I know I’m not alone in wishing to express my gratitude to those Miami Beach leaders who have done so much to revitalize Lincoln Road. An appropriate opportunity for praise occurred a couple of weeks ago, on April 13, when city officials gathered to commemorate the installation of the final…
The moment Athalie Range approached the podium and began to speak, it was all over. Anyone at Miami City Hall who had been hoping for an uneventful meeting and a quick vote was about to be sorely disappointed. The 83-year-old matriarch, who in 1965 became Miami’s first black commissioner, returned…
Readers of tomorrow, welcome to Scholastic Bowl, the program that showcases student ingenuity. Our gracious sponsor today is the Miami-Dade County Public Schools from South Florida, the fourth largest school district in the nation. Special thanks to Superintendent Roger C. Cuevas and school board chairman Solomon Stinson for providing us…
January 1, 1999, brought with it a noteworthy change in Miami’s civic landscape: David Lawrence, Jr., took leave of 1 Herald Plaza. In his nine years as boss man at the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, he held an exalted position of influence in this town, and as we…
The show wouldn’t begin until 10:30 p.m., but the television remote trucks were there three hours early. Clearly, someone was expecting action. Maybe even hoping for it. Screaming protesters, after all, make for great visuals. And nothing in Miami attracts protesters like musicians from Cuba. So the appearance of that…
You can’t blame Carmen Lunetta for being a cocky bastard. For years he got away with one of the most audacious scams in local history. According to Lunetta, the Port of Miami, which he has ruled like a Third World despot, was an economic powerhouse. From the cruise industry to…
Until Tuesday morning this page was occupied by an article headlined “Los Van Van Ban Lifted.” Staff writer Elise Ackerman prepared the story, which explained how it came to be that recordings by the venerable Cuban band Los Van Van were now being played on a commercial radio station –…
A few years ago in these pages I described Joel Cheatwood as “the evil genius behind Channel 7’s lurid news style.” The occasion was the release of a Hurricane Andrew documentary Cheatwood and WSVN-TV produced that was about as melodramatic, self-absorbed, and manipulative as you might have expected — just…
Sometime this week Judge Robert Kaye is expected to rule on a lawsuit this newspaper brought against P. Anthony Ridder, chairman of Knight-Ridder, Inc. As we all know, Knight-Ridder owns the Miami Herald (and more than two dozen other newspapers). Tony Ridder, one of the nation’s top media executives, unceremoniously…
Wayne Smith is no friend of the Cuban American National Foundation. For many years — at least since he left the foreign service after serving as chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1979 to 1982 — he has been an outspoken critic of the U.S. economic embargo…
Tony Ridder’s performance last week before the Dade County Commission was truly inspirational. The Knight-Ridder boss was there in his new role as leader of a group of private citizens whose desperate mission is to appease zillionaire sports moguls Micky Arison and Wayne Huizenga and find a way to build…
Jim Mullin’s column last week incorrectly reported that the Miami Herald had not published the names of members of an ad hoc sports arena committee headed by Knight-Ridder chairman Tony Ridder. In fact, a partial list of names was published February 7 in a late edition of the paper, which…
When was the last time you spent a day by the bay at Virginia Key? When did you last take a casual stroll through Bicentennial Park? Or sit down for a quiet picnic on Watson Island? Shaking your head? Okay, let’s try this: When was the last time you visited…
Last week’s issue of New Times was very popular. We got lots of phone calls. Readers picked up papers so quickly that by Thursday most of them were gone. Staffers from all departments reported an extraordinary amount of comment among friends and acquaintances. That issue contained a new column called…
Seventy-four-year-old antique dealer Billy Herrero vowed he wouldn’t walk away from his “friends” — his sprawling array of period furniture, Oriental vases, vintage clothing, Art Deco trinkets, and unadulterated junk collected over six decades. And in the end, he didn’t. Early Christmas Eve, a few hours before he was to…
Hialeah. What a place. One minute it’s a big, brawny city in search of respect, the next it’s a juvenile delinquent caught in the act. Second in population, first in corruption. No tolerance for boredom, a gifted talent for entertainment. If it isn’t political intrigue, it’s political farce. As Carl…
February 10, 1992 Mr. James Batten, Chairman/CEO One Herald Plaza Miami, Florida 33132 Dear Mr. Batten: Last Wednesday, you called me and complained in rather accusatory terms of my “activities during the last ten days.” You proceeded to confront me with supposed quotes from a radio program in which I…
The Miami Herald has taken a pretty ugly beating in its confrontation with Cuban American National Foundation chairman Jorge Mas Canosa. Recent tough talk by publisher David Lawrence simply hasn’t been able to overcome the damage done by his simpering, obsequious, early responses. But there’s blame enough to spread around,…
