Matti Bower

Boycott Miami Beach

Miami Beach Passes Tax Equality Policy That Gives Tax Breaks to Coupled Gay Employees

Employees of the city of Miami Beach in same-sex domestic partnerships will no longer have to pay more taxes for their partner's health insurance than their married counterparts. The City Commission today passed a landmark tax equality policy that will reimburse those employees for the difference in ... More >>

It's Time for Another National Black Boycott of Miami Beach

Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. Today, Luke is outraged over the treatment of African-Americans in Miami Beach. Once again Miami Beach did a helluva of a job making sure Africa ... More >>

Miami Beach Must Face Corruption Problems On Its Own, Says Inspector General

Last summer -- fresh off a corruption raid by the FBI -- the City of Miami Beach asked Miami-Dade Inspector General Chris Mazzella to help investigate its shady deals. This week, Mazzella gave the city an answer: Thanks, but no thanks. Mazzella tells New Times that his office simply doesn't have the ... More >>

Palace Drag Queen Tiffany Fantasia Talks $100 Tips, Jennifer Hudson, and Gospel Ahead of Thursday's 25th Anniversary

Miami's most fabulous queens are busy ruling South Beach from their undisputed drag kingdom, the Palace. This iconic drag bar/restaurant/stage show is about to celebrate a quarter-century of bringing teased hair, fake tatas, and gravity-defying nips and tucks to Ocean Drive. The 25th-anniversary ce ... More >>

Jerry Libbin Demands Miami Beach Respond to New Times Fire Department Investigation

On Friday, New Times published a three-month investigation into Miami Beach Fire Rescue (MBFR). It showed that MBFR leaders and other city officials ignored evidence of corruption. Millions of dollars in permit fees mysteriously went missing. And the two employees who did complain were forced o ... More >>

Bruno Barreiro Holds Fundraiser In Norman Braman's Neighborhood

A county commissioner targeted for termination by Norman Braman is taking the fight to the billionaire activist's home turf. Tonight, Indian Creek residents Carlos Peralta Quintero and his wife will hold a fundraiser for Bruno Barreiro at their three-acre, 13-bedroom, ten-bathroom waterfro ... More >>

Miami Beach to Blacks: Get Out!

Matti Bower Needs To Do More For African-American Tourists

Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness once made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke says African-Americans may find a new vacation spot unless attitudes change on Miami Beach.Note to African-American tourists ... More >>

Treat Memorial Day Weekend the Same as Spring Break and Winter Music Week

Luther Campbell, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke wonders when Miami and Miami Beach city officials will crack down on rowdy ravers.The video shows a large crowd gathering ar ... More >>

Club Madonna, Miami Beach's Only Strip Club, Says BYOB

​Club Madonna Leroy Griffith's favorite past time is ruffling the feathers of the inhabitants of Miami Beach City Hall. A long standing city ordinance forbids the sale of alcohol at strip clubs, and as a result Griffith's Club Madonna is the only strip club in South Beach. Sure, it keeps competiti ... More >>

Three Miami Beach Towing Horror Stories as Commissioners Decide Whether to Hike Fees

​Miami Beach's two towing companies will attempt to hornswaggle the City Commission this afternoon into granting them a rate hike. If commissioners and Mayor Matti Bower cave in, Beach Towing and Tremont Towing will charge people an additional $64 to get their cars back. Obviously, Miami Beach res ... More >>

Election 2011: Matti Bower Gets Saxed, Marc Sarnoff Tackles His Ultimate Hater, and Carlos Hernandez Wants His Shirt Back

No election in Hialeah, Miami, and Miami Beach is complete without a little political sofrito to spice things up. Thanks to some innovative instigators, cameras have been chronicling strange encounters involving candidates running for office in those three cities.As voters head to the polls tomorrow ... More >>

Urban Beach Weekend: Luke wants the party

Memorial Day Weekend Needs Me

​Luther "Luke" Campbell, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke announces plans to reclaim Memorial Day Weekend on Miami Beach.Six months ago, a young man died and seven people w ... More >>

Pride en Espanol

Miami Beach Getting Another Parking Garage Designed by a Star Architect, This Time Zaha Hadid

​In the architecture world, apparently you aren't anyone until you've designed a parking garage in Miami Beach. Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron, and Arquitectonica have all designed structures to house visitors' vehicles. Now the city has announced it has commissioned another star architect, Z ... More >>

