Tag Archives: Al Crespo

Crespogram, Coconut Grove, and Charles Avenue

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Those who follow me on social media know I love to share the heat from the Crespogram Report.

FULL DISCLOSURE: A while back I recused myself from commenting on Miami politics because I am currently writing the biography of Ken Russell, Commissioner in Miami’s District 2, now running for Congress in Miami’s District 27. Therefore, take whatever I write with however many grains of salt you need in order to make this post palatable.

Let me first put a fine point on it: While Al Crespo is — hands down — the best of the Miami muckrakers, his post of this morning is a total misfire.

What I have always loved about Crespo is how he backs up his accusations with facts and the official documents. He publishes them to prove his assertions and prove that Miami politicians are lying scumbags.

Not today.

Today he published a letter from Guillermo de la Paz and says about it:

It’s pretty self-explanatory, and raises a very serious question about how Andy Parrish stays on the City of Miami’s Planning and Zoning Board if, in fact de la Paz’s accusations are true.

If true.

Remember, it was only last week people were saying “If true, Roy Moore should step down.”

If true!!!

It may very well be true. I don’t know and I don’t really care. I’m not concerned with that.

Here’s what I do know: Guillermo de la Paz is lashing out because he’s been under continued scrutiny and criticism ever since he built his block-busting Big White Box on Charles Avenue. He’s referencing an article in the Miami Herald and his letter quotes several people out of context on what they think of the Big White Box style of domicile.

The only thing left of the designated historic E.W.F. Stirrup House is the roof. Every other stick of wood in the structure was replaced after a rapacious developer allowed it to undergo nearly a decade of DEMOLITION BY NEGLECT.

Longtime readers of Not Now Silly will remember my 8-year failed attempt to save the E.W.F. Stirrup House — the oldest house on the oldest street in Miami — from DEMOLITION BY NEGLECT. Charles Avenue was once called Evangelist Street and was laid out by the very same E.W.F. Stirrup on a slight angle because he was not a surveyor. It was designated a Historic Roadway by the city of Miami in 2012. Even that was not enough to save the Stirrup House and keep de la Paz’s Big White Box off Charles.

Let me state up front that de la Paz didn’t break any laws or build anything without the appropriate permits. The argument is whether Miami’s Planning and Zoning department dropped the ball in allowing any of this to happen in the first place. Charles Avenue is in the NCD-2 [Neighborhood (sic) Conservation District overlay #2]. The NCD-2, as opposed to the NCD-3 (on the opposite side of Grand Avenue, f’rinstance), calls for architecture with a Bahamian feel to reflect the rich history of this unique enclave.

There’s nothing Bahamian about the Big White Box that de la Paz built. FULL DISCLOSURE #2: That’s what its detractors call them, and I count myself among them. In fact, I call them dentist’s offices. They are cold and sterile and I don’t understand the esthetic that finds these structures beautiful. However, taste is subjective. The NCD-2 shouldn’t be. It’s all black and white, no pun intended.

I call Guillermo’s house a block-buster because it was the first Big White Box on Charles. Now there are others that came later and more are proposed. It opened the door for anyone to now say, “If he can build one, why can’t I?” It’s the very definition of block-busting, if you discount the definition of blockbuster bombs dropped in WWII.

Ironically, it’s not the racially weighted historic definition of days gone by either. That’s when a real estate agent — seeing opportunity and dollars — would sell a house to that first Black family in order to bust the block. White folks would suddenly sell out in droves and that real estate agent would generally reap the profits. But I digress.

I was talking about the Big White Box, which in all its various formations are cropping up all over Coconut Grove and elsewhere in Miami. Architects tell me they are inexpensive to build, heat, and cool. They’re just ugly.

I quoted Crespo’s article’s 2nd paragraph above which “raises a very serious question” about Andy Parrish, if true, if true, if true. However, here’s the first paragraph in which Crespo takes gratuitous slaps at Ken Russell:

I’ve not written a lot about the goings on in Coconut Grove as it relates to the battles between developers, self-entitled rich folks, what’s left of the Black folks from the Bahamas who traditionally considered the West Grove to be their little piece of America and the lying weasel dick City Commissioner Ken “Selfie Boy” Russell, who shuck and jived a lot of those Black folks into thinking he was not going to be another in a long line of lying white politicians, when in fact that’s just what he turned out to be, but I got a copy of this letter that a guy named Guillermo de la Paz, sent on on Sunday night.

SHAKE SALT HERE: I’ve been writing about the shady Planning and Zoning department in Miami for years. However, I stopped chasing that story when the former District 2 Commissioner, [allegedly] corrupt Marc D. Sarnoff, was termed out and his wife lost the election to the aforementioned Ken Russell. [Maybe I should revive my Freedom of Information request that I hand delivered to the Planning and Zoning Department. I allowed it to go unfulfilled when I was unable to land my Great White Whale: Sarnoff.]

