Why is this a story?” grumbles the weary drug enforcement agent, clad in black boots, black pants, black sidearm holster, and a black T-shirt with the words Six to ten seconds to make a first impression on the back. He stands guard near the rear entrance of a dingy, five-story…
William Vallenilla uses words like funky and artsy to describe his shop on the corner of Biscayne Boulevard and NW 69th Street. The eclectic 1600 square-foot space is filled with Gothic candelabras, 1920s Art Nouveau furniture and other used merchandise arranged according to theme. From the occult section to the…
About 250 freshmen fidget and murmur in the cavernous ballroom at Florida International University. The newcomers wait for the next segment of an orientation session FIU requires all incoming students to attend. Hanging on a wall above the stage is the university’s mascot, a large panther baring its fangs, slashing…
It is the waning afternoon hours of a special election day, July 29, and the scene at the Spanish-language radio station WQBA-AM (1140) is frenetic. It’s GOTV (Get Out the Vote) time — the final push. Inside the broadcast booth long-time political consultant Herman Echevarria and the mayors of Sweetwater…
It should come as no surprise that Miami-Dade Commissioner Miriam Alonso has had a few problems lately with the upkeep of one of her many rental properties. Tenants have complained for years about poor conditions at several apartment buildings owned by Alonso and her husband Leonel. This time the Miami-Dade…
When defendant Albert Scaletti looked out into the gallery in Judge Jeffrey Swartz’s courtroom on August 4, it must have been a comfort to see his pal and colleague James Hird. “I felt bad for the guy,” Hird says. “Of course I was there.” Scaletti, a 33-year-old bail bondsman, had…
Mohamed Ibrahim wants to start a string of schools across Miami-Dade. Full-page ads of smiling kids have been running in the Herald’s “Neighbors” for months. Problem is, creditors say, Ibrahim won’t pay his bills. The tangle of bankruptcies and bad checks that helped the Egyptian-born entrepreneur open My Dream Coin…
August 5, 1999 Mr. Roberto Benabib Executive Producer Universal Studios 100 Universal Plaza Universal City, CA 91608 Dear Roberto, You would not believe how little they pay us at these “alternative” weeklies (read: chicken feed). So I thought I would try to generate some extra cash and do you a…
The late-day sun makes the cracked streets and crumbling buildings of Overtown look faded and flattened out in the yellow light and hot dense air. With a deceptively casual glance, Miss Regina reads the groupings of men loitering 50 yards away on front steps and sidewalks along NW Fifteenth Street…
For anyone familiar with Caribbean music, the news might have seemed too good to be true: Kassav, the internationally famous band from Guadeloupe and creator of zouk party music, was coming to Miami. Kassav was to have been the headliner at a heavily advertised festival July 25 in Bicentennial Park…
It’s been ten months since chemistry teacher Charles Boldwyn had to evacuate his Miami Killian Senior High School classroom because of noxious paint fumes, but as far as he’s concerned something still stinks. Smells like a coverup. Smells like retaliation. Smells like the school district is trying to drum him…
Basking in the twilight of a lengthy public service career, Miami City Commissioner Joseph Lionel “J.L.” Plummer chomps on an unlit cigar and explains his motivation for seeking an eighth consecutive four-year term. He doesn’t propose to return prosperity to Overtown. Nor does he come up with a strategy to…
The internal affairs bureau of the Miami Police Department is no comedy club. It is a cramped office decorated with faded travel posters, harsh fluorescent lights, and ancient metal desks. Amid piles of paperwork somber detectives slog their way through the hundreds of citizen complaints filed every year. These are…
The crowded Carnival cruise ship that left the Port of Miami on June 20 carried hundreds of giddy passengers. Some were celebrating momentous family occasions. Gloria Hernandez was on board for her daughter’s quince. Deborah Osgood took her eighteen-year-old son along as his high school graduation gift. An Italian couple…
The dismal denouement pretty much starts when Bob arrives. Bob Charest, that is, a bearded, wholesome-looking man from New Hampshire. Dressed in sandals, shorts, and a light-green polo shirt, he hustles into a store hidden away in a shadowy plaza a half-block from CocoWalk. Who could have suspected such a…
It took more than a month and a razor-thin win at the county commission, but Teressa Cawley is out. Miami-Dade commissioners suspended dealings with their onetime financial advisor last week. The reason: The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused Cawley of lying about bond work in 1993 and 1994. In…
On a steamy June evening, as the sun set on acres of avocado trees surrounding Tomas Mestre’s $1.8 million hacienda-style home, the outdoor patio swelled with well-heeled visitors. In this rural section of South Miami-Dade known as the Redland, they mingled by the tiled pool, nibbled on paella, and listened…
On a recent sweltering June afternoon, Rigoberto Betancourt sits outside his uncle’s Hialeah home and repeatedly pushes the redial button of a black cordless phone. The stifling air in the cement yard adds to his frustration; for the past few hours he’s been trying unsuccessfully to call his wife in…
History doesn’t mean much in Miami. Barely 100 years old, the city has allowed the bulldozing of decades-old buildings, re-routing of rivers, and ravaging of sacred Native American grounds. The few who are sensitive to the past look to the city’s preservation officer, Sarah Eaton, to safeguard its patrimony. But…
Time is running out. By December Coral Gables must vacate a yard where municipal vehicles are repaired and the city’s public works staff is housed. In a hard-fought April 1998 referendum, Gables voters agreed to lease the site to the Rouse Company for a new megamall. Construction of a new…
This is the story of a runaway money train called Sugar Hill. Fueled by your federal tax dollars, it has gobbled cash — almost three million dollars — on a seemingly unsupervised six-year journey of outrageous waste and incompetence. To date all it has produced are unfinished buildings, shoddy workmanship,…
HOWARD JOHNSON’S bundled dreadlocks protrude from the back of his cowboy hat as he pulls a Ben Hogan five-iron from his golf bag. “This is a nice one,” the 57-year-old says quietly, admiring the club. He is about to play a most unconventional round in a vacant lot at the…
