Spotlight 51-241115 Dragonfly BWTSD

In your Spotlight

Low-cost housing project moves forward
Bike-to-school gains young enthusiasts

Spotlight staff enjoy feel-good stories and this week features two. The Spotlight website is organized by topic to enable easy browsing. If something strikes your interest, use the search feature to call up related stories.

West Grove Affordable Housing Project Moves Forward

The City of Miami and Dragonfly Investments have salvaged a stalled effort to build affordable housing on Mundy Street in the West Grove using federal dollars.

By Ethan Mannello

Dragonfly Investments plans to convert a 1926 coral rock house at 3173 Mundy Street into the lobby entrance for four of its eight planned apartments. (Ethan Mannello for the Spotlight)

A Miami-based real estate investment group is planning to build eight new units of affordable housing on Mundy Street in the West Grove, bringing some much-needed housing relief to low-income residents of the Little Bahamas neighborhood.

The proposed project salvages an earlier development deal that the City of Miami struck with Casa Valentina, an organization that provides support and training for at-risk and former foster care youth who are seeking to live on their own.

Dragonfly Investments approached Casa Valentina and the City of Miami after the earlier affordable housing project stalled in September 2023.

Walk Bike & Roll Day – Impressive Numbers

With children walking, biking and rolling to school on Thursday, traffic at one Coconut Grove school was significantly lighter during the event.

By Hank Sanchez-Resnik

Bikes at Coconut Grove Elementary School the morning of Walk Bike & Roll to School Day. The school has a bicycle parking facility, but it was nowhere near big enough.

With the help of the Miami Police Department, the University of Miami BikeSafe / WalkSafe program, and a growing coalition of schools and volunteers, the Walk Bike & Roll to School Day (WBRTS) on Thursday mobilized families and school children throughout Coconut Grove. Twelve public and private schools participated.

In addition to great fun and a sense of community, the event offered impressive numbers. In past years, event organizers counted cars during the morning drop-off time at Coconut Grove Elementary School. This year’s numbers were the best so far.

On Wednesday, the day before the event, 246 cars passed through the intersection of Matilda Street and Oak Avenue during the drop-off period. On Thursday (Walk Bike & Roll to School Day), the number was 161 – 34.5% fewer cars.

Where we’ll be…

Gratitude for So Many Things to Do

Thanksgiving Day’s approach inspires many to seek volunteer opportunities to help others, sometimes in a single outing. Others look for connections that could become longer lasting. VolunteerMatch.org provides a straightforward online method of presenting opportunities that might meet your objectives and constraints. Their system lets you search by zip code, your skill area, focus of the cause, your age or the duration of the volunteer period, even time of day. It doesn’t get much easier to lend a hand. If you’re not picky, a recent search of the 33133 area code revealed 103 opportunities, some that could be done virtually while eating a piece of pumpkin pie. Priceless.

As the school week ends, tweens and young adults can blow off some virtual steam at either of the Grove’s two libraries with free video games. Virrick Park Branch Library, at 3255 Plaza Street, hosts the action every Friday from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. while the Coconut Grove Branch Library, at2875 McFarlane Road, runs sessions Fridays 4:00-5:00 p.m. Ages 8-18. Free.

Younger tikes (ages 3-8) play with bricks and blocks, also at Virrick Park Library, Fridays starting at 4:00 p.m. Free.

We’re nearing peak season for live theater, so don’t wait to book your seats at nearby venues for Beauty and the Beast (Area Stage), King James (GableStage), Head over Heels (U-Miami’s Ring Theater) or Tick, Tick…Boom! (Actor’s Playhouse). Add dinner to the evening and your date will be so impressed!

Before there was virtual reality, there was real reality. And Surprise! It’s still there! Books and Books in the Grove presents Exploring Biscayne National Park With Your Senses. Your guide puts you in literal touch with the tactile experience of South Florida’s natural environment through an artistic zine that you manipulate. Saturday afternoon 11/16 1:00-3:00 p.m. 3409 Main Hwy. Free registration beforehand.

Miami Book Fair’s guidebook is more than 100 pages long, but there’s even more to discover at this annual event, centered around Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami. Much more than a gathering of the best books and authors in the world, as if that weren’t enough, Miami Book Fair includes a seemingly endless array of block parties, lounges and street fairs. The variety of works is breathtaking, so make this your year to attend. Street fair admission tickets are nominally priced to make entry easy. Miami Book Fair begins Sunday 11/17 and continues through Sunday 11/24. By Metrorail to Government Center, then free MetroMover to College North Station.

Is it just us, or are the Grove’s two libraries really trying to checkmate each other? Virrick Park Branch’s next gambit is a Tuesday late-afternoon chess club for tweens and young adults ages 8-18. Uncertain of your next move? Call 305-442-7872 for information. Tuesday 11/19, 4:30-6:00 p.m. 3255 Plaza St. Free.

Feeling less cerebral? Go cheer your lungs out for the women’s college basketball team of your choice as U-Miami’s Hurricanes host the FIU Panthers Tuesday, 11/19 at 7:00 p.m. $5 advanced tickets get you into Watsco Center on campus. 1245 Dauer Dr. By Metrorail to University Station.

Catch your breath, inhale and think deeply about those things that matter to you and for which you are grateful. On Thursday 11/21—a week before Thanksgiving Day—Give Miami Day presents an opportunity to give back, pay forward or advance-in-unison with the causes that speak to you. The widely promoted event connects regular folk like us with a very broad range of certified charitable organizations in the region. Those that follow their heart might be led to the GMD website here, where they can search for their favored organizations. For those that prefer a direct link to support your Coconut Grove Spotlight—well, you’re at the right place. Thanks.

Save Me a Seat

Christmas concerts will soon fill the calendar, and the St Hugh-Steinway Christmas Extravaganza helps lead on Friday 12/6, 8:00 p.m. Advanced ticket sales here.

The next Lamar Louise Curry Concert features Tim Zimmerman and The King’s Brass at First United Methodist Church Coral Gables. Saturday 12/7, 7:30 p.m. Free.