Crespo’s ire should be directed towards towards the Miami Planning and Zoning Department and/or Andy Parrish, if true, if true, if true.

Al Crespo has behaved like a spurned lover ever since he caught Russell failing to document gift baskets sent to the Commissioner in his first few weeks in office. Long before signing a non-disclosure agreement in order to write this biography, I said as much to anyone who would listen. [More on this topic will be explored in the book. Stay tuned.]

Regardless, unlike Crespo I have written a lot about the “goings on in Coconut Grove as it relates to the battles between developers, self-entitled rich folks, what’s left of the Black folks from the Bahamas who traditionally considered the West Grove to be their little piece of America…” What I have documented at Now Now Silly is how that little piece of ‘Merka that the Bahamians owned made it a unique community because Coconut Grove once had the highest percentage of Black home ownership than anywhere else in this country.

For a number of decades systemic racism kept these property values low because: Black neighbourhood and all that it entails. Other socioeconomic circumstances [read: institutionalized racism] kept the owners wages low and the possibility of home loans to fix up their properties merely a pipe dream. The neighbourhood continued to deteriorate as families passed these houses down the generations, like White families pass down the family jewels.

Now that Coconut Grove has become one of the most desired communities in South Florida, that historic Black community is being chipped away by gentrification. These folks have now become land rich, but cash poor. They are selling out and people are buying the properties to knock down the historic homes — many of them built by E.W.F. Stirrup himself — to build Big White Boxes.

Guillermo de la Paz is the poster child for the Big White Box style of gentrification that is currently roiling the neighbourhood. And, he’s become more and more defensive about it.

Racist Memes and Blogging ► Unpacking the Writer

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It’s been a rollicking month for Not Now Silly. I’ve hit new heights in readership and received my first real criticism, which we’ll examine in detail. Yes, folks, it’s time to take another look under the hood to see how the engine is ticking over. 

First things first: The month of August was a good one for this blog. For the first time readership broke 12,000 for a calendar month. While I hope not, I think it will be a while before I break 12k again. Speaking of broken records: On September 24, 2013 I hit a brand new daily record: 703 hits. I’ll take it. That’s now my daily target. 


Other ratings: While I wasn’t paying attention my post on The Detroit Riots ► Unpacking My Detroit ► Part Five overtook Brian Jones ► A Musical Appreciation on the all-time leader board. This gratifies me for two reasons. 1). I am quite proud of my article on Detroit’s several riots, having taken more than a month to write it. I feel it’s important history that so few people actually know; 2). And, it’s a much better blog post than the Brian Jones squib. That one rose to the top of the leader board almost immediately and stayed there for more than a year. I was somewhat chagrined because the Brian Jones post was something I dashed off in less than an hour.

While I’m thinking about it, I’d also like to take the opportunity to thank Curbed Miami and Al Crespo of the Crespogram Report. Both sites recently linked to stories on Not Now Silly. My stats reflect a spike in hits directly from those links. I’m gratified Curbed Miami and The Crespogram Report found enough to like here to recommended Not Now Silly to their readers.

Now about that criticism: Some criticism is easily ignored. However, it’s not easily ignored when it comes from people whom I respect. That’s what happened with my most recent post on Coconut Grove. A Century of Coconut Grove Racism ► Soilgate Is Trolleygate Writ Large is an essay on a theme similar to several I’ve posted before. It compares the Racist attitude of almost 100 years ago with the Racist attitudes of today in Coconut Grove. In the late ’20s Miami allowed a polluting incinerator to be built in a Black neighbourhood. Just this year Miami allowed a polluting diesel bus garage in the same Black neighbourhood. Same as it ever was.

When I am being polite I call this attitude Modern Day Colonialism and Trolleygate, as I did in a post back in February. However, when I’m not being polite I call it what it really is: RACISM, pure and simple. West Grove has suffered under a century of it, which I keep discovering over and over again the deeper I research Coconut Grove. The thrust of my most recent post is that Racism is with us today and Trolleygate is merely the physical manifestation of that ugliness.

These blog posts go through several drafts before I press the PUBLISH button; some more than others. One of my earliest mentors in the writing game told me, “There is no good writing, only good rewriting.” I’ve made that my #1 motto and there have been sentences I’ve kicked at dozens of times before I’m finally satisfied.

During the earliest drafts of A Century of Coconut Grove Racism ► Soilgate Is Trolleygate Writ Large I used images like the one to the right to illustrate my post. However, I the longer I edited the post the more I came to resent the pictures I was using. My words said Racism exists TODAY. However, all the pics were of Racism in the oldie moldy past: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and Racist signs from the ’40 and ’50s. The words and the pictures created a tension that I didn’t like. They contradicted each other.

