More local folks making the news…

Michael Miller

By Michael Miller….

Michael Miller

Proud Palmetto Bay mom Jodi Rouviere is excited about the fact that NBC is dumping “Perfect Couples” and replacing it with “The Paul Reiser Show” beginning Thursday, April 14 at 8:30 p.m. Why? Her young son Koby, a gifted model and actor, is on the show playing Paul Reiser’s son “Gabe.” How cool is that? The new comedy is reportedly loosely based on Reiser’s life post-“Mad About You,” the hit series he starred in with Helen Hunt some years back. Sounds like fun! Congrats to Koby and the rest of the Rouviere family. Bet we know what they’ll be watching!

Blooming artists… If you go to Fairchild Gardens the weekend of April 16th and 17 th for the annual “Bromeliad Show and Sale” you’ll also see the work of some talented local artists. All grade levels of Magnet Art students at Southwood Middle School are currently creating art work which will be exhibited at Fairchild for the event. The art works include tempera paintings, watercolor paintings, oil pastel drawings, colored pencil drawings, and black and white “scratch” drawings. These are all based on bromeliad plants which have been displayed in the classrooms so the students could study them. Their work will be on display in one of the main pavilions at Fairchild.

Hmmm…where did they get that idea? Remember last fall when we ran a story about Palmetto Bay 11th grade student Emily Nelson making the top three in “Miami’s Top Cupcake Challenge” that took place at The Shops at Sunset Place? The event’s celebrity judges were completely surprised, but pleasantly so because Emily’s creative “Chocolate Piggie” cupcakes featured bacon as a key ingredient. Very different and original for a sweet treat. Track forward to the end of March and popular restaurant chain Denny’s announces a special new desert on their menu—-a Maple Bacon Sundae! Not a cupcake of course, but still it’s bacon in desert, which is an unexpected twist. Could they have been inspired by Emily? We’ll probably never know, but Emily and her mom and dad, Amy and Randall Nelson, reportedly all got a chuckle out of it.

It’s a boy! Fanny Carmona-Gonzalez, the Village of Palmetto Bay’s Parks and Recreation Director, recently had her baby, and it’s a happy, healthy little boy. Fanny is a hard working and well-loved member of the village staff, and we extend our congratulations to her and her family, which has now grown.

Belated birthday greetings to Palmetto Bay Councilman Patrick Fiore, whose special day was on March 17. Yes, on St. Patrick’s Day. And yes, that is why his parents named him Patrick. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Many happy returns, Patrick. Oh, and Patrick told us that he really appreciated Brian Pariser’s kind words about him getting the town hall meetings started up again.

We hear from Sheri Friedman, area artist, teacher and gallery owner, that the Blu Moon Studio in the Grove, 3444 Main Hwy. upstairs, will exhibit “Growing into Part of Me,” a collection of acrylic works by the artist Bosque there until April 29. Bosque’s vibrant and energetic paintings are called “a feast for the eyes.” Please call 305-794-0329 for hours.

 

Saga Bay Park is ready to roll (and rock?)

Don’t miss this… Cutler Bay residents are being invited by the town to attend the big Saga Bay Park Dedication Celebration on Saturday April 16 at 12:00 noon, located at 7900 SW 205th Street. It’s to celebrate the completion of the improvements to Saga Bay Park, including new lighted tennis courts, shade-covered playground equipment, parking lot and restrooms. “Enjoy a free cookout, games and activities for the entire family,” they tell us. It’s also a chance to meet your Town Council Members and be among the first to test your skills on the new tennis courts, so bring your racquet if you’re “game.”

For more info call the Parks & Recreation Department at 305-238-4166.

Do your part for the bay. Hey, the 16th is also the date for the annual Baynanza Cleanup, so individuals or groups interested in pitching in to help out can find out more online at http://www.miamidade.gov/derm/baynanza_cle anup_sites.asp.

And don’t forget the Town Council Meeting on April 20. Should be interesting… And we’ve noticed that some of the movers and shakers in Cutler Bay, in town government and beyond, are getting a little cranky with each other lately. They’re all good folks who do want the best for the community, so we’re hoping they’ll remember that small town friends and neighbors community feeling that got them started and keeps them going, ratchet back the emotion a little and “play nice” in the sandbox they all call home.

