The Orlando Housing Authority pulled a fast one on residents and the public Thursday (6/21). Residents and others planned to attend the Housing Authority board meeting that was listed for 2 p.m. Thursday because many people were alarmed at the  news   that the Griffin Park public housing in Parramore is scheduled to be demolished.  The meeting noticed was listed days ago on the Orlando City Clerk's website. Under the Florida Sunshine Law meetings of public bodies, such as the Housing Authority board, are supposed to post advanced notice they are planning to meet. However, the Housing Authority meeting notice was posted, but the meeting was not held. A spokeswoman for the Housing Authority said there was a mix-up and that the meeting will be held 2 p.m. next Thursday (6/28) at 325 N. Hillside Ave. Griffin Park, which sits at the edge of State Road 408 just off Parramore Avenue, was the subject of  a major investigative article in the Huffington Post...

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...