Tagged: only in South Florida

Five years ago, Peter Zalewski was working as a business journalist, but he jumped into real estate before the condo crisis hit and founded Condo Vultures. His provacatively named real estate firm has grown by leaps and bounds, helping buyers to sift through the foreclosure stats and find steals in South Florida’s real estate collapse. Last year, he also appeared in Michael Moore’s

South Florida is becoming a freediving hub, thanks in part to renowned Czech diver Martin Stepanek, who founded Freediving Instructors International in Fort Lauderdale. His partner Niki Roderick– also an accomplished free diver– teaches courses too.

In our first episode, you’ll hear the voices of a Holocaust survivor who made pool cues in Miami Beach and a migrant tomato picker who struggles for higher wages in Immokalee.  After losing her son, Queen Brown has taken up the fight to end youth violence, and to make peace in her own family.  Two cat burglars remember how they made off with millions of dollars in jewels from Palm Beach mansions.  The Miracle Fruit Man introduces our co-host Alicia Zuckerman to a magical berry.  A 17-year-old announcer at Dania Jai A-lai hopes to revive a fading sport.  And in our regular “What’s Up With So

Dan Grech gets a government form in the mail and he’s asked to decide: Is he Hispanic, or “a big white guy?” He’s pretty sure he’s not Latino.

To sort it all out, he invited demographer Maria Aysa to the studio.

In this piece, she explains the difference between the terms Hispanic and Latino, and why some people are so adamant about using one instead of the other.

In our regular What’s Up With South Florida? feature, you decide what we investigate.  You voted overwhelmingly for an explanation of the “Inglish Gratis” sign outside of Hialeah High.  This photo had been circulating virally through email.  It was brought to our attention by  photographer Tomas Loewy.  In Episode 3 of Under the Sun, Kenny Malone set out to solve the mystery of this misspelling. (-T.S.)

Funding for this episode provided by a grant from The Florida Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The writer Somerset Maugham called Florida a “sunny place for shady people.”  A couple of decades before Bernard Madoff hit Palm Beach, a pair of cat burglars hit mansions up and down the coast.  Lyn Millner tells us where they are now.

Before becoming a jewel thief, Dominick Latella played guitar with a band called Two + Two in New York.  Here are some songs from the band’s record:

This is the sad story of a very tall tree.

"This one right here," says Patrick Griffith, slapping his hand on a rough, grayish trunk, "coccothrinax barbadensis."

Griffith is executive director at the Montgomery Botanical Center, a 120-acre horticultural haven less than two miles from the more famous – yet 50 percent smaller – Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.

One of the themes that’s emerged as we commemorate the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew, is how the storm inspired a lot of good intentions, as well as just pure kindness.

In 2002, Homestead sought to commemorate the tenth year anniversary of the storm. The area had been, by far, the hardest hit during the storm.

Judy Waldman was on the Homestead City Council the year Homestead was planning the commemoration.

She said what struck her most about the time following the hurricane was the way people had banded together and helped their neighbors and strangers.