In September 2015, the company that owns Miami’s Magic City Casino — West Flagler Associates — tried to apply for a license to open up a new poker room in downtown Miami, through an arcane licensing process involving “summer jai-alai” permits.
All the painkillers, Band-Aids, and antibiotics in the world wouldn’t have made much of a difference to Angel Fernandez, the Scarface character whose dismemberment by chainsaw was the 1983 gangster flick’s most infamous scene. But today the building where the grisly attack was set is being converted into a CVS.
Miami residents were already skeptical about mega-developer Moishe Mana’s plans to pave over a huge portion of Wynwood and build a gleaming micro-city in its place. Mana, who splits his time between Manhattan and the Magic City, is the largest single landowner in Wynwood. For years, he’s been fighting to…
Florida lawmakers have, over the past ten years, quietly siphoned $1.3 billion away from a $1.8 billion, statewide fund for affordable housing, the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee Bureau reported Friday. Asked whether this is a problem, Miami Republican state Rep. Carlos Trujillo basically flipped his hometown — which is trapped in an unprecedented affordability crisis — the bird.
Miami real-estate analyst Andrew Stearns releases a report about the health of the city’s condominium market four times per year. Read between the lines of Stearns’ last three consecutive releases, and it’s easy to picture him pulling out clumps of his hair and nervously loosening his tie as he writes the reports.
All those shiny new condo buildings popping up on the Miami skyline sure look fun. They’re clean, they’re well-designed, and they’re everywhere, including places where poor people used to live. Downtown Miami, in particular, sure has a heck of a lot of condos to sell, so please, by all means, come to Miami-Dade County and tour a condominium or four! Your local elected leaders will thank you!
Greater downtown Miami — which encompasses the city’s classic downtown area plus Wynwood, Overtown, Brickell, Edgewater, and the Design District — houses South Florida’s largest collection of young, hip urbanites. The area is all but engineered for people under 35: It’s crammed with artisan-cocktail bars, a never-ending supply of street art, and nightclubs where Diplo spontaneously appears. Without young people, Miami’s downtown would be a drab concrete dystopia.
Affordability is the most pressing political issue in Miami. City and county officials continue approving luxury-rental complexes in the Magic City despite a leviathan of data telling them to stop because they’re actively contributing to a housing crisis.
There are lots of reasons to tread carefully when finding a roommate in Miami. If you’re not in a relationship, your choices basically boil down to a high-school friend you will grow to hate, a co-worker you already see way too much of, some predatory old dude essentially looking for a live-in college-aged prostitute, or an uptight neat freak who will flip out if you don’t use a coaster on her very expensive West Elm coffee table. Worst case, you end up with a creepy rando from Craigslist who actually tries to murder you.
At the beginning of last week, the room-sharing company Airbnb seemed to have a good relationship with the City of Miami — more harmonious than Miami Beach, where city officials have passed an ever-increasing series of restrictions on short-term rentals. But then City of Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado last week proposed an ordinance cracking down on Airbnb-style “vacation” rentals. Regalado’s new law would ban short-term rentals in roughly two-thirds of the city. It would also subject any Airbnb, Homeaway, or other temporary home rentals in the remaining third to some fairly strict licensing requirements.
Oh, the single life. Scrolling through Tinder while avoiding men who post photos only of themselves in Scarface T-shirts. Setting up Google alerts for your ex who travels the world painting watercolors of dog weddings. And, of course, drinking heavily to drown your sorrows, only to climb back into bed in your parents’ house in Kendall, because single people have been priced out of Miami’s rental market.
It’s really difficult to be the bearer of more bad news this week. Progressives have woken up every day this week in a state of panic, crawling out of bed to check their news feeds, only to get the wind knocked out of them upon reading President Trump’s newest slate of racist executive orders that seem all but designed to stir global unrest and disaster.
Miami is, more than most cities, optimized for people with entrenched, multigenerational wealth. Rent is nearly as expensive as other major American metro areas such as Seattle and Washington, D.C., but the city’s median income is a scant $44,000. That’s peanuts compared to cities like New York and Los Angeles…
As a young immigrant to Miami, Haitian activist Marleine Bastien said she used to walk past the Sabal Apartments on NE 2nd Avenue in Little Haiti — and the apartments used to be entirely full of Haitian people. In the years since, the project has switched owners, and names, and…
Miamians adore Moonlight, the Barry Jenkins-directed paean to growing up poor, black, and gay in the Liberty City projects, because it truly gets Miami. Take a scene near the end, when the main character, Chiron, drives his long-lost love interest, Kevin, down Biscayne Boulevard and Kevin mentions he doesn’t have a car. Chiron is aghast — life without a car in Miami must be hell, he opines.
A little more than a year ago, activist Marleine Bastien stood outside on a clear December day, waving signs in front of the headquarters of Fanm Ayisyen nan Miyami, her Little Haiti-based women’s rights organization. The group was demanding one thing from the City of Miami: Slow the rapidly snowballing pace of gentrification in the historically working-class Caribbean neighborhood.
Hey there, newcomer! ¡Bienvenido a Miami! Our beaches are a year-round paradise, and our water is tranquil. Ibiza trembles with envy at our clubs. Anthony Bourdain lies awake at night, tormented by the sheer power of our restaurant scene. Everyone is attractive as hell. Oh, and also literally no one here cares about anyone else. Probably should mention that part too!
Land developers are all but salivating to sink their teeth into the rich, fatty, unblemished flesh that is Little Haiti real estate. The Wynwood gentrification fight is over — the only people who can afford land there now are the sort who maintain Cayman Islands bank accounts, and scores of tall luxury apartments are headed to that neighborhood.
The most obvious metaphor in Miami gentrification history is playing out in Wynwood this week. One of the neighborhood’s iconic murals, which bemoaned humanity’s gradual slide from paradise to urban hell, has been demolished to pave way for the neighborhood’s first high-rise parking garage.
In the Sunshine State, Publix can basically do no wrong. The Lakeland company runs cloying holiday ads about the importance of family and harps on the idea that shopping at its stores is “a pleasure.” But behind the scenes, the supermarket chain…
For years, independent journalist and activist Grant Stern has fought Walmart’s plans to build a sprawling store on North Miami Avenue in midtown Miami, near nightlife hot spots such as Gigi and Bardot. Stern has filed lawsuits against the project, helping to stall the plan since June.
Miami Beach — a paradise for both tourists and the people who cater to tourists — remains one of the most repressive cities in America when it comes to room-sharing. In most of the city’s residential zones, short-term rentals have long been illegal. Lately, the city has dropped the hammer on Airbnb users, jacking up fines to $20,000 a pop this year. The city has levied more than $3.2 million in fines since March.
