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🐢 Hot sand does *what* to sea turtles?
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🐢 Hot sand does *what* to sea turtles?

“YOU HAVE TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX”

Home buying in Miami can be a scary prospect for young professionals. The city’s average wages aren’t keeping up with increasing home prices and finding a place for less than $300,000 is almost impossible.

But renting is also really tough. Many SoFlo residents are spending more than half their income on rent and that’s not even taking into account rising rents and all the little costs that come with having an unpredictable landlord.

Given those challenges, when is the right time to buy a house in Miami? We asked New Tropic readers to share their experiences and tips for what to do when you’re ready to make the leap. We rounded up some of those responses in this video. (Thanks to Ross Padfield, Lauren Rodriguez, Monica Gonzalez, and everyone else who shared their stories!)

Here’s some of what they told us:

  • Make sure you have more money saved up than you need
  • Think outside the box when you’re searching for a house, and know that you might not find the perfect one right away
  • Be patient, be bold – and hope for a little luck

This is the first in a series of videos digging into what Miamians should consider when buying a home. We want to know: how does it make you feel when you think about home buying in the 305? Express yourself in the comments on our video with a GIF (and don’t hold back).

MADE POSSIBLE BY CANVAS MIAMI

OH-OHHH WE’RE HALFWAY THERE...

10 Days of Connection is flying by, and we’re loving the conversations going down. Yesterday locals shared what questions they ask to get to know a new person. Here are a few that we’re definitely planning on using in the future:

  • Cats or dogs? (Benjamin Leis)
  • What are you good at? (Stuart Sheldon)
  • If you had the power to change one thing in the world, what would that be? (Mina Hosseini)
  • Beatles or Stones? (Jeff Goldberg)
  • Were you in marching band? (Adriana Oliva)

Got one to share? Join the group and drop it here.

HOW TO CONNECT TODAY

It’s “Let’s Do Lunch” Day, so if you’ve got a midday break, we recommend ditching your #saddesklunch and asking someone you don’t know very well to eat with you. (If you feel weird about that, tell them The New Tropic told you to do it. 😉)

You could join this massive blind group date that formed over in the 10 Days of Connection group, or post your own invitation. (P.S. We’ll be at Madruga Bakery in South Miami if anyone wants to #LetsDoLunch with us at 12:45! Hit reply to the newsletter to let us know if you’ll be dropping in.)

Can’t do one in person? Seandra Pennie is hosting a digital lunch date. Join her here.

Plus, there’s a free drum jam tonight at the South Florida Center for Percussive Arts. Find info on that here.

HOW TO CONNECT THIS WEEKEND

It’s #MiamiWalks time! There are at least 15 free neighborhood tours led by residents going down between Friday and Sunday, from Coconut Grove to Allapattah. Find them all here and if you go, be sure to tag your pics with the hashtag #10DaysofConnection.

Is this the first you’re hearing about the 10 Days of Connection? It’s an initiative to help Miamians build empathy, kindness, and connection across lines of difference, in person and online. Read more here.

WHAT'S NEW IN THE 305

A nice problem to have. Both Miami Commissioner Ken Russell and State Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez raised a whole lotta money in order to run for U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s seat. Now that they’ve both dropped out of the race so they can hold on to their current seats, they’ve got a new dilemma: figuring out what to do with all that campaign cash (a cool $700,000 between the two of them). We wish we had that problem. (Miami Herald)

Are we next? Hawaii just banned the sale of certain sunscreens because some of the ingredients are killing off the state’s breathtaking coral reefs. About 14,000 tons of sunscreen ends up in coral reefs every year, where the chemicals strip the coral of its nutrients, causing it to break down. Hawaii’s the first state to do this, and we’re wondering if Florida, which has a bunch of beautiful reefs of its own, will follow suit. (Buzzfeed)

Alternative views. A University of Miami researcher recently came across a whole bunch of old renderings of projects across Miami that never came to be and turned them into an interactive slideshow so we could compare that with what Miami looks like today. We highly recommend finding a few minutes to geek out over it like we did. Once upon a time, officials proposed making Biscayne Boulevard a pedestrian friendly boulevard, kind of like Paris’s Champs Elysees. (Curbed)

Scary science. Fun fact: Sand temperature during the incubation period determines what gender sea turtles will be when they’re born. Less fun fact: microplastics – those tiny beads that are found in things like exfoliating soap  – can cause sand temperatures to rise if enough of them accumulate, which means that they could cause a gender imbalance in the sea turtle population. South Florida is a major sea turtle nesting spot, so we’re ground zero for this problem. Yet another reason to ditch those microbead products… (Miami Herald)

A green light on the red lights. The Florida Supreme Court has handed down some news that drivers won’t like: local governments can use red light camera to catch drivers running red lights after all. The cameras have been super controversial, with some saying they’ve become an unfair revenue source for cities and others saying they’re a constitutional violation. The City of Miami decided earlier this year to end its own program, but  other SoFlo cities haven’t made the same call, so punch that gas on yellow with extreme caution, friends. (Miami Herald)

Spooky. Apparently the Miami Herald had a newsroom visitor it didn’t know about back in the 1960s: the CIA. According to the JFK assassination files recently declassified by the CIA, longtime Latin America editor and reporter Don Bohning was approved to serve as a “confidential informant” for the spy agency. Another colleague, Alvin Burt, actually passed on information to the CIA about exiles’ plans to infiltrate Cuba. Whoa. (Miami Herald)

It’s not easy being green. Miami-Dade is on a mission to plant 1 million trees by 2020, and it’s about more than looking pretty. As temperatures rise because of global warming, local officials are looking for natural ways to take the temps down a notch, and a healthy tree canopy can actually lower temperatures in an area by a few degrees. Grab your shovel and watering can, folks. (WLRN)

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