Tag Archives: E.W.F. Stirrup House

Who Fixed the Charles Avenue Historical Marker? ► A Coconut Grove Mystery

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The condition of the historic marker on April 21, 2014.

It was just a week ago I posted  Surprises on the Latest Visit to Charles Avenue, a summing up of the latest information about Charles Avenue, designated a Historic Roadway by the city of Miami in 2012. However, yesterday’s visit to Coconut Grove provided the biggest surprise of all:

The Charles Avenue Historical Marker has been repaired!!!

This is actually a big deal for me, forget the neighbourhood.

It was the physical condition of this historical marker that alerted me I had stumbled across an interesting story about Race Relations in ‘Merka. You can take the journalist out of the newsroom, but you can’t take the newsroom out of the journalist.  I just didn’t realize how deep into the Coconut Grove rabbit hole this story would take me.

The condition of the marker on January 16, 2009, the first
time I saw it. The bags of garbage covered up a broken base.

Follow the bouncing ball, dear readers:

I stumbled across the Charles Avenue Historical Marker in 2009. At the time I was still embedded in my long-form performance artist character of Aunty Em Ericann. When Aunty Em wasn’t tickling the internets, I was freelancing for a banking clearinghouse, inspecting and taking pictures of houses in foreclosure.

Still new to South Florida, it was a great way to learn my way around. My route took me from Florida City — called the Gateway to the Keys — north to Hollywood. The real estate failures I visited ran the gamut from condemned properties to multimillion dollar homes in some of the most exclusive gated communities in the entire country.

On January 16, 2009, I was working my way up from Florida City, through Cutler Bay into Miami. The GPS told me to go up Main Highway and turn left onto Charles Avenue. Almost immediately I saw the Charles Avenue Historical Marker. Markers this size are rare on a residential street. Since I’m a history buff, I had to stop. This is what I read:

The first black community on the South Florida mainland began here in the late 1880s when Blacks primarily from the Bahamas came via Key West to work at the Peacock Inn. Their first hand experience with tropical plants and building materials proved invaluable to the development of Coconut Grove. Besides private homes the early buildings included the Odd Fellows Hall, which served as a community center and library, Macedonia Baptist Church, home of the oldest black congregation in the area, and the A.M.A. Methodist Church, which housed the community’s first school. At the western end of Charles Avenue is one of the area’s oldest cemeteries.

Since I’ve studied Race Relations all my adult life — and possibly because I was in the middle of reading Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewen — instinctively I translated the sign and read between the lines:

Had it not been for the Black Bahamians of Coconut Grove the White folk would have starved in this God-forsaken swamp. Had the Bahamians not built it, this neighbourhood never would have existed.

My second visit on March 2, 2009

While 6 years of subsequent research only confirmed Aunty Em’s original conclusion-jumping, it was the garbage bags piled up all around the marker that set off my Racial Radar™. Here was a marker memorializing the first residents — Black residents — yet it became just another stop for garbage collection along the street. Six weeks later I came by the same spot only to discover a new assortment of garbage at the foot of the marker. However, this time I was able to see that the base had been broken, and not recently.

Because I never metaphor I didn’t like, for me this summed up race relations in ‘Merka over the last century. That simple discovery 5 years ago led to all my subsequent research on Coconut Grove, Charles Avenue, Trolleygate, Soilgate, the [allegdly] corrupt Miami Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff and the E.W.F. Stirrup House.

Why is the E.W.F. Stirrup House culturally important to Miami?
Please read:  Happy Birthday Coconut Grove!!! Now Honour Your Past

The E.W.F. Stirrup House across the street from the marker.

January 16, 2009 was also the day I first set eyes on the lovely E.W.F. Stirrup House, catercorner to the historical marker, on the south side of Charles. It was empty the first I spied it and it remains empty, as Aries Development allows it to undergo continued and deliberate Demolition by Neglect.

For the longest time nothing changed at the historical marker, either. It remained broken, leaning back against the fence. However, a few years back I noticed the sign had been straightened out. A short time later a small plant, which only recently started to justify its existence with beautiful red flowers, had been added between visits. 

However, that’s all that has been done . . . until quite recently. Between my last visit and yesterday the Charles Avenue Historical Marker has been given an entire new base and pole about 2 feet east of the former location. The new pole is round steel and feels much more substantial than the previous flimsy aluminum one. The base also seems better and more deeply embedded in the ground, with concrete surrounding it. It’s also been set on a slightly different angle, giving it a greater prominence to on Charles Avenue.

IRONY ALERT: The biggest surprise of all is that no one seems to know who repaired the sign. I have now interviewed representatives of the Charles Avenue Historic Preservation Committee, the Coconut Grove Collaborative Development Corporation, and the Coconut Grove Village Council. So far it remains a mystery to everyone I’ve interviewed, as well as everyone they’ve spoken with.

Eventually we may solve the mystery of who fixed the Charles Avenue historical Marker.

April 21, 2014 panorama • Right: The refurbished Charles Avenue marker at the beginning of the historic roadway. Charles Avenue was laid out by E.W.F. Stirrup and ends at Douglas Road, the site of the Charlotte Jane Memorial Park Cemetery. This quaint cemetery is named after the childhood sweetheart and, later, wife of E.W.F. Stirrup. At one time it was the only cemetery where Black folk could be buried in the Miami area. Far left: The 5-storey Grove Gardens Residence Condominiums looming over the modest 2-storey house E.W.F. Stirrup built with his own hands for his family. The developers of The Monstrosity have been allowing the 120-year old E.W.F. Stirrup House to undergo Demolition by Neglect for more than 8 years.
Please join Save the E.W.F. Stirrup House on Facebook.

Surprises on the Latest Visit to Charles Avenue

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The Charles Avenue Historical Marker is across the street from the
E.W.F. Stirrup House. Once called Evangelist Street, Charles is one of the
oldest streets in Miami, which is why it was designated a Historic Roadway.

Last week’s visit to Coconut Grove was full of surprises.

Ostensibly I was in The Grove for 2 semi-clandestine meetings with two of my super-duper secret anonymous sources. One wanted to go off the record on the Coconut Grove Playhouse deal. The other was my original tipster on Trolleygate.

However, there were also several loose ends I wanted to clean up concerning the Playhouse parking lots and the two vacant lots on Charles Avenue, immediately across the street from the historic, 120-year old E.W.F. Stirrup House. Despite its cultural and historic significance, the house continues to undergo Demolition By Neglect at the hands of a rapacious developer: Aries Development, controlled by Gino Falsetto.

To bring new readers up to speed: When Miami-Dade County finally carved out a deal which freed the Playhouse from purgatory, it took away the parking lot Paradise Parking, DoublePark and Caribbean Parking had been operating between the Playhouse and the Bicycle Shop. This lot was turned over to the Miami Parking Authority to administer. At the same time, the MPA also leased to Aries Development 45 parking spots immediately behind the Playhouse.

March 25: A lawyer advised this was a crime in the making.
Did these companies also squat on the Playhouse parking lot?

This reporter has been investigating rumours that the Paradise parking group had been squatting on the parking lot land for the last several years. To date, no one has been able to produce a contract that gave
these companies the right to operate a parking franchise on the Playhouse
parking lot.

The last time I visited (March 25) Double Park, Paradise Parking and Caribbean Parking had erected a meter (pictured right) where they were leasing the 45 parking spaces from the MPA. They had no right to erect their own meter because it was not their own lot. It was looking as if they might be squatting again. The meter had not been activated and I needed to see whether they had started collecting potentially illegal parking fees.

Have I mentioned yet how Double Park, LLC is owned by Gino Falsetto, while the other 2 companies are owned by business associates of Falsetto? 

A second, lesser, reason to reconnoiter is that — SURPRISE!!! — lines had finally been painted on this parking lot. The last time I was there I had counted the potential for 57 parking spots, judging from the barely legible lines painted years ago. Counting the spaces and documenting the fact that Paradise Parking, et al, were pocketing parking fees that should have belonged to the MPA would be a great investigative article. Another feather in the Not Now Silly Newscap.

March 25: Detail of sign above right

I had already received a (FREE) legal opinion that squatting on a parking lot and collecting parking fees could be considered a case of theft against every driver who paid up and/or the actual owner of the property. If, as alleged, these three companies had been squatting on the Playhouse land for the past several years, that would be a lot of individual cases of theft. And, whether they squatted or not, these companies were able to rake a lot of parking fees off this parking lot over the last several years.

SURPRISE: The meter had been removed, leaving only the base. Now anyone who wants to park there has to walk a block to the nearest meter — on the far side of the Playhouse — which cannot be viewed from these parking spaces. We’ll see how that works out.

Looking past the empty residential lots to the E.W.F. Stirrup House, the 5-storey
Grove Gardens Residential Condominiums dwarfing the 120-year old house.

To be perfectly honest, I had hoped to catch Paradise Parking in what appeared to be a crime in the making because it’s a company owned by the same rapacious
developer who is allowing the E.W.F. Stirrup House to undergo Demolition by Neglect. That would be Gino Falsetto and Aries Development, which
built The Monstrosity behind the Stirrup House: the Grove Gardens
Residence Condominiums.

