Gentrification is a funny thing. And by “funny,” we mean totally horrifying.In Miami, it beckons wealthy club kids to traipse around the ghetto like a college dorm. Park West/Overtown used to be known for its crumbling buildings and crack houses. Now it’s the kind of place penniless neighbors roll their…
Just before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, a man on a Huffy bicycle collided with a woman on a Yamaha motorcycle. They were just yards from the News Lounge and Andiamo Pizza, at the corner of NE 54th Street and NE Fourth Court. An ambulance rushed both of them to the trauma…
Overtown’s historic Lyric Theater hangs in limbo
Sometimes mediocre restaurants want to seem fancy. Maybe they add mood lighting or start selling trendy dishes like, say, anything that involves an acai berry. If you’re Burger King executives, you just add brunch to the menu. Then you mix sprite with orange juice and call it “a BK Mimosa.” And…
A young person jumped from the 21st floor of Park Place by the Bay at 10 p.m. last night, according to witnesses. Cops and paramedics temporarily blocked off the yellow apartment building, located at 915 NW 1st Avenue. The jumper landed in a cement walkway, not far from the pool…
Cuban immigrant caught illegally trapping birds in Homestead thinks strict animal rules are for the birds
It started with good intentions. Two sets of gay parents — all close friends — would make and raise a baby together. Ray Janssen, a fit war vet, would artificially inseminate Katherine Alicea, an ambitious real estate agent. Katherine’s partner would be a second mother and Ray’s partner a second…
Not far from Miami International Airport, there’s a little pink house where one man lives with 24 pigeons. Adrian Acosta-Gonzalez is a 37-year-old, Cuban-born landscaper with bronze skin and good bone structure. He slides open a birdcage in his back yard and snaps his fingers twice.Out hops a plump pigeon…
Yesterday was Miami Beach’s second annual gay pride parade. It was a blast. Here are some photos…
Back in 2006, New Jersey boxing promoter-turned-South Florida real estate mogul Marc Roberts was the face of the largest urban renewal project in the country. It was called the Miami World Center , and it was supposed to transform a rundown ghetto into a glitzy strip of shops, restaurants, and…
View Larger Map Just before 10 p.m. last night, Miami-Dade cops discovered the body of a 23-year-old Hialeah woman in a vacant lot across from a $800,000 waterfront home in Biscayne Gardens. Officers don’t know much about Nazelene Khan, the young woman, but court records show she was charged with…
For years, Jackson Memorial Hospital has made US News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” list. But its reputation among gay people has been one of the worst in the country. The reason is partly due to a court case filed by a lesbian named Janice Langbehn. In February 2007, hospital staff kept the Washington state…
The bus-stop ads popped up last summer. They showed an image of a cyclist riding — ahead of a car — in the center of the road. “Bikes May Use Full Lane,” the posters read in thick black letters. They were part of a bike safety campaign, courtesy of the…
Violence shocks Miami clubgoers
Swamp Stomp is the type of homegrown indie music bash that deserves some support. What began as a few bands on a makeshift stage — at a beer-soaked U of M house party in 2007 — has matured into a “foot stompin’, hand clappin'” showcase of underrated local talent. Last…
Park West, the city’s after-hours district, is a place where glamour meets gutter. Women in high heels step out of Ferraris right next to one-legged panhandlers. In some ways, the hood is a symbol of everything that’s messed up about class division and gentrification in this city. It’s also –…
Dear Miami-Dade County Fair,Please tell me this ad — featured in yesterday’s Herald — was really just a twisted late-April Fool’s Day joke.Love,Riptide…
A loud thump made onlookers wince. During rush hour this past November 16, at the east end of the Venetian Causeway, a Beach Towing truck flipped an illegal U-turn and smashed into a fit, brown-eyed biker. The 19-year-old cyclist, Javier Arjona, was “thrown to the ground,” according to police reports…
Eight cops are lined up like a troop of soldiers on a gum-stained sidewalk across from Club Space. Wanda Mendez, a City of Miami Police officer with perfect posture and short brown hair, hollers assignments over the thump of car stereos. “We’re all gonna back each other up!” she says…
This blog post is dedicated to the snot-nosed raver kid who almost killed me Saturday night. I was the redhead on the bike. You were in an Escalade, thumping that bad techno song from the ’90s. I’m pretty sure you were even sporting a sideways visor. Maybe you were driving…
The Miami Dolphins announced last night that Sun Life Stadium has a new name after a sponsorship deal was sealed with the Southeastern Division of Proctor & Gamble. Tampax Corporation — the nation’s leading distributor of feminine hygiene products — now plans to aggressively market season tickets to a female…
Yanael Rodriguez, a shy 24-year-old with a handsome smile, might have the strangest job in Miami-Dade. It’s called being an “animal disposal technician” and it’s a fancy way of saying that you scrape roadkill for a living. There are two county employees who do this full-time, and they are busy…
