Many Parramore residents worry about the recent wave of building fires in their community. The fire fear is the most recent threat faced by longtime residents who are being forced out of the historically black community by city government, powerful developers and affluent white people eager to live close to downtown. Orlando Fire Department records show that between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15, 2020 – a six-week period – there were 33 structure fires in the city. Six of those structure fires were in Parramore. 536 W. Washington St. Parramore is only 1.25 square miles of the total 113 square miles in the city, yet that urban neighborhood was the scene of nearly 20 percent of the structure fires reported in Orlando during the first 6 weeks of this year. Building fires are relatively rare thanks to modern construction materials and practices. Parramore is a special case because many of its buildings are old and owned by absentee landlords – many of whom don’t properly m...

Want to get an apartment at Parramore Oaks -- the new development under construction on the site of the old Parramore Village community? An informational meeting on Parramore Oaks will be held Wednesday, April 17 th , 6:30 p.m. at the Jackson Neighborhood Center. The lack of affordable housing is especially critical in the Parramore community where many people are getting squeezed out by gentrification being caused by the opening of the University of Central Florida’s downtown campus and the planned demolition of Orlando public housing projects. While city officials keep boasting they are building affordable housing in the Parramore area,  a recent article by a 32805OrlNews correspondent showed most Parramore residents won’t be able to afford the housing being built in the community. Many rents in the Parramore area are soaring to $1,000 or more. Most Parramore residents – most of whom work – cannot afford a monthly rent of more than $350.

Something weird is happening with land sales and property values in the Parramore area. Earlier this year three non-profits joined forces to buy 83 homes (homes, duplexes, and apartments) in Parramore. They called that effort the Parramore Asset Stabilization Fund, and they said their goal is to renovate the units and provide affordable housing for many years. These nonprofits – including the Central Florida Foundation, the Florida Community Loan Fund, and New Jersey Community Capital – paid $8 million for these properties. This duplex was part of the deal The Orange Property Appraisers records show the properties – most in poor condition – were worth slightly less than $2 million. So why pay $6 million more than the property is valued, then turn around and ask the Orlando Community Redevelopment Agency for hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair the units? But that’s not the only strange thing about these properties. Analysis of records at the Propert...

Orlando City Hall boasts that 350 units of affordable housing are being built in the Parramore community. Sounds great! But what does “affordable” mean? Amelia Court in Parramore Under Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) guidelines housing is considered affordable if it costs 30 percent of less of the household income. The City of Orlando defines affordable housing as rents or house payments, affordable to families making 80% of median income or less In the Orlando market, the median annual income is $45,436, which means affordable rent is $1,135.90 a month.   Average rent in Orlando is $1,300, which is considered market rate. As most people know, the Orlando area is facing an affordable housing crisis. In Parramore -- where the median income is much lower than the Orlando median -- the affordable housing crisis is even worse. As of 2014, the average median income in Parramore was $13,613. Under HUD’s definition of affordable, any rent higher t...

When you hear Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and others talking about bringing high-paying high-tech jobs to Central Florida, please be aware they’re not bringing those jobs here to you. Gentrification adds to homelessness It’s all about driving up real-estate prices. You watch and see the impact Dyer’s so-called Creative Village will have on Parramore, Rock Lake and other nearby neighborhoods. Where high-tech jobs go, gentrification is sure to follow. If you live in Parramore, or other historically black and brown communities, gentrification is a four-letter word. Gentrification displaces people of color. Look at the effect the high-tech gold rush has had in San Francisco. In 1990, black people made up 12 percent of San Francisco’s population. Today black people are 5 percent of San Francisco’s population. Rent for a 1-room studio in a mediocre San Francisco community starts at $2,000 a month. Consider how far a $10 an hour service industry job wi...

After waiting almost three decades, workers finally began removing dirt from an extremely polluted site in Parramore. Heavy equipment is now excavating the former  Orlando Gasification Plant   site at the corner of Terry Avenue and Robinson Street, in the shadow of downtown Orlando. From 1887 to 1960, a factory on that site converted coal to gas for use in stoves and lamps. The site has been so polluted by byproducts from that process that it was put on the  “Superfund alternative  list” . Around the country, federal officials have declared dangerous toxic locations as Superfund sites and put them on the National Priority List to get federal funds for the cleanup. The situation in Parramore is not unusual, as a 2016 article in  Fortune magazine reported ,  if you are a person of color and poor, you’re likely to live near a toxic waste site. As reported by the  Orlando Weekly  in 2011, a federal scientist in 1988 collected...

More than 1,100 people attended this year’s Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) Parent Academy held at OCPS Academic Center for Excellence, last Saturday, May 5.  This year’s program, “Catch the Wave of Summer Success,” was so well received that an additional 4 over-flow sessions were added to accommodate the attendees.  Participants check out the expo. Some of this year’s most popular sessions for adults included: “Rock the Library System,” “End the Summer Slump with STEM”, and “Keeping Kids Mentally and Emotionally Healthy.” Class sessions for adults ranged from LifeWorks’ “Finding a Career - Not Another Job” program that provides information and training aimed at people who are underemployed to “Keeping Kids Mentally and Emotionally Healthy” and making the most of summer through the “Rock the Library System” which also includes live performances, science, animals, arts, storytelling, technology camps, and much more. The OCPS Parent Academy is an educational resourc...

