Just when you thought the beast couldn’t get bigger… — photo via Ultra’s Facebook page
Notice a huge firework display over Downtown Miami? Can you hear the uhntz uhntz uhntz? No? You will — and soon. And you will hear it again and again this year, for two weekends, especially if you live or work anywhere near Downtown Miami.
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Last month’s Start-Up City: Miami, an event we previewed in my interview with urbanist Richard Florida, brought together entrepreneurs and techies for a day-long discussion about Miami’s potential future as a global ideas and innovation capital. This video from The Atlantic, which co-hosted the event alongside the Knight Foundation and Florida’s Creative Class Group, features several of the speakers and attendees, including Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, former City of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, and someone who looks and sounds a lot like me.
To learn more about the event, check out our preview post — “Brain Circulation and Miami’s Future as a Start-Up City” — and the Herald’s recap.
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Organized by influential urbanist and author Richard Florida (pictured), Start-Up City: Miami will feature talks by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh and AOL co-founder Steve Case on Wednesday, Feb. 13. — photo by Jaime Hogge
The narrative of Miami’s ongoing transformation comprises various story lines, including, most prominently, the burgeoning of its artist community and cultural offerings (as chronicled in the recently released documentary Rising Tide). There’s also the less prominent stories of its increasingly vibrant music scene — attested to by our list of the Top 50 South Florida Songs of 2012 — and its surprisingly rich bike culture (surprising because our sprawled-out, car-centric city would seem utterly inhospitable to bike travel — and, in fact, it can be.)
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The Steubenville rape case shows how far football mania can go. — photo via salon.com
In an open letter to Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross after the 2011-2012 NFL season, Beached Miami Damn Dolphins columnist Nathaniel Sandler made a bold claim: “Football is the most important thing in America.” As a sports fan who is not particularly fanatic about American football, I first considered the claim a ridiculous exaggeration. Then Sandler’s brief explanation made me realize what he meant by it, and why it was not only not a ridiculous claim but possibly true.
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With 59 chapters around the world, the Awesome Foundation is now in Miami to fund “flashes of micro-brilliance.” — photo via stickermule.com
Got an awesome idea that needs a bit of money to become reality? Lucky for you, the Awesome Foundation just opened a local chapter and is currently accepting applications for “micro-genius” grants of $1,000. To learn more about the foundation and exactly what kind of awesomeness it intends to fund in Miami, I traded emails with Natalia Martinez, AF’s Miami dean.
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With Election Day looming, there is a tension in the air all across America that even a diligent disregarder of politics can’t help but feel. The heated presidential contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, with its bottomless negativity and relentless fear-mongering, has brought the tension to new heights, but, in truth, America now exists in a perpetual state of hyper-partisan apoplexy, and has for all of the 21st Century.
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I’m embracing Barack Obama for president again. Here’s why. — photo by @barackobama via Instagram
With the presidential election one week away, newspaper editorial boards across the country are announcing their endorsements. In Florida, the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times endorsed President Barack Obama while the Orlando Sentinel and the Sun Sentinel threw their weight behind Republican challenger Mitt Romney. For its part, the Palm Beach Post is choosing not to endorse a candidate for president and is instead presenting a case for each candidate to its readers.
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As many in Miami have heard by now, visionary developer and passionate preservationist Tony Goldman died on Tuesday of heart failure at the age of 68. “His company, Goldman Properties, transformed Miami Beach from a moth-eaten retirement enclave and narcotics war zone into a celebrity playground, and Wynwood from a gritty warehouse district and homeless encampment into a vibrant arts center where monthly gallery walks draw thousands,” according to the Miami Herald.
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A proposed resolution would hinder the construction of bike facilities on Miami streets, activists say. — photo by @jaredaronson via Instagram
Hank Sanchez-Resnik is on the Board of Directors of Green Mobility Network, which advocates “to make Miami-Dade County a safer and more enjoyable place to bike, run, and walk.” Beached Miami does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in this op-ed.
Too often in Miami-Dade County the dramas related to bicycling involve crashes, cyclists who have been injured or maimed, and hit-and-runs caused by irresponsible drivers. Just before the 2012 Labor Day Weekend, a new and unexpected drama began to play out when County Commissioner Rebecca Sosa (District 6) introduced a resolution that has the potential to make things much worse for bicyclists, not just in Miami-Dade County but throughout the state.
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As the head of Bain Capital, Mitt Romney (left) oversaw the bankruptcy of a medical company that had a profitable Miami plant.
Cindy Hewitt is a former employee at the Miami-based plant of Dade Behring, a defunct medical company that Mitt Romney’s buyout company, Bain Capital, took over and lead to bankruptcy in the ’90s. For more background on the controversial takeover, see the related links at the end of the op-ed. Beached Miami does not necessarily endorse Hewitt’s views.
During election years, politicians love to talk about creating jobs. Creating jobs is something I know quite a bit about.
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