I remember it was like a cross of playing hand ball but you can catch it, and throw it back. The name came from when you dropped the ball or passed one of the lines, or when throwing it under the line on the wall, you would have to run to the wall and touch it if not we would be able to throw the ball towards you and hopefully hit you hard enough to bruise lol.

shot on 35mm film.

In the Nov. 3 election, voters in the city of Miami will be asked to decide three referendums. Here is the Herald Editorial Board’s recommendation on Referendum 3:

Referendum 3: Voters are being asked to approve a lease of city-owned property on Virginia Key to redevelop existing Rickenbacker and Marine Stadium marinas.

Our recommendation: Vote NO

Why? This is a 10-year-old redevelopment deal to lease 27 acres of public waterfront property to private developers, a measure even some Miami commissioners weren’t happy about putting on the ballot. The two marinas on Virginia Key may need renovation — may even need it badly — but this proposal has dragged on for too long due to prolonged legal wrangling.

A judge ultimately ordered the city to put the proposal, which is a lease for 45 years plus two potential 15-year extensions, in front of voters this November. City-owned waterfront leases or sales need to be approved by voters through a referendum, an important safeguard for land that is limited and precious. However, voters are now in the untenable position of trying to decide on a deal that was first proposed in 2016.

Virginia Key LLC, a partnership involving RCI Group and Suntex Marinas, says it wants to invest $80 million in private money for the project. The project includes wet and dry boat storage, restaurants, retail, parking and waterfront improvements, and it would be done in an “environmentally sensitive manner.” The new operators would pay the city a minimum base rent of $2.2 million a year, plus a percentage of revenues.

The current Rickenbacker marina operator, Aabad Melwani, has been there for 40 years, and his family’s lease expired back in 2016. That’s not a good situation, either. He’s on a month-to-month lease now, leaving his business in limbo and raising questions about whether it’s time for someone else to manage the property.

Over a decade ago, when the city put out a bid request to redevelop the site, Melwani’s team, Biscayne Marine Partners LLC, submitted a bid, but that bid was ranked second by the city’s selection committee, behind Virginia Key LLC. Melwani’s team sued over the bidding process and lost.

The city subsequently rejected all the proposals for the site and put a referendum on the ballot in 2021 asking voters to approve a no-bid lease for Melwani’s team. Voters rejected the ballot item. And Virginia Key LLC sued the city.

In 2023, a judge ruled that the city had acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” by rejecting all bids and favoring a lower-ranked bidder. That brings us to this summer, when commissioners, forced by the courts, voted reluctantly to put the Virginia Key LLC proposal on the ballot for voters to decide.

The delay might not have been fair to the bid winners, who might have had their project approved a long time ago, but ultimately this is about what’s best for the public.

Gramps Getaway, a waterfront bar on Virginia Key, has become one of the most visible faces of the opposition. Even though Virginia Key LLC has said Gramps would be able to stay at the Rickenbacker marina, owner Adam Gersten has called this a “fight for the soul of Miami.”

There is a far amount of truth to Gersten’s words. Miami is in danger of losing its sense of place and the things that make it special, including waterfront access. With the influx of the ultrarich during and after the pandemic, we have worried that our city could become a place that only the wealthy can enjoy. Gentrification and soaring property values have continued driving the city in that direction.

The marine redevelopment deal going before voters may truly provide a “waterfront for all,” as the developers have been promising. That would be great. But then there’s the question of the value being assigned to this land. Virginia Key LLC notes that there are two appraisals from early 2026 that determined the deal on the ballot goes “above fair-market value.” The opposition takes issue with the methodology and independence of the appraisals.

As Miami Commissioner Miguel Angel Gabela said at a commission meeting in June, “I think this is a bad deal for the city.” He said he didn’t “feel comfortable with the numbers dating back 10 years.”

The answer to all of these questions — about the value of the land, any outdated conditions in the lease and the worry that Miami might lose another piece of its specialness — isn’t to lock down the use of the land, no matter how many delays the bid winner has had to put up with.

The answer is harder than that: The city needs to figure out what makes sense for Virginia Key’s marinas in the Miami of today. Once the land is leased, it’ll be too late.