It was while I was counting the parking spaces — another SURPRISE: there are only 45, as per the agreement with the MPA — I looked back across the two empty lots to the E.W.F. Stirrup House. The simple 2-storey white and yellow house — designated historic — is completely dwarfed by The Monstrosity, built by the same rapacious developer who owns these 2 empty lots pictured above. There had been two little single family houses on these lots. Aries acquired the lots and knocked the houses down so the property could be used as a construction marshaling yard in order to build The Monstrosity.

Little by little Aries Development has been chipping away at this Historic Roadway. Aside from the 50-year lease on the Stirrup House, Aries now owns the Bicycle Shop, creating bookends on either side of any potential Coconut Grove Playhouse development.

As I continued taking pictures of Charles Avenue I walked from the vantage point shown above back to the E.W.F. Stirrup House, where I met a curious stranger.

THE BIGGEST SURPRISE OF ALL!!!

I was almost back at my car when I saw a woman walking across the Stirrup property towards me. The only people I’ve ever seen on that property were workmen. A red-headed, middle-aged woman in a dress was A SURPRISE, which is why I walked towards her. We met at the gate to the Stirrup property and had a heavily accented conversation after she demanded to know why I was taking pictures of her property.

Pictured: The scene of the conversation.
I didn’t take her picture.

Several times she asserted it was her property. I let the fib go because I know the history of the property better than my own family tree. It’s owned by Stirrup Properties, LLC, a company headed by 2 of the grandchildren of the original owner, E.W.F. Stirrup. A 50-year lease is held by Aries Development, which has been allowing this historic 120-year old house to undergo Demolition by Neglect. I’m pretty sure that this woman is not Aries Development Group.

Our conversation went something like this:

MF: [Accented English]: Why you take pictures?
ME: I’ve taken a lot of pictures of this building. I come here every few days and take pictures of this house. I have thousands of pictures of this house.
MF: Why you take so many pictures?
ME: I’m interested in the history of the house. It’s a famous house. This is the oldest house on the street. The second oldest house in Miami.
MF: I know. You work for newspaper?
ME: No. I have a blog.
MF: What’s your name?
ME: Headly Westerfield. [This elicited no reaction whatsoever.] What’s your name?
MF: Magda Falsetto.
ME: [Falsetto?!?! DING! DING! DING! My notebook has been in my hand all this time, so I start scribbling notes of the rest of our conversation.] M-A-G-D-A?

I was so surprised that it wasn’t until later that I realized I didn’t ask the obvious question: “Are you related to Gino Falsetto?” DOH!

MF: Yes. This is my property.
ME: So why don’t you fix up this house? This house has been empty for 8 years.
MF: Longer!
ME: Longer? Then why don’t you fix it up?
MF: It takes long time to get permits from city.
ME: You’ve had more than 8 years.
MF: It takes long time to get permits. Is problem at city.

April 4, 2014: La Bottega advertises. It has no permits
to move the Farmers Market to the Stirrup Property.

ME: Didn’t there used to be a wall there? Where did it go? [Indicates the back of the Stirrup property where a wall once separated it from La Bottega, a restaurant on the ground floor of The Monstrosity. La Bottega has started advertising the Farmer’s Market moving there beginning on the 27th of April.]
MF: We are making a garden to bring tables out here.
ME: On this property? From the restaurant?
MF: Yes. It will be beautiful garden.
ME: Don’t you think you should fix the house first? It’s an construction zone. The house looks terrible.
MF: It takes long time to get permits from city.

NO SURPRISE: She repeated this “long time to get permits from the city” sentiment about 7 times because I kept circling back to asking why the house wasn’t fixed already. One cannot get permits from the city if one has not submitted plans. The last time I checked no plans had ever been submitted to the city by Aries to renovate the E.W.F. Stirrup House.

TO BE FAIR: That was a whole 2 months ago, during the Great Tree Massacre of ’14.

Aries will need to submit up plans before it can be issued permits to renovate the E.W.F. Stirrup House. It will also have to apply for a retroactive permit for landscaping and  destroying the trees on the Stirrup property. So far Aries has gotten away with having no permit for the destruction of the cinder block wall. Will it also try to get away with moving restaurant and bar seating onto the Stirrup property? Will it even try to obtain the proper permits to move the Farmer’s Market to the Stirrup property?

It’s not like Aries Development has even tried to be a good Coconut Grove neighbour, so why should it be trusted now?

IRONY ALERT: Gino Falsetto and Aries Development is on the Charles Avenue Historic Preservation Committee. More than a year ago I attended a meeting where Aries assured the Preservation Committee that it was going to fix up the Stirrup House right away. In that time Aries has only caused more destruction to the house and the property.

But, who knows? I might be surprised. Aries may finally do things legally.

Who am I kidding? I’ll have to keep an eye on them.

Why is E.W.F. Stirrup so important to Coconut Grove?
Read: Happy Birthday Coconut Grove!!!
Now Honour Your Past

If It’s News, It’s News To The Coconut Grove Grapevine

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Let’s have a Tomversation, Tom.

Longtime followers of Not Now Silly can attest, I have been trying to Save the E.W.F. Stirrup House for more than 5 years.

Back in 2009 I tried to get Tom Falco, publisher of the Coconut Grove Grapevine, to help me. We engaged in a series of emails that went south really quickly. I explained my background. Then I offered my early opinion (which has only grown after researching more history) that much of what happens in West Grove is informed by Systemic Racism, I received the following reply from Falco, grammar, lack of punctuation, and misspellings unretouched:

[8/31/2009] Well some of the residents on the block are to blame too.

The first house was given over $700,000 by the city in grant money to renovate and the owner painted it white and took off.

Other areas were to be an arts district, but someone involved and part of the black community bought up all the land cheap and then tried to sell it to the artist for exhorbatant prices, so they just walked away.

You were wrong to place this on the facebook page it is off topic and really if you want to be taken seriously you need to do it by not spamming places. It makes you look unprofessional and people won’t take you seriously.

I do since I have done stories on the subject, but it is best to try to spreaed your info the proper way, and spamming blogs and facebook is not the proper way.

I’m just sayin.. Also it wasn’t “Whitie” who scammed the artists, it was the black something initiative that screwed the hood.

Thanks,
Tom Falco


Tom Falco [L] sharing information in downtown Coconut Grove

Wait!!! What???

I was surprised that Falco was so unconcerned about Charles Avenue and the E.W.F. Stirrup House. His larger issue — one he has to this very day — is about SPAM. All links in comment threads are SPAM, as far as he is concerned. It would never have occurred to me that a post about news in Coconut
Grove would be considered Off Topic on a blog with the rubric COCONUT GROVE’S ONLY
DAILY NEWS.

Silly me!!!

As for professionalism: I’ve been a professional writer-journalist for more than 40 years. While it’s so easy to dismiss that experience in the cyber-world, where anyone can claim to be a writer, at least I spell words correctly and know how to use punctuation properly. Yet, Tom Falco has a sizable readership despite his grammar and run-on sentences. More’s the pity.

Clearly Tom and I have a fundamental disagreement. Falco feels sharing information through a link is SPAM. I believe information should be shared. I’m not sharing the link to get traffic to Not Now Silly. I don’t make money off web traffic, like he does. I am sharing the link in order to share the information contained within. Three days later he wrote to me because I transgressed again:

I asked you in a nice way to stop spamming my face book page.

If you do it again, I will have you blocked from the page.

Thank you.

Falco did eventually block me from his facebookery. I was never successful in recruiting him to my efforts to save the E.W.F. Stirrup House, even when I tried again in 2012, when he dismissed me with:

Hi,

I really don’t want to get involved with that.

I am really trying to ease out of the Grove these days and am not taking on any more causes.

Thanks,
Tom

Nor was I successful in recruiting him to the other West Grove issue that cropped up a year ago, Trolleygate.

Funny story about that. Al Crespo, the great Miami muckraker and publisher of The Crespogram Report, tried to get him involved in Trolleygate. Without knowing of the enmity that had built up, Crespo made the mistake of including in his email a link to one of my blog posts and CCed me. Falco blew a gasket, which was so funny and outrageous that I wrote all about it in Go Home, Coconut Grove Grapevine, You’re Drunk! Hilarity ensued. However, Falco’s yet to apologize for the libelous statements in his email.

That’s why it was so surprising to see the Coconut Grove Grapevine recently take up the issues of both the E.W.F. Stirrup House and Trolleygate. What was not surprising is how he has continued to block my comments on his threads because I continue to link to my blog posts.

However, I recently learned that it’s not just me who is being blocked at the Coconut Grove Grapevine. I am now in email communication with someone else (with Tom Falco CCed). This person has also been trying to get comments posted on Falco’s blog. Falco not only refuses to publish the comments, but has refused the courtesy of a private reply as to why the comments have been blocked.

