Donald Rifkin, a former Miami-Dade police major accused of trying to exchange sensitive information about internal affairs cases in exchange for sex from a female cop, is no longer investigating county officers accused of misconduct. He is now assigned to the Strategic Planning and Policing Bureau, says MDPD spokesman Det…
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement recently ended an investigation into the onetime commander of the Miami-Dade Police Department’s internal affairs unit, concluding Donald Rifkin was hoping to get laid by talking to county cop Carmen Pichardo about sensitive information in the internal affairs case against her. Department rules forbid…
Miami-Dade County just can’t get it right. In 2006, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts opened more than two years behind schedule, costing taxpayers $472 million, which was almost twice the original construction estimate. Now similar problems are dogging the county’s construction of the smaller-scale South Miami-Dade Cultural…
Yesterday, I blogged about Secure Wrap of Miami’s eight year lock on a Miami International Airport contract to wrap travelers’ luggage in a cellophane-type material to deter theft of personal items. The post was based on a recent report by the county’s inspector general criticizing the Miami-Dade Aviation Department for…
Turns out Miami International Airport bureaucrats aren’t so lazy, just a bit slow at fostering competition. Earlier today, I wrote about the Miami-Dade Aviation Department’s reluctance to competitively bid the baggage-wrapping concession operated by Secure Wrap of Miami, which has held on to the lucrative business for more than eight…
Owing to the laziness of Transportation Security Administration and Miami-Dade County Aviation Department bureacrats, a company with a lucrative venture at Miami International Airport won’t be getting any competition anytime soon. For the past eight years, Secure Wrap of Miami has held the exclusive rights to wrap luggage in a …
Dennis Moss is done putting together the new make-up of the county commission’s committees and I’m impressed with most of his selections. In case you don’t know, the commissioners use the committee system to hammer out decisions that ultimately impact our tax dollars, from formulating new ways to tax us…
At 11:45 this morning, Jackson Soul Food restaurant at 950 NW Third Ave. was standing-room-only. Overtown and Liberty City residents packed every booth, table, and counter inside the storied and recently remodeled soul food eatery as they watched President Barack Obama’s inaugural ceremony on three brand-new flat-screen TV sets on…
Georgina Lee has been driving a cab for 32 years. Times have never been tougher for a Beach cabbie, the 55-year-old Cuban American attests. So please excuse her if she’s a bit bent out of shape with the rough treatment she’s been getting from Miami Beach’s finest.”We’re not making any…
For the past 28 years, Harold Rengifo has sold natural foods, vitamins, fresh juices, and herbal teas on Miami Beach. Throughout this time Rengifo’s Natural Life Center has operated from various retail locations, most recently at 405 15th Street, a storefront located between Drexel and Washington avenues. Never had a…
Times are really hard for ink-stained wretches in the musky Banana Republic we call Miami-Dade County. With the Miami Herald on the selling block and more layoffs expected early this year, MAP fizzling out, the ever-shrinking Miami SunPost, and even the bloodletting at New Times, being a local print journalist…
It’s a Monday morning in late December on a corner of Buena Vista Avenue in Midtown Miami, where four burly workers are laboring to place a Romero Britto sculpture onto a metal stand. They are the only sign of human activity on the street, where four art galleries, including one…
Today, the last day of 2008, Banana Republican highlights his ten favorite news stories of the year, the tales that truly capture life in a sun-drenched, third-world dimension. 10. Marc Sarnoff’s Memo to Himself. The Coconut Grove loving city commissioner has a super secret meeting with Joe Arriola at which…
With holiday parties in full swing, Riptide is pondering gifts to send to some of our favorite Miamians. We begin with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez. We hear the strapping ex-police director enjoys starting his day at the gym. Well, hard to argue with that, since our top local leader should…
On the surface, Norman Edelcup’s desire to relocate a Sunny Isles strip club seems like something any sensible small-town mayor would want. But the owners of Thee Dollhouse at 755 Sunny Isles Blvd. say Edelcup is trying to squeeze them out of business to benefit a developer friend, who just…
At yesterday’s Miami City Commission meeting, a small group of neighborhood preservationists came prepared to do in Eric Silverman, owner of the Vagabond Motel on Biscayne Boulevard in the Upper Eastside. Members of the MiMo Biscayne Association and residents railed against Silverman’s use of his property for an open-air farmer’s…
Come January, expect to see a new dynamic take shape on the Miami-Dade County Commission when Dennis Moss becomes chairman. For one, Natacha Seijas will no longer have influence over the selection of committee chairs and assignments. Each of the last three commission chairs, from Barbara Carey-Shuler to Joe Martinez to…
It’s a sunny, arid afternoon in Perrine, a suburb in southwest Miami-Dade. At the corner of 179th Street and 104th Avenue, a crowd of about 50 people has gathered in the dusty front yard of a lime-green house. The sweet, pungent smell of marijuana wafts through the air as DJ…
Soon-to-be-displaced County Commission Chairman Bruno Barreiro is no friend of the environment. The former state representative led the charge to allow developers to build beyond the county’s imaginary line that stops construction from encroaching on the Everglades and environmentally sensitive lands. He is pushing for a rewrite of Miami-Dade’s manatee…
Down south, between Pinecrest and Homestead, lies a place where boys don’t run, don’t cower, and certainly don’t cry when it comes time to stand their ground. They call this poverty-stricken, bleak community Perrine. Here, banging fists in the street is as common as the ice cream truck coming down…
The end of 2008 feels like a kick in the balls for Riptide. Our car is about to get repossessed, our credit cards are maxed out, and we’ve taken up residence in an abandoned home with a bunch of squatters. Such is life in sunny South Florida. But it’s nevertheless…
