Coconut Grove Chamber news

The Coconut Grove Chamber of Commerce, has almost completed their move across the street from their former office at the Glass House. They are next to Peacock Garden Cafe on McFarlane Road. There should be a person at the office daily helping tourists and handing out brochures, etc. I do think that the new space is better as there is more traffic on that side of the street and they can engage with people easier.

The Chamber made out big from the Great Taste of the Grove last month, while it's true that they were rained out from a deluge of rain the first day, Saturday, someone was smart enough to get rain insurance since it seems that they are always rained out. That being done to the cost of $3000 a day, they were able to collect $75,000 just from that one day of rain. They actually give out the insurance by the rain fall. Peacock Park was saturated and the Chamber bought insurance for a minimum of 3/4" inches of rain.

The next Chamber luncheon is being held on Friday, June 21 at the Sonesta Bayfront Hotel (2889 McFarlane Road)  from noon to 2 pm.

The featured speaker will be David Martin, COO of Terra Group, the company behind two high-profile condominium developments coming to Coconut Grove – The Grove at Grand Bay and a second project on the Coconut Grove Bank property.

Also, State Rep. Jose Javier Rodriquez and Senator Gwen Margolis will be giving a proclamation to Monty Trainer to celebrate 50 years of the Coconut Grove Arts Festival.

Please RSVP for the luncheon to GroveChamber@coconutgrove.com or call 305-444-7270.

St. Hugh students to be recognized by City

Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez and the City of Miami officials will be honoring the St Hugh Catholic School eighth graders with a special certificate for their art exhibit entitled “Art in the Dark, on Thursday, May 23 at the City Commission meeting at 9 am. The art will be on display after that at City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive.

Shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, St. Hugh School along with other neighboring schools was placed under lock-down, while the police searched for a suspect in the area. An hour into confinement, in the dark and complete silence, the eighth grade students were each given a piece of clay by their art teacher, Mrs. Catherine PenneKamp, and asked to create an object that represented what they were feeling. The final art pieces expressed the student’s profound balance of fear, love and faith. Many emotions were forever captured in the student’s expressive art. This same art exhibit was presented during our school’s Annual Art Show and many parents and guests were in awe and left with a new perspective on the role of educators within a school. The art is a visible reminder of what faith and trust in God , in moments of despair, will do for mankind.

Kampong Twilight Tour

The Kampong is holding a Twilight Tour on Thursday, May 23, 5-7 pm. They are celebrating the arrival of some of their best mangos by making a delicious Kampong rum punch and providing a sampling of their home-made mango chutneys. 

Also there will be steel drum music by Othello, walking tours, and of course the natural beauty of The Kampong at dusk.  

This event is free to members, and there are a few tickets available to the public for $20 each. RSVP at 305-442-7169.


The Kampong of the National Tropical Botanical Garden | 4013 South Douglas Road

Big Ang's Miami Monkey opens today

Hey Mob Wives fans! Big Ang is in town to film her reality show "Big Ang," the spinoff of Mob Wives, and a lot of it will be taking place at her new bar, the Miami Monkey, sister bar to her famous Staten Island Drunken Monkey! The Miami Monkey opens today at 1330 Ocean Drive, South Beach -- 2 pm.

"How You Doin?" She says it like she means it

Went to see talk show queen Wendy Williams last night at Books & Books in Coral Gables. It was a packed house. Lots of fans showed up to hear Wendy speak about her new book, "Ask Wendy ."

Wendy was very sweet and funny, she signed autographs after taking questions from their audience. 

The embarrassing thing was that my friend reserved us seats by contacting Books & Books and we were the only ones who did that. So we literally had the front row center seats. I didn't want to sit there at first, I felt foolish, but I was sort of forced into it and I'm glad I was. I was feet away from Miss Wendy the whole time!

We met people who drove down from Tampa and Port St. Lucie just for this event! Talk about dedicated fans!

Memory Training Workshop at Dynamo

A Memory Training Workshop is being held at Dynamo Art Cocowalk on Sunday, May 26, at 5 pm

Amanda Pike, PhD, ATR, a registered, clinical art therapist employed by the Miami-Dade school district, is teaming up with Dynamo Art Cocowalk for a workshop that uses the creative process to enhance the physical, mental and emotion well-being of individuals of all ages.

Each session is 90 minutes, with all art supplies included, and you can get a special price: $69.00 for a session (regular price $150.00). Email arttherapycs@gmail.com or call, 305-707-5106, by May 20 to register for the memory training session. Tell them you read it in the Grapevine.

For more information: http://arttherapyconsulting.com

We're surrounded by crooks

People all over town are talking about the little Red Headed creep and her gang. No matter where you go, this is the topic of conversation and the interesting part is that so many people have seen her/them. But no one does anything. She's like a ghost. Her name is Bamby by the way, and the police are quite familiar with her.

Apparently she and her gang were living at the Metrorail Station, this alone should have thrown up a red flag, the police knew about it but nothing was done. When finally the police surrounded the Metrorail Station, the gang fled and took up "residence" in the center Coconut Grove neighborhoods. It pushed them inside the Grove.

They are drug heads according to those who know, they steal things and resell them to fences, which are part of the problem.

There is this other guy who lives behind one of the hair salons, they let him live there. The guy goes out on his bicycle in the day, burgles stores, lots of times it's CVS and he goes around on his bicycle and sells the stuff to people, mostly to the employees at stores in the Grove. They think nothing of paying $5 for a $200 item, they don't ask questions and the guy goes on his merry way.

Crooks -- all of them, the ones stealing and the ones buying the stolen stuff.

The other day a friend drove by in her car, she beeped, I walked over to say hi, when I left the cop behind her gave her a ticket for that. Today I was stopped by  friend as I came out of the gym, he also paused in the street and we talked a bit. Luckily a cop wasn't behind him or he would have been ticketed.

Is this what the police resources are being used for? We're a little village for god's sake, we are going to stop and say hello to each other in the street.

We need a photo of the Little Red Headed Creep and fast so that people can know exactly what she looks like before she gets wize and dyes here hair to another color, like blue or something. She was seen at Flanagans, at a gallery, at a shoe store, at so many places. If there was actually a photo circulating, people would know it the second they saw her and not as an after thought.