North Bay Village Mayor Oscar Alfonso Won’t Fix His House

For more than a decade, North Bay Village Mayor Oscar Alfonso has evaded repeated ​attempts by city building officials and code inspectors to correct unauthorized construction work at his three bedroom house at 7520 W. Treasure Dr.And his next-door neighbor James Carter claims Alfonso will continue to thumb his nose…

North Bay Village’s Unrest

North Bay Village residents believe Mayor Oscar Alfonso (left), city attorney Joseph Geller (center), and city manager Matthew Schwartz (right) are in cahoots, doing bad things.​North Bay Village manager Matthew Schwartz is under fire. This past Tuesday, during the city commission’s regular meeting, a small group of upset residents called…

Winter Party Has Beef With Peter Rauhofer and The Opium Group

A tiff over scheduling has exposed a nasty feud between a famous dj and the group that throws one of the biggest week-long gay and lesbian bashes of the year.Organizers and supporters of the Winter Party Festival have been circulating a mass email calling for a boycott of dj Peter Rauhofer’s appearance at…

Surfside Cop Should Have Lost His Badge a Long Time Ago

Woodward Brooks finally lost his badge for his bad cop behavior. This past February 3, the 46-year-old lawman was kicked off the Surfside Police force following his arrest on three felony counts of official misconduct, grand theft, and filing a fraudulent insurance claim.This is the second time the tiny beachfront…

Isiah Thomas Stays Put Just in Time to Make the Cover of New Times

Over the weekend, Florida International University men’s basketball coach Isiah Thomas denied a Foxsports.com report that the Los Angeles Clippers were courting him to be the NBA team’s president, general manager, and coach.During his postgame conference following the Golden Panthers’ latest home loss, Thomas said, “I’m very happy here at FIU…..

The Grouch Who Rules North Bay Village

Turns out North Bay Village Mayor Oscar Alfonso is not so neighborly. James Carter, a mortgage broker who lives next to Alfonso’s three-bedroom waterfront house at 7520 W Treasure Dr., says his property gets completely soaked in water every time hizzoner turns on the sprinklers.Carter says he’s angry that the…

Katy Sorenson: A Good Lady Steps Away From the Game

Can’t blame Commissioner Katy Sorenson for calling it a day. Sixteen years is a long time to spend battling the unreformable majority on the county commission.For a decade and a half, Sorenson has consistently been the voice of ethical reason on an elected body that has often voted in favor of…

North Bay Village Mayor Gets Cozy With Bad Cop

​North Bay Village is a place where corruption and unethical behavior rolls in with the tide on a regular basis.The small three-island city once saw four elected officials indicted and removed from office in one fell swoop.But that hasn’t stopped Mayor Oscar Alfonso from throwing ethics into the murky bottom…

Made Off Too: A Retired Aventura Cop Gets Conned and Fights Back

Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein bilked investors out of $1.2 billion, but at least he didn’t bamboozle a poor one-armed handyman like Karl Thompson did.The 40-year-old scammer defrauded friends and business associates in Aventura, Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Miramar, North Miami, and North Miami Beach between 2008 and last year.Franklyn Walsh, who…

Next Up For Jonathan Henry Cobb: The First 48?

As reported here earlier, Cobb frantically tried and failed to ditch a caravan of Miami Police officers last Friday. Along the way, he smashed up other vehicles and a couple of squad cars. Turns out investigators wanted to question Cobb about the murder of Arsenio Harden. The 20-year-old victim was shot…

Jonathan Henry Cobb, the One Who Didn’t Get Away

Last Friday, I told you about a wild police chase on NE Second Avenue. Well, here’s a mug of the culprit who thought he was reprising Wesley Snipes’s role in U.S. Marshals. His name is Jonathan Henry Cobb, a 25-year-old Brownsville resident who booked it when a blue-and-white attempted to…

Miami Art Musuem Puts Monthly Cocktail Party on Hold

Apparently, tidings of booze and gourmet appetizers were not enough to sway young Miamians to support the Miami Art Museum, the local arts institution that desperately needs to raise private funds for its new home.Taxpayers approved the use of $175 million in county funds to build the $275 million project…

Second Avenue is Still Hot

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. You can always expect a little urban drama near and around 29th Street between NE Second Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard to liven up your work day. Earlier this afternoon a black male suspect in a stolen four-door Hyundai with Arkansas plates led…

Cesar Carasa Loves His Women Dominican Like His Coffee

For a story in this week’s Miami New Times, I dialed up a few of the ladies suspended West Miami Mayor Cesar Carasa befriended during his sojourns to the Dominican Republic. This past November 30, Carasa was arrested on two misdemeanor counts of exploiting his public position. The unemployed real…