The Stop Creative Village campaign has released the second video in their new series to “Save Parramore” from gentrification. After the first video (found here), City of Orlando officials defended Mayor Buddy Dyer’s pet project simply by calling the gentrification claims “egregious.”
Now the Stop Creative Village campaign is responding by continuing to explain the dangerous impact Creative Village will have on the historic Parramore community. The new video details the average income per household in Parramore currently ($13,228) and the median monthly rent ($338/month). According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, affordable housing is defined as 30% of average household income. Parramore is currently right on that line.
The campaign focuses on displacement of low-income residents who have historically lived in the Parramore community as the greatest concern for the campaign. The Parramore neighborhood has been ignored and left to rot by Dyer and city officials, especially compared to the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on the venues surrounding the area. Creative Village is the major piece to Mayor Dyer’s greater “Downtown West” redevelopment plan to gentrify Parramore and ultimately redevelop land from the new Amway to the Citrus Bowl to Creative Village, as was exposed in city-organized town hall meetings last year. Creative Village will lead to at least 1,500 more luxury housing units and at least 1 million square feet of commercial development.
Stop Creative Village, Save Parramore will continue to escalate the issue in the community, as coalition partners plan to host a town hall series in the community, beginning next week.
