Spotlight 107-250527

Good morning. What we’re covering in today’s Spotlight:

Meet Jamaican Paul – a True Grove Character
Emergency Work to Brace the Playhouse
The Folks behind the Stronger Miami Campaign

Jamaican Paul, Keeper of the “Groovy” Grove.

Homeless at times, stylish always, meet the 73-year-old boulevardier whose story — and staying power — have made him a village legend.

By Mike Clary

In the mid-1980s, Paul Habib might have had a future in the clothing business. At Four Way Street, a hip boutique on Main Highway in the heart of Coconut Grove, store owner Billy Rudnick called his stylish clerk “a very good salesman. He had personality.”

Bryn Ingram, who was a teenager when she began working with Habib at the store, says of him, “He’s got some sort of cool factor that people are drawn to.”

These days, Habib is better known as Jamaican Paul – or, as some locals know him, Hollywood – a flamboyant backstreet boulevardier who may be one of the most photographed residents in Grove history and a living link to the village’s past as a quirky Bohemian enclave.

He still peddles clothing – black T-shirts bearing his face and the slogan “Come experience the groovy Grove.” But what Paul really sells is his friendly charisma and carefully-curated look.

Workers Seek to Stabilize Playhouse

With the 1926 theater at risk of collapse, construction workers have been tasked with stabilizing the structure’s exterior walls.

By Spotlight Staff

Construction crews were at work over the weekend at the Coconut Grove Playhouse after the theater’s third floor fell in last week, putting the entire structure at risk of collapse. Workers have been tasked with bracing the exterior walls of the 1926 theater to prevent them from toppling over. Main Highway remained closed to cars over the long holiday weekend, but pedestrians were drawn to the site, out of curiosity and perhaps in tribute to a landmark that some fear may be lost. Here are some photos from the scene:

As Clock Ticks, Backers of Commission Expansion Make Their Case

The coalition of civic groups pushing to expand Miami’s City Commission from five to nine seats – some with deep roots in Coconut Grove – is facing a July 30 deadline to return enough voter signatures to force a November ballot referendum.

By Erik Bojnansky

An effort to force a citywide referendum on expanding the Miami City Commission from five to nine seats has collected more than 2,600 signatures – just 10 percent of the roughly 26,000 needed – but organizers say volunteers are gearing up for a heavy push throughout the city.

The deadline for submitting the signatures with enough time to place the measure on the November ballot is July 30.

“We think we are off to a great start. We are very pleased,” says Mel Meinhardt, founder of the Coconut Grove civic group One Grove Alliance and lead organizer of Stronger Miami, a group spearheading the petition drive.

Letters

Readers react: The grandson of the man who saved the Coconut Grove Playhouse in 1955 weighs in on last week’s partial collapse of the landmark theater, while the executive director of Dade Heritage Trust says public officials must now do the right thing and save the playhouse…

(Continue to Letters)