Orange County Sheriff’s Office officials still aren’t willing to provide details about deputies shooting and killing a black man in Parramore exactly two weeks ago (April 20). Scene of the killing A crowd of people – including children – were looking on when deputies dressed in plain clothes jumped out of unmarked cars and opened fire killing James Bauduy, 48. Witnesses  said Bauduy, did not offer any resistance and was unarmed. As of 3 p.m. today (May 4) the Sheriff’s Office refuses to say Bauduy was unarmed. The Sheriff’s Office said deputies confronted because he was a suspect in a murder. “This is an active and on-going investigation with an independent investigation being conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. No findings have been released at this time,” according to a written statement released today by the Sheriff’s Office. For more news,  click here.

Stop me if you heard this one before. Artist rendering of the Cincinnati soccer stadium Major league soccer promoters have proposed building a 30,000-seat stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio’s West End neighborhood a multi-ethnic working-class community that’s already feeling the pressure of gentrification. The promoters want to build the stadium on the site of a high school athletic field.  The soccer folks insist that the stadium will bring new economic opportunities to West End and they promise that no one will be displaced. Sounds a lot like the promise the Orlando Lions and City Hall made to Orlando’s Parramore community. How are those new soccer stadium jobs in Parramore coming along? Many residents in Cincinnati’s West End are understandably skeptical of those promises and they have been pushing back.  About two weeks ago, the public was told that the proposal was dead.  Click here  to see a video showing the West End community’s strong resis...

The federal Environmental Protection Administration will be in Parramore on Thursday, March 1, with critical information for residents. Agency officials will be holding two information sessions at the Callahan Center to discuss the Superfund toxic chemical site that is less than a block from the popular neighborhood center. The sessions will be at 12 noon and 6 p.m. Parramore's Superfund site More than 100 years ago the Orlando Gasification Plant was in operation at the corner of Robinson and Terry – the current site of the TECO – People’s Gas offices. The plant processed coal to produce gas for stoves and lights. A witch’s brew of dangerous toxic waste from that operation remains in the soil and ground water at that site. The danger has been known since at least 1988. In 2015 the “potentially liable parties” – the city of Orlando, Atlanta Gas Light, Duke Energy, Continental Holdings LLC, and an individual landowner — signed a consent decree to clean the Orland...

Are air pollution and toxic wastes hurting the health of people who live in Parramore? The community was recently spotlighted in a nationally published article in the Huffington Post that reported that the predominantly black neighborhood suffers under a cloud of dangerously high air pollution, and littered with toxic dump sites . Parramore from the air Therefore, community activist Lawanna Gelzer plans to attend Monday’s City Commission meeting to ask Orlando leaders to commission a health-disparity study. Ms. Gelzer noted that the city has already spent a fortune removing toxic substances from sections of Parramore that are being gentrified, such as at the Orlando City soccer stadium, the new fire station No. 2 and the future site of Creative Village and the University of Central Florida’s downtown campus. But, she said, little has been done to address locations where people are living. Unlike other sections of Orlando commercial and industrial businesses have...

The folks at Orlando City Soccer Club need to learn how to spell and get their facts right. There are two glaring errors on a large metal-etched plaque installed on the exterior of   Orlando City Stadium in Parramore where the stadium was plopped down. Notwithstanding the lingering controversy about the gentrification of the historically black Parramore community, the plaque – on the east side of the stadium where the new farmers market is held Saturdays – needs to be fixed. Mistakes in this plaque One of the people honored on the plaque is the late Norris Woolfork , one of Orlando’s first black lawyers. In 1962 Woolfork successfully sued the Orange County school board to integrate the local schools. Unfortunately, on the plaque, Woolfork’s name is misspelled with a “d” in place of the “l”. (How would you feel if your relative’s name was misspelled? Doesn’t anybody check this stuff?) The plaque also includes an image of the Callahan Center but identifies i...

Parramore has a farmers’ market again. Until about 10 years ago, Orlando’s original farmers’ market was held Saturdays on West Church Street under Interstate 4. That market was moved to Lake Eola where it is held every Sunday. The new Parramore farmers market opened on Saturday (Jan. 6) in a courtyard outside Orlando City Stadium where the major league soccer team plays its matches. This market is possible thanks to a $250,000 grant the city received from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and in partnership with the Orlando City Soccer Club. One of the most remarkable vendors on the opening day of the market was Black Bee Honey an initiative the Parramore Kidz Zone. The goal of the market is to make it easier for Parramore-area residents to get fresh fruits and vegetables. That’s a real problem in Parramore because there are few food stores in the community, and many don’t carry fresh produce. It’s notable that many vendors at the market accept EBT cards...

Depending on which way the wind is blowing at the corner of West Robinson Street and Terry Avenue, you can smell a chemical aroma. While it’s impossible to tell what you’re smelling, one thing is certain. That location is on the federal government’s “Superfund alternative  list” because dangerous chemical waste has been accumulating there for 130 years. Superfund site Residents in the Parramore neighborhood know that location as the Orlando headquarters of TECO – Peoples Gas. As reported by the Orlando Weekly in 2011, a federal scientist in 1988 collected soil and ground water samples showing the site is contaminated with a witches brew of toxic, cancer-causing chemicals, including: ·         Arsenic ·         Dibenz(a,h)anthracene ·         Lead ·         Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons ·    ...