Spotlight 121-250715

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

Coconut Grove’s Forgotten Kiosks
Miami’s Postponed Election

Smile! You’re on Camera

Seventeen years after the City of Miami installed three information booths in Coconut Grove, one of the remaining kiosks may become a photo booth.

By Jenny Jacoby

Every weekday for 10 years Louis Del Borrello would take up his post at the Cocowalk information kiosk ready to share his favorite tidbits about the neighborhood he loved.

Throughout the day, tourists would stroll up to his bright yellow hand-painted booth asking for directions to the Barnacle or the Charlotte Jane Memorial Park Cemetery that was rumored to be the inspiration for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” music video.

“It was my favorite job. I’ve done a few things over the years, and that was by far my favorite. I was invited to all the parties. I knew everybody,” Del Borrello said.

Del Borrello’s booth was one of three kiosks that popped up in Coconut Grove in 2008 as part of a City of Miami initiative intended to help tourists, mostly from cruise ships, find their way around.

Miami Heads to Court to Defend Election Move

A circuit judge has scheduled an expedited hearing this week to weigh whether the City of Miami had the right to postpone the November 2025 election by a year.

By Don Finefrock

Lawyers for the City of Miami and former manager Emilio Gonzalez are headed to court this week to argue over whether the city had the right to postpone the November 2025 election when voters were scheduled to choose two commissioners and a new mayor.

Gonzalez, one of several candidates competing to be Miami’s next mayor, says no. City Attorney George Wysong argues otherwise. The lawyers are due in court Wednesday for an expedited hearing before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Valerie Manno Schurr.

The City Commission voted last month to move the election to 2026 and Gonzalez filed suit almost immediately. If the decision stands, all five commissioners and current Mayor Francis Suarez will stay in office an extra year – something critics call a power grab.

Despite rumors to the contrary, however, Miami voters will be headed to the polls in November regardless of how the case is decided.