“Go back to Cuba,” were the words that rang out Tuesday night at the Hialeah council meeting, when a visibly angry man continued to shout, “They’re trying to steal my land and tell us what we are going to do (…) they all need to go back to Cuba”.
Tempers were running high because a benefit-cost analysis was being presented to incorporate part of the area known as Brownsville southeast of the city of Hialeah.
Esteban Bovo, mayor of the city of Hialeah, assures that “it is a review that the city begins to determine if it is worth for the city or not to be able to serve an area which, in all honesty, has been abandoned “.
Brownsville resident James Bush says residents are worried about how it will affect their pocketbooks, adding that it is important to seek community support for annexing a warehouse district and a residential area.
During the meeting, it emerged that the analysis had an error that had inflamed the spirits of the locals.
Hialeah Council Chairman Jesús Tundidor explains that “they included a block that I think has about twelve residential houses in the study. It was a mistake. If you look at the whole map, 98% of it is industrial. As well as a mobile home park.
Tundidor assured that the error was corrected at the meeting and expressed the benefits the city would have with the annex.
“Making sure that we have the services that we provide to residents and making sure that we can support them and ultimately maintain all the services that we have that no other city has costs money. And we are not raising any taxes for Hialeah residents. We have to look for alternatives such as increasing the revenue of the city of Hialeah and that is an option”.
Hialeah’s council president said the process of possible annexation continues. After having discussed with the parties concerned, in particular with the owners of the properties included in the territory.
Jesús Tundidor assured that voters will not vote because the law to incorporate an area requires it to have more than 250 voters and after correcting the error it is less than this amount.