Let me be the first to defend Tom Falco. Only Tom Falco should decide on what gets published on the Coconut Grove Grapevine. Having said that, no one”s trying to SPAM his blog. We are trying to provide his readers more information on issues of importance to Coconut Grove. A real writer would WELCOME that kind of dialogue with its readers. Falco really should drop the pretense that he’s serving his readers; he’s serving his advertisers.

This advert was out-of-date on
March 1st when the MPA took
over the Playhouse parking lot.

When Falco falsely labels informative links SPAM, it’s a convenient excuse not to publish comments that might lead to criticism of any of his advertisers. F’rinstance: Gino Falsetto (the marauding developer I have written about extensively) has been an advertiser at the Grapevine through various companies, including his (possibly illegal) parking concession at the Playhouse and the several restaurants in the Grove Gardens Residence Condominiums.

With Aries Development Group‘s fingers in so many Coconut Grove pies, much of the reporting Falco does is compromised. His recent two-parter on the Stirrup House, spurred on by the destruction of the trees and the public outcry, is an exercise of saying almost nothing while giving the Stirrup House lip service. Laughably he says in one of those posts:

For some years now, a few people asked me to get involved but I always felt there was nothing I could do. After so many years, the Stirrup family gave up the house, which was given historic designation in 2004.

And, nothing is what Tom Falco did. He ignored the Stirrup House from the day I tried to get him to help until now.

And, nothing is what Tom Falco still does. In neither post does he really come out and criticize the rapacious, marauding developer, Gino Falsetto. Furthermore, he won’t publish comments that do.

TO BE FAIR: Falco’s absolutely right that there’s nothing he can do, unless he’s willing to piss off his advertisers. However, if he wants to serve his readers and the larger community can help me pound the drum to Save the E.W.F. Stirrup House.

Either run as the Unofficial Mayor of Coconut Grove, or do some real reporting.

Even his reporting on Trolleygate is back-asswards. He never comes out in favour of his neighbours against the non-complying Coral Gables bus garage, although he mentions the controversy almost tangentially.

What Falco actually has done is to start a petition to demand that Miami bring its fake trolleys into Grove Center. He takes no position on whether these fake trolleys should loop along Grand Avenue into West Grove. Nor does he mention the latest news in the fake trolley story, that Coral Gables has voted to loop its fake trolleys to the MacFarlane Homestead Subdivision Historical District, but not to Douglas Road, in West Grove, just one block away and where its developer sited the fake trolley maintenance garage.

The MacFarlane Homestead Subdivision Historical District has a fascinating history. I barely touched on it in No Skin In The Game ► Part Three. In short: Coral Gables hid its racism in plain sight by making its only Black enclave, where it ALLOWED its servant class to live, an entire historic district.

Once again West Grove is being frozen out while Center Grove is begging for crumbs from Miami for a fake trolley. However, for a change, Historic Black Coral Gables might finally get served. But, you’ll never learn any of the context from the Coconut Grove Grapevine.

If Falco remains true to form he will next take another wrong position. In no time at all I expect to read him call for grandfathering the illegal, non-conforming Douglas Road diesel bus garage because, with the expansion of the fake trolley lines he’s pushing for, it will be needed, despite the fact that it belongs to the next town over.

I guess what really has me irked, however, is he managed to get quoted recently by other publications who jumped on the both the E.W.F. Stirrup House and Trolleygate issues. He had to be dragged — kicking and screaming — to barely write about these Coconut Grove issues in the first place. Then Miami media quotes him as if he knows what he’s talking about.

Clearly, he’s got a much better press agent than I do and I am jealous of the attention he gets.

However, I’ll warn Falco publicly (again) that he needs to be careful who he says what to. Some of what he says actually gets back to me. In fact, people seem gleeful to repeat it. Some of it sounds suspiciously like slander. People he believes are his friends do not keep his confidences. Who knew FAM would provide so many Friends of Falco a night to unload?

On the other hand: Everything I have said to people in private about Tom Falco, I have also stated in public on my blog more than once:

The Coconut Grove Grapevine is a joke, and Tom Falco is a panoply of a parody of a journalist.

The Coconut Grove Playhouse Deal Begins to Unfold

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The removal of the old growth trees on the E.W.F. Stirrup property was only one in a series of chess moves made virtually simultaneously as the Coconut Grove Playhouse deal begins to unfold.

On January 15th Aries Development took possession of the Bicycle Shop, that small, two story structure sitting at the northeast corner of the Playhouse parking lot. Aries was ‘gifted’ this property (and $15,000) to relinquish all claims on the Playhouse. The mystery had always been why this building had been put into play in order to settle the outstanding issues necessary to restore and reopen the Playhouse.

Sources tell Not Now Silly that when the now defunct Playhouse board accepted the loan from Aries years ago, it put up the Bicycle Shop as collateral. That’s how Aries came to hold the note on the Bicycle Shop; why it was in play already; and why it may have just been easier to give Aries this bone, than to have it continue to scuttle every deal to bring the Playhouse back to its former glory.

[One of these days I will actually discover how much money Aries loaned the defunct Playhouse board. That’s just another one of those pesky details that has remained concealed by all the boardroom and backroom machinations. These took place far away from the prying eyes of Florida’s strict Sunshine Laws. In other words: There’s so much about this deal we know nothing about and peeling back the onion has been a chore.]

The funny thing about Aries getting possession of the Bicycle Shop is that the building had already been condemned. The City of Miami loaded the property up with violation after violation, until it decided that it was an unsafe structure that had to be removed. However, that was something of a chess move on the part of the city in order to get a seat at the table. Because Miami-Dade County was running the Playhouse negotiations, the City of Miami would have been frozen out entirely. Having these tens of thousand of dollars in fines levied against the property gave the City of Miami a buy-in at this High Stakes table. When eventually the poker game was played to untangle the financial mess the Playhouse had become, holding cards were the state of Florida, which had to sign off on any deal; Miami–Dade County; the City of Miami; Aries Development; GableStage; FIU; and the former-Playhouse board, or what was left of it. Not seated at the table: Any representative from the community being served. In short: The taxpayers and neighbourhood stakeholders.

One of dozens of pictures taken inside the construction
zone. It seems fitting the floor looks like a chess board.

Regardless, once Miami was satisfied with the deal, the city pushed in all its chips and folded its hand. It wiped clean the condemned Bicycle Shop’s slate of all fines and deeded it to over to the marauding Aries Development Group. Consequently, Aries needed to act quickly, before new citations and violations start piling up against the building. To that end, it has already removed the roof from the Bicycle Shop.

Unfortunately for Aries Development that’s all that was done, creating a brand new problem for Gino Falsetto’s company. The demolition crew neglected to fence in the destruction site, [allegedly] breaking several city by-laws in the process. It’s currently open to the public for private tours. Anyone can wander in and out of the building, as this reporter did on Tuesday, February 25th. As well, Not Now Silly
has not been able to locate a demolition permit, nor does there appear
to be a permit for having a dumpster on the property. Aries is certainly
keeping Bylaw Enforcement busy this week.

See a photo album, inside and outside, of [alleged]
violations at the Bicycle Shop on February 25, 2014.
View videos of the unprotected construction zone:

Word is that Gino Falsetto wants to put a small restaurant in this building, but it would have to be a VERY small eatery. There’s not much one can do with 1600 square feet. That’s barely big enough for a small coffee shop. Restaurant, coffee shop, art gallery? Whatever Aries wants to do with this property is going to require permits and telling Not Now Silly that it’s all “in the pipeline” just doesn’t cut it. The laws are quite specific to demolition and this week Aries Development has already demolished a wall at the E.W.F. Stirrup House without a permit, hacked 4 old growth tress to the ground without a permit and is now running this unsafe destruction site without a permit — and without sealing it off from the public!!!

However, turning the Bicycle Shop into a restaurant makes sense because that’s another cash business. Gino Falsetto [allegedly] learned how lucrative restaurants can be when he (and his brothers) bankrupted four of them in the Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, area. When the government finally moved in to seize the assets (cash in the till and the cutlery, essentially), Canadians lost an estimated $1,000,000.00 in unpaid taxes. However, that’s chump change compared to what Falsetto’s investors lost. That figure is estimated to be upwards of ten million dollars. And then, next thing you know, Gino Falsetto has enough resources after his business went bankrupt to buy his way into the hot Miami real estate market.

Of course, it has to be said, that there are many honest and reputable restaurant owners. In fact, the vast majority are. However, that doesn’t mean that restaurant ownership has not been known as a source of illegal profit skimming. Just sayin’.

This sign is supposedly gone on March 1st

Speaking of cash businesses, that brings us to the Playhouse parking lot. On March 1st the Miami Parking Authority (MPA) will take over control of the Playhouse parking lot. On February 25th the new signage was being erected. However, most of the old signs hadn’t been removed yet.

Who had the parking concession until now?