In the Nov. 3 election, voters in the city of Miami will be asked to decide three referendums. Here are the Herald Editorial Board’s recommendations on Referendums 1 and 2:

Referendum 1: It allows the city to borrow money by issuing $450 million in general obligation bonds, paid off with ad valorem property taxes, to improve or replace “critically deteriorating facilities” for police and fire rescue, including the construction of a new public-safety building near Miami Freedom Park, the soccer stadium and commercial complex. This measure would not increase the capital projects debt millage rate of 0.5935 but would still raise taxes.

Our recommendation: Vote NO

Why? There’s little debate about the aging conditions of some of Miami’s public safety facilities. There are leaky roofs, showers that don’t work, mold, rust, sinkholes, air conditioning that goes out and even health hazards at some fire stations caused by fire trucks parked too close to living quarters, Mayor Eileen Higgins, who’s proposing the bonds, told the Editorial Board.

The question is whether borrowing $450 million — for a total debt estimated to exceed $700 million — is the right answer for a city that already has a lot of debt.

A report by a government finance watchdog group called Truth in Accounting gave the city a “D” grade on financial health in 2023 — calling it a “sinkhole city” — because the city’s bills exceeded its assets, largely because of unfunded pension benefits. Miami’s financial situation hasn’t really improved since the report, Truth in Accounting founder and CEO Sheila Weinberg told the Editorial Board based on public city data.

We don’t believe Miami has exhausted all other options before asking voters to swipe the proverbial credit card. It’s an especially tough to ask residents already hurting from high costs to take on a bigger tax burden.

The city says the bonds would cost homeowners an estimated average of $9.20 per month in additional property taxes — actual values could be higher or lower as bonds are sold on the market and interest rates fluctuate. The estimate is based on the city’s average assessed property value of $423,000.

The majority of the money — about $305 million — would pay for the new public safety building to house police and fire headquarters, 911 and emergency operations. The rest — $145 million — would go toward fire rescue. That includes repairs at existing fire stations and building four new ones in East Shenandoah, Allapattah, Liberty City and on Watson Island, serving areas where Higgins said emergency response times surpass the six-minute national standard.

“So we have entire neighborhoods that have completely inadequate response times,” Higgins said.

Higgins makes a passionate and compelling plea, and she deserves credit for trying to address a problem that many previous administrations avoided confronting. But before asking taxpayers to borrow this much money, we would have expected Miami to have held extensive public discussions and lots of town halls, with alternatives clearly spelled out. For example, could the city come back to voters with a smaller bond amount for new construction and pay for repairs and maintenance at fire stations through its annual budget, as governments are generally supposed to do?

Instead, Higgins’ proposal came as a surprise earlier this year, and in July she barely got it through the city commission by a 3-2 vote.

The “Safe and Ready Miami” referendum is being sold as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to modernize Miami’s emergency infrastructure, and the city has welcomed the media to document deteriorating conditions especially at the downtown Police Department building, which is over 50 years old. (The city has discussed plans to sell the property.) Half of Miami’s 16 fire stations are over 50 years, two are older than 60 and need to be replaced, and 13 need repairs, Higgins said.

None of this is new information to city leaders. The problem is that cities across the nation tend to defer maintenance to balance their budgets, and once things get too bad, “they go to the voters and ask them if they can borrow money to fix it,” Weinberg said. She added that if the city borrows the full $450 million, its reported bonds, loans and liabilities could rise from over $1 billion to $1.5 billion, representing an increase of roughly 42% in this debt category — a large increase, Weinberg said.

The city is still paying off the Miami Forever bonds, approved by voters in 2017 for affordable housing projects and other purposes.

Commissioners Damian Pardo and Christine King voted against putting Referendum 1 on the ballot. They told the Editorial Board the process felt rushed. They argue the city can fund at least some of the projects without a tax increase and that the well-funded campaign behind the referendum is based on “fear” about inadequate response times (Higgins did tell Channel 10 that “lives are at stake.”) Pardo said he hasn’t heard reports of “people being in worse state” because an ambulance didn’t arrive in time.

“I don’t think that the administration is providing all of the facts,” King said.

Pardo and King, however, haven’t provided a thought-out alternative to fund projects they recognize the city needs. If the referendum fails, the responsibility will fall on the commission to figure out what’s next. Voters should hold them accountable if they don’t.

The two commissioners said they want to look at the possibility of public-private partnerships to build some stations, along with other forms of financing. If, after doing that homework, the city still believes it needs to ask voters to borrow some money, they said they would support a future referendum.

