Rat Pack Role Playing- Cruise the Old Strip

Remember cruising north of downtown on Biscayne Boulevard in the 50's and 60's? Passing "Motel Row" from the 50s to the 79th Street Causeway? Those brightly lit and gaudy motels made you feel like you were cruisin the strip in Vegas with Frankie and the boys!. Officially designated by the City of Miami as a historic district in 2006, the Miami Modern (MiMo)/ Biscayne Boulevard (BiBo) is Miami's sole commercial historic district. The district's shining stars are the motels along this major thoroughfare: a distinctive group of buildings illustrative of the 1950s hey-day of motor culture and the optimism and sense of prosperity that characterized the era. The MiMo/BiBo district is also home to some notable examples of other styles of historic Miami architecture, such as Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, and Mediterranean Revival. So hop in your cruiser, convertible or bike, tune to the oldies station, and put your best shades on. Enjoy the shopping in the area's distinctive fashion-minded stores, look for a new Eames era coffee table in the antique shops, and grab a bite to eat in the many restaurants. For more information on restaurants and shops in MiMo/BiBo, please visit this website: http://www.mimoboulevard.org/index.php.mimoboulevard.org/index.php

Arch Creek Park- for a nice weekend stroll!~

One of my favorite parks in Dade County is a little and little known park in North Miami called Arch Creek Park. It's a wonderful place to go and take a weekend stroll and feel transported to the Miami of days gone by. Arch Creek has had many narrow misses with the encroachment of civilization over the years but thanks to the efforts of many community folk it has survived and flourished as a natural site and not just one more mass entertainment area like so many other parks in the County. Historically, it is far more important than the Tequesta Circle on the Miami River. Arch Creek, and the area surrounding it, was one of six Tequesta Indian occupation sites built along Dade County estuaries. The Tequestas established other campsites at the Oleta River, Surfside, Little River, the Miami River, and Snapper Creek. Arch Creek, however, was unique. It had a natural limestone bridge spanning 60 feet, from which the Indians could fish and which provided a raised, dry highway to the Everglades. Over the years, the Army Corps of Engineers wanted to blow up the bridge and Chrysler Motors wanted to pave over the entire park to build an auto dealership. Today, Arch Creek is an eight-acre site at the junction of N.E. 135th Street and Biscayne Boulevard, and offers many opportunities for botanical, historical and archaeological study. It has a museum/nature center modeled after an early Florida pioneer home, displaying Indian artifacts dug from the grounds, and live animals from the nearby hammock. Remains of the first settler's original coontie starch mill are still visible across the creek, and the Park exists as the only preserved archaeological site in the County. To me it's like a microcosm of what Florida looked like to the original settlers at the turn of the century. Treat yourself to a weekend visit, you'll be glad you did!

Jimbo's Place- A Genuine, Original Florida Establishment

Jimbo's Place is one of the few old fish shacks left in Miami. It is located on Virginia Key at the entrance to Key Biscayne. James "Jimbo" Luznar opened his bait shop there in 1954 and is still going strong. Jimbo started selling beer and delicious smoked fish shortly thereafter and has been a preferred stop for boaters and beachgoers alike. As a kid, we would go to the beach on the little stretch of beach on the west side of the bridge and then cross over to the Virginia Key side to enjoy Jimbo's smoked fish for lunch. The Virginia Key side was the only beach set aside for the black community in the era of segregation. There were many old fish shacks like Jimbo's in those days, usually located near a popular beach location catering to hungry boaters and beachgoers, but today they are all gone and a distant memory to most old Miamians. Jimbo's is unique in that he offers a great old bocce ball court where visitors can engage in a game while sippin beer and munching on awesome smoked fish fillets! I always worry that sites like Virginia Key will eventually be "gentrified" out of existence. Fortunately, the black community is actively involved in preserving the area's history through the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust to oversee the development of the historic Park property. The Trust has been working diligently to restore and preserve this historical treasure. In August 2002, the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and given a Florida Historical Marker. You can visit the Jimbo's PLace website at http://www.jimbosplace.com/JimbosHome.html Better yet, get in your car an take a trip there. There is nothing better on a hot sultry weekend day than a visit to Jimbo's!

