It’s 11:30 a.m. on Election Day, and Alex Daoud pulls up to his precinct at Miami Beach’s 21st Street Recreation Center in a gray Chevy SUV. The only available parking space is a bus stop. “Oh jeez, this is horrible,” he frets. “If I were still mayor, I’d get a…
Photo by Marco Kornfeld View a slideshow from the 2007 South Florida International Auto Show I was going to visit the South Florida International Auto Show and write all about the green vehicles — the hybrids, the ethanol-powered cars, the fuel cell prototypes. All that went out the window when…
The Miami International Book Fair schedulers did a wonderful thing on Sunday: they arranged for School Superintendent Rudy Crew to read from his book, The Way to Save Our Schools, immediately before a panel of New Times writers convened in the same room to swear a lot and talk about…
These are tough times for Miamians and their wallets. The condo market is in a nosedive. Oil prices are up and the stock market is down. Even insurance and tolls are rising. Don’t despair. Just one or two good bets and you could be rollin’ in dough. But forget about…
The Unfortunate Owner of Che Guevara’s Hair Filed under: Flotsam Things got weird again in Miami when Gustavo Villoldo, a hefty septuagenarian, published a scrapbook of the Indian summer he spent in Bolivia. It didn’t contain pictures of pretty girls or the tire swing he and his school chums used…
Key West residents want a say in how land is annexed in the future, which may save Wisteria Island — also known as Christmas Tree Island — from being developed. About 75 percent of Key West voters cast ballots on a referendum that allows citizens not officials, to decide whether…
Here at Riptide, we usually don’t have much good to say about President Bush. But today we do. Today, the President will honor Oscar Elias Biscet with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Biscet is a Cuban doctor. He is also a political prisoner in Cuba, serving a 25-year sentence for…
This weekend, thousands of Jimmy Buffett fans (known as “Parrotheads” to the uninitiated) will descend upon Key West for the group’s annual “Meeting of the Minds” convention. Among the highlights: a walking tour of Buffett’s Key West haunts, a street festival and a bunch of bands playing easy rock tunes…
It’s a sticky midweek morning in Mallory Square, Key West’s tourist mecca. A mammoth cruise ship disgorges passengers eager to gawk at Ernest Hemingway’s six-toed cats and guzzle drinks at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville. The tourists are pink from the sun and dressed in carefully ironed white shorts and T-shirts that…
Here’s one for all of your surfers enjoying the waves of Tropical Storm Noel. It’s a recent video of a surfing dog on Miami Beach: –Tamara Lush…
In a recent survey taken by Axe Vice Men’s Grooming Products, Miami was ranked the number two naughtiest city in America. We were beaten by Los Angeles. Number Two? People, come on. We can do better. Here’s some more stats on our fair (and not-so-naughty) city, according to the PR…
Another No-Confidence Vote for Timoney Filed under: News Cops and little old ladies go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Take the recent letter e-mailed to the City of Miami’s police union by two elderly women from Lyme, Connecticut. “We have read with dismay that the Miami PD is ‘outgunned’…
16: Number of stories in the Miami Herald in the past three months that include information on the new Ikea furniture store in Sunrise. – Tamara Lush…
The tide may be turning: Wal-Mart has recently announced that it will offer customers reusable bags made from recyclable materials. And, want more evidence that plastic is bad for marine mammals? Just ask Pamela Sweeney of the Marine Animal Rescue Society here in Miami. She missed the deadline for this…
I have a confession: I’m addicted to those home cleaning shows, the ones where homeowners sell, purge and donate all of their useless household crap so they can live in clutter-free peace. The shows – especially the annoying yet endearing Clean House – have inspired me to get rid of…
In the current climate of environmental do-goodism, there are two kinds of people. One is Robert, a portly man loading five plastic bags filled with food into his Chevy Tahoe SUV in the parking lot of the Fresh Market, the upscale grocery store in Coconut Grove. His ginormous white vehicle…
The Chongalicious Girls — two very sweet teens from Krop High who became famous for their parody of a Miami cultural phenomenon — have finally released their new video. It’s titled “I’m in Love With a Chonga,” and unlike their first YouTube effort, this one is professionally produced. Enjoy: -Tamara…
Adult Video News, the nation’s premier trade publication for the adult industry, has a big cover story on Florida in the latest edition. It’s the “new porn hot spot,” according to the story: “Believe it or not, what we do here is accepted,” says Craig Valentine, whose New Porn Order…
In a landmark for free speech, City of Miami and county leaders have reached an agreement with at least 20 protesters who sued police and other authorities following the brutal 2003 Free Trade Area of the Americas riots in downtown Miami. Under the accord, the city will pay $160,000 and…
Thomas Wolfe wrote that you can’t go home again — and for Luigi, the main character in La Terra, why even bother? Home, for the classy Milan professor, is a small town in southern Italy, chock full o’ intrigue, corruption, and dysfunction. When Luigi travels to his hometown to sign…
Joel Armas is a strapping guy, solid as a block of concrete, barrel-chested and handsome except for his feet, which are long, flat, and bumpy. His eyes are big and brown, and his smile is open-mouthed and wide. His posture is straight but not stiff; he moves with an ease…
It Flashes, Moos, and Poos Filed under: Flotsam Just how dismal is the city’s condo market? Well, if last week’s Platinum Condo auction was any indication, a bloodbath is in the making. The auction, which was held in a ballroom at the Biscayne Marriott, drew a few hundred people, mostly…
