We’re pretty excited to welcome three new New Tropic ambassadors to the fam this month. Huge thanks to Daniela Molina, Marcella McCarthy, and Daniela Pedroza, who each signed at least 10 of their friends up for this newsletter this month. Your set of New Tropic ambassador stickers is on its way, and a snazzy New Tropic keychain isn’t so far off!

Big hugs also go to Margaux Herrera, Shawn Sibela, Zelalem Adefris, Rebecca Willett, Hannah Artman, Natalie Mesa, Jaime Abrams, Amanda Magistad, and Laura Medley, who have each brought at least five people into the fold in the last month.

Want to join them? To spread the word, just send people this unique link or share this customized link – https://thenewtropic.com/invitation/[YourIdHere] – on Facebook, Twitter, your Insta bio, Reddit, etc. As folks sign up using your link, sweet swag will land in your mailbox too. (Find out exactly what here.)

THANK YOU to these folks and all of you who are helping us grow every day. And thanks, fam, for hanging out with us in your inbox every morning, coming out to our events, sending us tips, and sharing your vision for a better Miami with us. We couldn’t do this thing without you.

As always, if there’s anything we can do better for you, just hit reply and let us know.

Doin’ it for the ‘Gram. South Beach hosts the annual webcam industry conference, Cam Con, this week. While few people are willing to talk much about it, the industry is booming in Florida. Like the tech industry as a whole, more and more folks are striking out as private entrepreneurs, and they’re here in Miami to learn the same things as other entrepreneurs: how to market online and manage their money. And maybe to learn a little about the latest innovations in sex toys. (Miami Herald)

It’s good to be really rich. Us mortals may be worrying about how sea level rise will affect our home values, or how we’ll straight up afford to buy in SoFlo, but billionaires are covered, thanks to the design firm Arkup. They design solar-powered, sustainable “arks.” The 4,000-plus foot, four-bedroom floating, mobile homes function like boats, but also have hydraulic stilts, essentially, that can lift them out of the water and stabilize them. The designers say they can survive Category 4 hurricane winds and are totally flood resistant. Whoa. (Miami New Times)

Back on the stand. Back in the 1990s, the ACLU and 5,000 homeless residents sued the City of Miami to stop police from arresting the homeless for “life-sustaining’ activities like sleeping on the sidewalk, making a fire, or urinating in public.” The case ended with the Pottinger agreement, which barred police from doing exactly that… but that could change soon. The City of Miami took legal action Wednesday to terminate the agreement. If it is terminated, police could once again arrest the homeless in the city for loitering. (Miami Herald)

Growing up and settling down. Downtown and Brickell are booming, but it’s no longer just the childless young professionals who drove the early growth. Families with children are beginning to roost in the area too – their population has jumped 42 percent since 2010. And that’s changing the way neighborhood officials think about what the neighborhood needs, and how they can create a real community. (Miami Herald)

Can’t stop the beat? Ultra might be able to stay at Bayfront Park, despite Downtown residents’ deep hatred of the electronic dance music festival. But it’s going to come at a price. The City of Miami wants to charge the festival $2 million to use the park in 2019, a whopping increase from the roughly $742,000 the city charged in 2018. Meanwhile, hip hop festival Rolling Loud, which left Bayfront for the Hard Rock Stadium this year, partially because of disagreements with city officials, said it might want to come back. The city plans to charge them an arm and leg for that as well. (Miami Herald)

Actually fake news. Kristen Rosen-Gonzalez, one of the Democrats running to fill Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s seat, didn’t like the coverage she was getting from local media. So she made her own media platform: QuePasa27.com. It’s essentially one big advertisement for her campaign, but it’s dotted with mentions of the other candidates and other elections, which kind of obscures that fun fact. (Miami Herald)

Working on it. A Little Havana theater’s use of blackface – a story broken by El Nuevo Herald – has sparked a much larger conversation about the continued role of racism in the Latino community here. Afro-Latinos say that neither the use of blackface nor the arguments about it surprise them, and that they’ve been living with that kind of racism here their whole lives. But across the globe, Afro-Latinos are beginning to push back. Leading the charge is Hialeah’s own Amara La Negra, a Dominican woman who made a name for herself on Love and Hip Hop Miami. This recent NPR Code Switch show about her Afro-Latina identity is everything, from her description of being on Sabado Gigante as a kid to her description of that Hialeah hustle. (WLRN, NPR)

Oops. Yesterday in the newsletter we said the former Cuban consulate in Little Haiti was sold for $4.5 million. It is listed at $4.5 million, but hasn’t sold yet. Thanks to Elsa Garcia for catching that. Also, contrary to what we shared from a PRI story yesterday, we’ve learned that Thomas Conway is no longer an owner of The Citadel.

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY.

If you’re looking for lunch ideas, we’ve got exciting news: Halal Guys has officially opened its South Miami location. Street meat in the 305 will never be the same. 🙌