I have several dozen pictures on my computer hard drive that illustrate racism over the centuries. Several of them have been collected since President Obama took office. It occurred to me that those recent memes were the ones that best illustrated the point I was making. I removed all the historical images and substituted contemporary pictures instead. When I finished editing the post — when I was finally satisfied with what I had — I knew the pictures would rankle some people. I actually consulted a small group of folk whose opinion I trust. I call these people my de facto editors, because they’re all I’ve got as a Lone Wolf Citizen Journalist to bounce ideas against. None seemed to object and one said, “Go for it.”

The push back against A Century of Coconut Grove Racism ► Soilgate Is Trolleygate Writ Large began almost immediately. Here’s the predominant sentiment, sent to me by email:

I think it distracts from the serious discriminatory ridership routes and Env[ironmental] justice issues. I would suggest more serious photos of Rosa Parks, Jim Crow signs on buses, etc…. It is important to depict civil rights leaders, including our President, in a complimentary light to inspire youth to greatness, not ridicule upon achievement. The images posted distract from our serious issues.

Believe me, I’m sympathetic to that point of view. Racism is ugly. Racism is not polite. Having said that, I do my readers a disservice if I turn away from the ugliness of Racism. I do my readers a disservice if I use metaphors and euphemisms to describe Racism. Racism needs to be treated as you do with a dog who has just taken a crap on the rug: You rub its nose in it and use stern words. NO! BAD DOG!

I’m not going to sugarcoat Racism. That plays into the hands of Racists, who hope you will be far too polite to call them out on their Racism. I also disagree that the images I used were not serious. They were as serious as a cancer cluster. If a picture is worth a thousand words, these few pictures (which, by the way, are not the most incendiary I have) comprise an entire book. I won’t apologize for using contemporary pictures of Racism to illustrate modern day racism. Therein lies madness.

Tune in next month for another exciting episode of Unpacking The Writer, a leisure-time activity of Not Now Silly, the home of the Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic.

Go Home, Coconut Grove Grapevine, You’re Drunk!

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Tom Falco acting inconspicuous right in the middle of downtown Coconut Grove

Uh oh! I’m involved in another media bun fight with Tom Falco, writer-editor-grammarian of the Coconut Grove Grapevine. And, I didn’t start it this time. The last time we had a battle of wits, he came half-armed. This time he’s come completely unarmed — or unglued, you decide — and I almost don’t have the heart to finish this post . . . the operative word being “almost.”

Before I lay out our latest skirmish, let me first clear up one thing, because this is a discussion I refuse to have ever again:

I have always considered every email sent to me as my property to do with as I wish. Most people know that I am a journalist before they write to me. Consequently, emailing me does not automatically confer confidentiality. Having said that, there’s loads of email I receive that get and deserve confidentiality. I have several sources guaranteed anonymity, as well as a few whistle-blowers who send me documents. They all know I’d never burn a source. I have exchanged email with Tom Falco, on and off, going back to 2009. He’s always refused to join in my campaign to Save The E.W.F. Stirrup House. That he did so with several off-hand remarks that I took as racial, still rankles. [But then, if you’ve been following
Not Now Silly for any length of time, you know that I see racism in almost everything. Maybe I was wrong about why he refuses to cover West Grove issues. Maybe if the West Grove could afford advertising in the Grapevine it would be a whole different dealie, but this parenthetical is already too long, so we’ll leave that for another time.] I even offered Tom Falco the opportunity to be an off-the-record source for my Coconut Grove stories. He declined to even meet with me to discuss it over coffee. Consequently, no confidentiality for you!

Put a pair of sunglasses on Mr. Softee and you would be able to tell them apart.

Not that I feel I need any further excuse for printing Falco’s emails, but just today he chose to print an email on his joke-of-a-blog that wasn’t even addressed to him; it was an email passed to him by a 3rd party. As far as I’m concerned, that makes Falco’s emails fair game.

And, because I simply can’t resist piling on, here is grammarian Tom Falco at his run-on best from today [sic throughout]:

He wanted tot talk on the phone or in person, I wanted a typed answer that I could copy and paste, as most things I write, Ron tells people that I get incorrect, so copy and paste is the answer I would like. So I can have a written copy to verify the answer.

I apologize. Those are the worst two sentences you’ve ever read, I know, but it’s the Internet Age. Nowadays everybody thinks they are a writer, which has devalued a reputable trade I spent a lifetime learning. But, that’s also another argument for another day.

