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🌊 Miami is moving ahead with a controversial water park after all
This is neither a trick photo nor a dispatch from an alternate Miami where things were sunnier yesterday — hopefully we’ll be seeing rainbows again sooner rather than later. | Want to see your own picture in this space? Tag #thenewtropic to be featured in our Instagram of the Day.
💧What Miami is talking about
🆒 Unfortunately, it seems like we definitely spoke too soon last Friday regarding the fate of the Miami Wilds water park. Reader Diego C. pointed out that the Miami-Dade County Commission voted 7-1 on Tuesday to approve development of the long-gestating and controversial project. As detailed by many Miami media outlets — the Miami Herald, WLRN, and Miami New Times among them — construction and operation of Miami Wilds stands to threaten a number of the state’s endangered flora and fauna. Among those at risk are the pine rockland habitat and the Florida bonneted bat.
As we’ve pointed out with previous mentions of the matter, you can fill in the environmentally-conscious gap left by Miami-Dade County by consulting Bat Conservation International’s resources or making donations to Patch of Heaven Sanctuary’s Adopt-A-Bat program. If you’d like to link up with like-minded Miamians and learn more about whatever comes next, you can also check out the nearly 2,000 strong Miami Pine Rocklands Coalition group on Facebook.
In other news…
💸 While county commissioners may not be enthusiastic about preserving Miami’s natural landscape amid a year marked by historic environmental disasters, they don’t seem to share the same aversion to pouring nearly $450 million into a new megajail. Despite consistent and vocal opposition from concerned citizens and criminal-justice reform advocates, the county is seriously exploring the construction of a new facility in Doral. However, Doral Mayor Juan Carlos Bermudez has some reservations about the idea. (Miami New Times)
😷 Meanwhile, The Marshall Project has found that Florida only lags behind Texas in reported COVID-19 deaths within state prisons. The criminal justice-centric organization’s data shows 154 inmates have succumbed to the novel coronavirus since April. (Florida Phoenix)
🔎 FIU psychologists have created a new website to assist people with the contact tracing process. The service, CogTracer, is a DIY way for people who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 to use cognitive interview techniques in helping them compile who they’ve recently interacted with and how they may have gotten infected. (EdScoop)
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💚 Dear Panther Coffee,Thank you for safely providing delicious chocolate croissants and ice coffee during this difficult time so I can walk my baby in the park in the early morning before things got crowded. Much love and appreciation for this wonderful business in Little Haiti. Thanks, Eve M. |
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Today
🗣️ Join a conversation with dancer and choreographer, Peter London, hosted by the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora (Online)
🎥 Watch Bill Murray play Rashida Jones' father in On The Rocks via Gables Cinema (Online)
🗣️ Learn how to discern fact from fiction during this news literacy workshop moderated by our beloved Lance Dixon, the previous director of The New Tropic (Online)
Tomorrow
🌱 Go behind the scenes during this tour of the greenhouse and the orchid collection at Vizcaya (Brickell)
🎨 Tour a collection of Purvis Young's work at the Historic Hampton Rooming House (Overtown)
🎶 Dance at this happy hour with a live performance by Cuban Son supergroup, Cortadito (Brickell)
😋 Nom at the food truck rally at Tropical Park (Westchester)
Saturday
🥦 TEST AfroCode MIAMI | HipHop; AfroBeats; Soca Brunch + Day Party {SATURDAYS} Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite (Wynwood)
🎨 Check out the Imaginary Habitats exhibit at the Hispanic Cultural Arts Center (Little Havana)
🛥️ Cruise to Boca Chita on this guided tour from the Deering Estate (Palmetto Bay)
😋 Learn to make a galette in this baking class (Online)
🔦 Take a haunted night hike in the Castellow Hammock (Redlands)
Sunday
🛥️ Hop on a boat for a tour of Stiltsville (Palmetto Bay)
Tuesday
👻 Hunt for ghosts at the Deering Estate (Palmetto Bay)
✌️ One more thing...
Before you get to the rest of your Thursday, check out this campaign Axis Helps South Florida shared with us. The campaign hopes to deliver a $25,000 award to a South Florida-based Black-owned restaurant. Here’s how it works and how to nominate your favorite spots.
Be kind out there,
— Zach & The New Tropic