Double Park, Paradise Parking, and Caribbean Parking. Bring Truth To Light has written extensively about Gino Falsetto; his several various partners in several various companies; Aries Development Group; shady Coconut Grove real estate deals; and this particular parking lot. It’s worth quoting extensively:

Double Park LLC

Behind the mess created by Aries is one of the new MPA signs

Gino Falsetto founded Double Park LLC on July 12, 2004 and filed his Florida limited liability company with the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations. The company’s FEI/EIN number is 861112258. The address is The Grand, 1717 N Bayshore Drive, Suite 102, Miami, FL 33132. Falsetto is the company’s sole manager and registered agent.


In 2006, Mitchell Liss took over as manager and Anthony Petropoulos became registered agent.


In 2007, the company moved to Suite 201 on the second floor in The Hilton Doubletree Grand condominium.


In 2009, Mitchell Liss also took on the role of registered agent.


The incredulous real estate promoter presents a big plan that arouses excitement. The Miami Herald reported Gino Falsetto “floated a last-minute, $55 million-plus proposal to build a new, 600-seat theater behind the historic façade, and add retail and residential buildings as well as an underground parking garage.”


In yet another Miami Herald article Jorge Luis Lopez, a Playhouse board member, was quoted to call Falsetto’s Aries company “a deadbeat squatter,” characterizing Falsetto’s relationship with the Playhouse’s board of directors.

Paradise Parking Systems LLC

Mitchell Liss founded Paradise Parking Systems LLC on December 19, 2005 and filed his Florida limited liability company with the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations. The company’s FEI/EIN number is 204281994. The address is 19810 West Dixie Highway, N Miami Beach, FL 33180. Liss is the company’s sole manager and registered agent.


In 2007, Anthony Petropoulos became the registered agent and the company’s new address is Suite 201 at The Grand.


In 2009, Mitchell Liss also took on the role of registered agent.

Caribbean Parking Systems Inc


John Battaglia founded Caribbean Parking Systems Inc on February 25, 2002 and filed his Florida profit corporation with the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations. The company’s FEI/EIN number is 270077530. The address is 2874 NE 191 Street, Suite 304, Aventura, FL 33180. Battaglia is the company’s sole director and Robert Stok is the registered agent.

In 2007, Mitchell Liss became the company’s sole director, president, and registered agent. The company’s new address is Suite 201 at The Grand.

Miami Parking Authority CEO Art Norieaga addresses
the Coconut Grove Village Council on February 25, 2014

Bring Truth To Light has also called on the government to investigate how
these three companies came to squat on the Playhouse parking lot, how long they have claimed the concession, and whether it had benefit of a contract with the Playhouse board. Coconut Grove has a shortage of parking, so during some Special Events, this parking lot was filled.

Every company pie that Gino Falsetto has his fingers into is always a
complicated rabbit warren of other companies and fronts. But, I digress.

Not only did these three companies collect the fees from this parking lot, but also had cars booted and/or towed for parking on this lot and not paying. If it’s true, as it’s beginning to appear, that Double Park, Paradise Parking, and Caribbean Parking had no authority to do so, every tow from that lot was an organized crime against the car’s owner. How many people using that parking lot were scammed by these three companies?

With Aries losing its precious parking lot tomorrow, how will it remain in that cash business, especially since his restaurants on the ground floor of The Monstrosity known as the Grove Gardens Residence Condominiums advertise Valet Parking? A partial answer was given at the latest Coconut Grove Village Council meeting on February 25th. Art Noriega of the Miami Parking Authority gave a presentation on all Coconut Grove parking lots, including the Playhouse parking issues being investigated by Bring Truth to Light and Now Now Silly. He told the assembled that the city made an accommodation with Aries for Valet Parking. It was a such a quick reference, this reporter was not sure that they heard the proper context for the remark.

45 spaces in that oddly shaped area are to be rented by Aries Group

Contacted by phone after the meeting, Noriega elaborated, confirming to Not Now Silly that Aries will be renting 45 parking spaces from the city, at $45 a month, for a total of $2,025. [At $6.00 a car, Aries will have to turn each space over 7.5 times in a month to break even.] These spaces are apparently not any of those between the north end of the Playhouse and the south end of the Bicycle Shop. The parking spaces being rented from the city by Aries are those on the paved area immediately to the west of the Playhouse (in the irregular shape in the Earth View on the right). The Valet Parking arrangement with the city is on a month-to-month basis and, certainly, when (if?) the Playhouse property becomes a renovation zone, Aries won’t be able to Valet Park there.

Which brings us to the last 3 properties that Aries is known to control on Charles Avenue: the two vacant lots on the north of Charles Avenue, which are owned by a shell company owned by Gino Falsetto; and the E.W.F. Stirrup property, which Aries controls through a 50-year lease with the Stirrup Family, the owners of record on the house. Last week the Stirrups were cited for the destroying 4 old growth trees on the Stirrup property, even though the destruction was wrought by Gino Falsetto’s Aries Development. Aries also cut down 3 trees on the vacant lots across the street and demolished the wall separating The Monstrosity from the E.W.F. Stirrup House.

All of this wanton destruction was done without benefit of the proper permit(s). The city levied fines of $1,000 per tree and Aries will have to plant 2 trees for every tree destroyed, but the damage is already done and only time will bring back century old trees.

The Monstrosity, aka Grove Gardens Residence Condominiums, was built by
rapacious developer Aries Group.That 5-story wall (on the right) dwarfs the
understated 2-story 120-year old E.W.F. Stirrup House that the same marauding
developer has allowed to undergo Demolition by Neglect for the past 8 years.

While there are no plans on file with the city — or the Historical Preservation Board, for that matter — Not Now Silly has been told they are “in the pipeline,” whatever that means. In practice it means that Gino Falsetto is holding his cards very close to his vest, [allegedly] breaking all kinds of city By-Laws which require permits and plans before work commences, not after. Coconut Grove won’t know his hole cards, until he’s ready to play his hand. In other words: People will learn of his plans when he’s damned good and ready to reveal them, even if it can’t be fixed, like the trees.

So, what’s the plan for these last properties. Everything beyond this point is mere speculation and rumour, based upon keen observation and unconfirmed tips from anonymous sources:

Demolishing the wall is the first step for Aries Group to expand the restaurant/bar/wine bar seating at The Monstrosity into the Stirrup property. However, one would think the first steps would be the demolition permit, not to mention a permit to change the seating in the restaurants and another permit to alter the capacity on the various bar licenses [Taruus, La Bottega, etc.] in The Monstrosity. There are several carts that have been put before the horse. But at least those pesky old growth trees are no longer in the way, right?

However, since that work has already commenced, I sure hope the city of Miami Code Enforcement officers continue watching.

What else? At least one of those lots on the north side of Charles Avenue is being eyed by Aries as a “flat parking lot” in the future, according to my source. It was also cleared of vegetation last week in the Great Miami Tree Massacre™. This makes sense since Aries was forced to cash in its chips on the Playhouse parking lot and will lose its seat at the table if and when the Playhouse ever gets restored.

However, it makes sense for Aries to try and get this approved as a parking lot. If Falsetto ever gets plans approved to renovate the historic site of the
E.W.F. Stirrup House into a Bed and Breakfast and outdoor restaurant (according to other sources), it will
need additional parking facilities for their rich customers. Especially when it loses the 45 spaces behind the Playhouse. However, my source tells me that’s an impossibility. The current zoning
prevents that. The fact that Charles Avenue was a designated a Historic Roadway should also prevent that from ever becoming a parking lot.

Furthermore, several neighbours from several houses along Charles Avenue (who spoke to Not Now Silly on the condition of anonymity) are so angry at the destruction of the trees that they’ve vowed to watch developments on the Stirrup property very carefully from now on. All of them had questions about the E.W.F. Stirrup House because they were full of misinformation. That lack of concrete information allows Falsetto to bluff his way though the game.

The metaphors in this blog post are mixed. Is it a chess game or is this a High Stakes poker game? To Miami and Miami-Dade county it’s been a poker game, where every hand is a new hand. Gino Falsetto is playing a longer game, chess, going for the checkmate. Long before anyone realized what he had done he swallowed up all the property surrounding the E.W.F. Stirrup House and the Coconut Grove Playhouse. He always seems to be several moves ahead of everybody else. Hopefully, not the sheriff, because the more I investigate Gino Falsetto and his business ethics, the more I am convinced he belongs in jail.

Join the Facebook group Save the E.W.F. Stirrup House for updates.

Aftermath of the Great Miami Tree Massacre

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Fined $1,000 per tree or $4,000 on the Stirrup property.

“Some people say” Gino Falsetto has finally gone too far. The recent destruction of the old growth trees on the E.W.F. Stirrup property is bringing awareness of the deplorable condition Aries Development has allowed the historic 120-year old house to devolve into.

Demolition by Neglect is a thing that can be looked up on the Googalizer. Demolition by Neglect is what Gino Falsetto has done with the E.W.F. Stirrup House for the past 8 years, ever since it entered into his possession.

