Rebranding the historic side of West Grove

A walk down Grand Avenue, west of Cocowalk, is a stroll that leads to quiet sidewalks and empty windows of abandoned buildings, collecting dust. For every door open two are closed, indefinitely.

Grand Avenue gets daily traffic moving through West Grove. Cars and buses pass through, but don’t stop.

The closed businesses and lack of commerce raises this question: Why is this neighborhood that was once bustling and thriving now so empty?

Carrie Jackson, owner of The Cookie Café, remembers Grand Avenue when she was a child. As an adult, she looks at the streets of the neighborhood, shocked at how little of it resembles the past.

“I couldn’t believe there were so many closed businesses,” Jackson said.

Those who want to see a stronger economy in the area point out the lack of essential enterprises: supermarkets or a pharmacy can’t be found in the West Grove.

Even Carrie Jackson, who turned on the ovens of her café more than four years ago, found herself adding to her menu during tough times. Her red velvet cupcakes were introduced during the recession to generate more business. Jackson would still like to see more people stop, though.

“There is a parking lot across the street that people don’t know about,” Jackson said.

Jackson and other business owners would like to see the area pushed forward by bringing in more commerce. At Ocean’s Choice seafood restaurant on Grand Avenue, employee Lambrentus Wright talks about his new home as he waits for customers to trickle in for the Saturday lunch hour.

“This really is a beautiful city. Reality is this is a poor neighborhood … It could be better if people put in more money. Money to generate business,” Wright said.

Others say better marketing is the key to reshape — and rebrand — the area. The Coconut Grove Collaborative, a local organization focused on improving housing and business in Coconut Grove, wants to market the history of West Grove Bahamian and Haitian heritage.

There are several initiatives to create more jobs while establishing the historic and cultural story that West Grove has to tell.

In one project, 10 kiosks are being built on the north and south sides of Grand Avenue. People will be hired to run the Caribbean- and Bahamian-themed kiosks, which will offer free wi-fi, sell hand-crafted jewelry and junkanoo-inspired memorabilia.

Coconut Grove Collaborative Board Member Jennifer Howard and architect Alesis Lahti are putting together information on design specifics and materials needed for kiosk construction. The Public Works Department will approve the plan before it is presented to the city commission, who will create the legislation.

“The legislation plans to be done by May, with the finished kiosks opening in fall of 2011,” said Jihad Rashid, president of the collaborative.

Another project in the works is the preservation of the Mariah Brown House. Renita Ross Samuels-Dixon, a member of the Coconut Grove Village Council, is working to restore one of the first homes ever built in the West Grove and turn it into a museum. Mariah Brown, a Bahamian settler, made coconut-almond candy to raise the funds to build her home. She built her house circa 1890 on Charles Avenue, where it still stands awaiting its makeover.

Samuels-Dixon set up a tent at the Coconut Grove Arts Festival with volunteers Charles Bethel, the great-great grandson of Mariah Brown, and Hattie Armbrister, a West Grove resident. They gave brief history lessons to people as they stopped. Armbrister admits she would love to see the Grove go back to what it used to be.

“There used to be a lot of life in the Grove. It felt like it was a overnight thing and the life just went out,” Armbrister said.

Whether or not the life of the West Grove is dead or simply dormant there is a cultural brand to be marketed. And the West Grove wouldn’t be the first to use its urban intrigue as a tool to draw in crowds.

Laura Quinlan of Rhythm Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to bring world music to South Florida, partnered with the James l. Knight Foundation’s Knight Art Challenge Program for a financial grant to start a monthly event called Big Night in Little Haiti. The opening night featured world music beats, performance dancing and the work of local artists.

“ We had 1,000 people of all backgrounds, families, people on dates, even Edwidge Danticat – a famous Haitian writer – was there.” Laura Quinlan said. “The total success was the result of a partnership between the Rhythm Foundation, the Little Haiti Cultural Center, and neighbors that got involved.”

Jihad Rashid conceived a similar idea, that would be called ‘Festive Fridays’ in the West Grove that has yet to come to fruition. It would be designed much like BGLH but authenticated, of course, to the Bahamian and Caribbean facet of the neighborhood.

The work and efforts of community members, business owners and residents continues but whether or not Grand Avenue will fill up with more businesses and more customers is yet to be seen. Rashid hopes people will find a transformed West Grove appealing and unique.

“You have to develop a product.” Rashid said. “We have to create a niche and people will come…”