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COPYRIGHT 2005 The Miami Herald
Mar. 28--Seated on a bus bench at the entrance to the Liberty Square housing development, 74-year-old Jean Reid glanced at stretches of empty sidewalks, empty storefronts and empty lots of Model City, and described the city's long-predicted home and business boomlet there as just another empty promise.
"Who is going to come over here?" she asked. "Ain't nowhere over here to shop, and there ain't nobody over here to shop."
Her complaints indicate the frustration that resonates through the modest block-style homes and low-rise apartments in this section of Miami -- a neglected place where, five years ago, residents thought long-held dreams for change had finally come true.
At that time, city leaders had seized several slum apartment buildings and relocated hundreds of low-income families. They had secured funds to tear down decrepit buildings and build hundreds of new homes over a 40-square-block area. They said they would put $21.6 million into the plan.
But somewhere along the way, things went awry.
Five years later, about $7.5 million has been spent, but there is not a single constructed home. And the loss of thousands of apartment dwellers has crippled or killed off dozens of mom-and-pop businesses that depended upon them to make their bottom...
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