We need to get the bridge and tunnel crowd

All the talk lately is about the big travel agent Pow Wow coming to the Grove on May 18. And while the tourists are great, how about the locals?

One goal of the Grove should be to promote ourselves to locals. Why not have a families come from Kendall on weekends or have visitors from Coral Gables? Those are maybe the ones we need to reach out to.

These people are called the "bridge and tunnel" crowd in New York. They commute to Manhattan from Brooklyn and Queens and the other boroughs. Right now, Kendall and Brickell and even Coral Gables and South Miami are the bridge and tunnel crowd here, going to South Beach to party. It would be great if we could offer all of these people something closer to home. They would not have to travel to South Beach all the time for their fun and entertainment, they could and should visit the Grove for that on occasion.

How do we get them here? That is the magic question. We're trying to get people from all over the world to visit Coconut Grove and we can't even get locals to stop by for dinner or a drink.