Major Biscayne Boulevard projects near Arsht are approved

A Spanish developer’s plan for a major commercial and residential project on Biscayne Boulevard near the Arsht Center has been overwhelmingly approved by the city of Miami’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board.

The board voted 10-1 Wednesday night in favor of Espacio USA’s scheme for a 12-story office and retail building and a separate 55-story residential tower on the 1400 block of Biscayne. The office building would face the Arsht’s opera house across Northeast 14th Street, but will stand at an angle so as not to block out the performing arts center.

The project represents a major modification of an existing development permit, originally approved in 2006, that would have allowed a far larger twin-tower development on the site, which occupies most of the block. Because it’s based on the existing approval, the new version does not require city commission approval.

Monday’s vote clears the way for Espacio, a subsidiary of a large Spanish developer, to begin construction of the office tower, the first phase in what the firm says will be a five-year project. Company officials say they hope to break ground early next year.

Jolt Radio, a local online radio station, is throwing a Dia de los Muertos celebration featuring local bands at Churchill’s on Friday.

French Week Miami is a month-long event that showcases French culture and its prevalence in South Florida, including French films, discussions and deals at restaurants and boulangeries.

At 6 p.m. on Nov. 8, hundreds of local residents will commemorate the 74th anniversary of "Kristallnacht," or the Night of Broken Glass, which was considered to be a major turning point in Hitler's campaign to annihilate Jewish people in the early days of World War II.Sponsored by the Holocaust Memorial of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, participants will gather at the Holocaust Memorial at1933-1945 Meridian Ave. in Miami Beach for a program of inspirational addresses, poetry readings and musical performances. Speakers willinclude an eyewitness to "Kristallnacht," as well as Andrew C. Hall, Esq., the first child survivor of the Holocaust to serve as chairmanof the Holocaust Memorial.

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Father, son killed when speeding car hits their vehicle in Miami

Jose Serrano lived for his family: 15-year-old German, 12-year-old Gabriel, and his wife Carmen Orta.

But the Serrano family was torn apart in the early morning hours Saturday, when a car drag racing west on Flagler Street plowed into Serrano’s SUV, according to Miami police.

German, who was riding in the passenger seat behind his father, died at the scene. Jose Serrano, 43, succumbed to his injuries shortly later.

Orta, 42, and Gabriel are still fighting for their lives at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.

According to Miami police, a Toyota Scion was racing with two other cars down Flagler about 2 a.m. Saturday when it collided head-on with the Serrano vehicle at 59th Avenue.

The Scion’s driver, identified as 19-year-old Alejandro Hernandez of Miami, was thrown from the car. He is in critical condition at Ryder. His passenger, Ivan Rodriguez Jr., 20, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The impact was so severe; it caused the engine block of the Scion to be torn off its compartment, and that of the Expedition to be pushed into its own passenger compartment, police said.

A search of Miami-Dade and Broward traffic infractions showed Hernandez has a clean record.

Investigators are searching for two other cars involved in the race.

Anyone with information is asked to call Miami Police at 305-603-6350, or Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

On Saturday, the front porch light at the Serrano residence along Northwest 47th Avenue remained lit, with no one home. The outside was decorated with Halloween gizmos: cobwebs, pumpkins and skeletons.

Jose Serrano was a family man and a handyman, who serviced products in Hialeah Gardens, according to neighbor Ivan Izquierdo.

Izquierdo and Serrano’s parents grew up near each other in Havana. When he heard the news, he called the family in Cuba.

“[My] parents know them from back in the day,” he said.

Carmen is a housewife who kept close ties on her children. German was soft-spoken, but loved model cars. Izquierdo saw him painting one on Friday.

“It’s sad,” Izquierdo said.

Miami-Dade police are investigating claims that a volunteer for Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi insulted the wife of challenger Wayne Slaton and briefly took her cellphone. 1351651455

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Miami City Ballet wows Wynwood crowd with flash mob

Whatever the crowds streaming through Wynwood Walls at Saturday’s art walk were expecting — colorful murals, free wine — they didn’t expect this: a phalanx of sultry dancers moving in taut unison to seductive tango music, a sensual dance fantasy emerging suddenly from the mass of shuffling art viewers.

