UPDATED: Coconut Grove Grapevine, Stop the Lies!
The back of Tom Falco’s head taken at the Grove 2030 charrette
I covered in Intense Intents in Tents. Oddly enough, that post
mentioned the Terra Group, the latest rapaciousdeveloper
to try to buy up and gentrify Grand Avenue. However,
Tom Falco is only concerned with gentrification in White
neighbourhoods. Stories on West Grove are few and far between.

Can you trust his reporting on development if
he’s taking “gimme caps” from developers?

Over the years I’ve had a lot of fun at the expense of Tom Falco, editor, owner, and grammarian at the Coconut Grove Grapevine.

Our enmity began when I was still using the nom de troll of Aunty Em Ericann and I tried to get him to help me save the E.W.F. Stirrup House.

When he declined I tried to get him to provide me some direction off the record, because I was new to Grove politics, and he might be able to help understand the lay of the land. In my opinion his responses were, on the whole, racist in nature and I was unsure why he’d ‘go there’ with a complete stranger like myself. We’ve pretty much been on opposite sides ever since, occasionally breaking out into public and private skirmishes.

Later he blocked me from commenting on his facebookery because I shared my Coconut Grove articles and, later, tagged him on posts, something I saw him castigate someone else for just yesterday. I’m not sure why he’s so adamant against either practice if the goal is to share information that might be of interest to his readers. However, Falco’s only goal is to protect his little fiefdom, not the free exchange of information. Therefore, any competition must be discouraged.

There was the time I wrote Go Home, Coconut Grove Grapevine, You’re Drunk, which took him to task for being a paranoid idiot after he accused me of having a “crew” that “threatened” him. I wish I were making this up.

This is my favourite part of the Coconut Grove
Grapevine. Go ahead and sue me, Tommy.

A few days after that I posted A Coconut Grove Grapevine Update, in which I slapped him around for writing a public apology to someone after he had defamed and libeled me without apology or retraction.

Then there was the time I wrote If It’s News, It’s News To The Coconut Grove Grapevine in which I admitted being jealous that he was quoted by Miami media to comment on the destruction of the trees at the E.W.F. Stirrup House and Trolleygate, even though he had a bare understanding of either story and hadn’t really written about them to any great degree. And, in another post, I admitted my jealousy of his advertisers.

None of that includes posts I’ve started to write about him because of his tortured English, and then decided not to publish because I don’t want to be known as a grammar Nazi.

However, to my credit, I also wrote Welcome Back Coconut Grove. Falco shut down for a while, saying he was quitting to concentrate on his pathetic cartoons. However, after 4 months of not being a local Coconut Grove celebrity bartering ad space, he returned to the Blogosphere.

Back in the day, I used to make fun of his slogan “Coconut Grove’s Only Daily News” because it was neither. Eventually — and I hope it was because I complained — when he returned from his self-imposed, hair-shirt hiatus he did so with a brand new slogan: Daily updates on what’s up in Coconut Grove and beyond including Brickell, Coral Gables and Midtown Miami.

I guess he was hoping to start selling advertising — or bartering more meals — all over the place. However, he must have been disappointed by the response.

When I was writing Intense Intents in Tents earlier today, I checked to see if he had said anything about the Housing for All protest. Of course not. However, he had found the time to attend and write about what’s got them roiled in Whiteville. Falco had a post on Grove 2030. And then something about mattresses. But, anything of the Housing for All protest happening in between? Of course not. Nothing. Crickets.

That’s when I happened to notice he’s changed his slogan again.  Now it’s:

NOW IN OUR 12th YEAR!
The only place for Coconut Grove,
FL News, Views & Opinions
 

One wonders whether the UBER advert is a paid ad or part of a contra deal.
And why a plug for the mattress store? Is there some quid pro quo happening?
Falco is only concerned about news in Whiteville, also known as the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District, which doesn’t include anything west of Margaret Street on Grand Avenue.

Futhermore, I have proven over and over again that The Grapevine is *NOT* the only place for Coconut Grove News, Views & Opinions. Falco needs to remove his mendacious slogan ASAP.


UPDATE: The Coconut Grove Grapevine finally posted something on the Housing for All protest on the morning of the November 15th. While he managed to mangle a few facts, which is to be expected with Tom Falco, at least he ventured into West Grove.

About Headly Westerfield

Calling himself “A liberally progressive, sarcastically cynical, iconoclastic polymath,” Headly Westerfield has been a professional writer all his adult life.