Metal doesn’t come cheap: We at the Factory read the August 16 Bandwidth and figured, because Jeff Stratton is a journalist and everything, he’d probably want to have the facts straight before he bashed another nightclub with some stupid and unfounded comments. Let’s see, the “laughable Metal Factory,” he wrote…
A few feet back from the speeding traffic on NW 31st Avenue just north of Broward Boulevard stands a blue-and-black house. The paint, once bright, is now chipped and faded, and the grass is a little ragged. Though the place is in decent shape, it bears the signs of accelerating…
A trio of young women in scanty club wear strides into a bar on Himmarshee Street in Fort Lauderdale. You know the drill: wine, women, and mangled renditions of Violent Femmes songs. You’d have to look long and hard to notice anything different about this scene, and even then you…
Sistrunk is the historic hub of Broward County’s black population. Although the recent census found many of the neighborhood’s residents have moved west during the last decade, its main drag northwest of downtown Fort Lauderdale remains the area’s most visible symbol of African-American commerce. Named for James Franklin Sistrunk, one…
Where was this letter writer when Boulis was whacked? Staff writer Wyatt Olson’s story about developer R. Donahue Peebles (“Peebles Power,” August 16) was well written, but he left out some important facts: After Miami Beach mayor Neisen Kasdin opposed Peebles’s request for a zoning change for the high-rise Bath…
Seated in his office on the 46th floor of the Bank of America building in downtown Miami, developer R. Donahue Peebles looks quite relaxed. The lofty headquarters for Peebles Atlantic Development Corporation overlooks Biscayne Bay and Miami Beach, the site of Peebles’s crown jewel, the Royal Palm Crowne Plaza Resort,…
Ohboyohboyohboyohboy! The exclamation might as well be inscribed in cartoon voice balloons extending from the panting mouths of canines great and small as their owners let them scramble from cars and minivans in a parking lot at the T-Rex Technology Center in Boca Raton. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, a…
Just before midnight on July 21, Jacira Castro sat down at her computer and called up the Internet site she publishes, www.salsapower.com. But she didn’t see her home page. Instead the words THIS IS A COMMUNIST WEBSITE appeared on the screen. More than just the home page had been vandalized;…
A Bronx cheer for the coppers: A shout-out to Amy Roe for a flattering and well-written article on Lake Worth’s anarchist scene (“Gimme an A,” August 2). She made firsthand research a priority in her story, which is much appreciated. However, I challenge the mainstream view presented on the ills…
In May of last year, state legislators and bureaucrats traveled around Florida to tout a new “Tough Love” package for delinquents that Gov. Jeb Bush had signed. The carnival of suits and ties who stood smiling for photo ops included Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) secretary W.G. “Bill” Bankhead, whose…
Tuesday, July 3, 2001 11:48 a.m. American Airlines flight 2042 from Dallas, Texas, has just arrived at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. Pale, pasty Southwesterners file out like a flock of happy sheep, wide-eyed and excited at the prospect of trading the prairie for the beach. But one new arrival lacks…
The young man called “Dreads” is a slippery character; the justice system can’t seem to hold on to him. You might remember Dreads from our May 3 cover story, “Beach Beat.” He was one of the guys who attacked 18-year-old Chris Caulfield on Fort Lauderdale beach. Caulfield was left with…
Ain’t that Ken a doll: I commend Bob Norman for his article about the travesty committed against the name of Frank Lee Smith at the nefarious hands of Richard Scheff et al. (“Captain of Deceit,” July 26). His article mentions that Broward sheriff Ken Jenne was quick to praise Scheff…
When Joe Cox was born 17 years ago, his umbilical cord wrapped twice around his neck and nearly strangled him. He survived, but his brain was permanently damaged. Today he has an IQ of 68, suffers from impulsive behavior, and is unable to care for himself. His father, the Rev…
On an otherwise quiet, balmy night in Auburn, Alabama, in an otherwise empty, over-air-conditioned Taco Bell, three young, blond women huddle over a fast-food dinner. Suddenly, the door to the restaurant swings open and about 50 people — mostly young women — burst inside, chanting in unison: Hey Taco Bell…
When the subject of Vanella Plaza came up at a July 9 code-enforcement-board hearing in Plantation, chairman Tom Scalfani, sitting on the dais, asked the $1.4 million question: “Tell us what the deal is here. What’s the story?” City building manager Tom Hanrahan, who stood before the board, could only…
Every letter-writer should be so polite: My name is Massimo Balacchi, chef-proprietor of Café del Maxx, and I would like to inform you that in the article written about my restaurant (“Anybody Home?” July 26), my last name was misspelled (as “Malacchi”). I would also like to address the fact…
With five minutes remaining until game time, a traffic jam outside the Orange Bowl makes everything come to a halt on Miami’s NW Seventh Street. At the main entrance to the parking lots that surround the historic stadium, two men bark conflicting orders to the fans. And to complicate matters…
Richard Scheff has long been known in courthouse circles as an excellent trial witness — smooth, confident, authoritative, and credible. As a result of his eloquence, a stack of laudatory letters from prosecutors in the Broward Sheriff’s Office fills the captain’s personnel file. Scheff, a homicide detective during the ’80s…
The Fusion would not seem like quite as much of a civic prize if they weren’t so flat-out good. The majority of the soccer world attributes the Fusion’s dramatic 180-degree turnaround to a key change in administration: the hiring of Ray Hudson, the 56-year-old elder statesman of Fort Lauderdale’s soccer,…
On September 24, 1998, 28-year-old Louis Gallart was crushed to death while on the job at the Publix warehouse in Deerfield Beach. Gallart was employed as an unloader, meaning he used an electric tugger to remove empty pallets and crates from trucks. According to a Broward Sheriff’s Office report, Gallart’s…
Mara lo-o-ves her fast-moving water: Undercurrents was very current on July 5. It is clear you will not get a gig as the Hollywood PR director. John Coleman Hollywood Harvey finds kindred spirits: As I have dogged Jen Kavetchnick’s restaurant reviews for over a decade, I was overjoyed to read…