“Wow, they’re good,” asked one woman, eyeing a line of lean men over her cellphone camera. “Who are they?”

They were members of Miami City Ballet, in their first flash mob performance. Their surprise show, an excerpt from Paul Taylor’s Piazzolla Caldera, aimed to promote the ballet’s season-opening program at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts this weekend.

MCB dancers Rebecca King and Callie Manning brought the idea to new artistic director Lourdes Lopez, who enthusiastically signed on last week. The company scrambled to pull together the event, which became part of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Random Acts of Culture program.

Dressed in denim shorts, T-shirts and tank tops, sneakers and sandals, the dancers seemed to enjoy themselves and the sensation they created. They mingled with the crowd beforehand, and afterward rushed out among the startled onlookers, handing out cards offering half-price discounts to the Arsht Center performances.

They’ll dance Piazzolla Caldera as well as Frederick Ashton’s Les Patineurs and George Balanchine’s Apollo at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday; miamicityballet.org.

The director’s new film is an exhilarating ode to love, parenthood and music.

The week ahead at the movies and on TV

Before there was a George Benson — a phenomenal jazz instrumentalist who found mainstream success as a smooth-voiced pop singer — there was a Nat King Cole. So it seems almost inevitable that Benson would headline Unforgettable: A Tribute to Nat King Cole, the show that opens the fifth Jazz Roots season at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. He’ll share the stage Friday with singer-pianist Freddy Cole, Nat’s youngest brother, and the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.

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Dancing to the Brazilian beat at Boteco

Samba Classes at Boteco in MiamiBoteco-Samba -- Boteco offers free samba classes on Mondays at 9:30 pm for everyone interested in learning or practicing the Brazilian dance. The place is pretty good and pretty packed with people from everywhere in the world, says Christopher, one of the instructors, who moved from Sao Paulo and has been teaching samba at Boteco for five months.Larissa Piazzi / South Florida News Service

If you go

What: Free samba classes at Boteco, 916 NE 79th St., Miami

When: 9:30 p.m. Monday nights

Cost: Free

Parking: $5 (valet parking included)

For information: (305) 757-7735, http://www.botecomiami.com/

Giselle Barroso is originally from Costa Rica, but it’s not a typical Central American dance that she fell in love with and has been practicing for two years. Every Monday night, she goes to Boteco, a Brazilian bar and restaurant in Miami, and waits until Allan Maquieira and Bianca Christopher start teaching one of her favorite rhythms: samba.

“I always wanted to learn how to dance samba,” said Barroso, 54. “Once I started these classes, I thought I was going to move my hips a lot, but this is really more than that.”

Boteco offers free samba classes on Mondays at 9:30 p.m. for everyone interested in learning or practicing the Brazilian dance from African roots.

The rhythm is internationally recognized as more than just another typical dance; it’s the dance of celebration and joy at the Brazilian Carnival.

“The place is pretty good and pretty packed with people from everywhere in the world,” said Christopher, 33, one of the instructors, who moved from São Paulo and has been teaching samba at Boteco for five months.

Both instructors, Brazilians who learned samba in their homeland, start the night with some basic steps, drawing in the crowd by the bar.

The music is played primarily by percussion and string instruments, and the beat of the drum is something like “tum, tum, tuntutururun, tum, tum.”

The basic moves include three steps, weight changes with a slight knee lift, all this while alternating feet, which requires a little coordination.

Jackie Herrera, a professional belly and Peruvian folkloric dancer, tries not to miss the Brazilian beat.

When she gets a free Monday night, she always goes to samba classes at Boteco.

“Everything is just released by the groove of samba,” she said. “This dance is really soothing.”

Herrera, from Peru, has been going to Boteco’s classes for a year.

“When I started coming here, I noticed that people are really happy and fulfilled. These people say hi, bye and even become friends,” said Herrera, 29. “That’s what I think samba is about. It’s about celebration that makes you happy in communion and treat others as family.”

Maquieira, 48, from Rio de Janeiro, said the classes usually have 20 to 30 people every week.

