Spotlight 139-250916

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

Miami’s New Inspector General
Macedonia’s Astronaut Alum
The Ace Theater’s Six Letter Marquee
Last Week’s Unexplained Death

Miami’s New Inspector General Promises Accountability

With the appointment of an independent inspector general, the City of Miami has an opportunity to move beyond the scandals that have rocked City Hall in recent years.

By Charles Rabin

Manolo Reyes, a steady and decent voice on the Miami City Commission for almost a decade, fought wholeheartedly for government oversight in his historically scandal-plagued city, even as he struggled with cancer during his waning days in office.

And so last year, just eight months before his death at the age of 80, Miami residents granted Reyes his wish, voting overwhelmingly in August 2024 to create the city’s first Office of Inspector General (OIG) in its 129-year history.

Two months later, after some give-and-take – mainly from Commissioner Joe Carollo, who said he was concerned about the likelihood of spurious allegations – Reyes and his fellow commissioners made it official, voting to establish the new watchdog agency at City Hall. The final vote was 4-to-1, with Carollo voting no.

To The Heavens, And Back

Paying tribute to the community that helped launch him on a career in space and beyond, former NASA astronaut Winston Scott returned to Coconut Grove on Sunday to celebrate the 130^th anniversary of South Florida’s oldest black church.

By Mike Clary

An astronaut who has flown around the world hundreds of times came home to Coconut Grove on Sunday to pay tribute to the historic house of worship where he first learned about the heavens.

“I was born and raised in this church,” said U.S. Navy Captain and former NASA astronaut Winston E. Scott as he stood on the steps of Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, celebrating the 130^th anniversary of its founding in 1895 by some of the original Bahamian settlers of the West Grove. It is recognized as the first Black church on the South Florida mainland.

“This church taught us so many things: good living, civil living, a sense of accomplishment, a sense of possibilities,” said Scott.

“A” for Effort: A Restoration Project Advances, One Letter at a Time

Former Miami City Commissioner Ken Russell surprised Ace Theater owner Dorothy Wallace last week with the first of six jumbo letters he has promised to refurbish as part of the theater’s planned restoration.

By Don Finefrock

Dorothy Wallace has lived a life, but at 96 years old she’s looking ahead, like others in Coconut Grove, to the day when the Ace Theater on Grand Avenue opens its doors again – for a theater performance, a movie matinee, or a neighborhood event.

Wallace’s family owns the Ace Theater, the former “colored only” movie house that stands today as a sentinel of Coconut Grove’s segregated past.

A Missouri native who married into a Coconut Grove family and later integrated the University of Miami’s School of Education, Wallace remembers when her husband Harvey Wallace paid $50,000 in 1979 to buy the theater from Wometco Enterprises.

“My husband had grandiose ideas about it,” she told a crowd of people gathered last week for a History Miami program featuring Wallace and local historian Paul George.

Police Identify Body Recovered Off Mercy Hospital

James Edward McCory, 65, was found Friday morning floating in Biscayne Bay. No cause of death has been given.

By Jenny Jacoby

The man whose body was pulled from the bay waters off North Coconut Grove on Friday has been identified by authorities as 65-year-old James Edward McCory.

Responding to a phone call around 8 a.m., Miami police say officers from the department’s marine patrol division located the body floating in Biscayne Bay not far from Mercy Hospital.

No cause of death has been given and police have not said if foul play is suspected. The investigation remains ongoing.

This is the third death this year near the Coconut Grove waterfront.