NAACP will have meeting for Parramore residents a day before soccer vote

The Orange Branch of the NAACP will hold a town-hall meeting Monday night for Parramore residents to voice concerns — which will probably include some about the construction of a soccer stadium in their neighborhood.

The meeting comes one day before the Orange County Commission votes on the proposed $85 million stadium on city-owned land a block west of the Amway Center.

Larry Colleton, an Orange Branch executive-committee member, said the meeting is open to the public, but only Parramore residents will be allowed to speak.

“We really want to hear from the people who live there,” Colleton said. “We want to hear from residents, not advocates.”

But someof the residents are also advocates whoquestion where the NAACP has been on issues of concern for people who live in Parramore, including displacing residents and dismantling neighborhoods for stadiums and arenas.

Community activist and Parramore resident Lawanna Gelzer said the NAACP has been largely absent when it comes to issues affecting the historic black neighborhood.

She criticized the organization for not engaging local residents, groups and organizations to publicize the meeting being held at 7 p.m. at the Greater St. Paul AME Church, 1040 S. Parramore Ave., Orlando.

“We have no idea what the town-hall meeting is about. I heard about it by accident,” Gelzer said.

Colleton said there is no agenda for the meeting, no panel of speakers. It fulfills a promise made at a public meeting in June on the “stand your ground” law that another town hall would be held to focus specifically on the Parramore Heritage District.

At that time, residents expressed frustration over being excluded from decisions being made by Orlando and Orange County that affect their neighborhood, including the construction of the soccer stadium, the Amway Center, the Creative Village slated for the site of the former Amway Arena, and the $100 million entertainment complex planned by the Orlando Magic.

“This is an open forum for residents who live there. Wewant to hear, but we also want to listen,” Colleton said.

The NAACP has not had a presence in Parramore since closing its office there several years ago. In its place, the Central Florida Urban League moved from Pine Hills to Church Street.

The town-hall meetings are one way the organization is trying to reintroduce itself to the people of Parramore.

“We really want to hear from the folk who don’t think they have voice,” Colleton said. “We do care, and we want to listen to what they have to say.”