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🎆 Where to get your fireworks fix
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🎆 Where to get your fireworks fix

Downtown's newest bar, Mama Tried, has those 1970s vibes.
(📸: @delguidicephoto)

IT’S GOING DOWN(TOWN)

We first made a Downtown neighborhood guide almost two-and-a-half years ago, and a lot has changed since then. So we gave it a revamp, with an assist from all of you. We’ve added all these spots to eat, drink, and explore below. Some of them are new, some of them are gems that we missed the first time around. Are we still missing something? Just hit reply and let us know.

Eat

🍖Sparky’s Roadside Barbecue

🍚La Licuadora

🍔Station 28

🥪Cane a Sucre

🍝Vero Italian

Drink

⚽Black Market

🍸Lost Boy

🍻Mama Tried

Explore

🎭Front Yard Theatre Collective at the Olympia Theater

🎨Mana Contemporary Third Saturdays at the 777 Mall

⛪Gesu Catholic Church

We want to give a shout out to Megan Conyers, Nicole Azzi, Micah Marie Johnson, Javier Alonso, Julie Kramer, Ernest Bellamy and many more of you who wrote in with suggestions and great recs.

CITY MAKERS

As an American city, Miami is practically a baby. Locals and transplants can see how our city has changed in the past 20, 10, even 5 years.

Through our partnership with Büro, we’re exploring some of Miami’s changing neighborhoods and the people who helped shape them into what they are today.

Today we hear from Daniel Serfer, chef and owner of Blue Collar. This Florida native has seen Miami’s MiMo (Miami Modern) neighborhood go through ups and downs. His decision to open his first restaurant in MiMo was a catalyst for the MiMo that we know today, a designated historic district and a walkable neighborhood filled with businesses, adorable restored mid-century hotels, and places to eat and drink.

PRODUCED BY THE NEW TROPIC CREATIVE STUDIO WITH BĂśRO

WHAT'S NEW IN THE 305

Unexpected enemies. Miami Beach really wants to host the 2020 Democratic National Convention, and it’s getting close – it’s one of three cities left in the running. But there’s at least one local group that doesn’t want the DNC here: the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. Chairman Juan Cuba asked DNC Chairman Tom Perez to kill Miami as an option unless the county reverses its 2017 decision to abandon its sanctuary city status and stop cooperating with federal immigration officials. (Miami Herald)

Play your part.  Miami-Dade County employees are busy prepping for the unexpected this hurricane season – including what would happen if a federal immigration officer shows up to a shelter asking to come in and check papers (Answer: No, they can’t do that, according to a training session). It’s the kind of scenario thousands of employees could face this year, along with setting up cots and taking care of the elderly as they wait for shelter. (Miami Herald, Twitter)

Game on. County officials aren’t the only ones prepping. More than 100 low-income residents from Miami-Dade and Broward gathered this weekend to plan for post-hurricane issues like extended power outages and gas shortages. Many low-income areas were among the slowest to receive resources during last year’s storm season, so they’re making plans to set up neighborhood hubs with internet access and to power charging stations with solar energy. (WLRN)

Costly cleanup. Pretty much the whole state was covered in debris after Hurricane Irma last year, and residents were loud about wanting their streets cleaned fast. So Gov. Rick Scott ignored existing contracts that various companies had with the state and with local governments and initiated new emergency contracts instead. Turns out that decision may cost Floridians up to an extra $30 million. A CBS 4 analysis found that the same work would’ve cost about $13 million if the state had gone with the original contracts. (Miami Herald, CBS 4)

Hangin’ pictures on my wall. Attention movie buffs: If you geek out over movie posters and wanna add to your collection, then you’re in luck. This weekend the Coral Gables Art Cinema is hosting their second-annual poster drive. They’re making hundreds of posters from their stash available to the public, and all the cinema’s asking for is a minimum $5 donation for each. (Miami New Times)

Hotel hope springs eternal. Yep, the plan for a Miami Beach convention center hotel is still a thing. The latest version got a key first approval from commissioners this week. It calls for an 800-room hotel that would connect to the convention center, includes parking and ballrooms for events, and would be about 16 stories high. Music lovers will be pleased to hear that it has no effect on the beloved Fillmore Miami Beach. Commissioners will vote later this month on whether to send the hotel plan to voters in November. (Miami Herald)

A little luxury in Liberty City. Affordable housing is tough to find in Miami-Dade. Quality affordable housing is even harder. But The Villages apartment complex in Liberty City is exactly that. The complex has 150 apartments and amenities like a pool, an exercise facility and a clubhouse. Developers hope the complex will send a message that quality buildings don’t “only happen in Wynwood and South Beach.” (Miami Herald)

HEADS UP

We’ll be taking the 4th of July off, just like most of you. We’ll see you back in your inbox Thursday morning.

– The New Tropic

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