The New State Bird- The Miami Crane

Miami Condo Glut Pushes Florida's Economy to Brink of Recession2007-07-20 00:10 (New York)
By Bob Ivry July 20 (Bloomberg) -- In the middle of the biggest glut of condominiums in more than 30 years, Miami developers keep on building. The oversupply will force prices down as much as 30percent, the worst decline since the 1970s, and help push Florida's economy into recession as early as October, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at West Chester, Pennsylvania-based Moody's Economy.com, who owns a home in Vero Beach, Florida. ``Florida is the epicenter for all the problems that exist in the housing industry,'' said Lewis Goodkin, president of Goodkin Consulting Corp. and a property adviser in Miami for the past 30 years, who also foresees a recession. ``The problems we have now are unprecedented and a lot of people will get burnt.'' Thirty-seven new high-rise condos and 20,000 new units are being built in Miami's 1,040-acre downtown, where sales fell almost 50 percent in May, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. The new units will join the 22,924 existing condos in Miami-Dade County that were for sale in April, according to Jack McCabe, chief executive officer of McCabe Research &Consulting LLC in Deerfield Beach, Florida. That's the most unsold units since McCabe began tracking sales in 2002. ``Have you been to Miami lately?'' Florida Governor Charlie Crist said at a home builders' conference last week in Orlando.``It's like we have a new state bird: the building crane.''

Why is this a Miami Memory? Easy, because we lived a much smaller version of this in the 1970's that took a bunch of banks down with it. However, as one pundit noted in this story, the difference is that in the 70's affordable condos were built that no one wanted to buy while in this version Unaffordable condos are being built that no one wants to buy!

Last Minute Notice-Miami Stadium Documentary

WHITE ELEPHANT
What is there to save?
Friday, July 20th, 2007
7:00 – 9:00 PM
City Hall Chambers, 3500 Pan American Drive, Coconut Grove
Admission is free and open to the public.
White Elephant tells the remarkable story of Miami / Bobby Maduro Stadium - one of South
Florida's most unforgettable architectural icons. The film is a testament to the unyielding common ground that exists in this diverse community. The story of Miami Stadium leads from its pristine field to the jungles of Cuba's Sierra Maestra Mountains; from the hallowed halls of the U.S.Congress to the tumultuous streets of Miami. It is a story that links these seemingly disparate places in a fascinating web of social, political and personal intrigue. It is also a story about a building destined for greatness yet doomed to a future of unrealized potential; of a group of visionaries fueled by the magic of a city where fantasies have always been the common currency; and it is about a teenage boy prematurely thrust into the limelight's uncomfortable glow in a town on theverge of history. "The KIE team, along with Llanes' production company, CANTILEVER Productions, has taken a sprawling and complex story about the intersection of the Old Miami Stadium, the Cuban Revolution, Minor League Baseball, Urban Renewal, Civil Rights and one family's personal tragedies and turned them into a fascinating and curious story. Spanning roughly the entire second half of the 20th Century, "White Elephant" manages to tie all these disparate pieces together." --- Neil Hecker WPBT Channel 2 in Miami
Q & A following the film with Producers and Directors of White Elephant. Arrive early…Limited
seating available in Chambers!

Stone Age Antiques- Nautical Bliss

When I was a teenager, one of the most fun things to do was to drop in to this shop. Back then it was on NW 27th Avenue just before the Miami River bridge. Milton Stone, the owner, was quite a character..a total curmudgeon! His son that now runs the store says he looked like Humpty Dumpty which is pretty accurate. He would always be grousing when we walked in to wander through aisles filled with every form of nautical paraphernalia. He had everything from ship's wheels and anchors in every imaginable size to sponge diving suits, nautical bells, lanterns, portholes, cannons and every other part of a boat you can imagine! We would spend hours picking through all the clutter. One thing Mr. Stone was truly an expert on where Japanese swords that hung over the back of his counter. People would come from all over the world to check his swords out and seek his advice. I remember hearing his very knowledgeable comments as he exhibited them to shoppers. I assumed it had closed long ago! But recently I discovered a blog entry that featured Stone Age now located on the Miami river and run by his son Gary. Go take a look at http://miami.metblogs.com/ that has a link to the shop's website. If you can, take a little trip to the shop. You will be impressed!

Old Miami Stadium

Many of you will remember the Old Miami Stadium in Allapatah where we got to watch the Miami Marlins, not the Florida Marlins, and the Baltimore Orioles play in spring training. The Urban Paradise blog has a wonderful entry you should all go see. Like most good things in our memories it was torn down in 2001. A shame really since it had such a nice human scale. You could sit right at field level up close and see how hard the players worked at their game. I have a lot of fond memories going to games there with my Uncle the baseball fanatic and enjoying a glorious summer day or evening watching the great american pastime. Check it out at http://urbanparadise.wordpress.com/