Not only is it worth quoting Falco just for the lulz alone, but also because it proves what I have been saying. I’ve accused Falco of cutting and pasting the press releases he’s sent, which he turns into blog posts that will stroke the ego of his pool of potential advertisers. “I could copy and paste, as most things I write.” It’s like he’s not even trying any more.

Here’s a news flash, Tom: If you cut and paste press releases, you aren’t writing. However, when you’re cutting and pasting, your grammar improves dramatically. You might want to stick to cut & paste. 

Slightly more context: I need to introduce you to Al Crespo, of the Crespogram Report. Crespo is one of Miami’s best muckrakers. I wish I had his guts and his investigatory skills. I tried to get Crespo involved in the E.W.F. Stirrup House too, and he also declined. I never held that against him the way I did Falco. Crespo’s reasoning, which made sense, was (paraphrasing) “the developers got their hands on the E.W.F. Stirrup House fair & square.” However, to give Al Crespo’s due credit, he recognized sheer genius and The Crespogram Report linked to my Not Now Silly post Is Marc D. Sarnoff Corrupt Or The Most Corrupt Miami Politician? That one mention was worth 422 hits, which was much appreciated. However, as I admitted to him, I cribbed some of my info from the Crespogram Report.

The Trollygate diesel bus government maintenance facility
that I’ve been writing about since January

So, now that you’re all caught up: Last week Crespo sent an email to Tom Falco and CCed me on it. Here’s our full exchange as of a few minutes ago:

FROM: Al Crespo
TO: Tom Falco, Headly Westerfield
SUBJECT: TOM I THINK YOU NEED TO COVER THIS
Aug 17, 2013


——– Forward Original Message ——–
Subject:     My latest on Trolleygate
Date:     Sat, 17 Aug 2013 16:47:05 -0400
From:     Headly Westerfield
To:     undisclosed-recipients:;

West Grove Residents Lose ► Polluting Bus Garage Will Go Ahead

FROM: Headly Westerfield
TO: Al Crespo, Tom Falco
Aug 17, 2013
       
Tom doesn’t cover politics. He’s said so himself.

Tom doesn’t cover West Grove because I’ve tried to get him involved several times in West Grove issues and he has always declined.

BTW: Trolleygate was all Sarnoff’s doing. He screwed his own constituents by gifting them a diesel bus garage.If he were not term-limited, he’d never get another West Grove vote.
   
FROM: Tom Falco
TO: Al Crespo, Headly Westerfield
Aug 24, 2013
       
I will not bow to threats by Headly and his crew. I don’t cover events
that I am threatened to cover. That’t how they operate.

If you check the Grapevine, you will probably see hundreds
of stories that take place in the West Grove. You probably
have never checked once to make a libelous comment like that.
I suggest you do a search in the upper left box of the Grapevine
and see every Village West event I have attended and covered.

As for this past story, I was in the hospital for 8 days with
kidney failure. That is why i did not cover it.

Tom Falco
Editor | CoconutGroveGrapevine
www.coconutgrovegrapevine.com
The Daily News of Coconut Grove

FROM: Headly Westerfield
TO: Tom Falco, Al Crespo
Aug 24, 2013

What the hell are you babbling about?

Crew? I have no crew. I work alone. I am simply one guy, living in a different county, who found a house I wanted to save. I tried to interest you in the story. You declined to help me. To be fair, so did Al Crespo. However, that desire to save the E.W.F. Stirrup House has led to all my other reporting on Coconut Grove.

You can take the boy out of the newsroom, but you can’t take the newsroom out of the boy.

Threats? I have issued no threats.

Libelous? I suggest you first look up the word and then retract your accusation that I have issued threats.

Let me see if I have this straight: Because you have a totally whacked out conspiracy theory that I am working with some unnamed “crew” who “threatens” you to “cover events” that don’t seem to interest you, you will leave other perfectly good news items on the floor in a fit of pique because that’s how “they” operate?

Stamp your foot louder. They may not have heard it in Brickell.

I’m sorry to hear you’re not feeling well. Get better soon, so CGG can better serve the West Grove neighbourhood. It could use a voice with your readership. I do what I can, but I’m just one guy.

I doubt I will ever get an apology from Tom Falco. That’s about as likely as Falco covering issues and events of importance to West Grove residents. I alerted him to Trolleygate way back in January, so I’m not really buying his recent kidney troubles as an excuse. Falco made it clear the Coconut Grove Grapevine is no longer COCONUT GROVE’S ONLY DAILY NEWS, when he took down that rubric (after I criticized it many times) and replaced it with Daily updates on what’s up in Coconut Grove and beyond including Brickell, Coral Gables and Midtown Miami.

To be fair: Maybe Falco’s not drunk at all.  Maybe it’s the kidney meds.