In 1925 a group of little old ladies got it into their bonneted heads that there was something special about an abandoned building near the mouth of the Miami River, something worth saving. Built nearly a century earlier by plantation owner William English, the single-story limestone-and-wood structure had served as…
For the past year Miami Herald staffer Donna Gehrke has been developing a new magazine, one that would focus attention on the contributions made by women from the Florida Keys to Palm Beach County. “We really want to be a special voice for women in South Florida,” says Gehrke, a…
Miami environmental activist Barbara Lange recalls the first time she laid eyes on George Barley. It was several years ago and the man was holding forth at a meeting of Florida environmentalists, individuals who, to a person, had dedicated a significant amount of their lives to protecting the natural ecosystem…
Fernando Lamigueiro, Jr., and another kid were strolling through bird Drive Park looking for trouble. A gangly sixteen-year-old with coal-black hair that curled past his shoulders, Fernando had run away from home a few weeks earlier. It was March of 1985, Youth Fair time, a Friday evening, and he and…
Since taking over as president of the Latin Builders Association (LBA) last fall, Carlos Herrera has tried to chart a new direction for the powerful lobbying organization. He argues that over the past decade the LBA has lost sight of its real mission, which is to protect Dade County’s construction…
Carlos Herrera stands in the family room of his Kendall home, encircled by the hauntingly vacant stares of more than two dozen dead animals. Herrera killed each of them — deer, elk, caribou, moose, impala, buffalo. Twenty-eight animals in all, their heads cut off and stuffed, their eyes replaced with…
Four years ago Guillermo Rodriguez was a Cuban-American kid with dreams of becoming an architect, but not a whole lot of money. He’d just earned a two-year degree in architecture from Miami-Dade Community College and was trying to decide where to go next. Private schools such as the University of…
If you’re a Metrorail rider, you’re accustomed to inconveniences. Track work, trains that run late, fellow passengers whose hygiene practices leave something to be desired, garbage cans that aren’t around when you need one. Better to hum along with Gloria Estefan on your Walkman, practice your deep-breathing exercises, read the…
This is a test: You are the assistant manager of a city that is hurtling toward bankruptcy. Your boss, the city manager, has already called for massive cuts in staffing and services. One of your duties is to oversee the distribution of 140 cellular phones, which cost your town more…
It’s a sunny afternoon. You’re out strolling along Washington Avenue, dodging the tanned in-line skaters as they dart among knots of oblivious models, model wanna-be’s, and shirtless muscle boys in Daisy Dukes and combat boots. As you approach the South Beach Pub near Seventh Street, you look up and notice…
Billy Hardemon was on the phone, and Billy Hardemon sounded…well, he sounded worried. “I understand you’ve been looking at my cellular phone records,” fretted Metro Commissioner James Burke’s chief of staff. “I just want you to know up-front that this office operates by the book.” While it is certainly understandable…
Lawrence Wigdor’s beef with his Enchanted Lake neighbors puts a new spin on “Not in My Back Yard” — a literal one. The retired real estate broker has met with officials from the local U.S. Attorney’s Office, alleging vote fraud in the approval process for two resident-financed guardhouses in the…
Province of Asti. Maldonado. Lamentin. Fujisawa. Kaohsiung. Montes de Oca. The names are virtual incantations, mellifluous evocations of exotic faraway climes in Italy, Uruguay, Guadeloupe, Japan, Taiwan, and Costa Rica. But these international metropolises bear an inextricable local link. More than mere tourist destinations, each has been adopted as a…
You probably weren’t at the Orange Bowl on June 24. You probably spent that Saturday rejoicing at the end of a week of torrential rain. Maybe you went to the beach, or headed out to a park for a picnic. There’s a good chance you were at home, using a…
Now you see them. Now you don’t. Such is the ephemeral nature of officers’ disciplinary records at the Metro-Dade Police Department. Thanks to the strenuous negotiating efforts of the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), the union that represents Metro-Dade cops, black marks are periodically purged from departmental personnel files. According to…
During the past five years, Miami animal dealer Matthew Block has been hailed as a hero and excoriated as a villain; he has played the role of outlaw and law enforcer. Now Block may be closer than ever to assuming another identity: that of a federal prisoner. Barring, of course,…
A list of childhood abuses hangs on the glass partition in the tiny cubicle used by Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS) protective investigator Lulus McQueen. It serves, in some ways, as a stark reminder of the cruelties that he may uncover each day on the job. The list is meant…
Sgt. Niki Lawrence lives in a world that has been diminished. Placed on compulsory unpaid leave from the Metro-Dade Police Department, she spends her days alone in her Deerwood Estates home north of Metrozoo. After 22 years of police work, Lawrence survives on just $250 per week in unemployment benefits,…
The Metro-Dade Police Department has nearly completed its program to have all 4300 employees — sworn officers and civilians alike — view a training video explaining the department’s sexual harassment policy, which was adopted in 1985 and revised several times since then. According to the video, any act or statement…
Since moving here just over a year ago, Sylvester Stallone has endeavored to become Miami’s nouveau civic icon. He made his debut by plunking down eight million dollars on a bayfront mansion next to Villa Vizcaya, then wasted no time in casting himself as a patron of the arts and…
After more than seven years spent dodging prosecution for embezzlement, Roberto Polo finally stood trial three weeks ago in Geneva. Accused of skimming $124 million from wealthy investors, the former art collector, whose case became a cause celäbre within Miami’s Cuban exile community, pulled out all the stops during the…
When Metro-Dade Police Cmdr. Antonio Prieto transferred Sgt. David Simmons out of the Juvenile Investigations Bureau to a patrol unit eighteen months ago, the comment most frequently heard among Simmons’s subordinates was, “What a joke.” Exile a recognized expert in the field of child-abuse investigation? “What a joke.” Risk dashing…