IRONY ALERT: Sources tell Not Now Silly that had Aries Development applied for tree removal permits, in all likelihood they would have been granted. By ignoring the law, he just brought unwanted attention to his terrible stewardship of an important Coconut Grove cultural resource. E.W.F. Stirrup was among Florida’s first Black millionaires, a man who once owned most of 33133, a Zip Code now considered one of the most exclusive in the country.

However, those accomplishments pale to this one: With his own hands, on property he owned, Ebeneezer Woodbury Franklin Stirrup built more than 100 houses in the area. These were sold, rented, and bartered to the growing Black families that served as the service industry for the tourist trade. That action, during Jim Crow Days, created something unique in this country. At one time Coconut Grove had the highest percentage of Black home ownership than anywhere else.

The Great Coconut Grove Tree Massacre of ’14™ was supposed to have been worse than it was. There is a 5th tree on the lot that has the same florescent orange paint marker that spelled doomed the other four. It was to have come down with the rest of them but, according to my source on the scene last Thursday when it occurred, the neighbours were starting to complain loudly and the work crew stopped before the last immediately behind the Stirrup House was felled. One of those neighbours is said to have called By-Law Enforcement because they arrived early the next morning and left a citation.

It took a stump grinder all day to remove the remnants of the two trees flanking the E.W.F. Stirrup driveway.

The fine of $4,000 ($1,000 per tree) levied by the City of Miami (see citation above) will not be the only punishment. Coconut Grove Village Council Chair Javier Gonzalez tells Not Now Silly Miami has also ordered remediation on the Stirrup property. Aries Development will be forced to plant 2 trees for every tree removed. And, in 120 years, they will also be old trees just like the ones ripped down.

February 25, 2014

However, Gino Falsetto continues to prove that he’s an irresponsible corporate citizen. The picture to the right is the interior of the Bicycle Shop, that Aries Development took possession of on January 15th. More about that in The Coconut Grove Playhouse Deal Begins to Unfold, post and what that means for the community. However, this construction site has been left open and unprotected as of yesterday.

Beyond those doors is an alley that a lot of the students use as a short cut to Thomas Avenue or the A&M school. Kids being kids could start exploring the property and get hurt. This reporter had no trouble walking inside.

Gino Falsetto knows the laws about cutting down trees, just like he knows the laws about protecting the public from unsafe construction sites. He’s a long-time developer, for eff’s sake!!! All this proves is that no matter how often the City of Miami cites his company, Gino Falsetto will do exactly what he wants in Coconut Grove.

Imagine a child wandering in here:

Headlines Du Jour ► Sunday, February 23, 2014

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Today we honour W. E. B. Du Bois, on the anniversary of his 1868 birth. While he died in 1963, his books and articles are still avidly read around the world. Among the other Headlines Du Jour of yesteryear are:

• 1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type.
• 1836 – The Battle of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.
• 1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1896 – The Tootsie Roll is invented.
• 1898 – Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing “J’accuse“, a letter accusing the French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
• 1903 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States “in perpetuity”.
• 1954 – The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.

Without further delay, here are today’s Headlines Du Jour:

THE LATEST IN COCONUT GROVE:

Aries Development Continues To Rape Charles Avenue

SAVE THE E.W.F. STIRRUP HOUSE!!!


WAR IS HELL:


IN LGBT NEWS:

George Takei’s Ripping
Letter to AZ about
‘Turn Away the Gay’ Bill


THE “O” IN GOP STANDS FOR OLD:

Democrats say ‘class warfare’
is part of the Fla GOP agenda

THE CONFEDERACY WILL RISE AGAIN:

The South still lies about the Civil War
In an ongoing revisionist
history effort, Southern
schools and churches
still pretend the war
wasn’t about slavery


TODAY IN TED NUGENT:

The Horrifying Song Ted Nugent Released in 1981
that Nobody Seems to be Talking About (VIDEO)

Ted Nugent, Gay Pirate?

MORE EXCITING EPISODES OF COPS GONE WILD:

Woman Violently Arrested
After Jaywalking

Cops hit my car, then
arrested me: suit


MORE ‘MERKIN ‘CEPTIONALISM:

‘Time to Forget the United States…’: Beck Says the ‘Fundamental Transformation’ of America Has Already Happened


ANOTHER DISPATCH FROM DETROIT, ‘MERKA’S FIRST THROWAWAY CITY:

The Pink Zone: Why Detroit is the New Brooklyn


TODAY IN CLIMATE CHANGE:

No Global Warming? NOAA
Says January Was Fourth
Warmest on Record

TODAY IN RELIGION:

Tom DeLay Claims God
‘Wrote The Constitution’

Things I learned during the
Alabama Legislature’s Ten
Commandments debate today

“Hipster” Christianity:
9 hilarious attempts by
the religious right to be cool


LOOFAH LAD & FOX “NEWS” IN THE NEWS AGAIN:

FOX Alert: O’Reilly Factor Producer Asks DeSmogBlog
to Provide Best Arguments
Against Global Warming

Fox producer emails climate blog looking for “the very best arguments” against man-made global warming


VIDEO DU JOUR:


Headlines Du Jour is a leisure-time activity of Not Now Silly, home of the
Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic, and your rest stop on the Information
Highway. Use our valuable bandwidth to post your news comments in
today’s open thread.

Aries Development Continues To Rape Charles Avenue

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Code enforcement beat me to it.
That $4,000 fine will restore the 100-year old trees, right?

It was supposed to be a quiet morning editing Farce Au Pain, until I received a text from one of my secret sources in Coconut Grove. The gist of the message being: “You won’t believe what’s going on at the E.W.F. Stirrup House.”

My source had heard that the 8-foot wall that separated the E.W.F. Stirrup property from the Grove Gardens Residence Condominiums [hereafter known as The Monstrosity] had been torn down. This was apparently done so that the restaurants and bars in The Monstrosity could start seating customers on the E.W.F. Stirrup Property.

Wait!!! What???

I jumped in the car and drove down to Coconut Grove as quick as the speed limit on I-95 would allow. While my source was correct, it was even worse than they had suspected. Yes, the wall — which had been the target of graffiti artists on more than one occasion — was removed as a first step to expanding the restaurant seating, but what was done at the front of the property is what reduced me to tears.

The E.W.F. Stirrup Property has been raped of all its old growth trees!!!

On the east side of the driveway now sits this beautiful stump.

Four trees on Stirrup property (not to mention 3 trees on the vacant lot across the street) have been hacked down to the ground. Two of these trees flanked the Stirrup driveway entrance and they were nearly as old as the 120+-year old house. These trees were so old they had old growth vines climbing up them as far as the eye could see. This is the kind of lush foliage prized in Coconut Grove, with philodendron leaves LARGER than two dinner plates side by side. People pay extra in Coconut Grove for property with this kind of canopy. Now, it’s all gone. Compost.

Chopping down trees is one of those things that Miami takes very seriously. In fact, there are strict laws against it. When it was learned a year back that Coconut Grove would lose some of its canopy along Commodore Plaza — ironically just a block away from the Stirrup House — people went nuts and had the tree removal program scaled back considerably. Later, when people in Brickell learned that the green canopy there was slated for destruction, not only did public opposition stop that plan in its tracks, but recently the City of Miami decided to take responsibility of Brickell from Miami-Dade County to better manage its resources.

IRONY ALERT: I’ve been yelling about the Demolition by Neglect of the E.W.F. Stirrup House for years without getting any traction. However, after having made few phones yesterday afternoon about these old growth trees being chopped down, I had two reporters call me to see what I knew about it. I expect more media phone calls to come.

Two stumps, one on either side of the driveway.

Code enforcement beat me to the Stirrup House by minutes and cited the property owners for:

Violation Date: Feb 21, 2014 Violation Time: 10:00AM
Code Section(s) Violated: VIOL REF#2125 Tree removal/relocating/trimming/root pruning without a finalized permit. (Any required mitigation must be City Code Chapt 17

Correction: 4 trees removed on property and no permit on file, please contact planning Department for for an after the fact permit.

Fine amount: 1,000 * 4 = 4,000.

That 8-foot wall on the left used to run right across the back of the property.
Just beyond the yellow CAUTION tape is the restaurant seating. See video below.

As what always happens when Aries Development screws up at the Stirrup House, it’s the Stirrup Family that gets cited for the violation, a pattern documented in these pages on several occasions. That’s because Aries is merely the lessee of the Stirrup property.

When Mr. Stirrup died in 1957, his will stated that his beautiful house — which he built with his own hands and of which he was justifiably proud — must remain in the family in perpetuity. Consequently, the owner of record is a company called Stirrup Properties, Inc. The officers of that company are David Porter, Jr., Dazelle D. Simpson, and E.W.F. Stirrup, III., descendants of Ebeneezer Woodbury Franklin Stirrup. At one time Mr. Stirrup was the largest landholder in Coconut Grove and his lovely house looked out over his vast real estate holdings, leading to him becoming one of Florida’s first Black millionaires.

Developer and scumbag (but I repeat
myself) Gino Falsetto. Pic swiped from
Bring Truth To Light, whose proprietor
has been fighting Falsetto for some 20+
years, documenting some shady real
estate deals, in the public record.

