Riptide has a question for all of those crazy Coconut Grovites. In the past year, what spectacular little spit of land has been used as the dumping ground for a large dead goat, the home of a five-foot-long saltwater crocodile, and a bum fort turned junkyard.
The answer: the mangroves around Peacock Park.
In the 1970s, the coastline forest didn't exist. Miami Herald Neighbors columnist Glenn Terry tells Riptide: "When I arrived, the shores of Peacock Park looked like the shores of Maui." The once tiny trees were planted in the early 1980s during an environmental improvement project, using city money. Nearly 20 years later, a wealthy developer and vitamin peddler pushed to have them removed but failed.
Carlos Iglesia thinks he has the solution. The blunt 44-year-old who
lives in the north Grove recently unleashed his hatred for the
protected species on Coconut Grove Grapevine. They block the view of the water and attract all sorts of riffraff. "If I could, I'd go in there with a hatchet and
chop them down myself," he proclaims. "They grow like weeds. It's just
pathetic."
His blog tirade elicited a series of heated, all-caps comments such as
"They are ESSENTIAL FISH HABITAT." Indeed, the trees do great things
for the ecosystem, says Coconut Grove Village Council member Liliana
Dones. "They protect the whole balance life underwater."
Removing the trees is a long shot, says councilwoman Dones. They are protected under federal law. The more probable option: Trim the suckers back to "create windows." Hacking them down, she says, is asking for trouble.
