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🛒 An update on how to be less trashy
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🛒 An update on how to be less trashy

We bet we'll be dreaming of this sun by Sunday.

BULKING UP

We spent Earth Month (that’s April) sharing tips and tricks for living more sustainably, including how to cut down on your trash.

One suggestion was to buy groceries in bulk whenever possible. Unfortunately, there weren’t too many places in South Florida where you can do that. Until now.

Verde Market, Miami’s first try bulk buy grocery store, recently opened in Wynwood, and it’s selling all kinds of staples, including laundry soap, spices, nuts, and tea.

But if you’ve never shopped at a bulk buy grocery store, it can be a little intimidating. How do you weigh your containers? What if you bring the wrong containers? There are a lot of unspoken rules, and maybe you worry that everyone might judge you as you fumble your way through it. (Don’t worry, they won’t.)

Well, we got you. We’re heading to Verde Market today to get a walk-through of the store and to learn how to shop in bulk the right way. So when you head there with your mason jars and reusable tote bags, you can shop with confidence. Just be sure to help the person next to you in case they missed this. 😉

What questions do you have about Verde Market and buying in bulk? Hit reply to this newsletter and let us know. We’ll be doing the walk-through on Facebook Live around 3 p.m., so head to our Facebook page to tune in. If you like our page, you’ll get a notification when we go live.

Oops. Earlier this week, we identified former District 8 candidate Gus Barreiro as former county commissioner Bruno Barreiro’s cousin. They are half-brothers. Thanks to Sandra Peebles for catching our mistake.

A WALKING TOUR OF LINCOLN ROAD

The Lincoln Road of today feels different from the Lincoln Road of the 1980s or the car-focused Lincoln Road of the 1930s.

We asked Marty Mueller, co-founder of Art Deco Walks, to give us a quick walking tour of Lincoln Road. During the tour, we learned why the ‘eye brows’ on the Lincoln Theatre were so important back in the day and why Lincoln Road was once referred to as the 5th Avenue of the South.

Grab an ice cream cone and join us on a quick highlight tour of one of Miami Beach’s most popular attractions.

PRODUCED BY THE NEW TROPIC CREATIVE STUDIO WITH LINCOLN ROAD BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT

WHAT'S NEW IN THE 305

Dance it out. You may think of Zumba as just a hip-shaking way to tighten your glutes, but this South Florida-founded “fitness/dance/music/apparel/tech empire” has grown into a movement that’s in 186 countries, with 15 million people around the world taking a class every week. Here’s how Zumba Fitness went from producing one low-budget fitness video on Miami Beach to a global fitness empire. (Miami Herald)

Slow but scary. We spend a lot of time talking about how sea level rise affects our roads, property values, and other infrastructure. But what we don’t talk about enough is how it could affect our water supply. Miami-Dade is built on the Biscayne Aquifer, which supplies most of our drinking water and basically makes it possible to live here. But, the delicate water level difference that keeps salt water from flowing into the aquifer is shrinking. And when it’s gone, our drinking water could be too, if we don’t figure out a way to protect it. (Bloomberg)

Ollie on. When northeast Miami-Dade’s only skate park closed in 2016, local skateboarders were left with no place to hang. So Surfside, Miami Beach, Bal Harbor, Bay Harbor Islands and Sunny Isles Beach came together, pooled their funds, and built a dope skate park at Haulover Park. It’s now open, so stop in with your board, or just to watch and be amazed at the tricks they’re pulling off. (Miami New Times)

Rail fail and BRT bound. South Dade commuters are closer to getting a new ride — just not the rail line they were promised 16 years ago with the transportation sales tax. The County’s Transportation Planning Organization approved a $243 million plan to build bus rapid transit along the US-1 busway from Dadeland to Florida City. The system would include new stations that accept prepaid fares, street-level boarding, and automatic gates that block traffic and keep buses moving. Before it can be built, the county needs to get a federal grant to pick up part of the tab. (Miami Herald)

Next best thing to a Ferrari. Miami Beach bus riders are also in for a treat. Pininfarina, the firm that designs some of the sexiest cars in the world, is taking on an arguably tougher gig — beautifying the city’s bus shelters. Their winning design features solar-powered lights, digital signage, sleek seating, and colored roof panels that filter sunlight into pretty patterns along the sidewalks. (Miami Herald)

An ounce of prevention … Red tide may be a natural phenomenon, but more than a decade of research shows that man-made pollution is making it worse. Problem is, scientists haven’t been able to make a conclusive link to what pollutants cause the deadly blooms or make strides on how to prevent it. Why? Politics, of course. Some scientists think that the red tide thrives on agricultural pollutants like fertilizers (which worsens toxic algae in the state’s lakes), but they can’t get conclusive evidence because the state funds scientists to monitor red tides, not to figure out why they happen. (Miami Herald)

… Is worth a pound of cure. Miami-Dade County Police has a new unit aimed at preventing people with serious mental health problems from instigating shootings. Officers in the Threat Management Section will focus on building relationships with mentally ill people who may have been at the center of a suspicious incident reported by various partner agencies or schools, helping connect them to social services, then removing firearms from those who pose a threat to themselves or others. (WLRN)

THAT’S ALL FOR THE WEEK.

Like most of you, we’ll be taking Monday off. See you Tuesday morning. ✌️

– The New Tropic

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