Mom and I went on a bucci bag hunt on 20th street.
20th street is Allapattah’s shopping district. It’s an interesting combination of imports, bootlegs, and back-of-the-truck items.
Mom and I went on a bucci bag hunt on 20th street.
20th street is Allapattah’s shopping district. It’s an interesting combination of imports, bootlegs, and back-of-the-truck items.
When I moved to Miami in 2002 there was only one residential tower under construction near I-95.
Within two years the city was covered in scaffolding.
The real estate boom started as I graduated high school and ended when I graduated from the University of Miami. Now the new skyscrapers dominate the skyline.
The short darker building is the only one that existed before 2002.
The most dramatic changes are along the US-1 corridor. In 2002, the Cuban Freedom Tower (the yellowish tower) was the only major building on that part of US-1. It was empty, except for a few squatters.
The tower was restored and the squatters were booted. The building was then gifted to the local community college. I think it currently houses an art gallery.
The skyscrapers aren’t doing as well as the Freedom Tower since the real estate market tanked. Condo units and sometimes entire buildings went into foreclosure. 40 units in our old apartment building are in foreclosure. The new midrise two doors down from my mother’s building is now owned by the bank. Some condos are auctioned off at half price.
Neighborhoods near downtown are dotted with cleared lots and signs advertising buildings that will never be built. There’s one such aborted project across the street. The lot is currently leased to the city to store construction equipment for the 12th avenue bridge repairs…
Many of the condo tower are now apartments that rent at a loss, and there is a rising squatter problem in the empty new buildings.
The squatter problem is most rampant in foreclosed homes. The city has even stopped clearing out squatters unless the owner complains.*
Although the Miami I left looks like a different city than the Miami I started high school in – it’s really the same city. The University is still crawling with New Yorkers. Little Havana still has Botanicas…
Now life just goes on with a few more empty buildings in the background.
* The exception for this is for crack houses. There was a crack house across from my mother’s apartment building that was raided and boarded up a few months ago.
Last night I went to The Knife with Madre, Lori, and her husband. The Knife is an Argentinian Steak house in Coconut Grove. The waitresses are pissy but the food is amazing.
There are roast pigs at the door:
Madre and I took a walk through Little Havana to downtown today.
We were surprised that all of the stores were packed. The line at Ross was grotesque. The line actually went all the way to the back of the store and began creeping along the walls.
That picture is from the back of the store. Yep.
On Friday Paige and I went to the Outlaw end-of-year bowling event. This is her striking:
Friday night Jamie and I had a movie night and watched Reservation Road and The Flock. I was shocked to see Avril Lavigne’s cameo in the latter.
Avril, of course, gets killed.
On Saturday Stella and I went to Mall of America and saw all sorts of awkward:
So the conversation went something like this…
Me: “I want to make a decapitated snowman like Jessie, from Boy in Suit!”
Jamie: “Uh…no. We can’t do that!”
Me: “Why not? It would be the tort snowman! Mr. Palsgraf!”
Jamie: “Too stereotypical for this neighborhood. We have too much crime….too much real blood in the snow for that to be appropriate!”
Me: “But it’s going to be ballin’ outrageous!”
Jamie: “THE FIRST SNOW MAN I MAKE AT MY HOUSE IS NOT GOING TO BE A TORT!”
Me: “Arg! Bitch, moan, plead, interpleader!!”
Jamie: “FINE! MAKE YOUR OWN SNOW MAN!”
So we went outside, and Jamie made his Snow-woman…
That’s a total Charlie Brown pose right there…
So, I completely forgot to write about this: the day before my Contracts exam, I passed through campus and saw this interesting-looking building:
There’s snow on the ground. That means that my fall pictures are no longer current, so I threw all of the semester’s left over pictures on facebook.
One sees the strangest thing while walking to the library…
Last night I took a break Civil Procedure and checked on some blogs.
I pull up the Moon Goon blog and see that the Moon Goons were OPENING FOR FEDDE LE GRAND! And for only $10! Gasp!
I had a little over four hours to finish CivPro, ConLaw, Torts, walk home (I was downtown), and do laundry… oh, the motivation power of good house music…
Jamie and I arrived at Spin early and watched the nerds.
It was like watching the revenge of Erkle: there about six guys were skipping around the club wearing highwater khakis, suspenders, and thick glasses.
The dance floor was dead except for the Erkles and a pair of awkward Forever-21 rejects…an hour later the dance floor is packed. The nerds are break dancing and a rotation of gogo dancers starts. It was a hilarious night. Boomkats abound. Pictures!
Eric and I went to two shows last night.
First, Krischan Wesenberg (of Rotersand) was the guest DJ at the Bolt Underground – amazing costumes, great music. It was simply the business.
We then traded the goth club for the gay rap show: Cazwell at Saloon. Great live act…and what a chain!
Law students at lesbian night. You know it was special.
So Erik and I were having issues with a portly woman, who kept invading our space on the dance floor. The consensus was that while gay guys may be incredibly bitchy, some ladies are just rude.
But Erik and I colluded and set up Miss P. on a blind date with Erik’s ladyfriend. It’s in 2 hours. We are chaperoning. Oh my. There will be pictures…
Last night:
He’s holding cork boards.
You can’t see his face, but the homeless man on the side is so amused that he forgot to beg the obviously captive audience.
