One Down, Two To Go In North Bay Village

Oscar Alfonso (right) and Joe Geller (center) lost their hand-picked city manager Matthew Schwartz (left).​This past Tuesday night, a coup went down in North Bay Village. The city commission voted 3-2 to fire city Manager Matthew Schwartz. Before he left the city commission meeting, Schwartz addressed the audience. “I wish…

Royal Palm Closes Chapter on Miami’s Black Past

The Royal Palm Hotel on 16th Street and Collins Avenue was supposed to be a beacon of atonement for Miami-Dade County’s racist past. In 1989, county officials snubbed South African leader Nelson Mandela when he visited Miami. African Americans across the country boycotted Miami-Dade, costing the area tens of millions…

Black-Owned Miami Beach Hotel Goes Belly Up

The Royal Palm Hotel on 16th Street and Collins Avenue was supposed to be a beacon of atonement for Miami-Dade County’s racist past.In 1989, county officials snubbed South African leader Nelson Mandela when he visited Miami. African Americans across the country boycotted Miami-Dade, costing the area tens of millions in…

Miami City Commission Should Expand African Square Park

This past September 16, Miami’s planning advisory board recommended the city expand African Square Park on NW 14th Avenue and 61st Street. The board recognized the need for more public green space in one of Miami’s poorest neighborhoods, but the city commission apparently didn’t get the hint.View Larger MapThree months…

Fight Doctor Ferdie Pacheco Pays Homage to 5th Street Gym

If you grew up in Miami Beach prior to 1993, the floor above the neighborhood drug store on Fifth Street at Washington Avenue was a magical place.For more than a quarter-century, aspiring boxers climbed two flights of creaky stairs to a cavernous, broiling-hot room to train, hoping they would emerge…

Scarface: The Elementary School Play is Staged, Really

TMZ reports the little-tyke production of Tony Montana’s spiral descent into Miami’s cocaine-fueled underworld is the brilliant work of director Marc Klasfeld and Rockhard Films, which did the video for Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.” It was produced in Los Angeles using child actors. And here I was hoping Miami-Dade County Public…

Scarface: The Elementary School Play

This is wrong on so many levels. Anyone who can tell me where this little tyke production was staged gets a limited edition DVD of Scarface, a Tony Montana action figure, and a used coke vial. Scarface School Play – Watch more Funny Videos…

Students at St. Kevin Catholic School Get A Deathly Lesson

Some students attending St. Kevin Catholic School in Southwest Miami-Dade were given an unexpected introduction to their religion’s death ritual.On the morning of February 10, sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders had to attend the funeral mass for the mother-in-law of school principal Myra Constantino. The “celebration of the life of Josephine…

After Leaving the County, Steve Shiver Made A Killing In Homestead

On July 23, 2004, Steve Shiver plunked down $1.5 million for 4.2 acres in a severely depressed neighborhood of Homestead. The city’s former mayor and ex-county manager had become the proud owner of a laundromat, grocery store, office complex and 44 rundown cinder-block “shotgun” row houses for low-income tenants.It was convenient…

Dhafir Harris Gets First Win and Blood On His Shoulder

Rumble at the Rock 2Hard Rock Live, HollywoodFriday, March 5, 2010Better Than: A $50 Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino players club card. Dhafir Harris sat near the door to the fighters waiting room just outside the Hard Rock Live’s main staging area. A black  hoodie draped over his high-top…

Karl Thompson May Face More Criminal Charges

Karl Thompson, accused of scamming victims in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, is sitting in jail awaiting trial on felony counts of grand theft, organized fraud, and resisting arrest without violence.Before his arrest this past October 6,the North Miami Police Department opened an investigation into Thompson after three victims alleged that…

Michelle Spence-Jones in More Trouble

Suspended Miami city commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones is facing more criminal charges. A Miami-Dade grand jury indicted Spence-Jones on one count of bribery. She is accused of soliciting money from MDM Hotel Group, Inc., the developers of the Metropolitan Miami office and residential complex, and the Codina Group Inc., for her…