We know it’s only Monday but we’re already counting down the days until our happy hour with Lincoln Road and artist Brain Butler.

ICYMI, this Friday we’re bringing back one of our favorite events, Arts & Drafts. It’s an opportunity to get your much deserved happy hour plus get a little crafty. Our artist and MC of the evening, Brian Butler (whose dope sketches you can see above), will be playing art games and working with all attendees to create a collaborative piece of art inspired by the historic architecture of Lincoln Road.

If you haven’t heard of him, Brian Butler is a rad local artist who has collaborated with brands like Sweat Records, Target, Vice, and the Miami Heat. We think he’s kind of a big deal.

We’ll be posting up at Books & Books on Lincoln Road from 5 p.m. – 8 p.m on Friday and our first 50 guests will be receive a free Moleskine Notebook for their art project.

We’ll save you a seat. But you should RSVP here.

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

💰Give Miami Day on Nov. 15 is one of the largest annual giving events in the whole U.S., raising more than $10 million for local nonprofits last year. If you work for a nonprofit yourself, your organization could be a part of it, but the deadline to register is Oct. 15. If you’re already on the list and want to learn how to make the most of Give Miami Day, there’s a workshop tomorrow, Oct. 2, on how to run a successful campaign.

🗣️ Are you a social impact leader who puts inclusion and diversity at the center of your work? Maven Leadership Collective is looking for presenters with the gift of creating space for engaging talented people in finding solutions together. If that sounds like you, sign up here. The deadline is 5 p.m. tomorrow, Oct. 2.

🏛️Got some love for the Freedom Tower, the former “Ellis Island of the South”? You can help the historic building (whose history we dived into here) win $150,000 to renovate its Cuban Exile Exhibit and make other improvements. All you’ve got to do is vote for them in the Partners in Preservation campaign at www.VoteYourMainStreet.org. You can vote up to five times a day through Oct. 26.

☀️Been wanting to learn more about going solar? The National Solar Tour is coming to Miami this weekend, and 12 solar-powered homes across Miami-Dade are opening their doors to the public so we can see what it’s all about. Find them on this map (and the ones in Coconut Grove have several other solar homes within walking distance). And if you want to explore that further after the tour, there’s an informational meeting for the United Teachers of Dade Solar Co-op on Oct. 9.

Got an opportunity, workshop, scholarship, grant, etc. you want other curious locals to know about? Hit us up at [email protected] (subject line: “Bulletin Board”) to have it listed here.

We’ll just leave this here. The day after Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford’s wrenching testimony about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged sexual assault, Sen. Marco Rubio said that he still plans to vote to confirm Kavanaugh’s nomination. “I will not vote against the nomination of someone who I am otherwise inclined to support, and in the process add credence to charges which have already done permanent damage to his reputation, on the basis of allegations for which there is no independent corroboration,” Rubio said Friday. (Miami New Times)

“Let’s engage the neighbors.” The Knight Foundation has been around for nearly seven decades, supporting plenty of innovative and experimental ideas in news and technology. As the organization reflects on its legacy,  President Alberto Ibargüen sat down with the Herald to discuss where Knight is headed, how they’ve dealt with the changing economy in the news industry, and how they hope to use new methods to bring information directly to everyday people. (Miami Herald) Note: The Knight Foundation is an investor in WhereBy.Us, The New Tropic’s parent company.

Fired up. Voters under the age of 35 are now as large a voting bloc as baby boomers, but their voter participation typically remains lower than boomers, especially during midterms. A big question mark after Parkland is whether the youth movement that emerged from that tragedy will bring more young people to the polls in November. Early stats from Florida say it’s happening, although the numbers don’t yet include Miami-Dade County and a few other large metro areas. (Miami Herald)

#MiamiFamous You know that gyrating several-stories-tall dancing figure on the Biscayne Bay side of the InterContinental hotel? That’s their “Skyline Dancer” and it’s actually modeled after a real, live human. You can audition to have your moves featured there next. (Facebook)

WTF. If police catch you with drugs in your car, you’re probably getting arrested (especially if you’re black). There’s also a good chance that you’ll end up in jail. But under a new proposed police labor contract for City of Miami police, officers caught doing drugs have 72 hours to book themselves into treatment, and if they complete treatment, they can rejoin the police force pretty easily after that. Previously, they were automatically disciplined and usually fired. (Miami New Times)

R.I.P. David Wolkowsky, dubbed Mr. Key West by locals, passed away last week. The developer and preservationist gets pretty much all the credit for transforming Key West from a backwater Navy town to the beloved bohemian haven and tourist destination that it is today. In a 1969 interview, he told the Miami Herald that his goal was to “preserve the past by making it work for the present at a profit,” and he did that with iconic spots all over the small city. (NYT)

Show’s not over. Summer may be over, but the blue-green algae crisis that dominated the headlines is not. While the waterways in the Treasure Coast are no longer coated in guacamole-like goop, locals are still spotting streaks of algae in the water and they say the smell and the irritation is still hanging around. Want to know how that mess got started? Our video breaks it down. (TC Palm)

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY.

Let’s make it a great week, Miami. 💪

– The New Tropic