If he could see to whom his grandchildren entrusted the second oldest house in Miami, he’d be spinning in his grave.

I’ve written many stories about Aries Development — and when I say Aries Development, I really mean my Canadian compatriot Gino Falsetto. Here’s a quick recap:

Falsetto skedaddled to Miami from Canada after bankrupting 4 restaurants that he (and his brothers) owned in the Ottawa, Ontario, area (some across the Ottawa River in Hull, Quebec). Ottawa is the nation’s capitol and at least one of these restaurants is where Canadian power-brokers and politicos wined and dined, while reaching in each others pockets. When the Canadian government finally lowered the boom on the Falsetto Boys, all it managed to do is seize the assets of those restaurants: cash in the till, liquor stock and plates and cutlery. It’s estimated that the Canadian taxpayers were left on the hook for $1,000,000 in unpaid taxes on the restaurants that had been making money hand-over-fist before Falsetto over-extended himself.  Also among the losers were the vendors and all the employees, who never received their final paycheques. However, private investors are said to have lost a pile of dough as well. One of my sources who once worked for Falsetto — and claims to like him — estimates these investors lost upwards of $10,000,000. Imagine what he might have told me if he hated Falsetto. My source wanted to clear things up because I had touted the million dollar figure. I don’t know whether he was bragging on Falsetto’s behalf, or not.

Falsetto seems to have left Canada just before the tarring and feathering. His golden parachute allowed him to land on his feet on the over-heated Miami real estate market. Where did he get the money if his restaurants just went into the dumper? Bars and restaurants are notorious for being cash operations. Just saying. And now Gino Falsetto is operating more bars and restaurants, this time building and owning The Monstrosity in Coconut Grove through his Aries Development; a multi-use complex for rich white folk (with certain exceptions, which I’ll get to in a minute) that has 4 restaurants and/or bars on the ground floor. Just saying.

This video
provides the brand new view from one of Falsetto’s restaurants in The
Monstrosity, La Bottega Enoteca Sociale, after the
8-foot wall was removed. Why Gino Falsetto would want the patrons of
his restaurants to look out onto the pile of crap he allowed the E.W.F.
Stirrup House to devolve into is one of those mysteries of the cosmos.
Missing from this view are the 4 old growth trees recently chopped down
to the ground.

Among the other pies Falsetto stuck his fingers into once he landed on his feet in Miami is The Monstrosity on Main Highway, immediately behind the E.W.F. Stirrup House. From Day One Falsetto had his eyes set on bigger game. First he wrapped up control of the Stirrup House and ownership of two lots on the north side of Charles Avenue in the same deal, the broad contours of which appear to conceal a crime. We report; you decide. Follow the bouncing ball:

The Stirrup Family owned the 2 lots on the north side of Charles Avenue and Aries Development (Gino Falsetto) made them an offer. “We’ll trade you two units in The Monstrosity for a 50-year lease on the Stirrup House, ownership of the two double lots across the street from the Stirrup House, and $10 to make it all legal.” All of that was quite legal.However, here’s where it gets tricky.

Gino Falsetto seems to have learned how to make bankruptcy work for him. That’s what may have been illegal on this deal, in which the Stirrups appear to have been mere pawns — and Falsetto made out like a bandit. First he valued the 2 condos that he traded away in The Monstrosity at $500,000 each. Then he went to the bank and, based on his own valuation, got a loan of a figure adjacent to $750,000, using the property as collateral. Then he promptly defaulted on the loan.

Two giant old growth trees once flanked this driveway. Had they still
been there it would have completely blocked the view of The Monstrosity.

When the bank put the property up for a foreclosure auction, it was purchased for some $250,000 by a company in which Pierre Heafey figures prominently. Heafey is also a Canadian compatriot, who is partners with Gino Falsetto in other companies. Then the properties appear to have been shuffled through several numbered companies, until they now seem to be owned by a numbered company in which Falsetto is an officer. To recap: These two properties that Falsetto defaulted on have wound up being owned by companies in which Gino Falsetto figures prominently. Of course the banks were insured for the loss by the FDIC, which means that this was YOUR tax dollars at work.

Regardless of this skullduggery, which was still in the future, the Stirrup family accepted the trade. There were no microphones present to see whether they sang the theme song to The Jeffersons, but the fact of the matter is that the Stirrups were literally moving on up to the East Side, to a deluxe apartment in the sky. And then, for the next 8 years, the Stirrups have been witness to (if their balconies have a northern view) the garbage dump and disrepair that Gino Falsetto has allowed on their grandfather’s property, a precious cultural resource. The ongoing program of Demolition by Neglect is heartbreaking for anyone who cares about Black history.

The most recent Google Maps Street View with the foliage flanking the driveway. While the
8-foot wall (since removed) can be seen in the background, The Monstrosity is barely visible.

It gets worse, of course, because when one starts to peel back the onion that is Coconut Grove corruption, you will find layers upon layers.

The view from the restaurant towards the pile of crap
the rear of the E.W.F. Stirrup House has become.

While Falsetto’s tentacles had been thrust into the other fiasco on Charles Avenue, the Coconut Grove Playhouse, his claims on that building ended recently when he was gifted the Bicycle Shop, a small building with extremely valuable Main Highway frontage. While the Playhouse is an entirely separate issue that also happened to involve Falsetto, the only reason to mention it here is to note how the aftermath of that Playhouse deal has made it worse for The Charles Avenue Historic Roadway.

Until that deal had been worked out Falsetto-connected companies (Double Park LLC and Paradise Parking Systems LLC) were able to pocket the parking fees on the lot between the Playhouse and the Bicycle Shop. However, once the Playhouse deal is certified (which is supposed to happen any day now) that parking revenue will revert to the Miami Parking Authority and Falsetto will be frozen out.

One blogger is calling for an investigation
into how those companies got the Playhouse parking concessions in
the first place. However, just like restaurants, parking lots are another business that deals in cash, in which skimming is notoriously rampant. Just saying.

So . . . remember those vacant lots on the north side of Charles Avenue that Falsetto may have acquired illegally? At least one of them is slated to be “flat parking,” presumably for the valet parking for the restaurants in The Monstrosity. This will replace some of the revenue lost to the Miami Parking Authority, which brings us to the latest Falsetto Bait & Switch. A while back he got the City of Miami to agree to a zoning variance on these vacant lots to allow him to shunt the valet car parking in and out of the lot behind the Playhouse. Now that variance will be used to create a surface parking lot on on what was always meant to be a residential street, before Gino Falsetto got his grimy hands on those properties.

In fact, before Gino Falsetto got his grimy hands on those properties there had been houses on those two double-wide lots on the north side of Charles Avenue. However, they were knocked down when The Monstrosity was being built so that Aries Development could use these lots as a marshaling yard for the construction of The Monstrosity. Rather than go out to Main Highway the construction materials were shunted in and out of the Stirrup property to the construction site.

Behind this sign honouring the original Bahamian residents of Coconut Grove
are the two vacant lots, seen here before 3 trees were removed from the that lot.
This vacant lot will apparently become “flat parking” on a street that had been
zoned residential before Falsetto started messing around. Now these lots will
be used for the fancy cars of the rich White folk who frequent Gino Falsetto’s
restaurants in The Monstrosity. Thus Falsetto profits his destruction?

I have been writing about the E.W.F. Stirrup House for 5 years. My stories on the house led to my stories on Trolleygate, which I have been writing about for the past year. However, it’s only been recently that I realized that what I was REALLY writing about was The Colour Line in Coconut Grove. My continued research has shown that The Colour Line has been shifting and moving in Coconut Grove for the last century. It’s only recently that the center has been shrinking at a rapid rate.

By that yardstick the E.W.F. Stirrup House crossed The Colour Line when Falsetto acquired control of it. The two houses, on the double-wide lots on the north side of Charles Avenue, crossed The Colour Line when ownership was slipped to Falsetto thru the back door, as it were, and they were destroyed to make way, eventually, for a parking lot. The property on which the Coconut Grove Playhouse sits crossed The Colour Line in 1926 when E.W.F. Stirrup sold it so that it could become a movie theater, bring culture to Coconut Grove. Prior to that the eastern edge of The Colour Line was Main Highway, the opposite side of which contains homes in the several millions of dollars today. That’s always been the White side of The Colour Line.

[Trolleygate is another issue in which several Black properties crossed The Colour Line. Those neighbours have banded together to wrest the 4 properties back to the other side of The Colour Line.]

It’s the rich cultural legacy of E.W.F. Stirrup that is being destroyed, along with his property. I won’t go into why Mr. Stirrup is important to the history of Coconut Grove here, as this post is long enough already. However, if you want to know how a Black man became a millionaire in the Jim Crow South and created a unique community in this country along the way, please read:


If you care about this issue, please join the facebook group Save the E.W.F. Stirrup House.

Oh, and in case I forgot, I’d like to wish you all a very happy and joyous Black History Month.

Here are two more video views documenting the most recent destruction of the E.W.F. Stirrup property at the hands of a rapacious developer, aided and abetted by the descendants of one of the most important men in Coconut Grove history.


