Spotlight 172-260109

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

The Musician Lighting Up Pier 7
Miami’s New City Manager
How Mr. C Residences Grew So Tall
Where We’ll Be: Girl Scout Cookies!

Filling Pier 7 With Song

Musician Chris Breeding is putting a soundtrack to an evening ritual in Coconut Grove, strumming and singing as the sun sets over Pier 7 at Dinner Key Marina.

By Jenny Jacoby

As the sun begins to fall and Coconut Grove’s crisp-blue sky fades into hazy pink and orange, Chris Breeding shuts his laptop, grabs his acoustic guitar and heads to the bow of his red Dufour sailboat.

With nothing but gentle waves on either side of him, Breeding begins to strum the tune to whatever song calls to him that night. Tonight it’s “Scarlet Begonias” – the Grateful Dead song he named his boat after.

Breeding, 52, is not playing for anyone in particular.

A New Manager for the City of Miami

The Miami City Commission on Thursday approved Mayor Eileen Higgins’ choice of James Reyes to lead the City of Miami’s often fractious government. Reyes starts his new job on Monday.

By Don Finefrock

The Miami City Commission on Thursday ratified Eileen Higgins’ first big move as the Miami’s newly elected mayor – the appointment of veteran public safety official James Reyes to manage the city’s $3.7 billion government and its 4,800 employees.

Higgins nominated Reyes as her choice for city manager late last month, following her election victory. The two had worked together at Miami-Dade County, where Higgins was one of 13 commissioners and Reyes was the chief of public safety.

Whose Benefit? How Mr. C Got So Big

A close examination of the zoning bonuses that allowed twin condominium towers in Coconut Grove to exceed base zoning limits by nine stories raises questions about how Miami’s public benefits program is interpreted, documented and enforced.

By David Villano

Six years ago, when a development group announced plans to demolish an aging seven-story, 1960s-era apartment building on a narrow, 1½-acre lot along South Bayshore Drive near Dinner Key, few could have imagined what would rise in its place: twin 21-story condominium towers nearly lot line to lot line, linked by a five-story parking garage.

All told, the project — Mr. C Residences, named for its Italy-based luxury lifestyle branding partner — spans more than three-quarters of a million square feet, more than seven times the size of the building it replaced.

Continue Rea d ing…

Where We’ll Be – A Grovite’s Calendar

A Week Built for Stepping In, Not Sitting Out

New Year’s resolutions sometimes need a little coaxing. Luckily, motivation keeps showing up anyway — usually with cookies, music, or someone already dancing in the street. A parade helps. So does a dance lesson that starts politely and loosens up fast, or a concert where the plan is to stay for one song and somehow that doesn’t happen. Discipline can wait. January is already busy.

Invitations are landing from every direction this week — the Grove, Little Havana, the Beach, and the scenic route in between — and none of them require a perfect arrival. Show up early or late. Stay for ten minutes or the whole thing. Linger on the edge or dive in. Pick one, see how it feels, and let the rest reveal itself once you’re there.