Miamians may have been surprised to see his honor Manny Diaz among a group of environmentally conscious mayors in this May’s Vanity Fair, a special “green issue” devoted mostly to ecologically minded celebrities. VF praised Diaz for “[bringing] in the private sector to help clean up the city’s waters with…
When local filmmaker Kevin Clarke released his hip-hop morality tale, 2 Sides of Life, in 2004, he distributed the DVD to chain stores, including Blockbuster and Best Buy, and waited for the money to roll in. Soon enough, 2 Sides of Life was a certified hit, though Clarke didn’t earn…
Things couldn’t get worse for the Coconut Grove Playhouse. Instead of celebrating 50 years staging plays, the historic theater is on the verge of shuttering for good. Two weeks ago, the board of directors had to suspend performances after discovering the debt had reached four million dollars. Employees complained about…
There is a certain poignancy to holding an immigration rally in a place called Homestead. The city’s name dates back to 1898, when the government opened the area south of Miami to pioneering farmers. At that time, proof of living and working on a tract of public property qualified newcomers…
This past November, Delray Beach resident Karen Levine got the smackdown from Hurricane Wilma. Twice. The first punch came from the storm. Her condo roof caved in and one wall had to be partially gutted, rendering her — and her belongings — homeless. The second blow, Levine claims, was delivered…
In Hialeah it may now be a crime to publicly oppose Natacha Seijas. For the past six weeks, paid canvassers for the Committee to Recall Miami-Dade Commissioners have been collecting signatures from Hialeah’s registered voters to recall Seijas, whose district includes the county’s second-largest municipality. Apparently this does not sit…
Daniel Fernandez and Joe Losada would normally show up at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building on NW Twelfth Street to testify against the criminals they routinely put behind bars. But on the morning of February 14, the Miami-Dade County Police detectives found themselves on the flipside of criminal court…
Arainia’s parents expected a healthy baby. Her first moments of life seemed to confirm their hopes. On the outside she looked perfect, with downy strawberry-blond hair and blue eyes, ten fingers and ten toes. Perhaps it was the brief illusion of wellness — the anticipation of a new life unfurling…
South Beach is the casual-sex capital of America — or at least that’s the reputation. So it was a surprise when, this past March, a sign appeared on the glass door of the Miami Beach Planned Parenthood clinic on Sixth Street announcing it would be open only two days a…
Voters approved Miami-Dade’s largest bond referendum ever ($2.9 billion) in November 2004. Intended to improve major public works, it included $30 million for a program paying owners of agricultural land for their right to rezone, meaning the land will stay rural in perpetuity. The program’s purpose is to keep the…
As she laid her head on her big sister’s chest and listened to the heartbeats slow, Harolyn Frazier thought of opportunities lost. In the wake of a seizure, 38-year-old Lola Davis was brain dead, and Frazier had given hospital staff permission to turn off life support. A guard sat on…
He has a Carpenteria, an old man, and some pretty nice solitaires, but this is Florida — there’s nothing in Scott Zona’s South Miami yard to suggest he’s a palm-obsessed nut. Moreover Zona, a slightly built, mild-mannered, sideburn-sporting 46-year-old, does not look like the type who would lead weeks-long hikes…
It seemed a black eye for Coral Gables ad firm CreativeOndemanD when Volkswagen recently pulled ads for the 2006 GTI that read “Turbo-Cojones.” Apparently they were offensive to some because, um, cojones are testicles in Spanish. The ads were replaced with the pathetic “Kick a little gracias” (Get it?) and…
It’s 10:30 on a Wednesday night in February, and 46-year-old Mandoah “Manny” Ebaid is checking the foot traffic outside his Middle Eastern eatery, Exotic Bites, near Young Circle Park in downtown Hollywood. At one of the outdoor tables, a group of eight is smoking flavored tobacco from a large, multihose…
Seven days before Federer, Sharapova, and company rolled into town for the NASDAQ-100 Open, twenty-year-old tennis prodigy Ahsha Rolle walked slowly from Crandon Park Court #14. After showing off her 115 mph serve, blistering groundstrokes, and wicked slice, Rolle calmly surveyed the construction site surrounding her: Noisy workers were busily…
On the night of Thursday, March 16, five University of Minnesota students turned off the light in their Miami Beach hotel room and headed out to grab a bite. Two members of their group, 23-year-old John Lassetter and his girlfriend Catie Bitzan, age 26, stayed behind to take a nap…
Robb Annable gripped a metal girder with one hand and peered down at the wind-whipped water 150 feet below. His pontoon boat, rolling on the waves, looked like a toy. He’d moored it to the base of a 400-foot-tall radio tower about 50 yards from the Venetian Causeway and just…
It was a hidden-camera exposé that made police departments look bad. In conjunction with an independent watchdog group called the Police Complaint Center, WFOS-TV CBS 4 reporter Mike Kirsch presented remarkable footage of what happens when a civilian tries to file a complaint against a police officer in South Florida…
Former Vice President Al Gore garnered some minor headlines last week during a visit to West Palm Beach to stump for Florida Democrats. But who knew his campaign swing included a little gig on South Beach? On Saturday evening, March 11, as the South Beach citizenry recovered from hangovers, disco-napped,…
Rumors of the $10,000 fish began trickling in this past December. The idea that people would pay as much for a single fish as they would for a used BMW was outrageous, of course. But the more intriguing thing about this fish was its purported location. Paul Radice owns a…
By 10:30 a.m. Sunday, March 5, both parking lots at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay were already packed, and the valets were in full apology mode. Thanks to a swarm of plus-size women heading toward the hotel entrance, escaping the curved driveway wasn’t easy. One lady clad in a slinky…
Like a deranged tooth fairy, someone has been passing out flyers to citizens in the tiny city of Surfside at night. They’re not car wash promotions or lawn service ads, but copies of motions in an ongoing paternity suit that a woman named Ioulia Babourkina filed against Surfside mayoral candidate…
