Spotlight 214-260605

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

The Junkanoo Family at Goombay This Weekend
A Python Encounter in Coconut Grove
World Cup Watch Parties at Grove Restaurants
Save Our Trees: A Surge in Tree Appeals

The Family Behind Fatboi Junkanoo Entertainment

Fourteen-year-old Skai Gay and her 11-year-old brother Christopher will perform this weekend with Fatboi Junkanoo Entertainment at the annual Goombay Festival on Grand Avenue in Coconut Grove.

By Mike Clary

On a regular school day at Coral Reef Elementary, 11-year-old Christopher Gay looks like a regular fifth grader. He’s soft-spoken, a bit reserved, and an excellent student, in the gifted program and particularly interested in math and robotics.

At a class party, he might even appear shy. He says he would never just bust out dancing.

But put Chris on a pair of stilts, crank up some rhythmic Caribbean music, and he turns into what his mother, Telise Ingraham, calls “a super moko jumbie” – a towering high-stepper with uncanny acrobatic skill and terpsichorean grace.

Python Kills Pet Rabbit in South Grove

The death of a family’s pet rabbit may be the latest evidence that Burmese pythons are expanding beyond the Everglades and becoming an increasingly common presence in Miami’s residential neighborhoods.

By Christopher Pearson

A seven-foot Burmese python that killed a family’s pet rabbit in a South Coconut Grove backyard last month may be the latest sign that one of Florida’s most destructive invasive species is becoming increasingly common far from the Everglades.

The snake was discovered mid-morning on May 8 in a backyard on Ingraham Highway, where homeowner Cenaida Cifuentes found it coiled around her three-year-old Mini Lop rabbit.

Grove Restaurants Head into Summer with World Cup Hopes

After a brutal 2025 summer season, restaurant owners and managers in Coconut Grove are planning World Cup watch parties in June and July to attract fans and build customer loyalty.

By Kathryn Mann

Last year can well be described as a bloodbath for restaurants in Coconut Grove.

Higher rents, rising costs and a slow summer forced 10 local restaurants to call it quits by early fall 2025, including a humble taco stand and an elegant newcomer. Today, those problems are amplified by soaring fuel prices and cautious consumer spending.

So, who in their right mind would launch an upscale steakhouse on the cusp of the Grove’s infamous slow season?

As Tree Appeals Surge, Critics Question City’s Permit Practices

Miami residents are mounting a growing challenge to city-issued tree removal permits, with at least 14 appeals now in process, as critics accuse city officials of adopting an increasingly permissive approach to enforcing Miami’s tree protection laws.

By David Villano

City of Miami officials are bracing for a wave of formal appeals challenging their decisions to issue tree removal permits — part of a broader campaign in recent months by a coalition of residents and civic groups pushing back against what they perceive as a lax, if not deliberately permissive, approach to enforcing the city’s tree protection laws.

At least 14 appeals are currently in process, Assistant Planning Director Sevanne Steiner told members of the city’s Historic and Environmental Preservation Board (HEPB) on Tuesday, with six scheduled for review by the board at its July 7 meeting.

In all of 2025, only one appeal was filed seeking to overturn a city-issued tree removal permit.

Greenway Bonus Density Proposal Advances

Miami’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board (PZAB) unanimously approved a controversial zoning proposal Wednesday that would allow developers to build taller and larger projects near bike and pedestrian paths and other so-called greenways.

The proposed Greenway Public Benefits Program would permit bonus building height and floor-area ratio in exchange for public benefits such as trail construction, mobility improvements or cash contributions to the city’s Parks and Open Space Trust Fund.

Where We’ll Be – A Grovite’s Calendar

The Kids Show Us How It’s Done

If you’re going to do something well, commit to it, believe in it and make it happen. No better lesson starts off the week than the young actors of Inspire Theatre Project throwing themselves into the glorious craziness of SpongeBob SquarePants Jr. Full voice, full heart, full immersion commitment. That’s a pretty good summer assignment for the rest of us: show up, play hard, try the thing, bring the kids, take the tour, watch the film, swap the stickers, chase the flowers, get on the boat and say yes to the week.