Fish dishes

Someone asked once where they could get good fish in the Grove, the Neighborhood Bistro (2779 Bird Avenue) is a good place to start. Above is oven baked salmon with herbs and served with leak cream; this dish was served with Tomatoes Provencal.

Below: oven baked grouper with french herbs, baked in lemon pepper and butter with capers; you have a choice of sides, this was served with rice and mixed veggies.

The Golden Coconut is ready; are you?

The Coconut Scavenger Hunt rules have been finalized. The rules will be posted here tomorrow morning, July 4. You will also be able to pick them up when you sign up for the hunt tomorrow afternoon.

Find the golden coconut, shown here, and win a top prize, and there will be an even better prize for the person who brings the most coconuts to the finish point.

Clues will be in the form of two line poems. They will indicate where in the Grove, at which location, the coconuts are hidden.

Think Amazing Race and Herald Tropic Hunt combined.

Coconut Grove 4th of July events

People have been asking about the schedule for all the 4th of July events. We have it here to the right, see the US flag? You can click that for a list of events. It goes to the Chamber's page, they seem to have the best and most comprehensive list.

I will have updated reports, tidbits and major changes and schedules as they happen. So keep checking back here, too.

I'll post the Coconut Scavenger Hunt rules the morning of July 4th. We are firming them up tonight.

Protecting your home this summer

According to Robert Loupo, co-chair of the All Grove Crime Watch, home burglaries are up due to the poor economy. He encourages everyone to install home alarms. An imporant point is to have the sirens placed outside the house, rather than inside. Also he thinks adopting a dog would be a good idea.

If you plan on going away for summer vacation, whether it is a few days or weeks, please alert the police so they can keep an eye on your house with extra drive bys. Please call Officer Carillo at 305-389-7996 or Officer Guell at 305-303-9163.

Too many hurt feelings and erroneous facts

There were some hurt feelings at this morning's Merchants Meeting. Apparently the media is not treating the Merchants and Coconut Grove correctly according to some. But as I told one person, if you don't like it, you'll have to buy the Miami Herald. I think any mention of our events is a good thing, but the facts do come out wrong many times.

The person who complained felt that people are sending out press releases without anyone double checking them. I know I was very hurt a week or so ago when the whole committee for 4th of July was mentioned in Neighbors and I was left out. I didn't care about having my name in the paper, I just felt that I am at every meeting day and night, doing my part, and then the person who wrote the press release just left me out. Am I invisible at these meetings?

The Merchants Association is the group putting on many of the popular events during 4th of July -- the Coconut Scavenger Hunt, the hot dog eating contest and other things, but they are not given credit.

I, myself, have learned to live with it. I am interviewed almost daily by various media outlets, the stories come out and I am nowhere to be seen. It's just a fact of life at this point.

But I do have to agree that if there is a big committee, one person should not be responsible for writing press releases and then just sending them out without being double checked. There is a committee for a reason. Everyone should have a look at the releases before they go out, I don't buy the excuses about being in a hurry or having deadlines. If the facts come out wrong in the stories, who cares if the paper's deadline is met?

Police on bikes hitting the streets

Miami Police Chief John Timoney (left) and some of his officers patrolled the Grove this morning by bike.

I saw Commander Martin riding around the chamber and NET office earlier today on his bike and then he stopped in on the Merchants Meeting.

It's nice having the cops on bikes around the village, I love the mounted police, too.

Was that trip necessary?

The City of Miami's Chief Financial Officer Larry Spring and his staff took a nice little all expense paid trip to Seattle, WA on the City's money (over 10 people went). They went to party at the Government Finance Officer's Association, from June 28 to July 1. According to the brochure, if you register early, you can save. Hope Larry did that, we need to save all we can in Miami these days.

According to the promotion: "In today's challenging economic environment more than ever, state and local governments are turning to the public finance professional for practical advice and strategic vision. Finance officers need to understand and be able to explain the economic situation and the potential fallout for their jurisdictions.To do so, public finance professionals must stay informed of the latest developments and trends and continually enhance their skills."

This is what the trip cost:
10 round trip tickets from Miami to Seattle = $ 5,000.00
10 Hotel Rooms for 6 nights = $12,000.00
60 Days of Per Diem = $ 9,000.00
10 Fees for Conference = $10,000.00
10 Miscellaneous = $ 4,000.00
The Pair of Balls on Larry = Priceless!

They even had a party at the Seattle Mariner's Safeco Field. Meanwhile the City of Miami is trying to save the taxpayers from tax increases. When your property taxes go up, you can thank Larry.

Larry also took a recent trip to Europe with his sponsor, Mary Conway, you don't want to know what that cost.

As of now, we have not received any response from Mr. Spring's office. We did contact them.

Photo courtesy City of Miami