Ad revenues, King claims, are up 40 percent over last year.
The reason for the noticeable improvement is the biggest conspiracy theory of them all. "Seven years is about my limit on anything," King says, explaining why he spent the summer shopping around for people to take the Grover off his hands. One potential buyer was Pan Courtelis, the leader of a movement that wants Coconut Grove to secede from the City of Miami. Another suitor -- this one successful -- was Elena Carpenter.
No woman elicits more fear from the Coconut Grove Civic Club than does Carpenter. She lives with Bruno Carnesella, a zoning consultant and developer who, according to past club president Joyce Nelson, told her that "the Civic Club is the source of everything that is wrong here. You guys, all you want to do is harass us."
This past July, soon after Carnesella made that comment, Carpenter asked the Miami City Commission to pass an ordinance requiring all groups speaking before the commission to surrender the names and addresses of the group's members. Carpenter said at the time that she wanted to prevent groups with a narrow agenda from claiming to represent the entire Grove community. The Civic Club took the ordinance personally.
"The only reason they really wanted the ordinance is because they wanted the names and addresses of people who speak against development," laments the Civic Club's Michael Carlebach. "It is clear that what they were objecting to is the homeowners. This was a very flimsily concealed plan to shut us up." The ordinance is in limbo now because of pesky constitutional questions about freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, but the acrimony over Carpenter's request has not diminished.
So in August, when Carpenter paid approximately $10,000 for a 50 percent stake in the Grover, people saw it as the next step in her quest for Grove domination. "All of a sudden she appears," says a bemused Joyce Nelson, referring to Carpenter, who followed up her purchase of half the Grover by running for and winning a seat on the Village Council. "I'm visible socially. All of a sudden this woman appears out of nowhere in the last three months."
For her part, Carpenter maintains that her interest in the paper is professional and not political: Buying half of the Grover was a chance for her to combine her background in public relations with her passion for the Grove, where she has lived for more than a decade. "I said to Jack, 'You have done what I have never been able to do A get people to advertise consistently,'" recalls Carpenter, who came onboard the paper in August as general manager. (The details of the agreement have not been settled yet, notes King, who adds that when the deal is done, Carpenter will control 50 percent of the newspaper.)
Currently, Carpenter sticks to the advertising side, drumming up business; King determines which stories will run. He has no problems with the Civic Club's fear that Carpenter will turn the paper into a pro-development mouthpiece. "If anyone says that she controls me, well, that's absolute straight bullshit," King blusters. "I mean, I'm the happiest guy in the world that she is there. I'm not good at the business side of things, and she is. The paper was at a certain level and it wasn't going to get any better unless I brought in someone else. I make no apologies for it."
Carpenter plans for the paper to become weekly, fatter, and more profitable. "We hope to add more staff," she dreams aloud, "so we can spend more time on the golf course, so to speak." King says he's been reinvigorated by Carpenter's arrival, but he still talks about moving on in the near future, pointing out that he'd like to bring in another editor to assume the day-to-day operation. "It's time for the younger generation to have a whack at it," he states, adding that he'd settle for a column an issue.
King speculates he might write a book, something to make hard-boiled crime writer Elmore Leonard look like an amateur. And the editor brags that his publishing contacts up in New York City could make it happen. Or maybe he'll just stay on his boat, American Pie, and sail to the Keys while writing a screenplay and searching for his next opportunity.
More likely he'll stay in the Grove. He has a steady female friend now and a house to go with his boat. The paper is doing better than ever and, after all, it's the Grove, where the conspiracy theories are ever-flowing. Jack King probably isn't going anywhere. "I could leave someday, but God, I love this place," he says, laughing his great laugh. "It's the only place I've been that accepts a full-blown nut case like myself as a normal person.
