Coconut Grove

Gaslighting Another Black Community For Fun & Profit

Scratch beneath any story in Coconut Grove and you’ll discover the issue of race lurking. We’ll get to that eventually, but this true fable — with a twist on the race issue — starts with the approval of a Wawa gas station in the City of Coral Gables. So what? Cities approve gas stations all the time. However, this approval didn’t have any public consultation with the community, nor public hearings, both of which would normally have taken place. And, that’s ...

The Latest Visit to the E.W.F. Stirrup House

The E.W.F. Stirrup House on May 14, 2013 Dateline May 14, 2013 – It’s almost a nervous tic. Anytime I am near Coconut Grove, I visit the E.W.F. Stirrup House and ...

To West Coconut Grove’s Continued Health

May 6, 2013 – Community Health of South Florida cut the ribbon on its spanking new Coconut Grove Health Center. It was quite the celebration at 3831 Grand Avenue in West ...

Bulldozing Cultural History

The soon-to-be-former Millender Apartments in Detroit A recent article at Deadline Detroit got me thinking about how cultural history can be bulldozed without any structures being lost. Bill McGraw was writing ...

No Skin In The Game ► Part Three

History is complicated. Little did I realize how accurate I was in intimating Coral Gables has a long history of Racism, going back to its founding. As reported in Part Two ...

Marc D. Sarnoff: Trolleygate Hypocrite Takes A Bridge Too Far

I couldn’t help but laugh at a recent quote from Emperor Marc D. Sarnoff, Commissioner of Miami’s District 2. Marc (along with Mayor Tomas Regalado) is suing the Florida Department of ...

No Skin In The Game; Part Two

A panorama of the Coconut Grove Village Council. As we ended our last exciting episode (Part One of No Skin in the Game), I was leaving the Trolleygate protest in Coral ...

An Update On Sarnoff’s Trolleygate aka Astor’s Trolley Folly

The view of the diesel bus garage from the closest house, a mere 100 feet from where the polluting buses will be idling. These days whenever I visit Coconut Grove I ...

A Return To Frow Avenue

When I was in the Coconut Grove on Saturday, I was so intent on taking pictures of the people celebrating the One Grove mural, that I didn’t notice something that ...

Unveiling the One Grove Mural – A Photo and Video Essay

Dateline March 2, 2013 – Residents of West Grove get together to unveil the One Grove mural at the corner of Frow Avenue and Douglas, right next to the Coral ...

Trolleygate Brings A Community Together

Diesel bus garage, February 27, 2013 While crews continue to build the nonconforming Coral Gables diesel bus garage, a lawsuit by West Grove residents is working its way through the court ...

Does The White Hand Know What The Left Hand Is Doing?

At the east end of Charles Avenue in Coconut Grove, Florida are two festering, open wounds: The Coconut Grove Playhouse and the E.W.F. Stirrup House. I’ve written extensively about the ...

Inside The E.W.F. Stirrup House ► Before and After

The E.W.F. Stirrup House on February 22, 2013 I’ve been documenting the E.W.F. Stirrup House since July of 2009, during which time I have researched its rich 120-year old history. In ...