“Most are Americans and Hispanics – few Brazilians, not many,” she said.

The classes don’t finish until midnight. Boteco welcomes everyone who wants to learn or practice the Brazilian rhythm.

“If you like to do it, if you are interested in doing it, if you’ve never done it and never taken one class, you can always come to take your first step,” said Christopher.

larissawpiazzi@gmail.com

Miami Beach United, the activist group launched last year, starts a series of presentations on what makes a city great with with a forum Thursday.

Bal Harbour was ordered Tuesday to turn over millions seized by vice cops but not properly accounted for. 1351649266

At 6 p.m. on Nov. 8, hundreds of local residents will commemorate the 74th anniversary of "Kristallnacht," or the Night of Broken Glass, which was considered to be a major turning point in Hitler's campaign to annihilate Jewish people in the early days of World War II.Sponsored by the Holocaust Memorial of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, participants will gather at the Holocaust Memorial at1933-1945 Meridian Ave. in Miami Beach for a program of inspirational addresses, poetry readings and musical performances. Speakers willinclude an eyewitness to "Kristallnacht," as well as Andrew C. Hall, Esq., the first child survivor of the Holocaust to serve as chairmanof the Holocaust Memorial.

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Fire rages in Wynwood art warehouse

Firefighters worked all day Wednesday to tame a stubborn, smoky blaze at a Wynwood art warehouse and protect surrounding buildings.

The storage building, 60 NE 27th St., belongs to Art by God, a family-owned business known for its decorative fossils and nature-inspired furniture. The fire broke out at about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday in the packing and shipping area where inventory was waiting to be sent to retail stores across the country.

Miami Fire Rescue Lt. Ignatius Carroll said several factors made this a particularly difficult fire to control.

“The warehouse had what we call a large fire load — basically with wood and stuff stacked up pretty high,” Carroll said. “Because there were no windows, it was hard to get ventilation going, and it was difficult to stay in the building once conditions got worse.”

After battling flames for about four hours, Carroll said, the team switched to a containment strategy and pulled the firefighters out of the building. Part of the roof collapsed at 3 p.m., but no one was inside at the time.

Two firefighters were taken to the hospital for dehydration and minor injuries. About 80 firefighters were on the scene during the peak of the crisis.

Ingrid Harris, whose parents started the home décor business 25 years ago, said about half the inventory in the warehouse was destroyed.

“We’re just thankful for the fire department and glad no one got hurt,” Harris said. “Hopefully we’ll come back from this.”

Jolt Radio, a local online radio station, is throwing a Dia de los Muertos celebration featuring local bands at Churchill’s on Friday.

French Week Miami is a month-long event that showcases French culture and its prevalence in South Florida, including French films, discussions and deals at restaurants and boulangeries.

At 6 p.m. on Nov. 8, hundreds of local residents will commemorate the 74th anniversary of "Kristallnacht," or the Night of Broken Glass, which was considered to be a major turning point in Hitler's campaign to annihilate Jewish people in the early days of World War II.Sponsored by the Holocaust Memorial of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, participants will gather at the Holocaust Memorial at1933-1945 Meridian Ave. in Miami Beach for a program of inspirational addresses, poetry readings and musical performances. Speakers willinclude an eyewitness to "Kristallnacht," as well as Andrew C. Hall, Esq., the first child survivor of the Holocaust to serve as chairmanof the Holocaust Memorial.

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Miami seniors: Early voting at their own pace

BY ELINOR J. BRECHER The Miami Herald

The first time Rosalee Swerdloff voted for president, neither candidate running in 2012 had yet been born.

The 94-year-old retired U.S. Army major — a Kentucky native and lifelong Democrat — went for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. During early voting on Friday at Miami’s Bay Oaks Home, she voted for President Barack Obama in the assisted living facility’s community room.

Kathryn Kassner, the nonprofit home’s administrator, requested supervised voting from the Miami-Dade County Board of Elections so that for two hours, residents could tackle the lengthy ballot at their own pace — and in comfy chairs.

“It’s very important for them to maintain their independence,’’ said Kassner, 61, “and one element of that is the right to vote. But to go to a conventional polling place is not practical,’’ so residents usually vote by absentee ballot.