Unpacking The Writer ► Unpacking The Readers

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If you’re relatively new to Not Now Silly, and/or my Unpacking The Writer series, let me hip you to one salient fact right now, so you don’t feel foolish from here on out: 

Long-time visitors are already clicking on every advert they can find on this page and the next. “Why?” you might ask. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

Where my readers are from and the browsers they use? Wait! China?

Ready? Because this is the series in which I ask — either subtly or blatantly (and this month I’m going with blatant) — for you to help me pay for some of the costs of this blog by clicking on an advert, or 10. Believe me when I say the pennies I get from your clicks don’t quite cover the storage costs for all the images I use. So, if you’re reading, this you should be clicking that. It’s only fair.

Meanwhile, as I was prepping this blog post I took a glance at the latest Not Now Silly statistics. The Blogger platform doesn’t give me a whole lot of info about my readers, which is why I go over the little I do get like a Vodou bokor divining over freshly-killed chicken entrails. One stat that I find eminently fascinating is what search terms caused visitors to take the off ramp to my rest stop on the information highway. I check it regularly looking for surprises. Here’s today’s chart of search terms:

Because this screen grab was taken early in the day, that’s the only search term that brought a reader to my doorstep so far. The search terms are always truncated to around 40 characters, so there are times I’m forced to infer what these people were looking for. While I’ve written about Bob Marley, I doubt this inquisitive person was looking for anything that I could supply. The same can be said for Researcher #6 on the weekly list [below] who got here twice — or there are two guys (gals?) out there searching for exactly the same stuff:

While I believe in giving my readers what they want, I simply can’t fulfill every request

Googalizer results for “free video sex gay
negro black blog.” Who knew there were
that many people looking for Black gay porn?

I’m baffled that that string of words would bring someone here, as opposed to other web sites, far more on topic, on much busier thoroughfares on the information highway. These people must be really drilling down deep into the search results because when I plugged “free video sex gay negro black blog” into the Googalizer, Not Now Silly didn’t pop up until Page 9. You’d think they would have been satiated at the end of page one, doncha? And, just imagine their disappointment when they arrive here. [It occurs to me that using the search term in this paragraph is sure to bring more puzzled visitors, which are my favourite kind. And, I’ve probably just ensured that Not Now Silly ranks higher than Page 9 from here on in on THAT search term.] 

People who are searching Not Now Silly for something very specific are represented in the chart’s #1 position above. The truncated string ‘“coconut grove playhouse” (site:blogspo”‘ indicates that someone was searching this particular site for a very specific specific term, 5 different times. I sure hope it wasn’t a libel lawyer.

Drilling down into the monthly results brings a few surprises:

The monthly stats is where [allegedly] corrupt Miami Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff appears. That means someone has found there way here using that search term in the last month, but not within the last week. I hope it wasn’t a libel lawyer. That used to be a much more frequent search term, but I guess Sarnoff’s office got tired of checking. TO BE FAIR: I’ve not really written much about him lately. I wonder whether this mention will warrant a visit.

Meanwhile, the same Coconut Grove Playhouse search from the weekly chart is also on the monthly, which means it’s more than a week old, but less than a month. At the #1 position on that chart is my post on Josephine Baker, of which I am far more proud than all those times I poked the [allegedly] corrupt Miami Commissioner Marc D. Sarnoff with a stick.

However, the chart I always find the most interesting is the All Time results, tabulated since I launched Not Now Silly on April 19, 2012:

What I find most amazing about this last chart is that 258 people arrived at Not Now Silly by searching for one variation or another of Three Stooges. Who knew they were so popular? What I like about this list is that it’s fairly eclectic list of topics because Not Now Silly is a fairly eclectic blog.

Just a few more agenda items before I sign off on this exciting episode of Unpacking The Writer:

I totally underestimated how long it would take to kick Chapter Two of my book, Farce Au Pain,
into shape for publication. I am narrowing in on it and really hope to
publish it for you on March 1st. You may wish to reacquaint yourself by
heading on over to the front door of Farce Au Pain. If you haven’t read it yet, boy are you in for a treat.

There’s
been a slight bit of news on Trolleygate, which I hope to write about
within the next week. I’ve been reading some legal documents and I need
to interview a few people to make sure I’ve interpreted them correctly. I
also want to see if I can get official comment from: 1). The City of
Miami; 2). The City of Coral Gables; 3). Miami-Dade County; 4). Astor
Development; 5). Anyone else who will take my calls. This could be a
busy week on the phone.

I continue to research the E.W.F. Stirrup House. While I have discovered some interesting information, I’m still closing in on the real history I’ve been seeking. In the meantime, in an effort to get more people interested in saving the E.W.F. Stirrup House from Demolition by Neglect, I’ve fired up a facebookery called, appropriately enough, Save the E.W.F. Stirrup House. If you’re a facebooker, please join the group. It’s jam-packed with info about the Stirrup House, Coconut Grove, and other instances of Demolition by Neglect.

I read all your correspondence.

A big hat tip to JN & DO for your suggestions concerning Headlines Du Jour. You’ll note I incorporated both your ideas, but just not both at the same time, if that makes sense. Oh, and AG: Your idea would have taken the focus away from the Headlines Du Jour, so . . . Never mind. However, there may be another way to use that idea at Not Now Silly, so stay tuned.

I had hoped that this month I would be announcing my contributions to a local franchise of a respected country-wide web operation. However, I’m awaiting a response to my first contribution ordered up by the editor.

Back in the day, when I used to write regularly for magazines, the final draft was sent to my editor by First Class Mail. If I didn’t hear back for several weeks, it was understandable. However, in this cyber-universe in which we now live, I can shoot a 1,000,000 word article to the other side of the world faster than I can type that old saw about the swift brown fox. It’s just possible I’m being impatient. Either that or I’m just nostalgic for the old days when editors were collaborators in shaping the final product. I need to curb my enthusiasm, in case things don’t work out.

I have learned that they squeal the loudest when you make fun
of Loofah Lad, but The Falafel King would know all about that.

Additionally, lastly — and most gratefully — things have been relatively quiet on the cyber-bully front lately. The Flying Monkey Squad has not been as obsessively stalkerish this past month as usual. However, that doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten about me totally. They’ve only mentioned me enough to remind me to schedule some more timed tweets about them, not enough to warrant writing another full post about them. I’ll let all my previous posts about those psychotic miscreants stand for the time being. For the day to day hilarity, you could check The Johnny Dollar Depreciation Society over at facebook.

A clue for the clueless: If you ever did forget about me, I promise to stop writing about you. I would have thought you would have figured that out by now. And, I know whose reputation is being hurt by this continued feud and it’s not mine. Your move, Chicolinis.

Dear readers: If you’ve read this far without clicking on an advert by now, you’re a poopyhead.

The 32nd Annual King Mango Strut

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Fake Ford, Fake Francis

The IM came from a functionary of the King Mango Strut: “Can we go off the record?” 

This can be a trap for a journalist. Answer “Yes” and anything you’re told cannot be reported. Answer “No” and you may lose a good tip. What to do? What to do?

After thinking it over for 10 seconds — and remembering how an anonymous tip led to all my reporting on Trolleygate — I agreed to go “off the record.”

“The Rob Ford that will be Grand Marshall at tomorrow’s King Mango Strut is not the real Rob Ford. He’s a lookalike.”

Oh, great!!! I now have the Scoop of the Century and I can only report it if I can get 2 independent sources to go on the record. But why would I even want to?

The King Mango Strut is one of those Coconut Grove events I’ve made fun of in the past. I’ve compared the yearly Strut whoop dee doo negatively with the total lack of concern and awareness for the E.W.F. Stirrup House. However, the truth of the matter is, I have never attended one myself. I just made fun of it from a distance. This would be the year I would change all of that. I was determined to make fun of it close up.

However, before I ever made fun of the King Mango Strut in the past, I did look at hundreds of online pictures from various previous King Mango Struts. One of the things that struck me looking at all those pics is how many of the participants and observers are White. Like 98.4%.

Okay, I plead guilty to looking at everything in Coconut Grove as two societies divided by The Colour Line. The truth is that whenever I look at pictures of any Coconut Grove event, I tend to see a sea of White faces. Believe me, I obsessively look for the people who stand out, because so few do.

The E.W.F. Stirrup House is marked, with
Commodore Plaza where the blue dots stop

I hope you don’t get the impression that West Grove — Black Grove — is on the other side of town, or anything. The King Mango Strut marshals on Commodore Plaza, the next street over from Charles Avenue, just on the other side of The Colour Line. Commodore Plaza is White Coconut Grove. Just behind it is Black Coconut Grove. It’s a slow 3-minute saunter from the historic 120-year old E.W.F. Stirrup House, currently undergoing Demolition by Neglect, to the middle of Commodore Plaza.

The King Mango Strut also [in all those pics] had the faint whiff of alcohol on the breath. From the pics it just seemed like an excuse for a drunken party. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The whole thing, in all the pics I viewed over the years, just seemed like one big goof. People didn’t take themselves, or the parade, very seriously.

