty Commission decided to postpone
final action on the approving of the
project for few days, in order that
more information may be obtained
on the same.
So temporarily, at least, the local
landlords have won the first round
i'm their battle to keep low-cOst hOus-
ing out of Miami. But the battle is
not over.
This is the time for the various
civic and community organizations,
veterans organizations, welfare
groups, the Negro Service Council,
the Ministerial Alliance, the May
Or's Committee on Slum Clearance,
and all other interested groups to
marshall their forces and plan for
adequate representation at all flu
ture meetings on this housing prof
ect Of the city and county commits
siOns. This is most important mat
ter, and unless we continue to fight
back, for one, fear that the veal
thy landlords will squeezed i'm their
efforts, and lOw-cOst housing will
never be realized i'm this community.
We can win this battle, but we have
got to fight and we must fight
hard and fast.
FLORIDA STATE LEGISLATIVE
REPRESENTATION BADLY
PROPORTIONED
A fact that has been true for a
long time, but which seems to es-
| cape the attention of many of the
states powers-that-be, lis age old
one sided system of representation
which is still in effect in Florida.
The system is so one sided that in
effect voter in a small county has
about twenty times the power of a
voter in a large county.
Dade County, for example, with
more than 20 per cent of the states
population, has only one vote in the
3S-man Senate and votes in the
95-man House OF Representatives
In other words, with 20 per cent of
the population, Dade County has
only 20 per cent of the votes in the
Senate and only 81 per cent of the
votes in the House. A more equal
representation of the votes of both
houses in proportion to the popula-
ton of the counties would give
Dade County Senators and 10
Representatives. But that of course.
could come about only by means of
revising the states constitution,
whereby representation in the
states legislature would be based
upon the population of the counties
and areas affected. Here's a Thought