79th Street Initiative
The Metropolitan Center (MC) at Florida International University (FIU), working in collaboration with the FIU Geographic Information Systems - Remote Sensing Center (GIS - RS Center) proposes the formulation of a Neighborhood Implementation Plan for the 79th Street Corridor Neighborhood Initiative, Inc.
The purpose of the survey and economic market analysis is to assess the redevelopment capacity of the 79th Street Corridor and to help guide the subsequent phases of the planning process. The report is delivered to the 79th Street Corridor Initiative led by the Urban League of Greater Miami, Miami-Dade Neighborhood Housing Services and the Dade Employment and Economic Development Corporation (DEEDCO) in partnership with the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT). The phase one survey and analysis was conducted by Florida International University’s (FIU) Metropolitan Center and GIS-Remote Sensing Laboratory.
Economic Development Implementation Plan
The Economic Development Implementation Plan (EDIP) is the product of a nine-month assessment of the "impediments" to economic development in Miami-Dade County. Mayor Penelas’ Mosaic 2000 Partnership Initiative initiated the economic development planning process. The goal of the plan was to identify clear and workable economic development strategies to overcome existing impediments, increase the benefits and positive consequences of economic development programs, and help ensure the most efficient and effective investment of public and private resources.
The EDIP report concluded that Miami-Dade has made significant progress in recent years building community consensus on economic development issues and solutions. As examples, the report points to the Mayor's Economic Summit, Round II Empowerment Zone application process and the Mayor's Task Force on Urban Economic Revitalization. The report determined, however, that effective implementation of past and present economic development plans and an initiative has been problematic for Miami-Dade. To address this issue, the EDIP recommended four "operational elements" and their accompanying policy strategies. The operational elements are: 1) creation of a strong entrepreneurial environment; 2) community collaboration and capacity building; 3) comprehensive economic development planning with a coordinated and integrated economic development delivery system; and 4) building public/private lending capacity.
Florida East Coast Corridor Strategic Action Plan
This project grew out of a rigorous analysis of obstacles to economic expansion within Miami-Dade County, identified clear and workable development strategies and offered major recommendations for improving the local economic atmosphere.
Thirty-Year Retrospective: The Status of the Black Community in Miami-Dade County
The Metro Miami Action Plan (MMAP) is an agency of Miami-Dade County government "committed to addressing the socio-economic disparity of Miami-Dade County's Black community by advocating and coordinating initiatives and programs for the benefit of the community-at-large." The report also made recommendations to overcome the disparities ineconomics, jobs, education, housing, and criminal justice. This baseline analysis was updated in 1993and these baseline indices were revisited in 2006-2007 when MMAP retained the consulting services of the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University (FIU) to prepare and complete an Assessment of the Black Community with the goal to examine and update these indices in order to determine the existing disparities within Miami-Dade County's Black communities.
Disparity, which we define as the occurrence of a large spread or significant difference between the group and overall population, was measured at the County level with a focus on four Commission Districts, 1, 2, 3, and 9, which have a significant concentration of Black population. The data collected for this study provides a "snapshot" of the local conditions based on an analysis of factors such as economic development, including employment, income and housing; education; criminal justice; and healthcare.
The 2007 report, whenever possible, showed trends comparing indices in 1983, 1983, and the latest available data. The Metropolitan Center's report employed several methods of gathering data to provide a comparative analysis of disparity between 1983 and the present. The Metropolitan Center began its conducted a demographic analysis utilizing countywide data, US Census figures, and additional data from the Agency for Workforce Innovation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and various other resources that provide population data. The research team classified data by standard demographic variables including race, age, and gender. In addition, standard socio-economic variables such as educational attainment, income, and poverty levels were used to show disparity between predominantly Black communities from other race populations in Miami-Dade County.