These steps should have happened before voters were asked to choose between more debt or more deferred maintenance. That’s an unfair choice. Higgins is trying to address an important problem, but there are too many questions on whether her solution is fully baked. Voters need to send a message to city leaders to do better.

Referendum 2: This measure is somewhat related to Referendum 1. It asks voters if they want to create a permanent advisory committee to oversee capital projects funded with general obligation bonds. The committee would have the authority to monitor and publicly report on the status, cost and timeline of projects and how much money is left.

Our recommendation: Vote YES

Why? This creates oversight on bonds Miami issues to finance things such as roads, parks, housing, flood protection as well as police and fire facilities if Referendum 1 is approved. Currently, resident oversight of city bonds can be eliminated by a simple city commission vote and this referendum would enshrine the advisory committee into Miami’s charter, Commissioner Ralph Rosado said in a social media video.

Who is coming up with the sayings on the billboard for pollo tropical on nw 27th and 7th? they are always changing & funny asf 10/10! i wish i took a pic of the other ones ive seen this one being the most recent & very on point with miami 😂😂😂

It’s writhing in pain seems to have bit his tongue in half with his mouth when it happened and broke a leg and lost both of his eyes

Randomly craving wonton soup. Anyone have any recs for takeout?

I’m trying to find the name of this local Miami band. I think they were part of the alt-Latino scene around 2010-2014. Photo is from production of a TV pilot that became the 2013 movie “The Arrangement” (Brian Greenberg, Stephanie Sigman). Band had a minor local hit but I’ve lost the track file.

The band played their hit in an ending wedding scene in the original pilot edit, but the music was swapped out for a standard in the movie edit.

So far all my searches are coming up empty.

If you are like me and quit going when they started charging admission- you can check it out for free for the next couple years. Rock* sponsored locals getting free passes as part of the GTA6 hype.

Hi all,

I'm currently going thru med school apps and interviews. I have been rejected from one school already and in the feedback they sent me, it said I need more clinical/shadowing hours.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to find shadowing or clinical hours? I have emailed a bunch of physicians with no answer, Baptist hospital wants me to pay money for it, volunteering wants a commitment for a year.

I also work full time as a teacher right now so I would really appreciate some weekend opportunities or something like that.

TIA!!!!

Anyone know a great mechanic that has experience with Cadillac Northstar engines? The closer to downtown the better.

Also, I know what some of you are going to say about the engine. But do you know an experienced mechanic or not?

I got into an argument the other day with someone who said that Hialeah and Coral Gables aren’t Miami but I was arguing that they are. He said that Miami is actually the neighborhoods of Liberty City,Lil Haiti,Coconut Grove etc. What do you guys think Miami really is?

Hello! Planning on visiting Miami in early December but wanting to explore downtown for a day (we'll be staying in South Beach). We'd Uber/Lyft over to the Design District from SoBe, I've seen that there are free trolleys that operate all throughout the downtown area and was wondering if anyone can help with which route/trolley to take if we wanted to get from the Design District directly to Brickell City Centre? I looked at the route maps and am stuck between these options, should I:

1) Take the Biscayne trolley to the Brickell Metro Station, then walk over to the Centre

2) Take the Biscayne trolley only and get off at SW 7 St, since the Centre is a street over (according to the route map there's a stop at SW 7 St)

From the Design District we'd be near the Eye Dome, where should we go to get picked up by the trolley?

T.I.A! Excited for this trip.

No matter your affiliation, please go vote. The presidential election is not the only important election.

Early voting locations are open 7AM - 7PM 7 days a week. Make the time to go to your nearest polling location.

“… A dog is on the loose after attacking a girl Wednesday in Miami-Dade, leaving blood, scattered dog treats and toys, and a mangled dog crate outside the scene.

Neighbors heard a girl screaming and called 911. A woman speaking through a Spanish translator said the dog wouldn’t let the girl go, biting one arm before going after the other.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and Miami-Dade sheriff’s deputies responded to Northwest 66th Street around 4:40 p.m. for an animal bite. Deputies said they learned the dog was a family pet.

The dog’s owner, who asked to remain anonymous, told Local 10 the incident was a shock.

“It is a big shock because this is not him. This is completely out of character,” she said….”