In fact the whole thing started as a big Eff You to the Orange Bowl Parade years ago when King Orange put so many conditions on entering a float (No kazoos? That’s crazy!!!) that some intrepid Grovites pulled a Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland and started their own damned parade. Hence King Mango. King Orange got kicked to the curb in 2002, but King Mango lives on. The WikiWhackyWoo gets it:

The spirit of the King Mango Strut is significantly tongue-in-cheek. Participants are willing to poke fun at anything and everything. Most of the parade consists of satire of events that have happened in the last year, from world events to state to local. Nothing is off-limits, and the boundaries of good taste are often pushed or broken in the name of irreverent comedy. For example, co-founder Bill Dobson died from cancer in October 2004, but made an appearance in the 2004 Mango Strut, in the form of an urn, with ashes being strewn along the parade route. A group followed with brooms and vacuums followed, trying to “get Bill out of the road.” Organizers do have some humility, however; the ashes were not actually Bill’s remains but regular fireplace ash mixed with kitty litter. However, a sign rode along with Bill’s urn, proclaiming “Hey, I may be dead, but I can still vote in Miami.” Governor Rick Scott, Giant Snails, Global Warming and whatever is current are also “fodder for fun” skits.

When I heard early in the week that Rob Ford, the Crack Smoking Mayor of the town I call home, was going to be Grand Marshall of the 32nd Annual King Mango Strut, I had to see if I could score an interview and put Not Now Silly on the map.

I decided my best bet for doing that would be to latch onto the Coconut Grove Drum Circle. A few weeks ago I mentioned to one of the CGDC organizers that a visit to the Grove coincided with one of their evening get-togethers and I would drop by when I was finished. However, best laid plans, and all that, and I had to skip it. Having now told the drum circle that I would be coming, I decided that it would be impolite to not show up again — just because the real Rob Ford decided not to go. Which is why bright and early Sunday I was driving the 35 miles to Coconut Grove.

MEA CULPA: I misjudged the King Mango Strut entirely. While it’s still 98.4% White, or thereabouts, it’s not the crazy drunken bacchanal as the pictures made it appear. Oh, sure there was a lot of public drinking by both participants and observers, but I didn’t see anyone who was drunk. Except maybe for the fake Rob Ford. It’s hard to tell with that guy.

Something else that I didn’t quite get from all the pics I’ve viewed over the years is the overall vibe of the King Mango Strut, man.

While I’ve written considerably about the Bahamian history of Coconut Grove, I’ve barely touched upon the Bohemian history of Coconut Grove. As long as people have been coming to the Grove, it’s been known as an artists’ colony. From Bohemians to Hippies, The Grove has always had an alternative bent and The King Mango Strut is one of the last vestiges of that Hippie ethos that, I am told, once thrived in the small shops where Cocowalk now is and in Peacock Park. That part of the King Mango Strut actually spoke to me, since I am an unreconstructed Hippie at heart.

And, the drums!!! The incessant drums!!! The beating of the drums!!! 

The CGDC gave off more energy than any of the other floats, and it also
fed off the energy of the participants who got up to dance as they
passed. Experiencing the parade vicariously through the Coconut Grove Drum Circle took me back through the years to Kebo, the African name the original Bahamians gave to the neighbourhood — just the other side of The Colour Line, just the other side of the last century. It made me wonder how long the sound of drums have echoed through this area. The Coconut Grove Drum Circle is keeping a tradition alive that is as old as sticks and logs. All music starts with the rhythm.

A big THANK YOU to the Coconut Grove Drum Circle for allowing me to document up close their participation — from start to finish — in the 32nd King Mango Strut. There’s a much larger facebook gallery of pics here and a playlist of videos at my YouTubery channel.

And, clearly I didn’t insult anyone because the Coconut Grove Drum Circle has invited me back.

What’s Going On At The Taurus Bar?

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Framework for an awning is being installed on The Taurus Bar, December 19, 2013.
This work may or may not be non-conforming, may or may be contrary to previous
promises, and may or may not have been built without benefit of a building
permit. With the Grove Gardens Residence Condominiums in the background.

A recent visit to Coconut Grove to document The Bicycle Shop revealed work going on at The Taurus Bar, the venerable watering hole in front of the Grove Gardens Residence Condominiums. 

Based on my previous investigations of [allegedly] illegal work going on inside the E.W.F. Stirrup House, it’s fair to ask the following questions: *


1) Does this work conform to all Miami and Miami-Dade bylaws?
2). Does this work conform with whatever promises were made to preserve The Taurus when the GGRC was built?
3). Does the owner have a building permit for the work?

I’ve written about The Taurus briefly, and only tangentially, during my research of Coconut Grove. It’s owned by an arm of Aries Development, builder of the GGRC, the monstrosity that dwarfs the little one-room building and the 2-story E.W.F. Stirrup House. Aries also owns the two other restaurants on the ground floor of the mixed use condo complex. Aries, in case you haven’t been following along chapter by chapter, also owns the two lots on the north side of Charles Avenue immediately behind the Coconut Grove Playhouse. Furthermore, Aries is about to get title to The Bicycle Shop — extremely valuable Main Highway frontage — in exchange for reliquishing all claims against the Playhouse for a previous loan.

The historic 120-year old E.W.F. Stirrup House — a 2-story modified Conch-
style house — dwarfed by the 5-story Grove Gardens Residence Condominiums

Far more important, at least as far as I am concerned, is that Aries also finagled a 50-year lease on the E.W.F. Stirrup House and has been allowing it to undergo Demolition by Neglect during the 8 years it has had control of the 120-year old cultural treasure. The Stirrup House is now believed to be the 2nd oldest house in Miami, after the Barnacle, Commodore Monroe’s house, which is now a Historical State Park and less than a tenth of a mile away. 

Charles Avenue has been designated an Historical Roadway and the E.W.F. Stirrup House has also been designated historical by the City of Miami. However, the practical effect seems to be no practical effect.on Gino Falsetto, the primary owner of Aries Development. His stewardship of this historical landmark has been nothing less than shameful.

Related: Why saving the Stirrup House saves important Black History?
Please read:Unpacking Coconut Grove ► Part Two ► E.W.F. Stirrup House

Preserving the Taurus Bar was among the promises Aries Development made in order to get its permits to build the Grove Gardens Residence Condominiums. So was preserving and renovating the E.W.F. Stirrup House. It’s interesting to compare and contrast the treatment of the Taurus vs. the fate of the E.W.F. Stirrup House. 

The Taurus goes back, at the very least, to 1906, when it was a tea room for the High Society of Coconut Grove. Over the years it went from being a tea house to a neighbourhood bar. It attracted those within walking distance, but another one of the attractions, especially for the old-timers, was — as downtown Coconut Grove became overly developed — there was a free parking at the Taurus Bar in the years just before the GGRC was built. [Drinking and driving? Never mind.]

The E.W.F. Stirrup House goes back to the 1890s. I’ve written so much about the Stirrup House, I won’t go into its history here, other than its recent history. Ownership of the house remains in the hands of the Stirrup Family, as dictated by the will left behind when E.W.F. died in 1957. Aries obtained a 50-year lease on the house through a complicated property swap that’s detailed elsewhere at Not Now Silly.

While Gino Falsetto (through Aries, of course) promised to preserve and renovate both the Taurus and the Stirrup House, only the Taurus was fixed up. It’s been open almost the entire time. During a period that coincides almost perfectly with the Taurus being open, the E.W.F. Stirrup House has been empty, undergoing Demolition by Neglect, as mold, mildew and termites work away at the house.

I was told the reason no work ever progressed on the Stirrup House was because Aries ran out of money. However, The Taurus has been generating money for Aries and Aries had enough money to loan the defunct Playhouse board some of it. But, isn’t it strange Gino Falsetto never found the money to fulfill its OBLIGATION to restore the E.W.F. Stirrup House. And now it’s spending MORE money to put an awning on the Taurus before it fulfills its promises on the Stirrup House.

The Taurus Bar on December 19, 2013
TO BE FAIR: The Taurus could use an awning. Any place that hopes to have a viable outdoor patio, which The Taurus hopes to, in South Florida needs an awning. Fans and mist-ers are also a good idea. However, can you just throw an awning on any old building? What about a building more than 100 years old? What about a building more than 100 years old that you’ve promised to preserve?

And, while I’m asking questions, where’s the building permit? I looked inside and out, but saw no building permit. Does this awning affect pedestrian traffic? Was a study done of pedestrian traffic? Does the awning encroach on the public easeway for the sidewalk? How is Main Highway impacted by this awning. Is this an [alleged] infraction against Miami by-laws, Miami-Dade by-laws, or both?

Based on the past performance of Gino Falsetto these are all fair questions to ask. By sheer coincidence these happen to be the same questions I’ll be asking city and county officials in the next few days.

* The work is probably finished by now in advance of The King Mango Strut with Grand Marshall Rob Ford.