Can anything good come out of Liberty City?

Someone well versed in NYC real estate once told me that you could tell a neighborhood was gentrifying when the liquor stores and chicken shacks were replaced with fruit and vegetable stands and coffee shops. I didn't believe it until the local fried fish/seafood restaurant on Broadway near Kosciusko in Bed Sty was transformed into a fruit and veggie stand as more and more Caucasians stood shoulder to shoulder with me on the train to commute to work.

I was reminded of this today in a conversation about why District 5, which encompasses Liberty City, Little Haiti, Wynwood, and Overtown is so desolate. I don't live anywhere near that area. In fact, I live over 100 blocks away. I'm so far North in Miami I could walk across the county line into Broward within minutes. However, anywhere black and brown people reside sparks an interest in me.

We have to do more than offer lip service. It's high time someone gets up and makes the changes that are so desperately needed in District 5. In an area that's been littered with false promises, allegations of shady doings, court proceedings, arrests and the like, it's almost like a complacency has settled over District 5.

I am proof positive that out of heartbreak and pain can come positivity. Who would have thought that the little girl born to a teen mom in a lower middle class neighborhood in NYC would go on to do some of the things that I have done? Be the places that I have been? Work for the places I have worked? Have the dreams that I hope to realize? We need to foster that same hope in the generations behind us. It sounds so trite- but that No Child Left Behind slogan rings true- "We must lift as we climb to leave no child behind."

That also involves not becoming successful and running away from "the hood" into Broward County because we're so "above it all". Stay and help make some of those much needed changes. Convert the liquor and number running shack into that healthy fruit stand that sells snacks to the kids that will do the body good. Build a community garden in the vacant lot on the corner. Patronize black businesses- and if you ARE a black business offer something that seems to lack in our shops- GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE. No, that's not an exception. It's basically the rule. There also needs to be some real revitalization, which means job creation. It's great that Walgreens and Jackson Hewitt have a thriving business, but what about health clinics? Book stores? A Whole Foods? A movie theater? A bistro? What about a good old fashioned jazz cafe? I'm just throwing some things out there. Don't say it can't happen. I'll point you no further than downtown Brooklyn, New York for evidence that it most certainly CAN happen.

I could go on for hours, but I'll close this by saying change is coming to District 5. I plan to put all my support behind it because I for one want politicians to put up or shut up. LIVES depend on it.

Good Customer Service is NOT optional!

In a time where we need to stretch a dollar that's lost all it's elasticity, great customer service is the order of the day. Point blank, if you are giving lousy customer service, you need to shutter your doors because people aren't making much money, and for sure they will NOT be forking it over to you when your attitude and goods are crappy.

Case in point, LIMOS OF MIAMI. I just filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau due to shady business dealings, unprofessionalism and a few other issues surrounding my wedding day. Oh and by the way, aside from LIMOS OF MIAMI our day was super amazing, beautiful, elegant, romantic and just downright INCREDIBLE. I have 500+ pics taken by family and friends, but I want to wait for the professional ones to come in before I create a slide show. Hopefully I'll have something to put up within a month.

But back to LIMOS OF MIAMI. Here is the complaint I filed with BBB. I'll wait to hear from them to see if we can forge an amicable solution to this situation. To date I've only posted this complaint here, and on a BBB affiliate website. But the internet reaches far and wide and there are PLENTY of other places that I'm poised to post this review. So LIMOS OF MIAMI, do the right thing. Admit your driver was unprofessional, tacky and out of order. Utilize excellent customer service skills and ask me, the customer, if there is anything you can do to resolve the situation. If not, expect your prom season calendar to be wide open. You WILL NOT do business in our communities if you don't respect us and our buying power!

Without further adeiu, here is my review on LIMOS OF MIAMI:

My wedding was on Saturday 9/19/09. The driver was to pick us up in a stretch Hummer at 6PM. He arrived at 637PM, long after most of the guests had left, thus defeating the purpose of us having a high profile vehicle. The driver did have the red carpet, as promised, but no disco ball, no complimentary champagne, no water or anything but hot club soda to drink. When I asked him about the drinks he told me it wasn't included in the package. I passed my blackberry up to the front for him to review the e-mail I pulled up between myself and one of their employees when we were working out the details of the day. The driver scanned the e-mail, and dismissed my request stating that the drinks came with a hourly rate package, not a transport. Nowhere in the chain of e-mail communique with their company did they specify a difference between the hourly rate and a transport. I told the driver this fact. He put the car in park on a busy Miami street, jumped out, opened up my door and confronted me in front of my entire wedding party. When I tried to diffuse the situation by telling him to forget it, and just to drive on, he demanded that I, the bride, produce a credit card for him to take an imprint of and sign it immediately or he would throw my wedding party out onto the street. He assumed that I would try to stop payment on the account, which was the furthest thing from my mind at the time. I asked was he serious, and he said "very". I didn't even think I had a credit card on me at first because what bride walks around with a wallet on her wedding day? Thankfully, one of my bridesmaids had removed my purse from my vehicle and brought it along in the limo with us so I had a card to give the driver. Humiliated, I signed the bill so we could stop the embarrassing display. He had second thoughts about what he did because after dropping us off at the reception site he tried to apologize. I didn't want to talk to him at that point but I e-mailed the company one week after returning from my honeymoon to find out why he did what he did. To date my e-mail has gone unanswered so it's safe to assume they take no issue with the unprofessional behavior of their driver and condone his actions.

City Crab in Miami, Florida

People who know me very well know that I love seafood! I will tear up some shrimp, snow crab, crawfish, lobster and certain types of fish (fillets only, no heads, no bones, no catfish). I was recently introduced to conch by my male bff aka my little brother and I'm hooked! So imagine my excitement when my favorite blog on the web (aside from my own) bloggingblackmiami.com/ started bigging up a new seafood restaurant named City Crab Miami.

Here is my review, short and sweet:

I went there craving garlic crabs but had to settle for shrimp because they had run out. How do you run out of crab when you are named City Crab? I was instantly annoyed and thought to myself "This is why I go to chain restaurants" until I feasted on the shrimp. The owner put his foot in that meal! It was to die for. It left me wanting more so I looked up the number to call today to see if they had crab delivered so I could pick up dinner. Surprise! The phone is disconnected. I find myself thinking those chain restaurant thoughts again... Small business owners, especially black small business owners. We MUST do better. If you are going to start something up make sure you have enough to meet your supply and demand. And above all, make sure your utilities are on at all costs! It is VERY tacky to have a disconnected business number. I hope this gets squared away immediately because I would love to see them flourish and spread out into different cities. With food that delicious it's very possible!

After I posted the review on another site I realized that I might hurt the owner's feelings. I considered e-mailing the webmaster and having them remove my post. However, I thought twice about it. If you're in business for yourself you have to have thick skin, and you MUST have your business affairs in order. Me typing about these issues is nothing compared patrons experiencing them, stereotyping your start up as a hot ghetto mess and going to Joe's Crab Shack. So with that being said, I hope that this message reaches the business owners and that they take this how it is meant- a sincere concern for them from the heart in hopes that they take the criticism constructively and improve. After all, if I didn't care, I wouldn't waste a keystroke speaking on it. Nor would I attempt to return. It's all love! Now order an extra case of snow crab legs! :)