Spotlight 200-260417

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

The Data Missing from Miami’s Budget
A Local Gallery that Celebrates Local Art
Where We’ll Be: A Grove Events Guide

Inside City Hall: Miami’s Salary Secret

With salaries and benefits consuming 77% of Miami’s budget, payroll systems track every dollar paid — including overtime and bonuses — but city officials declined to provide a full accounting of what employees actually earn.

By David Villano

The City of Miami can tell you what each of its 5,031 employees was scheduled to earn last year. What they won’t tell you is what they were actually paid.

The distinction matters.

For many city employees, base pay is just a starting point. Overtime, bonuses and other add-ons can significantly increase earnings, with some workers — news reports in cities across the U.S. show — doubling their base salary.

Bringing Art Back to Coconut Grove

The woman who opened ARRAE Gallery on Grand Avenue in Little Bahamas has turned a tiny storefront into a showcase for local artists, creating an opportunity for Grove residents to connect with Miami’s homegrown art scene.

By Don Finefrock & Zulema Zavala

Anai Fonte remembers the day she first spotted a “for rent” sign on the empty storefront next to Dogtown, her pet services business on Grand Avenue in Coconut Grove.

She immediately pictured an art gallery inside the small space.

“I was like, that could be a really neat art gallery,” Fonte said.

But she had a problem. She was headed out of town and wasn’t certain the space would still be available when she returned.

PZAB Votes to Protect Neighborhoods from Density Transfer Ordinance

Miami’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board (PZAB) voted Wednesday to advance a proposal that could help market-driven developers buy more density credits from affordable housing projects, but not before tweaking the measure to protect Coconut Grove and other neighborhoods from that added density. The density-transfer proposal, which advocates say will help fund more affordable housing, is now headed back to the City Commission, which will have the final say. PZAB urged the commission to exclude Neighborhood Conservation Districts (NCDs) and historic districts from the proposed ordinance, and require density-credit developments within 500 feet of single-family zoning to build more parking. Opponents of the measure urged PZAB to protect neighborhoods already reeling from overdevelopment. The PZAB vote was 10-to-1.

Another controversial agenda item before PZAB this week – the county’s much-debated Coconut Grove Playhouse plan – was deferred until the board’s May 6 meeting.

Letters to the Editor

Readers React: Spotlight readers draw inspiration this week from a community forum on freedom, and a vote by Miami’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board that aligned with neighborhood interests.

Where We’ll Be – A Grovite’s Calendar

Bloom, Baby, Bloom

Pollen is in the air, blossoms are showing off, and the Grove’s lineup leans hard into things in bloom–from Vizcaya garden walks and Kampong plant temptations to free trees, farmers market bounty, and Earth Month programming that suggests you really ought to know the name of at least one fern. Motivated perhaps by last month’s Secret Garden Tour, there’s fresh growth everywhere right now, including the civic-minded kind.

Because this is still the Grove, the blooming does not stop at flowers. New plays are hatching at the Coconut Grove Theatre Festival, Birdstock is tuning up under the trees, Miami Film Festival keeps rolling, and even the history talks are seasonally alive. Step outside, look around, and possibly come home with a plant, a ticket stub, and one more thing than was ever intended. (Hint: a new friend.)