But Some Criticize The Effort As Being Intended To Keep African-Americans Off The Beach

The city of Miami, FL is planning a major airshow at the beach for Memorial Day next year, but the idea has drawn the ire of at least one civil rights attorney in the city.

The airshow effort is being led by Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco, who says the event will be good for businesses, residents and visitors of all ethnicities. 

But television station WTVJ reports that civil rights attorney John De Leon, a past president of the Miami ACLU, says Grieco and others on the commission are looking for a way to keep the "hip-hop" crowd away from the beach on the holiday.

De Leon said that the city is planning an event that will prevent blacks from going to the beach, and will fill up nearby hotels so they will not have    a place to stay. "It hearkens back to the era of Jim Crow," the attorney said.

Commissioner Grieco said De Leon is "baiting people into an argument that doesn't exist. I didn't realize that watching planes and looking at military ships was some sort of race-specific thing."

Grieco said he has talked with "about 50 to 100" African-Americans who have said they would love to see an airshow. He said the city would be reaching out to Eric Fanning the first openly-gay Secretary of the Army, as well as the Tuskegee Airmen and asking them to participate.

De Leon said that he would like to see a way that the Urban Beach Week that has been going on since the early 2000s and the airshow could coexist, but there is not enough hotel space on the beach to accommodate both events.

Not everyone on the Miami City Commission favored the show. Three of the city's seven commissioners voted against the event last fall, including Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez. She said that the airshow would be "very loud and intrusive," according to the Miami New Times. While she said she does not think that the airshow is intended to replace Urban Beach Week, she has other concerns, and feels that residents have not had enough input into the decision.

The city has hired an air show promoter who is already scheduling acts for the event.

FMI: www.miamigov.com