Blooming artists… If you go to Fairchild Gardens the weekend of April 16th and 17th for the annual “Bromeliad Show and Sale” you’ll also see the work of some talented local artists. All grade levels of Magnet Art students at Southwood Middle School are currently creating art work which will be exhibited at Fairchild for the event. Their work will be on display in one of the main pavilions at Fairchild.

 

Postcript to Peggy: Thanks for trying!

A March groundbreaking for a sevenstory tower at Colony Apartments, 9300 SW 77th Avenue, will erect the tallest residential building on 77th Avenue from Kendall Drive south to 100th Street, except for Dadeland Place, built 40 years ago.

Continental Park area folks last year passionately protested the new development but a Miami-Dade County Court judge cleared the way in January for construction by dismissing a lawsuit filed to stop developer Milton Dadeland, LLC from undertaking the project. The action, filed last August by Peggy Brodeur, member of Community Council 12, challenged a site plan ZAB approval, requiring removal of an existing swimming pool and a clubhouse.

The Council deadlocked in its first 3-3 vote last May to the relief of nearly 100 East Kendall residents turning out in force to oppose the hi-rise tower, but all was short-lived. Ms. Brodeur who eloquently opposed the hi-rise left the meeting, only to discover later that a new resolution was introduced and a 3-2 vote approved the project.

So Peggy filed suit to have the original 3-3 vote in which she participated upheld and require Council 12 to re-vote the issue. Judge Amy Steele Donner, however, ruled in January that Ms. Brodeur lacked standing to file the lawsuit. No appeal has been filed against the Donner decision.

Holly White, Continental Park and East Kendall Homeowner Associations President, along with Woodside, Kingston Square, Tara, and other homeowner spokespersons and individual owners, argued that high-density, overcrowding, noise and traffic would increase significantly by any new residential building.

But now, an overriding objection is the “negative precedent” by the court greenlighting development a majority of its neighbors didn’t want.

Now, asks Holly, is the door open for a proliferation of mid-risers or high-risers, now that Palmetto Expressway ‘line’ is crossed between new Downtown Dadeland towers and leafy green-shaded streets to the immediate west?

Kendall has held the line inside its western UDB boundary but despite a heroic effort by Ms. Brodeur and long-established residents, development beat zoning’s fundamental mission this time: maintaining neighborhood character.

West Kendall Baptist Hospital has opened its doors to special group tours before its planned April 27 opening. Members of the Hammocks Police District Citizens Advisory Committee will inspect the new premises at 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 7.

Others who want a pre-opening tour can tel. 786-467-3405 for information.

Invitations due to go out in the mail for “Operation Turnaround”, Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations annual scholarship presentations for area youngsters nominated by teachers for turning around academics and, in many cases, their lives into productive futures. Board member Jane Walker planning the details for the big event, Wednesday, May 18, at the Firehouse in Doral.

Talk about preparation! We’re happy to carry notice to all past and present alumni, teachers, staff, PTA’rs and volunteers that the Dr. Gilbert L. Porter Elementary School 25th Birthday Reunion, will be held on March 11, 2015, and all who need further information, details, or questions, contact Maria Lopez-Peralta, at her email address: glp.reunion@yahoo.com. You read it here first!

Reports the ayem papyrus (thanks again, Herb Rau): “Kendall only added about 100 residents in the last decade…And West Kendall…actually shrunk. The latest census shows a population of 36,000, a decrease of more than 1,000 residents.” To which Frank Irizarry of West Kendall Business Association replied: “That sounds hyper-tiny!” And it only took a four-member writing team for ‘our pod’ner’ to develop that stupendously-suspicious statistic! (Was that a 1900 census, guys?)

 

 

Thought for the Day:

The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world.

— Max Born

Richard Yager contributed to this column.

Got any tips? Contact me at 305-669- 7355, ext. 249, or send emails to michael@communitynewspapers.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 


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