We'll drive you up the wall!

Continuing our trip around the Miami Design District, we find this interesting solution to the parking problem. This used to be the Miami Police Museum, if I recall correctly, and the car used to be painted in the official colors of a Miami-Dade Police patrol car. I'm not sure when this stopped being associated with the police, though. They did leave the car, stripped of its official colors, and the building is now empty, waiting for new tenants. It's a shame it went away, I never got to visit it (and they had a cop car from Blade Runner!).

By the way, traffic in Miami can sometimes make you want to drive exactly like that.

PS: I have just found out that the Police Museum moved to Titusville, Florida. Why, however, no one knows.

Welcome to the Miami Design District

Yesterday I got out early, so I had a chance to go home via the Miami Design District, just north of Downtown Miami. This area, abandoned and dilapidated until just a few years ago, is fast becoming a trendy spot, attracting lots of local artists. Art is scattered around the district and I'll be showing you some of the pieces in the following days.

First up is this large mural, which I can see every day as I drive to work from Miami Beach. If you look closely on the left side, you'll see some scaffolding. Up until early this week, there was another long mural on that side of the building, facing the expressway, that read "Miami Design District" and featured the eye logo you see above. This week, however, they started to tear down that face of the building, and that mural does not exist anymore. I hope that this one does not suffer the same fate; I'd hate to think that instead of sharing a great shot of the city with you, I was actually chronicling something to show what once stood there.

The area is quite busy lately, as new developments are going up like anthills, so it now remains to see how long can the artistic spirit of the district can survive before being engulfed by commercialism and banality. Miami is not the most artist-friendly city there is, though that is changing for the better, and areas like the Design District present an anomalous snapshot of an underground river of culture that thrives despite the superficiality that most people conjure to mind when they think of Miami.

Setting Sun

I managed to go home early yesterday so I took an alternate route home that would allow me to shoot some interesting stuff for the photoblog. After that, I headed over to the supermarket to do my shopping for the week. I normally park at this store's rooftop parking lot, and when I got out of my car, I was greeted by this most beautiful setting sun. I just love the contrast between the dark clouds and the burning orange of the star. I rarely have time to see the sun set, but yesterday, after seeing this and taking the photo, I just stood there for the few minutes it took for the sun to fully set.

Joe's Stone Crabs

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Scourge of crustaceans worldwide, Joe's Stone Crabs has been an institution in Miami Beach, in one shape or another, for 93 years! This is THE place to have stone crabs while they're in season (the Winter months) and I hear the rest of the food is excellent as well. Pretty much all the rich and famous that either live or visit Miami pass by Joe's, and the lines to enter can be the stuff of legends. I have never eaten there (not kosher), but I have yet to hear a bad review or experience, and for those visiting Miami, going to Joe's can be a memorable experience.

And just in case you're interested, they also ship all over the continental United States (sorry, world).

Spring!

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Though you'd hardly know it, since "seasons" in Miami consits pretty much of various degrees of hot, Spring is indeed here, as indicated by these young mangoes. In about a month and a half they should be eatable, though it takes about two months for them to get big and plump. Oh, and just to share, today's "cool" temperature is 72 (F).

The first tefillin

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After a little over a year of hard work and much study, my friend Pinchas completed his conversion to Judaism this past friday, so today was the first day he got to put on his tefillin. Mazal tov!

Autoportrait

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I work at my father-in-law's house (he has a home office) and he has a pool in the backyard. It was really sunny in the morning, so I went out to catch some sun and ended up taking this shot of my shadow reflected in the pool.

As a epilogue, in the afternoon we had a cold front pass through bringing in a mini-storm and a drop in temperatures to the low 60's/upper 50's. Yes, world, this is what passes as Winter in Miami. Funny thing is most people are going to be out there wearing their jackets. I know I am.

Gothic, Miami style

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To provide a this-side-of-the-Atlantic companion to today's photo from Montchauvet, France, (just check out those store-bought gargoyles!) I give you arguably the weirdest, most awesome house I have seen in Miami in almost 11 years. This bay-side mansion is the work of someone who probably enjoys Renaissance Faires and Dungeons & Dragons a little bit too much (in short, someone like me) and had money to bring their vision to life. I just love the incongruity of the faux medieval architecture with the tropical palms as sentinels on front. I've never been inside, but I would pay for a private tour. I can only imagine what they have cooked up inside!

Here are two more pics, showing the whole house: pic 1, pic 2.

Cops, South Beach style

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As I said, things in South Beach are rarely done the normal way, and that applies even to the cops. While bicycle cops may be normal for other parts of the country or the world, I'm willing to bet that they are not quite the same as these guys: all muscled and buff, tanned to a perfect bronze (if they were friend foods, they'd be done), and chatting on a cellphone as they patrol the "beat" that is Ocean Drive. It must be so hard watching out for so many beautiful people!

Funky apartment building

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Things in South Beach are rarely done on a subdued scale, and this apartment building located at 248 Washington Ave., South Beach (Google map, zoom in and click Satellite so you can see the distinctive shape - for some reason, for the marker to be in front of this building, the address has to be typed as 274) . I cam across this building when I parked my car to go take a different picture altogether. You would think such a structure would not be something you can overlook, but not in Miami, and especially not in South Beach.

If you are interested, the second floor apartment (with the long vertical window) is for sale, though I wouldn't even dream of asking what the price is.

Wilma, 4 1/2 months later

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Hurricane Wilma swept through Miami with a force that was completely unexpected. Most people down here still measure hurricanes using Andrew as a yardstick, so Wilma was not necessarily given much clout. How wrong were we! In North Bay Village, a small city adjacent to Miami Beach (where I live), the hurricane destroyed a very unique feature of the area, the small houseboat community by the bay. These houses that had stood to all the previous hurricanes just could not hold their own against Wilma, and ended up as debris along the bay. Still today, about 4 1/2 months later, the corner of the bay where these houseboats floated is still littered with debris, and more than a handful have yet to be cleared up. Perhaps Miami will actually learn from this one?

Hello

Welcome to the Miami Daily Photo blog.
I came across the Paris Daily Photo blog a couple days ago, then proceeded to lose a lot of time checking out that and all the other Daily Photo blogs it linked to. It surprised me that Miami had not popped up on that list yet, so in an act of uncharacteristic rashness, I decided to start the Miami edition of the Daily Photo blog.

When most people hear "Miami" arguably the first thing that comes to mind is South Beach (or that Will Smith song); I hope to show you a different side of Miami (and all associated areas). Miami actually has a lot to offer, even if sometimes you really need to dig deep down to find it.

So welcome to this blog, and hope you like these shots of my city.

Oh, and if you'd like to make a request, just leave a comment or email me.