Tagged: Miami Beach

  On The Florida Roundup today at noon:

Dolphins Stadium

The Florida Legislature balked on proposed renovations to Miami Dolphins stadium. A  public referendum (already in progress) on the renovations was called off. And to make matters worse, the NFL denied South Florida a Super Bowl.

Oklahoma Tragedy

In preparation for Urban Beach Week, WLRN-Miami Herald News asked members of the Public Insight Network to weigh in on the festival. 

In their first fully fleshed-out presentations on Tuesday, the developers competing to redevelop the Miami Beach Convention Center area described a vibrant new urban district of interconnected green spaces and cultural opportunities anchored by cutting-edge designs — even as they crossed swords over which plan would yield more benefits to the city at a better cost.

One of the most contentious aspects of the plan to redevelop the Miami Beach Convention Center has been settled: The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater will stay.

The theater had been slated for demolition by Portman-CMC, one of the two teams still in the running for the massive overhaul project. But with music and history lovers lined up in support of saving the theater, the team said that its plan has changed.

“We listened to the community,” said Jack Portman, vice chairman of Portman Holdings and John Portman & Associates.

Miami Beach is usually pretty colorful. Art Deco buildings boast vivid shades of pink and turquoise. Bright green palm trees line the streets year-round.

But this weekend the city is awash in every color of the rainbow in celebration of Miami Beach Gay Pride, and if last year is any indication, that means a massive throng of at least 60,000 people could flood Ocean Drive.

Community Contributor

I’m a Northern California boy, through and through. I grew up ten minutes north of Berkeley, went to college at Davis, about forty five minutes away, and then was fortunate enough to have the industry I went to school for bloom around me. I spent my post-university career living around the Bay Area, the last four years in the Mission in San Francisco. I am attuned to things that are uniquely San Francisco: burritos, surly Asian women serving me pho, co-workers into fringe politics, passive-aggressiveness.

The Miami Beach Commission is finally going to let investors, developers and architects renovate the Beach's old and frumpy looking convention center.

The convention has been the site for some big events in the city. For example, Art Basel has been hosted at the center for the past few years. But even though some hot events are hosted there, the convention center has maintained its old and outdated look.

That's about to change, though.

“The Black Lords” installation at Lords Hotel emerged as one of the crowd favorites from Art Basel week.

Artist Desi Santiago was the man behind the epic-sized installation that featured a giant black dog wrapped around the Lords Hotel.

Called Gypsy, she breathed smoke and shot lasers from her eyes.

Gypsy also told fortunes. People wrote their questions on cards, dropped them into a box and then learned the answer as Gypsy boomed a “yes,” “no” or “maybe.”