Memorial Day Weekend Fiasco Could Have Been Avoided Long Ago

Alex Izaguirre​Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness once made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times.This week, Luke explains how his efforts to organize Memorial Day Weekend festivities in Miami Beach were thwarted by cit ... More >>

Five Reasons The New Miami Beach Bike Share Kind of Sucks

Michael E. MillerNo parking. No bikes. No good.​Just about everyone with a cerebral cortex agrees the planet is getting warmer, and we driver assholes are the ones to blame. So it's hard to hate on efforts that encourage us to ditch our gas-guzzlers and put some effort into getting around town. B ... More >>

The Gays Love a Parade

More Gerald Posner Plagiarism in Miami Babylon, From New Times, PBS, and Many Others

Back on March 16, Riptide broke the news that South Beach-based author Gerald Posner's latest book, Miami Babylon, had stolen eight passages from Frank Owen's 2003 work Clubland. photo by Bill Cooke New Times and a doctoral student have found more than a dozen new instances of plagi ... More >>

Christopher de los Reyes says Miami Beach needs a king, not a mayor

Moron of the Election Cycle: Raphael Herman

​Imagine being Miami Beach mayoral candidate Raphael Herman's volunteer campaign manager. You're already battling an incumbent on behalf of a candidate who's known only as a perennial loser, but you have a bit of momentum and are hoping to make a dent in the results when- oops, Herman shows u ... More >>

News Roundup

Miami Beach sea turtles are under constant threat because their nests share the beach with us humans. The worse kind of humans -- drunk ones. "Mr. Buchanan voluntarily protects the nests from what he says is the constant threat of drunken nighttime visitors who pour out of nearby nightclubs to go fo ... More >>

Miami Beach Offers an All-Access Card to Get Access to Your Wallet

Miami Beach residents have a new reason to wake up at 4 in the afternoon -- the all new Miami Beach INcard! Released yesterday, the free sliver of black plastic issued by the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce gives residents discounts at clubs, museums, hotels, restaurants and shops. And since that so ... More >>

Pride Goes Afloat

What Blagojevich Teaches Us About Political Appointments

Welcome to biggest blatant political scandal in years starring Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich. Basically the dude tried to leverage his power to be able to select the successor to Obama's Senate seat for money (note to wingnuts: There's no evidence that the Obama camp is involved in this at al ... More >>

Miami Beach Mayor Says We're Too Poor for Democracy

Another Miami-Dade city, another city commission appointment controversy in the works. This time around, Miami Beach is trying to decide whether to fill Dan Gelber's vacated seat with an appointee or hold a special election. An election would cost as much as $400,000, and Mayor Matti Bower told the ... More >>

Mount Sinai Mired and Sinking

A doctor takes aim at the hospital’s CEO and foundation.

Media Day of the Dead

“We deal with people on the worst days of their lives”

South Beach Menace

A scuffle minutes from the nation's sandy playground highlights its slimy underbelly

A Course of Course!

Which patch of green grass has Miami Beach bluebloods brandishing machetes and clubs?

Beach Brawl

Money and ethnicity narrow the race for Miami Beach City Commission to two men

Destruction Boom

Letters from the Issue of May 20, 2004

Disgusting club kids, Haiti’s guns, and animals in need

Letters from the Issue of March 4, 2004

From nightclubs to culture wars to defending the defenders

New Ice Age

Improved rink offers smoother skating

A Cabbie's Crusade

Javier Peña is a maverick cabbie on a mission to turn the notorious Miami taxi industry into a respectable profession. So far he's been threatened, shot at, fined, and fired. In other words, he's making progress.

Rebel Without a Causeway

A Hollywood backlash -- what's Miami Beach's mayor to do? Shoot the messenger.

Not Just a Song

If music be the stuff of controversy, Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler says, “Play on”

The Real McGuffin

Neil McGuffin was supposed to guide the Miami Beach Housing Authority into the new millennium. Instead he exposed an agency in disarray. And he lost his job.

Best Political Comeback

Matti Bower

The Vultures Are Circling

Bruce Kaplan is alive and well (for the moment at least), but that hasn't deterred speculation about his replacement

The Body Politic Hits the Beach

Backroom deals. Latin kingmakers. Ethnic gerrymandering. Hey, Miami Beach politics has finally come of age!

No Mistake About It

Letters

Letters

Letters

Mistaken Identity

In her quest for a seat on the Miami Beach Commission, Matti Bower doesn't want to be labeled "the Hispanic candidate." She just wants to win.

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