Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff is asking the city of Miami to account for how much money it has invested in the Liberty City neighborhood since the 1980 Arthur McDuffie race riots.
Liberty City, a neighborhood of about 20,000 residents, is one of Miami's poorer neighborhoods.
Sarnoff says the analysis will provide a clearer picture of what initiatives or programs have been funded in the neighborhood and whether Miami has significantly helped improved Liberty City.
“I want to look at the past...at these programs to see why it is there doesn’t seem to be a big delta, a big change in Liberty City," he says.
Sarnoff represents District 2, which includes Downtown Miami and Brickell.
Commissioner Keon Hardemon,who represents Liberty City, has asked that the city invest more financial resources into the struggling neighborhood.
"We need to put our dollars where our problems are," Hardemon says.
It's not yet clear when the analysis will be complete, but Sarnoff says it will be a helpful guide for the commission to put into perspective how Miami is spending taxpayers' dollars.
"The definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing but expecting a different result" says Sarnoff. "So, what I’d like to see is how much money has been put in there, in what way has this money been put in there and maybe finding a different strategy."
