Category Archives: Miami

BankUnited Blacklists 191 Miami Condos

Posted on February 15, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

I don’t pretend to understand the ins and outs of the Miami real estate market, and especially not the condo market (which seems largely divorced from the single-family housing market), but this looks like a big deal to me: via Eye On Miami, the news that BankUnited blacklists 191 condo projects.

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Colbert Does Coral Gables

Posted on February 5, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

I've tried to avoid linking to shows subject to the writers' strike, but I can't resist pointing you to this very funny Colbert bit about my hometown, Coral Gables. And it's not just funny, it's about a genuine legal issue that I wrote about in There Goes the Neighborhood?.

(spotted via South Florida Daily Blog…something I have a feeling I may be writing often)

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A Tiny Note From the Frontlines of Democracy

Posted on January 14, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

I had occasion to visit the Coral Gables public library at opening time this morning (a fruitless search for a lost cell phone which turned out to have never left the house).

The library is one of the local polling places that is open for early voting, and there were actual voters there (not me, I'm waiting for the last minute). There were also actual canvassers, four of them, stationed by the entrance to the library parking lot.

Keeping in mind that we have some ballot amendments as well as the two party primaries, what candidates or causes do you suppose that these four people were supporting? (Hint: there was more than one working together, but not all four were there for the same reason.)

Answer below.

Continue reading →

Posted in Miami | 1 Comment

It Rained Iguanas This Week

Posted on January 5, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

It says in Nostradamus: No Black man can be elected President until it rains Iguanas.

Well, while I was lying in bed feeling sorry for myself, it got real cold out (for Florida) and then it rained iguanas. Really:

When the temperature falls below a certain level, the large green lizards drop out of the trees and litter the ground.

…

It was raining iguanas at Bill Baggs Thursday morning.

Many of them aren't hurt, though, just in a sort of suspended animation from the cold.

Posted in Miami | 2 Comments

Coral Gables’s Mysterious Nativity Scene

Posted on December 22, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

This elaborate nativity scene is prominently displayed in downtown Coral Gables near the corner of Ponce De Leon and Alhambra, on a little circle of land that might be public, or might be an amenity belonging to a nearby office building. It has no sign on it saying who erected it or how it got to be there.

Google Maps actually has a good image of it:


View Larger Map

I've never taught or litigated an Establishment Clause case, but I was under the impression that if this is public land, there has to be a sign on such a display explaining who paid for it, lest it appear to be a city-purchased religious display. Then again, it might be private land. Indeed, one of my colleagues tells me that there used to be a church where the building next to the circle now stands (the tall thin building in the image above), and speculates that when they sold the land they held on to this piece (or kept an easement) just for this purpose. Could be: but why no sign claiming credit?

Posted in Law: Constitutional Law, Miami | 1 Comment

MTV Picks UM Student as Florida Rep for National Vlogger Program

Posted on December 21, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

MTV has just set up a national corps of citizen-journalist vloggers: they've hired a young person from every state and DC to do weekly video reports covering politics in their state.

Florida's correspondent is Anthony Wojtkowiak, a fourth-year student in UM's Communications program,

I am a fourth year Video-Film Honors student in the School of Communication at the University of Miami. This year I will travel to Dominican Republic and Kenya to do journalistic reports about projects meant to help the poor. I was an intern and am now a consultant for Knight Foundation. I also edit a web site at University of Miami called mediaforchange.org. It has tools and ideas for how to get involved in activist causes, but is unfortunately down for repairs right now. I was a Resident Assistant in Pearson Residential College for three years and I really enjoy impacting people's lives positively. I hope to be a postive role model for young people, and I hope to make a difference and find other people who will do the same.

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