But this year, the Supervisor of Elections offered the Florida Assisted Living Association the option of “supervised voting’’ on site, said department spokeswoman Carolina Lopez.

“We show up with the ballots and help voters within the confines of state law,’’ she said. “It’s signed, sealed and safely transported’’ back to board headquarters. By Nov. 6, she said, 55 ALF’s will have held supervised voting.

For residents of Bay Oaks, which members of the Soroptimist women’s service club founded in 1947, the experience of voting in an official setting is more gratifying than simply “signing something and putting it in the mail,’’ said Kassner. Ten of 27 residents took advantage of the option.

Retired Miami Beach lawyer Louis Beller, 84, said he cast his first presidential vote for Harry Truman in 1948. On Friday, he, too, voted for Obama. A die-hard liberal, Beller represented protestors arrested during the 1972 Democratic convention in Miami Beach — catching a whiff of tear gas in the process — and in 1980, the Communist Party U.S.A., which sued the Secretary of State to get its presidential ticket on the ballot.

He called this year’s cumbersome ballot “crazy. I’m not interested in half of it. It’s very hard to make sense of it.’’

Eleanor Rouse, 92, a retired New York City elementary-school principal and registered independent, said she, too, voted for Obama, although she has voted for at least one Republican: Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956..

Claude Esprit, 65, spent nearly an hour filling out the ballot, reading glasses perched on his nose and pen in hand as he leaned into one of five blue plastic voting stations that election-department employees set up atop antique furniture.

“It’s easier when you don’t have to go to the polls,’’ he said.

An unscientific exit poll indicated that at Bay Oaks, Obama won reelection in a landslide.

The residents, who live with several rescue dogs, also overwhelmingly voted “yes’’ on Question No. 240: the Pets’ Trust. It’s a straw-poll item meant to gauge public support for a pennies-a-day property tax increase to support the county’s “no kill’’ goal.

“We have to keep the animals alive,’’ said Beller.

Swerdloff, the military retiree, appreciated voting where she lives.

“I don’t think I could stand in a line’’ at the polls, she said, leaning on her walker.

She preferred not to say what she thinks about people who are eligible to vote, but don’t bother to.

“You wouldn’t like the language,’’ she said.

Miami-Dade police are investigating claims that a volunteer for Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi insulted the wife of challenger Wayne Slaton and briefly took her cellphone. 1351651455

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Bal Harbour was ordered Tuesday to turn over millions seized by vice cops but not properly accounted for. 1351649266

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Beaux Arts ‘Wizard of Oz’ costume ball to benefit Lowe Art Museum

Lions and tigers and bears?

Most likely.

Beaux Arts a charitable organization supporting the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami, will host an Emerald City-themed costume ball Oct. 27 at the Four Seasons Hotel on Brickell Avenue.

Emerald City Ball celebrates 61 years of the organization and its support for the Lowe.

Master of ceremony for The Land of Oz event will be philanthropist Stephanie Sayfie-Aagaard, who writes a weekly social column, “Steph Sez,” for the Herald.

The evening events will include a silent auction, raffle, sit-down dinner, dancing, and a costume and skit competition.

New this year’s event will feature BidPal, a wireless bidding, donation, and payment tool similar in size and appearance as an iPhone. The device will let guests buy raffle tickets and stay on top of their bids without having to remain in the auction area.

The device also enables guests to donate money directly to Beaux Arts signature outreach programs, including Hands on, which funds school field trips to the Lowe.

The ball is at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at Four Seasons Hotel Miami, 1435 Brickell Ave.

Cost is $250 per person; Call Tracy Lorenzo at 786-367-1870, or email beauxartsinfo@beauxartsmiami.org

A dining hall cashier wins her appeal following being fired when a man didn’t pay for breakfast. 1351651060

A free street party is on tap Saturday night with food by Allen Susser, Michelle Bernstein and Norman Van Aken.

The University of Miami’s Momentum2 fundraising campaign continues to make healthy progress toward its $1.6 billion goal, as UM officials announced on Friday that the campaign has just surpassed the $1 billion mark.

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