I knew Minnesota was cheaper than Miami but dang – the portions are ridiculous here. I went to the Pagoda pan-Asian restaurant and ordered this $8.99 dish. And erm…. Yeah. That’s too much food. It doesn’t look like a lot but that plate is like 10×10 inches of nothing but meat. PETA would flip.
Another thing that’s killing me is the drink specials. The drinks are about $2 cheaper than in Miami and there always seems to be a 2-4-1 or 3-4-1 special going on. My problem is that I’m not a huge drinker, and at some clubs they don’t give you a ticket… they just hand you two beers.
There’s no graceful way to doublefist beer at the clubhouse. You’ll look like you have issues every time.
So the result of the Minnesota portion problem is that I’m always lugging around a to-go box.
And yes, there’s one sitting on my coffee table as I’m typing this.
The University is only about two miles from downtown so I’ve spent a lot of time roaming and playing tourist. I love the sculptures that are all over downtown.
These guys are my favorite. It’s like the bird turds have come to life and decided to garden!
So apparently the Mary Tyler Moore Show was based here… as a kid I assumed all city shows took place in NYC. Oops!
Moving to Minneapolis a month early was a good idea. I’m meeting my housemates sort of one-by-one as they move in instead of in a huge group a few days before school starts. I also get to explore at a relaxed (and random) pace –“Oh let’s see where this bus goes to!”
One thing that has been on the to-do list is City Hall.
City Hall!
Stained glass windows in City Hall
I was a history major as an undergrad and I’m a huge sucker for historic buildings. City hall didn’t disappoint – a highlight was the heroic statue in the middle of the lobby.
“Father of Waters” by Larkin Goldsmith Mead
The downtown Barnes & Noble has become my downtown hangout spot. It has window seats facing Nicollet Avenue – the people watching is amazing. Today however, the entertainment was inside,
Lady sitting behind me (to her friend): Our new couch is AMAZING. This must be the best time in our marriage because we must have tried seven different positions last night – the sex has never been better!
Umm… maybe they’ll name the baby Ikea?
Other snippets:
And I realize my posts are incoherent/in snippet format. Things will shape up once I get out of my wide-eyed tourist mode.
My first weekend in Minneapolis was a lesson in Krawall & Remmidemmi, but I think I have my bearings…well, sort of. Here are some snippets:
Me: Hello, do you know where can I get my student ID?
Minnesota Girl: YodelYodel GurbleGarble Yodel Gardel!
Me: Uh… Pardon me?
Minnesota Girl (slower): Yooou go ooova der and YodelYodel left Garbel Gurble dontcha know?!
Me (thoroughly confused): Okay thanks!
Look Mommy! It’s America Sized!”
The stone arch bridge!
I went to Mall of America today. I’m pretty sure it’s the biggest mall in the country. It’s so honkin’ big that it has a theme park INSIDE. Why do we do things like this?
So yeah, things are geil! More later. OH, and by the way…I found out that my neighborhood DOESN’T have a legit grocery store… just two Gas-Station-Mart-esqe things…hmmf!
So I’m in Minneapolis now!
Packing was a less-than-graceful affair – I didn’t realize how many books I had until I filled three ginormous boxes with them.
The third box, of course, broke in my car, sending almost 100 books flying everywhere. Eh.
I had a layover in Atlanta. That airport is massive, but surprisingly clean…although I was shocked to see so many bars in the airport.
Well, so many bars, and so many people smoking (and drinking) at 10am. The layover was less than an hour so I had time to grab breakfast at Phillip’s Seafood, which was pretty empty. Yeah. I don’t go to an airport in the morning and think “CRABCAKES!” either. In the interest of dear Mr. Stomach, I had the eggs and cheddar.
There were so many cute Nordic-blond kids on the flight to Minneapolis. Well, I thought they were cute. Their grandma obviously didn’t share my opinion and opted for a few bloody-Marys, compliments of AirTran.
I got to Minneapolis, had a public transit/taxi adventure, and then met two of the (14?) housemates. After chucking my luggage in my room I roamed the neighborhood. I’m living in Dinkytown, which is the university neighborhood for the University of Minnesota.
UMiami doesn’t have an equivalent supporting neighborhood. Actually, walking around UMN makes me realize how a-typical UMiami really is. UMN dwarfs UMiami. UMN is also way nicer. Pictures!
I got my student ID, but couldn’t sign up for the gym.
Gym Lady: You’re not registered for any classes so you can’t get a gym membership.
Me: I’m a law student. They register us on the first day of orientation, the 27th.
Gym Lady: Then we can’t sign you up. Besides, we don’t prorate our summer membership so even if we did sign you up, you’d have to pay $80 for a 20-day membership.
Me: Erm. Where’s the closest Bally’s?
The next adventure of the day? Finding a grocery store!
I ate lunch outside today.
The campus squirrels chased eachother so intensely that they jumped on my table and then scurried across my bench.
They circled my table and then came back around and crashed head-on into my pantleg.
After the chaos calmed down I fed both of them.
I ended up leaving after a sickly (rotting) looking squirrel approached my table and wouldn’t go away. It completely sketched me out because its fur was patchy and part of his jaw was gone. (I lost the picture as part of a server change…remind me, I may be able to find it somewhere…)
It wouldn’t shoo…so I left before I got attacked.
