Right after Puerto Rican native Yolimar Bravo heard about this huge new mural on the TV news, she and her 11-year-old son, Daniel, quickly jumped in the car with Miguel Fayad to make the drive from West Kendall to see it in person — before the City of Miami forces the restaurant to paint over it.
Turns out, the owners of La Placita, an upcoming Puerto Rican restaurant in Miami’s busy MiMo district, didn’t get the project cleared with a historic preservation board that oversees the area.
The restaurant was set to open Friday, Dec. 28, at 6789 Biscayne Blvd. by Julián Gil, the Latin American television star raised in Puerto Rico. But the mural apparently doesn’t meet with the approved palette of the neighborhood.
The MiMo Biscayne Boulevard Historic District is the only commercial district in Miami to receive a historic designation. Named for its unique architectural style, the district is seeing a renaissance, as many of the once-rundown motels are being renovated under the historic board’s guidelines, which include a palette of paint colors.
Apparently, after locals spotted the hard-to-miss mural, they raised concerns about whether owners actually had followed the rules before making such a massive change to the cityscape along this stretch of the Boulevard.
Stay tuned as this story of the wayward flag unfurls.
