Thirteen miles west of downtown Miami is Doral. In recent years, as the political and economic conditions have deteriorated in Venezuela, so many of that country’s citizens have migrated here that Miamians now refer to the community as Doralzuela. In case your memory of the greater Caribbean map has dimmed,... read more
Ten years ago Wynwood was like a lot of other old-time light industrial neighborhoods in the US. A wasteland of abandoned warehouses with empty streets and urban blight. A place you wouldn’t go to in the daytime, much less at night. What a difference a decade makes. Wynwood Today Today... read more
Florida is such a strange, compelling place for me. And I am finding Miami ever-more fascinating. In my continuing exploration of the city I went to Miami Beach, aka South Beach, this week and took in the magnificence of 7 miles of white sand. It’s difficult to capture without an... read more
Little Havana ‘Pequeña Havana‘ is a neighborhood adjacent to downtown Brickell to the west. You can’t be in Miami very long without hearing about it. It also goes by the nickname Calle Ocho ‘Eighth Street.’ On Saturday I took a 3-4-mile stroll down its length. I began at Versailles Bakery. The... read more
Title Image: The Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables seen from one of its two 18-hole golf courses. I’m living in Coconut Grove for the semester. One neighborhood to the west is Coral Gables. I explored it on Sunday. For the title image I chose the Biltmore Hotel. It was a... read more
For the past seven weeks I’ve been living in Miami. This means I’ve been here long enough for the topic of hurricanes to come up often enough to understand that they are a part of regular conversation here. For over 10 years I had reason to be in Orlando fairly... read more
On Saturday I went to the University of Miami to attend a one-day linguistics conference. The event took place in the Flipse Building. It stands on one edge of the campus, removed from the center. Which meant I had no idea what the campus looked like. So, during the extended... read more
Walt Wolfram Documentary: The Producers The latest Walt Wolfram documentary is Talking Black in America. Walt is the Executive Producer. And Renée Blake is one of the Producers. Walt is Distinguished University Professor at North Carolina State University. In addition, he directs the North Carolina Life and Language Project. He... read more
Vizcaya Estate lies at the northern end of Coconut Grove. It sits pretty on Biscayne Bay. The principal building is a Venetian-style villa. The structures dotting the estate follow architectural suit. The formal gardens are an Italian Renaissance landscaper’s dream. Construction began in 1914 and continued until the completion of... read more
Title image: View of Biscayne Bay from the fifth-floor restaurant/bar of the Mr. C hotel, Coconut Grove, looking east. In the distance is Key Biscayne. I am loving being in Miami for the academic year and teaching at Florida International University. After spending two weeks in Brickell, I decided to... read more
